City, state comptrollers to audit MTA track work

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and New York City's comptroller are teaming up to conduct an audit of the MTA focused on determining whether the "necessary track work" that the agency frequently performs is really all that necessary.

At a City Hall news conference Thursday, DiNapoli and city Comptroller John Liu announced the joint audit - the first time the two offices have teamed in a decade.

The audit, which will cover January 2009 through the next several weeks, will look at the financial impact of regular service disruptions in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's subways and commuter rails, including the Long Island Rail Road, and whether the MTA is efficiently managing the track work that causes those disruptions.

"People need far greater assurance that the MTA is planning the shutdowns and actual track work tightly so as to minimize the disruptions to riders and the economic impact to small business owners," Liu said in a statement. "Our examination of the MTA will shed light on whether 'necessary track work' has become an overused black hole of an excuse."

MTA chief executive and chairman Jay Walder said he would welcome another audit of the MTA and acknowledged that he wasn't convinced the MTA is handling its service outages in the most productive fashion.

"We are unique in operating a 24-7 system," Walder. "The ability to be able to go into our system and undertake both the day-to-day maintenance and inspection . . . and the renewal of the system is absolutely critical."

for not going far enough in investigating "the rampant waste, fraud and corruption at the MTA."

"While this is a step in the right direction and may provide a glimpse of the problems that plague the MTA, it falls short of a badly needed forensic audit," Murray said.