Report: MTA security upgrades long overdue

Better lighting and communication systems, enhanced smoke and fire detection, and tighter electronic security make MTA commuters safer, but those upgrades are years overdue and millions of dollars over budget.

Those are the findings of a report issued Tuesday by state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's capital security program. MTA operates the Long Island Rail Road and the New York City subway system.

"The capital security program the MTA has implemented since 9/11 has made New Yorkers more secure," DiNapoli said. "The MTA has made progress, particularly in the last two years. But the mass transit system is still inherently vulnerable. Individual projects in this program are months, if not years, behind schedule and well over budget, and additional capital improvements are needed."

A spokesman for DiNapoli, Eric Sumberg, said the report was the seventh in a series of analyses of the multiphased project, which was begun to tighten security in the transit system in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.

But, the report noted, while Phase 1 was first budgeted at $591 million, it now is forecast to cost $851 million, a 44 percent increase. It was scheduled for completion in September 2008 but now is projected to be finished by June 2012.

"The report acknowledges the significant progress the MTA has made over the past two years," said MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz. "We have added more than 1,400 security cameras over the past year alone, bringing our total to more than 3,700 throughout the system, with close to 600 feeding directly into NYPD's command center. We have increased the number of security personnel, hardened our system, and work remains on track to complete remaining projects within the current budget."

The comptroller's office began the series of audits under then-Comptroller Alan Hevesi, in 2005.

SEE PHOTOSLIRR trains and commuters through the years

The report favorably assesses progress made in the first phase of the process, which targets improvements in what the report called "heavily used assets" such as stations, transit hubs, bridges and tunnels.