MTA Chairman Walder Says 'Transit System Is Safe'
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- The MTA's recent subway inspection problems have garnered a response from the transit agency's chairman.
A recent Inspector General's report found transit supervisors falsified thousands of signal inspections at the MTA for years -- leaving straphangers at risk of a collision, WCBS 880's Marla Diamond reported.
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WCBS 880's Marla Diamond talks with MTA Head Jay Walder
MTA Chairman Jay Walder played damage control Tuesday and said despite the report, subway riders shouldn't be worried.
"We have a very special signal system. It's a fail-safe system. Effectively, what it says is, if a piece of equipment fails, it will fail in a way that stops the train."
Walder said that since receiving the scathing report, the agency has accelerated the inspections of all critical signal equipment.
"We've assured that we have the right set of steps in terms of the maintenance of equipment. Second, we've accelerated all of the checks on safety critical equipment. And third, now, we're getting into some of the deeper rooted causes of why this happened -- which go back in some cases maybe a decade," Walder said.
"The transit system is safe," he said.
