The MTA extended an olive branch to riders yesterday in the hopes of creating a friendlier relationship with their customers.
“I’d like to stop it from being an adversarial relationship which is what I think it’s evolved to be, into a partnership,” MTA Chairman H. Dale Hemmerdinger said after Wednesday MTA board met.
Hemmerdinger had opened the meeting with a prepared statement encouraging riders to participate in the discussion about the need for more public funding for transit:
“Capital funding is crucial to the system and, therefore, to the region’s economy, and we need it,” Hemmerdinger said. “But you, as owners, should be active participants in the public discussion. Let your elected officials know that the transit system matters to you and how you think it should be improved.”
The chairman encouraged riders “to take ownership” and participate in the “partnership” that encompasses straphangers and the MTA. The 20-member MTA board, besides the chairman and a CEO, consists of five gubernatorial appointees, four mayoral appointees, and seven members appointed by county executives along the commuter rail lines.
