POLITICAL ARENA

30 minutes or it's free

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Borrowing from the old pizza delivery promise of getting food in 30 minutes or it’s free, straphangers not getting the service they expect on trains could soon get a refund.

At least that’s what Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz has proposed as the so-called “Summer of Hell” continues on MTA’s subway lines.

“Gov. Cuomo has shown tremendous leadership in declaring a state of emergency and working to address the crisis, but we also need to be sure that riders get what they pay for,” Dinowitz said in a release. “It’s only common sense that when people arrive late to work or miss a doctor’s appointment because of train delays, then they should get a refund from the MTA.”

The policy would reimburse commuters who suffer delays of at least 30 minutes beyond regular train schedules, if MTA should have been able to avoid the delay.

MTA already tracks rider commutes through Metrocard data, and even send notes to commuters explaining delays when work schedules are disrupted or an important appointment is missed. Using that same information, MTA can determine if someone was on a train subjected to excessive delays or major service disruptions, and then refund the typical $2.75 fare.

It’s not clear how this would affect commuters who pay for time rather than individual trips. But it would allow New York to join other transit systems around the world in providing refunds for bad service. London, for example, issues a full single-fare refund for delays of more than 30 minutes, Dinowitz said. Likewise, Spain’s national rail system will discount fare as much as 50 percent for delays between 30 minutes and two hours.

MTA announced last week it would discount tickets on the Long Island Railroad by 25 percent because of the inconvenience passengers are experiencing this summer for track upgrades and repairs at Penn Station. 

The refund would have allowed travelers to get reimbursed during the F train outage last month that left passengers stranded underground without air-conditioning for more than an hour, as well as last week’s A train derailment in Harlem. Both cases, Dinowitz said, could have been avoided with regular maintenance, training and funding.

 

Giffords speaks out on Bronx shooting

Many public officials offered statements and condolences following the shooting at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center last week that killed one person, injured six others and resulted in the death of the gunman. But one statement from a former Congresswoman might have an additional kick.

Gabby Giffords, the former Arizona representative who was seriously injured in a 2012 shooting, said she found the Bronx shooting “devastating.”

“Meeting up with friends at a club, healing others or getting treatment at a hospital, attending church, practicing for a ballgame — in America, these are activities that should never involve terror or fear of violence,” Giffords said in a release. 

“Sadly, that’s not the America we’re living in today.”

Giffords is the co-founder of the gun violence prevention organization Americans for Responsible Solutions, and shared thoughts not only about the doctor who opened fire at Bronx-Lebanon, but also the mass shooting at a Little Rock nightclub that left at least 25 people injured.

“The alarming frequency with which we watch terrifying scenes unfold in our communities is devastating,” she said. “But we must never allow ourselves to accept that this is normal. It’s not. The rate of gun violence in our nation is unacceptable, and solutions to make our communities safer are possible.”

 

No New York voter data for Trump

If President Donald Trump wants access to voting date in New York, he might have to come himself to get it.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he won’t comply with a request from Trump’s election commission requesting personal information of all voters in each state. That information, the governor said, includes names, dates of birth, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, and their voter history.

“The electoral process is sacred, and New York law has strong safeguards in place to prevent sharing of sensitive voter data and harassment against those who exercise their right to vote,” Cuomo said in a release. “New York refuses to perpetuate the myth voter fraud played a role in our election.”

Jeffrey Dinowitz, Gabby Giffords, Donald Trump, Andrew Cuomo, Michael Hinman

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