It almost entirely explains most of the issues you pointed to. The system has become filthy and unkept because it is a de facto homeless shelter. The safety concerns largely stem from the same issue.

There are maintenance items that could certainly be improved, but at what cost? Are we okay with weekend and overnight service being dramatically cut to allow for cosmetic maintenance? It’s much easier to polish stations when they’re closed every night.

I’m not giving the MTA a full pass, they waste money at an impressive rate, I just think it’s important to put some of these things into context. This is not Copenhagen, the issues faced are very different in many respects.

And what is the main issue they face? Homelessness. Do transportation authorities elsewhere deal with anything remotely comparable?

This is not a transit issue, that is a societal issue.

Ok so a single literally just opened line in London. It is nice, pretty similar to the 2nd Ave line when just opened. That project is pretty great overall though, a crosstown express link like that would be amazing in NYC.

I’m not personally familiar with it, but as far as I can tell Copenhagen is a light rail system comprised of a total of 4 lines with less than 300k daily ridership. Not exactly comparable to NYC in any way.

Also not personally familiar with Stockholm, but it doesn’t look revolutionary as far as I can tell. It also serves 1/4 of the stations and 1/5 of the daily riders as the NYC subway. What makes it so good?

Where in Europe?