NYC Transit Union Alliance Sends Letter to Transit President Crichlow

For the first time in the history of the Transit Authority, every NYC Transit union has united to form a single alliance — the NYC Transit Union Alliance. This unprecedented coalition was created in direct response to the dangerous and reckless decisions being made by new Transit leadership, particularly within the Department of Buses.

What brought this to a head was management’s decision to reassign 27 experienced Surface Line Dispatchers off the road and into the Bus Command Center (BCC). These are the supervisors who respond in real time to incidents, service disruptions, operator emergencies, and passenger issues. Removing them from the field strips away critical on-street support that keeps service moving and people safe.

Every union in the Alliance recognizes the same troubling reality: the BCC radio system is deeply flawed. It is plagued by chronic outages, dropped transmissions, and unreliable communication between bus operators and supervisors. This is not speculation — it is a daily operational failure that frontline workers deal with constantly.

Instead of fixing a broken system, Transit leadership is doubling down on it by centralizing supervisors in a location where they cannot physically respond to emergencies, cannot assist operators in distress, and cannot help the riding public when problems occur on the street.

This decision doesn’t improve service. It doesn’t improve safety. It doesn’t improve efficiency.

It removes experienced eyes and boots from the street and replaces real-time field support with a radio system that doesn’t work reliably.

The NYC Transit Union Alliance is united in saying:
This is a step backward for safety, service, and common sense.

We are calling on Transit leadership to immediately reconsider this misguided reassignment, restore proper field supervision, and work with the unions — not against them — to address the real operational issues facing bus service today.