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Nolan Hicks

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Nolan Hicks is a freelance reporter and a researcher at the NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management’s Transit Costs Project, where he is examining electrification and commuter railroad modernization with a particular focus on the MTA. Previously, he was a longtime reporter for the New York Post, where he covered city agencies, transit, housing, and Albany. His series of stories there in 2023 revealed that the MTA relies too heavily on consultants, resulting in oversize station designs that added $1 billion to the price tag of the Second Avenue Subway’s East Harlem extension. The stories prompted MTA officials to launch a review that’s already saved $300 million. He has also worked for the Daily News on its data projects team and for newspapers in Texas.

  1. getting around
    Can We Design Our Way Out of the Subway-Surfing Crisis?New trains make it much harder to climb out and up, and that’s yet another reason to upgrade.
  2. getting around
    Where Does $9 Congestion Pricing Get Us?Trying to make sense of Kathy Hochul’s mess.
  3. getting around
    Trump’s Election Means It’s Now or Never for Congestion PricingThree billion dollars in federal matching funds will likely evaporate after January 20.
  4. getting around
    Why Does NJ Transit Keep Canceling Trains?The reliably unreliable commuter system is 16 times more likely to face breakdowns than Metro-North is.
  5. getting around
    The Unbuilt Bridge That’s Strangling Penn StationWe need a second span out in Jersey, and nobody’s funded it yet.
  6. getting around
    Do Subway Elevators Really Need to Cost $100 Million Per Station?They’re taking a huge bite out of the MTA’s budget.
  7. getting around
    Amtrak Wants to Sell Us a Very Expensive Penn Station ExpansionThe railroad doesn’t want to improve the current station, which many argue would be cheaper (and faster).
  8. getting around
    Scaling Back Congestion Pricing to Save ItHere’s a proposal that keeps the core of the plan intact but addresses Governor Hochul’s chief concerns.
  9. getting around
    Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) Chair and CEO Janno
    Exactly What We Lost When We Lost Congestion PricingWhat does that $15 billion slash — which will cost us an extra $3 billion on top of that — really mean for transit riders?
  10. getting around
    The MTA’s Oldest Computer Controls Kept Going During the Global Tech OutageMost of the Cuomo-era countdown clocks on the lettered subway lines failed; the old ones on the numbered lines did not.
  11. getting around
    Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor Power Supply Is Ancient and FailingThose hot-weather slowdowns and stoppages are largely the fault of one outdated piece of infrastructure.
  12. getting around
    Congestion Pricing’s Promises Never Reached East HarlemAnd now the Second Avenue Subway won’t either.
  13. getting around
    What Made Kathy Hochul Flip?Inside the governor’s sudden U-turn on congestion pricing.
  14. getting around
    “I Don’t Think There’s a Plan B”Confusion and fury (and Andy Byford) at MTA headquarters as the congestion-pricing news came down.