Photo Courtesy of Councilman Lander’s Office
Brooklyn Councilman Brad Lander speaks at Riders Alliance event on Sunday on plaza outside Barclays Center subway entrance.
By Michael V. Cusenza
Of the 23 morning rush hours in the month of August, only Thursday, Aug. 23, was free of signal problems that are the cause of the overwhelming majority of the prolific subway delays, according to an analysis released on Sunday by a leading straphanger-advocacy organization.
Last month, according to the Riders Alliance’s count of Metropolitan Transportation Authority delay alerts issued between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. each weekday morning, every day except Aug. 23 and every line except the L train suffered from signal and/or mechanical problems during one or more of the 23 morning rush hours over the course of August. The L train is the only subway line on which the MTA has completed signal upgrades, the group noted.
The D and R lines tied for the most delays—16 each in a month with 23 working days, according to the Alliance’s analysis. Each was delayed by signals 11 times and mechanicals five times. The N train had the third-most delays, with eight owing to signals and seven to mechanicals.
And even on Aug. 23, according to the MTA data, the date when no lines had signal or mechanical malfunctions between 6 am and 10 am, B and Q trains were delayed while investigators sought to determine why a train’s emergency brake had been triggered and 4 and 5 trains were delayed as a result of a sick passenger needing medical attention.
“When the entire month of August has only one morning rush without signal delays, that’s a blinking red light that it’s past time to modernize our subway system. Every one of those signal malfunctions throws thousands of people’s daily lives into chaos. In a functional transit system, that would be a rare event that merits an apology,” RA Executive Director John Raskin said. “In 2018 New York, it has become routine.”
The remedy? According to the Alliance, congestion pricing + MTA’s Fast Forward plan = a modern public transit system worthy of the capital of the world.
“The days of stop-gap measures have to be over,” Raskin added.
The group has said that it believes that congestion pricing would raise the billions of dollars needed to overhaul the system by levying a charge on cars and trucks entering Manhattan’s Central Business District south of 60th Street.
“It’s time for Gov. [Andrew] Cuomo and members of the State Legislature to pass congestion pricing and fund the MTA’s Fast Forward plan,” Raskin said, “so we can rebuild the transit system and end the pain for millions of New Yorkers who rely on it every day.”
According to MTA New York City Transit President Andy Byford, Fast Forward would completely modernize city transit by focusing on four major priorities: transforming the subway, reimagining the city’s public bus network, improving accessibility for all modes, and engaging and empowering NYC Transit’s workforce to deliver the best service possible.
“This is no mere tweak—Fast Forward is designed to turn around transit in this city,” Byford noted last month. “But it won’t be cheap and it won’t be easy.”
