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The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

nytimes.com

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Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#31

Post by swang »

I took a trip to ny last week and the area i was staying at (near trump tower, off lexington), the closest subways were the 2/3/E/M but apparently on Saturday the 2 and 3 weren't available going downtown, so I had to walk a block or so to get to another line to get where I was going.

Then I was in Brooklyn to watch a show that night, we got out around 9PM and was trying to figure out how to get back into the city, the line that was suppose to take us wasn't running it's normal route, so we had to take one stop into Barclays Center which renamed another line to the line that we wanted to go on. Seemed like the locals knew about this though.

I didn't experience any major delays, but it was more like there was so much work being done that you had to spend extra energy remembering which line was available only one way and starting at which station. Google Maps was definitely very helpful.

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#32

Post by m_ke »

wgerard wrote: post #24

It's interesting seeing the ways people work around this, even for people who don't have hard start/end times (e.g. tech employees). I have one friend who uses Citi Bike to get to important meetings I think people who don't live in the city don't realize how (relatively) stressful it can be when the trains are late. Riding the train during peak hours is already a pretty stressful experience: The sardine analogy is ve…

I just work from home most days now because of how bad it has gotten.

I had to move back to Queens a few months ago near where I grew up and the trip to SoHo that used to take at most 45 minutes is now 60-90 min. A few times I was stuck on the E for around 2.5 hours.

Living in the outer boroughs has become a huge disadvantage.

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#33

Post by ng12 »

gsnedders wrote: post #26
nkozyra wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In almost all cases I think this is a valid critique, but not against the MTA. It's one of the oldest, most complex, largest and among the ten highest daily ridership. To me, it remains an absolute marvel. Of course daily riders do and will forever complain. As someone who riders infrequently and is warned about impending doom, I find myself too often pleasantly surprised.

Why does the London Underground mostly run to schedule, though, then? Because it's older, arguably as complex (especially the subsurface railway), and not that far below NYC in ridership…

The biggest difference is the Tube doesn't run 24/7. You have a guaranteed maintenance cycle.

Also my understanding is that European unions are less corrupt than American ones.

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#34

Post by ng12 »

swang wrote: post #31

I took a trip to ny last week and the area i was staying at (near trump tower, off lexington), the closest subways were the 2/3/E/M but apparently on Saturday the 2 and 3 weren't available going downtown, so I had to walk a block or so to get to another line to get where I was going. Then I was in Brooklyn to watch a show that night, we got out around 9PM and was trying to figure out how to get back into the city, th…

> Seemed like the locals knew about this though.

I think about this a lot. I know what it means when the AC is rerouted along the F to West 4th and can plan accordingly. How the hell is a tourist supposed to figure out how to get to Fulton?

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#35

Post by borne0 »

The trains should only run on tracks that are completely enclosed (More control on the environment will realize better reliability, and as an aside nicer living space. Raised tracks are ugly.), Also they should run on rubber wheels like the Montreal metro has since 1966.

Both metros should have barrier between platforms and tracks since they know where the doors will open. It's sad but a non-negligible cause of delays are due to people jumping on the tracks.

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#36

Post by Rapzid »

amaccuish wrote: post #25
nkozyra wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In almost all cases I think this is a valid critique, but not against the MTA. It's one of the oldest, most complex, largest and among the ten highest daily ridership. To me, it remains an absolute marvel. Of course daily riders do and will forever complain. As someone who riders infrequently and is warned about impending doom, I find myself too often pleasantly surprised.

Moscow, Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing would disagree with you there...

Yeah, I just got back from Japan and ended up transiting four of the five busiest train stations in the world(we did not visit Yokohama). My takeaway; the US will "never" have great public transit. Other than bus issues in Kyoto due to the amount of tourists visiting shrines(205, 59, etc) it was.. eye opening. BARTs issues and costs are a joke. NYs reliability is a joke. We are not in the same league. Many countries put us to shame on public transportation.

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#37

Post by jumelles »

jorblumesea wrote: post #6

I'm confused as to why the US seems to fail or fall so far behind in infrastructure compared to other developed nations. It seems that we throw money at our problems but seemingly get nowhere. It's sad because there's many amazing things about this country, but we cannot do basic things like make trains run on time.

My understanding is that the MTA is funded by New York State, not NYC, so it's not like the city can just levy its own taxes on businesses or something to fund the subway - though I sure wish they could, and I bet the MTA does too.

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#38

Post by maxerickson »

jorblumesea wrote: post #6

I'm confused as to why the US seems to fail or fall so far behind in infrastructure compared to other developed nations. It seems that we throw money at our problems but seemingly get nowhere. It's sad because there's many amazing things about this country, but we cannot do basic things like make trains run on time.

I think a contributor is that some people believe that underfunding will somehow address our higher costs.

But often the problems are structural and underfunding just erodes efficiency further.

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#39

Post by Tijdreiziger »

baud147258 wrote: post #16
mynegation wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

THe keyword here is “supposed”. I don’t have regular experience with NYC subway, but used to ride Toronto subway everyday, which is the subject to the similar problems. The trains do arrive every 3-5 minutes on weekdays, but then something happens (security incident on a train, unauthorized person on a track level, fires, signal problems, or - the most horrible - “personal injury on a track level”, the language for s…

Here in Paris, the rail & subway company instead of "personal injury on a track level", use "people accident". I'd say that most of the lines in Paris are the same.

It's interesting how the euphemism used differs by country. The Dutch railway companies use "collision with a person".

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#40

Post by maxerickson »

jumelles wrote: post #37
jorblumesea wrote: post #6

I'm confused as to why the US seems to fail or fall so far behind in infrastructure compared to other developed nations. It seems that we throw money at our problems but seemingly get nowhere. It's sad because there's many amazing things about this country, but we cannot do basic things like make trains run on time.

My understanding is that the MTA is funded by New York State, not NYC, so it's not like the city can just levy its own taxes on businesses or something to fund the subway - though I sure wish they could, and I bet the MTA does too.

Fares, tolls and regional taxes make up the bulk of the budget:

http://interactive.nydailynews.com/project/mta-funding/

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