Sept. 17, 2018 By Tara Law
Subway commuters dealt with morning rush hour delays on almost every August weekday— and N train riders had a particularly rough time, according to a report released yesterday by public transportation advocacy group Riders Alliance.
There were delays–on at least one line in the system–during morning rush hour on every August weekday except for Aug. 23.
The N train experienced 15 delays during rush hour in August, the third most delays of any line in the city. Eight of the N train’s delays were due to signal errors and seven due to mechanical issues.
Riders Alliance, which advocates for affordable and high quality public transit, derived the delay figures by analyzing the MTA’s alert archive for the 23 workdays during August between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m.
The Alliance found that the D and R trains were tied for the most morning rush hour delays— 16. Both lines experienced 11 delays due to signal errors and five due to mechanical issues.
The L train was the only line that did not experience any delays during rush hour, the Riders Alliance said.
In a statement, the Riders Alliance urged the state legislature and Governor Andrew Cuomo to fund the MTA’s multi-billion-dollar Fast Forward plan, which would pay for 650 new subway cars and a new signal system to five lines, among other major upgrades.
John Raskin, executive director of Riders Alliance, called the end of “stop-gap measures” to fix the subway, arguing that the state should fund Fast Forward.
“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. In 2018 New York, it has become routine,” said Raskin.
Jaqi Cohen, campaign coordinator for the advocacy group NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign, noted that it’s been over a year since the MTA’s Subway Action Plan.
The MTA said at the time that the billion-dollar initiative would aim to reduce subway delays by improving car, signal and track maintenance, according to the project website. The MTA argued that the program would “stabilize” and “modernize” the subway system.
Cohen said that the MTA needed to give riders “assurance that subway service is getting better, not worse.”
MTA Communications Director Jon Weinstein fired back after learning of the Riders Alliance’s findings, arguing that the group’s analysis does not reveal the progress the MTA has made in the last year to reduce delays.
“The methodology of this ‘report’ provides no context whatsoever,” Weinstein said. “This oversimplification ignores the incredible progress we’ve made under the Subway Action Plan that stopped a steep decline in service and resulted in a series vital improvements. This appears to be more of a stunt than an actual serious look at service.”
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4 Comments
The N has always been known in Astoria as the N train to nowhere. It is the worst train line in NYC. I have coworkers who arrive at 59/Lex faster from Jamaica than I do from Astoria.
Move away.
This is par for the course with the MTA. Don’t acknowledge the shit-show. Instead criticize a report that simply compiles the information from your own (byzantine and unhelpful) site. Point out that the current ongoing disaster is actually major improvement from the mega-disaster last year.
Saying indignantily that you made progess is what is lacking in context, you dope. Going from 1% functionality to 5% functionality when the entire system has wrecked and continues to wreck peoples’ lives over the last year or two – I think we could all write our own rage novels about what we’ve gone through on a daily basis in the last year or so, and what it has cost us personally, professionally, and monetarily – is meaningless.
Tell the truth, you blockhead. Say “we have improved but we went from being godawful to being piss-poor. We are the transit equivalent of limp genitalia. We suck and we’re trying but we’re nowhere near good enough. We are an embarrassment to our families and our friends. Not that we could possibly have many friends left at this point. We’ve ruined their lives, too. Thanks for not dragging us out into the streets and beating us as we rightly deserve for failing our communty so very, very completely. We’re the worst.”
There was an article in the Times back when Andy Byford was first touring the system, trying to get a feel for what was going on on the ground, so to speak. And I thought it was so telling that this out-of-touch boob is standing there at rush hour in some busy station, and he’s pointing out peeling paint to the reporter accompanying him, and as he does this some harried commuter shoves past him and says, “MOVE!” And Byford stands there flustered.
You shut down my station at 30th Ave for the better part of a year. I not only had no train, I lived on a 24/7 active construction site (still going on intermittently, btw). You ruined my life for that time. And now what, I have a pretty station to stand in like an idiot waiting for trains that don’t come reliably. And now I sit and watch the flood of pissed-off and panicked looking commuters flooding past my window from Broadway, going through what I dealth with.
What is the point of this shit when the trains are still this poor. And all the crap about NYC has the only 24/7 system? Not anymore, because it’s shuttle busses to Queensboro late nights and weekends week in and week out. I’m a musician who works on the weekend and late at night, oh well!
The sheer audactiy of that organization to do anything other than beg us for forgiveness and take our insults and rage that they have coming to them…
There’s no way it was only 15.