The Metropolitan Transportation Authority published ridership figures for the New York subways yesterday. In August, there was a decline of 8.8% during weekends and 2.8% during weekdays in the number of riders taking the trains. That's a continuation of a trend that has been in place for a few years now. The subways have just been too unreliable for many to take them if not absolutely necessary. And remember, this decline in riders comes at a point where employment and population in New York City have risen, so there ought to have been a gain in riders, not the decline.
So how can this be? Why are the subways so unreliable? Why is their on-time performance plummeting? The answer is poor maintenance. There keep being delays due to train or track problems. These proliferate and when the Transit Authority finally does major repairs (rather than minor ones that can occur without much disruption) there are more delays. To be fair, there were some repairs that were needed due to the flooding during Sandy in 2012, but one would have thought those repairs would be complete by now -- except, of course, this being New York, there are still big Sandy repairs to come. The main reason is that the MTA wastes its funds and attention on big showy political projects rather than on actual proper maintenance of the system.
Here's a good example: the MTA decided in the 1960s to build a spur from the Long Island Railroad to permit trains from the Island to go to Grand Central Terminal. It built a new tunnel under the East River that had two levels, the upper for subways and the lower for LIRR trains. Then in the 1970s, the system ran out of money for the project, so it was stopped. The tunnel was completed but it sat unused for 30 years and was allowed to flood with water. By 2000, the decision had been made to go ahead with the project, so the tunnel was emptied and the other short bit of track was begun. In total, there is less than 3 miles of new track that was needed. The MTA decided, however, that the LIRR trains had to go into their own new level at Grand Central. The MTA board decided on a cavernous new station level to be built UNDER the existing Grand Central with a new tunnel to that station UNDER the existing tracks. Just think how grand the opening day ceremony would be where all these politicians could claim credit for this big new edifice. Of course, the price tag kept rising (from $4 billion in 2000 to $20 billion today) and the original schedule of 2008 completion has now been pushed back to sometime after 2020. It's important to remember that had the trains been sent into the existing Grand Central Terminal, the project would have been completed at least a decade ago at a cost of no more than $5 billion (if that). That would have freed up $15 billion for maintenance work over the last decade. That's more than enough to have kept the trains on running on time.
There are other projects like the LIRR-Grand Central mess throughout the system, but none is so glaring or so large as that one. Still, it's worth calling out just one other one. The last subway station near the World Trade Center site reopened over this past Summer. It took the MTA 17 years after 9-11 to fix up that station. If you ever wanted a good example of the incompetence of the MTA, this is it.
The obvious question which arises is this: will anything change? The simple answer seems to be no. The governor and the mayor jointly control the MTA, although the governor is much more in charge. New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo is likely to be re-elected in a few weeks. His message on the MTA has been how great the system is. In other words, it will just be business as usual.
It's a sad moment. New York has one of the best public transportation systems in the world, so allowing it to be destroyed through mismanagement is intolerable. Of course, only the people in the region will suffer, and they are the ones choosing these incompetent leaders. I guess the people get what they vote for.
So how can this be? Why are the subways so unreliable? Why is their on-time performance plummeting? The answer is poor maintenance. There keep being delays due to train or track problems. These proliferate and when the Transit Authority finally does major repairs (rather than minor ones that can occur without much disruption) there are more delays. To be fair, there were some repairs that were needed due to the flooding during Sandy in 2012, but one would have thought those repairs would be complete by now -- except, of course, this being New York, there are still big Sandy repairs to come. The main reason is that the MTA wastes its funds and attention on big showy political projects rather than on actual proper maintenance of the system.
Here's a good example: the MTA decided in the 1960s to build a spur from the Long Island Railroad to permit trains from the Island to go to Grand Central Terminal. It built a new tunnel under the East River that had two levels, the upper for subways and the lower for LIRR trains. Then in the 1970s, the system ran out of money for the project, so it was stopped. The tunnel was completed but it sat unused for 30 years and was allowed to flood with water. By 2000, the decision had been made to go ahead with the project, so the tunnel was emptied and the other short bit of track was begun. In total, there is less than 3 miles of new track that was needed. The MTA decided, however, that the LIRR trains had to go into their own new level at Grand Central. The MTA board decided on a cavernous new station level to be built UNDER the existing Grand Central with a new tunnel to that station UNDER the existing tracks. Just think how grand the opening day ceremony would be where all these politicians could claim credit for this big new edifice. Of course, the price tag kept rising (from $4 billion in 2000 to $20 billion today) and the original schedule of 2008 completion has now been pushed back to sometime after 2020. It's important to remember that had the trains been sent into the existing Grand Central Terminal, the project would have been completed at least a decade ago at a cost of no more than $5 billion (if that). That would have freed up $15 billion for maintenance work over the last decade. That's more than enough to have kept the trains on running on time.
There are other projects like the LIRR-Grand Central mess throughout the system, but none is so glaring or so large as that one. Still, it's worth calling out just one other one. The last subway station near the World Trade Center site reopened over this past Summer. It took the MTA 17 years after 9-11 to fix up that station. If you ever wanted a good example of the incompetence of the MTA, this is it.
The obvious question which arises is this: will anything change? The simple answer seems to be no. The governor and the mayor jointly control the MTA, although the governor is much more in charge. New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo is likely to be re-elected in a few weeks. His message on the MTA has been how great the system is. In other words, it will just be business as usual.
It's a sad moment. New York has one of the best public transportation systems in the world, so allowing it to be destroyed through mismanagement is intolerable. Of course, only the people in the region will suffer, and they are the ones choosing these incompetent leaders. I guess the people get what they vote for.
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