New York commuters snarl at series of woes

Many want to see subway system upgraded

The New York metropolitan area has the busiest transit system in the United States, but delays and malfunctions have probably made its customers the nation's crankiest.

The city is home to more than 8.5 million people who travel by train, bus, automobile and plane daily.

But many New Yorkers, including several campaign groups, believe that a key part of that system－the subway－is not up to the task and want to see it upgraded.

"New York's transit system is old," said Joseph Chow, deputy director at New York University's C2SMART University Transportation Center. "Some of the newer transit systems work effectively in Asian countries－such as Japan, China and South Korea. Some parts of Europe also have good transit systems that could be used as an example on how to update New York's.

"The biggest problems for transit systems worldwide is funding. There isn't enough cash and they need more. It's a public service, so the benefits are hard to quantify.

"Another problem with New York's subway compared with others around the world is that it operates 24/7. It creates a question, 'How do you manage a continuously running system?' Not a lot of others do that. That's the difference. New York needs to build more CBTC (communications-based train control), fix operations and consider more maintenance."

The New York subway, which is nearly 115 years old, opened its first line on Oct 27, 1904, when 150,000 people each rode for 5 cents. Today, a single journey costs $2.75.

Fares are due to rise by 4 percent this month, and again in 2021.

But the increase has angered some cash-strapped New Yorkers who think that they are not getting value for money, as some stations are strewn with trash－which leads to track fires－and are infested with rats.

Chi John, 35, travels into the city daily from her home in Brooklyn.

"How can they justify raising fares again when the service is so bad?" she asked. "I wish they would fix the subway first－it sucks. It's always crowded and it's really slow."

One woman told Andy Byford, president of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, at a town hall meeting, "I don't know of any business model where people can charge more money for worse service."

Danny Pearlstein, policy and communications director for the Riders Alliance, an advocacy group in New York, said: "The No 1 issue for us is to see the system modernized. It is (New York Governor Andrew) Cuomo's decision to make sure that things are done, and we're looking to him to push it through in his January budget.

"Most legislators don't take the subway, but their constituents do. We just want it to work. The subway is used by 8 million people, and it affects the lives of an overwhelming number of them, so let's get the budget in place to fix things."

Last year, Cuomo declared the MTA to be in a state of emergency, and pledged $1 billion to fix it.

Joseph L. Lhota, former chairman of the authority, said the subway is losing much-needed money to people who prefer to use ride-sharing services. This exodus resulted in subway and bus revenues being $54.8 million less than expected by August.

Cuomo and his office in Albany, the state capital, are in charge of the budget for the subway.