i always get those confused

Years, months, days - it's all the same to our friends at the MTA. From this morning's New York Times:
At first, the estimate was grim, a subway rider's nightmare. It could take up to five years to get the A and C trains running normally after a fire in an underground signal relay room last month.



Then the forecast improved: transit officials said it would take only six to nine months to fix the disruptions.



Now the estimate has come down once more. The new prognosis for restoration of most service on the subway lines?



Today. Just nine days and 15 hours after the fire.
Don't you love it?



The dopes at the MTA have also backed away from their original claim that the fire was started by a homeless person. No evidence of an unauthorized person, homeless or otherwise, was found at the scene of the fire. It's now being labeled "mysterious". It's not farfetched to guess the fire was caused by the MTA's own antiquated, poorly maintained equipment.

Comments

  1. allan3 February 2005 at 06:56

    **the MTA's own antiquated, poorly maintained equipment**

    Hey, those nice new baseball caps for motormen and glossy American flag stickers for the outside of the trains don't come cheap (not to mention several years ago ordering millions of dollars worth of rails that they knew beforehand were the wrong size for the job -- and couldn't be used anywhere in the system at all).

    First things first!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kyle_From_Ottawa3 February 2005 at 08:02

    Is it really that bad? I always figured if I'd ever visit New York that the subway would be a highlight, after all it's one of the oldest in the world (or is it the oldest?).

    Or is it just that to a regular user you notice all the annoyances. I mean, visitors who take a bus here in Ottawa seem to think our system's great (unless they're from Europe), but we regular riders complain bitterly. I commute by car in winter because (a)it's too cold to wait for the bus in front of my building, (b) its too cold to walk the five blocks to the Transitway station, and (c)if a flake of snow falls, the whole transit system seems to run on a random schedule.

    ReplyDelete
  3. laura k3 February 2005 at 09:29

    The subway is wonderful. The people who run the subway system are horrible.

    The subway *should* be a highlight of any visit to NYC! It's an absolutely amazing system. Most of the trains are (relatively) new, having been replaced or refurbished in late 80s and early 90s. Hundreds of stations have been restored, continuing the famous tradition of inventive mosaics. Many of the stops are truly beautiful.

    New York's isn't the oldest system - I believe London's is older. But is is one of the most extensive in the world - and it is the most egalitarian. You can ride the entire system on one fare; there are no zones which make longer trips more extensive.

    When we complain about the MTA, we're talking about the foolish, money-wasting, self-serving, consumer-unfriendly decisions of the idiots who run the system. They don't live in the city, they never take public transit, and they seem to have utter disdain for those who do. A disproportionate amount of our tax money goes to highways and suburban transit, rather than our own transit system.

    If the NYC subway system was properly maintained - that is, adequate service to cut down on horrendous over-crowding, and adequate maintainance so cars and stations were clean - we would only tell you how great it is.

    ReplyDelete

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