Money Out of Your Pocket’: New Yorkers Tell of Subway Delay Woes

[Via Garibaldi 8]

SearcMoney Out of Your Pocket’: New Yorkers Tell of Subway Delay Woes

 

N.Y. / Region

 

 

Waiting for a train at the 47th-50th Streets station in Manhattan last week. Surging subway delays have led to a growing sense of frustration and fatigue among New Yorkers.

JEENAH MOON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

 

 

 

By EMMA G. FITZSIMMONS

 

MAY 31, 2017

 

It was 8:30 a.m. on a Tuesday during the height of the morning rush on the nation’s busiest subway. Suddenly, power went out at one station in Brooklyn, but that lone failure triggered a meltdown that crippled service across New York City, stranding countless commuters whose plans for the day were derailed.

 

One woman never made it to housing court and now faces eviction. Another missed a doctor appointment made months earlier. A graphic designer lost $100 in wages. A computer technician paid more than $50 for an Uber car to make a meeting. A lawyer was late for a sentencing. A pastry chef who needs every hour of work he can scrounge lost an hour and a half of pay. A psychoanalyst never made it to her session with a patient. Neither did her patient.

 

These are the very real human costs, financial and otherwise, of a single subway disruption — just one painful delay in what has become a season of transit misery. On this day, like so many others, New Yorkers missed job interviews, medical appointments and other basic responsibilities of daily life. They waited endlessly on platforms for trains that never came. They crammed into overstuffed buses. They emailed apologies to bosses and clients.

 

For many riders, the subway is failing at its fundamental task — getting people where they need to be when they need to be there.

 

 

It is difficult to calculate with precision the economic fallout of a single awful day on the subway. But these episodes have inarguably cost New Yorkers and their employers millions of dollars each year in lost productivity, forfeited wages and extra expenses, like unplanned taxi rides and extended child care.

 

Interactive Feature | Why Is Subway Service in New York Getting Worse? How did it get this way? Is anyone trying to fix it? Here are answers for some of the most common questions people ask about New York City’s deteriorating subway conditions.

The maddening subway delays that Tuesday — May 9 — provide a window into the cascading economic consequences of a single incident. A power loss that affected the signal system at the DeKalb Avenue station wreaked havoc on at least seven lines stretching from Brooklyn to the Bronx.

 

Hundreds of subway riders ensnared by the disruption responded to a request by The New York Times to share their tales of woe. The delays were an inconvenience for many, something more serious for others, but cumulatively they take a debilitating toll, changing lives in ways big and small.

 

For hourly wage workers like Jonathan Yung, a pastry chef, the chaos meant losing badly needed income. It took Mr. Yung three hours to travel from Brooklyn to a kitchen in Queens. He missed an hour and a half of work, or about $27 in wages.

 

“If you’re going to lose time based on the train, that’s money out of your pocket,” said Mr. Yung, who often struggles to secure 40 hours of work each week.

 

Spencer Viator, a professional opera singer, gave himself two hours to travel to an important rehearsal on the Upper West Side. After taking four different trains, he arrived 45 minutes late, harried and angry.

“If you’re going to lose time based on the train, that’s money out of your pocket,” said Jonathan Yung, a pastry chef who missed an hour and a half of work to a subway disruption May 9.

JOSHUA BRIGHT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

“When I got there, I had to take a minute — I was so stressed from this entire ordeal,” said Mr. Viator, who lives in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, and was preparing for a performance of Mozart’s “Secret Gardener.” “I needed a minute to calm down and become a human being again.”

With subway delays surging, Mr. Viator has considered moving, but his work as an opera singer keeps him here. “I would love to leave New York if I could,” he said.

 

Others faced more serious repercussions. Alicia Sciascia had a 9:30 a.m. hearing in housing court in Downtown Brooklyn. Her landlord had taken legal action against her, and she was asking for more time to respond. She was turned away from a subway station in Brooklyn. Buses were crammed with people. She did not arrive at court until 1 p.m.

 

“I was completely flustered, but I imagined since it was such a big citywide emergency that I would be able to be heard that day regardless,” Ms. Sciascia said.

 

Instead, she was cited for failing to appear in court. Now, she is worried that a city marshal will visit her home to start an eviction process.

The West Fourth Street station in Manhattan last week. Major subway disruptions like the one last week carry human costs, financial and otherwise.

JEENAH MOON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

The New York City metropolitan region contributes $1.6 trillion a year to the national economy, or nearly 9 percent of the gross domestic product in 2015, according to the Partnership for New York City, an influential business group. Even a small dent in the city’s economic output has ripple effects as conferences are canceled and offices sit empty, and the constant upheaval undermines the quality of life, leading some to consider moving.

 

The subway — New York’s lifeblood, carrying nearly six million riders each day — has become so unreliable that business leaders are worried the increasingly frail system will damage the city’s recent growth and prosperity. Subway delays rose to more than 78,500 in March, up 14 percent from a year earlier, and some lines have an on-time rate of under 40 percent.

 

Many riders direct their fury at Mayor Bill de Blasio, when it is in fact Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo who controls the subways. Subway officials recently released a six-point plan to confront short-term problems, while Mr. Cuomo announced a global competition aimed at long-term solutions.

 

“The combination of breakdowns, delays and accidents, and the condition of the overall transportation system serving the region, are very discouraging to employers who saw the conditions deteriorate to a point in the 1980s that was intolerable,” said Kathryn S. Wylde, the president of the Partnership for New York City.

 

After the DeKalb Avenue episode, Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, called on the city’s Independent Budget Office to study the economic impact of subway delays. In 1981, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York studied the economic costs of declining subway service. The report found that a five-minute increase in the average length of each ride to work could cost residents and employers more than $166 million annually. The study examined lost hours (400,000 hours per week) multiplied by the average wage ($8 an hour).

“I have my own business,” said Karen Nelson, a psychoanalyst who missed her 9 a.m. therapy session with a patient during the May 9 disruptions. “If I don’t have an appointment, I don’t make any money.”

 

JOSHUA BRIGHT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Based on that formula, the cost would be far higher now that the average wage is about $30 an hour and subway ridership has nearly doubled. Using the same formula, a rough estimate for a five-minute increase in the length of a ride would be about $1.1 billion annually.

 

On a personal level, it means riders have to build in plenty of extra time to ensure they arrive on time and be prepared to dig deeper into their pockets when the inevitable subway upheaval forces a plan B.

On May 9, Shea Donato, a lawyer who lives in Queens, was late for a 9:30 a.m. sentencing in Manhattan. So was everyone else who was supposed to be at the hearing. After sitting on a stalled train for at least 30 minutes, Ms. Donato walked to another line only to find it was also delayed.

 

“This wasn’t an isolated thing — it’s been building up,” she said of the delays. “This one was really bad. I was frustrated and thought, ‘Of course this is happening again.’”

 

Pamela Schultz missed a doctor’s appointment in Manhattan she had scheduled six months earlier. When she arrived at her subway station in Ditmas Park in Brooklyn about 9 a.m., there were large crowds outside. She waited on the platform for a while, but eventually gave up and went back home.

“Something I expect to run on time is really disappointing me,” said Patti Lui, a graphic designer who lost $100 in wages when she was two hours late to work on May 9.

JOSHUA BRIGHT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

“This is the second time in two months that this has happened, both to appointments in Midtown,” she said.

 

Power problems were blamed for two other major subway delays, on May 7 and April 21, and Con Edison took responsibility for the disruptions. But the company would not accept fault for May 9. “We went to the scene, we checked our equipment, and there were no abnormalities,” said Mike Clendenin, a spokesman for Con Edison. Officials at the transportation authority insist that the incident was caused by a Con Edison power failure.

 

While several major disruptions have recently crippled large sections of the city, the less tumultuous but persistent subway delays have led to a growing sense of fatigue.

 

“There is no alternative,” said Pavel Shreyder, a computer technician who paid for an Uber on May 9 so he would not miss a work meeting. “We can only use the hashtag #M.T.A.Sucks. What else can we do? Can we overthrow the management of the M.T.A.?”

 

Karen Nelson, a psychoanalyst, missed her 9 a.m. therapy session with a patient during the delays on May 9. The patient was caught up in the same disruption and rescheduled. Ms. Nelson said she loses about $600 a year to canceled appointments because of train delays.

 

“I have my own business,” she said. “If I don’t have an appointment, I don’t make any money.”

Patti Lui, a graphic designer, lost $100 in wages when she was two hours late to work after the same incident.

 

“Something I expect to run on time,” she said, “is really disappointing me.”

 

Source: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/31/nyregion/money-out-of-your-pocket-new-yorkers-tell-of-subway-delay-woes.html

[danielhg121]

Man, this article sums it up. Lost hours->lost wages. This affects New Yorkers on a daily basis, people leaving extraordinary amounts of time to not be late and they still show up late. Hell, some lady might even get evicted cause she couldn't make it to her court hearing. When shit hits the fan, MTA's like sry no other alternative. And what's up with that ConEd story pointing blame like that, conspiracy much? Just these delays, are too much and it's becoming a habit. The MTA said they were gonna get rid of timetables got me scratching my head like which direction you wanna go?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using NYC Transit Forums mobile app

[BreeddekalbL]

plus it made a kid miss his highschool graduation

[Deucey]

That was the hardest thing about moving out here - relying on other people doing their job so I can do mine.

 

I'm a car guy - goes with being a Californian. Out there, I control my situation. I could take Sunrise Blvd or if traffic was especially horrendous, take Hazel Ave. I factored in that without traffic I could be at my job in 15 minutes; with traffic, 30 minutes for a 4 mile trip as the crow flies.

 

Here...25 minutes on the ferry and then hope the or show up and don't get stuck in the tunnel. 15 minutes later I should be at 18th St, or 22 minutes later at 28th St.

 

But because things fail, a bad day could mean 30 minutes or 45 minutes respectively. The problem is that despite saying "Improving Nonstop", really isn't.

 

I used to work in Ramsey NJ. One night, got out of Port Authority to get on the back to Harlem, and because of a fire at West 4th, all IND service stopped. 7th Av was beyond crush load. I got off the Shortline bus at PABT at 8; didn't get home til 11.

 

We all have stories of screwing up our lives, yet while Cuomo and Company claim to hear our cries, instead of actually planning and fixing issues we get bread and circuses. I don't care about WiFi - I want the damn trains to be reliable. I don't want billions spent on a separate fare train that'll make Long Islanders' air travel easier - I want then to close off part of the system nightly and put in damn CBTC AND build new express/local trunklines so people don't have to endure crushloading for a bit.

 

But none of these politicians in Albany have the political courage to make decisions provide funding that'll prevent the economic engine of the state from blowing.

 

So I say take NYCTA out of , reform it to where Borough Presidents are board members for elected accountability, and give it powers to raise funds.

 

Any reform that keeps Albany from doing more than cosigning on whether it funds (versus now where it controls) would be an improvement. Otherwise, transit will continue to suffer and the car - private or for-hire - will become king.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Man, this article sums it up. Lost hours->lost wages. This affects New Yorkers on a daily basis, people leaving extraordinary amounts of time to not be late and they still show up late. Hell, some lady might even get evicted cause she couldn't make it to her court hearing. When shit hits the fan, MTA's like sry no other alternative. And what's up with that ConEd story pointing blame like that, conspiracy much? Just these delays, are too much and it's becoming a habit. The MTA said they were gonna get rid of timetables got me scratching my head like which direction you wanna go?

Sent from my iPhone using NYC Transit Forums mobile app

When did they say that? 

That was the hardest thing about moving out here - relying on other people doing their job so I can do mine.

I'm a car guy - goes with being a Californian. Out there, I control my situation. I could take Sunrise Blvd or if traffic was especially horrendous, take Hazel Ave. I factored in that without traffic I could be at my job in 15 minutes; with traffic, 30 minutes for a 4 mile trip as the crow flies.

Here...25 minutes on the ferry and then hope the or show up and don't get stuck in the tunnel. 15 minutes later I should be at 18th St, or 22 minutes later at 28th St.

But because things fail, a bad day could mean 30 minutes or 45 minutes respectively. The problem is that despite saying "Improving Nonstop", really isn't.

I used to work in Ramsey NJ. One night, got out of Port Authority to get on the back to Harlem, and because of a fire at West 4th, all IND service stopped. 7th Av was beyond crush load. I got off the Shortline bus at PABT at 8; didn't get home til 11.

We all have stories of screwing up our lives, yet while Cuomo and Company claim to hear our cries, instead of actually planning and fixing issues we get bread and circuses. I don't care about WiFi - I want the damn trains to be reliable. I don't want billions spent on a separate fare train that'll make Long Islanders' air travel easier - I want then to close off part of the system nightly and put in damn CBTC AND build new express/local trunklines so people don't have to endure crushloading for a bit.

But none of these politicians in Albany have the political courage to make decisions provide funding that'll prevent the economic engine of the state from blowing.

So I say take NYCTA out of , reform it to where Borough Presidents are board members for elected accountability, and give it powers to raise funds.

Any reform that keeps Albany from doing more than cosigning on whether it funds (versus now where it controls) would be an improvement. Otherwise, transit will continue to suffer and the car - private or for-hire - will become king.

I think this was a great article done by the NYTimes. We hear about these delays but don't see how they are affecting people. This puts things into context. I'm glad the media is doing their part in highlighting how important this is. The public needs to start hearing solutions instead of excuses, that includes the ongoing saga about how the just needs more money to make it all right.

[Wallyhorse]

And you thought the early 1980's were bad?

[danielhg121]

When did they say that?

Well, I was refering to the Report: MTA ignores abysmal on-time performance thread that you started. Reading it a little more closely, they said they were gonna loosen the timetables because they were "too stringent". Which means they could cut service and waits could be longer.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using NYC Transit Forums mobile app

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Well, I was refering to the Report: MTA ignores abysmal on-time performance thread that you started. Reading it a little more closely, they said they were gonna loosen the timetables because they were "too stringent". Which means they could cut service and waits could be longer.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using NYC Transit Forums mobile app

lol... Too stringent... Imagine that...

[Around the Horn]

And you thought the early 1980's were bad?

 

LMFAO this ain't the 80's and anyone who thinks this is even close needs to get a reality check...

[Via Garibaldi 8]

There was a college grad on Good Day NY this morning who missed his graduation because he was stuck on the subway train I think it was.  Said he left his place at 08:00 to be there by 10:00 and was still late.  I've been checking the status board every day this week, and it seems like almost every line has been down due to delays.  I don't know when this project they talked about is kicking in, but they need to get it up and running.  Everyone said I was crazy for talking about some of things I noticed several months ago, that it simply wasn't true, but apparently the system is in a state of hell right now and people are feeling it.  If you aren't consider yourself damn lucky.

[BreeddekalbL]

Supposedly this kid was in hunter's nursing program(very hard to get into) plus his train was delayed due to someone pulling the E brake