NYC Subway Delays Up Last Year, Even Before Sandy

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[font size="1"]L train plods through Brooklyn. (Genial23/flickr) [/font]


Storm Sandy caused an almost 30 percent increase in subway delays during the first three months of 2013. That expected finding comes from a Straphangers Campaign study of electronic alerts by the New York MTA. But the study also found that the problems weren't just storm-related: subway delays were up by 10 percent last year in the ten months before Sandy.

The F train had the most delays, accounting for 8 percent of the 2,669 alerts issued for 20 subway lines. (Shuttle trains were not counted.) The largest increase in delays -- 60 percent -- occurred on the L train. The most improved line was the much-maligned G, which had 19 percent fewer delay alerts in the ten months before Sandy than during the same period in the previous year.

The study only counted alerts about what it termed controllable delays, such as mechanical breakdowns; it didn't count uncontrollable delays, such as police actions and sick passengers. The MTA deems a delay worthy of an alert if passenger service is disrupted for 8 minutes or more.

The MTA got most of the subway system back up and running a few weeks after Sandy struck in late October. But officials have warned that salt water may have rendered some electrical components less reliable, even after they'd been cleaned. That might explain the increase in delay alerts during the first three months of this year. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/transportation-nation/2013/may/01/nyc-subway-delays-last-year-even-sandy/