When you think about how your weekends are fouled up by subway service disruptions, causing you to take an different route or a shuttle bus, chew on this: Would it be better if the MTA just shut down the whole entire line, so work crews could finish the job faster? MTA Chairman Jay Walder said yesterday, "Maybe, in some cases, we need to say, 'The line [segment] is not running.' And we'll get in there and do the track work and do the other work ... all-out, in a very concentrated period of time."
Walder used to work for London's Underground, and he pointed out, "If you're in London and you're doing track work on the Jubilee Line, do you want me to tell you what the service announcement is on the Jubilee Line? The service announcement is, 'The Jubilee line is not running.'" Riders, though, are split: Some worry they might never get to where they are going, while others reason, "There's barely any weekend service anyway." NYC Transit president Tom Prendergast says it's worth analysis and thinking about.
This idea came the same day at State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and City COmptroller John Liu announced they would audit the MTA's subway service disruptions. Liu said, "We're not necessarily saying the M.T.A. is evil here. What we are saying is that there is a problem when every year, year in year out, the same lines get take out of service roughly around the same time of the year."
