Question Everyone Finally Asks: Do Subways Have Drains?

Crowded subway; Photo: Newsday

The biggest question after yesterday's incredible commuting nightmare of flooded subway tracks, flooded roads, and millions of people trying to get to work is what the hell went wrong. Gothamist wondered for the first time, "Do subways have drains?" and apparently they do - or at least pumps to get the water out of the subways - but it's just that they were overwhelmed. Now, it's annoying when your toilet is flooded, but taking that frustration, raise it to the 6 millionth power, and that's how most New Yorkers seemed to feel, pounding on the locked subway gates and buses that were too full to stop. Gothamist knows exactly how the frustrated commuters wanting to get to work profiled in the NY Times feel, trying to bribe people for rides and we love the resourcefulness of Melanie Gordon, paying $20 for a school bus ride to 23rd and 6th Avenue, with the bus driver announcing her to kids as their "new math teacher."

At any rate, now we know that the subway system has 700 pumps to get water out but many were very old. Transit Authority Charles Seaton's words have been repeated on the local news and papers countless times: "The pumps couldn't keep up with the large amounts of water that fell in such a short period of time." Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum sent a scathing letter to MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow: "I am outraged by this morning's severe disruption of subway service. Straphangers have come to accept as inevitable brief and occasional delays, but they should not have to accept what occurred this morning."

The NY Times elegantly notes that the rain brought "the region's finely choreographed transportation network nearly to its knees," while the Post's cover headline describes the commuters: "Storm Troupers."

The MTA's Weather Advisory was succinct and unsparing: "Due to flooding conditions as a result of heavy rainfalls, subway service on several lines has been either suspended or running with major delays at this time. Customers are advised to give themselves extra travel time." And Gothamist's favorite subway resource is NYC Subway; check what info it has about drains.

Photo of crowded subway station in Queens from Newsday

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on September 9, 2004 8:25 AM

Comments [rss]

laura

what's ridiculous is that our fares have been raised and we get less train service and old/broken drains... where is our money going again??????? I only see new tiles... how about better trains and more service?

corie

Was it all really that big of a deal? So we were late to work. A/C went out. Trains didn't come. We stood a lot with a scad of other hot, annoyed people. Not much different than every day, except that it rained.

Joe, I'd rather the city use $ to fix up stations, expand service, and improve security, too. Aside from the station fixing, I haven't seen much improved service or security. Maybe it's just really covert. I know that they're doing something every weekend undergound, though, as the F train is never running the way it is supposed to.

joe

How much money are you willing to spend to fix a problem that only occurs when there is an extreme rainfall event? The last time we had a big delay was from Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

The Times story said the subway system pumps 17 million gallons of water a day on average. Yesterday it pumped triple that amount. To install adequate plumbing would probably cost in the hundreds of millions.

I'd much rather accept an inconvenient delay every five years and spend the money fixing up stations, expanding service, improving security, etc.

How big a story would this have been had the rain come after rush hour?

Mr. Nosuch

To put it in perspective, yesterday was a recording breaking amount of rain. We haven't had that much rain in a single day in over 20 years. To make the volume of rain more impressive, we broke the daily record for precipitation in only a few hours of rainfall.

So when extreme weather events occur, do we accept the delays, or do we expect the MTA to be able to handle such things, and thus raise our fares to pay for it?

Most of the time, when it rains or snows, the subways are fine.