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The MTA and the City Council were at each other's throats yesterday during a meeting to discuss the Chambers Street signal room fire. The City Council balled the MTA out for the subway mess and freaked out when the MTA said it would take 15 years for the signal system to be "in good repair." Come again? The MTA's president of subways, Michael Lombardi, also pooh-poohed worries that the signal rooms were in danger, saying that the non-fireproofed Chambers Street signal room wasn't a significant relay room and that New Yorkers shouldn't worry, because 150+ of almost 200 rooms are fireproofed. Mr. Lombardi, no matter how awesome your job title is ("President of Subways"!), Gothamist would think that ANY signal relay room would be significant - think about the chaos this insignificant room caused! Of course, being able to upgrade the system means money and time, and with the city and state stingy about the former and subway riders not happy with giving up the latter, who knows where anything will go?
And in terms of the lofty computerized train plans, the MTA is saying that it'll take 45 years to computerize the entire NYC subway system. Okay, it's time for MTA Math! Given that there were estimates of 3-5 years to fix the A and C trains, which then turned into 3-9 months, but the repairs are pretty much complete after two weeks, Gothamist believes that it would actually take the MTA anywhere from 9 months to 10 years to get it down. If they seriously hauled ass on it.
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It wasn't an important signal room?!?! Do these guys talk out of their ass or what?!? If it wasn't important how did it cripple half the city when it went down? You can't trust anything the MTA says! Someone needs to introduce legislation to abolish public authorities once and for all. Didn't Robert Moses teach us anything about making people accountable to the public?
you have to take into consideration their viewpoint. most new yorkers are so oblivious to what the TA and moreso NYCT has to deal with on a daily basis. let's see...a fire could have happened at a relay room near columbus circle or even at the 59th street master tower. that would SERIOUSLY screw up A, B, C, and D train service. operators that normally push a button to request their route at 59th street, that button would be rendered useless. also most signals leading into 59th street would be rendered useless too! the track that comes up from 7th avenue and comes to the point where a switch controls whether the B or D train ends up on the uptown express or local track? forget about it! control of that would be non-existant.
people need to realize it could have been way worse. we got off easy. stop trying to place blame on NYCT or MTA so quickly. how about going to the root of the problem, like the homeless population in the subway? rubbish laying around? why it took the FD to control the fire in three hours?
the TA offered whatever substitute they could come up with for the service lost during this fire. A trains were STILL running, TSS' were stationed at the areas where there were no signalling and doing THEIR job with absolute block service. V trains covered C service. A trains ran local. honestly, you should be kissing NYCT/MTA's ass for providing such good substitute service. and also the motormen's asses for putting up with their job reassignments. how do you think they felt when their V train job was lengthened by about 75% and they still had to do 2 or 3 roundtrips? what about the guys who operated the C? how do you think they felt when they found out that the line that they normally had a job on, they would have to be reassigned to something that could be completely out of THEIR way.
stop your whining and complaining.
heh. mta math.. so when they say that there will be a train ever 3 -5 minutes, they really mean 12 - 37 nanoseconds?
Clayton, do you do PR for the MTA?
"bawled out" not "balled out"
no Jeff, I don't do PR for the MTA. i am just very knowledgeable when it comes to this stuff and know what some employees have to endure when it comes to working for them.
Stop whining about your lost wages, increased child-care expenses and shortened leisure time you self-centered jerks. The MTA is weally weally doing the best it can.
the MTA is rather cranky about updating the system, no? it's about time they started looking for help from abroad in order to bring this system into the 21st century. if they could just take a lesson from the japanese on fast and timely service and modern equipment maybe we wouldn't have these problems. and geez clayton, you act like MTA employees are slaves that have no free will? they are EMPLOYEES and as employees have every right to quit and/or file grievances if things get messed up. it's their JOB. if i don't like my job, i look for a new one. but i agree that the homeless problem in the subway does need to be addressed. how come i see MTA employees walk past homeless people sleeping on benches? why don't they say anything? i also often wonder why there are not more cops on the platforms since this city has soooooo many cops. oh, new york.