It's no secret that the subway is too crowded, considering the insane crush of bodies that turn every commute into an exercise in consolidating one's own mass. Still, despite report after report after report that trains and platforms are hellish nightmares sprung from a demon's blueprints, the suffering is still too real, and it's unclear if and when we'll get any relief.
The Times reported today that the trains are so crowded there are four times as many delays caused by overcrowding as there were in 2012, which is unnerving, considering 2012 wasn't all that fun in the first place. But despite our best efforts, more and more people keep moving to New York, and our very, very old subway system isn't able to keep up.
According to the Times, the subways haven't been this crowded since 1948—in the '90s, there were only about four million daily riders, and now we're up to six million. Victims are most likely to suffer on the 7, L and Q lines, and it's hard to know which lines will crumble under the yupster runoff once the L work begins in 2019. And though the paper reports that the MTA will add some extra trains on those lines and during nights and weekends in the future, the advanced CBTC signal system the agency's been hoping to install systemwide for years still isn't happening.
There's some good news: the Second Avenue Subway will open...one day...and the MTA, which did not respond to request for comment, is even ready to fast-track the second phase, so our great-grandchildren might actually be able to get on a train in one go. Plus, the capital plan is theoretically funded, though it's unclear whether Governor Cuomo's just giving us a few stacks of Monopoly cash.
Things could always be worse. And they probably will.
