Editorial
Storm Brings Out Transit Woes

This is supposedly the city that never sleeps. Last Wednesday, though, some two hours of intense rainfall delivered a knockout punch that brought New York City to its knees. Some Metro North rail lines to Grand Central Terminal, some Long Island Rail Road lines into Penn Station and some rail routes from New Jersey into Manhattan were shut down for more than an hour. Flights at LaGuardia, JFK and Newark Airports were delayed, stranding thousands of travelers for hours. Streets and highways were flooded also, in some cases, compelling motorists to abandon their vehicles.

Causing the most headaches for the most people, however, were the city's 22 subway lines. All lines experienced delays or diversions and some were completely shut down. Hours after the storm subsided at about 8 a.m., many trains were still experiencing delays and most of the Queens subway lines that run underground for all or part of their length were still not running. A week later, residents of the metropolitan area, especially those who depend on public transportation, are still shaking their heads and asking "Why?".

MTA officials said that the subway pumping system is designed to handle 1.5 inches of rain an hour and in some two hours the storm delivered almost twice that amount. The subway pumping system puts water into municipal storm sewers, which on Wednesday morning were already at their limits. With nowhere else to go, the storm drainage went back into the subway tunnels, in some places flooding stations with water almost up to the platforms. Trains could not run and passenger and worker safety could not be assured, so the system shut down.

As reports of commuter misadventures came in, the complaint most often heard was that the MTA provided almost no information. Public address system announcements were sporadic and difficult to understand and the MTA Web site was often unavailable. Coming in a close second were gripes that more busses that were obviously needed were not available.

After two hurricanes brushed new York City and snarled the transit system in September 2004, a report by the MTA inspector general said transit officials failed to keep drains leading to pump rooms clear of trash and muck. The MTA also failed to conduct adequate maintenance on drainage equipment and some workers took too long to get to flooded areas. Since 1992, $357 million has been invested to improve 269 pump rooms. Another $115 million has been earmarked to upgrade the remaining 18 pump rooms in the system, with the work scheduled to be completed in 2010.

Last week's transit mess was the third in seven months of this year, the last transit foul-up before last Wednesday being that of July 18. Governor Eliot Spitzer gave MTA CEO Elliot Sander and his engineers 30 days to report back on the causes and possible solutions. The inspector general will also investigate. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and council Transportation Committee Chairman John Liu also demanded answers. "For the overall system to experience two significant disruptions, in less than a month, because of rain- even significant rain- is simply not acceptable. As we try to convince more New Yorkers to take mass transit, we have an obligation to make sure that mass transit is reliable and that there are minimal delays," they declared in a letter to outgoing MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow. They are entirely correct.

Government at its most basic exists to promote public safety and maintain services and spaces owned and used by the public, among them the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its subsidiary, New York City Transit. We pay taxes, first, to fund armies to defend against our enemies abroad and police and firefighters to protect us at home, and second, to keep public spaces such as parks and streets, and services, such as the MTA, in good order.

We pay money to the MTA, either in subsidies generated by taxes or by the fares imposed on us whenever we use the system. In return, we require that the MTA keep trains and busses running and provide adequate, intelligible information. The MTA failed on both counts last Wednesday.

Making customers spend hours trying to get to work with no information and no alternatives will not win friends for a system that claims a need to raise revenues through fare increases. Telling customers to stay home whenever there is a heavy rain gives the MTA no justification to ask for or to expect a fare hike.