3+ Hours Door to Door

A long time  ago (I want to say in the 80’s) the clever mind’s of New York’s MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) coined the as slogan “MTA Going Your Way.”

This was a move to boost ridership that had lagged–due to poor maintenance, dangerous subway stations etc.  Now for those not in NYC, the MTA runs buses, subways and commuter rails in and around New York City as far north as Westchester and as far east as Nassau County.

Today, not one of their better days.  LIRR posted delays of 15 minutes from Jamaica (central Queens into NYC) to NYC’s Penn Station.  Now the posted reason for this is an Amtrak switching problem–since Amtrak manages the tunnels under the East River that the LIRR traverses).

Of course, if the LIRR is willing to admit to 15 minute delays–count on 30+.  And so it was.  Add to that the indignity of changing in Jamaica to one of the LIRR’s 1970’s era cars.  Now the LIRR has cut service and shortened trains in the name of saving money–not sure how shorter trains save money, but I will accept it does.  So how could they still be running these 40-year old wrecks?

Then came the NYC subway.  A stunningly clear announcement that uptown A Trains were delays–and the recommendation was to bounce over to the local C trains.  According to the announcement, the next A train was at least 10 minutes away.

So everyone jumped over to the local track–but the next C Train was apparently 15+ minutes away–and the A train came in first.  Is it possible they do not know where their trains are?  Seems that way to me.

Net it out–my normal 2 hour door to door morning excursion took 3 hours and 22 minutes.

Yeah, MTA Going My Way.  There is a solid reason why with ridership at record highs, the Authority is $800,000,000+ in the toilet.  This morning, captures it pretty well.