Benito Mussolini made the trains run on time in Italy, can Veronique Hakim make the trains run on time from Harlem to Hollis? Well, your subway commute likely won’t improve just yet, but at least you might find out the real reason behind all the delays in the coming days. At the recent MTA monthly board meeting, the interim director of the agency, Veronique Hakim (pictured), said the agency was carrying out a thorough review of the subway delays, and how MTA employees report information to commuters, Crain’s reports.
The “train traffic ahead of us,” announcement is all too familiar to most New Yorkers and one of the biggest points of consternation. Hakim said the agency was working on ways to improve the system of communication, but again blamed the ancient signal system for the spate of delays in recent months.
The MTA has set aside $2.1 billion in its current capital program to address the signal problems, which is more than the agency has allocated in previous capital programs over the last 15 years.
The subways troubles have seemingly gone from bad to worse in recent months what with pieces of the ceiling falling on to a train last month or passengers being trapped on a train, in a tunnel, with no air-conditioning earlier this month.
Following the recent troubles, Mayor Bill de Blasio has suggested that the city take control of running the subway, but yesterday, Governor Andrew Cuomo introduced legislation that would let him appoint two more members to the MTA board, according to Crain’s.
Tuesday turned out to be another hellish day on the subway when there were signal problems at 34th Street and on the L Train. In recent weeks, transit experts have opined that stations be shut down completely for repairs to alleviate this public transport nightmare. One such suggestion was expanding the existing Fast Track program that shuts down stations on weeknights to carry out repairs.
Photo credit: From Women Can Build. Via source
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