Folks, are there really any words to describe this morning?  I don’t even know where to begin.

All I know is that I walked over 50 blocks to get to work this morning.  What a nightmare.  Luckily, I was not caught in the rain, but I might as well have been because I was soaked in sweat. 

So I left my building this morning and turned the corner.  That’s when I saw it.  About 150 people waiting for the bus.  I knew right then that it was going to be a nightmare commute.  So I walked to subway entrance knowing that they couldn’t possibly be running.  There, a transit cop told me there was no service at all on the 1, 2, 0r 3.  Damn it. 

Then I decided to walk over to Central Park to catch the B or C.  Got half way over there, and a fellow straphanger told me not to bother because those trains were out too.  Damn it again.

So I started walking south.  Every block had 30 or 40 people trying to get cabs.  Every bus stop easily had 100+ people waiting.  So I decided to walk down Riverside Drive, hoping that maybe a random cab would be over there.  Nope.  Damn it again.

Then I tried the M5 bus.  At each stop, 2 or 3 buses just blew by the stops.  Even the limited buses weren’t stopping at the limited stops.  How fucked up is that?  People were going bat shit insane. 

So I crossed the UWS back and forth before just sucking it up and walking to midtown.  Each step more sweaty than the next.

I heard an MTA or NYC Transit official on TV literally say, “At this point, we can’t get people from point A to point B on the subway.”  That about sums it up.

How much longer are we going to have to deal with this crappy infrastructure before they do something about it.  A heavy rain is all it takes to throw the city into chaos.  And there’s clearly emergency plan in place to handle this when it happens.  People are just SOL.

Share your war story in the comments.

Starting today, subway riders can visit the MTA website to find out about elevator and escalator outage information.  The page is updated three times a day.  So now you can find out that you’re shit out of luck from the comfort of your own home. 

Did you know…

NYC Transit has 158 elevators and 169 escalators.

While that does not seem like enough in today’s ADA world, it seems like way more than I’ve ever noticed.  If I think really hard, I can think of maybe a dozen or two places where there’s an escalator or elevator.  So the fact that there are over a hundred of each is quite surprising to me. 

Anyway, the MTA admits that they are way behind on making stations ADA compliant.  That’s what this guy has been screaming about for quite some time now. 

Apparently, there is hotline that has been around just for this.  Who knew?  So now the website will reflect the same kind of information that is available over the phone. 

Read the press release

The MTA is thinking about cutting a program that puts first aid workers in the subways.  They think by cutting the program, they can save a whopping $250,000 a year.  If you ask me, they could fire a few of the “captain obvious” system public address announcers and save about the same amount too.

From the Daily News:

For nearly a decade, medical professionals – first nurses and then emergency medical technicians – have been posted at some of the busiest stations to help ill travelers, remove them from trains as quickly as possible and clear traffic jams on the rails. EMTs now work at seven stations.

However, in the next breath, the MTA says that there are 430 medically related delays per month.  Doesn’t that sound like a lot?  So you actually want to cut the medical aid program?  Huh?

The thing is actually called the “Sick Passengers Response Program.” 

Ok, so we have all been screwed by the “Because of a sick passenger at _____ street, this train will be running _______ (not where you want to go).”  Now, if there’s no medical staff at the major stops, won’t it take longer to get these people help?  We all know that they aren’t going to do what they should do, and just dump the person on the platform, and keep going. 

Clearly, only a few stops have staffed EMTs now, so I would suggest adding MORE medical staffed stops.  That way they can get the sick people off the trains faster, and cut down on the 400+ monthly delays.