Photo: iStock
March 18, 2015 By Christian Murray
A New York City subway advocacy group is calling on Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature to provide the funding needed to fix the decaying No. 7, N and Q lines.
The group, the Riders Alliance, is collecting subway riders’ horror stories this week—and will present them to Cuomo and the state legislature who will be deciding whether to fund the MTA’s proposed $32 billion five-year-capital plan in upcoming months.
“It’s easy to blame the MTA for all of these breakdowns and malfunctions, but the real culprits are Governor Cuomo and members of the state legislature, who have not stepped up to provide the funds that would fix and upgrade our subways,” said John Raskin, Executive Director of the Riders Alliance, said.
“If Governor Cuomo and state lawmakers don’t fund the next MTA capital program, riders are going to see a lot more of these signal malfunctions and train breakdowns in the future, he said.
On Tuesday, members of the Riders Alliance were at Queensboro Plaza and asked N,Q and 7 riders to share their experiences.
The move to collect riders’ “horror stories” has been prompted by a sharp increase in complaints about signal malfunctions, unexplained train delays and generally deteriorating service in recent weeks, according to the Riders Alliance. The group argues that the aging system can only be repaired if lawmakers decide to fund the next capital program.
Carol Crump, a 7 train rider, shared here horror story Tuesday: “I rely on the 7 train to get me from Queens to work on the Upper West Side. But lately—weekend and late night service on the 7 train has been a joke! Sometimes I have to resort to taking the bus or car service and that’s not sustainable or affordable!”
The Riders Alliance is collecting stories of similar experiences online at http://www.ridersny.org/2015/03/13/has-your-subway-gotten-worse/ through Friday, March 20th.
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16 Comments
THE 7 TRAIN IS THE WORST!!!! I HATE IT SO MUCH!!
As some others on this thread have said, the issue is not one of money as much as accountability. How does the MTA choose its vendors? It’s contractors? Why does work have to be done over and over (like signals, which have been a project for at least 10 years?) why are track rails now cracking? We need transparency and accountability before we throw them more tax dollars! How about an audit?
so people use the term “horror stories” to describe train delays and signal malfunctions??
a horror story is when thw train stops short and a decapitated head comes rolling out from under the seat towards you.
get over it.
That only happens on the G train.
Track work on the weekends. Track work weekdays between 10:00am-3pm. Bypasses several stops. Packed trains all the damn time. Ridiculous! Fares go up this weekend. Thieves!
And then the NY Times does a puff piece on Living in Sunnyside essentially telling people how great it is to live in “Mayberry.” Whatevs.
Here’s something that really annoys me about the weekend change announcements… the info is usually WRONG!!!!!
For example, this weekend I knew in advance that the 7 train did not go into the city. Fine, annoying, but something I can plan for in advance, do something else. What I couldn’t anticipate was that they also had the train run on the express track on the Flushing bound side from QBP to 74th street.
Completely unreliable.
It sounds like it would just be easier, quicker and more fiscally prudent to just shut the 7 line down and do the work straight through instead of breaking the work in pieces done over 26 weekends. Also run busses through the Queens Mid Town Tunnel. People just want to get to where they’re going in a safe, efficient and comfortable manor within some reasonable degree of timeliness.
It seems ridiculous that over the years the 7 line has not improved. I would have to leave my house extra early especially when it rains or snows. It’s absurd. I get on from Main Street all the way to Grand Central and there is always signal delays or some other excuse for these delays.
I will never forget the one time I was stuck on a packed 7 train for three hours underground between Grand Central and Vernon Jackson Blvd. because the train’s brakes kept latching on. For all the money and increase of fares they should be improving these lines to have them fully functioning without any issues.
Agreed! They make at least $30 million a day! they can definitely afford to fix this line properly!
We need an independent audit of what work has been done on the 7 train. How much was spent, what was accomplished, what they said would be accomplished, and how that translates into the current disruptions. I’m sure they will find that WAY too much money was spent on WAY too little progress.
The state needs to crack down on the ridiculousness of the MTA regarding these lines. Hell, most of these stops don’t even have elevators for handicapped people. how is this acceptable in this day and age?
Imma jump these god damn turnstiles! The MTA has stolen enough!
Hi – your link to the Riders Alliance site actually goes back to this page.
Thanks for the feedback. Apologies.
May have some truth to this, but yes the MTA must also be held accountable. Why does it need to take over 15 years to complete track work with absolutely no progress?? It been that long for the 7 to shut down service on weekends for 6 stops worth of tracks. that ludicrous and obscene. It’s the MTA who’s cashing in on this. I’d like to see what their OT is costing the taxpayers. Until they prove they can work with what they have I say NO PAY FOR THE MTA!!!