While Cuomo Drives a 1930s Car, Subway System’s 1930s Tech Melts Down

Another subway meltdown, another day when Gov. Cuomo celebrated cars.

On Friday morning, no less than 12 subway lines were delayed during rush hour because of failures by the subway system’s signal system, with parts dating back to the 1930s. At roughly the same time, Cuomo, who oversees the subway system, was driving a 1930s car over the new Tappan Zee Bridge, a juxtaposition that we turned into this handy photo:

The Riders Alliance listed the full magnitude of the problem for the subway customers in the photo at right:

The crowded E and M trains were each delayed twice, by two different signal problems. At the height of the morning commute, between 8:30 and 9 a.m., trains were simultaneously delayed on the packed Queens Boulevard, Fulton Street, and Lexington Avenue lines. Altogether, riders on the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, A, C, E, F, J, M, and R trains had their commutes to work upended by broken subway signals.

New signals to replace the faulty 1930s-era technology still in use today are at the heart of the MTA’s Fast Forward plan to fix the subway, which state government in Albany has yet to fund … The governor, who controls the MTA and the state budget process, is the only person in New York who can solve this problem.

“In all it took me over an hour and a half to get to work today,” said one of the group’s organizers, Samaya Abdus-Salaam, whose commute from the Bronx to Manhattan on the 6 train usually takes 50 minutes.  “We couldn’t move. So I got off the 6, took the bus all the way to Grand Concourse, transferred to the D to West 4th and then finally caught the E to Spring Street.”

Abdus-Salaam’s pro-transit group was not alone in pointing out the juxtaposition of the Governor’s mode of transportation on Friday and the failing system left to straphangers:

And Nolan Hicks of the New York Post added some context:

Cuomo’s Democratic challenger and noted subway rider Cynthia Nixon was herself delayed this morning.

Nixon later tweeted about the incumbent’s stewardship of the system.

Before fully demonizing the people who run the subway system, at least note that the NYCT Subway Twitter account was very apologetic.

The agency did own up to a blown fuse that hurt service on the 4, 5 and 6 line and the C train. And a broken signal at Court Square. There was also a suicide on the Q train.