New York Today: Commuting After Your Train Derails

The subway absolutely needs maintenance and improvements. But let's not forget that on the day of the derailment approximately a hundred Americans were killed in car accidents which did not make the news. Heavy rail remains the safest, most efficient, and most sustainable way to move large quantities of people, hands down.

The NYC subway is extremely safe. Derailments are rare, and even when they do occur, there are rarely any fatalities or serious injuries. Although the derailment was terrible and could have been prevented, train travel is still far safer than travel by car and even bike. It would not be wise to take this (hopefully) isolated incident as an indication that the subway is unsafe and there is no reason to change your habits if, as for me, the subway is your primary mode of transportation.

SWIPE HYPE

Though New York subways

Keep being slandered,

There's no denying

The system's substandard.

I still can't understand why NYC schools go so late into June. Many of our schools out here in flyover land have been out for nearly a month. The late dates preclude many from other summer activities. Our daughter inevitably had a summer program that began in the middle of June. In particular I find this week totally unneeded. The kids were out of school one day last week, then came back Tues (Mon was a day off) for a day and a half. This scheduling is totally absurd.

The month before we left NYC for good, my husband and I were late to work almost every day. Both of us worked jobs that could be done remotely at home, but because we lived commutable distances, we weren't able to work permanently from home. For years, we had been sardines in the trains, witnessed fights and the worst smells, and the unbearable subway heat in the summer.

No more.
No more crowding, no more commuting. We left everyone and everything we knew and moved to the west coast. Luckily, husband can now work fully from home and I drive to work on the weekends- no traffic and plenty of parking.

NYC is only going to get more crowded. If you're able, explore the rest of the world and move out. NYC is great when you're young, single, wealthy... for others, it's stressful, agitating and expensive

Still not sure how moving to Jersey is going to improve one's commute, they've been having rail trouble over there too...and then there's just the point about moving to JERSEY???

I'm intrigued that some people think moving to Jersey or using a bike would somehow be easier or less prone to catastrophe.

Why would anyone consider moving from New York to New Jersey?

My mother had a cousin in the MTA who, when he first got his job, worked hard at what he was doing -- until a couple of the other employees told him to slack off, he's making them look bad. According to family legend, they said they'd break his arms if he kept it up.

That said, I think that most of our MTA workers are terrific. Ditto the supervisors. But you can't police every worker every minute of the day. Too many of us are losing what used to be called a "work ethic," and no doubt the MTA has its share of slackers.

Teachers don't correct papers, roofers cut corners laying down plywood and insulation, the MTA guys don't secure spare rails, and whoever designed autocorrect for some mobile devices didn't bother to look at a grammar book and thinks that you have to add an apostrophe to form a possessive.

The guys who installed the Coney Island boardwalk didn't secure the screws (and now all the new planks are coming up, and you can trip on the thousands of raised screw heads). Employees at Chase, with nothing better to do, scan electronic records of elderly customers and relieve them of thousands a year.

That's our world.

Great photo of the young skateboarder in front of the Unisphere: it conveys all of the delight and promise of Summer!

Hope this isn't too light-hearted, it's how I can deal with it: Summarizing the concerns about trains -

Tune of "Leaving on a Jet Plane"

(verse 1)
All the cars are packed, there’s nowhere to turn
The M-T-A folks never learn
If they don’t wake up soon, then it’s goodbye.
But New Jersey rails are no big prize
And Amtrak seems to heap lies on lies
The trains are fast but loathsome, so I cry

(chorus)
And now as we plan the Fourth, I looked into Metro North
That’s no bargain either, heaven knows.

So we’re leaving on a Martz bus
The trains no longer work for us
Oh babe, the tension grows

(verse 2)
There’s so many times trains let me down
For getaways and here in town
Their promises, they don’t mean a thing.
When there’s no A/C, I stand and bake
When I try to read, they hit the brake
I pray my arm won’t end up in a sling

(repeat chorus)

I am so mad after reading the cause of all the delays , supposedly to many riders , in business we call that a good problem , more riders equal more money to fixe issues , Mr Cuomo should know that New Yorkers won't forget the abuses we had to endure for his lack of management skills , those skills may not translate to running a country.

Yankees wave White Sox