A Sub-Par Situation

The deteriorating conditions of the subways were really noticeable this weekend. For instance, I have never seen so many escalators out of commission in all the years I’ve been living in the City. These photos were taken Saturday night while switching from the E train at 53rd and Lexington to the 6 train—and there were even more broken escalators along the way which I didn’t have a chance to shoot!

I also have noticed an increasing number of homeless people in the subway cars. It’s gotten to the point where it has become the exception not to find a homeless person taking up at least one of the end-seats in the E and F train cars during non-Rush-hour times.

I am not one to usually gripe about the NYC subway system. For instance I’ve been really impressed by the roll-out of the great new subway cars on the E, F and M lines over the past couple of years. Nevertheless, these worsening conditions are so obvious it is hard to ignore them. From my cursory understanding of the deteriorating conditions, I blame today’s problems mostly on the way the MTA is set up more than anything else—we need much more local control over the system. In fact, NYC should have complete control over its subways. It’s ridiculous to me that it does not. But I am by no means an expert on the situation and could be quite wrong here. If you feel differently, or know a lot about what is ailing our subways, please comment, I’d love to hear it.