Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
So What The Hell Happened With The Subways
By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 9, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 9, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Photographs of frustrated subway riders by md76 on Flickr
While this morning's commute seems better, most mass transit riders are still confused, frustrated and even betrayed by the subway system and other rail service coming to a stand still during the Wednesday morning rush hour. The MTA admitted that the service was not acceptable on many accounts, from the flooding to the fact that the MTA's website was overwhelmed. Then there's also the fact that the MTA was urging people not to take the subways and opt for a bus instead, only for buses to be (A) few and far between and (B) crowded as anything.
MTA CEO Lee Sander said, "We really are sorry about the inconvenience that New Yorkers had to deal with. In terms of how it happened, we had three inches of rain in an hour. The system is designed to handle 1.5 inches." The MTA put some fault on the city's 19th century sewage system. The sewage system can "double as a storm drain" and "handle steady rain," but the DEP says that "intense, high inch-count rain events, over a short period of time" can challenge the system. (The DEP says it's spending $300 million a year to upgrade its systems and build a better drainage system.) Governor Spitzer ordered a review of the MTA's drainage systems within 30 days, but we bet we can already predict the results - the drainage systems are screwed and the only way to fix them is millions of dollars the MTA doesn't necessarily have (hello, fare hike!).
People attempting to get onto a bus by Unlisted Sightings on Flickr
Yesterday's storm, and ensuing subway mess, echoed what happened when Hurricane Frances visited on September 8, 2004. Rain paralyzed the subway system, and people attempted to get onto buses or share taxis during the deluge. What's really helpful is knowing that the MTA refused to take blame for that incident. The MTA even suggested that free newspapers clogged up drains.
Here's a description of why heavy rains totally mess up the city's subways from the NY Times:
Paul Fleuranges, a spokesman for New York City Transit, said that the subway tunnels were prone to flooding during heavy rains in the same way as the basements of many homes. Even without rain, groundwater routinely gets into a subway system and on a typical day with no rain, 13 million gallons of water are pumped out of the subway.
During very heavy rains, Mr. Fleuranges said, additional water pours into the system through grates in the sidewalk and through the subway entrances. Water then collects in the tunnels, and once the water reaches the rails, the trains cannot run.
That is because the rails contain electrical circuits that communicate with the signal system, indicating when a train is on a particular section of track. If the rails are covered with water, the signal system cannot work.
And if water reaches the third rail, which is 10 inches above the track bed, power must be shut off.
Okay. So why don't other subways of the world and of the U.S. flood? Well, some explanations/excuses are that much of NYC is built under sea level, that it's surrounded by water, and many stations are close to the surface.
Photograph of people walking to work instead of taking mass transit by dietrich on Flickr
What did the mayor, a sometime-subway rider, think? The Sun had this Mayor Mike quote, from his Bay Ridge tornado press conference, "I don't know that God has rush hour in mind when storms hit."
MTA CEO Sander also said that the National Weather Service did not predict the level of rain that came and suggested that MTA build its own weather center, "I take the system basically daily and so I certainly appreciate it. The fact is we have a 100-year-old system, and that is a constraint. We may be dealing with meteorological conditions that are unprecedented. It certainly looks that way in the last seven months." Some recent rain-to-subway flooding incidents occurred on June 28 and July 18.
The funny thing is that the mess occurred the day after City Comptroller Bill Thompson issued a report saying that the city and state have been shortchanging the MTA out of money for over a decade. He said that there was $728 million in revenue from a number a sources, which would help defray the billion dollar deficit the MTA is facing. Yesterday, Thompson issued a press release pointing out that the MTA has been delaying repairs to infrastructure for too long, "Time and again, the riding public has been inconvenienced because the State has not appropriately invested in New York City Transit’s infrastructure." We can only hope that given other incidents, it's time to inject infrastructure into every single conversation an official has.
Tagged
bay ridge
bus
CEO Lee Sander
city
city comptroller
City Comptroller Bill Thompson
events
fare
fare hike
flickr
flood
free
Free Poll
governor
Governor Spitzer
hurricane
Hurricane Frances
Lee Sander
mass transit
mayor
mayor mike
money
MTA
MTA CEO
MTA CEO Lee Sander
national weather service
new york
new york city
new york city transit
new yorkers
News: NYC
ny times
nyc
Paul Fleuranges
people
photos
poll
rain
spitzer
subway
subways
Take Our Poll
taxis
the city
The DEP
The MTA
the sun
tornado
train
transit
weather
weather service
Wednesday
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Early Addition: There's finally stuff inside the Times Square tower where the ball drops
Because it used to sit vacant for most of the year, here are your early links: Rangers goalie scored, "It's a Wonderful Life" coming to Broadway, there's dignity in scaffolding and more.
By
James Ramsay
Published Oct 2, 2026 at 9:20 a.m. ET
NYC subway dragging death highlights an old school MTA failsafe
The man dragged to death by a subway train in Brooklyn earlier this week put riders across the city on edge.
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
News
NYC subway dragging death highlights an old school MTA failsafe
The man dragged to death by a subway train in Brooklyn earlier this week put riders across the city on edge.
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
We were the victim': Brooklyn shelter's new CEO speaks after corruption scandal
By
Ryan Kost
Badly burned body found in a trashed and abandoned Jamaica Queens lot, NYPD says
By
Brittany Kriegstein
Brooklyn DA brings back warrant-clearing event as quality-of-life tickets surge
By
Ben Feuerherd
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .