September 11, 2001: Terrorists attack New York, killing 3000 Americans and destroying the World Trade Center. Damage to the city’s transportation infrastructure, however, is minimal, and full subway service is restored within six months.
January 23, 2005: A homeless man sets a shopping cart full of wood blocks on fire in a control room, destroying hundreds of wires and knocking service of the C line offline for as much as five years.
Since this happened all the other subway lines (including the 1/9, which I take), have been about twice as crowded as usual. How was this allowed to happen? What is the MTA doing using 70-year-old equipment to run the subways? Why was Homeless Beavis allowed into a control room with a shopping cart and bricks? And worst of all, how can one guy with a shopping cart cause more damage to the system than the worst terrorist attack in history?
No matter what the answers, I’ve got a hunch I know what the solution will be: Fare increase!
Posted by Stephen Silver at January 25, 2005 09:05 PMA fare increase is the MTA solution to all problems.
Posted by: Bill McCabe at January 25, 2005 09:14 PM{sigh}
And I made that same comparison (to 9/11) in my head as well. So weird.
Posted by: C at January 25, 2005 09:52 PM