The New York City Subway, scoliotic backbone of the country’s most powerful urban economy, is snapping. On-time performance has dropped from 85 percent in 2011 to 63 percent today. A dissection of the issue in today’s New York Times shows that trend hitting every subway line over the past 10 years, with only a handful of routes running with on-time rates above 70 percent.
What gives? The system’s antiquated signals are one culprit, a systemic issue that the Times has investigated in depth. But decrepit technology isn’t the main issue, according to the article:
