<story><title>The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/nyregion/subway-late-early-new-york.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wgerard</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s interesting seeing the ways people work around this, even for people who don&amp;#x27;t have hard start&amp;#x2F;end times (e.g. tech employees).&lt;p&gt;I have one friend who uses Citi Bike to get to important meetings &amp;lt; 30 blocks away, because they don&amp;#x27;t trust the subway to get them there on time (and during peak hours, cabs are even slower). I have another who goes pretty far out of their way to avoid the more troublesome lines (the F, specifically). Some have started using the bus much more regularly, because at least the bus doesn&amp;#x27;t break down for an hour at a time. One manager I know just stopped scheduling any meetings before 11, because they got tired of having people miss meetings or come in late because of the trains.&lt;p&gt;I think people who don&amp;#x27;t live in the city don&amp;#x27;t realize how (relatively) stressful it can be when the trains are late. Riding the train during peak hours is already a pretty stressful experience: The sardine analogy is very real, and it&amp;#x27;s fairly common for trains to be so packed that I literally don&amp;#x27;t have room to even put my phone in front of my face (let alone a book or anything else) to pass the time.&lt;p&gt;Now imagine that, but the train platform is also similarly packed. And people are fighting (sometimes literally) to get onto the packed train. And you&amp;#x27;ll have to wait for 2-3 trains to pass, because there&amp;#x27;s no empty space on the trains. And you&amp;#x27;re late, and you have no idea when you&amp;#x27;ll get to where you&amp;#x27;re going because the train ETA board just says &amp;quot;Delay&amp;quot;. And when you need to get off the train, you&amp;#x27;ll have to just pray that people make room for you or you&amp;#x27;ll have to really force your way through the crowd on your way out.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mpweiher</author><text>&amp;gt; I think people who don&amp;#x27;t live in the city don&amp;#x27;t&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; realize how (relatively) stressful it can be&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; when the trains are late.&lt;p&gt;So much this.  I always thought that the typical characterization of Germany, &amp;quot;the trains run on time&amp;quot; was a put down for how boring and uptight we are.&lt;p&gt;Then I lived in places where the trains do not run on time.&lt;p&gt;Oh my god.&lt;p&gt;Whenever I travelled back to Berlin, I wanted to hug the BVG employees.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/nyregion/subway-late-early-new-york.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wgerard</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s interesting seeing the ways people work around this, even for people who don&amp;#x27;t have hard start&amp;#x2F;end times (e.g. tech employees).&lt;p&gt;I have one friend who uses Citi Bike to get to important meetings &amp;lt; 30 blocks away, because they don&amp;#x27;t trust the subway to get them there on time (and during peak hours, cabs are even slower). I have another who goes pretty far out of their way to avoid the more troublesome lines (the F, specifically). Some have started using the bus much more regularly, because at least the bus doesn&amp;#x27;t break down for an hour at a time. One manager I know just stopped scheduling any meetings before 11, because they got tired of having people miss meetings or come in late because of the trains.&lt;p&gt;I think people who don&amp;#x27;t live in the city don&amp;#x27;t realize how (relatively) stressful it can be when the trains are late. Riding the train during peak hours is already a pretty stressful experience: The sardine analogy is very real, and it&amp;#x27;s fairly common for trains to be so packed that I literally don&amp;#x27;t have room to even put my phone in front of my face (let alone a book or anything else) to pass the time.&lt;p&gt;Now imagine that, but the train platform is also similarly packed. And people are fighting (sometimes literally) to get onto the packed train. And you&amp;#x27;ll have to wait for 2-3 trains to pass, because there&amp;#x27;s no empty space on the trains. And you&amp;#x27;re late, and you have no idea when you&amp;#x27;ll get to where you&amp;#x27;re going because the train ETA board just says &amp;quot;Delay&amp;quot;. And when you need to get off the train, you&amp;#x27;ll have to just pray that people make room for you or you&amp;#x27;ll have to really force your way through the crowd on your way out.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>SOLAR_FIELDS</author><text>Reading this doubly reinforces how good it is in Sweden where I live now. While trains and buses are notoriously delayed (somewhat frequently), I can look on a phone app and tell when the next one will arrive +- 1 minute.&lt;p&gt;It’s no Switzerland or Japan, but it’s what a reasonably well run system looks like.</text></comment>