<story><title>How Cuts in Basic Subway Upkeep Can Make NYC Commutes Miserable</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/nyregion/system-failure-new-york-subway-maintenance-misery.html?mabReward=CTM3&amp;recid=0y1C7Vbd7V6qb02UQ5zYHiw4x64&amp;recp=3&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;region=CColumn&amp;module=Recommendation&amp;src=rechp&amp;WT.nav=RecEngine</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>CaptainZapp</author><text>&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  I live in Europe and to me it seems that its a general American mentality of everybody having a car
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New York is different. Car ownership is extremely low and the subway is a vital part of the city&amp;#x27;s transportation infrastructure.&lt;p&gt;The problem seems more attitude wise. We want great infrastrure while paying low taxes. This contradiction, of course, isn&amp;#x27;t really solvable as can be seen in the generally pretty rotten state of infrastructure in the US.</text></item><item><author>concerned_user</author><text>I live in Europe and to me it seems that its a general American mentality of everybody having a car, dislike of mass transit in any form (except planes) and as a result mass transit is meh and makes people even more miserable.</text></item><item><author>delackner</author><text>While automation sounds elegant, it has nothing to do with the problems or solutions here. The core problem with the NYC subway system is a management culture that does not value long term problem solving, instead preferring quick fixes and short term band aids.&lt;p&gt;Many modern subway systems have similarly huge networks with far higher traffic than NYC but manage to maintain low failure rates and CLEAN tracks simply because they value and prioritize maintenance and quality of service.  Some are private, some are public.&lt;p&gt;It truly baffles me why NYC and actually the SF BART both fail so utterly to even attempt to provide quality service.</text></item><item><author>djsumdog</author><text>Other major cities around the world are moving to automated light rail. Singapore and Kula Lumpar both have fully automated trains, London has several of their lines automated with plans on slowly replacing rolling stock to eventually go driver-less on more of its above ground lines.&lt;p&gt;American cities are so far behind. D.C. is probably one of the best metros, but NYC and Chicago, while having quite extensive systems for very large cities, have no budget to expand or move them into the future.&lt;p&gt;For cities that large, these systems have to be maintained. They cannot afford to cut train lines, unless they want to end up with grueling traffic like you have in LA.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>twobyfour</author><text>Of course, part of the problem is that our subway system is run not by the city but by a state government dominated by car culture types. And heck, even our current mayor gets driven around in a black SUV all day and didn&amp;#x27;t know when questioned last week that less than half of New York households own cars.</text></comment>
<story><title>How Cuts in Basic Subway Upkeep Can Make NYC Commutes Miserable</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/nyregion/system-failure-new-york-subway-maintenance-misery.html?mabReward=CTM3&amp;recid=0y1C7Vbd7V6qb02UQ5zYHiw4x64&amp;recp=3&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;region=CColumn&amp;module=Recommendation&amp;src=rechp&amp;WT.nav=RecEngine</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>CaptainZapp</author><text>&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  I live in Europe and to me it seems that its a general American mentality of everybody having a car
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
New York is different. Car ownership is extremely low and the subway is a vital part of the city&amp;#x27;s transportation infrastructure.&lt;p&gt;The problem seems more attitude wise. We want great infrastrure while paying low taxes. This contradiction, of course, isn&amp;#x27;t really solvable as can be seen in the generally pretty rotten state of infrastructure in the US.</text></item><item><author>concerned_user</author><text>I live in Europe and to me it seems that its a general American mentality of everybody having a car, dislike of mass transit in any form (except planes) and as a result mass transit is meh and makes people even more miserable.</text></item><item><author>delackner</author><text>While automation sounds elegant, it has nothing to do with the problems or solutions here. The core problem with the NYC subway system is a management culture that does not value long term problem solving, instead preferring quick fixes and short term band aids.&lt;p&gt;Many modern subway systems have similarly huge networks with far higher traffic than NYC but manage to maintain low failure rates and CLEAN tracks simply because they value and prioritize maintenance and quality of service.  Some are private, some are public.&lt;p&gt;It truly baffles me why NYC and actually the SF BART both fail so utterly to even attempt to provide quality service.</text></item><item><author>djsumdog</author><text>Other major cities around the world are moving to automated light rail. Singapore and Kula Lumpar both have fully automated trains, London has several of their lines automated with plans on slowly replacing rolling stock to eventually go driver-less on more of its above ground lines.&lt;p&gt;American cities are so far behind. D.C. is probably one of the best metros, but NYC and Chicago, while having quite extensive systems for very large cities, have no budget to expand or move them into the future.&lt;p&gt;For cities that large, these systems have to be maintained. They cannot afford to cut train lines, unless they want to end up with grueling traffic like you have in LA.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>AznHisoka</author><text>New York has one of the highest state tax rates, 2nd to only California. It is absurdly high given the quality of public transportation. They cant have it both ways.</text></comment>