Twenty-Five Little Steps

I’m the first to say that running the subways is no easy task. With a crippling debt and no relief in sight, the MTA does run a non-stop system that every day, moves over two million people.

So I understand, that lots of problems, maybe most of them, such as decrepit stations, will only be able to fixed with a large infusion of cash. Others though, which infuriate and inconvenience thousands of people daily, would cost nothing to fix.

This weekend, Exhibit A was the High Street station on the A/C line. From the top, all looks good, but when you get down the steps, you find out, as Admiral Ackbar famously said, “It’s a trap!”

 

Well, at least they saved you swiping a Metrocard, but if you were a parent lugging a stroller, a traveler hauling luggage, or a senior citizen, a sign top-side, would I’m sure have been appreciated.

As I took these pictures, half-a-dozen people came down the stairs, only to read the sign, curse, and head back up the twenty-five steps they just walked down.

Yes, service changes are posted on the MTA’s web site, and Second Avenue Sagas has them too,but this is just another example of the MTA saying to its customers, “we don’t care.”.

Comments

[PBK]

Yes, I agree. Now we'll never know exactly what led to this, but this is what I'll posit:

For whatever reason, the station didn't get the 'official' Service Advisories. There's a token clerk at that entrance, and if he/she didn't post anything, it would result in a lot of people bothering him/her all day - going downstairs, and coming back angry.

So, the agent posts a sign at the entrance to the turnstiles. But posting a sing up-top would mean that they'd have to walk up 25 stairs, and then back down, so f*ck it, let the passengers do that.

Now of course, perhaps the diligent agent has posted a sign upstairs 5 times, only to have miscreants rip it down, but I doubt it.

As Toots Shor famously said, "the race isn't always to the swift, the fight isn't always to the strong, but that's the way to bet."

[juliec]

It is very upsetting how the MTA in particular seems to operate under the adage, "That's not my job" to shirk responsibilities. Demoralized employees decrease work ethic and create situations like these. If there were only a way to fix the infrastructure of the MTA that didn't require trains full of money...