Subway Made You Late? Get A Note!

[WhoozOn1st]

The NYC MTA issues "Subway Delay Verification" notes that can be given to bosses, clients, etc. (maybe suspicious spouses?)

"Delayed Train? Skeptical Boss? M.T.A. Will Give Passengers a Late Note" -- http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/nyregion/delayed-train-skeptical-boss-mta-will-give-passengers-a-late-note.html?pagewanted=1&ref=todayspaper

"Passengers are asked to provide information like their subway line and the times and locations of their entries and exits. And then, maybe hours later, maybe days, the authority returns with its judgment — the transit equivalent of a doctor’s note, if a bit more bewildering.

"'There was a disruption in service, specifically signal trouble, sick customer, brakes in emergency and track circuit failure, which caused massive service delays, reroutes and/or trains to be discharged on the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, A, B, C, D, F, J, L, M, N, Q and R lines,' one recent response read, in part. 'As a result, any one delay lasted up to 82 minutes.'"

"Though a version of the program has existed for decades, enlisted chiefly by municipal workers who were paid according to a punched clock, the authority said that requests had nearly tripled since the service first became available online in 2010. In October, when over 156 million subway trips were taken, according to preliminary agency data, the authority issued more than 8,200 responses to riders who asked for the documentation."

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

That really takes a long time but it's a good excuse to be late. Commuting in New York must be a horror, everything ranges from mildly unreliable to extremly unreliable. And those overpriced $6 Premium tickets are a ripoff!

 

[AlanB]

That really takes a long time but it's a good excuse to be late. Commuting in New York must be a horror, everything ranges from mildly unreliable to extremly unreliable. And those overpriced $6 Premium tickets are a ripoff!

As a New Yorker, that's not true. Some people just like to complain.

Is the system perfect? NO! Far from it. But it is also not a disaster like some would like you to believe. And it is a 100+ year old system that for many years was badly neglected. The last 20 years or so have finally seen some serious money being invested in efforts to fix, repair, and replace things as needed. And even when there are delays, often they're delays that cannot be avoided, namely a sick passenger or an injured passenger.

Plus some of those complaining are also the ones who cause the problems. They throw trash on the tracks. They hold open closing doors burning out the motors. And other wonderful things.

Again, the system is far from perfect. But it is also far from a disaster. One need to look no further than the fact that NYC, despite no freeway wider than 8 lanes (and there are only 2, neither of which are in Manhattan), doesn't have the worst traffic in the US despite having the largest population in the US.

 

[ALC Rail Writer]

Commuting by car I don't know about (or care to know about) but I went to school there for just over a year, commuting to and from class and work by Manhattan bus or subway was never a problem, never unreliable, crowded and generally unpleasent but I made many good memories as a broke Jewish kid taking the trains all throughout the city, plus the ferry and the SIRR even though I couldn't afford monthly MetroCards I still managed to make a few bucks into a day's tour and entertainment. Pick up a lunch, board a train and start riding... of course YMMV.

 

[the_traveler]

Can I get a "late note" if I stop at Subway Restaurants to get a sub for lunch? :huh: :giggle:

 

[Dovecote]

I might add that late slips were issued by MARC during my 2003-2008 tenure as a federal worker in DC. My boss was a minute watcher and getting confirmation by MARC for late arriving trains saved me the use of utilizing annual leave on many occasions.

 

[Bob Dylan]

I might add that late slips were issued by MARC during my 2003-2008 tenure as a federal worker in DC. My boss was a minute watcher and getting confirmation by MARC for late arriving trains saved me the use of utilizing annual leave on many occasions.

Thats what Federal Bosses are For, Number Crunching and Lazy Federal Employee Hearding! :lol:

 

[WhoozOn1st]

I woulda loved a note service back when I was a Los Angeles commuter. Living in the San Fernando Valley, with a job in Santa Monica, I had to take three buses each way each day. The main trouble was the morning freeway "flyer" over the hump on the 405 from Van Nuys to Westwood. Traffic was often a culprit in making the bus late, with a couple bus breakdowns thrown in as well.

No worries about a clock-watching boss because I was the boss, but there was eye-rolling skepticism from staff when I'd have to deliver the latest late bus story. I took to collecting bus numbers and driver names to back my stories, but that didn't really help. Something official from the agency woulda been great (digital photography would've come in handy, too, but was decades in the future).