As Water Levels Rise, New York City Subways Grind to a Halt

By Wednesday, August 8, all the rainwater from Tuesday night's storm had flowed underground, filling up the sewer system, overflowing in gutters, and leaking down into the subway network. This caused severe problems for Wednesday's commute.

I live in the Bronx, and every morning I got all the way downtown to Wall St. for work by means of the 1, 2, and 3 trains. Although a significant distance, become some of the trip is made on express routes, it takes about an hour. Wednesday, however, was a different story. In the Bronx, where the train is usually empty, it was packed with commuters going to work a little later in an effort to avoid train delays. All this meant was that standing was necessary for most. The trip from the Bronx to midtown Manhattan was stop and go; the train would pause for long periods of time between stations citing either train delays or traffic as the cause.

The longer our train was delayed, the hotter the train cars got. The air conditioning was no match for the body heat of an entire car packed full of people. The sweat flowed freely and the smell of body odor was strong in that train car. As I was forced to invade another rider's personal space, we struck up a conversation. I asked him what he though about the whole thing and how the flooding was affecting his commute.

"You can't help the rain or even the way it affects the trains, I think," he said. "But it would be nice if the MTA could deal with the problems a bit more efficiently."

It seems that most were dissatisfied with the Metropolitan Transit Authority that day. For when the 1 train reached Times Square (42^nd St.), the riders were informed by the muffled voice of the conductor that all trains terminated at 34^th St. This was far enough from my downtown destination that I considered taking a cab. However, any hopes of grabbing a taxi on the street were dashed when I saw the scene on the street. In Times Square, commuters lined the sidewalks, all sticking out their arms in the hopes of nabbing an elusive cab. The cabs, usually out in droves during the day, were conspicuously scarce.

Despite the apparent incompetence of the MTA to handle the situation, New Yorkers seemed ready to help each other out. In the cramped, humid, subway car, I awaited an argument between two people only centimeters away from each other. Though while everyone might have been more irritable than normal due to uncomfortable conditions. The subway riders exchanged encouraging looks with their neighbors whenever the train stopped moving, as if to say, "I'm uncomfortable also, but I'm sure the train will get to the next station soon."

How has the flooding in NYC affected you or your commute? What do you think about the MTA? After such a display of ineptitude on their part, should we allow the pending fair hike to be instituted without voicing concern?