Late Subway Trains Mostly Not Your Fault

If you think back to the start of the year, you might recall the MTA attempting to convince us all in early January that a leading reason for delayed subway trains was dieting women who skipped breakfast. Today’s Daily News has the complete stats on subway delays — the paper catalogues one month’s worth, December 2006 — and it’s a funny thing. The “sick customers” category, which includes those fainting females but also those customers who are legitimately sick, accounted for 392 late trains that month. “Track work/work crews,” meantime, caused 1,640 late trains, “signal trouble” caused 532, and “”guard-light trouble,” whatever that might be, caused 415. Which means that last month’s eat-your-cereal shtick notwithstanding, 2,587 late trains — in those three categories alone — were the MTA’s fault, more than six times as many that were the dieters’ fault. We’re throwing out our muffin right now in protest.

The Rail Scoop on Late Trains [NYDN]