Students face difficulties with NYC transportation

By Jim Fitzgerald/AP

Numerous people were out of luck when it came to a subway ride in New York City after a Metro-North train derailed in the Bronx on Dec. 1, killing four people and injuring dozens.

Benjamin White, 21, of Brooklyn said he was on his way to work that day when he had to take a detour.

“It seemed like a normal day so I walked to the train and there were no trains going to or from the station I leave from,” White said. “I had to go back home and call a cab and it made me 30 minutes late to work that day.”

Housing the country’s largest college student population of almost 500,000, according to the city’s official education website, NYC students say they often have trouble with the city’s transportation system when it comes to getting to and from work, school and other places that require traveling farther distances than permitted by walking.

Living in Alphabet City but working in Midtown has proved to be a challenge for New York University junior Julia Harris.

Harris said she has experienced everything from an hour delay due to a woman fainting to delays due to power outages when it comes to the subway system.

“The thing about New York subways is that you really never know what to expect,” she said. “I have been interning [in midtown] for almost a year now and have become privy to the nightmare that is the New York City subway rush hour commute. I quickly learned that leaving just enough time very rarely suffices.”

In 2012 over 1.65 billion people took the subway—over 14 million more than 2011—averaging about 5,380,184 riders per weekday, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s website.

However, when something does go wrong with a train, White said it is often impossible to find out ahead of time.

According to New York Daily News, more than 21,500 trains experienced delays in Sept. 2010, compared to 42% less during Sept. 2009.

“When there is a train down, you have to have an app or some kind of way to check online to see,” White said. “If not you have to get all the way to the station for them to tell you, and sometimes they don’t even tell you, they just post an eight by 11 piece of paper that tells you the train is down.”

Although the subway may not provide ideal transportation for some people, Harris said for her it is still the most realistic option.

“It’s easy on my wallet and has the potential to be time efficient,” she said. “When something goes wrong, it usually goes very wrong, but without it I’d be broke and tired of walking.”

Kathryn Cardin is a junior at the University of Vermont.

This story originally appeared on the Paste BN College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.