Everyone seemed to be talking yesterday about the subway fire that knocked out the C line, supposedly for 3 to 5 years. The fire was started by a homeless man trying to stay warm. Today, the estimate has been revised downwards to less than a year.
This reminds me of a recent article I read about environmentalism. I thought some of the article was misguided, but the part that rang true was about how environmentalism is too narrowly focused. There are a host of issues such as health care, labor issues, and others that have unexpected implications on the environment. Similarly, who would have thought that homelessness is a transportation problem? But when you have such a huge problem that homeless people are starting fires to stay warm, this can have horrible unforseen consequences.
One thing that is obvious is the need to upgrade the ancient signalling equipment. These things malfunction all the time. Just today I got on the F train, and was told that due to signal malfunctions the train would not be going into Manhattan, and was instead re-routed to the G line, which goes directly from Queens to Brooklyn. Everyone had to get out and wait for the next F, which we crowded into like eager English soccer fans. A few stops later, the doors opened as usual, but for some reason the train below it's horn, which almost never happens. The doors remained opened, and about 5 minutes later the announcer came on and said the police were holding this train. If there was a criminal on the train, he probably was fairly captive already, since he must have been as wedged in as I was. About 5 or 10 minutes later we were on our way again, without any further incident. As I left the train, I noticed the ads in the train for a TV special on Pompei. One of them said "How do you outrun lava that is moving faster than this train?" I had to laugh.
Posted by ahyatt at January 26, 2005 06:35 AM