110 years of NYC subway complaints from frustrated, surly, and sarcastic New Yorkers
Trimming toenails is only among the latest issues
This is the last thing anyone using public transportation wants to hear, but it’s always been this bad and sometimes worse. In particular, New York City’s subway may as well give up. It’s never been perfect, and it never will be.
Over a century of complaints prove that even when things are operating pretty well, that just means passengers have more room to munch sardines on the A train. When they’re going badly, well, the governor of New York throws his hands in the air and calls it the “Summer of Hell.” Between 2012 and 2017, subway delays jumped from 28,000 per month to 70,000. While safety and efficiency have generally trended upward, any hint of progress just feels like a 2nd Avenue pipe dream (which only took 98 years to happen).
We combed the New York Times archives to find over 110 years’ worth of MTA rider complaints. Do you feel less alone?
“A reputable physician of Brooklyn told me yesterday that the great increase of pneumonia in that city was directly traceable to the draughts created by the Subway cars running from borough to borough under the East River.” — J.B. Chasseaud, September 9, 1906
“To dump these thousands of passengers off upon a crowded Times Square station platform, load them all into a shuttle train, run them over to Grand Central, dump them off again and load many aboard another train, is certainly a plan of sheer stupidity. To dam up a great stream of passenger traffic in its middle and squeeze it through a small sluiceway would be idiotic practice.” — A.C.M., January 9, 1914
“For years I have believed that the train schedule of the Subway has been run by a malicious, ingenious devil…”
“For years I have believed that the train schedule of the Subway has been run by a malicious, ingenious devil, whose delight lay in tantalizing and disappointing the maximum number of passengers who wished to transfer from local to express, or vice versa.” — D.C.B., February 1, 1915
“Everybody is forced to look out for himself, and toward his fellow-sufferers he has complete indifference unless they show an unusual propensity for standing on his feet or wedging their elbows into his stomach. But barring the ‘push hogs’ and the idiots who block the doors, real animosity is confined to those who are responsible for the inadequate transportation facilities of New York.” — Unknown, May 22, 1926
“I don’t know where the Boy Scouts get in their beneficent work, but it is not on the average boy I meet with in street cars.” — F.S.D., December 17, 1926
“An increase of the subway fare from 5 cents to 10 cents means a decrease in our lunch money.” — James S. Dworkin, May 10, 1933
“I have always found your editorial comments to be most stimulating and provocative as well as being possessed of a high degree of literary excellence and oftentimes pungent humor. However, I must remark on your attempt to find humor in the fact that the subway riders of New York will soon be using tokens instead of dimes for their daily rides.” — Myron E. Schoen, June 16, 1953
“I have lived in New York only five months. So far — and I have tried several times — I have been unable to find any printed information on how to get to any destination…” — Dorothy Kamen-Kaye, May 31, 1955
“Three little words, ‘Please, Sorry, Thanks,’
Are seldom heard in subway ranks,
But were this trio used by all,
Each ride indeed would be a ball!”
— Unknown, January 14, 1962
“The suggestion that subways go unheated to save fuel, thereby condemning the rider to the damp cold of the New York underground in winter, while the motorist squanders more than three times as much energy driving to work in a ten‐mile‐per‐gallon gas hog, ranks in arrogance with ‘let them eat cake.’” — Ernest V. Loewenstein and Glen Stice, November 7, 1973
“For years every responsible study has proved the necessity of building the Second Avenue Subway…The new subway should be completed on a most urgent schedule.” — Edmund F. Wagner, April 5, 1974
‘’You can let a couple of trains pass or you can fight. It depends on whether you feel up to it that morning. It’s exhausting.’’ — Jane Slotin, January 27, 1981
“There is emerging a new species of oddball who seeks out the darkened cars, claiming they have esthetic value since they blot out the dirt and the graffiti.” — Unknown, March 11, 1981
“No one looked directly at anyone else. When the train arrived, we sidled through the half-opened door, very careful not to touch one another. People looked about tensely; no one read or slept. When I got off the train, my first feeling was relief — and then shame. I was relieved that no one had hurt me or anyone else. And I was ashamed of my thought.” — Rosanne Weston, August 2, 1981
“I was rather surprised to read in your recent news article about the joys of summer commuting (July 20) that an unnamed Transit Authority official had said that approximately one-half of the subway cars had air-conditioning that worked. I, too, would not have given my name if I had made a statement like that.” — Peter L. Faber, August 10, 1983
“The new $1.15 New York City bus and subway fare is not only cumbersome itself, but there is also no multiple of $1.15 that is any less so; even a token 10-pack would not make a round number.” — Robert Schumacher, December 20, 1989
“I should forget the job interview. Even if they understood, I’m too wiped out to be any good with people today.” — Doreen Lim, after waiting 90 minutes for a train, August 29, 1991
“Who will be there to open the gate manually when the M.T.A. computers befall a belated Y2K? In the era of online hackers, one can never be too certain.’’ — Carlos Fernandez, February 6, 2001
“Forty one years in city, only token. This MetroCard, no. Never. With me is strong habit.’’ — Nick Liopiros, February 6, 2001
“His fingernails were flying all over the car like missiles. Other passengers, including myself, were simultaneously ducking and laughing.” — Erica Herd on subway nail-cutting, December 28, 2014
“It’s not just a matter of inconvenience. It’s personal and it’s visceral.” — John Raskin, March 23, 2015
“It was harder to overlook his other violation: His pet was not in a carrier. A tortoise balanced on his knee. Every so often it peered around the moving train car.” — Sarah Maslin Nir, June 2, 2017
