Over the years, the transportation system that serves the five boroughs and the suburbs has had its share of problems.
On one occasion, it might be a technical breakdown in the Long Island Railroad system. On a separate occasion, there is a colossal foul up in the subways that inconvenience thousands of riders.
The Metro North rail system has had its share of tragic accidents.
But never before have almost all of the systems been in a state of crises.
There are many dedicated people working for all of the transit operations.
Over the past few years, the LIRR has been very reliable and has recorded high on time numbers.
The city subway system had a short burst of good news with the opening of the Second Avenue subway line.
But all of a sudden, there is chaos all over the place and the passengers are suffering mightily.
It is hard to imagine a more messed up situation than the tunnels leading to and from Penn Station.
The aging tunnels belong to the Amtrak system and when something breaks down there is no one to talk to.
Amtrak is the most important rail system in the Northeast but its leadership is terrible.
In April, immediately following the derailment of a Jersey Transit train, Amtrak admitted that it knew about the aging rail infrastructure and had not gotten around to fixing the problem.
That event forced the closure of nine out of 22 tracks at Penn Station.
LIRR riders have taken the brunt of the mismanagement but Amtrak riders have suffered as well.
I happened to be a passenger on an Amtrak train on that fateful day. Once our city bound train approached Newark, New Jersey, an announcement was made that trains would have to take turns going in and out of Penn Station.
The track problem delayed our train and many others for over two hours. It was a very unpleasant experience, doomed to be repeated days later.
The headaches we face as mass transit users flow all the way up to the White House.
Earlier this year riders were looking forward to the passage of a federal infrastructure bill that would dedicate as much as $1 trillion dollars to fixing up roads, bridges and transit systems.
President Trump could have passed this significant bill with bipartisan support but instead made a strategic blunder by pushing for his repeal of Obamacare.
Had he pushed for the transportation solution he could have started out his 100 days with a big victory.
At this point in time, with the president bogged down with a Special Counsel investigation, there is no saying when the beleaguered riders will ever see any daylight.
To add to everyone’s misery, Amtrak has announced that it will work on track upgrades during the summer months.
While no time is a good time, it is a disaster waiting to happen for riders from the suburbs and within the city.
Periodically closing the tunnels leading to Penn Station is the region’s worst nightmare.
The politics of the situation is most depressing.
Congress members from the South and the Midwest really don’t give a hoot about the people in the Northeast.
While the Republicans enjoy their majority by having a group of members from the Northeast, there is no sympathy for their problems.
This means that it is very doubtful that transit moneys will be flowing into the downstate area in the near future.
While Gov. Cuomo has appealed to the president for money for Penn Station upgrades, don’t expect Mr. Trump to make a Democratic governor look good.
So, this thorny federal problem puts the burden back on the state.
With all the big bucks being spent on the Tappan Zee bridge, La Guardia airport renovation and other projects, the state will have to divert emergency funds to the cleanup of the transit mess.
That may not be an easy solution but in life there are priorities of all kinds and absent federal dollars, the state will have to step up to the plate and get the job done.
