Dank, shabby and deafening, New York metro moves millions

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

NEW YORK (AFP) — Five million people ride New York City's under and above-ground railway every day, braving a vast, aging system that is dilapidated, deafening, and prone to floods, escalator outages and sealed-off exits.

Now the inconveniences they endure have been laid bare with the belated publication of a survey of the system's unreliable elevators and escalators, alongside a months-long investigative report by The New York Times.

The January 2007 report by J. Martin Associates had been kept under wraps until the Times printed its conclusions Monday. And they are damning.

The system's 169 escalators broke down on average 68 times in 2007, and two-thirds of its 200 elevators ground to a halt with riders trapped inside at least once during the year,...