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| How to survive a commuting 'summer of hell' | |
| (11 days later) | |
| As a child growing up in a semi-rural suburb, I was desperate for access to public transportation, for the ability to go beyond my garden without having to ask my mum or dad to drive me in the family car. I got what I wished for, I guess, if what I wished for was a system that earlier this summer was declared to be in a state of emergency. As I spent nine years living and working in London before I moved to New York City in 2014, people on both sides of the Atlantic often ask me which city I prefer. But in 2017, a more pertinent question is: which “summer of hell” would you rather endure? | As a child growing up in a semi-rural suburb, I was desperate for access to public transportation, for the ability to go beyond my garden without having to ask my mum or dad to drive me in the family car. I got what I wished for, I guess, if what I wished for was a system that earlier this summer was declared to be in a state of emergency. As I spent nine years living and working in London before I moved to New York City in 2014, people on both sides of the Atlantic often ask me which city I prefer. But in 2017, a more pertinent question is: which “summer of hell” would you rather endure? |
| Our respective reactions to our old and often malfunctioning transport systems are rooted in our national character. In America, we are raised to believe that it’s our right as Americans for things to be functioning and effective, despite the fact that we commit little of our taxes to public services, and few of our urban systems are designed to handle contemporary urban populations and their needs. That’s why there was so much fanfare in New York when the 2nd Avenue Subway opened earlier this year: the “biggest expansion of the subway system in 50 years” featured shiny new stations with clean white tiles and beautiful Instagram-friendly mosaics of diverse New Yorkers. We loved it. We even mostly overlooked the fact that this expansion was many years delayed. | Our respective reactions to our old and often malfunctioning transport systems are rooted in our national character. In America, we are raised to believe that it’s our right as Americans for things to be functioning and effective, despite the fact that we commit little of our taxes to public services, and few of our urban systems are designed to handle contemporary urban populations and their needs. That’s why there was so much fanfare in New York when the 2nd Avenue Subway opened earlier this year: the “biggest expansion of the subway system in 50 years” featured shiny new stations with clean white tiles and beautiful Instagram-friendly mosaics of diverse New Yorkers. We loved it. We even mostly overlooked the fact that this expansion was many years delayed. |
| It was a pretty effective distraction from the reality that the rest of the system was falling apart. As the temperatures rose in May and June, so did the frequency of delays and stoppages: buckled tracks, failed air-conditioning systems, actual derailments. Summer on the subway has always been a sweaty affair, but standing on a packed carriage for half an hour as you wait for your train to get permission to enter the tunnel into Manhattan pushes the limits of the average punter’s perspiration. | It was a pretty effective distraction from the reality that the rest of the system was falling apart. As the temperatures rose in May and June, so did the frequency of delays and stoppages: buckled tracks, failed air-conditioning systems, actual derailments. Summer on the subway has always been a sweaty affair, but standing on a packed carriage for half an hour as you wait for your train to get permission to enter the tunnel into Manhattan pushes the limits of the average punter’s perspiration. |
| One university graduate left himself plenty of time to get to his commencement ceremony at Hunter College – except that he didn’t plan on the three hours his train would be stuck in the tunnel. His fellow jammed commuters celebrated him anyway. Sweet, very “only in New York” (in London I fear everyone would have continued to stare at their phones), but for many New Yorkers there’s no levity to be found. For hourly and contract workers, showing up late because of getting stuck underground can mean lost income and lost jobs. | One university graduate left himself plenty of time to get to his commencement ceremony at Hunter College – except that he didn’t plan on the three hours his train would be stuck in the tunnel. His fellow jammed commuters celebrated him anyway. Sweet, very “only in New York” (in London I fear everyone would have continued to stare at their phones), but for many New Yorkers there’s no levity to be found. For hourly and contract workers, showing up late because of getting stuck underground can mean lost income and lost jobs. |
| Perhaps we’d do better to adopt some of Britain’s pessimistic national spirit. While some have warned that the latest construction at Waterloo station would bring London’s own hellish summer, thus far the chaos has failed to meet expectations. Eyewitness reports have described it as “not bad at all”, and perhaps that’s because Londoners’ consistent low hopes of pretty much everything make minimal function a pleasant surprise, if not something to celebrate. | Perhaps we’d do better to adopt some of Britain’s pessimistic national spirit. While some have warned that the latest construction at Waterloo station would bring London’s own hellish summer, thus far the chaos has failed to meet expectations. Eyewitness reports have described it as “not bad at all”, and perhaps that’s because Londoners’ consistent low hopes of pretty much everything make minimal function a pleasant surprise, if not something to celebrate. |
| For instance, I fondly recall the time I pretended to my then boyfriend that I did not know ahead of time that a romantic weekend getaway would feature a rail-replacement bus service, because I feared that he would have (justifiably) refused to come on the trip, full stop. The bus got stuck in a single-track country lane when the driver tried to take it under a stone bridge that was too low for the vehicle to pass, and we shrugged. This was England, after all. If New Yorkers stopped believing each morning that our trains would work, and opted, like Londoners, to expect the worst, perhaps our hell would be more bearable too. | For instance, I fondly recall the time I pretended to my then boyfriend that I did not know ahead of time that a romantic weekend getaway would feature a rail-replacement bus service, because I feared that he would have (justifiably) refused to come on the trip, full stop. The bus got stuck in a single-track country lane when the driver tried to take it under a stone bridge that was too low for the vehicle to pass, and we shrugged. This was England, after all. If New Yorkers stopped believing each morning that our trains would work, and opted, like Londoners, to expect the worst, perhaps our hell would be more bearable too. |
| Temperatures in New York are a little cooler this week, but tempers continue to rise: even if the discomforts of this summer are allayed, it will take years to fully mend the system. In 2019, the L train – a key artery between Brooklyn and Manhattan – will shut down entirely for a planned 15 months, causing more chaos and suffering and probably canoe accidents in the East River, which divides the two boroughs. Meanwhile, thanks to the introduction of cell service on my route to work, I’ll be able to spend my time on stopped trains in a useful way: browsing real estate listings in semi-rural suburbs. | Temperatures in New York are a little cooler this week, but tempers continue to rise: even if the discomforts of this summer are allayed, it will take years to fully mend the system. In 2019, the L train – a key artery between Brooklyn and Manhattan – will shut down entirely for a planned 15 months, causing more chaos and suffering and probably canoe accidents in the East River, which divides the two boroughs. Meanwhile, thanks to the introduction of cell service on my route to work, I’ll be able to spend my time on stopped trains in a useful way: browsing real estate listings in semi-rural suburbs. |
| • Jean Hannah Edelstein is a freelance journalist and author who lives in New York City | • Jean Hannah Edelstein is a freelance journalist and author who lives in New York City |
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