Analysis that the root cause of New York's subway delayed in time is "Because there is a mechanism to make traveling slow"

ByJörg Schubert

When Japanese railways are accustomed to the "high scheduled operation rate" that boasts to the world, when using overseas railroads, there are times when it is surprised that "How long is the train delayed?" Among them, delay in operation of New York subway which many people use on a day has become a big problem in recent years. Judge the railroad about the reasonNew York State Urban Transit Authority(MTA) mentioned "rapid increase of users", but in fact the background, "Village Voice" of the news media argues that "a mechanism not to run the train promptly" is hidden .

'The Trains Are Slower Because They Slowed the Trains Down' | Village Voice
https://www.villagevoice.com/2018/03/13/the-trains-are-slower-because-they-slowed-the-trains-down/

In the summer of 2014,New York City MetroPhilip Betheil, who worked as an intern at NYCS, was instructed by his boss David Greenberger to prepare a report to improve the operation of the railroad. Mr. Betheil cooperated with his boss to create a report over the summer, but that report was not released to the outside, it seems that it got in a state to be kept inside.

A few years later, Village Voice, who got the report, found that there was a real problem with NYCS and MTA there. Municipal authorities have cited "many users" about the causes of frequent delays in the operation of the subway, and "that there is no budget", but in the report there are frequent occurrences of subway delay, not budget cuts but artificial It is said that contents indicating that things are written. As of the year 2018, this report has not been made public, and Betheil who got interviewed by Village Voice rejected comment. And Mr. Greenberger who was my boss did not get any response.

According to the report published by MTA so far, it is concluded that the problem of New York railway is caused by "heavy congestion" and "budget shortage" as mentioned above. But there is a certain place here, and the actual figure is skilfully hidden. One of them is said to be indicated in the data on the reason for the delay.

In the report, it is said that the largest cause of the delay in train operation is that there is a grouped item called "insufficient capacity, long staying time at station, other unknown". However, it is strange that the number of delays increased by this item has increased by 1400% (yellow) compared to 2012, while the number of delays is not increasing overall (blue). In other words, almost everything else is not a problem, but only for this lump sum reason is causing the delay problem of the entire subway.


In addition, this situation leads to another reason "heavy congestion" that the MTA places. It took place in July 2017(YouTube)Press ConferenceJoe Lhota, MTA's chairman, said that the biggest problem the subway has is "the number of passengers that continues to increase". Also, in June of the same year New York Times also said that the biggest problem the New York subway has is "super-overdenseness"Posted articlesAnd the subway is developing the tone that it is "the victim of own success and the development of the city". However, Village Voice notes that many media accept this MTA's claim as it is because data is in a form that supports its content.

Also, the MTA summarized its performanceReport documentAlso, it is also understood that the term "insufficient capacity, station length of staying time, other unknown" used internally is replaced by the word "excessive congestion" when it is issued to the outside It is. About this, MTA spokeswoman explained that "to avoid using technical terms". In this way, Village Voice is questioning that some changes have been added that cleverly manipulate the impression.

The MTA not only uses this "heavy congestion" as the root of the problem, it is also seen that it uses it as a material to evaluate the efficiency of the new system introduced as a remedy measure well. The New York City authorities have announced that they have achieved certain results by "home inducers" introduced to resolve confusion at home, but despite the fact that the number of railway users is actually decreasing There is data that the delay time of the train caused by congestion has increased by 50% in 2 years. Furthermore, the New York Times also points out that "the delay of trains is increasing despite the fact that users are decreasing"articleIn the middle of that, a tone is being developed that states that MTA is using excessive congestion situations to cheat system problems.

ByEmmanuel Nicolas

In 1995, at the Williamsburg bridge from Manhattan Island to the Brooklyn district, the J and M trains of the New York subway collided, causing accidents resulting in death and injury to J train drivers and passengers. The accident investigation committee concludes that the greatest cause of this accident is that it seems that the deceased driver was dozing, but at the same time it points out that there is a deficiency in the signaling system. It is clear that traffic lights used on this line do not give enough time for the driver to react to the emergency stop signal.

A former driver said that "MTA is slowing the speed of the train since that accident" conditioned on anonymity. In fact, in April 1996, the MTA changed the maximum speed for employees from 50 miles per hour or 55 miles per hour (about 80 km / h or 88 km / h) to 40 miles per hour (about 64 km / h) It is said that it is notifying. In other words, because the signaling system can not handle the speed of the train, the MTA chooses the means to prevent the accident by delaying the operation of the train itself.

Furthermore, according to the internal document of the MTA, the MTA has altered the emergency stop system. Until then, if another train is in front of you, a red light is displayed, and finally the emergency stop device is activated and the train stops with a safe distance from the preceding vehicle. At this time, it takes a few minutes to 10 minutes to start running the train again, and the record of the driver 's emergency stop as a record is left as a record.

However, since the accident happened at the Williamsburg bridge, the emergency stop system not only detected the presence or absence of a preceding train but also detected the presence or absence of overspeed, Although this is a mechanism adopted to secure the safety of train operation, it is said that there is an aspect that it is driving the driver excessively and carefully driving in reverse. This mechanism is called "one-shot timer" among drivers, and there are also those who repute that this one-shot timer is "ridiculous" in the driver's community on Facebook . Moreover, it is said that the fact that the display of the speedometer of the train is deviated from the actual situation is said to further increase this dissatisfaction.

ByLWYang

Ronnie Hakim, who was at the top of the New York City Transportation Bureau in 2015, said that when asked about the slogan "Safety, Service, Speed, Smiles" at that time, "Speed" was included, I am worried that people will feel pressure to give priority to speed over safety, "he said in an interview to increase safety even at the expense of speed. However, some veteran drivers are raising doubts about this policy. This person said, "MTA no longer seems to think about speed, but in fact it is possible to operate fast enough without actually sacrificing safety, as long as excellent management is available." .

Actually, as an example of performing operations more efficiently than the New York subway, examples of the Tokyo subway are mentioned. In Tokyo, 8 million people use the subway every day, which is two million more people than New York. Also worldwide(YouTube)The Tokyo subway is crowdedAlthough it is famous, its scheduled flight rate still reaches 99%, and high performance is secured in terms of safety. It is argued that it is a high automation rate as a factor realizing this. In New York, we adopted "one shot timer" to reduce the speed by introducing "one-shot timer", but in one of Tokyo, by sharpening the operation management system, when the situation permits driving A mechanism to increase speed as much as possible is built.

In this way, while the MTA driver feels that he wants to advance day-to-day operations more efficiently, in reality, various obstacles are waiting for it. One New Yorker driver told Village Voice that the frustration I feel everyday is the same as what the passengers are holding, "Many things trying to get in the way, It is said to have said "I will attack it."

ByEmmanuel Nicolas