To: Joe NYC who wrote (124131 ) 9/18/2000 2:50:06 PM From: tejek Respond to JoeIf I ran the subway system, I would get rid of all train engineers, replace them with electronics, I would operate 1 or 2 car trains every minute instead of 10 or more car trains every 5 or 10 minutes, of course the speed of trains could double when the trains are moving, the time in the stations could be cut if you have the trains operate more frequently, so there is no overcrowding. Everybody would have a seat too. The increase in speed would increase ridership further and bring in more revenues. I don't know about other people, but the last 10 minutes of sleep in the morning is the most valuable to me, so if the mass transit could "give" it to people, more people would ride. And of course I would eliminate the token clerks from the subway system, since the machines for the subway cards work just fine. The money saved eliminating the train engineers and token clerks could be invested in more technology, or it could be used to reduce the dependance on subsidies. Or, they could expand the subway system. They have not expanded the subway system in ages. The union cost structure makes the cost prohibitive. How is it that the city was able to build the entire subway system starting in 1904, and a prosperous New York City in year 2000 can't afford expansion? There are areas of the city that are not covered very well. However, I don't expect any of the changes to happen in my lifetime.
