Subway woes cost city econ up to $389M

RAMPANT SUBWAY delays could be costing the city’s economy up to $389 million a year, according to a new analysis.

The study by city Controller Scott Stringer found that rushhour delays — between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. — add up to between $170.2 million and $389 million in missed work hours.

“Now, we understand the economic costs of the crisis underground. What these new numbers show is that the cost of inaction is greater than the cost of action and that subway delays take a massive toll on our economy,” Stringer said. “We need to fix our subways both to improve quality of life and our economy.”

The MTA tallies minor delays, which according to Stringer’s analysis average about two minutes across the system, and medium delays, which average four minutes.

Major delays are those where straphangers are waiting at least double the regular time for a train — or at least five extra minutes. There’s no maximum time for those delays, so Stringer also ran the numbers with major delays hitting 10 minutes or 20 minutes each.

All that lost time, at the city’s average wage of $34 an hour, added up to hundreds of millions in economic loss. The costliest delays were on the 4,5, 7, A and F subway lines, which under the worst-case scenario added up to $140 million a year combined in economic costs.