The subway power con

The subway runs on electricity, has since trains first rolled in 1904, and Con Ed generates and distributes the juice. But that doesn’t mean every time an electron goes awry underground, it’s the utility’s fault. Last summer, though, the folks at the Transit Authority pretended exactly that — as revealed in Sunday’s Daily News. Ace transit reporter Dan Rivoli brought to light a series of curious emails in which TA brass looked to pin the blame on the electric company for as many delays as humanly possible.

Actual delays caused by Con Ed in the 12 months prior to last July: 3,422.

The number of delays over that period Gov. Cuomo told the public were “power-related,” strongly implying Con Ed was primarily at fault: 32,000, or nearly 10 times the total.

How’d the powers that be gin that up? By demanding, in TA internal emails, “a higher delay number for power.” Initial reply from a staffer who knew the facts: “I can’t think of a way to make the ConEd/External power figures higher.”

But massage and massage they did, ultimately stuffing a wide range of problems — including track circuit failures and intentional power cutoffs fully attributable to the TA — in the power bucket.

New TA President Andy Byford, who reports to MTA boss Joe Lhota, and ultimately to Cuomo, must get to the bottom of whether or not there was a petty power play. He may want to ask the agency’s inspector general to help him untangle what happened last summer.

On the positive side, Con Ed is now in better coordination with the TA, as happened Monday when a feeder cable failed and the utility quickly brought in an emergency generator.

Con Ed should be on notice, and on call. But it should never get sucker-punched with fake stats.