Gov: We’ll fix subways with wave of wand

THERE’S NO magic wand to make subway delays disappear, but perhaps riders will settle for a magnetic one.

On the latest stop of his Subway Action Plan tour, Gov. Cuomo on Thursday showed off the latest delay-prevention technology, a magnetic wand that can pull metal dust from insulated joints on the track. Dirty joints can break electric track circuits, causing signals’ fail-safe systems to kick in and turn them red.

Cuomo tested the wand at the Ninth Ave. D train station in Brooklyn while a crew replaced a joint.

“Why haven’t joints been replaced before? It’s always been money, and preventive maintenance is the first thing to go,” said Cuomo, who touted the subway rescue plan last week at a train car overhaul shop. “We deferred the maintenance and then it hit a critical point where things literally started to break and they started to break all at once, causing delays.”

Under the $836 million plan, NYC Transit will buy 1,000 magnetic wands to clean 11,000 insulated joints — half the total — this year. Transit crews also are overhauling 286damaged insulated track joints that frequently cause red signals.