Delays cost $1.2M a day
Strapped hangers can’t catch a break
The Big Apple’s aging, rotten subways are not just making riders late — but poor as well.
Delayed straphangers lose a cumulative average of $1.2 million a workday in economic gain due to endless train delays, according to a new study by the city’s Independent Budget Office.
The daily losses — which include $864,000 for city residents alone — add up to a financial loss for subway riders of $307 million annually, the IBO said Thursday.
The findings were no surprise to riders on overpacked station platforms — who each seemed to have a horror story of being made late for work or an important business function.
“I’ve lost close to $1,000 the past few months; damn aggravating.” said Andrew P., 39, a makeup artist at an upscale salon in Brooklyn. “I’m lucky my bosses are aware of the incompetent MTA, but my clients aren’t.”
Delays lead not only to the loss of cash, but also cost some commuters jobs or promotions.
“My colleagues from Brooklyn miss the trains and it tarnishes their reputations,” said Alexis Zumwalt, a 26-year-old tech. “They get no promotions.”
Joan W., 50, who lives in Brooklyn but works in a Soho furniture store, called the subways a “pain in the ass” and added that “when employees aren’t there on the floor, our businesses is impacted.”
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams commissioned the IBO study after a particularly bad week of train delays this past summer.
“Our city’s annual loss of $307 million to preventable subway delays is a critical derailment of the economic lives of many businesses and New Yorkers, particularly those from economically challenged communities,” Adams said.
City Comptroller Scott Stringer released a similar report earlier this month, but the IBO analysis also adds in historical values for the past five years.
According to the report, delays averaged 20,000 a month in 2012 — but reached 67,450 in May of this year.
The study also looked at delays on individual lines and found that delays on the 5, A, and F lines are particularly staggering.
MTA officials responded to the report by noting agency Chairman Joe Lhota’s summer repair plan aiming to stem subway delays with infrastructure work.
Agency honchos officials also say they “need City Hall and Mayor de Blasio to commit to paying its 50 percent share to fully implement the [improvement] plan,” said spokesman John McCarthy.