A gaggle of elected officials showed up at the City Hall N/R stop Monday to announce a stunt where the group collectively spends a full 24 hours (Thursday into Friday) riding the rails across all five boroughs to learn how hellish the subway’s become.
That’s right: They think it’s a big deal that they’re actually riding the subways. Way to show the common touch, folks.
OK, doing it for 12 hours straight is unusual, but only Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz vow to do that.
The rest — including City Comptroller Scott Stringer, Public Advocate Letitia James, State Sen. Brad Hoylman and Council Members Margaret Chin and Jumaane Williams, among others — will at most hop along for a few stops.
Hmm: Is somebody going to hold the doors to ensure they make the right train? (Warning: Getting the motorman to stop the train turns out to be bad publicity.)
Also a mystery is what they expect to learn from a single day. If they’d been riding every day, or even every week, they’d already know plenty about the system’s decline.
The pols promise to share what they learn on their Riders Respond Transit Tour at an Aug. 8 Council Transportation Committee hearing.
Here’s a preview: Trains continue to derail, forcing line suspensions and sardine-packed buses. On a good day, cars are crowded and platforms swelteringly hot. Delays jam up morning rush hour, often making you late to work.
That, friends, is how the other half lives.