[marothisu]

As someone who now lives in NYC and before that was traveling to NYC and using the train system almost everyday for over 2 years before that, Rahm actually has a point. The MTA's on time performance is terrible compared to Chicago's.

My train to and from work is literally delayed every single day. I'm not talking about a few minutes either. I'm talking about a minimum of 10 minutes. I have waited more than a handful of times at the stop closest to my work, sometimes with a delay of 30 minutes. Meanwhile, one of the lines that shares the track with my line comes every 3-5 minutes and is seemingly on time. I've experienced this with other lines too - there are many that are really terrible like this. Some are OK though and on time pretty well. The people who complain about the CTA should really use the MTA, especially in Manhattan, and see what a handful of lines have to put up with everyday. There are some train lines here nicknamed "Ghost train" because it seemingly never comes as the delays are terrible. The funny thing is that when you read online, you find mostly just cynical or supportive people depending on the city. My co-workers in NY have talked about this a bunch of times and it's pretty much a consensus about how terrible the MTA and train system is with performance.

The MTA is way bigger than the CTA, so it's all easier said than done, but I also don't think it's an excuse. It shows how poorly planned the MTA might have been. When I was in China, I rode the Beijing and Shanghai Metro systems. Shanghai's daily ridership is nearly 2X higher than that of NYC's train system with the yearly ridership at about 2X higher. Beijing is around the same. NYC has more lines than both of these, but both still have a lot. The thing is that these transit systems are almost always on time. After NYC, these systems have the 2nd and 3rd highest number of stations of any system in the world and still much bigger than the CTA train system. They really pride themselves about being on time.

I think it all goes back to how funds are being used, planning, budget, etc. Again this is easier said than done, but I feel as if everytime I'm waiting to go home at my stop and the other line that uses the track has about 6 trains go by while my train is delayed 20 minutes - there's something terribly wrong. It's an everyday thing - not a once in a blue moon problem. People on my team are constantly late in the mornings because of how unreliable the train system here has become. The thing is that the train system in NYC is great for physical coverage in places like Manhattan, but when you are waiting for a train to take you a mile or two and it doesn't come for 30 minutes, it's easier to just walk and skip the train all together. Or just catch a cab.