13 Times That MTA Was Literally The Worst Institution Ever

Katherine Ripley • April 29, 2016

If you’re having a bad day in New York, you can bet MTA has something to do with it. Here are 13 times MTA was literally the worst:

1. When they destroyed the 2nd and 3rd Ave elevated lines and never built the 2nd Ave subway

This is actually what happened. There used to be above-ground train lines on 2nd and 3rd Avenues, but they were destroyed in 1942 and 1955, in anticipation of the construction of the 2nd Ave subway. Construction didn’t start until 1972, and stopped three years later because of the city’s fiscal crisis. It began again in 2007, but at this point it seems like this whole thing might just be a pipe dream.

2. When fares went up and service quality went down

Funny how this tends to happen when there’s a monopoly.

3. When they blew $1.4 billion on shiny escalators

Perhaps this is the reason why the fares went up but service quality went down. I think we’d all rather have on-time trains than modernized architecture and natural lighting.

4. When people had to wait 45 minutes for a train on their weekday commute home

Hey @MTA you mind sending an uptown A train to w 4 st? It’s been 45 minutes

— Ferenc G. Koszorus (@fgkoszorus) April 5, 2016

That was a fun day.

5. When you g0t stuck underground for so long you thought you’d die down there

I was just stuck underground on the D train for over 30 minutes with only one update from the conductor. Completely unacceptable, @MTA.

— Nadia Varona-Saleem (@nadialove) April 5, 2016

What could the train possibly be waiting for?

6. When they OK’ed these subway cars with Nazi symbols on them

I’m just amazed that @MTA would approve Nazi-themed subway ads, but not @AmalgamatedBank‘s ads to #RaiseTheWage pic.twitter.com/21kxPeufKs

— Mark Elliott (@markmobility) November 25, 2015

They approved this, but the period underwear ads were a problem? This was an advertisement for a new Amazon TV series, but you wonder why they had to plaster the whole car with these symbols in order to accomplish that goal. The ads were removed after backlash.

7. When every train got rerouted to the F line

The main question here is: what if the F train needs to get re-routed? Does this happen? If so, where does it go?

8. When they decided to shut down the L train for 15 months

This is probably being pushed back to 2019, so at least you have plenty of time to move out of Williamsburg.

9. Every time you tried to take the G

And they think that “ramping up” G service is going to make up for the L train shutting down?

10. When you could not, for the life of you, hear the conductor’s announcement

“Attention passengers, this train will not besompen amma ensa femama sassathon. Once again, this train will not beshtumba formema sossa…”

11. When the local all of a sudden turned into the express

Guess that’s what the announcement was…

12. When you had money on your card but it just would not swipe

The struggle is real.

13. When they sent one shuttle bus to replace an entire subway train

[Jarett Stewart/Flickr] — [Jarrett Stewart/Flickr]

If you live in the outer boroughs, you might not have any other train options when a line gets shut down for construction. MTA sends shuttle buses, but it’s impossible to know when they’re coming, and they only send one to replace an entire train.

Cover photo credit: Jens Schott Knudsen/Flickr