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Fall 2015

ISSN 0890-913X

Volume 30, Number 3

Categories: Fall 2015 | Public transportation

Generations of Transit Disaster: The New York City Subways

Gregory Bresiger, New York, New York

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GenerationsofTransitDisaster:TheNewYorkCitySubwaysTheJournalofPrivateEnterprise30(3),2015,51–77GregoryBresigerNewYork,NewYork______________________________________________________AbstractTheNewYorkCitysubwaysareamess.Bothroutinemaintenanceandnewlinesareoftendelayed.Thelastseventy-fiveyearsofsubwayhistorydemonstratethefailureofthecurrentsystemofgovernmentownershipandoperation.Previously,thesystemincludedsomeprivatemanagementcompanies,whichbuiltthefirstlinesinwhatwasthesubways’goldenera.Thisperiod,from1904toroughly1920,wasatimewhenthesubwayswereconsideredanengineeringmarvel.Thelinesalsomademoney.Thispaperdocumentsthesystem’sdecline.______________________________________________________JELCodes:N71,N72,N91,N92Keywords:NewYorkCitysubways,publictransportation,governmentownershipI.IntroductionIfevertherewereanexampleofastateenterprisewithaprotractedhistoryoffailure,itisNewYork’sdeterioratingsubways.Completegovernmentownershipandoperationofthesubways—thisyearmarkstheseventy-fifthanniversaryoftheousterofthelastprivatemanagementcompanies—hasturnedaoncegreatsystemintoanightmare.Problemsincludedelayedmaintenance,politicalunaccountability,poorcommunicationssystems,angrytransitunionsthreateningtoshutdownthecity—andsometimesdoingso,asinthe1966strikethatcrippledthecity’seconomyforweeks—andtheproblemofalmosteveryotherbusinessoperatedbygovernments:relentlessredink.Delaysconstantlyplaguethesystem,asillustratedbyendlessstoriesinNewYorknewspapers(see,e.g.,Harshbarger2015;Soria2015).Whathappenedtothesubways,whichwereonceregardedasatransportationjewel?Andwhydidtheprivatemanagementcompanieseventuallydepart,sellingtheirassetstothecity,whicheventuallytransferredcontrolofthesystemtoastateauthority?Governmentpricecontrolsandpoliticaltinkeringdrovetheownersofprivatemanagementcompaniestodestructionastheyran51

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Metadata [hide]

Title	Generations of Transit Disaster: The New York City Subways
Authors/Creators:	Gregory Bresiger, New York, New York
Year:	2015
Volume:	30
Number:	3
Pages:	51 - 77
Publisher:	The Association of Private Enterprise Education
ISSN:	0890-913X
Document Type:	Articles
Keywords:	New York City subways, public transportation, government ownership

Citation:
Bresiger, Gregory / 2015. "Generations of Transit Disaster: The New York City Subways." The Journal of Private Enterprise, 30(3): 51-77.