Leaders of the Riders Alliance said they will distribute Subway Delay Action Kits on trains and platforms, but subway riders can also request a kit from the Riders Alliance by visiting the organization’s website at www.CuomosMTA.com.

The Riders Alliance started its Subway Delay Action Kit campaign in the wake of troubling new statistics released by MTA showing that frequent subway delays are making the lives of riders miserable.

So far this year, the monthly average of delays is approximately triple what the rate was in 2012, according to the Riders Alliance.  In the most recent month for which data is available, September 2017, there were more than 58,000 weekday subway delays.

Lauren Houston, a Riders Alliance member and a graphic designer from Flatbush, said the delays are stressful. “I get on the subway every morning not knowing if or when I’ll get to work. A poorly timed subway delay can throw my entire day into a tailspin,” she said in a statement. 

Houston said she can’t wait to give the kits out to her fellow riders. “But now, when we’re stuck on the subway, we can put our extra time to good use by organizing our fellow riders to take their complaints right to Gov. Cuomo. I plan to distribute these kits to hundreds of subway riders, and I hope everyone will use these instructions to channel their anger into action and accountability,” she said. 

Crown Heights resident Dmitry Diment, who is a Riders Alliance member, said the only thing straphangers can count on these days is that there will be a problem.

“Last week, I was on a [No.] 3 train headed from work in Midtown to Crown Heights in Brooklyn. The express train crawled through Manhattan. Everyone was groaning and complaining. When we finally reached the first stop in Brooklyn, the conductor announced that the train would skip all of its planned local stops and head straight to Atlantic, followed by Franklin Ave. Everyone was frustrated and piled off the train. People are angry, and they’re ready for change. Now, whenever there’s another disastrous commute, I’ll be handing out my Subway Delay Action Kit and tweeting at Gov. Cuomo to fix the subway,” Diment stated.

Brooklyn lawmakers have expressed support for the Subway Delay Action Kit campaign. 

“If we are going to create a subway system worthy of our world-class city, then we are going to need all hands on deck. The Riders Alliance’s Subway Delay Action Kit empowers subway riders around the city to make the governor and the Legislature hear their voice,” Assemblymember Robert Carroll (D-Park Slope) stated. 

Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon (D-Brooklyn Heights-Carroll Gardens) said the new campaign can serve an important purpose. 

“The Riders Alliance subway delay action kit can help transit riders become activists by giving them a way to call attention to subway delays in real time and showing the groundswell of public support for improving the subways. This feedback is critical to ensuring that we are taking the riders’ experiences into account so that the MTA can make the subway more efficient and accessible for all riders,” Simon said in a statement. 

“Few people wake up in the morning and suddenly decide to become an activist. There’s always an awakening,” Councilmember Stephen Levin (D-Greenpoint-Williamsburg-DUMBO-downtown Brooklyn) stated. “You might repeatedly find yourself and others in a situation that is unfair and unjust and you just can’t take it anymore. Delay after delay, disaster after disaster, our disappointment of a subway system is one such situation. New Yorkers have better things to do than play politics. Our leaders need to come together and get the job done, no more excuses.”

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