Signals at Ditmars Boulevard await an incoming train. (Photo by flickr user zin1966)
Thousands of subway signal inspection safety reports have been falsified over the last few years due to pressure from management, a report by the MTA Inspector General revealed on Friday. According to Barry Kluger’s ongoing investigation, inspections that should have been completed within 30 days were delayed for days or even weeks, and the safety of the subway’s complex signal system could have been compromised.
Due to the importance of his findings, Kluger has shared his initial report with Transit before releasing it to the public, and MTA officials have taken swift action. “Instead of waiting for results to come in and issue a report, we’ve been working with NYC Transit and supplying them with some of the results on an ongoing basis,” Kluger said in a statement. “They’ve moved quickly to try and get their arms around this and have been making a number of changes.”
Heather Haddon of The Post has more:
NYC Transit supervisors falsified thousands of vital signal inspections across the subway system for years, leaving straphangers at risk for deadly collisions like the one that killed nine people in Washington, DC, The Post learned.
Across every line, a cabal of managers in the signal department forced maintainers to fib on the inspections by threatening them with punishments like loss of overtime, according to a sweeping six-month investigation by the inspector general of the MTA, which oversees NYC Transit. At least one high-level chief, Tracy Bowdwin — the MTA’s highest-earning Signal Department supervisor at $165,000 a year — was demoted last week in the fallout, and managers are still being questioned, transit sources said.
The dangerous practice was a response to ramped-up pressure from the MTA to meet federal standards that call for railway switches and signals to be inspected monthly, sources said. “Instead of five signals to inspect [in a shift], they would give you 15. There’s no way 15 could be done, but they would say you had to do it,” one signal maintainer said. “It’s like you think your car is fine after going to the mechanic, but they never looked at it.”
According to Haddon’s report, “workers who didn’t comply lost overtime privileges or got sent to the dirtiest, most leak-infested tunnels.” That’s revenge at its worst for practices that could land some Transit workers in legal trouble.
For its part, Transit spokespeople ensured reporters that the signals that were the subject of Kluger’s report have been reinspected and that the system is safe. “We also took swift action to ensure that none of these deficiencies undermined the signal system’s safe operation or its underlying components,” NYC Transit Spokesman Charles Seaton said. “The signal system is safe.”
22 comments
i wonder how the union-bashers will spin this one
That’s fanTAstic. Mass transit is likened to the circulatory system of the city, except the lines doing it are unsustainable.
All the stories about this neglect to mention why the supervisors pressured people to falsify reports rather than pressuring them to actually inspect and maintain the signals. What were the incentives that made this happen?
Also, how is it that one guy has been demoted for this rather than all these supervisors being fired and charged with something like reckless endangerment? I hope that’s coming.
God forbid you make a union worker work like a non-union one – 15 signals a day and no overtime! Of course they couldn’t make them actually do the work, so they made them falsify reports instead.
I could also guess that employees have to drive around rather than take the subway to get to the signals, which slows down their work quite a bit.
Inspecting 15 signals in a tour is exactly what would warrant an investigation by the Inspector General. The IG knows how much time each inspection should take. Some managers and supervisors pressured maintainers to perform an exorbitant number of inspections that they know would be physically impossible to complete in a tour. This set off the red flags and led to the IG’s involvement.
The signal maintainer who quotes 15 signals in a tour, was that his average daily number, or an extreme case he is using to impress us? What if the average is, let’s say, 8? Also, how long does it take, on average, to inspect a signal, and how many signals are on the same platform/stretch of track? I don’t think we can tell if 15 inspections is actually possible or impossible to do in one tour.
Sure there’s a way. But it involves cultivating relationships with people who work at competent transit agencies. I don’t think anyone in this forum (and I’m including myself) could email someone at Tokyo Metro and expect a response.
Apples and oranges…does the Tokyo metro run 24/7 with 105 year old equipment?
Tokyo Metro runs with 80-year-old equipment; the oldest Tokyo Metro line is older than the IND. It doesn’t run 24/7, but it doesn’t matter, because the figures for signals per tour should not be affected, unless Tokyo Metro specifically says it speeds things up by having free access to both tracks at a time.
Who knows – could be that 5 signals per tour is the maximum achievable in any system. As I said, it’s impossible to know these things right now because nobody in New York can contact Tokyo Metro and ask about this. The what-worked-for-my-grandfather-works-for-me types don’t care, and the only reformer with any clout looks to London for inspiration.
The maximum workload is about five signals per tour. One signal requires a minimum of one hour to perform all safety tests. Add extra time if parts have to be replaced or adjusted.
The signal dept divides a subway line into sections. Sections are usually situated in interlockings. Interlockings are, for the most part, miles apart. Each section contains not only signals, but switches, relays etc. Equipment can number in the hundreds all requiring regular inspections and tests mandated by federal regulations. A section is usually manned by three signal workers. Presently, there are a few sections that are open (no workers) and some only have one or two workers. Believe it or not, there is a shortage of signal personnel. This in combination with the resent layoffs of provisional signal helpers and increased inspection requirements has just exacerbated the situation.
Please refer to the following article for another workers experience: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/l.....s0wgwESduO
Boris. While they’re inspecting signals trains have to slow down. Leading to late trains.
Poor supervisors are the main problem at all city and state agencies. They allow poor work performance and sometimes influence line workers to fake stuff. The problem is there is easy way for people further up the food chain to know what is going on other than to look at said supervisors work. Since the signals were built well they have been getting away with no properly inspecting signals.
Think of the bus operations. The guys who sit on the corner who write down what time buses pass often do not write down the actual time a bus passes but rather what make him look good. Any excuse he wanted can be used as a reason for a bus being late. Who would know if it was false. When GPS bus tracking and camera’s gets up and running you will see that on time buses on many lines will be the norm and not the exception. No longer can a driver say he is late due to a wheel chair rider when he actual left the bus to buy a coffee in route(have seen this multiple times on the B3)
Until proper management oversight is in place the quality of MTA operation will not improve
“Poor supervisors are the main problem at all city and state agencies.”
When huge groups of individuals perform poorly, the problem usually isn’t the individuals but the system that selects them and inspires their performance.
This is not to say that there are no individual bad apples, but when huge numbers of people do things you don’t like, the problem is generally that you have created incentives that will push almost all normal humans to behave in a way that you don’t actually want.
Hoo boy…the criminally inept Howard Roberts strikes again!
His bend over and grab your ankles approach to the Unions lead to almost impossible work rules, requiring double the amount of manpower to provide flagging protection to the workers required to do these inspections. Since in the Roberts regime, to disagree meant instant banishment, none of these managers could actually SAY that Howie’s work rule changes made the inspection schedule impossible, so they falsified.
Howard Roberts and lee Sanders should be taken away in shackles for thier complete decimation of NYCT.
When oh when will Ben come out publicly and say that his Hero Howie was a fraud?
I’m confused. Could you explain again how Roberts was the one responsible for requiring too many inspections in a shift. I thought he was pro-union.
No, Roberts increased the time each inspection took, therefore making the mandated number of inspections too many.
Maybe he should stop “banishing” managers and start firing them instead?
Wow a whole one employee who makes a cool $165k a year was demoted! Glad to see they are really taking the issue of putting rider’s lives in danger seriously. What exactly does it take to get someone fired!?!
Unfortunately, the reporting here sucks..the demoted ‘Supervisor’ was actually the head of the Signal department
That’s partly my fault because I haven’t been able to get my hands on the IG pre-report yet, but the Post and News didn’t make that clear.
This is seriousness enough that the head of the signal department as well as what ever manager he reports to should be FIRED!! They are not under union protection and should lose there jobs!
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