Instead, he and his coworkers were stranded due to mass flooding from Hurricane Ida.

“Our job had no choice but to book a block of hotel rooms for all of us who got stuck because we had no way to get home,” Santiago said. “There were no taxis [or] Uber. Everything shut down.”

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is now enacting short and long-term plans to help keep the flooding to a minimum for New York residents, given the damage after Ida.

They pumped out 75 million gallons of water after Ida, said Acting Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the MTA Janno Lieber in a recent board meeting. Costs reported to the Federal Emergency Management Agency were estimated around $75-100 million, Lieber said. 

Nightmare at New York City subway! Passengers jumping through a gushing waterfall. Unbelievable! #Ida #Hurricane #NY #nycwx #NYC #flooding #nycsubway #Philadelphia #Nj #ViralVideo #climate #weather pic.twitter.com/G6ggHMIhsj

— pragiya (@ucatchpragiya) September 2, 2021

Like Santiago, Bushwick resident Alex Etling also struggled to get home during the flooding, although at first, he didn’t anticipate the severity of the damage.

“I was heading home on the L train, got off at the Jefferson stop, and heard the massive rush of water across the platform as soon as the doors opened,” Etling said. “I didn’t have a specific backup plan … The city so rarely shuts down the subway, I wasn’t expecting any major issues, though I likely should have given the severity of the storm.”

New pump trains, grouting, station ventilators, pump rooms and deep wells are some of the ways the MTA is working to reduce the flood damage, according to an MTA spokesperson. But New York residents aren’t confident anything will improve.

“I’ve told the MTA at least eight to 10 times about 36 Street’s ginormous leak like a waterfall, [and at] 86 Street, the flood waters [are] pushing the train to its side before entering the station,” Santiago said. “They never reply or just say ‘We’ll let station maintenance know’ and nothing changes.”

Over 20 subway lines were suspended due to the flood left in Ida’s wake. 

A torrent of water poured into a New York subway station Wednesday night as remnants of #HurricaneIda unleashed dangerous flash floods and tornadoes across the Northeast https://t.co/fYrX9zQKqi pic.twitter.com/ekke5dbANJ

— CNN (@CNN) September 2, 2021

“The subway system is not a submarine,” Lieber said. “It cannot be made impervious to water. We just need to limit how quickly it can get into the system and help the city to figure out how to do more drainage at the street level.”

As more rain fell, the city’s sewers could not contain the amount of water, and thus entered the subway system as a second sewage network, the MTA spokesperson said. 

“I love the subways but it’s really tough when it fails you and all they say is ‘Sorry’ and do it again,” Santiago said. “These issues are continuing to persist with no fix.” 

Before a flood or severe weather, the MTA prepares by placing pumps with portable generators and making sure ventilators are covered, according to the MTA. 

Additionally, the MTA has installed raised vent gratings and water flow moderators at 25 stations that have been hit consistently when storms happen. Vent cleaning has also been implemented in 40,000 locations as part of the MTA’s Subway Action Plan amounting to over $130 million. 

Santiago said the flooding has gotten worse, calling it a “toxic combination” of both climate change and wear and tear of the infrastructure.  

“There’s [electricity], there’s water, there’s rats, garbage,” he said. “This is dangerous … It’s beyond okay to just ignore the climate crisis and its effect on the MTA.”

Etling also blamed the floods’ severity on climate change. 

“The subway system in NYC is also very old, with many systems in disrepair and maintained with very old parts,” he said. “I think after [Hurricane] Sandy, flooding in the subway is taken more seriously, but overall, I don’t think New York City is adequately prepared for the effects of climate change.” 

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“I don’t think in the history of the MTA it’s seen anything close to the magnitude of what—from a financial perspective—the MTA is facing,” said Schwartz, in response to the Chief Financial Officer Robert Foran’s detailing of the agency’s fiscal crisis. 

Its operating budget, estimated at $17 billion for 2020, is projected to lose 45% of its funding, primarily due to the loss of ridership in the first half of the year. The $4 billion of emergency funding received from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) only covers a fraction of this deficit.

“If the federal government doesn’t come through with additional federal aid, the magnitude of this problem is just that much worse,” said Schwartz.

The MTA had already braced for a loss of funding for other projects, namely its groundbreaking 2020-2024 Capital Program, a $51 billion undertaking that aims to revamp much of the outdated transit systems in the city and the state. But as the meeting wore on, it became clear that more needed to be done.

“Right now our focus is on the $3.9 billion to get us through 2020,” said Patrick Foye, Chairman and CEO of the MTA. “The immediate deficit and the immediate financial crisis.”

The MTA’s future is as clear as this subway tunnel. Photo by Daniel Girma

The MTA capital programs, multi-year initiatives that cover a wide array of projects, have a complicated funding process. It is a delicate balance between allocating its own revenue, borrowing, and securing funding from the federal, state, and municipal governments. The 2015-19 Capital Program, which cost $29 billion, was covered mostly by MTA revenue and an $8.3 billion commitment from Governor Andrew Cuomo. 

But the 2020-24 program, over $20 billion more than the previous one, was expecting to get a large boost from NYC’s congestion pricing tax, as new internet tax and estate tax for mansions. This, along with the other conventional funding sources, have been completely upended by the shutdown. 

The crisis doesn’t stop there. Even projects that were initiated under the previous capital program and slated to continue under the current program have been affected by the loss in revenue.

“The 20-24 program as well as a great deal of the remaining 15-19 work is essentially on hold,” said Janno Lieber, Chief Development Officer of the agency. “Flagship programs in the capital program are being delayed.” 

Among these are the vital accessibility upgrades that would provide access to 70 stations across the city for its disabled residents.

“That initiative, which was well along in procurement before the covid crisis hit, is on hold,” said Lieber.

There have been some bright spots. The drop in ridership and new late-night closing of the subway has allowed for the acceleration of station and tunnel repairments across the system.

“We were able to identify opportunities to get more access to work areas and extended outages,” said Lieber. “But those are frankly exceptions.”

With endemic funding all but dried up, board members admitted that the agency would have to start prioritizing projects in order to stay afloat.

“One of the suggestions I’m going to make is that the MTA start breaking things down in various categories on what is essential and what is deemed non-essential,” said Schwartz. “It’s going to end up being a combination of things, and all of those things are going to be tough and hard to implement and approve.” 

Schwartz stressed that fares could not be increased, and that the agency should not apply for loans to cover the deficit. 

“I don’t think we can borrow our way out  of this problem,” he said.

Board members continuously emphasized the necessity for more federal support. The Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act (HEROES), a follow up relief bill that passed the House in May, promises nearly $15.75 billion in aid for public transportation, with $11.75 billion dedicated for cities of over 3 million people. State legislators from both sides of the aisle have voiced their support for the bill.Representatives 

“Eighteen  of the most prominent New York State republican elected officials signed a letter to senate leader Mitch Mcconnell arguing that the HEROES Act or any COVID relief bill must include adequate money for the MTA,” said Lieber. “This is truly a bipartisan issue.”

With the HEROES Act stalled in the senate, some in the agency fear catastrophic consequences if funding is not secured.

“If we don’t get HEROES funding or something similar pretty soon, we are moving closer and closer to a fiscal cliff,” said Lieber. “Broadly speaking, we are in dire straits.”

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It was 12:45 a.m. Sunday and Darryl Kelly’s nine-hour shift at a Walgreens in Flushing, Queens had just ended. His backpack was stuffed with his work vest, battery pack and snacks that he will munch on as he makes his way to Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Now, he sat in a McDonald’s a block away peering out the window to watch for his bus to Jamaica Station. If he misses the 1 a.m. Q25, the next one won’t arrive for another 30 minutes—and that’s only the first leg of the journey. From there he must transfer to the J train to Broadway Junction, then take the A train to Nostrand Avenue. When he gets off, he still has a 10-minute walk to his doorstep.

Kelly, 34, makes this 2-hour trip twice every weekend.

“Honestly, I hate my voyage, I wouldn’t mind working so far from home if I had a reliable transit service to get me home in a timely manner,” Kelly said. “When I finally make it to the J train at Jamaica, I have to take a shuttle bus to the A train, I just be wanting to get home.”

For many New Yorkers who work after the MTA’s peak hours of 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., it’s a hassle to get home. Trains and buses slow down their service, with the former making only local stops and the latter running 30 minutes apart at best.

“When it is so late at nights you have to be precise in all transit decisions you make,” Kelly said. “One false judgment of time and missing your bus or connection could mean another hour of travel or getting home later.”

According to MTA data, ridership is at its lowest from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. — and that’s when the transit authority uses the time for station and track maintenance.

With the subway system in need of repair, the only way to improve the system is to shut down major portions of it. MTA president Andy Byford has called for a sweeping $40 billion plan to install modern signals on several lines, meaning stations will be closed on most nights and weekends for the next two and a half years.

In light of this, Kelly, who is a manager at Walgreens, said he’s asked his bosses about working closer to home. But he is also at the disposal of his company, and where he is needed is where he has to go.

“I know that not a lot of people ride the trains and buses at night or what MTA officials might consider peak times, but some of us still do,” Kelly said. “We have to get home just like everyone during the day.”

“An Uber or Lyft would cost me like over $30  to get from Queens to Brooklyn,” he added, noting that he lives too far away to take a for-hire vehicle to his doorsteps. “That’s a part of my budget I can’t add as an expense. I’m stuck with the MTA.”

According to the MTA, workers have started to upgrade signals on the Queens Boulevard line from Rockefeller Center in Manhattan to Kew Gardens in Queens. The F train in Brooklyn and the 8th Avenue line in Manhattan are next.

“During station closings on nights and weekends, riders could have other options like extra buses,” said an MTA spokesperson in an email. “Because the system is so large and interconnected, there are often alternate subway lines nearby.”

This is not always the case in far-flung corners of the city.

For straphanger Angie DeJesus, the late-night commute from where she works in Jamaica, Queens to her Lower East Side apartment is already a struggle. She must wait for buses and a train that never arrives on time. DeJesus lives where New Yorkers call her area a transit desert. No trains run close by and limited bus service.

DeJesus 25, who works at a Blink Fitness until close at 11pm,

“I want to move to an area that’s like closer to more shops and trains and like closer to a hub,” DeJesus said. “But that cost money. It’s already expensive in this city, so I live where I can afford too. Just sucks that a city works against the lesser man.”

Joe Cutrufo, a spokesman for the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, which fights to improve public transit, said the city must provide alternatives to trains if they plan to shut down subway lines for night repairs.

“[One option is to] have dedicated bus lanes whose sole purpose is to bus transit riders from point A to B,” he said. “Especially at nights when there is no traffic, utilize bus services to pick up the slack where subways might be closed of going through repairs.”

She bounced around from workforce programs looking for a job. She took the first one that looked past her record and hired her.

DeJesus, who plead guilty to burglary charges in 2015 and served three years for the crime, said she is very thankful for the job she has. Without late night busses and subways, she’d lose the gig and her sense of independence.

“I know that the entire transit system is old, and they need repairs, but they have to be considerate of everyone riding the trains and all hours of the day,” she said. “This is supposed to be the city that never sleeps right, then our subway shouldn’t sleep either.”

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Last Thursday, the MTA board postponed their vote to increase Metrocard fares to $3. The board will cast their vote in February, leaving some New Yorkers irritated by the impending hike.

“They’ve been increasing the fare at a steady pace, which is ridiculous to begin with,” said Vanessa Sooknanan, 31 of Brooklyn.

Sooknanan, an elementary school teacher, said that she hasn’t seen any improvements in the MTA.

“They’re not improving their services. So why are you asking for more money?” she asked.

The MTA is considering two fare hike proposals. One would include increasing the base Metrocard fare from $2.75 to $3. The other option would keep the base fare at $2.75 and eliminate the purchasing bonus.

If approved, the changes could be implemented in April 2019.

The MTA board and Gov. Andrew Cuomo decided to delay the vote to explore more options.  

Although the MTA is proposing a higher fare, they’re also considering service cuts like reducing transit service or the number of cleanings of subway cars.

Martin Caceres, 39 , also an elementary school teacher, said that he understands the need for the increase in fares. He lives by the 2/3 line and finds it reliable to get to work. “NYC happens to have one of the oldest train systems in the world – going back to like early 1904,” Caceres said.

“We have so many different train lines. So, as much as I don’t want them to hike up the price, it’s a very expensive system to maintain. I see both sides. ”

He believes that riders often cause the delays and it’s less of a mechanical issue.

Yovanna Ramirez, 22, of Inwood said that the hike will only waste her money and time.

“I’d prefer to have my own car, instead of buying unlimited metrocards every month,” Ramirez said. “I’m dying to get my permit because I can’t take it anymore.”

She said that the 1 train constantly has delays, which she takes to the Upper West Side for work.

“It gets me so stressed out – thinking I should have left my house earlier,” she said.

Other New Yorkers have opted to relieve themselves of the mental stress by paying a hefty price tag.

“I completely stopped using the MTA a year ago because it’s so horrible,” said Rene Fagundo, 37, of the Bronx.

“Ubers are more expensive than metrocards, but it’s worth it.”

Fagundo said that he pays an average of $60 a day to get to work in Manhattan from the Bronx.

“You get to talk to your cabbie, play music, and it’s cleaner,” he said. “You get door-to-door service.”

Fagundo doesn’t see the MTA fixing their delays in the near future. He believes that riders have no choice but to pay for bad service – even if it means 25 more cents.

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As the MTA works to repair damage done to the New York City subway system, city residents wonder how they can trust an organization known for delayed trains, behind-schedule projects, and patchwork repair jobs.

“The real question for here is not what they’re doing now to improve infrastructure that’s been long neglected,” said Daniel Nauxe, a small-business owner who lives on 11th Street and Avenue A. “The real question is, where is this going to be in five years, 10 years, 20 years, 50 years? This is not far-thinking. This is Band-aid thinking.”

In July 2018, it was reported  that just over 65 percent of weekday subway trains were arriving at stations on time. These trains, ridden by over five and a half million commuters on weekdays, were regularly delayed by mechanical problems and “major incidents,” which are issues that delay 50 or more trains, according to the MTA.

Andy Byford, President of the New York City Transit Authority, who has worked in transit organizations in England, Australia, and Canada, presented an ambitious plan to overhaul the subway system in May 2018. The plan, which focused on making major upgrades and speeding up the rollout of the signal system, would cost nearly $37 billion, according to Business Insider, and would require stations to close on nights and weekends for up to two and half years.

The plan, called ‘Fast Forward,’ is currently on hold, due to political clashes between New York City and New York State. Mayor Bill de Blaiso suggested that the state of New York was ultimately responsible for the state of the MTA and indicated that he would not be interested in funding it, according to the New York Times. In July, Governor Andrew Cuomo suggested that the city and state each pay for half of the repairs. No agreement has been reached to fund the plan; in the meantime, the MTA has been implementing an $800 million rescue plan designed to improve subway service in the immediate term. One part of this plan is the shutdown of the L-Train between Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn and 8th Avenue in Manhattan, which will allow the MTA to make necessary repairs to the Canarsie Tunnel.

While the MTA and Department of Transportation have been preparing for the L-Trian shutdown since 2016, New Yorkers are worried about the effects it will have on their commutes and neighborhoods. Supplemental buses will run through Lower Manhattan, and commuters will also be encouraged to bicycle to work. Multiple new bike lanes have been installed on 12th and 13th Street; the CitiBike program has also been expanded. The MTA has stated that these bus lanes and bike routes are temporary, but residents of Lower Manhattan are concerned they may be permanent.

“Everything they’re doing, they want to make permanent,” said Ken Ettinger, who lives on 13th Street. “Although they don’t say that, that’s not what they say, they’ll never undo it. They’re making the changes that they want because they want them, not because there’s any reason to make the changes.”

While Byford called some parts of the project “legacy items” that will remain after the repairs are completed, the items he listed included subway trains with more cars attached and larger and more accessible subway stations, making no mention of the bus routes or lanes. He also said that while the L-Train is being repaired, the stations it stops at will also be altered so that they will be more effective in the future.

Ettinger also pointed out that while the tunnel repairs are not supposed to begin until April 2019, he had seen construction already beginning, more than six months before the project was supposed to start.

“We are starting some of the work right now, and the reason for that is, we have a construction season and we need to get some of the work done on the surface streets before the weather turns cold and the snow starts falling,” said Polly Trottenberg, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation.

Commuters are also expected to have no weekend service on the L line for 15 weeks before the line is shut down in April so the MTA can complete necessary maintenance work and track improvements. However, the project timeline has been shortened from an initial estimate of 18 months, after contractor Judlau Construction Corp. promised to get the job done in 15 months.

However, the contractor has had problems with the subway system before, finishing work on the Second Avenue Subway several months behind schedule, and has been repeatedly behind on work deadlines for Cortlandt Station, which only reopened earlier this month.

“If we don’t take action, the tunnel will end up closing anyway, because it wouldn’t be safe,” said Byford. “We need to get on with [the repairs], and make this tunnel good for future generations, and to make resilient. The program dates are 15 months long, and the contractor is heavily incentivized to do it quicker than that, and equally, heavily penalized, by the day, if they don’t meet that target.”

Smaller repairs are also a problem for the MTA. As of 2017, more than half of the subway’s signal replacement projects were delayed, according to NY1. Other plans for repairs, including renovations to eight subway stations, were delayed due to another dispute between the State of New York and New York City over funding.

“New York City has an amazing subway system that has suffered from decades of underinvestment in new subway cars, failure to modernize the signal system, and the need to upgrade the stations and track,” said Mitchell Moss, director of the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management. “The challenge NYC faces is that we cannot start all over. The city has 8.6 million people and most live in proximity to transportation systems.”

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Gridlocked vehicles idle in the streets of Lower and Midtown Manhattan all day every day to the tune of blaring horns. Below the concrete, the human traffic is just as congested as commuters wait for delayed subway trains to arrive.

The city may have a plan to fix this that could either soar or fall flat.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is backing the city’s latest proposal to raise money for the MTA — congestion pricing. Vehicles entering Manhattan between 60^th Street and Battery Park between the Hudson River and the East River will face a fee during rush hours. Cars will be charged $11.52, and trucks or commercial vehicles will owe $25.34. Supporters say this could potentially alleviate gridlock by discouraging drivers while raising money to fix the failing subway system.

“There is no doubt that we need to address the undeniable, growing problem of traffic congestion in Manhattan’s central business district,” Cuomo tweeted. “We need a real, feasible plan that will pass the legislature to raise money for MTA improvements, without raising rider fares.”

Tolls must be fair and shouldn’t vary widely. We need to reduce the costs for outer borough bridges.

As a Queens boy, it is my priority to keep costs down for all hard working New Yorkers, and encourage the use of mass transit.

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) January 19, 2018

But subway commuter Samantha Small, 31, of Jackson Heights, Queens does not think that congestion pricing is a good idea.

“At the moment I believe the 59th Street Bridge connecting Queens to Manhattan is the only free way to enter the city via car,” said Small as she waited for the N train at Times Square. “We live in this city and we literally have to pay to go from point A to point B any other means besides on foot. I’m sure raising funds for the MTA will help if they can fix signal problems and do track work, but it will also make the trains more crowded with the same issues because these delays cannot be fixed overnight.”

Dan Brusaferro, 24, of Bedford Stuyvesant stood on the uptown A,C,E platform at West Fourth Street in Manhattan. He believes congestion pricing is a good idea.

“I’m all for the congestion pricing because MTA needs to raise more money to apply to subway improvements,” said Brusaferro. “The crowding from more people possibly taking the subway would eventually be balanced out by the increased amounts of trains the MTA would be able to provide.”

Dan Brusaferro of Bedford Stuyvesant waits for the A train. Photo by Lauren Garry

With more service issues than ever before, commuters are unhappy with mass transit. The MTA acknowledges the subpar service on its website and tries to reassure New Yorkers that there is a plan of action to improve the system.

The MTA did not respond to a request for comment.

But these improvement plans are not helping commuters. Many of them are spending hours a day on the subway.

“I take the D train to commute every day to Manhattan from Brooklyn,” said Wioletta Bujak, 40, of Borough Park, Brooklyn. “Many times there are delays. I go to Manhattan at 4:00 a.m. and go back to Brooklyn around 1:30 p.m. Heading back home the train service is worse. The trains come only every 20 minutes. It takes me two hours one way.”

 Long waits between train arrivals are a common complaint from subway riders.

“Brooklyn doesn’t get enough service in the early mornings,” said Brusaferro. “There is a train every 25 minutes. That’s crazy. And because of that the trains are packed when they finally do come.”

At least part of the congestion pricing plan is expected to be in the state budget presented in April.

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On a rainy Wednesday afternoon in Midtown Manhattan, 56-year-old Paul Frelich struck a pose familiar to New Yorkers. He stood on a curb, stared at his phone, and glanced up now and then, expectantly searching for an Uber driver to whisk him away. Ironically, his car was delayed due to the sea of other drivers responding to their own requests from phone applications.

Still, he would rather take Uber than public transportation.

“It’s way more convenient,” Frelich said. “I know when it’s coming so it’s easier to use.”

People like Frelich are exactly who Bruce Schaller, the former Deputy Commissioner for Traffic and Planning, discussed yesterday afternoon at the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council. He worries that New Yorkers who ditch traditional public transportation in favor of ride hailing apps are increasing traffic congestion and, ultimately, hurting the city’s economy.

“The problem is that the interest of the individual and the interest of society have gotten out of alignment,” Schaller said. “It’s a tragedy of the commons.”

Schaller’s research showed that people expect more readily available, reliable, transparent and comfortable modes of transportation than in the past. More than anything, most simply want to get to their destination as quickly as possible. With frequent breakdowns on subways and unreliable bus schedules, would-be mass transit users are instead ordering cars with mobile applications or even riding their bikes.

“It’s not like they have the best dressed drivers, or the ones that speak the best English, or the fanciest, shiniest cars,“ he said. “What they’ve done is they’ve taken all the stress points and they tried to squeeze out all the stress.”

Countdown clocks, bus lanes and off-board fare collection all help ease the stress of mass transit riders, but app-based ride services erase it almost completely by ensuring their users have access to the vehicle’s current location, the shortest route, and a simple payment system.

Especially now that more people than ever are utilizing features like UberPool and apps like Via and Chariot that are explicitly intended for ride sharing, he sees the negative implications for the economy to be immediate.

“Transportation network company fares do not reflect the costs to the public in increased traffic delay, emissions and potentially safety,” Schaller wrote in a February 2017 report. “These costs are very real, driving up costs of bus operations, freight movement, goods delivery and provision of on-site services.”

Still, the MTC acknowledge that these ride-share services fill a crucial gap in the transportation needs of citizens that they cannot fill. In the far reaches of the outer boroughs where subway and bus services are spotty or nonexistent, applications like Uber and Lyft can fill the void.

“Uber is (a) right-away car,” said Rakibu Zaman a 49-year-old Uber driver from Queens. “If somebody’s drunk, they cannot drive. If somebody’s too tired, they cannot walk or take a train. If they call an Uber, they can catch it right away.”

Rather than add more regulations to app-based ride services, Schaller’s conclusion for the Metropolitan Transit Council is perhaps most clearly stated in his report. He simply wants the MTA to make mass transit more enjoyable and reliable for riders instead of funding projects like building more elaborate stations to attract users.

“Doing so will be a far more beneficial use of scarce public funds than focusing on one expensive element … however imaginative and highly visible those projects may seem,” he wrote.

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