Fifty-three years after being introduced as the bright, shining beacon of the Big Apple's bustling future, New York City's C train cars are barely chugging along. With passengers facing ever-increasing delays and service suspensions in the city's subway system, the train cars, "the oldest in continuous daily operation in the world," now serve as a metaphor for the city's — and the country's — tangled transportation conundrum, The New York Times noted Tuesday:
As increasing delays and other problems in the city's subway system have reached a breaking point, the story of why New York, the economic capital of the world, employs subway cars long past their expiration date is illustrative of many issues plaguing the region's transit infrastructure and why fixes are hard. The tale of the Brightliners, and how difficult it has been to replace them, perfectly exemplifies the challenges, missed opportunities, and lack of resolve — both political and financial — that have caused the system to arrive at the verge of collapse. [The New York Times]
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