Does NYC Care When Subway Delays Make Commuters Late for Work?

There are sometimes good reasons why your subway train is late. Isolated power outages and weather-induced delays can leave commuters stranded on platforms, and nothing can be done about it. Sometimes, though, as New Yorkers know all too well, the Metropolitan Transit Authority just can’t seem to run their jam-packed trains on time. The delays can jeopardize a worker’s job if punctuality is crucial. To help, the MTA created an online system where late commuters can request late-to-work slips to prove they didn’t just oversleep.

Sorry I'm late:

• The number of downloads of late forms has been increasing. In 2017, for example, a record 152,316 forms were accessed by commuters, up 97 percent from 2012. That computes to 3,173 forms per week.
• The MTA has admitted that its system of 27 subway lines serving 472 stations is a commuting nightmare. “There’s no question that delays on the subway are at an unacceptable level,” a spokesman said.
• In 2018, the New York Daily News found that the MTA had falsified its late reports. Faced with more than 10,000 unknown delays in January of that year, officials randomly assigned them to various categories.