New York City's subway has come a long way since the days of crime and graffiti in the 1980s. But it still lags behind other major city's underground systems.
New York authorities and lawmakers are aware the subway needs a significant upgrade.
But even the recently-announced trillion dollar government plan to update the country's "crumbling" infrastructure is unlikely to benefit New York.
Nick Harper reports from New York.
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-natsound - subway
The sounds of a struggling subway system.
-natsound - subway
The clatters and squeals are instantly recognizable to New York City's 5.7 million daily subway riders.
-natsound - subway
But while it's the busiest subway system in the Western Hemisphere, it's also one of the oldest.
Leaving New Yorkers less than impressed.
VOXES
"Oh my gosh, certainly they need to be cleaned more and on time."
"People are frustrated, and what do you do if you'r frustrated? You take it out on pother people."
"There's too much construction going on, all the time."
Transport experts like Sarah Kaufman, a Professor of Planning at the Rudin Center for Transportation at New York University, feel things need to change, and change quickly.
SOT - Kaufman - "It's relying on technology that's over a hundred years old. It needs to be overhauled, it's been neglected for decades."
Kaufman recognizes that the system, while still the biggest in the US, is now starting to run off the rails.
SOT - Kaufman - "New York has a fantastic subway system, it runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it's almost never shut down. At the same time New York's subway is technologically ages behind other system, like those in Singapore and Beijing. And we are still far behind in terms of how we operate and upgrade our equipment."
New York's subway opened in 1904 with just two privately owned lines.
Now with more than 420 stations the system has grown almost beyond the city's control.
Here's Owen Gutfreund, Professor of Urban Policy and Planning, Hunter College.
SOT - Gutfreund - "The root structure has not kept up with the growth of the city. There are millions more residents than when these roots were originally planned, so there are many neighborhoods that are not served. But the other thing that's a problem that's been growing that all subway riders in New York City are aware of is that maintenance has fallen off. Repairing switches, repairing signals, maintaining the fleet of cars. The nuts and bolts are getting a little bit too loose."
The Trump administration has laid out a $1.5 trillion dollar national infrastructure plan, to update aging roads, rails and bridges.
But only $200 billion will be federally funded. Leaving planners like Gutfreund feeling cheated.
SOT - Gutfreund - "A whole bunch of smoke and mirrors. It's a $200 billion dollar plan which is actually less than we'd been spending on infrastructure previously. So under the guise of a new infrastructure initiative it's really a continued federal withdrawal from funding infrastructure throughout the country."
And that he says means the New York subway system won't benefit from the new funding.
On top of that local plans to renovate 33 stations have been shelved.
The silver lining - a planned $4 billion dollar spend to acquire a thousand new subway cars is still on track.
But the major overhaul many New Yorkers feel their subway system needs is far from full steam ahead.
SOC
ENDS
New York authorities and lawmakers are aware the subway needs a significant upgrade.
But even the recently-announced trillion dollar government plan to update the country's "crumbling" infrastructure is unlikely to benefit New York.
Nick Harper reports from New York.
IN: "The sounds..."
OUT: SOC
DUR: 3:07
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ICRT: http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/0221subway-nyc-nh-icrt.mp3
NIGERIA: http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/0221subway-nyc-nh-von.mp3
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VATICAN: http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/0221subway-nyc-nh-vat.mp3
ZIZ: http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/0221subway-nyc-nh-ziz.mp3
SABC: http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/0221subway-nyc-nh-sabc.mp3
-natsound - subway
The sounds of a struggling subway system.
-natsound - subway
The clatters and squeals are instantly recognizable to New York City's 5.7 million daily subway riders.
-natsound - subway
But while it's the busiest subway system in the Western Hemisphere, it's also one of the oldest.
Leaving New Yorkers less than impressed.
VOXES
"Oh my gosh, certainly they need to be cleaned more and on time."
"People are frustrated, and what do you do if you'r frustrated? You take it out on pother people."
"There's too much construction going on, all the time."
Transport experts like Sarah Kaufman, a Professor of Planning at the Rudin Center for Transportation at New York University, feel things need to change, and change quickly.
SOT - Kaufman - "It's relying on technology that's over a hundred years old. It needs to be overhauled, it's been neglected for decades."
Kaufman recognizes that the system, while still the biggest in the US, is now starting to run off the rails.
SOT - Kaufman - "New York has a fantastic subway system, it runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it's almost never shut down. At the same time New York's subway is technologically ages behind other system, like those in Singapore and Beijing. And we are still far behind in terms of how we operate and upgrade our equipment."
New York's subway opened in 1904 with just two privately owned lines.
Now with more than 420 stations the system has grown almost beyond the city's control.
Here's Owen Gutfreund, Professor of Urban Policy and Planning, Hunter College.
SOT - Gutfreund - "The root structure has not kept up with the growth of the city. There are millions more residents than when these roots were originally planned, so there are many neighborhoods that are not served. But the other thing that's a problem that's been growing that all subway riders in New York City are aware of is that maintenance has fallen off. Repairing switches, repairing signals, maintaining the fleet of cars. The nuts and bolts are getting a little bit too loose."
The Trump administration has laid out a $1.5 trillion dollar national infrastructure plan, to update aging roads, rails and bridges.
But only $200 billion will be federally funded. Leaving planners like Gutfreund feeling cheated.
SOT - Gutfreund - "A whole bunch of smoke and mirrors. It's a $200 billion dollar plan which is actually less than we'd been spending on infrastructure previously. So under the guise of a new infrastructure initiative it's really a continued federal withdrawal from funding infrastructure throughout the country."
And that he says means the New York subway system won't benefit from the new funding.
On top of that local plans to renovate 33 stations have been shelved.
The silver lining - a planned $4 billion dollar spend to acquire a thousand new subway cars is still on track.
But the major overhaul many New Yorkers feel their subway system needs is far from full steam ahead.
SOC
ENDS