US:Flooding in New York's subway lines caused the morning commute to grind to a halt yesterday, angering New Yorkers who are facing rail and utility fee rises to support an ageing infrastructure.
Every subway line coming into Manhattan was affected by flooding after a severe storm before dawn ripped roofs off houses, caused power outages and triggered tornado warnings.
"Riders are stunned that the system is so vulnerable to rain," said Gene Russianoff, a spokesman for The Straphangers Campaign, a transit advocacy group. "It's not like we live in the Gobi Desert."
None of the city's subway lines were running at full capacity during the morning rush and several were shut down completely, New York state's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) spokesman Paul Fleuranges told local TV news.
Many people chose to work at home after the MTA urged New Yorkers to delay their travel until service was restored.
Tempers frayed as commuters packed onto overcrowded subway platforms hoping to catch a train. Flights from New York's La Guardia airport experienced average delays of more than an hour, while hundreds of commuters gathered at bus stops in Times Square.
"The infrastructure in New York is just getting so old. Some of the subways were built in 1904," said Fran Valerio, who was stuck on a subway.
"It's just like that steam pipe explosion," she added, referring to the explosion last month of an 83-year-old steam pipe in midtown Manhattan that killed one person and injured 20 others.
The explosion brought the ire of city officials down on its utility company, Consolidated Edison (ConEd), whose reputation was still suffering from a blackout in Queens last summer and a major outage in 2003.
In July, the MTA proposed increasing fares in early 2008 to raise $320 million (€232 million) in the face of looming budget shortfalls. ConEd filed a proposed electricity rate increase of nearly $2 billion in May.
Mr Russianoff said the MTA must fund infrastructure improvements. He blamed subway service problems on extreme weather and the old transport system.
"The MTA is dealing with more frequent harsh weather, but the writing is on the wall," he said. "This is not going to go away. They're not blind to it, but they're sort of overwhelmed."
The MTA could not be reached for comment. - (Reuters)