Holes

New holes have been discovered in the NYC subway system, which could lead to disruptions like those seen in the past few weeks as water infiltration short circuits electrical systems.

With a subway system as vast as New York City's, problems with infrastructure can be expected, but one has to worry that those problems could affect the safety and integrity of the system as a whole.

The 4, 5 and 6 lines were crippled March 16 three separate times after a hole near the 33rd Street station caused water to seep into the tunnel and destroy the cables that power the signal system.

TA President Larry Reuter told a City Council panel that inspection crews had seen the holes over the years, but "assumed it was part of a construction project."

City Councilman John Liu (D-Queens) said leaving four holes undetected for 12 years is troubling.

"Holes in a ceiling are problems," said Liu.

Transport Workers Union Local 100 claims the problems are a result of cutbacks in track inspection crews over the past two years.

Sorry to break it to Roger Touissant, head of the union, but the union has a big math problem. The union claims that cutbacks in track inspections are to blame for not finding the problems within the last two years. Problem is, that these issues went undetected for 12 years. That's a 10 year gap from the time those holes were first created to the point when they were finally detected. What is the excuse for that? The union can't place the blame on the MTA for that (though they'll try to do it anyway). The problem is that inspectors failed to detect these problems for more than a decade until the issue came to a head when one of those holes permitted water infiltration onto electrical systems, causing a massive headache for straphangers.

What other problems remain undetected because of failure to properly inspect the system's huge infrastructure?