One of the baseline problems with the NYC subway system is that it operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which leaves no built in time for maintenance and repairs. So, instead of a planned shut down, for example, from midnight to 5am, that people would adjust to and be able to plan around, you get a hodgepodge of station closures, line disruptions or changes, and delays that cause riders to, basically, have to guess and hope that they can get where they're going, especially in the outer boroughs and on weekends and late nights.
And it has ever been thus. I moved to NYC in 1996 and it was the same then. |
