New York subway network meltdown 'should be a lesson for London'

New York authorities have declared a state of emergency on the city’s transport network as a passenger group warned London to take action to avoid the same fate.

State governor Andrew Cuomo has allocated $1billion (£770m) to repair broken tracks that have caused a “Summer of Hell on railways.

Years of under investment and rocketing usage led to the breaking point on Tuesday when a subway train derailed during morning rush hour, injuring 39 people.

And it is not just the subways: Penn Station, the busiest train station in America, has mockingly been renamed “Pain Station” because tracks are being closed for repairs following a separate derailment.

Amtrak services on the busy Northeast corridor are being cut for maintenance work and New Jersey Transit commuter services are being rerouted, causing chaos for riders.

The subway however is the focus of anger in New York with every day bringing a new horror.

Earlier this month riders got stuck on the F train for an hour with no air conditioning and no lights.

Videos on social media showed people peeling off their clothes in the heat and writing “SOS” on the steamed up windows.

An investigation by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the publicly owned corporation which runs New York’s subways, found that the A train that derailed on Tuesday hit a rail that had been left between the tracks by rushed maintenance workers.

In a speech yesterday Mr Cuomo said that the “current state of decline is wholly unacceptable.”

He said the state of emergency will cut through red tape and allow the MTA to get money more easily.

The governor, who is in charge of the MTA - not the mayor, said he had given new MTA head Joe Lhota 90 days to do a review of transit power failures.

Despite the announcement campaigners blamed Mr Cuomo for backing flashy property developments during his seven years in office instead of basic but essential infrastructure for the subway.

Some equipment on the system dates back to the 1930s and needs craftsmen to manufacture the parts. C train carriages are 53 years old, the oldest in continuous daily operation in the world.

John Raskin, executive director of the Riders Alliance, a grassroots organisation of subway and bus riders, told the Standard: “It’s became a part of New Yorkers’ day to day lives they cannot predict when they will get to work or school because the subway system has become so unreliable.

“I have two words for London - preventative maintenance. It may not be sexy but it’s vitally important to invest in all the behind the scenes infrastructure that keeps the transit system running.”

New York subway system logged 1.7 billion rides last year, the highest since the 1940s.

London Underground, by comparison, has 1.3 billion rides a year in a city of 8.6 million, around the same size as New York.