‘The Trains Are Slower Because They Slowed the Trains Down’

In 1995, a Manhattan-bound J train crossing the Williamsburg Bridge rear-ended an M train, killing the J train operator and injuring more than fifty passengers. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has run the trains at suboptimal speeds ever since, while publicly blaming the systemwide slowdown on budget cuts and euphemisms for overcrowding. Village Voice transit reporter Aaron Gordon traces how the response to this single accident two decades ago set New York City’s transit system on a path to disaster.