The Fragility of NYC Subway

> the trains wouldn’t run, because their motors couldn’t turn

Last I knew, the 600VDC which supplies the power to the motors was supplied separately from the lower voltage system and should not be affected by such problems.

> If signals (think “traffic lights”) have no power, running trains would be extremely dangerous, because two trains might try to occupy the same track at the same time.

This is false. The system is designed so that in the event of failure stopping a train is the default action. The signals automatically go to red, "stop arm" raises, basically opening a valve on the bottom of the train, and releasing the air in the braking system - bringing the train to a stop. Electricity is required to retain the stop arm. It was designed that way.

> Labor shortage. From Bloomberg: “A wave of pandemic retirements and a hiring freeze have left the system short on operators and conductors,

The pandemic accelerated the inevitable. As far as labor shortages, the subway has been running with more or less a skeleton crew for quite some time. With a workforce with a significant portion at or above retirement age, it's only going to get worse.