What to Know
- Amid subway delays Thursday morning, one woman in Brooklyn was especially distressed as she screamed on a stuck train, video shows
- She wailed, "I'm gonna be LAAAAATE!" then proceeded to scream about having to get to her internship
- Other riders appeared momentarily startled; one bystander on the platform is heard muttering, "This woman needs to chill"
The panicked wail heard around the subway station could easily have been the rallying cry of so many New Yorkers taking the subway on any given day: "I'M GONNA BE LAAAAATE!"
Sports writer Adena Andrews captured the commuter's startling scream while stuck at the Nostrand Avenue C train platform in Brooklyn Thursday morning. A police investigation was delaying trains on the A and C lines, and Andrews, standing on the platform, recorded video of a packed subway car with its doors open during the morning rush.
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Suddenly, the anguished wail rings out, alarming straphangers. Andrews said the screaming woman was buried inside the crowded car, so she couldn't see her.
But everyone could definitely hear her. Someone on the platform is heard muttering, "This woman needs to chill."
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The hysterical rider continues, screaming, "I've gotta get to my internship!"
By then, it appears her fellow commuters have settled back into their bored subway stares and are unfazed as she continues to lash out. An MTA conductor announces over the loudspeaker that the train is delayed because of a police investigation at another station along the line.
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This does not appease the late intern. She screams in response, "I hate police investigations, I HATE IT!"
"It's VERY ANNOYING," she cries.
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Andrews said she waited on the subway platform for about 30 minutes before giving up on the train. She regularly gets delayed from her subway stop at Nostrand Avenue, and the commute's gotten so bad that she says she's decamping for New Jersey.
"My commute is the worst part of my day sometimes," she said. "I'm a native New Yorker so leaving for New Jersey is hard."
Crowded, delayed subway trips have become the unfortunate norm for New Yorkers, a symptom of decades-long neglect in the transit system. The frustration was evident in a recent live Twitter Q-and-A with the new chief of NYC Transit, Andy Byford.
A sweeping $836 million plan to stabilize the subway was announced last summer, and Byford says he's working to upgrade signals, switches and other equipment, along with renovating old stations and improving communication among operations, rail control and customers.
