From the submitted piece, "For a delayed rider wondering whom to blame, it’s tempting to begin with the people you can see, the 7,000 or so men and women — tra

From the submitted piece, "For a delayed rider wondering whom to blame, it’s tempting to begin with the people you can see, the 7,000 or so men and women — track cleaners, inspectors, flaggers and other orange-vested M.T.A. employees — charged with preventing these incidents and keeping the trains moving. ... No matter how diligent they may be, 7,000-odd orange-vested maintenance workers are simply not enough to keep the deteriorating system — with its 665 miles of passenger-carrying track, enough to reach all the way to Indianapolis — on schedule. All the real problems must begin elsewhere, further up the chain of command. The rest of the piece is an argument against the "obvious" explanation and for more systems-based explanation.