Mayor de Blasio Accidentally Sends Email About Delayed Train to NY Times Reporter

An email accidentally sent to a New York Times reporter revealed that Mayor de Blasio experienced a common frustration faced by many New Yorkers: a delayed subway train.

The mayor chided the head of his police department security detail after he waited 20 minutes for a delayed train while heading to a speaking engagement at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in midtown Monday afternoon, according to the Times.

The email was only intended to go to city hall staffers, but it appears the mayor accidentally included one of the newspaper’s reporters as a recipient.

In the email, with the subject line “2 problems today,” de Blasio reportedly detailed a 20-minute wait for a train amid major delays. When he decided to leave the station rather than keep waiting, the team that normally drives him around the city in a NYPD-issued SUV was nowhere to be found.

“The detail drove away when we went into the subway rather than waiting to confirm we got on a train,” de Blasio wrote in the email. “We need a better system.”

The Times reported that de Blasio asked his staff to stay abreast of possible delays the next time he takes public transportation, suggesting they coordinate with the MTA or the NYPD’s traffic division.

“Let’s cross-check our info with them when I take the subway,” de Blasio wrote. “This is a fixable prob.”

The email from de Blasio, who has become notorious for being late to events, including a Sept. 11 ceremony last year that he said he had trouble reaching because of fog, comes as the city plans to increase the funding for the city's mass transit system despite increasing delays and overcrowding.

The city promised to devote $125 million a year for the next five years to the MTA, which, when combined with a $32 million city match to a federal grant, will match the $657 million in capital contributions the authority requested in the fall.

MTA chairman Tom Prendergrast wrote a letter to the mayor Monday asking the amount be more than doubled, to $300 million a year. 

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