Seasoned commuters know weekend subway travel means slow trains and longer waits on platforms.

"I usually leave 15 to 20 minutes early and I get there on time or early and keep it safe," weekend commuter Dee Simpson said. "I like to remain stress free."

But even carefully planned trips can still be frustrating.

What You Need To Know

  • Jose LaSalle is a long-time MTA official who was appointed weekend subway service czar in September

  • He and a senior bus official ride through the transit system to make sure trains move through construction zones and connect with shuttle buses

  • Weekend subway ridership rebounded from the pandemic faster than weekday ridership

"The C train only comes only once every 10 minutes, so sometimes if you miss the window you could get really screwed," said Nick Daley, another weekend straphanger.

Jose LaSalle, the MTA's weekend subway service czar, wants to make these trips better.

“In real time, we'll find areas that we can make improvements," LaSalle said.

Since he took the job in September, LaSalle and his deputy from the bus department ride the rails on weekends to troubleshoot unnecessary service delays.

On a recent Sunday, LaSalle spotted an A train that had been waiting to leave the station at 59th Street-Columbus Circle for five minutes.

"What's the delay here?" he asked an MTA employee.

He told his deputy to call the MTA's Rail Control Center to find out the cause of the delay. And soon after that call, the train blares its horn and pulls out of the station.

Perhaps most difficult for LaSalle is the need to balance train speeds and the safety of track workers, who are protected by construction flaggers.

"Can we limit the amount of flagging taking place? Can we move the flagging if they’re done working in a section? Can we move them to somewhere else? So we’ll look for that and we’ll make changes to that, on the fly," LaSalle said.\

Speeding up trains through work zones has been a difficult effort for MTA management.

In 2018, the MTA spent $161,500 on a barrier system to use in work zones. A 2019 service memo states that "flaggers are not required" when the barriers are in use and "train operators will operate at the maximum speed allowed for the area."

Sources told NY1 that union officials pushed back, and the barriers are rarely used, more often than not collecting dust in storage.

An MTA spokesman countered, saying these barriers are still deployed, and allow the MTA to cut back on the number of flaggers on the tracks.

Since LaSalle was appointed as weekend subway czar, more than 80% of weekend trains run on time -- above average performance.

Even with that achievement, he's not above helping wayward straphangers who stop to ask him for directions.