Take Your Time Getting to Work Because NYC Will Totally Write You a Note If Your Train Is Delayed

New York commuters are already forced to trudge through the dirty subway, marching in an overcrowded herd of people pouring into train cars. So when you add snow, which subsequently always results in train delays, commutes couldn’t really get much worse.

But the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is making up for the dreaded automated sound of “train traffic” announcements by issuing late notes for New Yorkers stuck in the hellish limbo between subway stops.

The MTA has doled out more than 250,000 notes since the service first began in June of 2010, the New York Times reports. Passengers need only provide their subway line, times and locations of entering and exiting the train and the MTA will issue a response. In October commuters took more than 165 million trips and the authority responded to more than 8,200 late note requests, according to preliminary agency data.

But the life hack isn’t perfect. Not shockingly, the late note could take up to days to receive, meaning you still have to tell your boss the perennial sob story about train delays.

Meanwhile, commuters on the London Underground are actually paid for their time. The British transit authority goes as far as to refund passengers if delays exceed 15 minutes “for reasons within our control.”

Wouldn’t that be nice.

[NYT]