A man so fascinated with the city’s public transit system that he’s turned his life into a train wreck is in trouble again.

Darius McCollum, who became a New York sensation when he commandeered a subway at age 15, was arrested Saturday after police found him in a secure area of Manhattan’s Columbus Circle station wearing clothing that resembled a transit worker’s uniform.

The arrest marked the 23rd time the 43-year-old was arrested on charges of pretending to be a transit worker.

Over the years, he has donned MTA uniforms and cheerfully collected fares, cleared trash from tracks, put out underground fires.

But he’s also driven MTA buses and trains, including a time in 1981 when he made headlines as a teenager by taking the controls of a subway full of passengers and piloting it to the World Trade Center.

Hardly just a youthful prank, it was the first of many forbidden rides. By the mid-1990s, frustrated Transit Authority officials posted thousands of wanted posters in trains and stations so riders could report McCollum sightings. But most riders who ran into him found him simply friendly and helpful.

On Saturday, officers of the NYPD’s Transit Queens Task Force spotted McCollum as he entered a secure area. He was wearing a hardhat and the typical blue T-shirt and pants of track workers, and carried a flashlight and gloves with a Transit Authority logo.

Police said he also had “written material containing knowledge of the transit system.” McCollum was charged with criminal impersonation, criminal trespassing and criminal possession of burglar tools.

He was awaiting arraignment on Saturday. Calls to Manhattan Criminal Court went unanswered.

In a statement, the New York Transit Authority thanked the officers who made the arrest, saying, “It is not difficult to imagine how much harm could be caused by someone impersonating a New York City Transit worker.”

Everyday we New Yorkers ride the subways and have to face a whole lot of trials, just to get to work or get home. Yet however event though the conditions seem to get worse and worse (at certain stations mind you, cause it seems that some stations get a lot more attention) our fares get higher and higher. GO FIGURE!!!!

Well the people of the Straphangers Campaign came up with a list of the Ten Plagues that affect our subway system.

These are the subway curses of:

Personally i think they left out all the fermins that runaround like subway station mascots….

How about in your city? What are your Ten Plagues?

An initiative to put surveillance cameras onboard subway cars took another small step forward Monday as the MTA announced a pilot program to install cameras on two subway cars.

The prototype cars will be the new R160 model, now in service on the L, N, J, M and Z lines.

Transit officials say there is no timetable in place yet, but that the pilot could be underway late this year or early next.

A similar pilot is already underway on buses. About half the Manhattan bus fleet has been outfitted with cameras as part of a $5 million pilot program, which officials say has been successful in combating vandalism.

Also Monday, the MTA detailed a number of ways it can cut down on skyrocketing construction costs, like those that at the Fulton Street Transit Center, a project more than $350 million over budget. The recommendations were made by a blue-ribbon panel formed last year, and include changing the way the MTA awards contracts and creating a reserve fund to hedge against cost overruns.

“We are looking at breaking up the contracts into smaller pieces so we attract additional contractors,” said MTA Executive Director Elliot “Lee” Sander. “We’re working with the construction industry, with labor, in terms of ensuring we have as many people available in terms of the trades.”

The panel found many of the MTA’s cost overruns are due to factors outside of its control, like the devalued dollar, and increases in the cost of materials. The cost of steel, just as one example, is up 91 percent since 2003.

Someone forwarded this video to me today. With the caption :

HOW NOT TO CHOOSE YOUR BATTLES!!

I just thought i’d share it.