MTA Offers Excuse Notes for Delayed Riders

"Since June 2010, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has given more than 250,000 such notes, titled Subway Delay Verification, to riders, determining whether their trains had in fact come in behind schedule, or if, perhaps, the agency had been unjustly scapegoated by a harried commuter," reports Matt Flegenheimer.

"Passengers are asked to provide information like their subway line and the times and locations of their entries and exits," he explains. "And then, maybe hours later, maybe days, the authority returns with its judgment — the transit equivalent of a doctor’s note, if a bit more bewildering."

"Forms, to be presented eventually to bosses or clients, have been solicited by employees of the Museum of Modern Art and the New York Police Department, medical trainees who sleep in and actresses with appointments far across town."