zlacker

I mean you're correct--an alternative explanation would be that the baseline sample in 1970 was already in "austerity." That's why I compared it to the London system.

>>rayine+(OP)
One major difference that might explain the difference at least partially is New York's system runs 24/7 [0] where London's shuts down for 5 hours every night. Maintenance gets much easier when there's a solid block of time every night for smaller tasks.

[0] More or less, they've stopped during COVID but it's not a great time to do maintenance.