This is part of a series on what is at stake in New York’s primary elections on Thursday, and in the general election on Nov. 6.

It is an infuriating paradox. Each day, more than five million people suffer the frustrations, delays, the municipal insult of riding the subway in New York City. Yet the power to bring the city’s transit morass into the modern era lies in Albany, with the governor — who controls the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the system — and state legislators.

It’s this distance — some 150 miles by car — that allows the Legislature to avoid voting for the change that could prove most meaningful in fixing the subway: congestion pricing. Doing so could adequately fund subway renovations and repairs by charging cars and trucks a premium to enter the busiest section of Midtown Manhattan, most likely 60th Street and below.

Subway riders can help ensure that lawmakers do their job, however, by showing up in force at the polls for this Thursday’s primaries, and for the general election on Nov. 6. They must show Albany that they can be a potent force in state elections.