Subway workers began raising alarms in recent months: Emergency brakes on New York City subway trains were being pulled deliberately, acts of apparent sabotage that were setting off major delays on the sprawling system.

There were clues. A man spotted surfing on the back of a train. The door to a rear cabin on another train was breached and the brake pulled. Another time, the safety chains on the back of a train were unhitched. The culprit also seemed to have a key that provides access to train cabs.

Then, this week, after reports of cascading rush-hour delays on the 2 and 3 lines in Manhattan that had all the same earmarks, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority declared that a serial scofflaw was loose on the subway.

Officials say hundreds of trains appear to have been delayed since January, possibly by a single man who has pulled emergency brakes on dozens of trains, snarling the system. The result? Havoc for thousands of commuters.

The spree comes just as the subway — which has been hobbled by constant delays, breakdowns and aging equipment — has begun to shown signs of improvement. But the sabotage highlights how, despite a major push to fix the system, the subway remains vulnerable to disruption, even from just one person pulling a brake.

The transit agency and the New York City Police Department have now turned to the public for help to stop the saboteur, whom they believe has been purposely taking aim at rush hour commutes.

On Thursday, they released video of a young man surfing on the back of a northbound 2 train on Tuesday night, in the area of West 14th Street and Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, who they said had been riding on the back of a train and had pulled the emergency brake.

“It’s stupid,” Andy Byford, the subway leader, told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s dangerous. It’s selfish. And it’s got to stop.”

Subway officials said the incidents were more than just a prank or an act of vandalism and that the culprit was endangering subway riders, track workers and himself. Riders on stalled trains could have a medical emergency and subway tracks are notoriously dangerous because of the third rail, a steel column that carries 600 volts of electricity.

Transit officials said they had been reluctant to talk about the pattern of brake pulling, fearing copycats. But after extensive delays during the afternoon rush on Tuesday, they decided to disclose the news.

A push by Mr. Byford to improve the system has shown results. The on-time rate for trains jumped to nearly 80 percent last month — up from about 68 percent a year earlier. Officials have focused on making physical repairs to the aging infrastructure and speeding up the trains.

While the brake puller is unlikely to have affected the on-time rate, he might have made more than a few New Yorkers late to work and medical appointments. He joins an infamous list of people who have deliberately interfered with the city’s train operations, either because of an obsessive interest in trains or out of simple malevolence.

Perhaps the best known is Darius McCollum, known as the “train bandit,” who has been arrested 32 times for impersonating transit employees, stealing trains and buses and driving their routes. He has a passion for trains and his exploits were turned into a documentary, “Off The Rails.”

Now anytime a train’s emergency brakes are activated — something that happens frequently on the subway for legitimate reasons — riders may wonder: Has the subway saboteur struck again?

Subway officials believe the offender used a key to enter the train cab, raising questions over whether he knew someone at the transit agency. How the offender obtained the key is one factor being investigated by transit officials.

Officials aid that they were analyzing dozens of incidents since the start of the year that involve factors like brake activations or “surfer” sightings to determine the actual scope of the brake-pulling spree. They are also reviewing security footage and requested photos and videos from riders.

Each time, it was the same method, officials said. A man surfs on the back of the train, then gains access to an operating cabin. He goes inside, pulls the emergency brake and then escapes onto the track and disappears into the darkness. The 2 and 5 lines were his most frequent targets.

The result, Mr. Byford said, is a “double whammy.” The suspect not only stops the train, but when he flees onto the tracks workers have to cut the power to look for him, delaying even more trains.

Mr. Byford said the culprit — or culprits — were not “goofballs” but rather “morons.” He said he wanted harsher penalties for those committing these kinds of crimes. For now, a likely charge would be reckless endangerment.

“I’d like to ban them from the subway,” Mr. Byford said.

According to internal transit authority incident reports obtained by Jalopnik, a news website, train supervisors have spotted the man at least once jumping off the back of the trains, but they have been unable to catch him. He was reported to have pulled the emergency brake on three different trains during a 36-minute span on Tuesday. He also made, the report said, an “obscene gesture” to a train conductor who spotted him.

On Wednesday, Kristin Myers, a reporter for Yahoo Finance, posted a video on Twitter of a man in a baseball hat riding on the back of a Q train. She said she had filmed it at 11:30 a.m. on April 27, at the DeKalb Ave. station in Brooklyn.

“I was in disbelief!” she posted on Twitter. “Was right next to him and watched him climb onto the back of the train. He just stared at me. Like a commute-ruining psychopath.”

On the subway platform at Grand Central Station, riders expressed incredulity that anyone would make their commute even worse.

Given the chance, Joe Allen, 36, a delivery messenger who lives in Queens, said he would tell the offender that he was “inconsiderate,” adding an expletive for emphasis.

He contemplated how he might have to tell his boss he was late because of the scofflaw.

“The Subway Brake Bandit struck again,” he said.

Riders also expressed concerns about safety. Lee Crousillat, who lives in Queens, said he worried that pulling the emergency brake could cause a derailment or that a falling passenger could injure his 3-year-old son, Lucien.

“Had he gotten hurt, I would be angry,” he said.

Andrea Jimenez, 31, who lives in Brooklyn, said she worried most about how someone was able to get a hold of a train key.

“I want to know how he got it,” she said.

Nate Schweber contributed reporting.

Sharon Otterman has been a reporter at The Times since 2008, primarily covering education and religion for Metro. She won a Polk Award for Justice Reporting in 2013 for her role in exposing a pattern of wrongful convictions in Brooklyn. @sharonNYT

Emma G. Fitzsimmons is a transit reporter in New York. She previously covered breaking news at The Times and worked as a local reporter at the Chicago Tribune. @emmagf

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