Governor Andrew Cuomo did not appear at the scene of Tuesday's subway derailment, and he only issued a statement about it late Tuesday afternoon. Mayor Bill de Blasio kept quiet as well. NY1's Grace Rauh filed the following report.

There was no sign of Governor Andrew Cuomo at the scene. 

MTA Chairman Joe Lhota was left to brief reporters on the subway derailment. And no one heard from Cuomo for hours until he issued a statement late Tuesday.

"While the investigation is ongoing, this morning's subway derailment is an unacceptable manifestation of the system's current state," the statement reads. "New Yorkers deserve better."

Not a word, though, from Mayor Bill de Blasio, who seemed to be willfully ignoring the derailment. It injured dozens of passengers, brought huge chunks of the subway system to a standstill and prompted hundreds of riders to take their chances walking through subway tunnels to escape stuck trains. 

The mayor spoke at a graduation ceremony in the Bronx Tuesday afternoon and ignored questions about the derailment.

A spokesman for the mayor defended his decision not to go to the scene.

After a Metro-North train derailed in the Bronx in 2013, Cuomo was there. But Mayor Michael Bloomberg was notably absent. De Blasio was mayor-elect at the time.

"My instinct in these things is to be present even if the city is not the lead," de Blasio said at the time.  

The governor, meanwhile, has been running away from his responsibility for the subways ever since problems began mounting earlier this year. 

"Who's in charge? Who knows?" he said on June 22.

The mayor's silence may have more to do with Albany politics than anything. Mayoral control of the city's schools expires at the end of the week, and Cuomo's cooperation is key in getting it extended. The mayor may not want to say anything about the subways that could be interpreted as an affront to Cuomo, at least not while mayoral control hangs in the balance.