NYC Subway Stories
I'm sure there are several good things to say about the NYC subway system. Every once in a while I can remember one. This post is not about them.
I have lived in New York now for just over five years, and to this day I still occasional get lost. Technically, there is very often some way to tell in which direction a train is going, which stops it is making, and which line it is running on. In theory.
A couple months ago I, perhaps a bit delirious in my post-graduation giddiness, made the highly dubious decision to take the J/M/Z train from one point in Manhattan to another. The first indication that this may not have been my wisest choice came when no train arrived for almost twenty minutes. [If three trains (J/M/Z, e.g.) each arrive every 20 minutes with random offsets, my average waiting time for the first train should be 5 minutes.] The second indication that something was amiss came to me as I was admiring the peaceful reflection of the night sky in the East River as the subway passed over it. You see, usually, when travelling underground within Manhattan Island, one does not take a bridge over the river. But that's the subway for you. (Actually of course I took the train the wrong way due to confusing signs.)
That story may lead you to conclude merely that the author is absent-minded (to which there is some slight truth). However, I stubbornly persist in my thesis that the subway is in fact a shoddy operation, irregardless of any absent-minded passengers.
Several years ago I remember once, while waiting for the F train, being quite surprised to see instead an N train pull into the station. This is unexpected because these two trains run on completely different lines. I thought that maybe the large yellow N's written all over the train were simply wrong, as is often the case. The conductor then announced that this train was in fact running on the A line. Ah, that clears everything up. It's simply the olde N-train-running-on-the-A-line-but-just-stopping-by-the-F-platform-to-say-hallo again. Yes, that makes perfect sense.
Remain there any nay-sayers? What's that you say? Nay? You argue that even a good system has an occasional N on the A at the F? Ah, but I have one more story.
This is the most recent - I think it was about three or so weeks ago. On my daily journey to work, I entered my local F/V station. Sitting on the V track was (surprise!) a V train. The interesting thing was that the doors were shut, people were in it, and it wasn't going anywhere. That is slightly unusual, but not unheard of. Soon, my F train came along, and as I was getting on, I noticed the people in the V train were getting very upset. One woman was actually banging on the doors and screaming "let us out!" Instead of getting on my train, I walked over to the people who were screaming within the closed subway car (many other people heard them but in New York fashion they basically ignored them). The woman explained that they had been trapped in that car, patiently waiting for the doors to open, for quite some time, and there was no way out.
I said I would try to help them out. First I asked if they could move to another car in the train, since other doors to the other cars were open -- they could not. So I walked to the middle of the train to find the conductor, only to find his/her booth empty. So I continued to walk down the platform in search of somebody who works for MTA (who runs the subway). Finally I chanced across an MTA maintanence worker, and briefly explained the situation to him. He looked at me with a serious and annoyed expression, and expelled "Whadahel dyawanme todoboutit?" Deciphering his response, I realized I had best look elsewhere.
On my way back through the station, the doors suddenly opened and the trapped travelers emerged unharmed (except perhaps psychologically of course). I still don't know how the doors were finally opened. In any case, these are not the symptoms of a healthy mass transportation leviathan.
If you live in New York, though, you really have to use the subway. It's best to live near a good line. Here's my ranking, from best at top to worst at bottom (excluding a few I don't have much experience with):
4/5/6
1/2/3
F
A
C/E/V/B/D
L
J/M/Z
G
I have lived in New York now for just over five years, and to this day I still occasional get lost. Technically, there is very often some way to tell in which direction a train is going, which stops it is making, and which line it is running on. In theory.
A couple months ago I, perhaps a bit delirious in my post-graduation giddiness, made the highly dubious decision to take the J/M/Z train from one point in Manhattan to another. The first indication that this may not have been my wisest choice came when no train arrived for almost twenty minutes. [If three trains (J/M/Z, e.g.) each arrive every 20 minutes with random offsets, my average waiting time for the first train should be 5 minutes.] The second indication that something was amiss came to me as I was admiring the peaceful reflection of the night sky in the East River as the subway passed over it. You see, usually, when travelling underground within Manhattan Island, one does not take a bridge over the river. But that's the subway for you. (Actually of course I took the train the wrong way due to confusing signs.)
That story may lead you to conclude merely that the author is absent-minded (to which there is some slight truth). However, I stubbornly persist in my thesis that the subway is in fact a shoddy operation, irregardless of any absent-minded passengers.
Several years ago I remember once, while waiting for the F train, being quite surprised to see instead an N train pull into the station. This is unexpected because these two trains run on completely different lines. I thought that maybe the large yellow N's written all over the train were simply wrong, as is often the case. The conductor then announced that this train was in fact running on the A line. Ah, that clears everything up. It's simply the olde N-train-running-on-the-A-line-but-just-stopping-by-the-F-platform-to-say-hallo again. Yes, that makes perfect sense.
Remain there any nay-sayers? What's that you say? Nay? You argue that even a good system has an occasional N on the A at the F? Ah, but I have one more story.
This is the most recent - I think it was about three or so weeks ago. On my daily journey to work, I entered my local F/V station. Sitting on the V track was (surprise!) a V train. The interesting thing was that the doors were shut, people were in it, and it wasn't going anywhere. That is slightly unusual, but not unheard of. Soon, my F train came along, and as I was getting on, I noticed the people in the V train were getting very upset. One woman was actually banging on the doors and screaming "let us out!" Instead of getting on my train, I walked over to the people who were screaming within the closed subway car (many other people heard them but in New York fashion they basically ignored them). The woman explained that they had been trapped in that car, patiently waiting for the doors to open, for quite some time, and there was no way out.
I said I would try to help them out. First I asked if they could move to another car in the train, since other doors to the other cars were open -- they could not. So I walked to the middle of the train to find the conductor, only to find his/her booth empty. So I continued to walk down the platform in search of somebody who works for MTA (who runs the subway). Finally I chanced across an MTA maintanence worker, and briefly explained the situation to him. He looked at me with a serious and annoyed expression, and expelled "Whadahel dyawanme todoboutit?" Deciphering his response, I realized I had best look elsewhere.
On my way back through the station, the doors suddenly opened and the trapped travelers emerged unharmed (except perhaps psychologically of course). I still don't know how the doors were finally opened. In any case, these are not the symptoms of a healthy mass transportation leviathan.
If you live in New York, though, you really have to use the subway. It's best to live near a good line. Here's my ranking, from best at top to worst at bottom (excluding a few I don't have much experience with):
4/5/6
1/2/3
F
A
C/E/V/B/D
L
J/M/Z
G
posted by Tyler | 1:45 AM
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