The Subway Project.

A winter morning commute...

2011-01-27T17:12:00.005-05:00

Who else got screwed by the subway this morning?

2011-01-20T11:54:00.004-05:00

So wow. Getting to work this morning was an epic saga, for more than a few of us. And how mad am I that a) I didn't bring my camera at home and b) my phone was dead so I couldn't even take crappy phone pics? So mad.

Irony: I got my butt out of the house at 8:30 am for once, thinking I'd actually get to work for 9am. Wow, did I pick the wrong day to be punctual. What I found on the mezzanine level of the Astoria Boulevard station was mild chaos, and it was obvious pretty quickly that the trains just weren't running at all. I heard talk of a shooting at Queensboro Plaza.

Well OK. I briefly considered trying to take the M60 over and the 6 train down, but peering down from the foot bridge at the stop and seeing at least five busloads of people waiting there, I figured that wouldn't work out too well. So off to the Broadway M/R stop I headed.

Well of course most of Queens was trying to use that line along with me. On the way there I'd actually thought to myself, how bad could it be? I've seen crowded platforms before. Friends, I have never seen anything like this! The entire platform was packed full, and the crowd flowed up the stairs and into the mezzanine level back to the turnstiles, so that it was difficult to even get through that far.

Since getting to the Manhattan bound platform was clearly not an option any time soon, I headed to the Queens bound platform to see what I could see. What I saw was a frighteningly crowded platform. An M train came, but before it even opened its doors it was packed to the gills. So naturally when it left again the platform was still full.

So I abandoned that ship. When I emerged from the station I saw a Q101 bus. Of course it was also packed full, with many people trying to get on. About 30 people were rejected right there. So I thought, OK, I'll be smart. I walked up to the stop at 31st street, where no one was waiting, figuring that was my best chance of actually getting on the bus and maybe even getting a seat. I thought I'd wait maybe 15 minutes.

...45 minutes later, still no bus. At which point a woman who'd come to the bus stop told us that the M / R station had cleared out. And can I tell you that not one minute after I left the bus stop, a Q101 rolled by?

At any rate, about 20 minutes after that I was finally on an M train headed into the city. My commute that normally takes 30 minutes (and that could be a 1 hour and 15 minute WALK) took 2 hours and 15 minutes. Ahh, the joys of the MTA...

What I've found about what the hell caused the clusterf*ck since getting to a computer is this - thanks Gothamist!

OMG ART

2010-11-01T19:16:00.004-04:00

I'm just gonna say right here and now that I'm pretty sure I would risk getting arrested to see this. (As long as I really got to see it - spend some time there, take some pictures.) I would to to jail for a night for that. Yes, really. So... you know... if I call you up for bail...

I want to show you pictures, but I can find nothing in the public domain. You'll just have to check out the link.

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 30 - the last day.

2010-07-27T22:14:00.003-04:00

It's kind of anti-climactic to end on a Tuesday. But then, the whole point of this mini-project was to see what life holds now for the everyday riders of the yellow lines of the NYC subway, so I suppose a Tuesday is just as good a day as any other.

There was nothing so extraordinary about today's rides. The morning Q was of average crowding and pace, just tinged with the ridiculous pain of my back. Seriously people, can someone please get me a new lumbar spine?

My evening ride home, at nearly exactly 6pm, was almost bizarrely empty. I had to stand through the tunnel, but had my pick of seats at QBP. I was somewhat suspicious that we must be behind another train, but we were moving at a nice normal clip.

But then, between 30th Ave and Astoria Blvd, we engaged in some classic Astoria shenanigans. I was riding in the very first car of the train - it is my habit to always be at one end of the train or the other, given that it's the habit of nearly everyone else to be in the middle. So I could see that indeed, we were immediately behind another train. Kudos to the driver, I must say - that usually results in a jolted and aggravating ride. So, stacked in front of us were not just that one train but of course two more up at Ditmars.

I'm not sure what happens up there - whether they can't turn them around faster or just won't, adhering strictly to the "schedule" rather than clearing a slot for the train that they can clearly see is approaching, which will be stopped dead and hold up the trains behind it if not allowed to proceed... I'm sure some personnel switchouts have to happen up there, of drivers, conductors, what have you. I will not humor any arguments of "cleaning", as I've seen the state the trains are in when they leave Ditmars. They do, occasionally, mop. It's... fascinating. But seriously, the schedule - does the MTA truly believe there's someone down at 34th Street saying to himself, oh my, I simply must make the 6:27 N! Just really not sure what the thought process is there.

So there we sat for a few minutes, hanging in the air above 31st Street between 30th Ave and Astoria Boulevard, just waiting for the three trains in front of us to rearrange themselves. These sorts of blockages are enormously frustrating when you're waiting for a city-bound train at Astoria - you can see them just sitting at Ditmars, you can see that they need to leave Ditmars so that the trains coming in from the city have somewhere to go, and yet they still won't come pick you up. It begins to feel like a conspiracy orchestrated specifically to fuck with you. On the way home, it's only truly frustrating if you're stopped for long enough that you could have walked home from the previous stop. It happens.

This is just how we do things here in Astoria. Apparently, we like it this way.

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 29

2010-07-26T20:13:00.001-04:00

HOORAY! The north staircase to the southbound trains at the Astoria station is finally fixed! That was making me pretty nuts, gotta tell ya. Largely because I couldn't figure out why the heck it was closed in the first place. I'm sure they had their reasons - some kind of safety regulation, a foot tread not in place or something. But sheesh. The inconvenience of having to walk all the way around from the south staircase - I mean, what do these people expect of me?!

Anyway. It was an uneventful ride for a Monday morning. Nothing too crowded, which is always nice. Dealing with a mess on a Monday just puts a bad taste in your mouth. It probably helped that I was headed out a bit earlier than usual. First day in the new office digs, you know - must see what there is to be seen.

The evening, though, I was timed just wrong. The trains seem to travel in little packs: an R and then two yellows, pick your designation; then a good five-to-eight minutes of nothing at all. Frankly I think the two yellows get stuck behind the Rs - the trains are older, and because they cover such a huge swath of Queens they have a large and diverse ridership. Also, because they come first, they pick up all of the Manhattan hop-on-hop-offs, including the tourists - and we love y'all and everything but you take FOREVER to figure out where you're going, saying things like, Wait, are we getting off at 42nd Street or Times Square?! Adorable, the lot of you. Ahem. Tonight, as has happened so many times, I got down to the 59th Street platform in time to wait several minutes with a large pack of tired and impatient riders, only to see that good old R pull on up. At least this does tend to have the effect of clearing the station out a good bit.

If I was smarter, or had more faith that there really was "another train directly behind this one", or any more patient than everyone else, I would have just let the first yellow train pass. I am not and don't have any of those things. So I got on the semi-full Q train that pulled up next and figured I'd suffer through it, get the hell home. See, I think at this point that I really may have a bulging disc in my lower back. I need to go for an MRI - yeah, sure, I'll squeeze that in just as soon as I stop having appointments for the effing kidney stones. Anyway, my pain must have been etched on my face, because a nice man offered me his seat. I kind of love him. Good thing he did, because if he hadn't I probably would have had to stand the whole way home.

One down. Four to go. Somebody give me a watermelon mojito.

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 28

2010-07-25T22:13:00.004-04:00

We've established that Sundays are my day off of subways. So you already know that I did not ride the subway today. I actually was going to - I thought hard about going to do an L train ride today. I'm not going to go into all the reasons that that was just not in the cards. *sigh*

I would like to discuss with you an anomaly. Fellow New Yorkers may recall, in recent memory in fact, the year or so that was spent putting an elevator into the 57th Street station, located at 57th and 7th Avenue. Seriously, it took for freaking ever. And drove me MAD, because of course I go to that station once a week, and of course they had to install the elevator on the corner where I usually enter and exit the station. Which means that somewhere in the neighborhood of 52 times I had to cross 7th Avenue when I shouldn't have needed to, damnit, because due to the construction the stairwell was closed. But I'm all for ADA compliance and wheelchair accessibility, so I sucked it up for the greater good.

Imagine my surprise when the wonderful new elevator was unveiled... and it didn't get anywhere near the trains. No, the elevator descends to the mezzanine where one can purchase a Metrocard or speak with a booth attendant, should one actually be stationed there. However, there is still a full case of stairs to descend before you'll be at the train platform.

Wha?

If anyone can explain this to me, I'd really love to hear it. As far as I can tell, the MTA spent who even knows how many tens of thousands of dollars building an elevator so that people in wheelchairs can... look at a station? I've been trying to get a peek to see if maybe there's a secret way down and out onto the platform that I'm just not seeing somehow, but if there is it's secret like the Batman cave. And only allows access to the Downtown platform.

Perhaps the first elevator was only phase one...? But as of now, there is no sign of any continuing work.

Um.

Yeah.

Although, even if it did reach the platform, I understand there's an ongoing problem with trains not really coming level with platforms. Many of these stations are old - 50 years, 100 years. The trains have been redesigned over and over. So it's not so surprising. But surprising or not, when a wheelchaired person wants to board a train and can't, because the train's floor is a solid four inches above the platform, well that's just plain frustrating. And something tells me that good old Access-A-Ride is not the magic solution.

I don't have a magic solution. New York City is not an easy place to be for anyone who isn't young and healthy and energetic, and while I'm glad to see an awareness and willingness for compliance, I also feel that there's only so much edge that can ever be taken off of this fast paced, enormous, and driven city. To my fellow New Yorkers, I can only implore you: be aware.

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 27

2010-07-24T22:12:00.001-04:00

Too darn hot. Normally Saturday would not be a hide inside, abstain from the subway kind of day. But today I just couldn't do it. I needed to finish my zine for the Twenty-Four Hour Zine Thing - which I successfully did, thanks. And after that, well, sheesh. I thought about going out to copy it, but... but... still too darn hot.

I'm the tiniest bit sad: the MTA realized their omission and slapped an M over the errant V remaining at the corner of 53rd Street and 3rd Avenue. Don't know exactly when, just sometime in the past few weeks. I knew I should have taken a photo. But you know what though? I bet it will be positively AGES before they get around to swapping out all of those awesome metal braille plaques...

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 26

2010-07-23T21:10:00.000-04:00

So I did head into the office this morning to witness the mayhem of last packings. And the morning commute was same old. But then an interesting thing happened.

After being at work for a little after an hour, they told us to go home. Brilliant! But whatevs, I'm not complaining.

So this gave me an interesting chance to ride around on the Broadway Local during the workday, for the first time really since the Big Change. I expected the trains to be nice and empty, as has been my previous experience with such. Not so. I was really surprised at how many people were on the trains. I'm not sure whether to attribute that to fewer trains, or all those new apartment buildings that have been built in Astoria, or what. And the trains certainly weren't crowded - half full at best. Just more crowded than they used to be.

I also noticed that throughout the afternoon, they were all N trains, and all old trains. Could have been a coincidence - I didn't hang out to see whether any new Qs would come by or anything. I went from Midtown back in to Astoria, then from there back into the city - downtown all the way to Prince. After some wanderings for food and new headphones (yay!) back on home we went in the late afternoon. And it felt like Saturday, but it was Friday, which is sort of like magic.

The weekend, it comes. The heat, it comes. The hiding, I do it...

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 25

2010-07-22T22:10:00.001-04:00

I'm discombobulated today. See, my office is moving. Not buildings, just floors. Most of my office is on the 13th floor. (Yes, really.) I used to sit up there. Then they moved me to the basement. (Yes, really.) So, most of the company is moving from 13 to either 11 or 12. My little department is moving from the basement to 11. And for whatever reason, we had to be packed up by last night. 13 was still packing today. They're mostly done, but I guess a few people will still be packing tomorrow. So I went into the office today... but I had nowhere to sit. I had no computer. I had no phone. I had no files. I had nothing.

The whole thing is making me vary anxious.

Nothing particularly interesting happened on my rides today, nothing that I remember anyway. I'm interplanetary.

Here's the awesome part: I have to go in tomorrow too. :-/

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 24

2010-07-21T21:09:00.000-04:00

I really can't say what it is about the escalators at the 59th Street station. Is it age? Constant use? Poor maintenance? Maybe, most likely, even, some combination of all three. All I can say for sure is that at least once a month, one or sometimes even both sides of the east side exit magic moving stairs are busted.

So why don't you just take the regular stairs, they ask?

There are, in fact, good old fashioned regular stairs, a case of them, wedged between the two escalators. A nice narrow case. In the morning, people use them to go up. In the evening, people use them to go down. (Not many people, under normal circumstances, mind you.) It would take a brave and very foolish soul to try to go against the flow - and would most likely result in someone getting injured.

Can't you just use the broken down escalator as a staircase? Sometimes, if they haven't opened it up like a can of sardines at the bottom to fix whatever's broken.

A busted case has great potential to lead to an interesting commute. Usually once the good MTA folk get their ducks in a row, they'll switch the working set to go up, because most of us have a much easier time of making it down a flight of stairs than up that same flight. It can take time for that to happen though, so many a morning have I had to trudge. I'm the person you don't want to be stuck behind, with my asthma and bad knee. Septuagenarians with heart conditions bustle past me, muttering beneath their breath.

And of course the up-only situation is super fun for the evening commute, when all of Midtown Manhattan wants to go down and they're being funnled into that one-at-a-time staircase. Never have you seen such a pool of people as collect just past the nice wide set of turnstyles. Always, there is someone thinking it's some kind of line waiting to get on the escalator. Always, there is someone asking, aren't there stairs? Ah, the irony.

The signs I saw coming home last night say it'll be fixed on the 22nd. In the past I've seen them post estimates of two weeks or more. Even with all this hassle though, has it ever been bad enough to make me go to the west side and get out on Lex? ...Oh my, I really wouldn't go that far...

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 23

2010-07-20T21:10:00.000-04:00

The morning train was a-ok. I stormed out of the house without Jonathan, don't even remember why now, but it gave me just perfect timing for a fairly empty Q train. Got my favorite corner seat and updated my date book on the way in. He never talks to me when we ride the train together anyway; just checks his email on that damn phone. Humph.

I came home a bit later than usual for a Tuesday, for two reasons. First, I got locked out of the basement. See, I've been sitting in the basement of my office building for the past six months. We're finally moving this week to floors that can actually accommodate us. But when I was upstairs collecting some moving crates, the last few people left the basement and locked the door. I have a key - it was with the rest of my stuff, you know, behind the locked door. I had to have one of the cleaning ladies come let me in, which of course wasn't at all embarrassing.

Then, once I finally got my stuff and got out of there, I realized I'd forgotten to go pick up my prescription during lunch. And then at the drugstore I accidentally stole some Oreos. (So not my fault! I thought he rang them up! I'm 32 years old; I do not intentionally steal cookies.)

So when I finally got to the train, cookies and drugs in hand, rush hour was basically done. Nice quiet ride home.

Maybe the universe knew I needed some peace. Peace, and cookies.

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 22

2010-07-19T21:20:00.000-04:00

This morning reflected what I think the MTA must have had in mind as an optimal rush hour ride. The train moved at a comfortable clip, and even after making all of its Astoria stops my car carried only a comfortable scattering of standing riders. It was a pleasant morning.

Alas. My evening ride home was the picture of all of my Doomsday fears. Overcrowded platform that makes a person nervous to stand near the edge. A car packed full of tired, hot, frustrated riders and not a seat in sight. My back aching enough to bring tears to my eyes. Doors being held by self-important riders at every station, making the journey take all the longer. Certainly not the worst ride I've ever had, but also not something I could stand doing every day. Thing is, I know my line has it pretty easy. E Train riders, I am so sorry. I'd be really interested to hear what effect this M Train switch is having.

Speaking of which. On Sunday the hubby and I walked over to Steinway to pick up our first delivery from Holton Farms CSA, which we're totally psyched about. (They're still signing up members, by the way, and they have dropoff points all over NYC...) Anyway, we ended up walking down Broadway coming off of Stienway and there it was: A subway stop labeled R, M. Stopped me in my tracks. So weird! No G, and certainly no V given that it doesn't exist anymore. Ah, change. It is the difficult.

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 21... You've got to be kidding me.

2010-07-18T19:43:00.001-04:00

So as if it wasn't bad enough already, it sounds like come January things may get significantly worse. Hey everybody, I know! Since most people here in NYC can't really have a car, and using lots of gas is the worst idea ever anyway, and people desperately need usable public transportation, let's charge the working people EVEN MORE MONEY for the now significantly reduced service we're providing! Woo hoo! After all, it's not as if they have a choice!

Thanks MTA. Now I'll get to feel totally screwed on my way to the job that makes me feel totally screwed. This is the life!

To be honest, the ever-increasing difficulty of using the subway is part of why I want to leave New York City. That's sad, isn't it? I think so.

(No, I didn't ride the train today. It's official: Sunday is my not-riding-subways day. Apparently I need one of those now.)

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 20

2010-07-17T22:26:00.004-04:00

In the summer, in the city. Not too bad for Saturday travel. I'd had a lot of fears about this - weekend travel after all the cuts and rearrangements - but even given all of last weekend's malarkey it just hasn't been that bad.

Not a lot of subway traveling done today - just a jaunt from our Astoria stop into the city, 57th Street, and then back again a few hours later. After an appointment we stopped into the Whole Foods at Columbus Circle for a while. Then for once we took a moment to absorb the grandeur that is The Shops at the Time Warner Center. That place is nuts. The Williams Sonoma there is enough to make me dream of some Other Life - one where I, like, own a house. Although nothing they do can make me imagine that I need a chair that costs $1400 even though it was mass-produced in Sri Lanka.

Anyway.

Waiting for the train back I noticed how oblivious I've been. (What an odd statement, no?) The signs for the central tracks at 57th which have been the object of such scrutiny (by me), still the terminus of the weekend and evening Q train, have indeed been updated to reflect that they are such. I think the entire moral of that story is that I am lame and should read more carefully. And you should too! (Nope, really, probably just me.)

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 19

2010-07-16T22:25:00.002-04:00

Nothing really special to report today, though I did ride home from midtown on the 7. Coming home on the 7 train is always something a little bit special. It looks something like the old N trains, in exotic shades of yellows and oranges, except that the rows of seats extend the whole length between doors without a break. But they're still that partitioned sort of 70's bucket seat. The ultimate effect of this is that it's almost impossible to use all of the spaces. Through no fault of their own, really, The People of Queens just aren't that damn narrow. (Goodness knows I'm not.) Start stacking them one after another after another after another, and at some point you're just going to have to leave an empty bucket for a little bit of overflow.

Fortunately the 7 train comes approximately 3 times more often than the N and (I want to say W) Q combined, so they're never really all that crowded. The line terminates at Times Square, so if you're catching it at one of the few stops in the city you're never too far from the end of the line. There's always a huge flux at Queensboro Plaza, so there's always a chance of snagging a seat there, should you be continuing on to the deeper regions.

We, of course, detrain at QBP and wait for something yellow to snake its way up from beneath the river. We, of course, watch two or three more 7 trains pass by before this happens. This is the way of things, and for the most part we accept it. Are we a little bit resentful? Well, maybe. But the 7 train gets picked on more than its fair share for some reason when it comes to construction, and on those weekends I do not envy them.

Shuttle bus service to Flushing? No thank you.

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 18

2010-07-15T20:33:00.003-04:00

I feel that I may have hit a spate of "express" train shenanigans. When I got on my train this morning (a new N train! They've returned to us!) I thought everything was fine. I was quickly corrected, immediately upon arriving at the next station, in fact. At 30th Ave they piled in like there hadn't been a train in half an hour. Same at Broadway, and even same at 36th Ave. Now, people who ride this line will know what I'm talking about when I say that when people are waiting at 39th Ave, shit is serious. And there were, like, several of them. Yeah.

So basically, my theory goes that I was right behind an express. If there really hadn't been a train in forever, then my stop would have been jam packed too. My stop is well populated in and of itself, not to mention the waves we get from deeper in Queens off of the M60. But my stop was just fine. There was indeed still a crowd at QBP, but that doesn't take long to accumulate - just one or two 7 trains can do it.

So is what we do now? Express trains all the live long day? We shall see I suppose...

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 17

2010-07-14T19:53:00.004-04:00

Where have all the subways gone? Um, and by that I mean all the new trains. Today was Attack of the Old N Train! It was kinda freaky.

I went into work late - 12:45 or so. Kidney thing. I won't get into it. And so, for the first time I experienced the new non-peak-time weekday train schedule on the Broadway line. They weren't kidding about that less frequent train thing. First, I waited a full 12 minutes for a train. I could see two of them hanging out up at the end at Ditmars, and another just chilling on the other side of Astoria Blvd. (Incidentally, a fourth was parked on the express track just beyond my platform, and all four trains were old N trains.) So it's not as if they were behind schedule. They were running right on time.

So not only did I wait crazylong for a train to come. Then, once on the train, it took a full 20 minutes for the train to get from Astoria Blvd. to 59th Street - a full 5 minutes longer than normal. Pish posh you may say, you New Yorkers always rushing, what's five minutes? But believe me, five minutes is a big deal. When you've been making essentially the same ride five days a week for nearly five years, you notice. When I finally arrived at 59th, I saw an N train heading the other way back out to Astoria - another old N.

Coming home a bit later than usual in the evening from 57th Street, I think the MTA was trying to make it up to me for my abnormally long "morning" commute. My old N train (yes, another one) was suspiciously empty. Comfy, but what gives? Once we'd reached the outdoor tracks I confirmed what I'd suspected: sure enough, perhaps a train length ahead of us at Queensboro Plaza, there was another N train. A new N train? Not so much. Based on the number of folk waiting on the platform when we pulled up, and given that we did not spend the remainder of our ride creeping along at a snail's pace, I have a sneaky feeling that the N in front of us went "express". Ah well, I had a seat, so no biggie for me.

Finally, traveling in the opposite direction somewhere around 36th Street, I spotted a New R160 with an N designation. Ah-ha! So they have not all disappeared. Still though, I'll be quite curious to see what pulls up tomorrow...

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 16

2010-07-13T20:59:00.006-04:00

That old N train that rolled past you tonight without stopping? Yeah, that was me.

It's a phenomenon that has always fascinated me on this line: the Astoria-specific "express" train. From time to time, a train at Queensboro Plaza will decide that it just isn't going to stop again until it reaches Astoria Boulevard. Or, at Ditmars or Astoria, it will announce that the next stop will be Queensboro Plaza (and best luck to all those poor schmucks trying to get to work from the stations in between). Of course once the train hits Manhattan, everything is business as usual, like nothing ever happened. Never forget: the boroughs don't count. They're just where everybody lives.

This can happen on, well, it used to be either the N or W, and now either the N or Q. Approximately 90-95% of the time the train doesn't bother to jump onto the express tracks, which do in fact run for that length and do not allow access to the intervening stations. No, instead it runs - often quite slowly - right past the platforms full of hopeful riders. Occasionally it goes so far as to actually stop at those platforms... but without opening its doors. This is simply cruel.

When I lived at the 30th Avenue stop, the "express" train was aggravating in the evening, and positively infuriating in the morning. In the evening I'd just ride to Astoria and have a bit of a longer walk home. But there's nothing like standing on a platform in full blazing summer sun at 8:30 in the morning, or better yet in 25 degree temperatures with 15 mile per hour winds, and FINALLY seeing a train approaching, only to have it whip right past you. Near the end of my tenure at 30th Ave, I got so tired of being passed by "express" trains and/or not being able to get a seat for my ride into the city that I just started walking the extra eight minutes up to Astoria Blvd. (And take that, humph.)

Now that I live at one of the "express" stops, well, I won't lie. I quite enjoy the express trains. Coming home at night, you've never seen such a gush of people exiting a train as when that announcement is made at QBP. So many sad, disappointed people, thinking they're just a few stops from home, then unexpectedly forced out onto the dirty outdoor platform to wait for the train that will make "all local stops" that is of course "directly behind this train." The Broadway folk get screwed the worst - right in the middle, and there's a ton of them. It's not that I enjoy their pain. It's just that suddenly I can have any seat in the joint, and I'm getting an interruption-free ride home.

Payback for all those mornings when the train just blew right by?

Perhaps.

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 15

2010-07-12T21:51:00.002-04:00

Today was pretty much charmed as far as my subway riding was concerned. My morning was unusual, as it began with a trip to the lab. (They took all of my blood. I'm making more now.) So instead of my usual second-stop-on-the-train alight, I had to board at 3oth Avenue, a dreaded third-stop-on-the-train. Well, given that I used to live at the 30th Ave stop and I'm more than well aware that it often leads to the desperate tears of standing room only, even in the last cars, I had braced myself for the worst. Imagine my surprise when I jumped on the train that was arriving as I swiped through the turnstiles and got myself a seat, in a middle car no less! My best conclusion is that it was a smooth morning, and my feet and I are thankful for it.

In the evening, I hit the bottom of the 59th Street escalators just as a Q train was leaving the station. Damn. So I had to wait for a train... for about 60 seconds. The train that came had a seat for me and my extraordinarily tired self. (Do me a favor - remind me to start going to bed earlier?)

On days like this, I take a moment to say thank you to the train gods. Fear them, love them, but most important of all thank them when they are nice to you. You just never know where politeness will get you in those vast dark catacombs. Hey, it couldn't hurt.

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 14

2010-07-11T22:06:00.002-04:00

Apparently Sunday is my day off. But I would like to consider the following.

"There is another __ Train directly behind this one."

Yes... isn't that , well, sort of the nature of tracks? Where exactly else would another train be? Wouldn't "immediately behind" or "shortly behind" even "really close by" make a bit more sense, even if it is still a horrible and blatant lie? Because that directly behind thing, well, yeah, of course there is. You're not mentioning, maybe, that it's directly behind you fifteen stations back. But given that you're on the same tracks, there's nowhere else it could be.

Personally, I much prefer it when the conductor says something along the lines of, "If you don't fit on this train, get the hell off. We're not going anywhere until the doors close, so I really don't know what you think you're accomplishing by standing there with your ass hanging out." OK, fine, I've never head the conductor say that. But I have heard them get pretty close. And I know it's what they're thinking. I don't blame them one bit. And I truly think it would be far more effective, because nobody is listening to that "directly behind" crap.

Just sayin'.

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 13

2010-07-10T22:05:00.003-04:00

Wow, did they truly destroy the trains on this fine Saturday. Picture this: During the day, the R train terminated at 57th Street... sort of. If the train announcer was to be believed, it was somehow bypassing all of the stations between 57th and Queens Plaza, because passengers were being told to get off at 57th to get the R train both to Queens and to Brooklyn? WTF?

And that's not all. The Q train terminated at 42nd St / Times Square. Mmmm... kay. Why? For construction. Where, exactly? Between the N, the Q, and the R, every bit of track was being used somewhere or other. Sometimes I think the MTA just makes things up. (I'm sure of that, actually, bless their little hearts.)

I did not in fact come home on Saturday night until Sunday morning, but I have personal rules about when a day switches over. So we're calling it Saturday. And on Saturday night at 1am, the Q train was not terminating at 42nd street, but nor was it going to Astoria. It was terminating at 57th Street. Ah ha! Thus the mystery of the signs at that station is solved once and for all - they won't be changing, because sometimes it's still true that the train on the inner side of the Queensbound platform will in fact be headed to Brooklyn. It will be true on "late nights" and weekends.

This is annoying. First of all, if you're going to take away our train, replace it for real, fuckers. Second, when does "late night" begin for the Q? Nothing seems to tell me this, and there is no strict definition in the MTA lexicon for this particular phrase. On the W line, for instance, "late night" originally meant 9:30 pm but was then changed to 11pm. (Because, you know, they realized a mere two years ago that we needed MORE TRAINS. Bitches.) On the R, it means midnight. And so on.

Oh, you fickle Broadway line, you and your crazy ways. Will we ever cease to dance this dizzy dance of ours?

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 12

2010-07-09T22:02:00.002-04:00

Friday is apparently old train day? Given the amount of time I had to spend on the old trains today, I am completely and thoroughly convinced that the design of The New R160 does in fact allow for better passenger flow, more standing room, and possibly even more seats. To put it eloquently, a crowded old N train bites. I got old trains coming and going today, and they really just do jam people up. At least comparatively to what we're spoiled with now. Who knows, perhaps they're a dream compared to what came before.

So definitely no progress on figuring out what happened to all of those shiny sleek new trains that had been running as Ws. If anything, the old Ns are becoming more prominent, much to the chagrin of the daytime workers of Astoria.

People of Astoria, unite: We Want Our Trains!

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 11

2010-07-08T19:36:00.002-04:00

Oh Thursday morning you. I hopped onto a Q train and everything was going just fine. We rolled into Queensboro Plaza and we were still feeling fairly spacious and comfy.

So of course that's when it happened. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are being held momentarily by the train's dispatcher. Please be patient." The automated voice of The New R160 seriously gets on my nerves. Or maybe creeps me out. Or maybe both. No, you know what really irks me? The fact that they'll play that damn message about once every 45 second. To the point where I start responding to it out loud: WE KNOW. Did you think we forgot that we're standing still? Hey, maybe we're actually playing miniature golf!

And frankly, we don't give a rat's ass what made up reason you're giving us for the train not moving forward. If it's workers on the track, you'll tell us it's a signal malfunction. If it's a signal malfunction, you'll tell us it's a track fire. If it's a track fire, you'll tell us it's train traffic. If it's train traffic, you'll tell us it's a sick passenger. If it's a sick passenger, you'll tell us it's workers on the track. At least, that's how it used to be, back when human beings would talk into terrible mics over worse PA systems. Now, if you're in the station, it's "being held by the dispatcher". If you're in between stations, it's "train traffic". OK. Shur.

ANYWAY. After sitting at QBP and absorbing about three 7 trains, we were no longer the comfy and carefree Q train we once were. But no matter, we were on our way. Or so we thought. Alas. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are being held momentarily due to train traffic ahead. Please be patient." And that's when I began to notice the murderous rage in my neighbors' eyes...

Nah, it isn't that bad. It's just that nobody wants to deal with that shit first thing in the morning. We want to get to work, and we want to know why they can't just get it right, damnit. But of course there are a thousand variables that go on every hour that we know nothing about... And the incident did make me realize: it's the first time I've experienced a significant in-route delay since The Big Switch. So that has to be worth something.

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 10

2010-07-07T22:19:00.001-04:00

This morning's ride was utterly uneventful. The evening, as it always does on Wednesdays, brought me to the 57th Street Station - still the signs on the center tracks state on the Queensbound side that a Brooklynbound Q will be departing... who knows. By sheer luck of being in the right place at the right time I snagged a seat, but a decent handful were left standing.

One of the standers was a cute British girl who'd gotten on at 57th with me, but unfortunately traveling in the wrong direction. She was clearly a hip-to-the-jive city chick, not brand new to NYC but not too native either. She'd asked fellow standers enough to know that she was headed the wrong way, but was going to rectify it herself (damn it). After watching her peer at the map all the way to the next station, which is of course 5th Avenue, I decided I should share with her what I knew and she clearly didn't.

Which I did as we were pulling in before she made the tragic mistake of getting out. And which is this: at 5th Ave there's no cross-over; she'd have to have gotten out onto the street and then gone back in. Then, if she'd had an "unlimited" card rather than a pay-per-ride, she would have undoubtedly gotten the dreaded "just used" message that persists for a full 18 minutes. Even with a pay-per, she'd have wasted another $2.25. I didn't get into all that though - just that she should wait one more stop (to 59th), where she could simply cross the platform and take the train on the other side. She smiled and was very sweet and cute about it and it was quite a satisfactory exchanged. "Wicked" sounds fantastic in a genuine British accent.

Ah, trains.

I was sitting on the outside of the train, as it were, so that when we pulled into 59th Street I had a clear view of the absolute mob waiting on that center platform - it was quite intimidating. Surprising for 8pm. When the doors opened, Miss Britt turned around and gave me another thank-you-and-smile. I tried quickly to turn my open-mouthed crap-that's-a-lot-of-people gape into an I'm-cool-no-problem smile-and-nod. I'm sure I looked hilariously absurd. I hope she enjoyed it.

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 9

2010-07-06T20:17:00.000-04:00

Tuesday - there's no other way to say this - it was absolutely terrible. And I have the pictures to prove it. The heat reached ridiculous levels over the holiday weekend... well, you know about me and my air conditioner confessions. Heat does not bode well for subway travel. You descend to a dark underground place and something in your body tells you that coolness awaits.

This is a horrible filthy lie.

Between the people and the machinery of the trains, an enormous amount of heat is produced. And it stays. The heat becomes positively oppressive in most stations, and is almost always tinged with a patina of urine. (Thanks much guys - we women know well that you could hold it, considering that we have no choice and therefore do and very few of us end up with ruptured bladders, but go on right ahead and foul the public spaces for all of us. You're awesome.)

But does heat explain why the trains can't run when it's hot? Correlation is not causation. No, this seems more like some cruel trick of fate, somebody's idea of a joke. After work it was far too hot for me to walk the 10 blocks up to the yellow trains, so I rode the one stop on the 6 train. That was its usual sardine experience, with the added bonus of the 51st Street station reading at least in the 90s. The train itself was about the same, just with weird little whiffs of cold air. When there is so much heat outside and there are so many people in each car, the train A/C that so often freezes people is pitifully feeble. Though I'd hate to know what the inside of the train would feel like without it. If you ever see a totally empty subway car on an otherwise populated train, there are three answers: 1) The doors aren't opening, 2) There is a particularly odoriferous indigent taking up residence, or 3) The A/C is busted. True story.

A handful of stations actually have something of an air conditioning system attempting to keep the temperature at a reasonable level. I am convinced that at least the N/Q platform of 59th Street falls into this category. When I arrived there I found an absolute mob, and it stretched for the entire length of the platform. But it was still somewhat of a relief, as it was at least 10 degrees cooler than 51st Street had been. After eight minutes of waiting the first train arrived, a Q, and it was far too packed for me to try to get on. I'm more of a wait-for-the-next-one kind of girl than one who'll squeeze in at any cost. It's just not worth it. I'm not on the run from the fuzz. Indeed, many who would have liked to get on simply would not fit.

After about five more minutes, an N train arrived. It too was already fairly full, but enough passengers got off that I could reasonably get on and not have a complete panic attack before getting to QBP. I was really hoping that once we reached that station we'd go "express", a phenomenon I'll have to talk about sometime, but no such luck. I never did get a seat, not even after 30th Avenue. That... never really happens.

Oh, hot hot heat, please go away. Give us a mild summer. I want to go to Coney Island.

Doomsday on the Broadway local: Day 8

2010-07-05T22:09:00.001-04:00

Once again, a no riding day. It would have been a good day to just get on the train and ride back and forth - it is insanely hot! And the trains are nice and air conditioned. But alas, I stayed in.

I bear good news though. On Friday my ureteral stent came out! In case you haven't been keeping up, the short version of what that means is, I can once again walk more than six blocks without worrying about minor internal bleeding. It no longer hurts to do, well, everything. And for the purposes of this project, the possibility of riding is once again on the table! Hurrah!

Being the jackass that I am, I somehow still have not composed my J train post. What is the matter with me? If anyone knows please share. Anyway, I still have a lot of appointments to juggle, but fingers crossed, I should be doing some riding soon...

Yeah right, they snicker. But you'll see, you'll see!!

Doomsday on the Broadway local: Day 7

2010-07-04T18:58:00.000-04:00

Happy Independence Day! Or, as is possibly more appropriate, Happy Capitalism Day! Today Jonathan and I went to the mall to purchase an air conditioner. What could be more American? It's pretty crazy: this is my fifth summer in NYC, and the first in which I've been driven so mad by the heat that window units seem absolutely necessary.

Possibly crazier: the subway was pretty darn crowded for it being a National Holiday. We were headed out to the mall in "suburban" Queens, so we took the N into the city to turn around and take the R back out into the depths. (This may seem goofy to any non-New-Yorkers, but with any subway system sometimes you have to go back to go forward, or go up to go down, et cetera.)

And I came to an important conclusion. If I'd had to ride the R train every day, I wouldn't have lasted two years in New York. It's loud, it's crowded, and it's hot. Even when the N had old trains, they were different old trains - they had different seating arrangements, didn't have that dark "wood" paneling or the unusable arm rests that serve only to bruise my hips. R train riders, I feel for you. I truly hope that some of those mysteriously disappearing W trains show up on your line, and soon.

Doomsday on the Broadway local: Day 6

2010-07-03T21:43:00.002-04:00

I did not ride the train today, oh no, oh no. But my beloved husband did, and he reported nothing strange afoot.

Something to ponder though. Where did the W trains go? Since the switch we've seen a marked increase in the prevalence of old N trains - strange, considering that the W line had been running The New R160 nearly 100%. They certainly didn't go to the R line - I can't remember the last time I saw a new R. Shame too, they need new trains almost as badly as the C line. And I'm still seeing old Q trains. Are they running that many more Q trains, that the Ws got absorbed into the Q line and the old trains are still needed there? Inquiring minds want to know.

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 5, an absentee day.

2010-07-02T11:03:00.004-04:00

Given that I'm having a pseudo-surgical procedure in about an hour, there's basically no way I'm getting on the subway today. Sorry folks. So instead of mass transit hijinx, I bring you the genius of Alien Loves Predator. Please enjoy.

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 4

2010-07-01T19:39:00.000-04:00

Now things are just getting weird. The N train I boarded at 9:05 this morning was practically a ghost train! Granted, that's a bit late for me, but it probably happens once a week or so that I hop on around that time, and trust me when I say it is rare indeed to see a train that empty on a weekday morning anytime before 10am. The train never filled up - there were still open seats after we left Queensboro Plaza. And I wasn't even in the last car! I can probably count on my fingers the number of times I've seen that happen during morning rush hour, and I've lived out hear for nearly five years.

I thought for a moment that maybe the upcoming holiday had thinned out the working crowd a bit, but there certainly hadn't been any relief on the ever-sardine-like 6 train that I rode 20 minutes later. Ideas? Theories? You tell me. Maybe all that noise from the fireworks in Astoria Park last night scared everyone out of the neighborhood - ya think?

Well maybe everyone was just laying in wait to board the evening trains, because my ride home was one of the worst in recent memory. Totally jam-packed N train, even though I had just missed a Q maybe five minutes before. The train stayed full up the whole way - I never did get a seat, not even after 30th Avenue. That basically never happens. Usually I can claim something after Broadway, but always after 30th, where approximately half the train gets off. But not today, much to the chagrin of my aching back. (The kidney stent comes out tomorrow, by the way.)

Four very different days so far. Strange indeed. No riding tomorrow, just adventures in kidneyland. But I'll try to find some way to keep you all entertained...

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 3

2010-06-30T22:17:00.002-04:00

Day Three of the new regime was utterly uneventful, at least in my part of the world. My morning commute was so mundane that I can barely remember it. The train (an N) was not very full and not very empty. My evening did bring me to and from the 57th Street station, and I was able to find out what I've been wanting to know about track usage. As I suspected, both the N and the Q are running on the outer, "local" track; the inner tracks are going unused. I wonder if they will now be considered "abandoned" by the MTA. I don't know how far they extend north past the station, not sure if they rejoin with the outer tracks or end up at one of those strange spring loaded bumper situations that you see now and then. I'd like to find out.

My train from 59th Street toward 57th was quite the stop-and-go - with more stop than go. I had just missed a Q train coming in from Astoria, and boarded an N that arrived on its heels. Of course, being so close behind its forerunner it moved at a snail's pace. We spent a good long while stopped at 5th Ave, and wave after wave of people poured through the open doors filling up what had been a nice emptyish car. We then hovered for a while longer between 5th Ave and 57th Street, presumably just waiting for the signals to clear so that we could enter the station.

My way home an hour later though was empty as could be. I hadn't waited long for a train, but I couldn't have been too close behind one as there was an R in the station when I arrived and we didn't have any delays or slow speeds in our travels. It's a ride I make weekly, and last week I couldn't even get a seat. Strange things afoot? Perhaps.

I was interested to see that at 57th, the signs on the inner tracks - previously the northern terminus of the Q - have not been altered to reflect the route changes, though the signs of the outer tracks do reflect the Q-for-W switchout. Of course, it's much easier to slap a "Q" sticker over the old "W" emblem that used to be there than to resurface an entire sign. Upstairs was even easier: there's just a square black swath where the "W" used to be, and long live the N Q R, I guess.

And of course the hysterical blinking of the "next train this side" arrow sign is a thing of the past, as is the mad dashing of people sitting in a Q on what is really the Queens bound side waiting for it to make up its mind to head on south to Brooklyn anyway, and then rushing up over and around to make the N, R, or W that appears over on the true Brooklyn bound side... I can't help but feel that good old 57 has lost some character in all this. No longer a terminus, now just a humble pass through. Kinetic energy lost. And after all that construction to put in those ridiculous elevators too. Why ridiculous? Because they only descend to the mezzanine. Stairs remain the only access to the train platform level. If anyone can explain that one to me, I'm all ears.

Other signage mishaps noticed today: at the southwest corner of 53rd and 3rd Ave, the V has been covered with an M on the stair side of the entrance, but not on the side that faces out toward the street. Details, details, MTA. Tee hee.

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 2

2010-06-29T19:47:00.000-04:00

Now this is what I'm talking about! Today was a total frickin mess. Not just for me, but for everyone as far as I can tell. One of the infamous "track fires" really jacked up the morning commute, taking the newly routed M train out of commission entirely in midtown. And, what's that? The Queens bound Q was stopped dead in its tracks at the 57th Street station? Curiouser and curiouser. What ever did go wrong, dear MTA?

Oddly, as of 10am nothing much was being mentioned on mta.info. Certainly nothing about cutting the Q route short - just a brief blip that there had been "delays" on the R line but that service had returned to normal, and the same for the E. Funny, that's not quite the story I got from my co-workers who had to walk half way across town to get to the office.

As for my own commute this morning, it was as cursed as yesterday's was charmed. A train rolled through as we were making it up the first set of stairs, and when we made it up to the platform we could see that there were zero trains hovering at the Ditmars station - leaving our wait time at absolute maximum.

When a train did come - and a Q train at that, so I know that they were running the full length at some point during the morning - it wasn't the worst I've seen it. Believe it or not there are times that the train is standing room only when it reaches Astoria Boulevard. But no, today it was the 30th Avenue crowd that got the screw (a pretty common ocurrance, and one of the main reasons we moved north), and it only got worse from there. By QBP it was an absolute crush. Frankly, you couldn't pay me enough to have a morning commute that involved getting on a yellow train at Queensboro every morning. Talk about not worth it.

Just like yesterday, though, this could have been a quirk of timing. I'm having a royally bad day, and I just might have gotten smashed into the one spot of trouble they had all day.

My evening commute was just about standard - standard crappy, that is. Crowded hot platform, and some weird announcement that really didn't make much sense about Q trains running local from 59th to 42nd? Well there's only one non "express" stop in that run, which is 49th. And it's not as if there's even a separate express track there; the trains just sometimes don't stop for the play-going crowd, and no one really gets why.

The Q train, when it came, was not quite shoulder to shoulder, but let's just say I don't actually choose to stand that close to anyone but my husband. Somewhere around 39th Ave, a woman standing near me did what I'd been thinking hard about doing, and asked a strapping young man to give up his seat for the VERY pregnant blond who'd been leaning on the doors near us. She was clearly embarrassed, but took the spot with great relief nonetheless. Seats started freeing up in earnest around the Broadway stop out in Astoria, much to my relief.

So, are we beginning to see the backlash of the doomsday cuts? I fear the answer is yes, but in truth I know that it is too soon to say...

Doomsday on the Broadway Local: Day 1

2010-06-28T21:40:00.005-04:00

Today being the first real day of the new regime, the "Doomsday" cuts and changes set into action, I was prepared for the worst. Given that I live at the second stop on the Astoria line I wasn't too worried about my morning commute - though by Queensboro Plaza things can sometimes get pretty harry if the trains have gotten behind. The view from the bench... well, it's best left undescribed.

But this morning's ride in on an N - though I was hoping to see one of these Queens Q trains, I had an early doctor's appointment to make so I couldn't wait around - was if anything a bit less crowded than usual. That could of course be specifically because I was out a good half hour to 45 minutes earlier than normal, but it's hard to say.

(And while I'm at it, can I just say what is UP with the north staircase of the southbound track of the Astoria station? Come on people. Get that sh*t fixed already.)

When it came time to come home, I set my jaw and prepared for the worst. But descending the escalator at 59th street I was surprised to see a much smaller crowd on the platform than usually greets me at just-after-six. Again, you never know; it could have been timing. I could have been 30 seconds behind back-to-back R trains - happens more often than you'd believe, and it clears out the joint pretty good. Either way though, I got a seat all the way home, and thank the public transit gods because my kidney was killing me.

So day one for doomsday wasn't very doomy at all, at least for my rides on the good old Broadway Local. What this means, nobody knows. Perhaps we'll know more tomorrow.

RIP, W... RIP, V...

2010-06-26T18:38:00.004-04:00

Yes, it's true. Yesterday was your last chance ever to ride the W train, or the V. And things they are a-changin' - beginning Monday, the M will be an orange train and start its upward swing through midtown and into Queens, and the Q will move past 57th street and all the way on up to Astoria. We've seen Q trains up here before of course, mostly when 7 train service is disturbed. But for keeps, now that's just something else entirely.

There is, of course, a certain justice in the Q train finally serving Queens.

These things happen. Train lines come and go, get renamed, get new routes. And I guess I've just been in New York long enough now that I'm seeing it happen with my own eyes, on my own lines. What's worse that the rerouting, though, is that service is being cut. What is that delusional claim they make? From zero passengers standing to 10 - 12? (I hope they mean per 20 square feet of car space, because that's how it already is during rush hour.) I fear for my evening commute. But only time will tell.

It seems that few will mourn the loss of the V train - except for me, that is. I liked that train, mainly for its *not* being the E train, which is always packed to the gills with people in too much of a hurry to realize that, uh, they could just take the V, which was always half empty. Which was of course why I always liked the V train so much. Will the rerouted M be the same? I'm sure I'll have occasion to find out.

The WFP has struggled valiantly to at least get the MTA to back off of eliminating student metro cards. (Come on folks - are you gonna push them down and take their lunch money too?) And it looks like they're making some headway on that front. But it doesn't seem that any amount of pleading (or demonstrating, or petitioning...) could save these lines, a number of bus slashes, and the service cuts that are now under way.

Thanks much Bloomie, our independently (extraordinarily) wealthy third term mayor! Just a little food for thought: you know this town completely falls apart without usable public service, right? Kay. Just makin' sure.

And yeah, I am so totally getting the t-shirt.

The latest excuse.

2010-05-31T14:30:00.002-04:00

I swear, I was on the verge of another ride. Really and for truly. The end of a W-and-Z-Train era is rapidly approaching, and I am eager to get those rides under my belt while I still can.

And then, tragedy struck.

Last Saturday after 10 hours in the ER we figured out that I have kidney stones, seven of 'em. It should have been simple enough, get rid of the one big one that's giving me all the trouble and pass the rest and have done with it. But no. Not for me. I went and got two infected kidneys and put myself in the hospital for three days instead.

So for the moment I'm, uh, grounded. Frustrating as hell, what with this clock ticking. I've got the taste for it! I want to get out there and do some professional riding! But given that I can't even get to my station right now, it just doesn't seem to be in the cards.

And in conclusion,

damnit.

Hello, Doomsday. (I'm going to have to go out of order.)

2010-05-04T12:15:00.001-04:00

More details. L is the next up for riding, but since after June 25 the V and W will no longer exist, it seems to me that I should hit them up. They're hard though, since they're weekday lines.

From the MTA website:

MTA Board Approves Service Changes

On Wednesday, the MTA board approved a package of service changes needed to help fill a nearly $800 million budget shortfall for 2010. The service changes included modifications based on public feedback from more than 500 speakers at the MTA's nine public hearings, in addition to 7,100 emails, and 110,000 letters and signed petitions.

"The extent of our deficit requires that most of the cuts move ahead, but we listened to our customers and made changes where we could," MTA Chairman and CEO Jay H. Walder said. "We were able to take a number of cuts off the table but unfortunately, many of the cuts moving ahead will be painful."

The service changes will save the MTA $93 million each year and are part of a series of actions proposed in December to close a nearly $400 million shortfall for 2010, including changes to paratransit service and the elimination of student MetroCards. An additional shortfall of $378 million has since developed. The total of nearly $800 million is due largely to the deterioration of projected payroll tax revenues and a state cut of $143 million to the MTA's budget that was diverted to the State's general fund.

Additional actions are also being undertaken to close the remaining gap. The MTA has begun overhauling how it does business, renegotiating contracts with suppliers, and identifying projects that can be deferred or eliminated. Spending is already down $59 million for the first two months of the year. It plans to consolidate functions across its agencies, reduce overtime costs and has already begun meeting with union leadership to discuss the agency's budget situation and begin the dialogue about how they can contribute to the solution.

"The reality is that closing the first $400 million is extremely painful, and closing the additional gap will be even harder," Chairman Walder said. "We've just taken a very difficult vote, but there are more difficult choices ahead to achieve necessary cost savings."

A full list of the service changes and an implementation schedule are available below.

Service Changes

New York City Transit
- Memo of service change revisions
- Final Report of all service changes
Long Island Rail Road
- Memo of service change revisions
- Final Report of all service changes
Long Island Bus
- Memo of service change revisions
- Final Report of all service changes
Metro-North Railroad
- Memo of service change revisions
- Final Report of all service changes
Bus Company
- Memo of service change revisions
- Final Report of all service changes
Final Access-A-Ride Report
Final Able-Ride Report

Final Crossing Charges

MTA Bridges & Tunnels

Implementation Timeline

New York City Transit, MTA Bus, Long Island Bus

All changes, bus and rail, are planned to be effective June 27, 2010. Since that is a Sunday, weekday-only services (V, W, many of the express buses, etc) would run their last regular service on Friday, June 25 and the first weekday patterns on Monday June 28. One exception: Staten Island Ball Park (SIR) special will officially be discontinued June 18 (the first Staten Island Yankees home game).

Long Island Rail Road

The LIRR service changes earmarked for May 2010 would be implemented with the May 17, timetable change. The LIRR Service changes earmarked for September 2010 would be implemented with the September 13 timetable change.

Metro-North Railroad

Service changes will be implemented on June 21, 2010, to correspond to with their next timetable change.

Access-a-Ride

Service changes will be phased in over the next several months.

Able-Ride

MTA LI Bus agreed to a federal judge's request to delay the elimination of Able-Ride's non-ADA paratransit service by two weeks. The planned date for this change therefore has been rescheduled to April 28, 2010.

The judge asked for a two-week delay to give social service groups within the affected areas of Nassau County an opportunity to be fully apprised of the pending changes to Able Ride service. While we believe that our actions are fully in conformance with legal obligations with respect to the lawsuit itself, we want to afford our customers this additional period to explore alternative modes of transportation and resources. An invitation to attend an information session on April 22 was mailed to various social service groups in the affected areas within Nassau County.

The judge scheduled another hearing for April 27 to render a decision in this matter.

Bridges & Tunnels

Modification of the Cross Bay Bridge Resident Rebate Program will go into effect at a yet to be determined date in July.

Student Fare Proposal

The proposal to eliminate free and discounted student fares has not been acted upon by the board.

Click here for the student fare proposal

So what are they doing to our subway?

2010-05-03T12:40:00.000-04:00

A summary of the subway service changes:

Subway and Staten Island Railway

Reduce Weekend Train Frequencies to Accommodate Construction Work
Revise Off-Peak Service Levels – Change Maximum Loading Guideline from No Standees Per Car to 10-18 Standees per Car (from 100% of a Seated Load to 125% of a Seated Load)
Operate G Between Court Square and Church Avenue at All Times
Extend Q to Astoria and Operate N Local North of Canal Street to Replace the W
Extend M to Replace the V Between Broadway-Lafayette Street and Forest Hills-71st Avenue, Discontinue M Between Essex Street and Bay Parkway (Note: route letter designation changed from 1/27/10 proposal).
Discontinue Staten Island Railway Baseball Special Service

So... now not even traveling during non-rush-hour times will save us from overpacked subway cars (this is really a nice way of saying that the trains won't be coming as frequently, and therefore will be more crowded) - I shudder to think what getting to and from work will be like. Something just doesn't smell right here. They're raising our fares and covering every available surface of the trains - inside and out - with advertisements, and yet their costs are still going up and up and up and none of it is helping to close the gap? Or is this really an issue of some kind of raging mismanagement (misappropriation?) of funds and resources? Is the MTA (supposedly a public service) under the impression that it should be operating at a profit?

If you're interested, you can read the full 127 page report on the cuts.

THE R GOT NEW TRAINS!!

2010-04-13T19:00:00.004-04:00

Craziness has occurred! the R line finally has new trains! I wasn't able to see if it was The New R160 or an even newer model, but I do have photographic evidence.

Now, on the one hand I want to say it's about damn time. The N/W line got R160s years ago, and the R trains were kinda shabby. So Congratulations to you R train riders - I hope this improves your quality of life.

On the other hand (the silly selfish one), I am going to have to start paying MUCH more attention on my way home! It's always been so easy. With the old trains, you could see the letter on the front long before the train ever pulled into the station. And once my line got new trains, I just knew that if it was a new train it was my train. But now... I'm going to have to actually look! Alas, no more being a lazy ass.

So there you have it people. One more step toward completely homogenizing the New York City Subway System. In the coming days I'll have to try to capture some images of old R trains for posterity - doubtless it's not a complete switchout... yet.

Five months?!

2010-03-30T16:48:00.003-04:00

Wow. It has been an unbelievably long time since I've posted here. I could tell you that the project has not died, not in my heart anyway. There was a rather glorious J train ride - I was even accompanied by the fabulously talented Sarah Riley for the adventure. But somehow I have not yet written it up or even posted the photographs.

I have the same old crappy excuses: health, wedding, bla bla bla. But the wedding is now finished - I'm a Mrs.! And with the exception of some nasty wisdom tooth stuff, my health seems to be trucking along.

And now there's actually a bit of pressure: Jonathan and I have made a semi-formal decision to leave New York. We love this city, we really do, but it is a difficult place to be, particularly for me physically. I don't know that it's too great for either of our stress levels either. Not to worry though. The earliest we'll go is May of next year, giving me well over a year to ride the rest of the trains. I just need to get back up on it...

What are they building at Queensboro Plaza?

2009-10-30T13:29:00.003-04:00

I can't decide if it's condos or a really big parking lot. Based on the trends of the neighborhood, I'm guessing condos... which is somewhat entertaining, since you could practically reach a broom out of what will be windows and touch the 7 train.

This, however, is not what upsets me. If people want to buy stupidly located condos, that's their business. What does upset me is, first, the building they tore down to build whatever this is. That thing was a hideous 60s masterpiece, complete with many hexagons. It will be missed, at least by me. Second is that, now, when coming around the big curve between Queensboro Plaza and 39th Street, the timespan during which a rider on the N or W can catch a nice view of the Empire and Chrysler buildings is cut in half.

Stupid "progress".

Grudgingly, the G train.

2009-09-24T08:15:00.000-04:00

I've been struggling with the G. Really, I'm in denial. Its original purpose was so bold, so inspired, so innovative: to have one single solitary train that would bring a rider from Brooklyn to Queens, and vice versa, without having to go through Manhattan.

Those of you who live in either of these boroughs know what I'm talking about. Say you live in Astoria or Long Island City or even Hunter's Point, and all you want to do is get to Greenpoint or Williamsburg. Without the G train, you have to make an hourlong trek through that all-important isle, to which all roads (or tracks) lead, to get to someplace that in reality you probably could have walked faster because they're actually right next to each other.

But the G, ah, the G! No Manhattan for its passengers, just Queens to Brooklyn, Brooklyn to Queens, back and forth all day long. With full service beginning in 1937, it is the only train now running to use the IND Crosstown Line. Unitl 1985 they called it the GG, and it stretched from the odd nook between Red Hook and Carrol Gardens all the way to Jamaica, Queens in a crazy outer borough zig-zag. Brilliant!

Until.

Troubles seemed to have started for our dear old G train in 1997, due to the terribly problematic 63rd street tunnel, through which only the F train runs. Apparently the G somehow got in the way of construction, and so service was cut back to Court Square on evenings, nights, and weekends. This stop is *technically* in Queens. It is in fact directly under that hideously shiny CitiBank tower that can clearly be seen from 53rd street in Midtown if looking across the East River. Of course, standing outside the Court Square station, you can practically throw a rock and hit Brooklyn. But nevermind that.

Then, in 2001, the V train happened. Because of overcrowding on the E and F trains (and no one can argue that the E train is not ridiculous), the V was introduced to help bring riders into and out of, uh, *Manhattan*. For some reason, the system in northeast Queens is made up of one huge channel. Once the V was introduced, too many trains were competing for use of the same tracks: the E, R, and G, and now the V. Guess which one got axed? (Hmm, could it be the one that wasn't going to Rome?)

Of course it was the one train that didn't serve the Almighty One, the Great Manahatta. G train service to the upper part of Queens then sort of inverted: it would run all the way out on evenings, nights, and weekends -i.e., when the V train does not run - and during prime time its terminus became Court Square.

Service was thus truncated, but it didn't stop there: in order to have G trains run more frequently, the trains themselves got shorter. Instead of running trains of normal length less frequently, the MTA felt it would be better to have trains half the length of the platform come more often. They took the "extra" cars to make "extra" trains for the line. (I can only guess that they were just that strapped that no full length extra trains were to be had?) The overall result of this being that unwary riders waiting too far along the platform could easily miss the train entirely. The first time I rode the G, I was totally bewildered when the end of the train whizzed by me and kept going another car length or so, but then did indeed stop and open its doors. I was so dumbfounded in fact that I almost didn't make it onto the train. They hold the doors open extra long for foolish newbies like me.

The south end of the G strikes one as totally arbitrary. It is in fact at the highest station in the system, towering 88 feet over neighborhoods and highways and offering a clear view of the old Kentile Floors sign - a sign which would mean entirely different things to me if I didn't work in asbestos personal injury litigation. Oh, how one's work can change one's perception of the world... Oddly, the tracks then almost immediately dive back underground, giving something of the feel of a rollerocaster. No one ever believes me when I tell them that New York City's physical geography is interesting. But I'll tangent more on that station in a lil bit.

Anyway. By this point you're probably asking yourself, has this girl ridden this damn train or what? And the answer is: yes. Twice. And yet never how I'd wanted, because I still haven't been able to catch it running all the way out to Jamaica. See, it used to. I know it did - I've caught it up at Steinway and Broadway, far past its current pseudo-north-terminus. But ever since I've been trying to catch it on its full route, it's been thwarting me. The MTA's official standing is that it will be ending at Court Square "until further notice". I've tried to be tricky and catch it on federal holidays, when trains often run on a "Saturday" or "Sunday" schedule and thus tend to do things they otherwise wouldn't, even on a Saturday or Sunday. But no, they're not even falling for that one anymore. My last such attempt was on July 3rd, but no such luck.

So I've just had to accept the fact that the G Train now runs from Smith and 9th to Court Square - regardless of what the official story of the MTA is and regardless of what the maps say. It's a short bit of a line, and my rides on it have been so fragmented that I have no choice but to give this ride to you in something of a photoessay.

But wait! Get this! As of July 5th and for the next several years (word on the street says four, but who knows with these MTA projects), the G will actually run five stops past Smith and 9th Street to Church Avenue, its original terminus from 1937! Are you excited? I know I am. Now let's make with the pictures, huh?

Ely 23rd Street connects with Court Street, the fake northern end of the G. They're distinctly different stations connected by a long corridor that gets quite crowded during rush hours - so crowded that it has a powerwalk! The powerwalk even works sometimes. For my first ride, which happened last, ahem, December, this is where I started out - I much prefer entering on 21st street and walking down some long hallways to trying to wander around the damn CitiBank building to find the entrance that's open.

The aforementioned powerwalk. There is not very much art on the G line, and what little there is is almost all in this station. Unfortunately, it looks like this.

See what I mean? It's more interesting that dirty white tile walls, certainly. And I much prefer it to the advertisements that positively paper the walls at, say, Union Square. Is there any surface they *won't* put ads on? Yup: tile mosaic.

Court Square. This is the true beginning, for so many people each day. After the mad rush through the corridor beneath CitiMonstrosity, they dash down to this desolate platform... all too often to see that the precious G, which doubtless has been sitting idle for the past 10 to 15 minutes, has just closed its doors and begun to pull out of the station. (If you're lucky, another one has pulled in, and at least you can wait sitting down. Ho hum.)

I love these sort of classic silhouettes that the old stations provide... Of course, all of the stations are old. Until they finally finish the T, that is.

I love this guy. (Doorway? What doorway? I'm not blocking any doorway...)

Who's that guy? And why's he always reading?

I adore this tilework - it's so entirely different than anything I've seen in any other station. But I can't remember which station it's in! That's it. I officially suck. Process of elimination tells me that it's Classon, Clinton-Washington, or Fulton. Ugh, why don't I have a photographic memory? (Har har har.)

If you've read very much by Jonathan Lethem, you've heard about Hoyt-Schermerhorn. (Please, please don't ask me to pronounce it.) You may have also seen it in movies and not known it. See, the station has four sets of tracks running through it, but only the two interior sets are in active use. The two on the outside are "abandoned", and therefore used by Hollywood! If, for instance, they need to have a subway train come into a station and then leave it, these side platforms are ideal. I hear tell that a long-since-closed department store had display windows that reached down into the station (a la the S-Mart at Astor Place), but I've never been able to spot them, and I fear that they've been covered over. This is also where you'd get out to go to the Transit Museum... but that's a post in and of itself, now isn't it?

Carroll Street. Very cute neighborhood at this stop. You should check it out sometime.

I love this green tiling, truly. It's sort of the earmark of this part of the line - many of the lines have a color theme present for long stretches, which makes sense. It wouldn't be practical or cost effective to try to use a different palette in each station, and it also gives people an easy identifier that they've gotten on the right train home...

Look at me! I've gone past Smith and 9th on the G train, because I'm in bizarro world... and will be for like four years or so. Go figure. Here we've got goldenrod yellow tile - we're not in Kansas anymore.

And I've arrived at Church Ave. Notice: they changed the map to show the new G terminus. This is like, for reals, peoples. I hope Park Slope is happy. (I don't mean that in the sarcastic way. I mean literally, I think they're pretty happy about it. I'd be pretty happy if a new train line started coming by my neighborhood.)

I'm a big dumb jerk and I don't have any pictures of what the streets around the Church Ave stop look like. Hopefully if and when my work load ever slows down, I will get back down there and post an addendum.

But for now, let's back up to the "real" terminus, because oh how I dig it so.

Now's the time that we gush about Smith and 9th, a superlative station in the NYC subway system - literally, in that it is the highest station. As in, really really high off of the ground, like woah. 88 feet doesn't sound that high, except that you're out in the open... and the platform doesn't feel exactly flat. Also, how rad is this tiling? It's under every lamp post along the platform. I love this kind of detail. And see? Still with the green.

I wouldn't want to have to wait up here on one of our terrible New York in February nights, when it's twenty degrees and the wind is raging through (wind chill negative two? Mmm hmm). But man, it's worth all those stairs and escalators just for the view.

The view at night is indeed spectacular, but the view during the day is nothing to shake a stick at either.
I love old signs like this - which has a certain twinge of irony to it seeing as I hate advertising to the point that I don't own a television. If this was for Sketchers I'd hate it. What can I say? I'm a bundle of contradictions.

And, you know, there's this. (Look hard. You'll see it.)

You really notice the height when ascending or descending. At Smith and 9th, if you actually want to get down, you must descend 18 stairs... before you reach the first of two super long steep scary escalators. Eyeah.

And what do you see when you get outside? Well, you're sort of under a highway underpass. There's a bodega, and a bus stop, and the Ikea shuttle for Red Hook stops there. So there's always a huge influx of college students and yuppies-in-training... much to the chagrin of the people who actually live in the neighborhood and just want to take the bus home. But hey, we can't call it progress unless we're ruining someone's neighborhood, right?

Well, alright darlings. That's my G train story. It's been a long time coming, I know. Ten months, actually, is how long it took me to actually get this post written. But the good news is that I've already ridden the J train! And then there's always the K to talk about. Oh, what, you didn't know there was a K train? You have so much to learn...

You guys are like, totally not gonna believe me, but...

2009-09-06T20:03:00.003-04:00

I've ridden two trains! No really, I swear! I've ridden the G train - twice. And today I rode the J! But now listen. It takes a minute to digest a ride and get all the photos in order and write one of those oh so clever blog posts. But just rest assured. Rides are coming.

So here's the thing.

2009-08-15T10:10:00.006-04:00

I know. You're so super duper sick of my excuses that you're not even going to read this blog post. And I don't even really blame you for that. But I'm going to tell you what's happening anyway.

At the moment it's really hard for me to type because my right hand is so messed up. Why? I don't really know. What I do know (thanks to an MRI) is that I have a pinched nerve on the left side of my neck. It's basically just being folded in to a general flare-up of my chronic illness. This has not left me in a good position to do any subway riding.

I know. You hate me.

I have material for at least four posts for you! And when I can type better I will post them! Among other things, I promised you I was going to bring back pics of the D.C. Metro, and I did I did! I haven't shown them to you yet because I suck, or more specifically because my body sucks and it isn't letting me do the things I'd like to at the moment.

But look. The project isn't abandoned - far from it. In fact, come early September I have a date to ride the J train. I have high hopes of being more functional by that point, and I'll have a partner, and damnit I have determination.

I know what you're thinking. She hasn't posted the G train yet.

Bear with me lovelies.

Until then, a consolation prize.

Treehugger's "World's Best Alternative Subway Maps". Unsurprisingly, NY is heavily featured. Wish I could give you the whole slideshow here, but they're not so big on the embed features. Anyway...

Thanks Dan!

Where's my ride? A weekend concern.

2009-07-11T11:12:00.002-04:00

A major concern in this project, for me who has a weekday 9 to 5 (or so), is the fact that some trains don't run on the weekends. This is a somewhat major hurtle to overcome, as these are also often the trains that stop running at 10 or 11 pm on the days they do run. That leaves me with just a handful of hours to do a ride. It takes very careful planning - and a certain willingness to end up at the end of a line at ten o'clock at night with blind faith in the dear old MTA that there will, somehow, be another train to get you home.

So, what trains are these weekend slackers? Here's the complete list.

-The B Train. Fortunately we've already overcome this one - and got to see some fireworks as our reward.

-The J Train. I'm kind of baffled by this - I really thought that the J was a full timer - apparently not though. Seems that the M is the workhorse on that particular line.

-The V Train. This is truly lamentable, as in the city it's the best alternative to the always bursting at the seams E train. It also just stops pretty much everywhere I want to go on the west side, and from one of my common destinations in Queens no less. So it goes.

-The W Train. My little buddy out here in Astoria, who almost faced the ax during the "doomsday" propositions of late. Yeah, great idea guys - approve the construction of one billion condos in a neighborhood and then cut its train service. Luckily it's been staved off, for the time being at least.

-And, last but not least, The Z Train. I haven't seen much of this elusive beast, and apparently there's a reason for that. Seems that all it really does is supplement the J line during rush hours on weekdays. This line follows a most unusual path - from lower Manhattan, through Brooklyn, and then up into Queens the back way. It ends up where all the other Queens trains end up, way up in Jamaica, but by slicing an entirely different route. Cool, says I. It will be an interesting ride.

And when is she riding again, you ask? Soon! I hope. The schedule's a little bit packed at the moment. But here's a touch of exciting news for you: next weekend I'll be in DC! No promises, but maybe just maybe I'll come back with photos of the Metro's Red Line. (Doubtless I'll come back with lots of pictures of me in wedding dresses, as that's why I'm going down. But that's a different blog entirely.) Ah, the Metro - a much less impressive system with much more impressive stations, largely because many of them were built as artful bomb shelters... true story.

So that's what I got for ya today. See you soon, and happy riding.

One year down, and I am no hero.

2009-07-06T22:02:00.003-04:00

One year down and there is not a sound.

Well, actually there's lots of sounds - the subway is a very loud place. Sorry, 90's indie rock reference.

So, believe it or not today marks the first anniversary of my A Train ride - the first of what would prove to be seven in year one of The Subway Project. I knew that it would be slow going. But I'll admit, I thought I'd be farther along by now. The intention, luckily, never was to do it quickly though. The intention always has been to do it right.

In that vein, I've begun a new phase of this multi-media adventure. Each train post has been very photo heavy, but even so I've only included a fraction of the images captured on each ride. For example: on my B Train ride, I took 180 pictures. It's just not reasonable to put that in a blog post. *However.* There are whole websites dedicated to nothing but photo posting, and I've now commandeered yet another little piece of the digital landscape to dedicate to the images of the subway as seen through my eyes (ahem, camera).

So, once I get everything uploaded, you'll be able to see my whole photographic journey on each line. If you'd like to lift these images for non-profit-making purposes, honestly, feel free. All I ask is that you give a little shout out to me and the project.

Enjoy.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Your MetroCard.

2009-07-06T07:54:00.003-04:00

This is a message to the fine people of New York City, and specifically those of you who use our mass transit system each and every day. As certainly you know by now, on June 28th our fares were raised. They didn't go up as much as they could have, and they're not destroying three of our subway lines, so we can't be too upset can we? However, here's what you need to know:

If you have already purchased a card at the old prices - say, a 30 day card for $81 dollars through TransitCheck - you MUST begin using it TODAY, JULY 6TH. After today, your card will not be honored by the subway turnstyles. Now, whether or not you will be able to trade in that card for its cash value I have yet to be able to determine.

That is all.

This year has been hard... but I have a gift for you.

2009-06-28T23:07:00.003-04:00

I know. I haven't ridden a train yet this year. It's getting kind of ridiculous, seeing as it's almost July. You may think that I've given up on the project. But I haven't, not at all. It's just been a hard year thus far.

But I've got a little something for you, something special that I came across. And I think you'll like it.

See? Now don't you feel better?

HOPE. Perhaps it's gonna be OK... perhaps.

2009-05-06T16:57:00.003-04:00

Finally the fat cats have paused long enough in licking their whiskers to make a decision about the fate of the little people, and not a moment too soon. Fare hikes and service cuts, including the eradication of two entire lines, was scheduled to occur in just a few short weeks. Now, it seems that we'll take a bit of a hit in the pocket, but not much else. Unfortunately, this may be a quick fix to what is actually a long term problem. But what else is new? As usual, I suppose we'll have to jump off that bridge when we come to it.

Below, the latest from the New York Times City Room blog on the status of the situation.

* * * * * * * * * *

May 6, 2009, 9:11 am

Legislators Reach Deal on M.T.A. Rescue Plan

By Jennifer 8. Lee

Gov. David A. Paterson announced the long-awaited deal to rescue the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Tuesday night, which generally keeps fare increases to 10 percent instead of 20 to 30 percent.

Under the deal, the base fare for a single bus or subway ride would rise to $2.25 from $2. The cost of a monthly MetroCard would probably rise to about $89 from $81. Other fares and tolls, including tickets on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad, would go up about 10 percent.

The plan calls for a payroll tax, a 50 cent surcharge on taxi rides and increases in vehicle-registration and license fees and the auto-rental tax.

The New York Post adds that the state Senate is expected to vote on and pass the $2.26 billion bailout bill at its 11 a.m. session on Wednesday morning. Then it would head to the assembly and the governor.

Read City Room’s rundown on what the M.T.A. bailout could mean to you.

The Daily News adds that transit officials have said that they would likely push back the May 31 and June 1 fare-hikes to do the computer programing and other necessary work to implement the scaled-back increases. The News also points out that the streamlined capital plan could mean an extended No. 7 line — but not more frequent service.

Glimmers of hope?

2009-04-21T15:42:00.004-04:00

It's a damn shame that I still haven't gotten to go on any of my rides this year. Things are still just too hectic. My health has yet to settle down, and now on top of it I'm moving and going to trial. Nevertheless, I want to try to keep you, lovely reader, up to date on the ridiculous ongoings of the NY MTA fare hikes / service cuts. After all, the fate of my beloved W train hangs in the balance!

And so, the latest New York Times article on the subject, which indicates that there may indeed be a light of the big fat white man's bureaucratic tunnel.

* * *
Senate Shapes New Rescue Plan for M.T.A.

By WILLIAM NEUMAN

Published: April 20, 2009

Into the maelstrom of competing proposals to rescue the financially troubled Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Democrats in the State Senate submitted another offering Monday — one that would cut out new tolls but add money for highway and bridge construction.

Earlier attempts to pass a rescue plan for the authority have died within the Senate’s narrow and fractious Democratic majority. A spokesman for the Senate majority leader, Malcolm A. Smith, said on Monday that he was “optimistic” that the new plan could win the 32 votes needed to pass.

But Mr. Smith’s ability to deliver enough votes is crucial, so it was not immediately clear whether the new plan would provide a needed breakthrough or fall apart as another plan from Senate Democrats had done.

Senate Democrats hold a 32-to-30 majority over Republicans, who have not backed any rescue plan for the authority.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said in a statement, “I am willing to support any plan that provides a stable, long-term funding stream for mass transit and apportions the burden equitably among everyone who has a stake in the M.T.A.’s future.” Mr. Silver added that he had not fully reviewed the plan Monday night.

“If it can accomplish both of those objectives and command the support of the majority of Senators, then it is an alternative we’re prepared to take very seriously,” he said.

Gov. David A. Paterson’s office released a statement saying that it had not yet reviewed the details of the Senate proposal.

The plan seeks to overcome the objections of Senate Democrats to crucial elements of the original rescue proposal, which was crafted by Richard Ravitch, a former authority chairman, to address growing deficits at the agency.

The original plan included a tax on payrolls of 34 cents for each $100 in wages, to be paid by employers in the 12-county region served by the authority.

Some suburban senators criticized the tax as being too burdensome on businesses, school districts and hospitals.

Austin Shafran, a spokesman for Mr. Smith, said the Senate alternative would retain the Ravitch plan’s tax rate in New York City, but lower it elsewhere, with counties farther from the city paying less than closer ones.

He said he did not know what rates would apply outside the city.

The tax under the Ravitch plan was estimated to take in $1.53 billion in its first full year of receipts.

Mr. Shafran said the Senate tax would take in $1.49 billion in its first full year.

The Senate plan also eliminates the Ravitch proposal for tolls on the East River and Harlem River bridges, which several senators from Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx said were unfair to residents of their boroughs.

The plan includes other charges on drivers and vehicles in the 12-county region served by the authority, like an additional $25 vehicle registration fee, a 25 percent increase in driver’s license fees and an increase in car rental taxes to 11 percent, from 6 percent. Together these fees would raise about $175 million a year.

Mr. Shafran said the plan would also include a $1 surcharge on taxi trips throughout the 12-county region, which is expected to produce $190 million a year, half of which would go to the transportation authority.

The other half would be used to pay for highway and bridge projects upstate and on Long Island. Mr. Shafran said that the state would use that portion of the taxi fee to finance borrowing for road and bridge projects. He said the fee would allow the state to borrow $1.2 billion. That would cover only a fraction of the state’s roadway construction needs.

Like the Ravitch plan, the Senate proposal would include an increase of about 8 percent for bus and train fares and existing tolls this year. That increase would come instead of an increase of 20 to 30 percent that the authority says it must impose without a rescue package.

Both plans would also avert deep service cuts.******

TRAGEDY STRIKES.

2009-03-25T16:06:00.001-04:00

March 25, 2009, 9:38 am

M.T.A. Increases Fares and Cuts Services

By William Neuman AND Jennifer 8. Lee

Ruby Washington/The New York Times David S. Mack, vice chairman of the M.T.A. board, and H. Dale Hemmerdinger, the chairman, at Wednesday’s session.

Updated, 11:40 a.m. | The board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted on Wednesday morning to enact a series of fare hikes and service cutbacks needed to keep the transit system from going broke.

The vote was broken largely into three parts: fare hikes, toll increases and service cutbacks. After hearing from the public and the board members, the board approved each by a vote of 12 to 1.

“This is your last chance or forever hold your peace,” H. Dale Hemmerdinger, the chairman of the board, said before the final vote.

The lone dissenting member in each vote was Norman I. Seabrook, president of the 9,500-member New York City Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association.

Board members called the combination of fare increases and slashing bus, subway and commuter rail cuts a disaster but said they could no longer wait for lawmakers in Albany to rescue them.

The fare hikes on the subway and buses, including an increase in the base subway and bus fare to $2.50, from $2, will take effect on May 31.

Commuter rail fares will increase on June 1. Tolls on the authority’s bridges and tunnels will also go up, with the increase taking effect in mid-July.

The service cuts are far reaching. They include the elimination of 35 bus routes and two subway lines, the W and Z. Off-peak and weekend subway, bus and commuter rail service will also be cut back. The city comptroller’s office Web site allows you to search for the cuts by zip code.

The authority’s board had hoped for a different outcome.

Gov. David A. Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver have championed a financial rescue plan for the authority that would have prevented the service cuts and allowed a much smaller fare increase.

That plan [pdf], put forth by Richard Ravitch, a former authority chairman, would have funneled new revenues to the authority by creating a new tax on payrolls and tolls on the East River and Harlem River bridges. But several Democrats in the State Senate opposed the bridge tolls and blocked the rescue package.

“It’s truly sad that a few individuals can hold all these brave individuals hostage,” Mr. Hemmerdinger said when the meeting started.

Officials in Albany have said they still hold out hope that a compromise can be reached in the coming weeks. But the authority said it had to go through with the Wednesday vote to give itself time to plan and implement the fare and service changes.

If lawmakers do eventually pass a rescue package, authority officials say they may be able to stop the changes before they take effect.

Before the vote, the board heard from a parade of M.T.A. employees, transit advocates and city officials who criticized the fare hikes and service cutbacks that would affect a system that covers two-thirds of all mass transit riders in the United States. A number complained about how the cuts would disproportionately affect the middle class, who were already struggling in the city’s economic downtown.

Norman Siegel, a onetime candidate for the city’s public advocate and longtime civil liberties lawyer, tried to portray the board as out of touch, asking the board, “I am curious how many of you use the trains or buses regularly?”

When only some raised their hands, he said, “I hope that one day everyone here raises their hand.” He added, “You clearly don’t represent the diversity of the city or the state.”

David I. Weprin, the city councilman who is chairman of the Council’s finance committee, said that fare hikes should be the absolute last option. “They are neither new nor innovative,” he said. Instead, he urged for pursuing more aggressive advertising strategies and appealing to Washington.

Others used the opportunity to vent against Wall Street and the broader financial crisis, as much of the M.T.A.s’ financial burden comes from debt payments on money borrowed for capital improvements through Wall Street companies.

Elliot G. Sander, executive director of the M.T.A., acknowledged the cost of the spending binge earlier in the decade, describing the capital improvements made from 2000 to 2004 as being put “on a credit card.”

• • •

Live Blogging Updates: Before the vote, City Room filed blog updates from this morning’s meeting, below:

11:15 a.m. | Members of Metropolitan Transportation Authority board have been discussing the fare hikes in advance of the final vote.

So far, the wide-ranging discussion from the public and the board members has referenced A.I.G.’s $169 million in bonuses, Bernard L. Madoff and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

10:30 a.m. | The Metropolitan Transportation Authority hearing on the fare hikes has been under way since 9:30 a.m. A vote is expected. “It’s a true crisis that cannot be solved by ourselves without causing great pain to the riding public,” Mr. Hemmerdinger said at the beginning of the meeting.

At the microphone, some used the opportunity to vent about the broader financial crisis. John Ferretti, a conductor on the No. 1 line who helps publish The Revolutionary Transit Worker bulletin, noted that the M.T.A. was burdened by debt that had been incurred with the encouragement of Wall Street companies.

He said the increases “would take money out of the pockets of workers to save the funds of parasitic financiers and bankers.”

9:34 a.m. | The board of the M.T.A. is meeting to vote to enact a stiff series of fare hikes and service cutbacks needed to keep the transit system from going broke. The meeting, which started at 9:30 a.m., can be watched online. We will post details from the discussion and, eventually, the vote.

Board members have called the combination of fare increases and slashing bus, subway and commuter rail cuts a disaster but said they could no longer wait for lawmakers in Albany, who are in legislative stalemate, to rescue them.

As this blog has noted previously, here is what some of the proposed fares and tolls would look like under the plan:

New York City Transit: The base subway and bus fare in New York City would rise to $2.50, from $2. The monthly MetroCard would rise to $103, from $81. The pay-per-ride MetroCard bonus would remain at 15 percent.
Commuter rail: Fares on most lines would go up from 20 percent to nearly 30 percent. For example, on the Long Island Rail Road, a person who commutes from Hicksville to Pennsylvania Station will pay $267 for a monthly ticket, up from $211. A person who commutes from Ronkonkoma would pay $352, up from $278. On the Metro North Railroad, a person commuting from White Plains would pay $243 for a monthly ticket, up from $191.
Bridges and tunnels: Existing one-way E-ZPass tolls on the authority’s major bridges and tunnels, like the Robert Kennedy Bridge and the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, would rise to $5.26, from $4.15. One-way cash tolls on those crossings would rise to $6.50, from $5.
Access-a-Ride: Fares on the authority’s door-to-door Access-a-Ride service will remain equal to the base subway and bus fare. The authority had previously proposed raising Access-a-Ride fares to double the base fare.
Other fares: Some of the steepest increases will occur on the transportation authority’s Long Island bus line, which operates primarily in Nassau County. There the fare will increase to $3.50, from $2.

This is getting ridiculous.

2009-03-16T08:02:00.002-04:00

I haven't ridden a train yet this year! I mean, I ride a train pretty much every day. But, you know. I haven't ridden a train, like, for the project, since my G train ride back in December. And I haven't even blogged that one!

Sadly, having a bum foot does not lend itself to spending six hours taking photographs on a subway train and in its stations. But the foot's clearing up thankfully. And on the subject of the G train, there were confirmed sightings of that ephemeral being above Court Square on President's day - proving that my Federal Holiday theory is correct! Now only to catch it - I don't have another federal holiday off of work until May, ho hum.

Bear with me all. The project is not forgotten. It's just been a long, cold winter.

So, MTA, are you screwing us or what?

2009-01-25T21:28:00.006-05:00

Try as I might, I can't seem to get a satisfactory answer as to what's happening with the MTA's budget crisis. The gist is that "Albany's trying to work it out", but in the meantime I fear for what will happen to my beloved W line - and the price of my monthly unlimited ride metrocard. Of course I'm concerned about the bus lines getting axed, the longer waits between trains, the demise of the Z (I haven't gotten to ride it yet!), and all of the other nonsense - but those two factors are what will impact me most directly, and thus what weigh most heavily on my mind.

The only recent article I could find on the subject was this one from the Daily News. It strikes me as odd that for a topic so crucial to almost all New Yorkers, we're not getting the blow-by-blow. From what I can gather, the powers upstate are looking into two sources of money: 1) tolling of the East River and other bridges, and 2) a payroll tax to be paid by the employers of NYC.

I must say that suggestion number one makes a whole lot of sense to me. The tunnels are tolled, so why shouldn't the bridges be? Particularly those from the east side. No one, and I mean no one, needs to be driving into Manhattan over the 59th street bridge, when it's far cheaper to park in Long Island City and take the train in. If they still want to drive in why shouldn't they pay for the privilege?

And yet somehow, much like Bloomberg's congestion pricing suggestion, it is being decried as a "tax on working people". Are they effing kidding me? Shall we even begin to compare the numbers of "working people" who would be affected by increased subway fares and reduced bus services to those who would be impacted by tolls or congestion fees? I'm going to put this in terms of a real-life example. I work in a midtown law office that has something like 67 employees. Of those 67, I know of TWO who will SOMETIMES drive in to work... and both of them are lawyers. EVERYONE ELSE uses some combination of public transportation, be it buses, subways, or other trains like the LIRR. So, a tax on working people? Uh, more like a tax on rich mf'ers who don't need to be clogging up midtown with their damn SUVs anyway.

The fact is that most New Yorkers who even own cars don't drive them into Manhattan; there is far too much traffic to make it a practical way to get to work on time, and once you're in town you'll be very lucky to pay less than $50 dollars to park for the work day. And if you consider $50 a reasonable expense to park for a day, are you seriously going to tell me that you can't afford an $8 congestion fee? Pardon me if I find that just a bit hard to swallow. The whole thing makes me wonder if the people who are crying "unfair!" aren't the very same people who would end up having to pay, lest they be forced to join us public-transportation-riding plebeians.

It seems that The Powers are vastly preferring the payroll tax. On its face it doesn't sound like a bad idea - until you consider that we're in the middle of a recession. Employers are laying people off left and right, and cutting benefits and freezing salaries of the employees they're keeping. So I'm not sure that levying a tax on the PAYROLL will exactly encourage hiring new employees, or even keeping the ones already on the rolls. Yes, the MTA needs money, because the cuts they're proposing are absurd and will make the city borderline unlivable for many, many people. But this option really does seem like a tax on working people - because employers will ALWAYS transfer a new cost to its employees if at all possible.

Since the announcement of the deficit, I have been thinking often about the first winter I spent in New York City: the winter of 2005. The MTA, declaring a budget surplus of over $900 million, decided that the best thing to do with the money was to offer discounted fares for the holiday season. I think I got some benefit out of it - two extra days of rides or some such. But still, my feeling on the matter was mainly, what the hell is wrong with you people? Have you seen your trains? Have you seen your stations? You must be joking! They were also stating that they'd have a deficit of practically the same number only two years later. So... what the hell could they have been thinking? I don't think we ever quite figured it out.

Well, the MTA employees didn't seem to like the plan much either, and during the discounted time they went on strike - beginning on December 20, 2005. Compared to two previous strikes which respectively lasted 12 and 11 days, the two-day 2005 strike was pretty weak. But it was enough to make the city a whole new landscape amidst the ice and snow of that December. Of course, the reasons for the strike were ridiculous - pay increases for people already making over $50,ooo a year? Cry me a river. The strike was so short lived largely because their union did not support them.

When the discounts were announced, I got in lengthy debates about whether or not they were worthwhile. People, intelligent friends of mine whom I like and respect, were trying to argue that by effectively putting subway rides on sale, people would use the system more and it could be a net gain. To which I could only reply, uhhh, that's kind of like saying that if you make municipal water cheaper people will take more showers. It's a public service; people use it as they need it. Making it cheaper will save them a little tiny bit of money for the short while that the discount applies, but in the long run everyone loses. All they were really doing was losing the profit that could have been gained from all the Christmas shopping and tourism - those people were going to ride the subway regardless of what it cost.

Part of me is happy that other people also remember this little escapade. Part of me hates being right. Most of me just hopes that those who make decisions will free their collective heads from any and all orifices, and will find a way to do what's right for the REAL working people of New York City - those of us who depend on reliable subway and bus transportation to get to work each and every day.

Far from forgetable: the F train.

2008-11-29T00:16:00.007-05:00

(Illustration from the New York Times, 2004)

The F train, as far as I'm concerned, is a train of mystery. It goes where no other trains go, dodging and darting and twisting in a huge expanse from deep within Queens, through Manhattan, and on into Brooklyn all the way to Coney Island - but not by the same paths as other Brooklyn trains. It has forged its own path, and maybe because of this it is a train that draws reactions. No one is lukewarm about this line; it is Love or it is Hate. People write about it, make art about it, take video of it. Of all the trains that do go to Coney Island, a guerrilla art group chose this one for its livingroom style attack. It is also an eventful train; just this past June a woman gave birth on it - a woman named Francine, no less. And merely a month previous to that life-giving episode, a man was hit by an oncoming F train at Delancy - and lived.

The F has always been a train of wild times... here, Miss Amanda Brown (of Thibadoux / Chapel Hill infamy) has a quick bite before taking a ride. This pic was actually taken long before my official F train ride, but it was just too perfect a shot not to include here.

In the genre of beautiful women, the F happens to be the favorite line of the stunning and brilliant Miss Sarah Riley, film maker of Che La Ke fame, and as such she finally joined me for a ride.

The F seemed to be doing its damnedest to evade us - we'd been trying to make the journey for weeks and were thwarted by such events as work schedules and sinus infections. Hell, just to get on it we had to ride the E well into Queens - to Union Turnpike - thus retracing in large portions my previous subway journey. At least they were the express portions. Or, well, they would have been, if there hadn't been a "malfunction" with the emergency brake - slowest ride on the E ever. But despite all odds and forces conspiring against us, that mid October day Ms. Riley and I did eventually make it into the depths of Jamaica, where our journey truly began.

When we looked at the subway map with the ubiquitous "you are here" arrow circle, Sarah laughed to herself saying, "Fresh Meadows? I doubt it." It was kind of hilarious. That one's always full of surprises.

We emerged from a fairly unremarkable station to find ourselves on the border between two very distinct neighborhood types. To one side of a major road, which I now believe to be 179th Street, we found QUEENS. The kind of row houses and old lady gardens that one envisions when you hearing the name, thanks to Woody Allen movies and Peter Parker's humble upbringings. I kinda love it. To the other, we found Jamaica Estates, a large development of all-too-manicured houses, perfect sidewalks, and expensive cars. We did, however, find this intriguing mailbox. The most perfect paint spill ever? Perhaps. An interesting side note that came to my attention after the fact: Jamaica Estates is where the McDowell family lives in the movie Coming To America. In case you haven't seen it, that movie is effing hilarious.

Returning to the subway, we came upon a likely commissioned graffiti-style mural - and them is some tough vegetables!

Now, this may surprise you, but for some reason there just aren't very many art installations in the subway stations of northeast queens. Shocking, I know. And since I'd already been through most of it with the E - almost all of it, in fact, since in an absolutely brilliant logistical move all the trains out there use the same wide vein of track - there wasn't really anywhere else to stop until we got to Roosevelt Island. We did pass through the 21st Street / Queensbridge station, a station at which I have gotten out a few times, and also the locale of a very unfortunate event which was to take place only a few days after our ride.

At any rate, about the island. I've talked a good bit about its history in previous posts, so I will only focus now on that day's experience. Sarah and I got out and explored the station, oh so deep under ground, before emerging into the bright blue day and hopping onto the red bus that circles the island's perimeter at a mere 50 cents per ride. For reasons that we did not fully understand, we noticed scores of Hasidic Jewish families seeing the sights around the island; it somehow seemed appropriate to see people in somewhat antiquated dress in a place with such history.

We took the bus up to The Octagon, a truly bizarre establishment. I've done some internet research, and it's rather pricey to get a condo in this converted building - a studio goes for a bit more than what we pay for our one bedroom. There are two extra-special weird things about this particular condo building: 1) they consider themselves to be 'in Manhattan', despite the fact that they're on a different island, because yes technically Roosevelt island is part of the Manhattan borough, and 2) the namesake of The Octagon, the beautiful octagonal building that serves as cornerstone for the L-shaped development and its main entrance, was originally the main entrance hall to one of the most notorious LUNATIC ASYLUMS in the whole country. (Funny enough, as much as they like to tout that the octagonal beauty is "historic" on the condo website, they don't so much talk about what that history might be.) That's right folks, spend an arm and a leg to live on top of the site of the place that Charles Dickens, Nellie Bly, and countless others have written about as a place of suffering and horror. Uh... no thanks?

But, of course, we couldn't resist taking a look inside now could we? We walked in, and the front desk guys were eying us immediately. I imagine they get not a huge number of spectators, but enough that they know what's happening when it happens. They instantly saw Sarah's video camera and informed us that no photography was allowed. No problem, guys. The architects really did do a wonderful job of restoring the structure; the building itself is indeed quite beautiful, with a spiral staircase winding around the perimeter of the atrium. The wings that held cells for patients are long gone; at one point the thing burned to the ground (likely with most of the inmates inside), and it was rebuilt after that, but at any rate all that remains of the original structure is the octagon.

At first the space felt like most newly constructed spaces feel - sort of vacant and dead. But then, all of a sudden, a wave came over me - of panic, of fear, of Very Bad Things. I looked around, and the lobby was still as calm and unremarkable as could be. But this energy was surging through me with a force that made me feel as if I might fall down. I collected Sarah and got the hell out.

We crossed the street to a little area with benches and a sundial, and it took me several minutes of sitting and breathing to collect myself. Now, I am not one to go in for a lot of heebee jeebee mumbo jumbo. But I have this thing with places. I suppose the best way to explain it is that I believe in energy; that a place can be infused with the energies of its occupants if those energies are strong enough, good or bad, and that the traces can last long past their actual presence. I know it sounds a little goofy, and maybe I just watched The Shining too many times when I was a kid. But I've felt many things in many places, and never in my life have I felt anything like that. And I lived in New Orleans for chrissake. Granted, I went in knowing the history of the place, but it certainly isn't what I was thinking of at the time. I was thinking about how pretty it was, and the nice weather, and how yuppies like to live in expensive places with tennis courts. And it just hit me out of nowhere, like a sickness. Whatever it was that happened in there, it is not an experience I have any desire to repeat.

After I'd got myself together a bit, I explained what had happened to Sarah. She's the kind of girl who understands these things and didn't think it was terribly crazy - remarkable, perhaps, but not crazy. When my strength was regained I went to take a look at the sundial that was at the center of our little area of respite. Being placed as it was, directly across the street from the old insane asylum, I found the sentiment rather ironic. (In case you can't read it, it says "count none but sunny hours")

Once we were thoroughly over our Octagon experience, we walked up to the very tippy top of the island, at which there is a spooky little lighthouse built by inmates of the Blackwell Island Prison with stone that was quarried there... yeah, that place is just nuts.

I, of course, had wanted to visit the southern end of the island, at which lies the ruins of the abandoned smallpox hospital. Yeah, seriously. But, for some effing reason, the city has seen fit to fence off the whole bottom fifth of the island and post guards at the gates that allow access. I've made it this far without a police record, and if I'm gonna start one now goddamnit it's going to be for breaking into an abandoned station. Anyway, here is a picture of the hospital that I managed to take from Manhattan's east side. The ruins are collapsing, and there are factions that want them preserved as a historical landmark. There are also idiots (on the internet) who think that the smallpox virus will still be alive and active in the rubble. Um, sure.

We stayed on the island for a long, long time. It's really quite beautiful; I'd consider living there if it wasn't prohibitively expensive, crawling with feral cats, and possibly the most haunted piece of land on the planet. But as it headed toward late afternoon, we realized that we were still pretty far north and had a long way down to Coney. So, back to the subway we went.

This is just not a line with many installations, and the stations that do have them largely also have other train lines stopping at them, which means that I can show the cool stuff to you at a future time. The very next station we passed after resuming our journey was the Lexington Ave / 63rd Street station, which is only vaguely interesting in that when the Second Avenue Subway finally opens up - at this point supposedly in 2015 - that station will be a junction. It seems that there is already a platform for the new train line built and sitting behind a red brick wall; all that must be done to connect the two is to remove it. I hope it's not load bearing. They thought of that, right?

We actually didn't get out of the train again until the end of the line, but as is so often the case in Brooklyn this train came on up out of the ground and gave us some things to look at through the windows. Near the Smith and 9th Street station, which incidentally is both the station with the highest elevation in the entire subway system as well as the terminus of the G train, the most notable feature is the Kentile Floors sign. Kentile is a name quite familiar to me for... uh... professional reasons. Let's just say that, for several decades, they specialized in manufacturing asbestos floor tiles. Ahem. Anyway, it's quite a cool sign, and a nice feature in the skyline.

Paradoxically, just two stops after reaching the zenith of the entire track system, you're back under ground. You are also, I must note, interred only one stop before it, at Carroll Street. This strikes me as very odd, and I really do need to do some investigating as to why they'd turn the subway into a roller coaster for that moment. I'd like to assume there are structural reasons, but you just never can tell.

We rode through the strange and mysterious depths of Brooklyn without incident, but fully in the knowledge that this train did not trace the steps of any other - not the B or Q or N, which all also end up at the massive Coney Island convergence. At Neptune Avenue, there are stained glass installations in the "wind shields" of the platform; I did not, however, manage to photograph them. At the next to last station, West 8th St / NY Aquarium, the exoskeleton of the station itself is a work of art, a glass and steel sculpture resembling a marlin or sea beast - very cool, very massive, very hard to frame properly. And finally, we arrived at the end of the line, the big Coney Island station at which so many trains are anchored.

Naturally we got out to walk on the boardwalk. By that time the sun had begun to set on the autumn day, casting a golden patina over the fading relic. Coney is a place like no other, and yet it is now facing irrevocable change. As of the end of this summer season, the majority of the amusement parks were to be closed down, leaving only those like the Wonder Wheel and the Cyclone that have achieved landmark status. Why? Well, to build condos of course. Why else would something special and irreplaceable be destroyed forever?

We walked west, into the wind, into the sunset, Sarah filming bits of beauty in every direction. Perhaps, like New Orleans, this is a place that will retain its spirit regardless of what fate befalls it; maybe its true self will shine through whatever polish the developers choose to slather on. We can only hope. After all, it has seen many changes already and is long past its glory days. After all, with every visit I have wished that I could have seen it in the days of Steeplechase.

After a long and weary day of travel, we two considered dinner in the city but thought better of it and returned instead to our houses - Sarah to her abode in Brooklyn, and I to my Astoria pre-war nest. But the day remained with me, the rhythm of the train continuing its lull like the rocking of a boat will do after a day's travel on the water. Yes, everyone either loves or hates the F train. For me, as far as having to depend on that line, well, I would never want to try. But for an adventure, or a joy ride, or just a unique subway experience, I'll vote love. After all, it wouldn't be the first time that I loved someone, or something, unpredictable.

**See all of the photos we managed to snap hight here.

And for your further viewing pleasure, video snipetts compiled by the lovely VJ Sarah...

Is it because they're at the end of the alphabet?

2008-11-21T09:38:00.005-05:00

So, the economy is bad. Obviously that means we should make life more difficult for people who depend on public transportation - you know, the rich and elite.

According to the MTA's new budget plans, released Thursday, we may soon be seeing both an increase in fares across the board and an overall decrease in service. The service cuts will reduce the frequency of trains during non-rush hours, and will also completely ax the W and Z lines.

Raise fares AND cut service? Simultaneously? Really?

Am I the only NYC subway rider who remembers two Christmases ago, when the MTA boasted huge surpluses, and handed out discounted fares for a whole month like they were candy canes? I thought it was stupid then, and now my suspicions have been confirmed.

Speaking of suspicious confirmed, also being cut permanently is G service north of Court Square. Mmm hmm. Tonight I'm riding the new extent of the G line, almost by accident - it's the most convenient way for me to get from my office in midtown to my appointment near Carroll Gardens. I wonder how long it will be before the G is gone altogether? Before they tell us, what, just take the J through Manhattan? Or take one of our wonderful busses? Not the M though, because it will no longer be running into Brooklyn.

Good ol' Bloomberg wants us to tighten our belts and stick this thing out together - good ol' Bloomberg, whose net worth is estimated at $20 billion. Have we mentioned that the MTA's deficit, the one that is purportedly the motive for these cuts and fare hikes, is a mere $1.2 billion? Does anyone else find that frustrating?

Oh, MTA. Why, why must you forsake us all?

A successful mini-ride on the 6.

2008-11-16T21:18:00.002-05:00

Today I finally, finally, finally made my ride around the southern terminal loop to confirm my suspicions about the old City Hall station. Indeed, what I had conjectured is true. Unfortunately, you can't see much, but whatever. It's still awesome. When I made my ride I was in the front of the train, but of course in the R142A's with double panes of tinted glass you can't really see through the front. I want to try it again in the back, and in the daylight because apparently the skylights are no longer boarded up. I'm getting mixed stories on that one.

On the way down, I was also able to spot the fabled 18th Street Station - man, is that some serious graffiti.

Anyway, at the moment I'm allowing my creative worlds to collide, and my 6 train ride got incorporated into the novel I'm writing for NaNoWriMo. The passage goes something like this.

Once her friend was fed she had to leave; there was nothing else to be done, no reason to be foisted upon the girl, and anyway it was difficult to watch her like that. The day kept getting colder and windier though, and as Kansas had had quite enough of being cold she decided it was a good train riding day. She rode the N train the wrong way, up to Ditmars, and then waited for it to turn back in the other direction toward Manhattan. Perhaps, she thought, she'd ride all the way to Coney. She'd forgotten though that they'd be doing construction on the tunnel all month, and at Queensboro Plaza she was forced out onto the outdoor platform to wait for the 7 into the city. She rode it to Grand central, where she caught the 6 train headed south. She'd long had a bone to pick with the 6, and it was time that it be addressed.

A few stops passed uneventfully: 33rd Street with its oddly looped seat poles, 28th Street, 23rd Street utterly boring. After 23rd Street though, her pace began to quicken, and she moved to the windows at a set of right hand doors. As they left the station, she cupped her hands around her eyes so as to see better out the window past the glaring reflections from the lights inside the train; for a few moments she was only staring at the rapidly moving walls. It was dizzying. And then suddenly, the wall opened up before her into a wide platform, with intermittent poles. It was an oddly shaped space full of geometric angles, and every square inch had been covered in graffiti since the station had been abandoned. No longer a rumor, she had seen it with her own two eyes: the 18th Street Station. She wondered what had happened to the entrances above. Had they been bricked shut, paved over? She would have to investigate, see if there were traces to be found, clues to the former existence of the passageway.

This train held further mysteries, so before the doors opened at Union Square she took a seat, knowing full well the flood that would be arriving momentarily. They passed Astor Place, with its odd beaver reliefs as tribute to the Astor family who made their fortune in pelts. They passed Bleecker, name of origin unknown, but it might have been her favorite street in the entire town; she had walked it end to end more times than she could count. That station connected with the Broadway Lafayette station of the F and V lines, with its odd metal cones perforated with glass circlets, which flashed lights at indeterminate intervals. Next Spring Street, the epicenter of the SoHo shopping district – Kate's Paperie and Spring Street Natural and Pylones a stone's throw. Then Canal Street, the ubiquitous street name phenomenon in every port city, here the gateway to the ever expanding Chinatown. And finally Brooklyn Bridge, City Hall... or at least, what they were calling the City Hall station these days.

The original City Hall station, opened in 1904 complete with chandelier lighting and amid much fanfare, had been closed for decades. Because of its location directly beneath City Hall, it was designed as the “jewel in the crown” of the whole Interboro Rapid Transit system. People stopped going to the station, though, because of the much larger Brooklyn Bridge station only a block north which had express service... How quickly they forget. And so, the station was retired in 1945, the skylights boarded up, the entrances sealed, the the chandeliers allowed to crust over. It had only been open for 41 years, so in fact had been abandoned far longer than it was ever used.

But. The 6 trains, upon finishing their southbound route at Brooklyn Bridge / City Hall, needed a way to get to the uptown bound platform four tracks over. The way they did it was to loop through the old station. Or at least, this was her conjecture. She'd looked up old track maps and it all made sense, all fit together. She wanted to find out.

When her train pulled into the station, she sat tight, listening. Sometimes the trains got pulled out of commission at this point, sent straight back north to Pehallam Bay. That would be bad. Or maybe not; it would be an adventure, but the MTA officers likely would not be terribly pleased upon discovering her. The announcement was made though: “This is the last southbound stop on this train; the next stop on this train will be Brooklyn Bridge, City Hall on the uptown platform.” Perfect.

The train sat for a few minutes with the doors open, and then it sat for a few minutes with the doors closed. And then it began to move. She could feel that they were traveling through the wide arc of the old paths. She waited patiently by the doors, on the righthand side of the car, watching, watching. And then there it was. It was indeed a short platform, very short and not very wide. City Hall was spelled out in tiling like in so many of the old stations. In the middle of the platform there were stairs leading up to a mezzanine level; she believed this was where most of the resplendent features of the station lay. She wished, though, that she could see the ceiling, vaulted and arced with leaded skylight detailing...

It was over all too quickly. Her train passed the platform in a matter of seconds, and then waited at the end of the loop for several moments in deafening silence for clearance to enter the uptown 6 platform at Brooklyn Bridge. Overhead, a 4 or 5 train roared by every few minutes. As they finally emerged from the tunnel, she thought, this city is amazing.

Emerging into the great circle that held the Ugliest Fountain, she found the world dark despite the early hour and colder than ever. Tonight she would not be able to sleep in her studio, with the bone-chilling winds making her old jaloused window rattle loose in its wall of glass brick, and she still without a proper blanket. She wondered what had become of Mr. Norris's things after he had passed. And then a vision in her memory made her stop dead in her tracks: at the very end of the Old City Hall Platform, there had been something. Someone. Standing, stoic. The goat, sturdy as always, patiently chewing cud.

I'm throwing in this youtube video I found, because it shows exactly what I was able to see on tonight's ride of City Hall. Whoever shot this is a lil bit goofy, but that's alright.

Subway riders vote for president too: EVERYONE VOTES ON TUESDAY.

2008-11-03T14:30:00.001-05:00

* * * PLEASE REPOST! * * *

It seems that someone or someones have been circulating flyers, at least in Virginia and New York and possibly elsewhere, that say something pretty ridiculous. The flyers have an official looking state seal on them, and claim that due to the high expected voter turnout republicans will vote on Tuesday and Democrats will vote on Wednesday.

THIS. IS. NOT. TRUE. That may seem obvious, but who knows. All kinds of crazy shit happens with elections these days, and there are plenty of kids voting for the first time in this election. So let's get it out there real clear: It is not true in any state or district. It is a fallacy; personally I think it should be a felony. Regardless, please just tell everyone you know. Spread it around the office. Tell the fam. Everyone, and that means EVERYONE, republicans and democrats and greens and independents alike, VOTE ON TUESDAY. Again, EVERYONE VOTES ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4TH.

Besides that, contrary to what flyers in Philadelphia might state, voters with outstanding parking tickets or previous convictions will NOT be arrested for turning up at the poles.

It's not as if the president is elected by popular vote anyway, but that's a debate for another day and beside the point anyway.

To the criminals that are trying to throw the election by such absurd methods, I have only this to say: Yes, tomorrow a black democratic man may be elected as president. COPE.

And p.s. - No, I wouldn't approve of these tactics if they were aimed in the other direction. It is wrong, period.

Two oddities.

2008-10-15T21:18:00.003-04:00

One: On the way home last night on the N, I saw an MTA poster. This, in and of itself, is not unusual in the least. What it said, though, was quite surprising: that beginning in 2015, the Second Avenue Subway would be relieving overcrowding on the Lexington Avenue lines. I read it a few times to make sure I was reading it right. I knew there were new contracts out, but I had no idea that they'd be so ambitious as to give a date to the general public. And about the date? At this point, what's seven more years?

Two: Tonight on the way home, I happened to spy a 7 train as we were pulling out of Queensboro Plaza. And what to my wondering eyes should appear? An advertisement. On the outside of the train. Right there on the side of the car. Apparently at this point it's simply not enough to put them above subway entrances, along hallways and tunnels in stations, on platforms, on the ceilings of some stations, and inside of the train cars everywhere that there's not a window or a door. No, obviously, that isn't quite enough surface area. Hell, it's practically restriction of trade.

Personally, I prefer the graffiti.

G train attempt: post script.

2008-10-13T22:13:00.002-04:00

Well, I tried it. And after 40 minutes and the passing of 13 trains, I was forced to conclude that the G train was not going to appear. I started to feel like this guy. Something else I noticed: the V train was running. Usually on federal holidays the trains run on a Sunday schedule, but I suppose that isn't possible if the V train was running... yeah, things on the subway, they's weird.

Over and out.

I'm gonna try it.

2008-10-13T10:05:00.002-04:00

The G train, oh the G train. Conceived in brilliance - a train that will travel between Brooklyn and Queens without wandering through Manhattan on the way! Genius. Extremely obvious genius, since Brooklyn and Queens share a landmass and are really quite close together as the bird flies, and Manhattan is a separate island, but still - there is literally no other train that will make this amazing feat of a journey.

Sadly, neither will the G train. Not really. Not anymore.

OK, so even at the worst of times it does still *technically* go from Brooklyn to Queens. But it so barely skims Queens that it really barely even counts, stopping at Court Square in the bottom of Long Island City and then turning right around. Total crap says I, and says many of us, in fact - there's even a coalition determined to right this and other G train wrongs.

So why did this happen? How does a train's route become thus truncated? The simple fact is that trains are re-routed all the time; they switch termini (like the B and D did once upon a time, as did the N and R), they go through this tunnel instead of that one. The network of trains is a living organism, constantly reorganizing itself, theoretically with the purpose of best serving its riding population.

Things started getting rough for the G train in 1997 - "due to construction" - oldest story in the MTA bedside reader. Service landed itself a northern termination at Court Square on evenings, nights, and weekends then because of construction in the infamous 63rd street line. In 2001 when the Connection opened, the G train went back to regular service and everyone was happy forever and ever! Oh, wait, no. Actually, the V train was introduced, and suddenly there was no room for the G train on the Queens tracks. The E, the F, and the R already ran those same tracks; it was the G or the V, and the V won... because the V goes into Manhattan.

This is apparently when they came up with the brilliant plan of running the G its full distance at backwards times, on evenings, nights, and weekends - but with truncated trains. They took cars from each train so that there would be more trains overall coming more frequently... and nevermind that each one would be more crowded, and that they wouldn't reach the platform ends.

In 2007/2008, things have gotten really bad: they're stating that there will be no service to 71st Avenue in Forest Hills "until further notice". People, I believe that this is the end. I've ridden the G north of Court Square once or twice, but I truly don't know if it's ever going to happen again. I have to try though, and I'm going to try today.

You see, today is a federal holiday, in honor of some crazy Italian guy who was funded by an even crazier queen of Spain to sail a ship the wrong way to get to India - which he quite believed he had done. He then proceeded to victoriously "discover" a land where there were already tens of thousands of people living... who the English later showed up and promptly killed by any means possible up to and including sneezing on them. American History is awesome.

Anyway, point being that by some logic completely beyond us, sometimes on federal holidays things revert back to normal. All "construction" and other nonsense is suspended and things happen as they should. Trains run on a 'Sunday Schedule', and on Sundays the G should be stopping at the Broadway / Steinway stop, which happens to be a convenient 15 minute walk from my house. So, I'm gonna go there. And wait a while. And see if one comes by. If it does, well! I got myself a train ride. And if it doesn't, then there are grim realities that I must face.

Wish me luck! Here I go.

Welfare Island: a budding obsession.

2008-09-25T00:05:00.008-04:00

Today, I had every intention of riding the F train. As such last night I was doing research on the line, and of course part of that research was on Roosevelt Island. I became so enthralled in its history, in fact, that I stayed up until 4am, didn't wake up until 1:15 this afternoon, and didn't have enough time left in the day to ride the train. So it goes.

Roosevelt Island seems to be destined to be part of my New York experience. I live in Astoria; have lived here since just two and a half months after coming to the city. And if I walk due west to the river along my street, I'm looking straight at the lighthouse (built by prison inmates from island-quarried stone in 1872 - *shiver*) that's on the northern tip of the island. The bus that stops on the main drag two blocks from my apartment is the Q102 - the bus that, incidentally, goes to and loops around Roosevelt Island. When I walk into the city over the Queensboro (59th Street) bridge, I walk right over the center of the island, where elevators used to bring people up to a trolley... but I'll get to that. There's just no way for me to avoid this little chunk of land that splits the East River in two for forty straight blocks.

On the island, previously known by many other names including Welfare Island due to its utterly bizarre history, the F train is sort of a big deal. Why? Because it is the only subway that stops there, and in fact it only stops in one place as it jets beneath the East River from midtown to Long Island City. The stop was to have opened in 1976, but didn't actually become functional until 1989 - 13 years late(r).

These days, there are other ways to get on and off the island of course: one bridge into Queens, and the ever so famous and neat-o East River Tram! The tram is tons of fun for sightseeing, but I certainly wouldn't want to depend on it for getting home after a long day at work. Or a short day at work. Or a short stroll in the park on a lovely afternoon. Basically I wouldn't want to depend on it at all. It doesn't come very frequently, and whenever it does come it's full up with jerks like me who are using it for sightseeing.

The tramway was built, actually, because construction on the F train stop was so obviously behind. (The station is apparently very deep - the second deepest station in the system, actually - and there seems to have been a lot of trouble getting this tunnel built at all.) Roosevelt's was the first commuter tram in the country, and was the only one until 2006 when dumb old Portland built one.

Before the Queens bridge (that is, the bridge that goes from the island directly into Long Island City) was built in the 50's, there were these crazy elevators that would carry people and cars up to the Queensboro Bridge where it passed overhead, near the middle of the island. For pedestrians, there was a trolley (!) that ran from midtown to that spot on the bridge and over to Queens, back and forth all day long. Cars and trucks would drive out of the elevator and into the traffic on the bridge. Can you imagine? Well you don't have to, because Eleanor Schetlin talks all about it in this here interview.

Now, about the non-transportation-related history of this little strip of land. Before it was Roosevelt it was Welfare, and before that Blackwell, before that Manning, and before the damn white people came and killed all the Indians it was Minnahononck. From the Not For Tourists website:

...in 1828 the city bought the island and built a prison on it. To this prison was added a much-maligned asylum (muckraked both by Charles Dickens and Nellie Bly, who spent ten days undercover as a “patient”) and a small-pox hospital, and in 1921 the island was renamed yet again—Welfare Island. By this point the insane had been relocated to Ward’s Island slightly upstream. In 1935 Riker’s Island prison opened, and the last of Welfare Island’s criminal’s were transported there. This left a population of the merely sick, which grew in number as
two more hospitals, both chronic care and nursing facilities, were built in 1939 and 1952.

I guess that gives some clue as to what the island is about. But as for being there... it's just weird. Despite its history, it is now overrun with extremely expensive condos. I once wondered why the island never popped up in the apartment searches that I conduct every now and then, and I quickly found out: nothing on the island (that isn't owned by the city housing authority, that is) rents for under about $2200 a month. But it still has invalid hospitals on it, and they seem to cater especially to those patients who are missing limbs - veterans and such. So it's this completely unnerving combination of yuppies pretending to live on the upper east side (the island is, technically, part of Manhattan) but who are mainly on the west side of the island, project dwellers on the east side, and paraplegics scattered throughout. Very odd.

To the north is the infamous lunatic asylum. I've seen it, and anyway these days they're turning the building into apartments. Condos, actually. Um, hauntings, anyone? I don't care how pretty the Octagon is; I don't think I can live anywhere that was once described by Charles freakin' Dickens like so. And if that isn't bad enough, the Octagon itself is built of stone from the island that was quarried by inmates at the penitentiary. There's like twenty-seven different levels of bad karma in that place. Apparently when they began renovations, the ruin was overrun with feral cats - what did they do with all the hundreds of cats, for the love of god? For it to be any worse it would have to be on top of an old Indian burial ground - but oh, wait, it's probably that too.

It's odd - for a person that's basically agnostic and fairly despises all new-agey type mumbo jumbo, I tend to be very in tune with the psychic energy of places. It's why I hate new cities (dead as a doornail), and why some old apartments and buildings just wig me out. Merely walking past that site chilled me and I hardly knew the history of it; I could never live there. I dunno. Maybe it's a chi thing. Oddly enough though, people that can afford "Upper East Side" condos (as they're advertised) are rarely in tune with psychic vibrations, so maybe it will work out.

I've visited here once, almost a year ago now, and walked around the top two thirds of the island... not realizing that the RUINS OF THE ABANDONED SMALLPOX HOSPITAL (yeah, you heard me) are on the southern tip of the island. So, naturally, when I stop through on the F train I fully plan to head south. Also south is the site of the former penitentiary, where anarchist Emma Goldman served a seven month term in 1893. Mae West also seems to have served a ten day sentence on the island, though I suspect it was at the workhouse rather than the actual penitentiary - the penitentiary not being a ten day kind of place. The Goldwater Hospital now stands at the penitentiary site, though if Robert Moses had got his way it would have been a(nother) park. Man, New York history is weird. Near the smallpox hospital, known as the Renwick Ruins as named for the architect, there is also the ruin of what one source claims is the first bacteriological and pathological research laboratory in the country - the Strecker Laboratory. Apparently the NYC Transit is now building a powerstation within the ruin, with the tradeoff of restoring the facade.

There has been a memorial to FDR planned for the southern tip of the island for the past 34-35 years; there's a billboard down there about it now, actually. Some seem to be strongly pro, others strongly anti. Alls I know is that it's supposed to abut the smallpox hospital, so if it encourages them to make that a place to visit, I'm pro. If they even hint at tearing it down - which I don't think they can do since it's registered as a historic landmark - well, I'll kill 'em. Or at least, I'll sign petitions.

These days, the island has a new face, and if you hadn't done your homework, didn't venture too far south, didn't look to closely at the people or places you passed, and weren't paying attention to the flow of chi, you'd have no idea of its sordid history. It really is quite pretty, if all very new and planned and overly groomed. There's a Starbucks. It's confusing. I don't know though... if you pay attention to detail (like, say, all the people without arms), it's not hard to know that it's an unusual place. But not every one does.

One fun thing that we found on our visit last year: Otterness sculptures! In the water, no less. Very strange, very pleasing. A little bit scary.

For now, I'll leave off with this thought: I wonder what kind of security force they put out by the Smallpox hospital on Halloween night?

It's Electric! The E Train.

2008-09-22T15:16:00.025-04:00

Ok. I know what you're thinking. It's been over a month! Where the hell are the subway shenanigans? But rest assured, the project is not abandoned. The E train has been ridden, and I'm here to tell you all about it.

Sadly, the E train was ridden approximately four billion years ago and it's taken me a while to get down to the blog writing. So once again, I will let my photographs be my guide.

I set out with the foolish notion that I'd take the W train down to Cordalant Street, making it just a short few-block jaunt to the World Trade Center terminus of the E where I planned to begin my E-training. Now, you'd think the name of my actual destination station would have tipped me off, but I'm a little dense. Take the W I did, but it rolled right on through Cordalant without stopping. Good thing too, because if it had stopped it would have let passengers out into a construction site. See, that particular station is basically underneath the site of the former twin towers, so it was hit pretty heavily during the collapse. And being not that big a deal as far as commuting traffic is concerned, it's taking them a minute to bring it back up to speed. Rolling through it is weird / cool / spooky. Anyway, I had to go to the next station and walk back up. No biggie, just a few blocks.

Upon arriving finally at my station, the first thing I noticed is that it's littered with the same watchful eye mosaics that we saw on the C train. And this makes sense, actually, since the WTC station connects with the Chambers Street station where we first witnessed said eyeballs.

One thing you should know about the E is that it's pretty much always crowded. If you live here, you already know it. If you don't live here but plan to visit, remember this: take another train if at all possible. Trust me when I say that it'll be better for you and your fellow commuters both. During off hours, it looks like this, and during "peak times" sometimes you can't even squeeze your way on.

Above all, the E is a working man's train. And after a long shift, that working man is f-ing tired.

There's not a lot of art along the E line. It's neglected that way. But there's always the Otterness installations at the 14th and 8th stop. Maybe you're tired of me showing you these creations, but if this little guy doesn't make you happy then your heart is as dead as stone in your cold, black chest. Just sayin'.

At Lexington Avenue/53rd Street, there is art... of a sort. It's colorful, and extensive, and... well, pretty damn ugly. But it's certainly more interesting than your average dingy white station tiling. And the kiddies do seem to like it. This family just killed me.

Also at this station are the super steep crazy tunnel escalators that make me feel like I'm probably definitely going to die. This station is rather close to where I used to work in midtown, and sometimes I'd come here to hop under the river to my studio. Nothing like spending 8 or so hours in a soulless, windowless office and then cruising down one of these babies.

After popping under the East River and making a couple of cursory stops at 23rd/Ely and Queens Plaza (my hood, yo), the E switches very definitely into Express mode. Above, the crush at Jackson Heights/Roosevelt Avenue - a major hub.

I had some unfinished business at the Kew Gardens/Union Turnpike stop, and upon exiting there came upon a pleasant surprise. When I served jury duty in that neck of the woods, I'd always gotten out on the other end of the train and therefore through an entrance/exit unconnected to this one. So I didn't know about the Cloud installation. I'm not sure if this is officially sanctioned MTA art; I think it makes me a little happier if it isn't.

This here is the courthouse where the infamous Sean Bell hearings were held, and incidentally also where I was called to serve jury duty. Well, at least I tried to serve. Ironically enough, I was called about two weeks after I finally quit my job at the law firm. Anyway, I hung out for three days, but they didn't want me. It doesn't matter though; I'm good for six years. Woot. At any rate, my little jaunt out to Kew tipped me off on this bad boy, the real reason for dismounting the E and taking a walk down the turnpike:

Yep, instead of dumping this old redbird car into the Atlantic as they seem to be doing with so many others, they turned it into a mini museum... which is never open, as far as I can tell. But I'm still happy it's there. And as to whether we should be dumping huge chunks of metal off the coast... well, that's another discussion entirely, during which my Environmental Geography claws just may have to come out.

Soon enough I reached the end of the line, Jamaica Center. What with starting in Manhattan and then running express in Queens, it really is a short trip. Upon exiting the platform, one of the first things I saw was this:

My thoughts ran like so: 1) Maybe this isn't such a nice place to live? 2) And there's why I ride the trains during the day.

But then, upon exiting the station, the first thing I saw was this:

And then this:

And then this:

(A historical mansion from colonial days, now run as a museum, in case you're wondering.) So it's hard to tell about a neighborhood. As best as I could discern in the twenty minutes that I spent there, it's a lot of working class people with their families and their kids, who are sometimes plagued by those who have gone hopeless and turned to darker activities. So it goes, I guess. Put enough people in one place and you'll usually find the same kind of underbelly.

I rode on home on the E - it does, after all, roll through Long Island City, just three blocks from my studio, and really what better way to culminate the day? It was still nowhere near rush hour. The train? Well, I couldn't get a seat.

**All photos from the E train ride can be viewed on the Subway Project Flickr page in the E Train set - I tend to be straightforward like that.

Distinctly Designed to Divert Disaster - the D train.

2008-08-17T11:17:00.015-04:00

Yes ladies and gents, it's four trains down now. And the D train was something decidedly different, a deviation from my disorganized doldrums. The divergence laid mainly in my approach to the expedition: this trip lacked a certain, I don't know, hysteria? that had characterized the first three. It encompassed many firsts for this project: I went alone. I took my time. I shot fewer but more pointed photographs, which were then infinitely easier to organize. (At this moment, as I embark upon my post writing this Sunday morning, they're sitting in a nice neat folder in the order in which I want to use them. Can you believe it? I know, right?) The train was tri-borough, stretching from the Bronx through Manhattan and into Brooklyn. These are all good things. Let's see how it turns out, shall we?

So it was that last Monday morning I headed out on my mission, once again by way of the M60. That bus is a brilliant little parlor trick for Astorians, and it's really too bad I discovered it the day after I finished moving from Harlem to Astoria. Ah, such is life. I needed to avoid rush hour not only because it's hell (hell of course being other people), but because the D train does some deceptive dashing during the rush, skipping huge swaths of stations and so forth. I can't be havin' that. Slow lots-of-stops trains for me, mister.

After arriving at 125th though, it's no mere hop to 205th street in the Bronx. It's a trek. That's alright though; there was entertainment. Between 163rd and 174th my car was treated to the self-proclaimed next winner of American Idol belting his rendition of "I shot the Sheriff". (Yes. Seriously. That's what he sang.) He asked us for 'constructive criticism'. Should I have mentioned to him that he's tone deaf? Immediately following him there was a guy selling candy. (On my way back south I saw the same kid again, at which time he identified himself as "the candy man".) I bought some candy hoping that if I did he'd say yes when I asked to take his picture. He said no. Because selling things on the train is illegal, probably.

Upon arrival at 205th, I seemed to be under intense scrutiny. While it's still legal to take pictures in the subway (despite best bureaucratic efforts), The MTA doesn't like it much. So when I climbed off the train and started snapping pics of the control booth, the emergency exit signs, the train, the switchboxes, and everything else in the station, I did not automatically become the most popular girl at the prom. The stares were so intent, in fact, that I gave up fairly quickly and went upstairs to see if there was a bathroom.

There was. Using it felt a little taking-my-life-in-my-hands-ish, but that turned out to be a complete misconception. It's actually quite a nice neighborhood up there in Norwood. Lots of houses, churches, and little playgrounds. Neighbors out and about, walking, talking, playing with their kids. Mailman addressing people by name. That kind of thing. I quite liked it. I would have spent more time exploring had there not been eminent threat of enormous thunderstorm...
There was this little old dude on the corner, and I just loved him. I want him to be my grandpa, or he reminded me of my grandpa (obvious impossibilities notwithstanding). It's probly the hat. I hope he has grandkids. I hope they love him.

My first stop art installation wise was Tremont Avenue. The piece is called "Uptown New York", and I had pictured some sort of amalgamation of trite overplayed 20's puttin'-on-the-ritz stuff. I couldn't have been more wrong - the mosaic is amazing. Really, really cool, both in the way the artist used the textures of different kinds of glass and in the overall design. The image shows only the righthand side third, the dimensions of the station making it rater difficult to get a (good) full width shot. I definitely suggest stopping by next time you're in the Bronx - it's at the south entrance. Oddly, while this station seems to have a mezzanine level running the full length of the station, it's entirely closed off. From the two entrance ends there's no visible sign of construction or anything; the only way to know the mezzanine connection is there is that on each platform downstairs, in the middle, there's a stairwell leading to nowhere. There are lights on. I don't get it. Google tells me nothing, nothing!

Next stop: 161st Street, Yankee Stadium. Apparently they're tearing the old stadium down soon, so that they can build another one; I hear rumors that they're using some public funds to do it, too. Always a good way to make friends, tearing down well loved landmarks. At any rate, the art there is... something. It's structural and functional. It certainly makes the station interesting. It's sort of destruction-esque though, at least on the mezzanine; like, here's what the stations will all look like, after THE HUGE EARTHQUAKE. Odd. If you've ever been through you know what I mean. But anyway, at least it gives people something to sit on.

Truth be told, I did not make a lot of stops on this journey. I've already basically traveled this line once (on the B train), and being without assistance I was afraid I would run out of time or something. But as we all know, you don't have to get out of the train to have amazing subway experiences.

Somewhere around 125th street my train was joined by a perfectly respectable looking man. Mind you, now, that this is one of the west side trains that makes what I've come to think of as "the big jump" - from 125th to 59th, straight. Our new friend began addressing the train. His concerns were trifold: first, the minimum wage. It's too low. Alright man, I'm with you. You can't possibly live on minimum wage, and anyone who's ever tried knows it. Second, nuclear power. (Um, what?) Third, gas prices. (Ok kids, we just may have a crackpot on our hands.) By this point he's kind of babbling. See, apparently ConEd has a Nuclear Plant smack in the middle of Manhattan. And it's degrading. And you know what happens when it degrades? We all gonna die! But nevermind that we're all gonna die for just a minute. Somehow despite the fact that we're dead, by 202o, our kids are gonna be homeless. And we're gonna be homeless. This, of course, is going to be because of that minimum wage issue - and gas prices. He started asking for signatures, and I was sorely tempted, but I think I'm on enough governmental lists as it is.

I didn't get out again until Broadway/Lafayette St, way down in the Bowery. It's an interesting station, surprisingly large, and it has an art installation. The art is comprised of two distinct phases; one is simple periwinkle tiling in a sort of Pan-American-Indian kind of design. This part isn't interesting. The other, though, is these metal cones with translucent bits around the I beams in the mezzanine. They're rather ugly, or at least not all that attractive - until that one magical moment when you happen to catch them lighting up. Then they become really cool, and stay really cool even thought they're almost never lit up. I can't figure out the flashing schedule at all. It's just one of those things.

I emerged from the station to get some lunch; it's a neighborhood I know well. Houston has always been my least favorite street in Manhattan, partly because it's really hard to cross on foot and largely because some part of it, and a large part at
that, has been under construction for as long as I can remember. Granted, my real experiences with New York only stretch for about six years now, but still. If a street sucks every time you pass it for six years, then a street sucks. (For you out-of-towners, this street isn't pronounced like the city in Texas. It's pronounced as if the u was a w. Some dude's name, apparently. Incidentally, SoHo = South of Houston.) On D train day, I found this concrete box, and I think this is as picturesque as Houston ever gets.

When I went back to the station I found this guy, working for a living. Hey, what's the difference between a flutist and a flautist? About fifty bucks an hour! (OK, that one works a lot better when you're saying it out loud...). That goofy old hippie dude was playing his heart out, and being completely ignored. I think busking on the subway could toughen up any performer. They should incorporate it into the curriculum at the performing arts schools here. Ooh, or better yet, at schools in other cities. "And for your last semester, you'll be stationed in New York City, doing interpretive dance at Columbus Circle... Don't worry, we here at the University of Chicago will cover the fines... no, we can't bail you out of jail..." They'd never be scared of an audition again.

I basically didn't get out in Brooklyn. I've been to Atlantic-Pacific, and I seem to have a deep rooted hatred of that place. It's probably unfounded. (It's time for Name That Quote! "The Atlantic is greater! "No, the Pacific is greater!" "No...") The D skips the 1st and then the 3rd through 6th stops into the borough during the day. Shortly after jetting past these, we were outside. I love that. We did go over the Manhattan bridge, but learning from my last bridge experience I didn't try too hard to get good pics. Maybe one of these days I'll get lucky and my train will have to stop on the bridge for a minute or two in a spot that offers some nice views... until then I'll have lots of great blurry pictures of support beams.

From 18th Avenue you can see a huge suspension bridge, which I'm making an educated guess to be the Verrazano-Narrows bridge from Bay Ridge to Staten Island. It looks like the pictures on the internet, so I'm thinking it's a safe bet. There are actually much better views than the one I've captured here; I couldn't get the pic fast enough before the train doors closed.

The day began rainy, and then became quite beautiful and sunny. The rainy day feel stuck, though, and many people on the long train ride were sleepy by the time we neared Coney Island.

Ahhh, Coney. I love that place. How can you not? I've waxed on enough on my blogs about its magic, and about the tragedy impending down there; if you don't know please visit the Coney Island USA for details and lend whatever support you can. Because damnit, this country would not be the same with condos in the middle of what should be Astroland.

Despite the positive turn in weather, I didn't really venture into the happyland. I was exhausted, and it was late. But I did manage to get some photos. And because it's so visual down there, and I'm such a visual person, this will now become a photo blog...

This little guy was the first thing I saw upon exiting the train. Maybe they know that people will be tired from their long day on the beach? Or... that people drink on the beach? Hmm. Hard to say.

There are many interesting and, yes, beautiful silkscreened images on the glass brick walls of the Coney Island station. They show the freakshow days of yore, the wonder wheel, et cetera. And then there's this guy, and he makes absolutely no sense, and he's by far my favorite.ISN'T HE FREAKING AWESOME?

There's a police outpost built right into the train station, and that's probably a good idea for a whole lot of reasons. It's quite cute actually, with the little posts with glowing globes outside and all. Aww, look at the cute little police station. I'm sure that's exactly what they had in mind when they built it.

I love this view.

As a vegan, I think I'm officially required to loathe Nathan's. It may be written into law. And in fact the annual hot dog eating contest never fails to turn my stomach. But... look at it! I'm sorry, but that place is freaking awesome! Of course I want their menu to be (vastly) different, but it's an institution. It can't be denied.

Upon re-entering the the D train for my journey home, I discovered a possibly homeless and definitely crazy man in the last car. He was yelling for someone to go away, and accused that entity of being from Idaho. It is of course possible that he was yelling at me. He could have been yelling at someone (or something) not visible to me. Or he could have been yelling at this here seagull. If so, the seagull wasn't perturbed in the least; in fact he was thrilled with the bounty obtained when crazyman missed his target at throwing his Chinese leftovers into the garbage can on the platform.

And then of course, home again home again. I could have cheated and got on the N train, a straight shot shot back to my place. But it always feels more valid to take my designated train at least back into the city, so I did. And if I hadn't, I wouldn't have gotten to see a couple of teenagers playing tonsil hockey from Coney all the way to Atlantic/Pacific. I've often thought of what a boon the subway would have been in the High School years, when getting some time to yourselves is damn near impossible. So for proving my point, thanks kids. And thanks, D train.

**All of the images captured on my D train adventure can be viewed here.

C for Effort - the C Train

2008-08-10T12:32:00.010-04:00

And now, the news you've been waiting for!Ok. I admit it fully. I suck. And furthermore I have no idea why I did this to myself. It's fairly excruciating to try to put together a post about a train ride three weeks after the fact. Add in the truths that I took 250 photos on this journey and that it's 2 in the morning, and you get one hell of an interesting combo. But really, it's high time that this blog got blogged. I'm using my photos as a guide, so color along with me as I rebuild the journey that happened oh so long ago now... Ok, so it was just on July 27th. But still.

I was once again joined by my fearless fiance. We decided it would be best to hop on the M60 bus to get into town, which conveniently drags us all the way across 125th Street. From there it's really barely a jump up to 168th: the true start of our C train journey.

Once we reached 168th of course we explored a little. Of all the things we saw, and we did see many things, this may have been my favorite - a cotton candy man floating up Broadway. Jonathan used to live in this neighborhood, so we took a jaunt up to the old apartment. It's an odd mix of real New York edges and Columbia newness. Despite any shows of wealth, though, there was a very visible homeless population.

In fact, the first thing we saw upon getting off of the train at 168th was two (probably) homeless men sleeping on benches. I hope they can get some undisturbed rest. The other disconcerting thing we noticed was that these were by far the shabbiest trains we've ever ridden. They're the same style as some that run on the W and other lines sometimes, but the condition - the speakers don't work, the wheels make ungodly loud noises, the paint is chipping off of the seats like nobody's business, and so on. The C train gets no love. Why is that?

At 110th Street Cathedral Parkway, there's a huge tile mosaic like we see so often. It's interesting, and I'm sure it's meaningful, and I'm sure that one or several artists and artisans poured their hearts and souls into the thing. But the fact is, it's ugly. This is the part I like. Believe me when I tell you it's a small part.

The Installation at 81st Street - the Natural History Museum, don't you know - is called "For Want of a Nail...". I don't get this at all. Now, I know the reference. It's a little anecdote that goes something like this: For want of a nail they lost the shoe; for want of the shoe they lost the horse; for want of the horse they lost the message; for want of the message they lost the battle; for want of the battle they lost the war - all for the want of a horse shoe nail. It's, like, a really complicated way of saying that details matter. How that applies to this installation is what I don't get; it seems to be more of a tribute to evolution and the divergence of animal species, or the beauty and diversity of nature, or something. Whatever though; it's pretty.

Fishes! See, you don't need to go SCUBA diving in the Caribbean; you just need to come to New York City and hang out in subway stations.

I want one of these in my bathroom.

There were two (count them two) buskers in the 81st Street station. One was a fiddler doing Irish jigs - him I found entertaining because I'd just finished reading The Good Fairies of New York, and if you've read that then you know what I'm talking about. He was also engaging the crowd. Somehow I didn't think to pull out my tape recorder at that time. Dumb. And there was this guy, playing that Chinese instrument that they use in all the movies what's name I can't figure out! If you know, please tell me. Anyway, both of them were probably benefiting from the people people that didn't figure out that the B doesn't run on weekends. The C came, the C went, they were all still standing there...

Archaeopteryx! Right up there with Confucius ornis, I tell you. (Have I ever mentioned that I'm a giant fossil dork? Don't even get me started on Canadaspis perfecta...)

The 50th Street Station is interesting. It has this giant full wall etched granite mural by Matt Mullican; quite interesting stuff. Untitled. It seems to trace the development of the human species and then of society, moving from right to left. What's odd about the station is that though it is absolutely cavernous and only serves two trains, its transfers are quite lacking. Basically, if you're on the E and want to transfer to the C going Uptown, well, you can't. You have to go outside, cross 8th avenue, and re-enter (with another metrocard swipe). For a while I wondered if I was just an idiot and couldn't figure it out, but the dry-erase board in the token booth confirmed my suspicions. Seriously, the station is enormous. There's nowhere that there could have been some kind of crossover? Stop by; you'll see what I mean.

Sorry for the wholly inadequate photos of the install; it's hard to photograph. And I was hungry.

As I may have mentioned, Penn Station pains me. Mainly because this is what it used to look like, before they decided to tear it down. I believe 1963 was the year of the evil deed. I am of course not the only person upset by this; apparently when it happened it caused an "international outrage" and actually prompted the city to pay a lot more attention to preserving architectural landmarks. Below is what it looks like now.

Oh, yeah, that's the same. It's definitely not a grotesque piece of crap now or anything. They definitely didn't destroy an architectural marvel only to replace it with the most god awful mall in creation. No, that didn't happen at all. (OK, deep breath. Aaaannnnd focus. And we're back.) That said, there are some amazing installation pieces in the new Penn, mostly created by Andrew Leicester - a man who seems to share my (and the popular) view of what has happened in this space but unlike most had the chance to make a rather visible dent in the problem.

Thanks Mr. Leicester. Of course, with that place there's only so much you can do.

Granted, the new Penn does have this. It's not every day that you get to see a bear in a pink dress, now is it.

Which way to the nearest bank? Cuz this chick in the yellow, she's kinda freaking me out... Oh and in case you're wondering, no I'm not done posting pictures of 14th street. Not at all.

Somewhere around West 4th Street we encountered these hipster buskers. They weren't bad, but boy did they pick the wrong train. I think they were looking for the L.

We've got an eye on you! Or more like a hundred of them, all different. At Chambers, Big Brother (or maybe Big Mosaic) is watching.

He's got the whole world, in his... subway station. Also at chambers street, along with all the eyes watching you, is this enormous globe mosaic - it's kind of awesome, and I wish they'd keep it cleaner. There is, of course, an eye in the center.

An interesting tidbit about the Utica Avenue station. Its mezzanine is rather cavernous, and in the 90's it was refurbished with those pretty mosaics designed by children and the twirly tile designs and all. But the reason it's so big up there is this: it was supposed to be two train stations, not one. The MTA had a project called the Second System that really died before it started because of the Great Depression. But a few of the stations did get a start, mainly the ones that overlapped with existing stations. This to my understanding is one of them; if we could lift away that wall directly ahead, the one with the pretty twirlyness, we would be looking at an abandoned platform - one that never had its tracks built. Does that make anyone else feel like trespassing? Or am I just some kind of hooligan?

We made it! Of course, we'd been there before.

Ahh, the proud opening of a station that these men will doubtless never enter again.

Waiting on the train... Euclid is known for its lavender tiling.

At least one sign believed that the Euclid station is in Queens... It isn't. But maybe it was once.

The neighborhood isn't what I'd call charming, but it has some interesting details. It reminds me of New Orleans a little - would so more if it had more trees.

At the local bodega in City Line? East New York? Cypress Hills? You decide - we met a sweet kitten who was more than willing to receive our attentions. At the same bodega, I lingered too long lamenting the lack of choices of diet beverages while anxious proprietors looked on wondering what the hell we were doing there, and a semi-crazy but fairly young black lady called me baby and asked me how much a particular 40oz cost. All in all, it was a good finish to the day.

**To see all of my C train photos, try going here.

Oh, how I languish.

2008-08-07T15:06:00.005-04:00

Ok. So it's been a while since I've been on a train. And I still don't have the promised C train post up. Things have been complicated, what with being in New Orleans and everything. I am hoping, though, that now that I'm for real unemployed, I'll have a little time. There are no interviews scheduled yet, and I have my doubts that she'll get me booked every day next week. So the D train should happen without a problem - maybe even on Monday. It's a super long line and ends up in Coney Island, so I need a real whole day for it without a doubt.

So no, no train post for you yet. While I know it's no substitute, it's still fun: I've brought you these pictures of the New Orleans streetcars, which yes are up and running. Into each other, sometimes. But nevermind all that. Look at the pretty pictures.

You'll never believe this.

2008-07-29T18:18:00.000-04:00

I myself am kind of in shock. That this kind of secret is being kept from us is simply ludicrous. Perhaps it's not a secret at all; perhaps it's common knowledge and no one cares. But I really find that hard to believe. I cannot count the number of times that I was just a few feet, a few moments from this monumental discovery with nary a clue...

But first, by the way, yes I have done my C train ride. I'm just having a very hectic week, so I haven't gotten to write the post about it. Writing the posts takes a couple of hours really, and that doesn't even count how long it takes to sort through all of my pictures. And about the picture situation: I'm now properly equipped. Well, as properly equipped as I'm going to get without buying a new camera, anyway. I now have two batteries and two memory cards. The old battery, I have no doubt now, is dying. It only held a charge for an hour or two on Sunday's expedition - completely unsatisfactory. As far as memory, I've upgraded from 512 kb to 2mb, so everything should be just fine.

But back to my original intrigue. Have you ever ridden the 6 train to it's southernmost end, the City Hall stop? I did it every week for over two years when I was working as a paralegal - lots of courthouses down there. When you get off at the 'last stop', the train lets you know that its 'next stop' will be on the uptown side of the platform. It then arcs away from you in a manner that leaves a very clear impression in your mind that it's turning a loop.

So let's put this together with some other knowledge, shall we? I'm getting more and more hung up on the whole 'abandoned station' thing, and it didn't take me long to find out that there's one at City Hall. Of course my first thought was, I've been to the City Hall station a hundred times; it's big and ugly and average and annoying. But ho ho, this abandoned station that was being spoken of was something truly grand, a jewel in the crown of the IRT system complete with vaulted ceilings and skylights - definitely not the place that I'd cursed the length of while hauling too many copies of motions and judgments.

Then, one day not so long ago in my researching, I happened to glance a map of where this old beautiful City Hall station was located - just south of Worth and Brooklyn Bridge, making a big loop off the 4, 5, and 6 lines... Now wait just a damn minute! Do you mean to say?!

It took me several days to confirm my suspicion. Right there, under my nose that whole time, was this amazing relic. I could have toured it - granted, only from the inside of a moving 6 train, but still - every Thursday morning, a little treat after dealing with the hellish NYCAL judge and a room full of snide attorneys. But no, I just stood there instead in that ugly ass hot nasty "new" city hall station, wondering why there were always two or three people still on the train as it went around, assuming they were homeless. Of course, they may have been homeless and in the know.

So much time lost! It feels staggering really. I haven't gotten to go do it yet either, since I only just figured it out this week. I can't believe that I've been living in NYC for almost three years and didn't know about this. But there's still time, right? Right? All is not lost. Perhaps if I don't make it onto the D train this weekend, I'll just ride the 6 loop through the historic City Hall a few times and see how much I can see. Front car vs. back car, left side vs. right, exactly how dangerous it looks to try to walk in from the main functioning platforms (just kidding... kind of), that kind of thing. I'll let ya know if it's worth it. Except that I totally already know that it's worth it. More like, I'll let you know how awesome it is.

The sadness of hyper-extension.

2008-07-19T14:36:00.004-04:00

No, I don't mean the knees-bending-backward kind. What I mean is this: instead of a nice thick layer of peanut butter on two slices of texas toast, my energies are more like a bit of melted butter that I'm trying to spread on every single crumpet in the Russian Tea Room. In a nutshell, I took on too much in July and it's come back to bite me in the ass. Between complete exhaustion and the fact that the C train's decided to go completely wonky this weekend, it has become evident that I'll not be riding a train this week.

That being the unfortunate case, I thought I'd share a little tidbit that wasn't included in my original B train post. In the interest of keeping the posts (relatively) brief I have to pick and choose what goes in, and it killed me to leave this part out...

See, it turns out that within the 145th Street station, there's a police station. This in and of itself isn't that odd. There are police stations in several to many of the subway stations - I'm having trouble finding a list of any kind, but what we can think of so far are Union Square and Columbus Circle at least, for starters. And these aren't MTA police, understand. These stations are sort of outposts for the New York City PD, doubtless established to prevent the subways from declining to the dangerous state they're so famous for having been in around the 70's and 80's.

What made this visit to the 1-4-5 unique was what was going on at the police station at the time - an arrest, to be precise. We didn't get to see why the three men were arrested. We seemed to be witnessing the tail end of the process, the men being brought who knows where, handcuffed, being led.

One has to wonder what led to the arrest. Perhaps they were involved in a robbery topside, and then tried to flee via subway. Perhaps the robbery was in the subway itself. Or maybe they were just plain old fare beaters who got spotted, with the new stricter fining laws recently in place and station watchdogs more vigilante, and they decided to mouth off or try to run when confronted - unsuccessfully.

Of course, the temptation to ask just what went on is one that must be pushed down, as doing so will most likely gain you an offer to join the offenders for their little trip downtown. Still, I managed to surreptitiously get some photos of the departing group. Without names or faces, our imaginations will have to fill in the stories. Let us hope that, if innocent, they were set free quickly (and apologized to), and if guilty they will meet with a punishment appropriate to the crime.

Hey, a girl can dream.

Bastian Brings Boyfriend, Braves Brownstones and Brighton: The B Train

2008-07-12T11:04:00.001-04:00

Ah, the best laid plans... usually aren't that well planned after all, are they? Foolish little me, there I was thinking that I'd just hop that old B train on a leisurely Sunday. But oh no no no says B, it shan't be so. See, the B doesn't run on weekends. Or late nights, for that matter. The extra tricky part was that, before heading out, we weren't sure when the train would stop running. But I said, meh. It's not as if there won't be any trains at all, now is it? Umm... hope not?

Thus, a weeknight journey for we adventurers. I knew that my darling Jonathan would join me if only for safety's sake - since I'd be out till at least 11 or so, in unknown neighborhoods and all. But Friday is his evening to decompress from the week, so I also knew he wouldn't really want to spend that time riding the subway for five or six hours. As such, I attempted to recruit super-awesome former co-worker Kelly M. to be my subway support system for the evening.

She was shockingly receptive to the idea - I don't know how many of my friends are actually that willing to ride the subway with me for hours on end as I obsessively snap photos and talk into a tape recorder like a crazy person. But hey, she's a philosopher, so I guess she could see the merit. Or something. I dunno. I think it's fun, and I was hoping she would too. It seemed like a go... until she found out about the Brazilian Girls show. Oh well, easy come, easy go I guess.

And so, back to my rock, Mr. J.B. He wasn't gonna let me not go, and he sure as hell wasn't gonna let me go alone. So, feeling guilty about stealing his Friday night downtime, I devised this plan: that we would only get out at stops that couldn't be explored via other lines. The vast majority of B stops are also stops on the C, Q, D, V, or F lines - plenty of opportunities to get those shots I think. And except for the V, those lines run on weekends.

Plans thus coerced and truncated, we set off tonight. Since I got off of work at 5 and he not until almost 6, it was practically 7pm before we made it to the 7th Avenue stop at 53rd street where I'd determined it would be most convenient to pick up the old IND 6th Avenue line. A touch of irony there, perhaps? Oh well. As for the 53rd street station, it's not what you'd call exciting. It's where I catch the E sometimes, if I'm heading from the Columbus Circle area to my studio on Long Island City. It's one of those confusing stations where all the uptown trains are on one platform (downstairs) and all the downtown trains are on the other (upstairs), so that both trains on one platform come from the same direction. For me, at least, this always means I don't know which direction the train will come from. Somehow everyone else does, though, so I just look in the direction they're looking and assume that's where the train will be coming from. I suppose there are bigger problems in life, but still, it irks me.

Wanting to hit Sugar Hill before dark (unknown territory, you know, and better pictures) we first headed north. On the way we ran into some breakdancers weary from their long day in the sun. We noticed the kid carrying a five foot roll of linoleum, and at first we thought he was just helping his mom remodel the kitchen. But then we spotted his very similarly dressed cousin and quickly figured it out. If you haven't witnessed many breakdancing troupes, you may not know that one of the gimmicks is that they always, have, well, "the Puerto Rican". He'll be pointed out during the show, as in, "but you don't have to watch out for the _______ guys (whatever the speaker is fills in the blank), you gotta watch out for THE PUERTO RICANS!" as "the Puerto Rican" points to himself proudly and smiles slyly. Sometimes "the Puerto Rican" is a girl, which is always fun. It's just part of the shtick, like the trick where they jump over 8 people. Well, we found him - from one troupe anyway, one that wears red shorts - and damn was he tired. You can't tell in this particular photo, sadly, but his stylish sunglasses sport a motif of the P.R. flag.

Anyway, the express lived up to its name, and despite making local stops along Central Park we were up to 145th street in no time. The neighborhood we were popped into was kind of surprisingly charming. Why surprisingly? I don't know exactly. Probably because I know the area just 20 blocks south so well, and it's quite different and not what I would call charming in any way really. But then, in cities like New York, "just" and "20 blocks" don't really belong in the same sentence. Homogeny is for suburbs.

Sugar Hill does indeed have a gentle rolling hilliness to it. It also has rows of the most beautiful brownstones you ever did see, with that wonderful curved front the architectural name of which I do not know. Sadly, as in its cousin neighborhoods to the south and west, the area reeks of impending (and some ongoing) gentrification. Nevertheless, the streets were running over with children at play, parents shopping for groceries, grandmothers out for an evening stroll in the twilight sun - all people that seemed to have lived in the neighborhood for decades, generations. Within these groups many races were represented, very few of them of European descent. Yes, up there in Sugar Hill me and my man stuck out like sore thumbs. Didn't seem to bother anybody any though; they just went on with their evenings, and we were glad of it.

Back on the train, and due to previously stated plan of swift travel I was relegated to (trying to) take pictures from within the confines of the train. This was of course made much more difficult by the fact that it was still more or less rush hour - a fact which was indeed confirmed by the B still being in operation, actually. Basically, people kept getting in the way of my shots. The upside of this was that I got some good shots of, well, people. It being Friday night, after a long hard week, (because isn't every week a long hard week?) many of those people were quite tired.

We traversed the Manhattan bridge and saw one of the damn waterfalls that everyone's been making so much noise about - and sorry, but it's ugly. It's water falling off of scaffolding, and it cost an obscene amount of money - 15 million bucks obscene, that is. Art is great, I'm all for it, but all for one art project? And an ugly one at that? Supposedly he used scaffolding to mirror the ever-changing face of the city - in other words the constant construction that drives us all crazy. Why would we want to look at more scaffolding? I wonder what 15 mil could do for the NYC public school system. Or to run down parks in, say, Bet Stuy. Nice effort I suppose, but no dice. I attempted to take pictures from the train... see, I love my camera, and in a lot of ways for many purposes it's an excellent camera. But unfortunately speed of focus, shutter speed, and rapid-fire shooting are not among its strengths. In other words, I got a bunch of blurry blotches. I also kept managing to only get shots of support beams - I'd say about a 20% chance there but more like 90% of my pics. Maybe I should play the lotto tonight - or maybe I'll just get struck by lightning.

Shortly into Brooklyn we reached our first get-off-stop - DeKalb Avenue. My 50¢ MTA Art In Transit guidebook had tipped me off to an installation here. It was kind of hard to find, and kind of odd when we found it. A bit Picassoesque, with its random geometric forms and musical instrument parts. And inexplicably the king (of clubs) and queen (of hearts perhaps) flanking to the left and right (respectively). Whatever floats your boat there, Stephen Johnson. (Apparently there's a much larger installation in another part of the station - I'll find it when I'm riding one of the other three trains that goes there, I suppose. I also suppose we didn't really need to get out there this trip, but oh well.)

Our next stop was the next stop, Atlantic Avenue. This proved to be quite interesting, though not for the reasons we'd hoped. It's actually a massive hub, and I must have been exhausted (or smoking rock) or something when I decided that it was one of the places we needed to step into on this ride. It served a function though - mainly in that it has functioning and unlocked men's and women's bathrooms. Of these facilities, I was in great need. I can't say that it was a pleasant experience, nor one that provided all necessities, if you know what I mean. And there were some interesting, um, remnants crammed into various corners. It was however not nearly as bad as it could have been, considering.

The artwork at the station was disappointing; granted, it's massive, but all it is is these swoops of gray granite throughout the station. It apparently took several collaborators too, I suppose due to its scale. It does add a certain je ne sait quois to the station overall, but I don't know that I'd call it "art", any more than I'd call all the fancy buildings in midtown "art". Of course, some of them I would... but I digress. Downstairs on the actual B / Q platform there was some old BMT signage - once you're in Brooklyn, you're riding on the old BMT Brighton Beach line. Trying to take a picture of one of these signs, I ended up standing rather close to the platform edge. But not close enough to warrant what happened next.

The Q train entering the station wasn't honking or slowing down, mainly because I wasn't encroaching upon its track space in the least. Jonathan, who's rather nervous about train platform boundaries, wasn't perturbed in the least by my positioning. Despite this an angry young man felt it necessary to shout, "move, you dumb bitch!" at me from about 30 feet down the platform. Some people just have too much hostility in them I guess.

I took the picture from a different angle.

From there it was just a zip straight shot to the end for us. Good thing, too, as my camera battery was flashing red at me due to its perilously low charge. And thankfully, sensibly, this line has only one end (unlike the A train). For a while we were in a channel that was sort of still underground but exposed to sky - it was very cool, I thought - and then ended up fully above ground. All the lines seem to, once you get far enough out. And then, rather quickly again due to the express-ness, we were at Brighton Beach. Pulling into the station, the conductor made it sparklingly clear that that train was done for the evening and in fact for the week, it being Friday. That it was, in fact, headed "for storage". Well OK then, I guess we're not riding that one back into town. We were planning to wander for a minute anyway.

The Manhattan-bound platform has some art, sculpture that's some kind of business people morphing into dolphins type idea. It's kinda cool. I managed to get some pictures, red light still flashing away on my camera's screen, but it showed me a little mercy. Since Jonathan wanted (and deserved, by this point) a cigarette, and since it's silly to go all that way and then not hit the street, we dismounted.

And quickly realized that we've actually been there before. When we went to the Mermaid Parade this year we wandered far, far down the boardwalk and dined in Brighton Beach, at one of the local Russian establishments (Potatoes and pickled mushrooms, anyone? No really, the food was excellent. We're big fans of potatoes and pickled mushrooms. I'm eating pickled mushrooms right now, but they're Polish.). Coming back we were actually cold, so we traveled streets as opposed to the waterfront. I'd suspected this synchronicity whilst perusing the map, but then I'd thought, no, we didn't walk that far did we? But yep, we did.

Brighton Beach is referred to as "Little Russia by the Sea", and they ain't kiddin'. Neither am I, for that matter - it's not just something people say or something I made up; it's on banners that are hung in the street and everything. (Please excuse the blurry picture; this is exactly the moment when my camera finally died. It's a frustrating situation; on these trips I take a lot of pictures - I only post a precious few of them here, but for example on this trip I took 160 before the battery went kaput. I really need a backup battery, and if I have that possibly a memory card as well.) The high Russian population concentration, paired with the juxtaposition of the Coney Island neighborhoods, makes this a very interesting area indeed. Though with its elevated subways and multiculturalism, it actually kind of feels like home - we live in Astoria, after all. Just wait till we get to Ditmars and you'll see what I mean.

We didn't spend long on the ground; I was still hoping to ride the B back into town. Well, we'd missed that boat (train). It was simply too late. B's were pulling in at the Brooklyn bound platform, and then roaming off into the night, never to round around to our side and bring us into Manhattan once again. So it goes. This left us waiting for the Q train.

While we waited, we heard something. And then we smelled something. And then finally we saw something - and that something was fireworks. They were coming from the direction of Coney Island, unsurprisingly, and they were exquisite. We walked to the far back end of the platform for the best view (though slightly obstructed by buildings) and stood there, holding hands, basking in our B train accomplishment and witnessing the pyrotechnic display that we did not get to see last weekend.

Googling it later, this is what I found on the awesome Coney Island Website:

Fireworks on the Beach
Astroland and Deno's Wonder Wheel Park sponsor fireworks at 9:30 every Friday night during the season. Fireworks generally start the last weekend in June and conclude the Friday before Labor Day. For specific questions about the fireworks, please contact Astroland (718-265-2100) or Deno's (718-449-8836) directly.

Awesome right? And to think, this is supposed to be Astroland's last season if Thor Industries has its way. Check out the website to know what the hell I'm talking about.

And so, thus concluded our B train travels. I was disappointed that we didn't get to ride the B back in as well, but so it goes. We fulfilled the goal of riding end to end, and that's what counts. It's weekdays only, and early at that, and like a big dumb dolt I waited until becoming employed full time to start this project. So at this point in some instances I have to take what I can get.

And the B train? For now, the B train sleeps. A rest for you, little B, so that Monday morning you can appear orange-eyed and bushey-tailed for weary commuters on their way to dreaded offices. Sleep tight, little B.

**To see all the photographs I took on this ride, click here.

An Announcement.

2008-07-10T23:32:00.002-04:00

Tonight, waiting on the W train at 23rd street, I heard one of those announcements over the crackly overhead speakers - the kind that seems that it must be going to every station because it has nothing to do with the one you're sitting in. This indictment happened to pertain to the A train, an entity with which I am now peculiarly familiar.

The announcement - where do those come from anyway? I really must find out - told us that, due to 'debris on the tracks', the A train would not be running to either Far Rockaway or to Rockaway Park. Seems that two of Ghidorah's heads had been temporarily truncated - and by what, trash? That for alternate service, riders should take the Ozone Park bound A, and then transfer at Rockaway Boulevard for bus service (the Q 27, I believe, though I could easily be mistaken about that. The buses are a completely other labyrinth.).

And I thought, damn, that's messed up. Because I've been there; I know how far out it is. How after a long day of working in the city, the last thing you want to do is wait on an overcrowded bus which will undoubtedly move at half or a third the speed of the train that you normally take. And what about the people trying to get out of the Rockaways to come in to their night jobs?

And then I thought, soon, or soon enough, I'll have a context for all of these announcements. An interesting concept: subway stop omniscience.

If you must begin, begin at the beginning: The A Train.

2008-07-07T00:59:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Duke Ellington (and songwriter Billy Strayhorn), the A Train may be the subway line best known by non-New-York residents. Originating as the IND Eighth Avenue Line, it began running on September 10th, 1932 with a mere 12 mile trek through Manhattan. It now spans 31, the longest in the system, from 207th street in Inwood (also known as Upstate Manhattan) to three separate ends in Queens: Far Rockaway, Rockaway Park Beach, and Ozone Park.

Of course I'm starting with the longest line. Would I have it any other way? I live nowhere near the A train, and its ends are as distal from me as they can really get while still being technically in the city. As such, I had to hop the A in the middle of the line. Joined by Jonathan, my (life) partner in crime, we caught up with the A at Columbus circle (kindly ignore the ad, which I do not support in any way) and from there jetted express like to the tippy top at 207th. That is, truly, where our story begins.

Inwood is interesting. It feels like New York, that's for sure. But not quite Manhattan, but not some other borough either. It has its own flavor, owing at least in part to that fact that the hills that once covered all of the isle of Manahatta are still prevalent there. And of course there's water to each side of you, and to the north of you, at no great distance. Thus the geography, combined with large basically forested areas, make you feel like yes, you're still in New York all right, but you're sure as hell on the edge of Something Else.

From 207th Street, we walked south to the top of Fort Tryon Park. Within this bastion of leafy green is held The Cloisters, an offshoot of the Metropolitan Museum of Art that is dedicated to the medieval period. Little did I know that the thing is practically on top of a damn mountain. I found out pretty quick though. Both the museum and the park are beautiful, and worth the trek, but if you're not good with hills or stairs I would most definitely suggest a southern approach.

From there, we traveled south. We for some reason couldn't find the walking path, so instead took the M4 bus one hop down to 190th street where we re-boarded the A. On the street level was the most beautiful subway sign; I'm sort of dying to know if it lights up at night. Possibly enough to go there at night; we'll see. The entrance to the station is flanked by an overlook and park, a gift of John D. Rockefeller. I heard that guy had some money.

The station, at least at that end, can only be entered by elevator. This struck no small amount of fear into our hearts, based on the other elevators that we've been inside at other such public locations, but our worries were unwarranted. Probably because it is so frequented, it was enormous and clean. We in fact rode down with two MTA sanitation workers.

We resurfaced at 125th street to take a look at the world-famous Apollo theater. We couldn't really talk about Duke Ellington and Harlem without going by the Apollo, now could we? Nope. Of course I've been by it many times. When I first moved here I spent a two month stint at 129th and Lennox - very near the corner of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X Boulevards. (Oh yeah, I fit right in.) For green trains, I walked east and passed nothing. But for blue trains, I walked west and passed the Apollo.

The theater was in a state of disrepair for quite some time, but it's recently been refurbished. The marquis is really cool these days; it looks old school, except that the letters change about every thirty seconds because it's actually an LED screen. I appreciate the fact that they kept the vintage look, but now no poor guy has to risk his neck at the top of a ladder, desperately digging through a big envelope of plastic letters for yet another "E".

From 125th, the A makes the single longest straight shot in the system - all the way down to 59th street without missing a beat. Express indeed. Having gotten in at Columbus Circle, and due to the fact that I go there once a week, I had no burning desire to get out. Next stop: 42nd street Port Authority. Also known as the bus station. The station is a little bit bizarre, sort of like a giant mall where all the stores left and cheap chain food schleppers took over every slot. But hey, if you're waiting for a bus, your options for crappy food are nearly endless. You can also go bowling at the biggest bowling alley in Manhattan. There are a few interesting installations there; the one closest to the A platform is a tile mosaic by Lisa Dinhofer called "Losing My Marbles". 42nd street is pretty much all I ever need to feel that way, Lisa.

We did not get out at 34th street, Penn Station. I am not yet ready to face what Penn Station is now; I made the mistake of seeing what it was. Before. We'll talk about it later. Some other time.

Ahh, 14th street. At 8th Ave, that is. This station holds one of my favorite art installations ever anywhere. So awesome! So socially pointed! So utterly creepy! Tom Otterness's "Life Undergound" never fails to fascinate. In all of its bronze incarnations, it is stunning. His work has spread to other parts of the city too; we stumbled upon one of his characters perching on the rocks of Roosevelt Island, and most ironically his little comments on capitalism adorn the entrance to a Hilton on 41st street.

At Canal Street we find a different kind of creepy installation entirely - the birds! Crows, to be specific. "A Gathering" by Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz brings a murder of them right into the station: on the I-beams above your head, and some enormous ones on top of the employee booth, but mainly on the fence-like gates that keep payers in and non-payers out of our beloved two-dollar-a-pop pay per ride. When you're just hanging out and you don't know they're there, and then one or two of them catches your eye, now that's some thing special. 'Specially if you see it twitch.

Zoom, swish, and through the business district we go, into the heart of Brooklyn. We passed through Hoyt-Schermerhorn, a fascination station in my mind in that it holds abandoned platforms, and supposedly windows for a long-forgotten department store. Jonathan Letham gave me this obsession, and I'm going to do my best to get him to edify me. But anyway, that station will be explored on another line, most likely the G.

We didn't de-train again until Utica Avenue. Here we found a charming mosaic installation. First it seemed juvenile, and then we remembered why - the artist, Jimmy James Greene, used images actually drawn by children from various community groups to design the piece. Combined with various pieces of iron grillwork it's a nice effect. I hope the kids got to go see the finished product. Way to be, Jimmy James. Also in that station are elaborate covers for what we think are just ventilation shafts. They add to the overall look quite nicely.

It was now time to ride to the end. Trouble is, as I mentioned before, the A goes all Ghidorah on us once it hooks up into Queens and has three ends. Tricky little minx. I knew I had to go to the farthest end, and that meant Far Rockaway. So away we went. To our fairly vast surprise, we emerged above ground somewhere around 88th street to see beaches, graveyards, boats, and all manner of un-New-York-City-like objects along the rest of the way. At the end, we found Far Rockaway, whose inhabitants were maybe not so very thrilled with having us poking around. We didn't stay for long; only long enough to see a group of Sunday School children outside with their teacher, learning a dance to a new song. And to find a manhole cover made in Long Island City. Go far from home and you find... home.

At that point, I didn't know quite what to do. So I decided that really the only fair thing would be to travel to all three ends. So back on the train we hopped, to Broad Channel, where we actually got on a (full length, nearly empty) Shuttle. The A only travels to Rockaway Park during rush hours, which Sunday certainly ain't. From RPB, it was back to Broad Channel on the shuttle to wait for the real A, along with all manner of rabble rousers coming back from a day at the beach. The A then took us back up to Rockaway Boulevard, where we once again swapped sides to head to Lefferts Boulevard in Ozone Park. And that, my friends, is when we finally reached the end of our journey.

31 miles - possibly and then some, what with our multiple ends and all. Eight hours all told, once we stumbled off the train at West 4th street to grab some real grub at Red Bamboo - we'd been sustaining ourselves all day on some cookies and crackers picked up at a drug store in Harlem.

A long day, a satisfying day, a day on the A.

Next up? Why what else, none other than the IND's B! Tentative date: Sunday the 13th.

**See the full set of photographs from this ride here.

You're doing what now?

2008-07-05T22:37:00.001-04:00

Ever since I moved to New York City, I've had this sort of aching wonder. Sure I know what the 5 train is all about at 14th street, but what about at the end of the line in the Bronx? And where the hell does the L train end up? The Z train, now there's a train of mystery. I've seen it once or twice, ridden it never. I have a vague notion of its goings on in Brooklyn, but what about how it runs through Queens?

It struck me. An approximated seven million people ride this subway system every day. Yet how many of us truly know it? We use it every day while doing everything in our power to ignore everything about it; a book, an ipod, a free newspaper - anything to place a buffer between us and the real raw world of those tunnels, and of course the sometimes disturbingly crowding number of people around us.

But me, I'm not a person that does things passively. No, I like to take things head on, wrangle them around a little bit. Get at the root. So I thought, maybe I should ride every line. For its entire distance. And because I'm me, why don't I just do it in order, first letters and then numbers?

So yes. This is my subway project. To simply ride it, to experience it. To see what's at the ends, to take the time to look at the art that has been so painstakingly installed in the stations. To appreciate the architecture and engineering that was there in the first place. To witness the people that ride with me: infants, grandmothers, teenagers from Jersey, baby daddys, midwestern tourists, Japanese hipsters, spare change hustlers, genuine crazy homeless people; people going to work, people coming home from work (finally), people trying to figure out whether they're supposed to get out at 42nd street or Times Square.

I'll ride the trains, and I'll take pictures, and I'll tape record, and I'll write. With any luck I'll have some friends with me sometimes - a musician to act as busker, a videographer to document. We'll see. Now that I'm working again, this is going to take me a while. Tomorrow I begin.

And where to begin? Why, we begin at the beginning, of course. With the A train.