Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Early Addition
The Daily News goes above and beyond the subway shooting reporting of late to deliver what's really important about the subway: Are express trains really faster than locals? In the case of a 4 train versus a 6, from 86th Street to City Hall one morning, two Daily News reporters racing each other found the 6 "won by seven minutes - even though it had to make 14 more stops." One commuter who takes the 4 train said on a good day, the 4 takes 15 minutes, and on a bad, 45 minutes. All hell, that's an MTA scandal brewing right there in Gothamist's books, but apparently there was a slow-speed delay south of Union Square. More likely another crazy incident. To see the details of the Daily News subway race, click on the image at right.
Gothamist often takes the trains at West 72nd Street, where there are the local 1/9 and express 2/3. When we wait on the platform, in the stifling heat, watching with horror as more and more people join us, wearing, thumbing through their free amNew York or Metro papers (that is one beauty of the free papers and shillers - more New Yorkers are reading!), we wonder if we'll take the local, should it come first, or the express, because then less getting-and-off of people. But do we want to wait in the sweltering subterranean heat or just get on an air-conditioned train? Playing the trains is the ultimate New York City game.
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I have often said, to the consternation of the passengers around me, "Why do they call it an express when it goes so slow?"
The expresses make fewer stops but they often creep along the tracks or come to a dead halt to let other trains-- probably locals!-- pass before them.
But that's not the only thing wrong with the way the MTA runs things.
I have often said, to the consternation of the passengers around me, "Why do they call it an express when it goes so slow?"
The expresses make fewer stops but they often creep along the tracks or come to a dead halt to let other trains-- probably locals!-- pass before them.
But that's not the only thing wrong with the way the MTA runs things.
This is such an idiotic note. I take the 4 everyday and for the past few weeks, it has been going slow because of construction on 14th. There are signs everywhere saying that and the conductor often recommends people to take the 6 until mid July. Why are they posting things that come from the Daily News anyway?
I play that game every day with the 1/2/3/9 at 72nd and 14th or 42nd.
As local approaches:
- (peering up the tunnel) will the express come in enough time to beat the local to 42nd?
- if the express comes, will there be room for me to get onto it?
It's a sick game that plays a significant role in determining my mood for the day...
Last week I lost this game more profoundly than ever. I decided to stay on the (uptown) local at 14th rather than exiting and waiting for the express.
FIVE express trains passed the local between 14th and 72nd. I didn't disembark the local at 34th (stupid opposite platforms) or at 42nd because I felt committed to my decision to go local (which may be an illness that further complicates this game). I'd only stayed on the local at 14th b/c earlier in the week, I had a bad experience with the express train...needless to say, my evening was ruined, on both occasions.
There are no winners in this game. Only (tardy) losers.
Real New Yorkers always take the local.
I take the 1/9 subway home from 34th Street to 79th Street. On more than one occasion, I've experienced what I call the "perfect commute":
1. Enter 34th Street station. Local is just arriving.
2. Go one stop to 42nd Street. Express train is waiting across the tracks.
3. Take express from 42nd to 72nd. Pass 2 or 3 locals along the way.
4. Get off at 72nd St. Switch to local waiting across the tracks.
5. Go one stop to 79th Street.
When it all comes together like that, I can get home in 10 minutes.
This is news? I had this figured out way back in high school. Express trains are a joke, let the air-conditioning be your guide.
There aren't that many hard and fast rules. The local isn't always better than the express, and any regular commuter on the green line knows that the problems with the express between 42nd and 14th haven't always been around. The only way to really do this is to let the awareness of trains flowing underneath the streets seep into you until it's unconscious, and you can tell whether an express or local, uptown or downtown, is coming onto the tracks down the stairs from the ticket booth, or beneath the grates you're walking on, just from the wind and the sound.
If you do it long enough, you always know which train to take. If you think about it, you can even say why. From 125th to 59th, the D train is always faster than the A (barring incidents), and the B is a tiny bit faster than the C. The differences between the express (A/D) and the local (C/B) are 5-6 minutes at best, so it depends on what time of day you're waiting and when the last express train went by. If you gauge that you're going to be waiting more than five minutes for an express, you might as well take the local, as long as it's the one on the color line you want to end up on. If the local you could have taken has just left, and an express of the other color pulls in within a few minutes, you can be fairly sure it'll catch the local at 59th street.
You have to just know all this, since you can't really logically puzzle it out in advance -- I'm sure anyone who's a regular on different routes could reverse-engineer their own process in the same way.
Oh, and the 1/2/3/9 sucks for this kind of thing. You always lose, because the red lines suck. That's why I started heading east into Harlem instead of staying by the river.
How about when you pull into a station riding an express and (just to piss you off it seems) the local conductor pulls away.
The real problem is that the MTA is run by Pataki/NY state gov't. So in short, we're forever screwed because there is only one game in town running all of our public transportation and a lack of alternate options. Like what are we going to do if we're pissed off, walk to work? ride a bicycle? drive a car? We can't even call 311 to complain about crappy service, bad attitudes of MTA employees!! Argh!
My usual commute is to GTC...
Ah, 72nd street. I live by 79th, but will sometimes *walk* to 72nd, just so I can get an express (because I am counting on the 1/9 taking so long to arrive at 79th) - and even then, sometimes I will hop on the local "just so I can make progress"
The other variable is crowding. I get sick of being a 72nd street sardine sometimes, so I will punt, walk over to the 81st street B (which is *never* as popular as the 2/3), and get off at Bryant Park, walking the last few blocks to GTC. No transfer at the Times Square Zoo, and a lot less hectic.
I'm just glad I'm not on the East Side, where there aren't as many trains to choose from.
But the 2/3 have better air conditioning :-)
Goddamnit, no one is allowed to call them the "red line" or "green line." Ever. No excuses.
Agreed. Nobody ever refers to the lines as colors. *Other* cities refer to their lines as colors, but we don't.
People usually refer to the grouped subway lines as one long convoluted word, such as "Ennare-kyoo-doubleyoo" "Beedee-effvee" "Fourfivesix," "Jayemmzee," etc.
Over on the West Side, my experience is that the A is much faster than the C if you're going way uptown. I've read that train operators love the stretch between 125th and 59th because they can just sit back and let the train go.
Rather than referring to lines by color, why not use those deliciously old-school names: IRT, BMT, and Independent?
The subways have lost some nice personality with the MTA no longer using the IRT, BMT and IND names. Imagine Manhattan being called borough #1, Bronx borough #2, etc. ? By doing away with the use of the IRT, BMT and IND names, a real sense of the history of the subways is no longer present.
The subways have lost some nice personality with the MTA no longer using the IRT, BMT and IND names. Imagine Manhattan being called borough #1, Bronx borough #2, etc. ? By doing away with the use of the IRT, BMT and IND names, a real sense of the history of the subways is no longer present.
The subways have lost some nice personality with the MTA no longer using the IRT, BMT and IND names. Imagine Manhattan being called borough #1, Bronx borough #2, etc. ? By doing away with the use of the IRT, BMT and IND names, a real sense of the history of the subways is no longer present.
The subways have lost some nice personality with the MTA no longer using the IRT, BMT and IND names. Imagine Manhattan being called borough #1, Bronx borough #2, etc. ? By doing away with the use of the IRT, BMT and IND names, a real sense of the history of the subways is no longer present.
The subways have lost some nice personality with the MTA no longer using the IRT, BMT and IND names. Imagine Manhattan being called borough #1, Bronx borough #2, etc. ? By doing away with the use of the IRT, BMT and IND names, a real sense of the history of the subways is no longer present.
The subways have lost some nice personality with the MTA no longer using the IRT, BMT and IND names. Imagine Manhattan being called borough #1, Bronx borough #2, etc. ? By doing away with the use of the IRT, BMT and IND names, a real sense of the history of the subways is no longer present.
The subways have lost some nice personality with the MTA no longer using the IRT, BMT and IND names. Imagine Manhattan being called borough #1, Bronx borough #2, etc. ? By doing away with the use of the IRT, BMT and IND names, a real sense of the history of the subways is no longer present.
The subways have lost some nice personality with the MTA no longer using the IRT, BMT and IND names. Imagine Manhattan being called borough #1, Bronx borough #2, etc. ? By doing away with the use of the IRT, BMT and IND names, a real sense of the history of the subways is no longer present.
The subways have lost some nice personality with the MTA no longer using the IRT, BMT and IND names. Imagine Manhattan being called borough #1, Bronx borough #2, etc. ? By doing away with the use of the IRT, BMT and IND names, a real sense of the history of the subways is no longer present.
The subways have lost some nice personality with the MTA no longer using the IRT, BMT and IND names. Imagine Manhattan being called borough #1, Bronx borough #2, etc. ? By doing away with the use of the IRT, BMT and IND names, a real sense of the history of the subways is no longer present.
The subways have lost some nice personality with the MTA no longer using the IRT, BMT and IND names. Imagine Manhattan being called borough #1, Bronx borough #2, etc. ? By doing away with the use of the IRT, BMT and IND names, a real sense of the history of the subways is no longer present.
The subways have lost some nice personality with the MTA no longer using the IRT, BMT and IND names. Imagine Manhattan being called borough #1, Bronx borough #2, etc. ? By doing away with the use of the IRT, BMT and IND names, a real sense of the history of the subways is no longer present.