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Over the weekend, the MTA conducted a super-secret (well, except to some sectors of the media) test on the Lexington Avenue line to figure out how to reduce robberies on early morning trains. Which meant only have the first five train cars as accessible for riders. Apparently, the NYPD believes that "restricting the number of open cars [will make it] less likely for potential victims to find themselves asleep and alone in empty cars" and asked the MTA to conduct the test. Namely, they want to stop "lush workers," who are the thieves who target drunken subway passengers who are sleeping. Gothamist learns something new everyday! The Straphangers point out that concentrating riders to one part of the train might mean longer walks in dangerous stations and the NY Transit Riders Council points out that busier and shorter trains could get very crowded.
It's a fascinating problem for the NYPD and MTA. The article pointed out other problems seen during the test, like delays because people would need to walk to the open train cars, and possible solutions (more signs, transit workers to help lead people). Gothamist's one bad experience on an empty train car makes us like this attempt to make the late night riding experience better, even if it'll take a while to figure it out. What do you do when you ride the subway at night? Do you have a subway curfew? Or do you go to train cars with people already on them?
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The LIRR does that (Closes Cars off), but for the purpose of more efficient ticket collection. It sucks! Having to wait for the slow frumpy people to make it to the open cars. No Wonder its never on Time. I suspect it will be alot worse if the MTA takes the same course of action.
When I'm forced to ride the Subway at night with few people on the train, I try to stay in a car with at least a few people.
the disadvantage of that system might be that all of the drunken folks, who themselves can also be a nuisance, would be tightly packed together. whenever i see drunk folks, i always worry that they might puke, which i have been very close to a couple of times
also, the homeless people that sleep on the trains can really smell awful, something that i call the homeless cheese smell. all you need is three of them in one car to make it totally reek. now, what if there were 20-30 all in one car? the sober me might also puke.
Seems a little overkill. How early in the AM are they doing this? Might they just send trains with fewer cars?
For the stations that are curved, will the conductor wait for people to catch up?
I honestly can't say how I feel about this. I agree with the cautionary points--fewer subway trains open means a farther walk in a potentially dangerous station, more crowding on already crowded late-night trains--but on the other hand, I already face some of it. The 96th street B/C station has an exit at 96th street and one on 97th street, closer to my house. But the 97th street exit is closed after a certain time each night (varies enough for me to be really annoyed when exiting at 96th at 11 p.m., only to walk by and see it open, when the night before I was shut out at 9 p.m.). That's the only station in which I've had a potentially dangerous experience as well. So now late at night I ride in the middle of the train and exit at 96th street--but if only the first five cars were open, I'd be nearer the 97th street exit and have to walk back to 96th.
More 24 hour booths are closed, so regardless of what car you got off of, in a lot of stations, you're still completely on your own.
I once heard that there were certain trains in NYC that had a yellow rectangle painted on the floor, and as long as you were within that yellow rectangle, you were visible on a security camera. This isn't true (at least I've never seen a train with a yellow rectangle or a camera, or signs notifying anything about it) but might be a better solution.
Also, one of the easiest ways to be safe in a subway (not necessarily from pickpockets but from other troubles) is to ride on the conductor car--always in the middle of the train. Also, maybe not sleeping drunk on the train might help. Don't be a cheapskate, take a cab!
As a paranoid woman, I feel safer taking a cab after 11:30. I don't mind paying the extra money if it's a choice between safely getting home or getting on a train with who knows what at midnight with no token booths open, few riders and an exhausted me.
With this and other actions already taken (locking doors between cars), makes me wonder how one is supposed to evacuate the train from one end or the other in the event of a fire or other such disaster. Do the doors just pop open in the event of a fire or power failure? Or are we all locked in to burn so that the MTA can save a few bucks?
And it only took 100 years to figure that one out!
Max - I believe the other train cars would be totally emptied out, like with the conductors checking them and everything, before they were shut down.
I need more than that- the conductor will be the first one out of there in the event of a fire.
*First of all interesting idea, but the smell of bums really freak me out.
*I dont know but what about undercover cops on trains? (Wont happen but its an idea)
I'm all for it but good luck getting a seat, you probably have to stand because you wont get a seat.(maybe priority seating if your disabled)
I think this is a good idea in theory, but in practice a late night train ride is already unpleasant and would be more so if the odds were increased that there would be either (a) a supremely drunk person on the verge of vomitus; (b) a person without housing (homeless person sounds sort of un-PC, dont you think?) who has not had a good bath in a while; or (c) a bunch of annoying B&T folk (or, worse, tourists) who are just SOOOO excited about their FABULOUS night in Manhattan and want to talk about it endlessly on the ride. Given these unpleasant possibilities becoming probabilities under MTA's new system, I have even more incentive to drink cheaper booze and use the money saved for a cab.
I don't know if the "lush workers" italics were for me. (Like a wordsmith Bat-phone.) The term is in the OED, from about the 1920s. I'm not certain if it's from New York; it could be from London.
Aw heck, this distresses me to no end. The only way to improve safety is to keep the subways functioning late at night, getting more people (non-criminal, non-homeless people) to use the train. Half-service at half-stations will only send potential customers into cabs. Furthermore, it's pretty clear from my commute from Brklyn to Manhattan (and from any number of recent train stories, on Gothamist and elsewhere) that the MTA can't tell its ass from its elbow on a good day. How many times has a 6 pulled into Union Square the exact moment the 4/5 pulls out? Or stuck at Jay Street on the F waiting for an A to show up as part of a 'schedule correction'? Sounds like another way for the MTA to deliver poor(er) service to all.
B. Real
Rider
I've always found that the trains are packed after midnight like it's rush hour, especially if you are schlepping back to Brooklyn. I've also waited 45 minutes for a Q on a packed platform during those "off hours."
If the MTA wants to test this idea, they're first going to have to send more trains. I can deal with being pressed up against people on the way to work, but not while drunk and woozy.
In William S. Burroughs' novel "Junky" he refers to "lush working" and describes it in great detail, having done it himself
his description of queens plaza is still spot on. either a testament to his writing skills or the depraved indifference of the MTA.
GOOD GRIEF! As a frequent late-night commuter to Bayridge Brooklyn, I know from personal experience that platforms at such stations as Pacific, 34th St, and 59th St. often have 50-100 or more extremely tired people waiting on them at 1:00 AM on weeknights, which could ONLY be due to the EXTREME INFREQUENCY of subway service at that hour. Why can't the MTA simply shorten the late night trains while running them more frequently? Why haul around empty rail-cars when you could trade them for more frequent service, even if the number of additional trains made possible were small?