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amNewYork's cover story, "Grand Funk Railroad," takes a look at the special scent of subway stations. Subway smells were vividly described as being "rancid excrement" or "rotting garbage and vomit." Smelly subway platforms - and trains - are nothing new, but the New York City Transit Authority is adding 350 more cleaners to help fight the grossness; amNY reports the cleaners will "be able to respond to specific stenches faster."
Bill Henderson, head MTA's Permanent Citizens Advisory Council, explained that Herald Square's station smells bad because "sometimes the cause is a broken sewer line. It could also be something on the surface." Hmm, blaming non-MTA forces, how unexpected. Of course, this reminds us of the broken MTA sump pump at the East 51st 6 train station in Manhattan two years ago - the smell was reminiscent of "backed-up bathroom" meets "dead body."
Disabled Riders Coalition spokesman Michael Harris suggests that elevators, which are often smelly, be lined with aluminum, because wood and linoleum trap odors. He also tells amNY that smells better suited to bathrooms could be eliminated with more police and scrubbing. That's probably true, but we think it's a losing battle: For every new cleaner the MTA hires, there are probably twenty more people who will pee on the platform.
Photograph by antiparticle on Flickr
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One of the problems is that many of the stations leak from above so the tracks are often wet which means the garbage is wet wich means it doesn't get sucked up by the vacuum train.
let's flood the subway tunnels w/ axe body spray then wait for the citywide orgy. everybody grabbin & gropin.
/nothing constructive to add
Gawker has the definitive word on this with their Subway Stink map:
http://www.gawker.com/maps/smell/
Clearly the MTA is run by creatures from outer space.
Anyone who has been around a human for more than a couple of hours will realize that they urinate. Even more so after a few beers and a couple of minutes on the late night subway home.
If MTA wanted to remove the smell of piss from the subways, they'd create a bathroom or 2 in the stations. Jeez, even a large bucket for people to piss in would help.
But this is an organization that thinks 1 or 2 maps per subway car is adequate.
Urine at 40%
Perhaps if they had bathrooms this wouldn't be a problem.
People can't behave? Well, I dunno get bathroom attendants or something.
Better than people peeing behind the stairs... which I've seen all walks of life do, not just the homeless/crazies.
Your gross boys, don't do that.
The west end of the 6th Ave. L station is the worst!
Can I just say that the people who are hired to "clean" the subway stations are the ruddest people ever. I was almost shot with a power washer while walking on the platform the other day because a worker was cleaning the stars and not paying attention to the people walking below the stairs. And not for anything but rinsing filth with some water isn't going to make anything clean, its just gonna make it stinkyer... I know this is a novel idea, but how about some soap??
I was strolling through a station a few months ago, and I spotted an open bathroom, one of the old school ones that are usually locked up.
I went in and took a piss, for the novelty of it.
I would never pee on the platform, that is gross, I always pee on the tracks.
I have news for the MTA: that broken sump pump at 51st on the 6 has resulted in beautiful blooms of black mold. Still smells like shit, Now With Added Toxins!
#8, i'm glad you weren't attacked by the punks.
Usually, if there's a smell on the platform, you can just move to the other end of it to get away. The real problem is being on a crowded train with no escape and having a sweaty smelly dude pressed up against you. The MTA needs to do something about that. Free antipersperant at every station and mandatory use is what I propose.
Why is that the majority of the western world's major cities with subways do not have this problem?
I've gotta be honest... while I usually hate the pithy headlines rags like the Post and the Daily News come up with, "Grand Funk Railroad" is a great title.
#10, you are absolutely correct, it's just plain still STINKS. Like hot, rotten poo.
The Canal street station transfer from the 6 to the M has got to be one of the worst. Like fermented armpits mixed with puke.
The subway in Calcutta is very short, but absolutely PRISTINE. You can sit on the floor of the platform.
C'mon, NYC.
the Canal st. station truly is awful.
The 168th Street 1/ACE station sooooo bad. It goes far beyond the fact that the whole place epitomizes the subway stench BUT to make matters worse there is a lingering cloud of grey sooty matter floating in the air on the 1 platform. It took me a few trips through to realize that it wasn't just at the end of the platform I was standing at, it was (and is) everywhere!
Oh yeah, ever transfer from the red to the blue and get the distinct pleasure of hanging out in one of those elevators with about fifty other sweaty stinky people?
Sorry this post was just too great an opportunity to pass up :-)
I'm surprised no one mentioned the east end of the 2nd Ave F/V station.
That place smells like fetid urine all year round.
It's worse in the summer, tho.
2nd Avenue on the F/V gets my vote for nastiest-smelling subway station as well.
I totally admit that I've been on the subway platform, and I'm a girl. It was like 3 am, I was leaving the Beer Garden and was highly intoxicated. I had waited for the N/W for 45 mins and couldn't hold it any longer, atleast it was raining and got washed away.
I'm #22, i mean to say I peed on the platform
The number 1 reason the subways stink is Black Homeless Bums who shit and piss on themselves and the tracks and stations. The number 2 reason the subways stink is puerto rican and Dominican bums who piss and shit on themselves on the tracks and stations. One time there was this black bum who smelled like he lived in a shit and piss and vomit hole for ten years. it was the most vile, unbelievable and most powerful stink in the entire world!!!! He would just get into the platform and make it stink and then into the subway car and make it smell in half a second. People were throwing up and were screaming for him to get out and were in a panic to get out of the subway car. I mean he cleared out the whole subway car. I can still smell him to this day. I wonder if you can get arrested for smelling bad? anyway we should just shoot all the black bums in the head that way we'd have less smelly stations.
Hello Mr./ Mrs. Racist #24,
It has come to my attention that all bums small pretty bad, and probably are a good cause of our stinky subways. But trust me I have been a little too close to some stinky white bums too. Actually, I believe it was a drunk white bum I saw one night piss himself while waiting in the Q train at 57th Street. So, the lesson here is, bums of all races stink and can piss and crap themselves.
#24 should know the 2 exact causes of subway funk because he is a white homeless bum who shits and pisses himself and just got out of a vomit hole after 10 years.
The biggest problem with the NYC subways is, perhaps, so obvious that it's not on anyone's radar. Take a look at our subway infrastructure: the track tunnels double as storm sewers. Consider, say, the Toronto subway, or the London tube, or whatever. Their tracks, 99% of the time, are dry. They have other, parallel tunnels that handle storm sewer. In NYC, when the streets overflow, the shit flows into the subway tunnels. Once it's there, it flows down the tunnels. We were cheap when we built the subway and most of the older lines do not have parallel sewer lines. Our subway stinks like shit because it's a sewer line. Sewers stink. The MTA can fill the tunnels with cleaners but every time it rains they'll have to start over again.
the canal street NQRW doesn't smell bad. the 6 doesn't smell bad either. Which platform is it?
I think people are hitting onto something here. the reason why subways smell is cause of shit and piss. The reason why people shit and piss in the subways is cause of lack of bathrooms. The reason there are no bathrooms is cause many people would use it especially blacks and hispanics. Blacks and hispanics would rob people, sell drugs, solicit and attack passerbys and fuck up the public bathrooms. the mta couldn't afford the maintenance and security for the bathrooms. That's why the subways smell. You go all over the world like paris and japan and you see how clean the subways are and how many public restrooms there are and you realize that the MTA actually makes more money than those subway llines and you realize that the difference between the japanese transit system and new york's is black people. they fucked it up for all of us.
How about stepping on baby pink rats? As I was walking along looking at the citizen graphiti- advertisements. (keep it up guys) I heard the sound of a cookie or potato chip beneth my foot. Nah it was a dead baby pink rat. There were about 5 of them and people kept doing what I did. Ive never been so grossed out. of course the smell of piss just added a dramatic subway flair to the situation.
Stand clear of the baby rats please. Stand clear of the smell of piss please. Stand clear of the shit in the corner please. Stand clear of the crowed platform please. Stand clear of the unaircondtioned car please.
#28-It was the Brooklyn bound platform 1 year ago and I remember it vividly as I almost contributed to the puke pile as I passed thru. Perhaps it has improved since then.
#24 and #29 - Crawl back into your troll holes.
There is no excuse for the awful state of affairs in the subway. The smells are just the tip of the iceberg. Even the renovations are just window dressing. NYC should have a state of the art subway system. There is more money in this city than almost anywhere else on the planet. Mayor Bloomberg is more interested in real estate development than infrastructure and services like the subway. All they do is whine about money. Bunch of liars, all of them. We are all being taken for a ride - or not (especially on weekends).
I don't really notice the urine. I remember smelling it as a child coming into the city from NJ; I think it's just one of those things that you get used to once you live here. I don't know how that's winning when sewage (G train!) and garbage are really stinking up the place, especially in the hot summer.
I see most posters here have focused on the urine smell . Well it's a no win situation, If the MTA opens all of those restrooms within the system, They would have to maintain them . That costs money, & we all know what "Costing" results in . Another reason opening all those restrooms won't happen would for the same reason they were closed in the late seventies, Folks kept getting robbed & Worst ! This funk issue is a problem because the MTA didn't take care of the system from the beginning . We now have to deal with the end result on smelly-ass stations and leaky ceilings . Those leaks are partly because of cracks in the ground where the water has seeped into the stations . Nothing the MTA can do about that folks, That's something we're going to have to live with ! Posted by; "Still Not Amused"
Even the once tolerable First Ave. platform, on the L (8th Ave. Bound) train, now permanently stinks utterly of poo. From about 2/3 of the way walking Eastward up to the dead end... RIGHT ACROSS the tracks from that little Cop Booth (Bklyn Bound side) thingie. Olfactory neutrality seems to return if you stick to the western end of the platform.
#22 did you piss on the Astoria Blvd plat? Nice job- wanna grab a beer sometime?
i think #36 is trawling for a golden shower, and then, when things get serious, a hot carl
go get her tiger!