Comment of the Day: Conductor Announcements

Today we wrote about the discontinuation of the requirement for subway conductors to announce a train's arrival at the 47th-50th St. Rockefeller Center station with a plug for the "Top of the Rock" observation deck. Most commenters found the idea of corporate sponsorship of subway stations distasteful, let alone the fact that this was an enforced and required announcement that generated no revenue for NYC Transit. Some people do enjoy when their conductors deviate from the script, however, like TimSPC:

I can't remember if it's the F or the D, but one of the guys has a great spiel for 34th St. He does a "34th St, Penn Station, change for the, etc..." script and then adds, "Madison Square Garden, the world's most famous arena, home of the Rangers, Knicks and Liberty." I appreciate that, too.

One can read the whole litany of reader announcements at the comment thread here.

Image cropped from Madison Square Garden, by howsentimental at flickr

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Dave Hogarty in Miscellaneous on January 6, 2008 11:00 PM

Comments [rss]

Steven

I agree with some of the comments above about this new feature "comment of the day" If Gothamist wants to do something like this it should be weekly instead of daily.

coolmidwestguy

Who are you kidding, hiding behind that alias?

ed_Extinct

as long as the announcements are clean and informative, who gives a crap if they're corporate? For gods sake there is advertising plastered everywhere on the subway and New York for that matter, this entire globe is a bloody ad... who do you think pays for that? um... yes... corporations.

get over it and stop complaining about everything...

TimSPC

It strikes me as a (valiant) attempt to drive up more posting, thus increasing reader loyalty and pageviews.

Banana

Reporting on posts you made 12-24 hours ago? LAME. Are you guys trying to fill posting quotas or something?

coolmidwestguy

A pretty lame attempt at increasing readership if you ask me

TimSPC

Hey, I love these new posts! Keep 'em coming!

coolmidwestguy

Are you really serious with these "comments of the day"? The one from yesterday was so cheesy I actually thought it was a parody of sorts.

CR

There used to be a train conductor back in the late 80's early 90's who used to say "Times Square - 42nd Street - Stand clear of the closing doors you whores". Not joking.