August 7, 2008
News Flash: Subway Stations Are Gross
Photograph of a West 72nd Street subway stair hairball by Joe Schumacher on Flickr; the hairball has been there for 3 years and counting.
Okay, maybe it's not a news flash, but New York City Transit Riders Council has put it on paper--61 pages to be exact (PDF)--as it reported that many stations are in need of a lot of cleaning and care. The NY Times noted that the worst conditions at some included "water damage, exposed wires, rodents, foul odors, clogged track drains and general filth."
The group surveyed 50 stations on 34 measures; per the Daily News, "Eight stations failed, with overall grades below 70. Another 15 stations passed with grades between 70 and 80 - but still need much help." Also embarrassing is that two failing stations--Jay Street-Borough Hall in Brooklyn and 138th St-Grand Concourse in the Bronx-- are in the city's so-called economic development zones, allowing the report to blame the city for not helping with subway station maintenance.
The most run-down stations are Beach 90th Street A station in Queens and the Bronx's 149th Street-Grand Concourse 4 and 138th Street-Grand Concourse 4 and 5 stations. The Post reported that the 149th St-Grand Concourse station, the setting for the Riders' Council press conference, recently got "a suspiciously timed fresh coat of paint"--the group's president Andrew Albert said, "Maybe we should announce these every few days and it will get the system cleaned and repaired." Of course, this comes as the MTA faces severe budget shortfalls and plans to delay station improvements. Good times.
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Unattached hair is *probably* the creepiest thing ever.
And the subways are a mess but still prettier than they used to be.. As long as they run it doesn't bother me too much. If they get too clean, people with complain it's not Real and Gritty enough.
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Some stations have systemic cleanliness issues. The Newkirk Ave B/Q station is basically one big pigeon coop, plus water drips in from the street above. The cleaning crew do their best, but it's like holding back the sea.
Here's the link to the report. (There, Jen, fixed that for you.)
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Much appreciated, RevWaldo!
While subway stations are definitely going to have "wear and tear" (and you can go to Moscow or Asia for gleaming stations), I just rather they didn't smell like pee.
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The MTA should prevent people from eating in the system (like DC).
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it's a shame they didn't do 59th street on the 4/5/6 lines. That is one of the most decrepit stations in the entire system by all measures, and also one of the most heavily used.
Also, 163rd St on the C line is an abomination- there are rats EVERYWHERE (like, on the platform, loping around, even at peak hours) probably due to the fact that there is also litter everywhere, massive puddles of standing water whenever it rains, it stinks, and there is a homeless person who takes a shit in the same spot on a landing in one staircase every day. somebody dumped bleach on the pile of shit yesterday so at least it smelled like bleachy shit instead of just plain old shit, but that appeared to be some vigilante subway maintainence, not the doing of the station people.
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Wasn't it NBC that did the study four years ago and found female yeast on the handrails in a subway station?
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There's a crumpled decomposing paper towel on the stairs at the 34th street N/R/Q/W station. I've been watching it slowly wither away since I've been at my current job (4 years now).
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the sad thing is, by morning there may be 50+ comments detailing all the ways in which the subway system is disgusting, inefficient and broken ("subway complaints" is one of the four major Gothamist hot button issues, after all), but the fact of the matter is we're just not going to get anything better. who's going to kick ass in albany and get them to give us more money? who's going to put the screws to the MTA? it's really quite sad
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The "River of Shit" on the Queens-bound platform of the Greenpoint Ave. G stop gets my vote. It was pretty strong this past winter.
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That photo is NSFW.
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I'm with Jen on this one. Millions of people ride the subways, it's going to be sort of gross, but please, PLEASE can they not smell like urine and feces? PRETTY PLEASE?
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or sewage.
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The Nassau stop for the G train has almost made me throw up twice this week. Tonight, as I exited the subway car, which was quite clean, I was hit with a strong urine/feces combo smell that gagged me immediately.
Then, as I walked up the steps, some guy turning the corner jumped. Why? A rat was right behind him, which had me doing an instinctive hurdle over it.
I don't get it.
Minimum wage. A couple of hours to clean the smaller stations. Limited skills required.
Why can't we get this done?
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The MTA should be more diligent about cleaning up, but the sorry state of the subways and LIRR, for that matter, is due to the basic slobbery of the passengers.
Eat, drink and urinate when you get home, please? And trash goes in receptacles.
www.forgotten-ny.com
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slobbery of the passengers, yes. But let's face facts. Some of those subways haven't been cleaned or properly maintained for YEARS. I blame the TWU. Lazy bastards with no pride in their work.
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The MTA needs to have workers cleaning and scrubbing the subways daily like the Japanese do in Tokyo.
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Stations get powerwashed bi-weekly AFAIK. They could do it once every 3 months if you want, or never and just have someone sweep the place once in a while. The gun build up is a benefit, its like getting the concrete patched. When my dad came to america, he said that in 30 years there will be 6 inches of solid gum on the platforms.
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Someone got a lighter? Light that @#*( on fire!
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Most of those I-beam support columns on the platform have been reduced to rusted gristle held together by twenty layers of lead paint.
Yeah, I'd say that's pretty half-assed maintenance.
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Not that it's the worst station by any means, but since mister guy mentioned it, why does the 59th st 4/5 stop always smell so strongly of mold? When the doors to the train open the smell just wafts in. . .
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How about getting the token clerks (excuse me, station agents) to clean up once in a while. They don't do anything else.
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Where'd the hairball come from? Hair? Like, from people's heads?
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Then, as I walked up the steps, some guy turning the corner jumped. Why? A rat was right behind him, which had me doing an instinctive hurdle over it.
I'm going to assume you mean one of the exits at Norman. I'm waiting for the day I hear of an accident at Nassau for this very reason; they keep an often overflowing dumpster right next to the NW (?) exit at Norman which often attracts rats (though I often also see them brazenly eating vomit on the stairs in the non-token booth exit at Nassau). Since the train is short, many people end up running to catch the southbound train. You have to be really careful since the rats dart out suddenly from behind the dumpster, and in order to actually board the train you must pass the dumpster.
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And people i'm sure want monkey butlers to serve them drinks on the train too
Come on people
The trains are the cleanest, fastest safest and most frequent they have ever been
sure they aren't perfect
but really
stop the hate
it is the greatest public transportation system in this country
be proud of what you got
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spiritross what are you smoking? I can't think of a worse public transportation system that right here in NYC. In all of my travels I usually see spotlessly clean systems.