Rats Boldly Swarming Subway Platforms

Ha @ JMH! What a dbag!

"People have seen them sitting on benches,"

Well of course. Once one of them became president all the others felt entitled.

A few weeks ago, from across the platform, I watched a fat rat attempt to squeeze into one of those pipes in the wall. This was at the (Bkln-bound) First Ave L train station. Reactions to the rat's slapstick attempts were pretty funny. While some people pointed or stomped feet to taunt the rat, other peripheral vision-impaired riders walked right by without noticing.

Yes, MTA "workers" don't work very hard. Those booths are mostly unmanned now, so maybe these apathetic, vest-wearing sloths should remove trash instead of taping a bag over the cans and letting the crap pile up.

The MTA gets an overall grade of D- with big, fat 0 for effort from me.

the problem is that the mta workers rarely make the effort to empty the garbage cans. They always overflowing with trash(people are actually using them).

the problem is that the mta workers rarely make the effort to empty the garbage cans. They always overflowing with trash(people are actually using them).

the problem is that the mta workers rarely make the effort to empty the garbage cans. They always overflowing with trash(people are actually using them).

Subway rats are the extra incentive we get for paying more to take the subway. The MTA provides us with little pets to feed and care for. We give them food, water and paper and a happy rat won't scurry up your leg and eat your face.

#29 Most rats relatively are running away from a crowd but I have seen rats jump off garbage cans and on to seats, even fly off the platform. They're like people, you never know what kind of crazie you are going to encounter when you take the subway.

"the subway and the city are filthy because lowlifes do not know how to throw away garbage. if you must eat and drink in the subway, which is against the law, don't leave your empty mcdonalds or wendys bag on the floor. if you drop a fry, pick it up and put it in your bag. this is common decency. if you eat sunflower seeds, don't feel free to leave your seeds on the floor. your fat ass doesn't pay people to pick it up, and anyway, with your fat ass, you should be paying four or six dollars for the seats you take up. you know who you are. (although i doubt you would be reading this as per the literacy rate is quite low for a dirtbag who eats fries on the train and lets a wendys drink take another seat)."

the problem is that the mta workers rarely make the effort to empty the garbage cans. They always overflowing with trash(people are actually using them).

"the subway and the city are filthy because lowlifes do not know how to throw away garbage. if you must eat and drink in the subway, which is against the law, don't leave your empty mcdonalds or wendys bag on the floor. if you drop a fry, pick it up and put it in your bag. this is common decency. if you eat sunflower seeds, don't feel free to leave your seeds on the floor. your fat ass doesn't pay people to pick it up, and anyway, with your fat ass, you should be paying four or six dollars for the seats you take up. you know who you are. (although i doubt you would be reading this as per the literacy rate is quite low for a dirtbag who eats fries on the train and lets a wendys drink take another seat)."

the problem is that the mta workers rarely make the effort to empty the garbage cans. They always overflowing with trash(people are actually using them).

"the subway and the city are filthy because lowlifes do not know how to throw away garbage. if you must eat and drink in the subway, which is against the law, don't leave your empty mcdonalds or wendys bag on the floor. if you drop a fry, pick it up and put it in your bag. this is common decency. if you eat sunflower seeds, don't feel free to leave your seeds on the floor. your fat ass doesn't pay people to pick it up, and anyway, with your fat ass, you should be paying four or six dollars for the seats you take up. you know who you are. (although i doubt you would be reading this as per the literacy rate is quite low for a dirtbag who eats fries on the train and lets a wendys drink take another seat)."

the problem is that the mta workers rarely make the effort to empty the garbage cans. They always overflowing with trash(people are actually using them).

I always see rats hanging out on the platform at the southern end of the downtown 6 at 23rd Street.

Well, one solution might be to invest in feeding them something they find tasty, but also dope that with effective rat birth control chemicals.

Better: put a bounty on 1 rat pelt equal to recyling 1 aluminum can.

Best: introduce their natural preadator, hilarity very well might ensue!

Yeah, I get that increased ridership causes increased litter, but can the MTA maybe get the trash off the platforms?

I would be fascinated to hear people's plan to do this that doesn't involve running the trash train (and thus causing delays) in the middle of the day.

I've never heard of a rat actually harming anyone on the subway. A few weeks ago at the Seventh Avenue station in Manhattan I saw a rat run along an overhead beam as I was coming down the stairs, about three feet in front of my face. Then a few minutes later I saw another rat (same one? I dunno) do the same thing three feet in front of a bunch of tourists' faces. They freaked out.

Keep the rats, send back the insufferable chicks that move here then talk like Sex & The City characters.

Solved.

This is so obvious, learn to live with them. So obvious as two plus two is four. Rats and roaches will survive everything, even an atomic attack, they are smarter than you and can adapt to any way you wanna fight them, so stop bitching already and learn to live with them, stupid.

The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed;

Um, this is a massive system of underground tunnels, what the fuck do you expect can be done?

Any major effort to exterminate all the rats in the subway would just see them replaced by other rats from other underground lairs looking for the buildup of food.

Or in your universe does nature not fill empty niches?

[10] Sauntering around, Jen? And nobody took care of it? They dare call themselves New Yorkers? I would have tried for a field goal across the tracks.

Just make a huge batch of delightful Thallium popcorn and let them rats have at it. Problem solved.

Give the rats a break. They're cute. Kind of like squirrels without the bushy tail, or like pigeons that can't fly.

When bubonic plague breaks out then maybe the MTA or city will do something about this. Where's the Department of Health? They'll bust a business owner if he has a rat infestation but...

Rats are as dirty as some humans. If people didn't throw junk onto the tracks then the rats wouldn't have anything to eat.

Saw this last year on the Canal Street stop - rat eating rat!

I told you what would happen if we built those tunnels to New Jersey, but did anybody listen? Of course not.

I agree with #15, it's the people that's the problem ..... you know ..... the ghetto trash with no manners or decency.

Rats, people, same shit

I always see rats walking on the platform of the F train/Rockefeller station and E train/7th Ave Station. I agree they are at their best while on the tracks bathing in dirty subway water.

the subway and the city are filthy because lowlifes do not know how to throw away garbage. if you must eat and drink in the subway, which is against the law, don't leave your empty mcdonalds or wendys bag on the floor. if you drop a fry, pick it up and put it in your bag. this is common decency. if you eat sunflower seeds, don't feel free to leave your seeds on the floor. your fat ass doesn't pay people to pick it up, and anyway, with your fat ass, you should be paying four or six dollars for the seats you take up. you know who you are. (although i doubt you would be reading this as per the literacy rate is quite low for a dirtbag who eats fries on the train and lets a wendys drink take another seat).

Check out the second metropolitan diary entry:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/nyregion/21diary.html

The rats are gross, the trash is gross, the subway smells and is hot. It's only better than flying at this point. The subway sucks.

The MTA is going to do nothing to combat this because they do nothing. Their workers suck, their stations suck.

If trash is a problem, build those stupid glass walls already and keep the trash off the tracks.

I hate the MTA. Give anyone with more than half a brain and some public decency and they can start to turn that agency around. They suck, suck, suck.

They party regularly on the platform at 86th & CPW. Hey...keeps them out of the park?

The MTA should have taken an even easier way out, saying that increased rat activity has led to greater ridership.

I like them on the tracks--they're usually doing something worth watching, like eating a AA battery that some boogie has thrown onto the tracks after his discman died. That's the kind of show that drives the masses crazy. So hell yes there are more people riding.

At the Times Square N/R/W/Q platform, a rat was sauntering around. I told a man about to lean against a column about the rat and the guy jumped about two feet in the air. For the next five minutes until the train arrived, I warned people about the rodent--and I was totally worried he was going to board the train, too.

The subways are look like islamabad: filthy. We have rats and will continue to have them as long as the city continues to feed them with our trash habits.

Yep, I remember in the 70s, 80s, and 90s you would never see a rat in the subway. Yep, this is something very new.

"The MTA blames the rat boom on an increase in subway ridership that's led to more litter."

Or an increase in subway ridership that's led to more people there now who've never known what's always been there.

the N/R Herald Square Station is teeming with them after midnight - they will chase you

Of course it's not the MTA's fault - it's our fault who litter - yea sure - like it was the homeless that caused that Chambers street fire, newspaper cause train delays and the 2nd Ave subway will get built - oh - those big black bins on platforms like 23rd st on the F/V lines are full of rats - they keep trash bags in there and the rats get into them - keep alert lol

"Next thing you know the doors are going to open and one is going to come on the train with us," one exterminator predicts.

That almost happened the other day. I was on the uptown W, in the first car, and I can't remember which station it was, but we pulled up next to a stack of TRASH BAGS sitting on the platform next to a garbage can, and a rat moved from the bags towards the train and might have come on board if the doors hadn't closed when they did.

Yeah, I get that increased ridership causes increased litter, but can the MTA maybe get the trash off the platforms? I think we've already concluded here that the station agents have nothing better to do...

Joyce Gonzalez, here's an ocarina for your troubles:

http://www.clayz.com/songlist.html

I saw a little baby rat on a grate on the sidewalk on 8th avenue yesterday. It was really cute and just kinda chillin there.

I see them in the tracks all the time. You see movement in your peripheral vision and you spot them scurrying around under the third rail. I notice they go into these little pipes on the sides of the tracks. Wonder what those are. I see them on the platforms too but not as much.

pixar made rats look good:

http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/ratatouille/

a disease with legs.