The man found dead by firefighters after they extinguished a blaze in the 63rd Street / Lexington Avenue F station has been identified as Anthony Horton, a homeless man who co-wrote a graphic novel about his life underground. On a website promoting the graphic novel, called Pitch Black, Horton explained his life: "I was born to people who didn’t want me and so they gave me away. But I guess the people they gave me to didn’t want me either. No one wanted me. That’s why I ended up on the streets alone and uneducated. I couldn’t read or write. I didn’t know anything and the whole world knew it." more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] We've received a report that a Manhattan-bound F train was delayed this morning because a woman was going into labor, and the MTA has confirmed it. The woman was "removed by EMS from Southbound F Train at 21st-Queensbridge," and the delay was from 8:58 a.m. until 9:21 a.m. This is officially a trend! Will the next issue of Brooklyn Magazine skewer the designer afghans you can spread out on train benches for when little Dylan greets the world? more ›

An unidentified middle-aged man died after a fire engulfed an unused room in the Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street F station. MTA officials believe the man was living in the room, which is located about 150 feet from one of the F train platforms. Firefighters were called to the station around 8:30 last night to investigate reports of smoke in the station. They soon traced the smoke to the room, which the MTA says had been used for communications. more ›

Last week we trudged up the stairs of the Broadway-Lafayette F station and out into the elements to make a transfer to the uptown 6. In addition to being within 200 yards of a Hollister, we were being charged $2.25 for the indignity. As we cursed our cruel fate, we wondered two things: when the hell is the MTA going to finish the new station and why can't the transfer be gratis like it is from Lexington Ave-59th St to Lexington Ave-63rd St? more ›

More details have emerged about the man who was stabbed on a Park Slope subway yesterday—while initial reports said that the incident occurred on the G train, the Daily News says it was an F train, and the spat began over some anti-Semitic comments. more ›

The MTA wants you to get a head start on your 2012 subway anxiety: according to the Daily News, the agency plans to periodically shut down a subway line through much of Manhattan so workers can inspect, fix and replace equipment like signals and switches. A line segment will stop running at about 10 p.m. each night until about 5 a.m. the next morning, and be closed for three or four consecutive weeknights! more ›

The continuing hell that is F and G train service around Brownstone Brooklyn continues, starting this weekend lasting into, basically, eternity. So if you've ever wanted to explore Windsor Terrace with the magic public transportation, do it now, while you still can. more ›

Last night, just before 8 p.m., a young woman jumped from the platform onto the tracks as a Brooklyn-bound F train pulled into the Delancey/Essex Street station. Passengers were quickly removed from the train (though some were stuck in the dark for up to 30 minutes) as the FDNY pulled the woman from the tracks. But on the plus side, it appears the woman will be okay? more ›

Police released a sketch and surveillance video of a man suspected of attacking a woman on a F train, stealing her purse and demanding she give him her underwear. WCBS 2 reports the incident occurred at 2:25 a.m. yesterday morning: "Police said a man tried to sexually assault a woman at knifepoint inside a subway station... The woman was allegedly attacked while sitting on a southbound F train at 2:25 a.m. at the Fort Hamilton Parkway station." Police do not think that this incident is connected to the serial sexual assaults in Park Slope, Sunset Park and Bay Ridge. more ›

Last night, a fire broke out on the roof of the signal room at the West 8th Street station in Brooklyn. Which means that the F and Q are suspended near the stop (more about the service changes below) today for crews to start repairs, because the fire was extinguished too late for workers to start last night. more ›

An unidentified woman's right arm and left hand were partially severed after she fell on the tracks and was hit by southbound F train at the Second Ave/Houston St stop earlier today. The incident occurred around 11:30 this morning and suspended all F train service between Essex Street and Continental for nearly an hour. more ›

Say your prayers, Carroll Gardens, Red Hook, Park Slope, Gowanus, and Windsor Terrace: This weekend the F and G trains will meet their maker. The long-dreaded project to rehabilitate the nearly century-old Culver Viaduct is now entering its FML phase, and F and G train service will be suspended in parts of Brooklyn that don't have many convenient subway alternatives. Starting tonight at 11:30 p.m. and continuing through Monday at 5 a.m., the F will stop running between Jay Street-MetroTech and 18th Avenue, and the G will be suspended between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Streets and Church Avenue. more ›

"I heard the crunch of the train going over the body," one witness to yesterday's F train accident tells the Daily News. The grisly scene unfolded around noon in the East Broadway station, where an unidentified man, who witnesses say appeared to be dizzy, fell onto the tracks. Moments later, a Brooklyn-bound F train "roared" into the station, with the Grim Reaper riding shotgun. more ›

Have you been missing the much maligned L train shuttle bus? Good news, its back! Among the many planned service changes for this weekend is the first return of the bus we like to call "shuttLe" since last October. So if you want to get to an L stop between Lorimer and Broadway Junction this weekend, be prepared to bus it. And you'll be happy to know this won't be the buses only appearance, the MTA expects to utilize it on at least six weekends this year to upgrade the line’s “communication-based train control” system. more ›

After being rescued from the tracks of the East Broadway F station on Friday, MTA worker Sabrina Scott has been reunited with her subway hero, who saw her on the news and decided to visit her in the hospital (video below)! Derrick Oakes (or Oaks) said, "I just told her I'm glad she's alive. She's getting better." He also gave a few more details of her attack. more ›

Off-duty MTA worker Sabrina Scott was saved by an unidentified subway hero after being attacked by what the Daily News calls a "clean-shaven lunatic." On Friday evening, Scott was reportedly chased around the East Broadway F station by the man, who reportedly said things like, "Are you scared of me?" A Good Samaritan answered her cries for help and began fighting her attacker. Unfortunately in their scuffle they knocked into Scott and pushed her onto the tracks. more ›

Earlier this morning, the MTA said that things with NYC Transit's subways and buses were "near normal" but to check its website. One reader told us, "I checked the MTA's web site before heading out the door and saw that the F train was listed as having 'Good Service.' Then I arrived at the 7th Avenue station in Brooklyn to find it packed with people. An F train pulled in but many people including myself could not squeeze into it. Then there was a (rare) announcment informing the crowd that there are 'extensive delays on the F line due to the weather.'" more ›

With the cost of a subway ride climbing ever-higher, it's nice to see commuters like the guy in this gross video getting his money worth. Why pay extra for a box of tissues when you can simply use the train doors as your hanky? When you think about it, the MTA is really missing out on some merchandising opportunities in the personal hygiene department. Is it smart business to limit merch to MTA-themed socks and T-shirts when there's such a high demand for subway fingernail clippers and spittoons? We're sure this F train nose-picker would have preferred to wipe his booger on a linen handkerchief with an embroidered MTA monogram, but nobody ever gave him the choice. [Via The Awl] more ›

As the huddled masses brave the cold to line up for access to the temporary Smith/9th Street F/G platform, other Brooklyn residents have been far more inconvenienced by the rehabilitation of the nearby Culver Viaduct, which has completely shut down Manhattan-bound service from the 15th Street/ Prospect Park West station in Park Slope and the adjacent Fort Hamilton station in Windsor Terrace until May. Councilman Brad Lander has come up with a fix, though: just extend the B68 bus route! more ›

Last weekend, the MTA had planned to suspend F and G train service between Jay Street-MetroTech and Church Avenue in Brooklyn. But at the last minute, post-traumatic snow phobia gave local residents a reprieve, and the work was rescheduled to... this weekend! From 11:30 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday, January 17th, free shuttle buses will replace F and G service between those two stops. An MTA spokesperson explains that the subway service is being suspended because they just like messing with your head. Kidding, it's for a really important reason! more ›

Police and reporters are slowly piecing together the story behind the double-stabbing and suicide attempt that snarled mass transit this morning. The 31-year-old alleged assailant, Ryan Devaney, had a history of fighting with his parents according to neighbors, had been "in and out of institutions" and often fought loudly with his family. more ›

This may explain some of the train delays today: The police were investigating a customer injury that caused delays on the F and the G lines. It appears that someone jumped in front of a train at the 15th Street/Prospect Park station in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn. Trains should be running again now. The condition of the victim is unclear, but we're hearing that he may have stabbed two people before jumping in front of the train. Update below. more ›

Yesterday morning, a group of 15 adults and two children squeezed into the elevator in the F train station on Roosevelt Island. And there they remained for a full hour until the FDNY came to their rescue. One commuter, an administrative assistant at a financial firm named Alexis, passed the time by tweeting about the situation (sample: "This day keeps getting worse. I'd jump in front of a train but the MTA would find some way to cock that up too!") Today she sent us a thorough account of her experience, with video of that triumphant moment when the FDNY popped open the ceiling hatch. Here is her story: more ›

And the bedbug war of 2008-??? continues! This time the bastards reportedly showed up in a subway booth at the "Ninth Street station" on the F line in Park Slope 10 days ago, though the Post doesn't specify whether it's the Fourth Avenue or Seventh Avenue station. But apparently the station agents were so spooked they rang the emergency button and "immediately left" the station. Station agent Norman Pou said, "I lost my mind. Where there's one, there's two; when there's two, there's more. There's always a whole group of them." more ›

After releasing a report last year admitting that the F train was really f'ed up, the MTA says service on the subway line has improved significantly. So significantly, in fact, that officials have decided there's no reason for a proposed F train task force to bother meeting as planned. City Room reports that a proposed review of the F train’s timetable, which had not been revised since 2001, is no longer in the works, because the MTA is satisfied with performance on the F line. But State Senator Daniel Squadron, who lives along the F line in Carroll Gardens, says the MTA needs to make more of an effort. more ›

Okay, by popular demand, here's the explanation for today's nightmarish subway commute, for those of you who want to know why it took you two hours to get into Manhattan from parts of Brooklyn. A NYC Transit spokesman tells that around 8 a.m. a burning 3rd rail insulator outside the Broadway-Lafayette station snarled service on Manhattan bound F trains and Manhattan bound M (from Brooklyn) trains. more ›

The mother of a 5-day-old boy left in the Sutphin Avenue F train station was arrested yesterday and charged with felony abandonment of a child. Antonia Lopez left her son swaddled in a blanket next to a MetroCard machine at about 8 p.m. on Friday night. He was found and taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he remains healthy. According to Safe Haven laws, Lopez could have dropped the baby off at FDNY or NYPD stations without risk of prosecution. more ›