Yesterday we explored commuters who place their bare feet on the subway seats, but just what is the consequence of placing bare skin on anything underground? Well, Dr. Jay Parkinson just happened to discuss the dreaded "subway warts" over at Free Williamsburg recently. He says that "fungi really like warm, moist environments like showers and locker rooms. The last time I put my hand on a subway pole, it wasn't warm nor moist. But it......

Reader Raphael sent us this photograph of a subway rider getting pretty comfy on the subway. Now, it's nice to stretch your toes and all, but...shudder. One of the MTA's state violations is placing "one's foot on the seat of a subway, bus, or platform bench" (it could mean a $50 fine). Besides you have no idea what's been on that seat before--it could be something like this. Which is why many people like to......

Photos via Reclaimed Home. Sure, we're all familiar with subway tiles, but would you ever go so far as to recreate the Dekalb subway stop in your bathroom? One Glasgow resident did just that, making good on a 21-year-old promise.21 years ago I arrived in New York City from Scotland to visit...and was immediatedly fascinated by The Subway. I was an undergrad painting student at the time, and returned to Scotland to begin making......

Earlier this morning, two work trains "collided east of Willets Point-Shea Stadium," according to WABC 7. The 7 line was suspended and shuttle buses or the Q48 were recommended alternative routes, but the 7 is now running local (no Manhattan-bound express). And no crew members or passengers were reportedly hurt in the incident. As subway enthusiasts know, the Corona Yard, where 7 trains and work trains are parked, is nearby.......

Did you wake up this morning thinking you'd like to be a little more Kanye? In all likelihood the Be Kanye subway ad campaign has sunk in to your subconscious, but watch out--as learned from the video ad that circulated last month, being Kanye is really just being drunk...on Absolut Vodka. Or more accurately, on corporate sponsorship. Today the Daily News takes a look at the subway ads, which state: "For a few hours -......

Neil Diamond riding the subway shouldn't be too surprising, since he was born and raised in New York, but the crooner is sort of a "big deal" -- so it's nice to see he's still swiping his Metrocard like the rest of us. One fan spotted him Wednesday around 2 p.m. on the N train and reports back, "I was coming from my office on 37th and 5th to take the subway to Union Square...the......

Photo via Jay Parkinson. Yesterday there was some chatter about the Hello Health subway ad campaign, mainly how its empty word bubble design (unsurprisingly) acted as a magnet for vandals! AnimalNY mentioned that the MTA was responsible for pulling the ad campaign, which launched when Hello Health opened its doors in Williamsburg. Today, however, they uncovered that there was a little bit of finger pointing going on, and it was actually "CBS Outdoor, the......

"People have seen them sitting on benches," says Andrew Albert, an MTA board member and chair of the NYC Transit Riders Council. "From what riders have told us, they appear to be getting bolder." That's the subway rat population he's talking about, which many commuters say is surging, at least according to an amNY article that's teeming with great quotes. "Next thing you know the doors are going to open and one is going......

Around 10 a.m., people were evacuated from the 53rd Street and 7th Avenue subway station in Midtown because riders on a B train had complained of eye irritation and trouble breathing. The FDNY and other emergency service crews were on the scene for a possible hazmat situation. Now it turns out the issues were caused by an overheated elevator motor. That makes us feel so much better about the MTA budget gap.......

What's the craziest thing you've ever encountered underground? Try to trump this Park Slope family's disturbing, X-rated experience; Gowanus Lounge reports that they (kids and all) ran into a man being orally pleasured on the steps of the 15th Street F Station in Brooklyn. "As we entered the turnstile, I looked up towards one of the staircases, and saw a man sitting on the stairs receiving oral sex from a woman whom I recognized from......

Eric Davis, the twenty-year-old man who fell through a broken sidewalk subway grate in Bed-Stuy on Friday morning has told his story to the Daily News from the confines of his bed at Kings County Hospital, where he's convalescing after plummeting ten feet into a filthy shaft: "I don't feel like it's bad luck ...because I survived. The one thing I did [was] I made sure I didn't bump my head. The lady paramedic made......

Women in heels and skirts know to steer clear of sidewalk subway gratings, as do most people averse to fetid gusts of air from beneath the city’s streets. But sometimes when you’re rushing down a crowded sidewalk, you take your chances. And sometimes you fall in, as happened this morning to a man who crashed through a subway grate at the corner of Willoughby Avenue and Marcy in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The victim was rescued and taken......

The MTA is taking another look at corporate sponsors for their stations, because the fare hikes just aren't mending their financial crisis. amNewYork reports that they are looking (again) to significantly raise their current annual ad revenue, which is around $100 million. What would a station ad sponsorship entail? MTA board member Norman Seabrook describes one possible scene: "Imagine Disney coming in and painting the entire station and painting a yellow brick road...It may sound......

LoveItMadly's Flickr. How has the summer been treating straphangers underground? Allegedly, the subway system's air conditioning is cooling everyone off...everyone except those taking the E train. The Daily News reports that "subway riders on the E line have the highest chance of getting stuck on a sweltering subway car because of faulty air conditioning." But their score, the lowest of them all, was still pretty good on paper--coming in at 83.3%, meaning that 16.7%......

The lactivists were at it again today! WNBC reports that to help kick-off World Breastfeeding Week, "breast-feeding advocates boarded an A train on Friday for a ride from the Bronx to Brooklyn to call attention to a mother's right to nurse her baby." Since breastfeeding in public has been legal for 14 years, their main goal was to get NY lawmakers "to pass legislation that would require health care providers to tell pregnant women about......

It turns out that the sarcophagus-like conditions for the escalators at a Union Square subway entrance are not due to a lengthy MTA fix. The NY Times reveals that Zeckendorf Towers, the condominium where the escalators are located, is actually responsible for maintaining the moving stairs. While the building didn't say why the escalators were covered with drywall, management did say, "The condominium association has started the process to replace the escalators and looks forward......

The NYC Transit Authority announced that it's adding service to a few subway lines starting tomorrow, perhaps to soften to blow of another impending fare hike. Notably, the 3 train will resume 24/7 service to 145th and 148th Streets (it was stopped 13 years ago because of "low ridership"), and there will also be additional overnight service between Times Square and 148th Street during the week. The W will finally have more rush hour morning......

That mayor Bloomberg has an answer for everything. Cabbies want a fuel surcharge to help cover gas costs? Let them drive hybrids. The MTA is promising another fare increase? Let the smokers pay for it. Hizzoner said yesterday that the cost of subway and bus rides won’t have to go up much at all if the state collects taxes on cigarettes sold on Indian reservations. "That just alone would replace one of those fare increases,"......

So, the MTA offered some more information about the kinds of fare hikes they want to see. According to CityRoom, "Not only is it seeking an 8 percent increase in revenue from fares and tolls, to take effect July 2009, but also an additional 5 percent to take effect by January 2011 — for a cumulative increase of 13.4 percent over just 18 months." While MTA CEO Eliot Sander said, "I recognize that what we......

Photograph by unlisted sightings on Flickr On the day we learn the MTA wants to raise fares again, there's finally data to confirm what we all knew: NYC Transit offered up statistics that show on-time subway performance has gotten worse. The least on-time line is the 4--for the year ending with May 2008, the 4 was on-time only 79.7% of the time, compared with a systemwide average of 92.0%. And in May, the 4......

The Post has some fun stoking readers’ xenophobia with a story today about an upcoming subway ad campaign promoting Islam during Ramadan. Besides the predictable puns (“Train-ing Day for Jihadists,” “Allah board!” and “G-had train”), the story points to a connection between the “proselytizing” ad campaign and terrorism, an assertion based on a YouTube video intended to raise funds for the "You Deserve to Know" Subway Project. One of the talking heads in the......

One Bronx man’s entrepreneurial dream of bringing subs and strippers together under one roof has finally been crushed by a federal judge. It wasn’t the timeless “sandwiches and lapdances” concept that got owner Anthony "Cousin Vinny" Agnello in trouble, but rather his appropriation of Subway brand wrappers and menus for his hybrid venture on East Tremont Avenue, which he described in a flier published by Gawker in May: During the day, it is an extraordinary......

The Post has the latest "oh sweet Christ, what the hell is this thing in my food!?" story, and this one’s a keeper: 27-year-old John Agnesini plans to sue Subway after he found a large serrated knife baked into the bread of his 12-inch cold-cut sub. Agnesini bought it from a Subway on West 35th Street last month during his lunch break: After taking a few bites I could tell something didn't taste right. Then......

Would an anti-groping ad campaign provoke more frequent bad behavior in New York's pervy subway sleezes? Following last year's study by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, transit officials began working on a public awareness campaign to stop the offenders; the study found 63% of respondents have been sexually harassed and 10% reported having been sexually assaulted in the subway system. The NY Post reports on concerns that have stalled the campaign.Anti-groping campaigns have been launched......

Due an "incident with a forklift at the Westchester Yard," the MTA says riders should be prepared for "extensive delays in service on the 4, 5 and 6 trains at this time." What kind of incident, you ask? Well, according to WNBC, "The forklift hit and damaged the third rail preventing trains from getting out of the yard for the afternoon rush hour." Oh, crap. Update: WABC 7 says everything's back to normal, but as......

“Crushed by crowds? Have to wait for more than one bus to go by? It’s not your imagination. Transit officials have never caught up to the waves of new bus riders,” says Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign. His group is reporting that despite an increase in average weekday bus ridership of 22 percent over the past ten years (to 2.45 million), weekday service on city buses increased less than 15 percent. In Brooklyn, the......

The latest happening from the pranksters at Improv Everywhere – masters at getting weird looks from people as they plug in big desktop computers at Starbucks, flood Abercrombie & Fitch with shirtless average Joes, and (the best) freeze in Grand Central – is all about twins. Organizers recruited nine sets of identical twins in matching outfits to ride the 6 train uptown, sit across from each other and mirror each other's gestures. It's not The......

Photograph of people waiting for the 6 train by Union Square by Unlisted Sightings on Flickr For everyone who waited too long for a subway in April--NYC Transit revealed that train delays were up 44% in April, which is the latest month with available data. The Post lists the top reasons: 1. Track work (delaying 4,117 trains; in April 2007, there were about half the number of delays due to track work) 2. Riders......

Photograph by shveckle on Flickr The MTA announced the long-expected news that its economic situation is grim. In fact, MTA CEO and Executive Director Elliot Sander told reporters, “Should riders be concerned? Absolutely. Am I concerned? Absolutely.” The depressing highlights: "Tax revenues are $120 million below projections" and will be $280 million under projections by the end of the year. Rising fuel prices means the MTA is $60 million over budget. All told, the......

Stand clear of the breaking water, please. A husband and wife were riding the subway to Bellevue so she could give birth but never quite made it to the hospital, settling for delivery on the F train platform at East Broadway. Yep, a husband relied on the MTA to get his wife to the hospital, despite the fact that entire generations of New Yorkers have grown old and died while waiting for the F. But......