On Tuesday, the New York City Transit Museum opened a small exhibit dedicated to the 25th Anniversary of Metro-North Railroad in its Annex at Grand Central Terminal. It features some artifacts from both the pre-MTA takeover (which created Metro-North) days to today and provides a Cliffs Notes version on how the railroad that serves the northern suburbs and Connecticut operates. It also touches, albeit a bit too briefly, on how the railroad is like the......

The February edition of the MTA’s monthly television show, Transit Transit (Saturdays, 3:30 p.m., WNYE 25) , has a segment about Marvin Franklin, the NYC Transit Authority track inspector who was killed last year in an on the job accident in Brooklyn. The piece talks with some artists who knew Franklin and his co-workers and covers the opening of an exhibition of his work at the New York City Transit Museum in December. In case......

In April of this year Marvin Franklin, a subway track inspector, was struck and killed by a G train. It quickly came to light that Franklin, who had worked underground for 22 years, was also an accomplished artist. He held an arts degree from FIT and dreamed of opening his own gallery one day, giving the proceeds to the homeless (which he once was, and who were frequent subjects in his sketchbooks). Franklin's art......

In 1988, the Jackie Gleason Bus Depot was renamed in memory of the Brooklyn native whose most famous role was acerbic bus driver Ralph Kramden on the classic television show The Honeymooners. In fact the logo for the depot is based on the title sequence for the show. The depot takes up several blocks on 5th Avenue in Sunset Park, across 36th Street from Green-Wood Cemetery. It is one of five that serves Brooklyn......

Sunday, we took a Transit Museum tour of the East 180th Street Maintenance Facility led by Joseph Tassiello, the Superintendent of the facility. He explained the role of the shops and how the modern Bombardier R142 subway car has made his job easier in getting the thirty-three 10-car-trains in service on the 5 train every day. In the days of the Redbirds, fixing something simple like a damaged floor involved taking the train out......

Yesterday we visited the New York Transit Museum’s new exhibit “Show Me the Money: From the Turnstile to the Bank" which details the fare cycle, from buying the fare instrument to the sorting of the money. If you haven’t been to the museum, it is located in a disused 1930s vintage IND subway station in Brooklyn Heights. The new exhibit was perfectly placed in the museum, next to the display of vintage turnstiles and......

Yesterday, Gothamist attended the 33rd annual Atlantic Antic along Atlantic Avenue between Hicks Street and Fourth Avenue. It is not your typical New York street fair with actual local groups, business and restaurants getting involved. Plus the New York Transit Museum had free admission as well as its annual vintage bus festival. Although it did have some of the street fair food staples like Mozzarepas and roasted corn, we weren’t able to find tables......

The Division of State Government Accountability from the Office of the New York State Comptroller recently released an audit of the New York City Transit Museum’s Nostalgia Train program. The audit identified “significant weaknesses in the Museum’s internal controls over ticket revenue for Nostalgia Train excursions” and that most of the program’s costs are coming from New York City Transit’s fare revenues and public mass transit funding. What's fun is that the audit was spurred......

This past Sunday, Gothamist went on a tour of the Brighton Line and Franklin Avenue Shuttle subway lines in Brooklyn. The tour, sponsored by the New York City Transit Museum, was lead by subway historian Joe Cunningham who gave an incredibly detailed history of the line, peppered with historical anecdotes, on the various tour stops on the line that started as a steam powered railroad to take holiday makers to the Brighton Beach Hotel......

If you ever thought wedding planners were a waste of money and a huge headache, you'll love this NY Times article about them. Sure, there are good ones out there (if you have any suggestions, feel free to list them in the comments), but there are many horror stories, like a couple who went through two "planzillas" (including one whose planning was turning their wedding into a million-dollar affair) until finding one they could tolerate.......

Yesterday we visited the New York City Transit Authority’s Corona Maintenance Shop in Queens as part of a New York City Transit Museum tour. The Corona Maintenance Shop serves the 7 train and its fleet of 409 passenger cars along with 10 work cars. The shop runs twenty four hours a day, seven days a week and has 163 MTA employees who get 32 trains ready every day for straphangers. The new facility, put......

While umbrellas are most convenient when they are small enough to stow into a bag, this 43" umbrella is very tempting. It's the MTA Transit Museum Store's Grand Central Ceiling Umbrella, which was created with the Municipal Art Society. Arching over the 80,000 square-foot Main Concourse, this extraordinary ceiling was painted from a design by French artist Paul Helleu. The blue-green and gold mural portrays the October to March zodiac and contains more than 2,500......

With construction set to begin yet again on the 2nd Avenue subway, the Times takes a look at the "subway car of tomorrow", the R11, which was built in anticipation of being used on the 2nd Avenue line once the line opened. As we all know, the line was never finished, so the ten cars with porthole window in the doors, were scattered to compatible trains around the system. The gleaming stainless steel cars, the......

Yesterday, Gothamist had the chance to visit the abandoned City Hall subway station as part of a New York City Transit Museum members only tour, led by subway historian Joe Cunningham. The original contract for the building of the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) Subway contained the following provision: “The railway and its equipment as contemplated by the contract constituted a great public work All parts of the structure where exposed to public sight shall......

Via Triborugh, the New York Public Library has this cool map showing the Brooklyn Bridge Station and City Hall loop. The station was first opened at the start of the Interborough Rapid Transit Line on October 27, 1904, but it closed in 1945 - there were big gaps between the platform and doors of newer and longer trains. Since the station wasn't used very much, the MTA decided that the Brooklyn Bridge station was......

A look at some noteworthy programs this week: iVillagelive (WNBC & Bravo, Monday, 12:00 noon) NBC launches this lifestyle show focused on women on Monday. What makes it different from other such shows is that it is going to have an interactive component, since it is a spin-off from the NBC-Universal owned website iVillage.com. The 2006 Billboard Music Awards (WNYW 5, Monday, 8:00 p.m.) Yet another music awards show. The only reason it is noteworthy......

The Triborough Bridge is 70 years old today. As the MTA puts it, the bridge is "actually three bridges, a viaduct, and 14 miles of approach roads connecting Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx." And traveling along it can provide some of the most beautiful views of the city -and the bridges themselves aren't bad. Today, the NY Times looks at the history of the bridge and its creator, Robert Moses. We liked this quote......

At the MTA board meeting, Chairman Peter Kalikow said there "probably" won't be a monthly Metrocard fare hike next year. But the "probably not" is contingent on the MTA having another surplus year, which could be possible, if they played their real estate cards right. The MTA has assumed fare increases for next year (and other years), and while Gothamist would hate an increase, we do understand that it might have to happen, what with......

- The Straphangers' Campaign's Gene Russianoff has a blog! - Forty-nine MTA workers were saluted for their “bravery and selfless acts in aiding those in need” and given medals from the NYC Transit president Larry Reuter. One subway worker rescued a woman who fell in the tracks, and bus driver Courtny Granston helped nab a thief: “I saw the cops pass me, and then I picked up this guy two blocks later,” Granston recalled.......

Ask.MeFi has been assembling an eclectic guide to "the best alternative/weird/unusual/eye-opening places in Manhattan." Most of the suggestions are actually located in the outer boroughs, but nevermind that. We've pulled out the highlights and linked everything for your browsing pleasure: Places Vinegar Hill Red Hook Prospect Park Pelham Bay Park Coney Island Chinatown High Line Manhattan Greenway Venues 5 Pointz Galapagos Arlene's Grocery ABC No Rio Bluestockings Sugartown Books Museums and Gardens Cloisters Brooklyn......

From Best Week Ever Blog, details on Tom Cruise's NYC trip next week for the premiere of Mission: Imossible 3. BWEB calls it's "shock and awe, up close and personal!" and it's no joke. Here's a map and how the afternoon and evening will work:2:30PM - Helicopter arrives at the North Cove Helipad (5 North End Avenue) 3-5PM - Screening of MI3 at 19 Rector Street 5PM - Speedboat from the South Cove (98 Battery......

Gothamist loves us some Quicktime VR action, so it was nice to stumble upon PBS's Hidden New York series. While some places aren't so hidden to us - like the Transit Museum and Coney Island - it's still a cool feature to kill some time with. Panoramas include Broad Channel, the World's Fair, the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, and Sailors' Snug Harbor. While we're on the subject of QTVR movies, there's also......

The Observer goes all crime blotter - yes, all the incidents seem to take place on the Upper East Side - today and lead with a stonecold crime. A woman got her handbag stuck in the doors of a 6 train (an out-of-towner - go figure!)Fortunately, there are people employed to push you onto the train and help you extricate your personal property in just such an emergency. Unfortunately, they work on the Ginza line......

Yesterday, we were admiring the NY Times' interactive map for a possible transit strike. It takes a Google map of New York City and information about HOV lanes, car pool pickups, and taxi zones Now, they've added another component: You can email your commuting story with your starting zip code and somehow they'll add it in. Go, go map fun! Gothamist wants to know your commuting stories - you can enter our "Most Inconvenient......

The word of the day: Contingency! As New York City approaches the zero hour for the MTA and the Transit Workers Union's current contract to expire (midnight), all New Yorkers want to do is contemplate what a Friday the Striketeenth would imply. Though the city released its 1980 transit-strike-inspired contingency plan yesterday, everyone is hoping that another last-minute agreement can be made, a la 2002. Last night, as we were reading tomorrow/today's NY Times transit......

The New York Transit Museum has been a staple of Elementary school trips for as long as Gothamist can remember, but in conversation with friends we find it rarely gets the love it deserves from the average New Yorker. Absurd, we say, since where else can you see (and enter) a hundred year old train? Look at every kind of token ever used in New York (oh tokens, those were days)? Not to mention stare......

The MTA revealed that the bulk of a new subway car order is damaged. French manufacturer Alstom was contracted to build 400 of 660 new subway cars for the BMT and IND subway lines, but a variety of problems will prevent the company from delivering a prototype train to the MTA this Friday. The NY Times detailed an MTA report that said two of the train car shells were damaged in shipping to a NY......

This is one of those stories that could have been terrible but luckily ended up all right: A 10 year-old boy was missing from his Bronx home for two days, worrying his family and the police. It turned out that Kingston Jamison decided to visit his uncle's house in Coney Island Friday afternoon. After hanging out with some friends, the Daily News says Jamison was "too afraid to come home when he knew he was......

To salute Fashion Week, the MTA is doing its bit with Fashion Underground: They have commissioned designers to create various accessories that are worth at least 500 subway rides, like the Lambertson Truex wallet with Metrocard holder and the Kenneth Cole boots with, yes, a "discreet" pocket for a Metrocard. Then there's Judith Ripka's Gotham Gold Necklace, which has a retail value of $9,700; the wonderful city rag pointed out the MTA's unfortunate-yet-funny pun that......

It turns out that the story of a token clerk beating a subway passenger might not be entirely true. Maimouna Saoidoh claimed that Gonslee Gordon assaulted her and someone stole her wallet during the assault. Now, police say that Saoidoh reported her wallet was stolen a full week ahead of the alleged beating. She has been charged with filing a false police report, while the investigation on the assault is still ongoing. In another unique......