The Daily News goes above and beyond the subway shooting reporting of late to deliver what's really important about the subway: Are express trains really faster than locals? In the case of a 4 train versus a 6, from 86th Street to City Hall one morning, two Daily News reporters racing each other found the 6 "won by seven minutes - even though it had to make 14 more stops." One commuter who takes the 4 train said on a good day, the 4 takes 15 minutes, and on a bad, 45 minutes. All hell, that's an MTA scandal brewing right there in Gothamist's books, but apparently there was a slow-speed delay south of Union Square. More likely another crazy incident. To see the details of the Daily News subway race, click on the image at right.
Gothamist often takes the trains at West 72nd Street, where there are the local 1/9 and express 2/3. When we wait on the platform, in the stifling heat, watching with horror as more and more people join us, wearing, thumbing through their free amNew York or Metro papers (that is one beauty of the free papers and shillers - more New Yorkers are reading!), we wonder if we'll take the local, should it come first, or the express, because then less getting-and-off of people. But do we want to wait in the sweltering subterranean heat or just get on an air-conditioned train? Playing the trains is the ultimate New York City game.
