A Little Subway Terrorist Chear for the Holidays

November 26, 2008 subwayblogger4 Comments

Here’s disturbing blurb from the AP I came across today:

Federal authorities are warning law enforcement personnel of a possible terror plot against the New York City subway system during the holiday season.

An internal memo obtained by The Associated Press says the FBI has received a “plausible but unsubstantiated” report that al-Qaida terrorists in late September may have discussed attacking the subway system.

Anti-terror agencies say they have no specific details to confirm the plot has moved “beyond aspirational planning,” but are issuing the alert out of concern that an attack could come during the holiday season,” warns the memo, which is dated Tuesday.

While federal agencies often issue all sorts of advisory warnings, the language of this one is particularly forceful.

Goooood times. So in addition to battling the tourists on 5th Avenue, and trying not to kill yourself inside Toys R Us, you now have to work about getting blown up on the subway.

I have to say, I did not notice any additional security in the subway system today.

Would now be a good time for the terrorists to attack? Probably. The subway will be at it’s peak volume all December long.

Then there’s the Presidential transition. Bush already has one foot out the door. He’s in no position to be able to make long term decisions appropriately because he won’t have to deal with the consequences. All he will have to do is make it through the following couple weeks and then it’s Obama’s problem to deal with. It’s probably the time that the country will be weakest.

Ho ho ho.

Wish I could take the subway up state

November 26, 2008 subwayblogger3 Comments

So tonight I had to go rent a car for Thanksgiving travel. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that every garage in my neighborhood was going to be filled to capacity.

Where the hell did all these cars come from? There’s no room in the garages, and there’s no room to park on the streets. I drove around for an hour before I found a space. It’s insane.

Makes me glad I don’t actually own a car in the city. I don’t know what I would do if I had to deal with this crap everyday.

Now if only we could get the subway to run up state, I’d be in much better shape. Instead, I’ll be battling the girdlock alert day.

I did see bleachers set up along the parade route already. They have a bunch right outside my work subway entrance.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Deal Drugs on the Subway?

November 24, 2008 subwayblogger8 Comments

Or at least discuss strategies. Yikes.

There’s two fairly large, old men that ride the subway every morning. I see them at least a couple times a month together. They’re already on the train when I get on, so they must live further uptown.

They have really distinct old-man gravely voices, and are quite round in the middle. They usually sit across from each other on the train and chat about old men issues.

Today, I was close enough to be able to understand what they were talking about.

Turns out, they are old men drug dealers. Good to know that age is just a number.

One was talking about a client that wants more than he’s able to get. They were talking about it in a somewhat cryptic way, but you knew what they were talking about.

“He keeps asking for four, but i can’t get him that many.”

“Why not? I thought you got six when you go up there.”

“Yeah.”

“So you keep the rest for personal use.”

“Yeah, and my guy won’t sell me more than that.”

“How much you sellin’ for? $15?”

“Uh huh.”

“So here’s what you do, you tell him you can get six but you’re gonna have to make two trips. When you come back, say you could only get three. Then when he makes a fuss about it, tell him you have a fourth, but that’s it.”

“I don’t know.”

“Or you sell him three today, and three tomorrow. Then you still have six left over for the next time.”

So it was a meeting of the minds to say the least. They then got into a discussion about people buying on credit and not paying up. Good times.

iPhone & iTouch Subway Applications

November 21, 2008 subwayblogger4 Comments

Here’s a pretty comprehensive list of iPhone & iTouch applications for subway riders. They include NYC subway maps, directions, tips, and MTA information. They all have their pluses, and are really cheap.

These are apps that you will find yourself using on a pretty regular basis, especially if you spend a lot of time traveling around New York City.

These links will open up iTunes on your computer automatically. From within iTunes, you can see what the apps look like, and see all their features.

Now when you’re out in the Village on the weekend, you can easily navigate your way back home!

Tube New York is a superb interactive guide to New York’s Subway, Path, Staten Island railway & Air Train services along with an informative central New York street map.

With no need for a Internet connection Tube will display a clear scrollable detailed map of these transport systems uniquely overlaid onto an informative central New York street map.

Tube can calculate the quickest routes for all your journeys on these public transport systems and show a fantastic animated display of your route on the map.

Full details of your routes are provided including line changes, platform directions, direction of travel, number of stops and accurate journey times. The New York subway services change dependent on time of day and the user can select from 6 different schedules (Rush AM, Midday, Rush PM, Evening, Night and Weekend).

When an Internet connection is available “Live Information” on the current state of the transport systems can be viewed (and automatically saved for future reference) allowing you to plan your journeys in advance and avoid any potential delays.

Quick station search and station information such as disabled access and fare zones are just a few taps away.

A wealth of other information on places of interest, hotels & restaurants, museums & galleries, entertainment etc is also provided along with details on the nearest stations and the quickest route to get there.

With the iPhone’s inbuilt GPS system you can find your position on the central New York street map and easily locate the nearest station or place of interest. A must have for anyone traveling in New York.

$9.99

The Kick Map is designed is to get more people to ride New York City’s subway system. Created with clarity and ease of use, it allows riders to navigate this vast system easily and without uncertainty. The subway map is the key to understanding this most complex subway in the world, which has 26 separate lines and 468 stations.

A well-designed map not only welcomes and empowers novices to use the subway but also encourages additional use for regular “home-to-work-only” commuters to use the subway for recreational destinations where they might otherwise take a car. For this reason the design of the subway map can directly influence ridership numbers and can indirectly have an effect on New York’s traffic congestion and pollution. In short, a better-designed subway map will make our subway system more open and accessible.

$1.99

The iPhone game Subway Shuffle is a collection of puzzles set in a subway system. You have boarded a car on the Red Line, and your task is to reach your destination. The problem is, there are other subway cars in your way! Each subway car can move only on its own color line: the red cars on the Red Line, the blue cars on the Blue Line, etc. Can you shuffle the cars from station to station, eventually moving your own car to your exit station?

Subway Shuffle comes with 70 different layouts, of increasing difficulty. The early levels are fairly easy. They help you learn the techniques you will need to solve the later levels — which, though simple looking, are surprisingly challenging.

$2.99

iTrans NYC Subway – Tell us From and To, and we’ll get you there.
Using a sophisticated algorithm, iTrans finds the fastest route between any two stations taking the current schedules into account, then guides you step by step. It even works when you’re offline underground.

Search – Find any station with a few taps.
Search is easy and instantaneous. iTrans shows you the lines that service each station, as well as the borough the station is in (New York City only). Select a station and iTrans scrolls right to it on the map.

Schedules – Tap on a station to see the next trains.
If you tap on a station, the Stop Info Pane shows the next departures for each line. Leave the office at just the right time to catch your train, or see which lines are running right now.

Maps – Beautiful offline high-res maps
Scroll around the interactive system map in stunning high resolution. Pinch or double tap to quickly zoom in or out—graphics are always sharp. It’s by far the best way to view the system map on iPhone.
Maps and Location Integration.

Go to a station in Maps; find nearest stations.
Tap “Show in Google Maps” to go directly to that station in Maps; it’s great for getting from your final stop to the destination. iTrans also has a Location button; it’ll find the nearest stop and scroll to it on the map.

Advisories
Info about delays and service changes.

$4.99

CityTransit is a comprehensive guide to traveling through New York City. It includes official subway maps licensed from NYC’s MTA, line data, a GPS-based station finder and live service advisories. An expandable architecture will allow the future download of bus maps, commuter rail lines and more.

-Integrates with the Maps Application to show nearest stations
-Live service advisories from the MTA website

$2.99

NYC Subway Maps – You ride the subway and want to be able to check a map from time to time. Being able to check the MTA website on your iPhone/iPod Touch is great, but if you are already underground with no signal you are out of luck.

Mapped New York’s underground with original illustrations, and many users feel they are easier to ready than the MTA’s own.

$2.99

Subway Mariachi Band

November 21, 2008 subwayblogger5 Comments

The music is good and everything, but I’d tip them more if they were handing out margaritas. I’m just saying.

If those kids can sell candy bars for their “basketball team,” these guys should be able to shake one up on the rocks for me.

NYC Subway Maps

November 20, 2008 subwayblogger3 Comments

We thought it would be useful to put together a list of the best NYC Subway maps available on the Internet and beyond. If you have any to add to the list, please post a link in the comments, and we’ll add it to the main body of the post.

Since our last post about NYC Subway maps (back in 2006), there’s been a lot of new ones, and some improvements to the old ones.

Gypsy Maps – A Google Maps mashup of the subway lines. Nicely color coded and information about each station.
On NY Turf – Similar to Gypsy Maps, but is actually the original Google Map mashup. Also includes the PATH trains. Available in many languages because the people that need the maps most are often from outside the US.
MTA Trip Planner – The MTA finally got off their butts and put together a route planner. They also teamed up with Google to get it done. They also offer a widget for you to put the planner on your own website.
Public Routes – A Hop Stop like site that offers routes and maps for transit systems all over the country, including NYC.
Hop Stop – One of the more commercialized subway and transit mapping systems on the web. Put in your location and destination, and Hop Stop gives you the detailed directions of how to get their including subways, buses, and good old walking.
iPhone Map – One of a couple iPhone subway maps. This is one of the better ones, and it is free.
iSubway – Another iPhone subway maps. A bit more simple. Just an image you can download and save to your phone.
DadNab – An SMS based subway direction service. Text your location and destination to get directions txt to your phone.
Trips123 – Subway and transit maps from around the country, including NYC. Also has up to date information about on going construction and incidents for each subway line.

Do you have one to add to the list? Let us know!

Peace Out W and Z Lines

November 18, 2008 subwayblogger5 Comments

Due to a complete cluster f*ck of the MTA financial systems, the Daily News reports that the MTA has drawn up plans to shut down the W and Z lines as well as turn the J into a local train.

These plans are not official, but they seem like they’ll have to be put into place.

Additionally, as many as 1,500 jobs could be cut, overnight waiting times up to 30 minutes, and a fare hike making a single ride $3.00 seems to be right around the corner.

Here lies the problem. The MTA is a bureaucracy controlled by the State up in Albany that really only impacts the lives of people in New York City. (Yes, I know the MTA runs services in the burbs such as buses, etc. But I’m concentrating in the bulk of the issues which are here in the city.)

So there really isn’t enough outrage on behalf of the citizens of New York. For example, people living in Utica, NY could give a crap if the subway runs on time, or if the W and Z lines continue to be around. So they aren’t going to say anything. Actually, they’re probably against financial support of the MTA because it has nothing do do with them really.

Mark my words, major sh*t is about to go down.

Fat Woman Hissy Fit

November 17, 2008 subwayblogger13 Comments

So a fat woman and a gay guy walk into a bar. (Just kidding)

Instead, a skinny gay guy sits down next to a biiiiiiig hunk of woman on the subway. She’s easily a seat-and-a-halfer. Her thighs are just spilling over into the seat next to her.

She was all the way at the end of the row, so her other side was oozing out under the bar into the doorway. I’m not even kidding when I say that people had to be careful walking through the door on that side. One guy’s leg rubbed up against her and scared the crap out of him. It startled him as he got off the train.

Anyway, big momma is reading the paper. The New York Times I believe, surprisingly not the Food section.

So skinny gay guy is just minding his own business. He’s a little squished in his seat, but doesn’t seem to mind. He’s reading a book and listening to an iPod.

Then, big momma goes to turn the page. She nearly smacks him in the face. She’s so round, she can hardly get her hands around in front of her. The bottom of the paper keeps getting hung up on her breasts as she tries to fold the page back. So with each page turn, she’s flapping her flippers arms out and getting all in the gay guy’s business.

To his credit, he didn’t say anything the first two times she did it. He just made a face and rolled his eyes. People around us were smiling, trying not to laugh because she made a big deal about every turn of the page.

On the third turn, she bumped his book. The pages of her newspaper were covering his book as she was turning the page.

Finally, he had enough. Read More »

Demand Action on MTA Budget Failures

November 17, 2008 subwayblogger4 Comments

Please excuse this brief public service announcement. It’s time the MTA officials get off their asses and solve the MTA budget crisis. It has been sitting around not getting fixed for way too long.

Your readers have already read all about MTA’s budget meltdown and the possibility of drastic fare hikes accompanied by severe cuts to bus and train service. But have they heard what they can do about it?

On November 19th, the Campaign for New York’s Future is organizing Keep New York Moving Day. We’ll have volunteers at subway stations throughout the city, asking commuters to sign giant postcards to local leaders, telling them that now’s the time to invest in transit.

We need your help getting everyone’s attention, so our decision makers take action and save New York from our transportation crisis. Unless our leaders take immediate action, the MTA’s severe budget shortfall could soon lead to fewer trains, cuts to bus service, and double-digit fare hikes.

You and your readers can click here to find out what they can do to help Keep New York Moving and send a message urging our leaders to take action at www.keepnewyorkmoving.org. We’ll deliver the signatures on November 20th, when the MTA is holding a decisive meeting about the transit system’s desperate financial crisis.

Please feel free to also write with any questions or concerns,

Matt Derby,

On behalf of The Campaign for New York’s Future

Signage to Promote Express Metrocards

November 13, 2008 subwayblogger3 Comments

Did anyone else see signs, literally put up on easels, at your subway station advertising the new EasyPay Express Metrocards?

At Columbus Circle, they had a bunch of them printed up and set up at the main entrance.

In case you don’t know already, the MTA has set up a Metrocard that automatically refills itself when the balance gets low. It’s kind of like an EasyPass for your car. Once your MetroCard balance gets down to $30, it will aautomatically refill itself with $40 more.

For the pay-as-you-go crowd, this is probably a great idea. It will certainly save you time, and you’ll never really have to worry about refilling your card again. I only wish they did the same thing for the monthly unlimited cards. They should have one that automatically renews itself each month.

Anyway, this is the first time I’ve seen the MTA set up these little sign boards to promote a new program. Wonder if it will make a difference.

SUBWAYblogger

Month: November 2008