Author: subwayblogger

7 Train riders are going to be the soberest riders in town

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7train.jpg

For the next 4 weekends, there isn’t going to be any 7 train service.  Work is being done to upgrade signal lights and what not.

Consequently, you might not see your 7 train friends at the bars for the next few weeks.  Yep, it’s going to be a pretty boring weekend.  Most likely, they’ll suck it up a least one weekend and get a cab.  Honestly though, how long can you keep that crap up?  Oh, and then there’s St. Patrick’s Day weekend.  No dice.

But hey, at least the MTA is willing to offer alternative transporation suggestions.  Oh yeah, oops.  Scratch that idea.

Local residents held a protest against the plans to continue work over the next few weekends.

Luckily, property costs are at an all time low.  Rent is cheap, and overhead involved in owning a business is virtually nonexistent.  Oohh swing and a miss again.  Restaurant and store owners don’t know what they are going to do with a dramatic drop in weekend sales. 

All around, it’s a crappy situation.

The Electronic Signs Work! More or less.

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Electronic Sign

(ok, so this isn’t one of the platform signs, but it is still really funny.)

So the New York Times went underground to do some of the hard-hitting investigative reporting that they are known for.  They sent a reporter, armed with a stop watch, into the subway system to ride the L trains and test the monitors.

Turns out, they were accurate!  The times reflected on the boards actually synched up with when the train arrived.  What a concept!

On this day, however, the signs worked like a charm. A stopwatch revealed that the trains came and went as predicted. It was almost unnerving.

Agreed.

However, since it is an MTA operation, there had to be a slight flaw.  To accompany the electronic boards, the system incorporates a prerecorded voice that announces the arrival times.  On this occasion, the announcements sounded like the techno remixed version. 

“The next train will arrive, will arrive, will arrive.”  But hey, at least something about them is working.  That’s more than can be said for the boards in the past.

Ummm…city condom ads are creepy. No?

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condomad.jpg

Am I the only one that’s a little creeped out by the NYC Condom ads?  You have to give them credit, because they are pretty bold and edgy for a government organization.  But they are still strange. 

They give off that perverted Uncle Bob vibe.  Like some old guy is trying to push condoms on you.  For some unknown reason, this conjures a mental image of Mayor Bloomberg saying “Here, have a rubber.  Get some!”

No. 7 Subway Line to be Shut Down for Weekend Work

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From the AP/MTA: 

A city councilman doesn’t like the shut-down of the Number Seven subway that will affect parts of Queens and Manhattan for the next five weekends. The Seven train will be out of service this holiday weekend between the 74th Street-Roosevelt Avenue stop in Queens and the Times Square stop in Manhattan. The shut-down will last from just after midnight Saturday until 5 a-m Tuesday. The shut-down will be repeated Saturdays through early Mondays for the following four weekends.

Passengers can take other subway lines or shuttle buses.

Councilman Eric Gioia says the shut-downs are hard on Queens residents who depend on the Seven line to get to work on weekends.

An M-T-A spokesman says the agency recognizes the inconvenience, but needs to do the work to keep the subway system reliable.

Broken doors

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Well, that was a first. I just arrived at the subway station and there was a train already at the platform. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it down the stairs in time to get on. However, the train was in the station for quite a while because of a stuck door.

The train motorman got out of the front of the train, and walked back to the car with the stuck door. He had to slide the door back and forth by hand to get it to catch the lock! 

You can always tell which doors are open or stuck by the little red lights above the doors on the inside or outside of the train.

They kept telling everyone to get their bags and coats away from the door. They thought people were blocking the doors. After 15 tries, it was clear they weren’t going to close correctly on their own.

But the motorman was able to kick the door’s ass, and made it work.

What was also odd was that he jumped off the front of the train onto the tracks, then climbed onto the platform. I guess there were too many people in the car to allow him to walk out the normal way.

Then he jumped off the platform, around to the front of the train, and climbed back up the front of the train again.

Live from the subway, back to you in studio… 

Walking to the subway is a bitch

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snowcabs.jpg

On snowy days like today, walking to the subway is a real pain in the ass.  Mostly, it is due the joy that is crossing over intersections.  Most look like this.  The slush in the streets gets up to your knees in some places.

The MTA also does a pretty crappy job of clearing the stairs.  The snow, slush, and ice builds up quickly, so people cling to the handrail to keep from breaking their asses.  Then you have to climb back up the slippery stairs to get out of the subway.

But once you’re there, the train is way better than trying to drive.  It’s even better than the busses. I saw two busses on the same block stuck in the street!  Once of them spun out its back tires causing it to fishtail into a sign pole.  Yikes.

Nothing Says Sexy Like a Free Subway Condom

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[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/U--D_-PqLpA" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Yes ladies and gentlemen, the NYC Subway condom has hit the streets.

The video here is really funny. Look around midway through for the old man with the cane that get’s handed the condom. He doesn’t know what to do with it so he hands it back!! hahah

In midtown today, you might have been offered one as you exited the subway. As you can see in the video above, people don’t really pay attention to what they are being offered. SUBWAYblogger knew right way what it was, and jumped all over it.

Interestingly, the city may have skirted the violation of the MTA’s circle logo trademarks. The MTA was upset that they were going to use the subway line logos (little colored circles) on the condom’s wrapper to make it look “city like.”

On the one SUBWAYblogger received this morning, there were subway looking circles that spell “NYC CONDOM.” However, the actual letters in the circles are not real subway lines. For example, the “C” in Condom is in a yellow circle, but the C subway line is actually blue. So maybe that’s how they got around that issue.

The New “T” Line (aka 2nd Ave Line)

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t.jpgOk East Siders, don’t get your panties in a twist. There isn’t really a subway running under 2nd Ave that you didn’t know about.

However, we guess this is the proposed line map. We have no idea if it is real or bogus. SubChat posted it earlier. It looks pretty legtit, but who knows.

By the looks of things, it will make getting to those dark, hole in the wall bars on the Lower East Side a little easier to get to! If only they extended it to connect with the 2/3 above Central Park North. Then you could make a whole loop.

Personally, SUBWAYblogger wishes there were a couple more cross town options. A shuttle like train under Central Park would be nice. Then maybe one a little more down town. That would be a great improvement.

Anyway, click the map to see the full size version, but don’t get your hopes up. The “T” isn’t expected until 2020.

So cool

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Newsflash. Playing your hiphop ringtones over and over on the train doesn’t make you cool or bad ass. It makes you look like an ignorant jackass.

I’ve seen it over and over. I guess I should say I’ve heard it over and over. It’s like they think they have a portable stereo with them.

They DJ their ringtones like they were mixing at a club. Then they rap along and bounce their heads. Meanwhile, grandma is plotting her esape plan.

Nothing against hip hop, but there’s a time and place for some songs. They hardcore, gangsta versions don’t belong in mixed comapny on a crowded subway.

“Uhhh…gonna fuckin’ kill the bitch…yeeeeah,” shouldn’t be forced upon anyone this early in the morning.

Live from the subway, back to you in studio…