Late last night, SUBWAYblogger received some good contibutions from other bloggers and transit writters. Scroll down to check them out.

You can submit your subway tale by sending a note to submit (at) subwayblogger.com.

Anyway, Todd from BlogNameRemoved told us about riding the new subway trains on the N line. He was not the first one to tell SUBWAYblogger that the new trains are really nice.

Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to ride the newest of the new just yet. However, they are apparently very similar to the new trains on the 2 and 6 lines. They also have a slightly better “ride,” automated info boards, and automated voice announcements.

Hopefully, all the trains will be upgraded before the flying car is invented.

Live from the subway, back to you in studio…

So do they only make coats in black or dark navy these days?

Ok so I am standing on this train in a sea of black/navy. From my vantage point, there is one person not wearing black/navy. Just one.

NYC fashion my ass. Apparently, staphangers didn’t get the memo. It’s just wall to wall people in black coats.

I mean it’s mostly dark coats all the time in NYC. However, this time it really stuck out. I though I was in some sort of prank on this train surrounded by business men in long, dark coats.

This is a packed tight train, and only one light colored coat! Yikes. No wonder suicides increase in the winter. How depressing.

Live from the subway, back to you in studio…

Did you know that today is “Blue Monday?” Today is the most depressing day of the year according to a team of British researchers. So hey, it can only get better from here.

On that note, wow is it crowded today. Lots of extra people on board this morning. I wonder if the colleges get back in session this week. That could explain some of the extra people.

Believe it or not, I think the system has finally returned to its normal usage level. The last two months were all out of whack due to the holidays. Now it seems more like it usually is. So I guess it really isn’t that “extra” crowded…it’s “normal” crowded.

Live from the subway, back to you in studio…

Headphones for your iPod are getting a bit out of control in terms of size and price.

The subway and iPods go hand in hand. So if there’s a new case, headphone, or other accessories on the market, it will only take a few seconds before you start seeing it on the subway.

So looking around, there’s a whole variety of headphones in use. There’s the standard white earbud that come with every new device. (Oh by the way, the new stock iPod earbuds are really shitty. They are actually lower quality than the previous generation.). Then there’s the upgrades.

Have you been to the Apple store lately? They are selling earbud style headphones for $150.00!! That’s insane. Oh wait…these are insane.  $499.00 for earbud headphones?  Get the f**k outta here!  Sure, they are sound isolating, but 500 bucks?

Folks, in that size headphone, there’s nothing that makes them worth more than $50 tops. The sound quality is just about the same because the device that actually produces the sound is the same diameter. They might be better quality parts, but you are not going to notice a major improvement in sound quality.

If you want better sound, you need to go for the over ear type that have a larger surface are.

What’s always strange to me is when people wear huge, studio size headphones on the subway. If your cans are bigger than your iPod, aren’t you defeating the purpose of portability?

Live from the subway, back to you in studio…

Is that snow? No. Oh wait…yes it is. Where’d it go?

If you were saying that to yourself today, you weren’t alone. On my way to the subway, people were all kinds of confused. Some had umbrellas but it wasn’t really raining.

Looks like it might be slowing service a bit. The first bit of snow can make the weather exposed tracks really slick. So it seems like a lot of the trains aren’t running full speed tonight.

Live from the subway, back to you in studio…

“He’ll use his nose.”

That’s the slogan from the MTA Police in their latest See something, Say something campaign. It’s actually not even a new campaign.

Anyway, the dog on the poster ad bothers be. He just sits and stares at you while you ride. The dog is a police dog who appears to be working his “beat” in the subway.

The whole “see something” campaign is a good concept, but is it really working? A terrorist’s goal is to make sure no one sees anything before the big boom. So what’s the point?

The next terrorist is just going to look like a guy in a business suit or a woman a grocery bag. We see that everywhere, so should we say something?

Just a thought. A little less cash could be spent on dog posters.

Live from the subway, back to you in studio…

When was the last time you actually paid attention to the ads posted all over the subway? When was the last time you made a purchase choice based on one of these ads?

If you said rarely and never, then you are just like many other subway riders. The fact is, transit advertising is expensive and does not yeild much direct response.

SUBWAYblogger must admit that the Bodies Exhibit signs did make us go check it out this summer. Otherwise, we generally ignore them.

Anyway, a lot of the ads are pretty funny…not in an intentional way. Seriously, who looks at a poster on the subway and says THAT is the college I want to attend. Sorry Interboro.

The SubChat signs crack us up too. Honestly, just give up the space SubChat and make the MTA a few extra bucks.

Right now, there’s a Save Darfur campaign out. It’s hella depressing. Kinda a downer for the ride home, but I guess there’s no upside to genocide.

Then there’s this School of Visual Arts ad. Guess what? The ad looks like crap! Who designed this thing? Yeah, let’s make an ad for art school that has no trace of artistic quality. Nice.

Take a look around once in a while. You’d be shocked at what you see.

Live from the subway, back to you in studio…

SUBWAYblogger read in the New York Times this weekend that many employers don’t recognize Martin Luther King Jr. day as a company holiday. So few in fact that the city transit system runs on a normal schedule.

Yesterday, both commutes looked just like normal days. You wouldn’t have known at all that yesterday was a federal holiday.

What’s sad is that there’s a more noticable drop in ridership on Jewish holidays than MLK Day! Not that the Jewish holidays are any less significant, but they aren’t recognized federal holidays.

Live from the subway, back to you in studio…

It always amazes me how fast old ladies move to get a seat on the subway. Some of these old bags really move! They will dive across people just about if they see just the slightest bit of room on the bench.

These old ladies will knock down other old ladies…even children!

They always look so innocent. Awww, here comes grandma with her earmuffs on in July. Then out of no where, they are plowing their way through the crowded train.

The looks on the faces of people that find themselves in the path of grandma-danger are priceless. It’s like holy hell lady, where’s the fire?

Live from the subway, back to you in studio…