Category: Live Blogging On the Subway

Snow and Deja Vu

subwayblogger10 Comments

So apparently today’s snow was the most snow the city has seen in two years. For some reason, that makes it sound like some massive amount of snow…as if it were a blizzard or something.

The truth is we just haven’t had much snow at all in the last few years. This year has been a joke. Anyway, in celebration of the snowfall, the MTA has suspended track work for the weekend.

In other news, I had a very odd thing happen to me today. I rode the exact same train, exact same car both to and from work today.

Just by chance, I noticed a Dr. Zizmor ad on the subway that had been defaced to say Dr. Douchebag. It stuck in my head because it gave me a little chuckle. Honestly, who goes to a doctor that advertises on the subway? That’s a top 10 trashy thing to do. If you need more details, this clown has a Wikipedia entry. I’m not linking to it because you can find it on your own.

Anyway, this afternoon, I got on the train to go home, and saw the exact same Dr. Douchebag ad! I was on the same train, same car, and standing in the exact same place as this morning.

That’s never happened to me before, at least that I’ve noticed.

Free Hats and Gloves

subwayblogger1 Comment

Did people leave their homes and offices in a panic today?

I saw no less than 2 hats and 3 different gloves on the sidewalks and subway stairs today. People were clearly fishing around for things in their pockets and bags not realizing they were dropping them.

Why couldn’t it be $100 bills instead?

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Worst Tourists Award

subwayblogger13 Comments

Let’s just get right to it. Do the French tourists win this game? Is it even a contest? I think so.

In my book, the French tourists are the most obnoxious touristists in town. I can’t even think of another group that even comes close.

I say this as I stand near a group of French students who have essentially qtaken over the subway platform. Just their arrogant presence is enough to win them the crown for most obnoxious tourists.

Really, there’s no other group I can think of that comes close.

Asian tourists can be a little annoying, but overall, they are fine. Sure, when they travel in groups, the girls especially, the giddy volume level can get a little high. But it’s all very innocent.

Even southern tourists aren’t too bad. Annoying and a little slow, yes, but that can mostly be attributed to the inbreeding. So I don’t hold it against them.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Weathermen Scare Off Subway Riders

subwayblogger2 Comments

Well, it seems that the meteorologists have scared off commuters this morning.

Not quite sure why. All you had to do was look out your window to see the massive “swing and a miss” they pulled last night.

I don’t even think it got below 40 degrees!

Anyway, there seems to be very few people on the train this morning. Only about a half of what there normally would be.

I must be missing something. Surely, they can’t all be home with their kids because school wasn’t canceled. Could it be that most of the tourists stayed home? Maybe people who planned to go shopping decided to put it off another day.

Hell, I even did laundry yesterday so I wouldn’t have to go out in “the mess” today.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Yet Again, 1 Train Makes Me Want to Kill Kittens

subwayblogger7 Comments

So the trend of late for the 1 Train is to do construction or service work in the middle of the damn day.  No no, not on the platforms…on the tracks.

From 10:30 to 3:00 on weekdays, there’s no service on certain sections of the tracks on the Upper West Side.

Lately, I’ve been working on a project at Columbia, so I’m riding up there often.  I usually get up there before 10:30a and leave after 3p.  So I’ve never really noticed the service changes.  Not today though.

I wrapped up my meetings at 11a today, and started to head downtown.  Get to the platform, and there was the hot pink tape.  Blocking the stairs to the platforms.

Now, wouldn’t you expect to see the tape before you walked through the turnstile?  Yeah, me too.  I have an unlimited card so it doesn’t matter, but I would be pissed if I had a pay per ride, and had to go get a refund.

Written there in sharpie marker on white paper was a note from the token booth attendant telling me to walk alllll the way down to 96th Street.  Wonderful.

At least it was something like 75 degrees out today.  If it had been freezing cold or raining, this rant may never have ended.

The 1 Train Sucks Lately

subwayblogger9 Comments

Ok, so the 1 Train has totally sucked for….oooohhh…at least the last week.

Takes forever to come at the peak of rush hour.  The person in charge of the line, or in charge of the dispatch tower must be on vacation this week.  There must be a substitute in there.  Why?

They’ve been using the “skip ahead to other stations” trick way too often.  You know the drill…

You wait on the platform for at least 20 minutes or more.  The over crowded train finally pulls in, and you knock over a few old ladies to get on the train.  Meanwhile, 80% of the people waiting on the platform definitely did not make it onto this train, so you are even more thankful that you made it.

The train pulls away.  It is packed so tight that you don’t even need to old on.  You’re surrounded by puffy, down coats.  If only there weren’t that subtle odor.

You arrive at the first stop since you got on board only to have the “English as a Second Language” door operator try to tell everyone that this local train is about to start running express.  First of all, I’m not that sure they know how to use the intercom.  It’s almost like having your grandmother talk into the wrong end of the phone.  There’s a voice in there, but something just isn’t right.

Then, what you do hear is some sort of randomly organized words.  But you do manage to detect the words “express” “nest stop” “one two five street”…not necessarily in that order.

I’m sure I’m not alone here.

Ringing in the New Year in Times Square

subwayblogger6 Comments

It wasn’t that bad. Seriously. It was actually pretty cool, but then again, I didn’t have the typical experience that most revelers have.

I was actually working in Times Square. That night, more than ever, the value of the press pass became all the more apparent to me. I could walk around wherever I wanted inside the police lines.

So I got to see a lot of cool things right up close.

However, no press pass gets you through the sea of people all trying to leave Times Square at 12:01am.

I was shocked by how quickly the area clears out. I talked to a cop nearby about this, and he let me in on a little secret…

They turn off cellphone towers in the area for about 10 minutes before and after midnight. Why? One reason is to prevent terrorists from detonating a cellphone triggered bomb at midnight. The other is to discourrage people form lingering in the area after midnight.

What happens is people stand around and call their friends to make plans for the rest of the night. By turning off service, people natually start to wander out of the area because they can’t contact their buddies on the other side of town. They just go.

Pretty interesting, but I bet you won’t hear that one getting mentioned by the NYPD publicly.

Written and published via Blackberry.

Light Holiday Shopping Rush?

subwaybloggerLeave a comment

shoppingbags.jpg

Well it is usually this time of the year that I run out of Christmas cheer.  It’s about this time that I am ready to kill people on the subway.

Most of it has to do with obnoxious tourists and their 25 shopping bags cramming into the train cars.

See if you can relate to this scenario.  There you are going to or coming from work.  You have on dress pants or a skirt.  Most dress pants tend to be a somewhat thin, light weight material.  Here comes a 50 something woman with 10 shopping bags in each hand.  As she tries to scoot by you on the train, the sharp corners from her designer shopping bags scratch and scrape your legs.

I’ve actually had a person put a small hole in my pants like this ones.  Soooooooo pissed.  Even more pissed because I didn’t notice the whole until someone pointed it out when I got to the office. And I know it was from this woman on the train because the there was a red scratch on my skin right where the hole was in the fabric.

Anyway, the major rush seems to have already ended.  I’m not seeing as many shoppers on the trains this week as I’ve seen in years past.  The trains are no more crowded than normal it seems.

I did speak to a vendor at the Bryant Park holiday bazaar, and he said it is much slower than last year.  It is much colder this year than it was the previous year.  As a matter of fact, it was pretty warm for December last year, so it brought out tons of people.

Any other mass transit holiday nightmares you would like to share?

Transporting the New Year’s Eve 8 on the Subway

subwaybloggerLeave a comment

Apparently, there were budget cuts in the Times Square signage office.  They were unable to afford shipping fees for the “8” in 2008.

So, a crew of guys carried the 500 pound 8 onto the subway from the Bronx all the way to Times Square.  They took the 6 and R trains to get there.

Judging by the photos, I’m fairly sure they were blocking the doors with the 8. They also had to hold the doors in order to get the thing loaded up in time.  I’m also pretty sure it violates the policy of carrying large items like that onto the subway.  Wonder how many summons they received.  🙂

The other thing that makes me laugh about the photos is that the other passengers don’t even pay attention to the fact that there is a 7 foot number 8 on the train with them.

Wonder if they will take next year’s “9” for a ride.  Did you know that the 9 is actually the 6 from 2006?   They just flip the 6 upside-down to make the 9.  I’m not even kidding, it’s completely true.

Did anyone see it?  Or ever see anything like this before?

Good Grades for the S Train

subwayblogger2 Comments

Ummm…why is everyone so impressed with the good grades the S train received in the Rider’s Reportcard?

How hard could it possibly be to run a train that has only one stop?  If you can’t manage to do that well, you need to find a new line of work.  It’s no shock to us that the S train was rated well.

You just get on it.  Stand for 30 second, and get off.  Then it heads back in the other direction.  Not rocket science.