Back Off

Can I just say that the women who leap over people to dive on an open seat need to freaking relax. I mean seriously.

Ok here’s the profile of the people I generally speak of:

Female
18-34 Years Old
Usually White
Skinny
iPod Wearing
Attitude

The skinny aspect is critical to the scenario because these women jump at even the smallest seat. There could be a sliver of seat showing between two fairly large people, and these women will knock people over to get it.

Anyway, I generally don’t sit. I stand for the whole ride unless it happens to be a really slow transit day. Even when I am literally standing in front of an open seat, and I wont take it because there’s going to be someone that either needs it more or wants it more than me. So I generally move out of the way.

So if you want the empty seat in front of me, all you gotta do is ask me to move so you can get by me. There’s no need to duck under my arm and slam me in the ribs with your hug purse.

Side note, when the shit you are carrying is bigger than your lap, you can’t hold it on your lap or attempt to navigate a crowded train. Just stand where you’re at, and don’t move. Above all else, don’t get pissed when people bump into you because you have a 50 cubic foot purse.

Jumper DOA at 49th Street on the N Train

There are reports this morning that there was a person under a train that was dead on arrival at the 49th Street stop on the N train.

SUBYWAYblogger reader Melody brought this to our attention, and then we were able to confirm it on the police scanner logs.

Melody was on the train that allegedly struck the person. However, she was unable to find any info about it in the main stream media or blogs. Again, for those that do not know, the main stream media rarely reports suicides. This is because reporting them often causes more suicides. People of an unstable nature, who might be considering killing themselves, often will become more likely to do so if they think it will get media attention. Often, the suicide is a cry for attention in the first place.

However, according to Melody’s report, there were other witnesses who said the guy was very drunk and just fell on to the tracks as the train was coming. So it might not have been a purposeful suicide in the first place. Might have just been a drunk guy who fell.

Without doing a Freedom of Information Act search in a few weeks, we may never know what really happened.

UPDATE: Here’s what one witness claims to have seen.

We approached the station, and as we pulled in we felt a premature thud/jerk with the brakes kicking in immediately. The conductor said the emergency brakes had been activated and that they were “investigating.” 20 minutes later we attempt to leave the station again, but we only moved about 3-5 feet before the emergency brakes kick in yet again.

At that point we were evacuated from the train, and were waiting on the platform for further instruction, when we hear sirens. A bunch of cops showed up, then someone came in with one of those orange medi-boards, and the cops immediately kicked everyone out saying, “This station is closed!!!”

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MTA Doesn’t Like Sticky Stuff

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So apparently, the engineers at the MTA have been trying to wrap their heads around an enormously pressing issue.

Yes folks, the issue we speak of is (cue drum-roll): Gum on the floors.

Apparently, concrete is much harder to clean than granite tile.  However, concrete is much less expensive to install.  According to WCBS, a concrete train station runs about $400k.  Granite tile stations are well over $1 million.

So we are left with a major dilemma.  Floors that are cheap, but a bitch to clean, or expensive and easy to clean.

Either way, the floors are dirty as shit.

Holy Construction

Wow was there a lot of construction on the tracks this weekend!

Saturday, I thought I would run out to do some shopping.  I needed some new clothes and shoes, so I thought I’d head down to the Herald Square area to cruise the stores.

An hour later, I finally made it.  Normally, that trip would have been about 20 minutes or so.  Not this time.

I was excited because the train came almost right away.  Jumped on, and we pulled about 100 yards out of the station, and stopped.  Waiting.  Waiting.  Still waiting.

If that bitch on the intercom said “Please be patient” one more time…

So then we got to the next station.  Doors open and we wait.  Waiting.  Waiting.  Then we pull out, only this time we were moving about 10 feet a minute.

This was the entire trips worth.  It wasn’t even like I had the option to get off and transfer to a different train. Trust me, if that had been an option, I would have done it.

In all seriousness, I could have made it from the UWS Mid 80’s to 34th Street in half the time this train took.

The track gangs were everywhere.  One can only hope that they made  huge amount of progress in this one shot.  They were there overnight too.  That’s understandable, but you don’t see it in the middle of the day like that.

When it rains, it pours

Has there been an insane amount of transit failures this week, or is it me?

There was Tuesday’s insanity, with what was first reported as a train derailment.  Turns out to have been a fairly massive mechanical failure.

Then, there was today’s crap on the 1, 2, and 3 line.  Still don’t know what the hell that was all about.  What I do know is that I am $20 lighter today thanks to the gypsy cab I had to take.  (Of course, everyone was looking for a cab.)

Oh and let’s not forget the suicide jumper we had in the middle of the day today, that was special.

It’s a roll of the dice every morning.