New Yorkers were unsure if the strange land of myth and wonder supposedly known as “Williamsburg” would be cast away and shut off from Manhattan intermittently for three years or absolutely for a year and a half. The latter is now true.
The L train, connecting Manhattan with Brooklyn’s hip neighborhoods of Bushwick and Canarsie, carries 225,000 people on an average weekday. At some point in the next few years, it’ll have to be completely shut down for repairs. It’s in a dangerously bad state. Here’s why, and how it’ll be fixed.
If you’ve ever spent any amount of time in Washington D.C. , you will likely have learned two things: one, there’s great Ethiopian food, and two, the city is irrevocably fucked. It’s about to get more than usual tomorrow, as the entire Metrorail system—all of it—will shut down the entire day.
We’ve all considered a classic “TEAM USA” tattoo above the eyebrows. What better way to advertise your allegiance? Makes it hard to get away with crimes though. Speaking of which, if you see this particularly patriotic face the NYPD would like to hear from you.
A train on Boston’s Red Line apparently left a station without an operator, the MBTA announced in a statement this morning. Hm. That’s not great.
As the world continues to grow, transportation infrastructure and country-country travel are forced to rapidly improve. But what’s at the top of the game?
Any time I get to ride a 1960s-era Budd R32 subway car here in New York I am reminded that I get to use one of the modern world’s most antiquated transportation systems. What about what the shiny clean future-is-now that other people use?
It’s not just the trains that are decrepit in the New York City subway system, it’s the stations as well. But everything is surely fixable, right? Well, a new report from the Citizens Budget Commission, a non-partisan non-profit, says that really, it is totally fixable. Though at current repair rates, it will take 52…
And we’re not just talking about you, the riders. The New York City subway is full of literal, actual garbage, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is doing a garbage job of cleaning it up.
We’ve already told you how bad the New York City subway is, but apparently the system itself is doubling down on how bad it can truly be. Because U2, yes that U2, the band that only old marketing executives think The Kids Like These Days, just played a set in the subway.
A beautifully preserved 1830s steam train is thought to be lurking under a busy thoroughfare in one of the posher parts of Brooklyn. But in 1861, it was sealed up, seemingly for eternity. Everything was set to excavate it just a few years back, until petty personal politics seem to have destroyed any chance of that.
It’s not all in your head. You aren’t going crazy. Each day, as you stand there desperately clinging to a greasy pole, just trying to get to work, and you encounter yet another delay, you can tell yourself that it really is happening. The New York City subway is getting worse. The numbers prove it.
I have a slight fondness for NYC's oldest subway cars, the rickety Budd R32s that trundle along the city's C line. They started operation in 1964 and are still in service.
Just when you hate, I mean truly hate, the New York City subway system, something like this has to go and happen. A beautifully playing classical quartet, just playing for your spare dollars in a station, is joined mid-performance by a passing group of ballet dancers.
The New York City Transit Museum is, hands down, one of the best transportation museums in the world. Okay, so there aren't any cars inside, but there is probably the most immaculate, most pristine, most beautiful subway car collection ever. And if you're not in New York, you can now tour it on Google Streetview.
Ebola is spreading rapidly throughout America, as two nurses who helped a disease-stricken man in Dallas are generally reported to be doing okay and have not infected anyone else. And one doctor in New York has it. Clearly, this is a time for mass panic. You can get Ebola nowhere everywhere, and definitely not on…
No, these subway ads aren't from an alternate reality at all. They're from history. And yes, that does appear to be a child laying in a pool of his own blood, while a man walks over to make sure he's really dead.
Life keeps getting worse for the guy in the NYC Subway posters, as he appears to have contracted some kind of terrible illness.
Cars are better than trains, this is Fact. Don't get me wrong, I love trains, but the problem with trains is that they contain other people. And other people are the worst thing on Earth. Except when they aren't there. In that case, you just want to sing.
Every so often, as I offer another sacrifice to the New York City Rat Diety to spare me on another subway ride, I realize that not everyone may enjoy public transit as much as I do.
