Everyone knows the NYC subway ain’t in the best shape, but generally you can ignore the fact — the thing runs damn well most days. Every once in a while, though, one too many mishaps happen and you’ve got to stop and laugh…or cry.
Take Tuesday: I’m headed downtown on a 1 train and pull into 72nd street station. When the doors open, smoke wafts in. A conductor comes on the intercom and matter-of-factly says: “This is 72nd street. There is a fire on the tracks. Watch your step exiting the train.” Folks getting off the train stumble into the smoke and disappear. Those who remain on the train momentarily look around at each other and then return to what they were doing. “Stand clear of the closing doors.” We’re off.
Stop. Dive into the smoke or stay on board the flamethrower, whatever. Next station. Peace. I suppose this kind of “smoke condition” has become commonplace on the 123?
Take Saturday: After visit to the can’t-recommend-it-enough Barcade in Brooklyn, we hop on the L line. We pull into Union Square, the doors open and the train sits there for a while. This is enough to make me nervous, but I take faith in the fact that the computer voice keeps saying “this is a Brooklyn-bound L train; the next stop is 6th Avenue.” Being in Union Square, the statement doesn’t make complete sense (coming into Manhattan, the L stops at 1st Ave, 3rd, Union Square, 6th, and then 8th) but, hey, the displays all say 6th is next, too.
Faith entirely misplaced. 6th wasn’t next. In fact, the conductor decided to run a mini-express route that skipped 3rd and deposited me and a good number of similarly irate passengers back at 1st. Freaking fantastic! An announcement would have been nice, eh? Needless to say, the cabs in the vicinity of 1st and 14th did brisk business that night.
Ah, well. It’s hard to stay mad at the subway long. No other system in the US gets you to as many far-flung (or close by) places, has as many dedicated express lines, or stays open all night every night. But it wouldn’t be any fun if it was all roses, now would it?
For more on the subway’s proud history, see nycsubway.org. For more on its impending doom, read Derailed. And don’t miss Travis’ fantastic subway photos at Express Train.
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