AMNY Subway Tracker

Today’s subway ride into work started out like most, uneventful and routine. Bundled up from the wind I stepped on a fairly packed train for the ride into the city.

My commute from Brooklyn into Manhattan usually takes about 25 minutes. So, there I stood stop after stop, listening to Yo-Yo-Ma on my iPod as the 2 headed north.

By Wall Street I had to strip off my hat and unbutton my coat as the stuffiness inside the train was getting to me. People pushed and shoved to get on and off the train as I strained to loosen my scarf.

Yet my body wasn’t cooling down.

All of a sudden everything started going blurry and I felt sick to my stomach. I realized I was probably going to pass out.

So I looked at the person next to me and said – I’m really sorry but I’m feeling sick and I may faint. I can’t see very well. She told me that I’d be fine and to hang on.

I told the man next her to please catch me if I went down – he said he would and not to worry.

They say you see spots just before you black out -- for me, they seemed more like halos.

But just as it seemed my world would fade to black a lady offered her seat to me – “Here sit down and put your head between your knees.”

Without hesitation I sat and within seconds the fog in my head had cleared and the sweat poured out – things quickly returned to normal.

I thanked the good people around me who came to my aid – their kind words and quick action, small as they may have been, were huge gestures of kindness in my book.

This city has humbled me yet again. Thank you good people of NYC.

--Peggy Mihelich

A homeless man was killed by a subway train running on the 3 line this morning, authorities say.

The incident happened at 9:34 a.m. at the 110th street station in Manhattan, on the northbound side.

Police believe that the man fell onto the tracks by accident. There is no indication of foul play at this time.

Service was suspended on the 2/3 line between 96th and148th Street in both directions. It has since resumed.

--Marlene Naanes

After New York City Transit finished collecting rider report cards for the No. 7 line, and just beginning doling out cards for the L line, Transit opened up grading for all lines on the MTA Web site. Straphangers are invited to grade their line in English, Spanish, Chinese or a selection of 10 other languages. Transit has only officially opened two lines for grading--one is now closed--but they'll hold your vote on the other 20 until voting for those lines begins.

--Marlene Naanes

The MTA proposed a fare hike today with a side of extra train service.
Some of the most congested and late trains in the system will be supercharged in the 2008 budget. Additional evening service will be added to the No. 4, 5 and 6 lines. Transit will also boost L line’s rush hour, weekday off-peak and weekend service.
The No. 7 will increase weekend service on top of recently-added express service after Mets games.
Even a train that recently scored high marks with advocacy group the Straphangers Campaign will see an overhaul. Riders on the No. 1 line will enjoy additional evening and weekend service.
In the proposed budget, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will fund additional service in all of its agencies with $30 million in 2008 and $60 million afterward.

The TA is launching a feasibility study on how to ease congestion on the overtaxed 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 lines. The agency is getting engineers together to look at the problem. Solutions may include platform extensions, as well as lengthening of trains. More from transit reporter Marlene Naanes later. To see how crowded your line (and train) was in April, check this out. To see how on-time your train is, click this.

And did you know that just as with Port Authority meetings, you can now check out the MTA action live online?

-- Rolando Pujol

The man who hacked a man's chest open with a power saw inside a Morningside Heights subway station last summer was sentenced to 18 years in prison today. Tareyton Williams apologized, and the victim, Michael Steinberg, while admitting he is forever damaged physically and mentally by the event, accepted. But he had no forgiveness for the TA. Steinberg said workers did not come to his rescue. They had been using the saw earlier during an installation job. The TA says the workers were actually contract employees, and that a booth clerk had called for help.

More here on the MTA's policy of not having employees leave the booth during such emergencies.

-- Rolando Pujol

Photo: Crime scene by Charles Eckert

Tracker blogged last May about prominent No. 9 train signs that still survived at the 34th Street and Seventh Avenue subway entrances. They have since been taken down, as this camera-phone shot demonstrates, almost two years after the line vanished.

-- Rolando Pujol

Thought you'd never be inside a graffiti-covered train again? Check out this video from 1987. -- Rolando Pujol

There’s no more end of the line for the No. 6 train in Manhattan.

New York City Transit is testing a new message on the Lexington local line at the Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall station that omits the “last stop” message. So far, just one train has the message.

The normal message is:

“Ladies and gentlmen, this is the last downtown stop on this train. The next stop on this train will be Brooklyn – Bridge City Hall on the uptown platform. Ladies and gentlemen, not only is it unsafe, it is a violation to ride or walk between cars except in an emergency, or when directed by a police officer or the train crew.”

But NYCT is testing this message on one train:

“Ladies and gentlemen, the next stop on this train will be the Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall uptown platform. For your safety, please remain inside of the car until the train comes to a complete stop and the doors open.”

No more “last stop.”

NYCT said it started testing the message about two weeks ago. A spokesman said the idea to change was in works since November, well before 58-year-old Jose Montanez fell between the cars to his death on January 15.

Riders can stay on the line as it passes through a loop to go from the downtown to uptown platform.

-- Chuck Bennett

MTA Capital Construction President Mysore Nagaraja said today that the 2/3 platform at Fulton Street is just days away from completion. But, I think the sign may need some revision.

Photo by Lane Johnson

-- Chuck Bennett

Details are sketchy but a person was struck by an uptown No. 1 train before 3:30 this afternoon at the 116th St. - Columbia University staton. The victim was taken to an area hospital alive.

All Bronx-bound No. 1 trains are suspended from 96th St. to 242nd St. - Van Cortlandt Park.

Service is expected to resume by rush hour. More details to come.

UPDATE: 4:15 p.m. No.1 is running on schedule

UPDATE2: 6:30 p.m. Police say the man attempted suicide and didn't suffer any serious injury.

-- Chuck Bennett amNY.com

The second day of the scorching heat wave saw a brief disruption of the 1, 2 and 3 lines in Manhattan, and evening  power problems are snarling subway service in Queens.

The cold front, such as it is, has passed through, but troubles continue in Queens. Here's the latest service advisory.

As for the big picture, amNY takes a look at problems the subways endure during the heat.

"Extreme heat has an enormous effect, we go through it every summer," said John Samuelsen, chairman of the track division of the Transport Workers Union Local 100. "The running rails expand on hot days and the possibility of rail buckling grows exponentially."

And it's not just heat. We all know how heavy downpours or melting snow can bring whole lines to their knees. Here's a look at some of the more recent problems, compiled by amNY:

Friday June 2, 2006
Extensive rain causes train delays and cancellations, especially in
Queens.
Sunday and Monday, February 12 and 13, 2006
A snow storm slowed and disrupted more than 12 subway lines throughout
the city. Central Park received 26.9 inches of snow from the weekend
storm.


January 18, 2006
High winds delayed train service from Connecticut to New York City.


September 8, 2004
Immense downpours flooded tracks and caused signals to malfunction,
which stopped subway trains.  Almost every subway line in the city was
delayed because of the rain.
 

August 4, 2003
Rain, one to two inches in certain places, caused the rerouting of the N
and R trains over the Manhattan bridge and the No. 2 train to the
Lexington Ave. line between Manhattan and Brooklyn. The No. 1. 9, 2, 3
trains were suspended as well.

-- Rolando Pujol

Photo: Getty Images

The victim of the subway attack says no workers at the Morningside Heights No. 1 station came to his aid as his chest was cut open by a man wielding power saws.

NYC Transit, however, says only one transit worker was at the station -- in a booth -- and that it is assumed the worker called for help. Workers are instructed not to leave the booth during such emergencies, and instead call for aid. The policy came under fire  last June after a woman was raped at a Queens subway station while a worker stayed in a booth.

It's worth noting that the workers from whom the power saws were stolen are contract employees. They were helping to install screens that will give commuters real-time information about a train's location.

-- Rolando Pujol

One of the power saws used in the attack. (Charles Eckert)

Police have the alleged mad buzzsaw attacker in custody.   

-- Chuck Bennett

Train strikes man: Police say a possibly suicidal man walked into the path of a No. 2 train Sunday in Manhattan. He lost much of his left leg. [amNY]

Sure beats game traffic: Work has begun on a $150 million commuter rail extension that will one day zip football fans to the Meadowlands. [AP via amNY] 

Two cultures, one problem: After the arrests of more than a dozen men for alleged lewd behavior in the subways, a Georgetown professor examines how very differently women in New York and Athens, Greece, handle and experience public misbehavior like groping and flashing. One significant difference: Women in Athens do not report feeling helpless, and tend to take immediate action against the violator.  [The New York Times]

-- Rolando Pujol

The “Busfellas.” An allegedly mobbed up Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181 has a strike authorization vote tonight. The local’s contract expires June 30th and a walkout could leave nearly 40,000 kids -- about half of them in special ed -- with no way to get to summer school. The Tracker thinks the union is just posturing -- after all, summer school doesn’t even start until July 5 and if they strike the workers lose summer unemployment benefits -- but we’ll see. [amNewYork]   

Bus Rapid Transit.  Dedicated, color-coded express bus lanes could be coming to First and Second avenues in Manhattan, Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn and Union Turnpike in Queens. [The New York Post]

Givebacks. Retired transit workers and other unions donated about $100,000 to the TWU Local 100. The union still has to pay off $2.3 million in fines from its illegal December strike. Some on the donors enjoying life in Florida say they appreciated the union’s efforts to strengthen retiree benefits. [Daily News]

Confused in Chelsea.  Attorney General candidate Sean Patrick Maloney tells supporters to meet him “at the Number 1 subway station at 23rd Street and 8th Avenue in Chelsea” for a petitioning drive. The No. 1 is on 7th Avenue. [The Empire Page]   

-- Chuck Bennett

The No. 9 train rolled off into history last Memorial Day weekend, but a year later, the memory of the lost line survives in a surprisingly prominent place. Large signs for the 1, 2, 3, and, yes, 9 trains can still be found at 34^th Street and Seventh Avenue, a stone’s throw from Macy’s. One is outside the Footaction store next to the LIRR entrance,  and the other touts the phantom line across the street, by the H&M store. Above the LIRR entrance, however, a smaller sign is properly missing the ‘9.’

The MTA began blacking out the ‘9’ signs in the weeks before it was discontinued, joining other retired lines such as the No. 8. (Yes, such a thing existed briefly in the early 1970s in the Bronx, helping to explain the gap in the 1 through 9 designations.)

The ‘9’ came to life in 1989, skipping several stops uptown during the weekday rush. But the size of the fleet serving the Broadway-Seventh Avenue line grew during the 16 years of the No. 9's existence. By 2005, the No. 9 was no longer needed, the TA said, especially since more people were living in the neighborhoods that it was skipping. Its fate was sealed, but the line lives on in common parlance (“let’s take the 1/9”) and, for now at least, across the street from Macy’s.

-- Rolando Pujol

Just one more thing: If the mysterious No. 8 train captures your fancy, check out this Forgotten-NY  page on the Bronx portion of the Third Avenue elevated. The number wasn't widely known, Forgotten explains, because it was not listed on the front of the trains that served that line. And you can add the surviving '9' signage to this list of signs from another transit era.

It's not online yet, but the Spring 2006 issue of Columbia, the university's alumni magazine, has an interesting profile of John Tauranac,  a 1963 graduate of the School of General Studies who subway wonks know as the father of the 1979 subway map. That map was geographically accurate and assigned specific colors to the subway lines, which with some tweaks here and there is largely the one you see today. 

So why are the logos for the 4, 5, 6 trains, which run through some of the nation's richest neighborhoods, green? And why were the 1, 2, 3 and 9 trains, which run through some of the nation's more liberal precincts, assigned the color red? Here's Tauranac's fun take: "I always thought there was a certain cynical reality to the colors. I liked the green line going on the Upper East Side where the money is. I liked the idea of having the red line run up the Upper West Side, because that's where the liberals are, who used to be called the Compsymps" -- or Communist sympathizers.

Tauranac improved on the 1972 map designed by Massimo Vignelli. It's an awesome, very 1970s work of art, but the rap on it has always been that it's a little too stylized to be practical. "There were people who simply looked at it as an aesthetic object," Tauranac told  Columbia of the 1972 map. "That's not what a map is."

Tauranac still gives any new map the OK. He is, after all, the man "who argued over the right shade of orange for the B, D and F lines 30 years ago."

Here's a quick bio of Vignelli. Check out his 1972 map. Here's Wikipedia on Tauranac. And take a tour of Tauranac's many Gotham books on Amazon.

-- Rolando Pujol

It's no news that subway riders love their I-Tunes. These days, most straphangers seem to be plugged in to their IPods (or music-playing equivalents) and tuned out to what's going on around them on the subway.

I have no problem with this. In fact, I read novels as a way to create an alternative universe when riding the subway to and from work.

But the other day, I experienced a side effect of the IPod craze. At my stop on a No. 2 train, a woman with her back to me was blocking my way to the exit. In my best subway voice -- polite and not too loud -- I said, "Excuse me." No reaction. I repeated myself. Again, nothing.  I spoke a little louder and still got no reaction. By this point, I'm getting worried that I'm going to miss my stop.

So, I resort to a light shoulder tap. Immediately, the woman swings around and I see the telltale white earphones in her ears.  Her look of irritation lasted just a second until she realized I wanted to slip by her.  Which I did, barely getting to the platform before the doors closed.

Is anybody else noticing a general tuning out of the subway-riding population?

-- Vera Haller

It's Sunday afternoon and you're standing on the 14th Street platform waiting for a 2 or 3 express uptown. After 10 minutes go by without even a whisper of train approaching the station, a number 6 Lexington Avenue local train pulls up on the 2 or 3 track.

What is a 6 doing on the west side, you may ask? Good question, and one that only an announcement over the loudspeaker can answer. The problem, says the Straphangers Campaign new survey, is that a full fourth of the time, the announcements are either nonexistant or they are so garbled that they are inaudible.

Which doesn't seem like such bad odds when you think about it. 75% of the time you'll be able to hear where you're going. The other times, you'll just have to take a deep breath, step on that 6 train, and hope you're heading towards Columbia University instead of Hunter College.

-Justin Rocket Silverman

What makes a '5' train a '5' train? Is it the route it travels, or the '5' displayed on its front car? I'd go with the former.

The '5,' after all, doesn't apply to the actual, physical train. (I'm guessing each car has its own serial number, though I confess I've never mustered the nerve to lie down on the track and check.)

The '5' applies to a path: snaking through Brooklyn, piercing Manhattan at its southern tip, then climbing up the east side before leaning right in the Bronx.

Why, then, does our transit system continue to confuse us (or at least me) by putting '5's where they don't belong? Every so often, a so-called '5' train comes rumbling through the west side of Manhattan on tracks reserved for the '1,' '2' and '3' (R.I.P. '9').

"The '5' train is running on the Seventh Avenue line," a garbled voice announces. I think what they're trying to say is this: The '2' isn't running, so this car will take a different route — the '5' route — in Brooklyn and the Bronx.

But I still say a '5' is not a '5' when it's on the Upper West Side. Why not change the number on that front car's digital screen to reflect the detour to the land of '2'? Then announce that this train is a '2' now, but will suffer an identity crisis and become a '5' at Grand Concourse.

When a '5' train leaves the east side, the '5' should stay behind, too.

-- David Abramowicz