Nyc Subway

May 6, 2016

L Train Shutdown: MTA Will Decide in Three Months Which Way to Make Riders Suffer

The MTA announced at a town hall meeting Thursday night that they would "decide in the next three months at most" on the final details for the planned Canarsie Tunnel work to repair damage caused by Hurricane Sandy that would halt L train service west of Bedford Avenue, according to DNAinfo. The agency is considering two options: shutting down service for that portion of the line completely for 18 months, or having partial service that would give only "one in five passengers service to Manhattan" (or 20 percent of current service) and last up to three years.
Find out more about your hellish subway-less nightmare choices

Transit

May 3, 2016

VIDEO: A Visit to the ‘Creepy’ Depths of the ‘90s Subway Finds Some Things Haven’t Changed

By Michelle Cohen

Here’s a video that drops a subway token on the dark ages of 1990, when the city's underground transit system may have been a little “creepy,” but buses still took forever. While our ideas of what’s merely unruly (afterschool hordes) and what’s downright dangerous (the NYPD, eek!) may have been changed by the intervening years, it’s interesting to note the things that have stayed the same (capacity crowds on the Lexington Avenue line). Our host, a Fonzie-meets-Geraldo-esque Newsday columnist by the name of Ellis Henican, skims the surface of the many, many things that are going on below it in the city’s subway tunnels of the day, including ghost stations, locked restrooms and more.
Find out what's changed, what hasn't and what's still creepy

April 20, 2016

How Long Should You Wait For the Subway Before Giving Up?

By Dana Schulz

To wait or not to wait, that is the question that engineer Erik Bernhardsson answered in his recent analysis of the MTA's real-time API. In his post titled NY Subway Math he determined that if you're in a hurry, you should only wait for a train to arrive for 11 minutes (h/t Technically). At this point, the chance that there's a serious delay begins to rise. As he notes, "The interesting conclusion is that after about five minutes, the longer you wait, the longer you will have to wait. If you waited for 15 minutes, the median additional waiting time is another 8 minutes. But 8 minutes later if the train still hasn’t come, the median additional waiting time is now another 12 minutes.”
More on the conclusion

April 19, 2016

Annual Subway Ridership Hits 1.7 Billion, Highest Since 1948

By Dana Schulz

The MTA has released its 2015 figures, which show the highest weekday subway ridership since 1948, reports the Daily News. Not only does this account for daily riders, which hit 5.7 million, but annual ridership as well, reaching 1.763 billion. Another interesting tidbit, especially considering the looming shutdown, is that L train usage decreased for the first time in about 20 years. This occurred from Third Avenue to Morgan Avenue in Brooklyn, resulting in a 4.2 percent increase along the J/Z and M lines.
More findings ahead

April 13, 2016

POLL: Will You Miss the MetroCard Swipe?

By Dana Schulz

The ye-olde MetroCard swipe has made national headlines in recent weeks, thanks to Hilary Clinton’s inability to get through the turnstile and Bernie Sanders’ belief that we’re still in the dark ages using subway tokens. The fact that these snafus are so attention-grabbing goes to show how intrinsic the simple act of swiping a MetroCard is […]

April 11, 2016

Did You Know the MTA Uses Pantone Colors to Distinguish Train Lines?

By Dana Schulz

It's likely that every subway rider can name the colors that mark each train line -- blue for the A, C, E, red for the 1, 2, 3. But did you know that these aren't just arbitrary hues pulled from some MTA Crayola box, but rather 10 Pantone® spot colors? Even E-Z Pass and the LIRR and Metro-North lines have their own specific colors. The color coding dates back to the mid '60s when the city was in an economic downturn and people were staying off the rundown, haphazardly organized subways. To give the system a fresh, user-friendly look, the Transit Authority turned to graphic design, then an up-and-coming profession. They hired Italian designer Massimo Vignelli and Dutch designer Bob Noorda, both of whom were proponents of the popular "Swiss" style that featured solid, bright colors, simplistic illustrations, typographic grids, and the sans-serif font Helvetica. The men combined these elements into the 364-page New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual, forming the basis for the subway design we know today.
Find out more this way

April 7, 2016

This Map Tells You How Frequently NYC Subways Actually Run

By Michelle Cohen

This New York City Transit Frequency map, from Ft. Collins, Colorado-based public transit enthusiast and urban adventurer Tyler A. Green, is a mapped visualization of how frequently the city’s subways and buses travel along each line. You can use it to see where—and on which days—trains and buses run most and least often. The darker the color of a transit line on the map the more frequent your prospects are going to be. Four viewable data layers on the map represent buses and trains on Fridays and Saturdays. Hover over lines to see exactly how many trains or buses run in an hour between any two stops.
Take a look at the map

April 4, 2016

MTA Takes Steps to Open 7 Train Station at 10th Avenue

By Dana Schulz

Last month, the Port Authority of of New York and New Jersey officially launched a design competition for a new bus terminal, which could cost up to $10 billion and require the use of eminent domain. A new Port Authority Bus Terminal aims to accommodate tens of thousands of additional riders, many of whom will then need to connect to a subway line. To accommodate all these potential new riders, the MTA is looking to revive its past plan of building a 7 train station at 10th Avenue and 41st Street, reports Crain's, which could cost up to $1 billion.
Find out more

Transit

March 22, 2016

It Will Cost $3M to Repair Hudson Yards Train Station, Six Months After Opening

By Dana Schulz

The Post reported last week that the Hudson Yards 7-train subway station, which opened just this past September after more than ten years of planning and delays, was a "disgusting, moldy mess," noting that "leaks, flooded bathrooms and water damage" had put nearly half the escalators out of service. According to a plumber, it's due to poor construction, with the ceilings not being made waterproof. If this wasn't disturbing enough, especially considering the station's $2.45 billion price tag, the Times has new information straight from the MTA: "A spokesman for the authority, Kevin Ortiz, said the contractor, Yonkers Contracting, would pay $3 million to fix the leaks. The work began last Friday and will take up to three months, Mr. Ortiz said."
Get a look at the damage

The Lost Subway Line of the 1939-1940 World’s Fair

World’s Fair Terminal Station. Photo via Bill Cotter

March 8, 2016

The Lost Subway Line of the 1939-1940 World’s Fair

By Michelle Cohen

There was, for a short time, a line of the IND (Independent) subway that was built for the 1939/1940 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, the second most expansive American world's fair of all time (second only to the St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904). The event brought over 44 million people to the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park site. To make visting the fair more convenient, the city created a new dedicated subway line extension and terminal, then the only line owned by the city. The extension began on a bridge (called a flying junction) running through Jamaica Yard near what is now the Forest Hills-71st Street stop on today's M/R lines. The extension turned north along the east side of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park over a wooden trestle and ended at the newly-created World’s Fair Terminal Station, which had two tracks and three platforms. The two-mile addition cost $1.7 million to build.
Find out what happened

Subspotting Map Project Shows Where You Can Get Phone Reception in the Subway

By Michelle Cohen

The MTA is apparently well into the middle phase of its project to wire 279 below-ground subway stations with cell reception, but as Citylab recently put it, "there are still places you can’t make a call to save your life.” Into this unfortunate void comes the Subspotting project, brainchild of Daniel Goddemeyer and Dominikus Baur, which offers maps "illustrating the unequal geography of subway reception" and helpfully providing information on where you'll be able to make a call or send a text while in transit. In addition to system and individual line maps, there's an app that shows the quality of reception as different sized bars at each station, and MTA-sanctioned posters.
Can you hear me now?

Image: Xymox/Flickr

February 24, 2016

City Filth, Decoded: The Gunk on Subway Platforms Actually Has a Name

By Michelle Cohen

Do you ever wonder what that black schmutz that collects on the subway platform is? Has all the discarded chewing gum in the world begun to mobilize? What if I put my bag on it? Slate's What's That Thing column appropriately examines the phenomenon: After repeated unreturned phone calls to the MTA, the intrepid journalists got "Gridlock Sam" Schwartz and his transit gurus on the case. Finally the fine folks from the MTA rallied and gave name to the mysterious muck. According to NYC Transit assistant chief of the Division of Stations Branko Kleva, the stuff is mastic, a tar-like substance used to seal and waterproof the subway tunnels. When it heats up, (in the summer, for example, ironically from the heat generated by subway car air conditioning) it starts to "flow and drip down from the roof of the tunnel onto the platforms below."
More on the mysterious gunk...

February 23, 2016

Minimalist Subway Map Posters Are More About Beautiful Design Than Finding Your Way

By Michelle Cohen

Cartographer Andrew Lynch has spent a lot of time looking at the NYC subway system. The CUNY Hunter alum recently perfected the entire system in a series of hypothetical but geographically accurate "Future NYC Subway" maps. But while studying the paths of the city's most important people mover, Lynch noticed they looked rather lovely, but just too, well, cluttered. From this thought came a series of colorful minimalist subway line posters (h/t CityLab) that Lynch calls "totally accurate, totally useless," but nice to look at nonetheless.
Get your own, this way

Map by vanshnookenraggen.com via Reddit.

February 17, 2016

This Map Explains the Historic Tile Color System Used in NYC Subway Stations

By Michelle Cohen

We know the crowds that pack into our city’s subway cars each day are more than colorful enough, but the system also has a super-geeky color-coded navigation system that exists even outside of the main map’s primary colored lines. The city-owned Independent Subway was opened between 1932 and 1940. Up until 1967, it was the last of three former competing subway systems, and contributed six major lines to what is now the unified New York Subway: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, Q (partial). Squire J. Vickers, the system’s architect, designed a special color coding system for each station. Color coded stations were then grouped between express stations to make riders aware of the zone they were passing through. At each express station, the color of the tiles would change. Some station tile color patterns have been altered with subsequent renovations. The system map is based on the original color coding sheet from 1930. After WWII, almost all new subway stations featured their own unique architectural designs and colors
Find out what color your stop is

February 9, 2016

Student Project Gets Subway Riders to Scratch and Sniff

By Michelle Cohen

"If You Smell Something, Smell Something Else." Those words introduce a handful of signs that have been popping up at a few subway stations around the city, including Canal Street, Herald Square and Union Square. And most people, quite frankly, would rather do just that, if they had a choice...and now they do. School of Visual Arts graphic design student Angela Kim was acutely aware of this fact, and she decided to add a few more to the collection.
What's that smell?

January 29, 2016

Interactive Graph Compares L Train Commute Times and Rents With Other NYC Neighborhoods

By Michelle Cohen

We're hearing lots of anguish and anxiety over the possibility of an L subway shutdown for repairs for as long as a year or more, and we've taken a look at some possible solutions. Now, we've asked the real estate data geeks at NeighborhoodX to go a little deeper beneath the grumbling to find out just how much convenience can be had along that thin grey line, and how it stacks up against other neighborhoods in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. So which other neighborhoods offer commute times similar to the L train stops—and—just as important when choosing a neighborhood–how do their rents compare? And if you're living along the L, in light of the shutdown, what neighborhood alternatives do you have in the city that provide a similar commute?
Find out here

January 27, 2016

POLL: Will Open Gangway Subway Trains Be a Success in NYC?

By Dana Schulz

New Yorkers are notoriously hard to impress, so it’s not surprising that some are finding fault with the MTA’s proposed open gangway subway trains, which are pretty much the norm everywhere else in the world. Despite the fact that they’ll reduce congestion and platform pileups, as well as reportedly increase safety, jaded city dwellers fear […]

January 26, 2016

Mapping World Cities That Already Have Open Gangway Subway Trains

By Dana Schulz

Click here to enlarge map >> Just yesterday, the MTA revealed renderings of what their open gangway subway prototypes will look like. As 6sqft previsouly reported, when it was announced that the new trains got a $52.4 million piece of the MTA's capital plan, "This type of train, basically one long subway car with no doors in between, is popular all over the world, in most cities in China and Japan, in Berlin, Paris, and London, to name a few." So just how far behind the times is New York City? An informative new map from The Transport Politic, which plots the cities in which riders can walk between cars, says pretty far.
Find out more

January 20, 2016

Top 10 Transportation Proposals That Would Transform New York City

By Rebecca Paul

Commuting in and around NYC can at times be a daunting task, and with the all of the pending subway closures, things are about to get a bit more complicated. However, all hope is not lost, and a trouble-free ride to work right be in the near future. From a city-wide ferry system to cell-phone friendly subway cars, both Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio have several new initiatives in play to improve the city's infrastructure. In addition to these ambitious government-backed measures, there are also a slew of motivated residents looking to make some changes, including a 32-Mile Greenway in Brooklyn and Queens and a High Line-esque bridge spanning the Hudson River, just to name a few. To keep your spirits high when subway lines are down, we've put together this list of top 10 transportation proposals for NYC.
See all 10 here

Transit

Are Shuttle Buses a Viable Alternative to the L Train During a Shutdown?

Image via Allen1628famm/YouTube

January 20, 2016

Are Shuttle Buses a Viable Alternative to the L Train During a Shutdown?

By Michelle Cohen

The MTA’s announcement of possible plans to close the L train for months or even years at a time to repair the Hurricane Sandy-damaged Canarsie Tunnel has businesses scrambling and commuters (the train has 300,000 riders on the average weekday) fearful. Data mapping company CartoDB offers a bit of “location intelligence” to better understand the consequences of a shutdown for people living in Brooklyn and, more importantly, what some realistic alternatives to the L train might be. For example, shuttle buses: "If the shuttle bus takes 20 minutes, we are able to calculate the best choices for riders along the L needing to get to Manhattan. Should they go all the way to Lorimer and take the shuttle bus or should they transfer earlier at Myrtle-Wyckoff to the M train or at Broadway Junction to the A?"
Will shuttle buses save the day?

January 11, 2016

Governor Cuomo to Transform the Subway With Free Wi-Fi, USB Chargers, and Mobile Payment

By Dana Schulz

Is there anything in NYC that Governor Cuomo does like? He started his crusade to overhaul our infrastructure back in July when he revealed renderings for a $4 billion update to LaGuardia Airport. But this past week he pulled out all the stops, starting with a $3 billion redevelopment of Penn Station, a $1 billion expansion of the Javits Center, and now, a massive undertaking to "modernize and fundamentally transform" the MTA and the subway. Curbed reports that the Governor's latest plan includes expediting the addition of more countdown clocks, adding contactless payment by 2018, equipping all stations with Wi-Fi by the end of this year and cell phone service by the end of 2017, and outfitting both subways and buses with USB chargers.
More details right this way

December 14, 2015

VIDEO: 10 Days and 120 Subway Stations in Two Minutes

By Dana Schulz

Most New Yorkers would be overjoyed if they only had to witness their subway station for a hot second. But since we can't teleport, this video from Snowday is the next best way to live out our fantasies (h/t Fast Co. Design). Titled "Stations: A Quick Scan Through NYC," this two-minute video was shot over ten days at 120 subway stations throughout the five boroughs, compiling footage as if the viewer were changing television channels. The quick scan, which features a somewhat odd blend of scripted scenes and documentary footage, is meant to evoke the "unique texture of New York...in a new and compelling way."
Watch the full video this way

Transit

December 11, 2015

Subway Breaks One-Day Ridership Record With 6,217,621 Passengers

By Dana Schulz

For reasons unknown, the third Thursday in October is traditionally one of the busiest days for the NYC subway. Last year, on October 30th, a record was set with 6,167,165 passengers, and now, the MTA has put out a press release announcing that this past October 29th, this record was smashed when 6,217,621 customers swiped their MetroCards. "The new record day was one of five days in October when ridership exceeded the prior year’s record, and was one of 15 weekdays with ridership above 6 million. Daily subway ridership records have been kept since 1985, but the new record is believed to be the highest since the late 1940s," the agency reports.
READ MORE

Transit

Transit Museum Brings Back Its Vintage Subways and Buses for the Holidays

Via *Bitch Cakes*/Flickr

December 7, 2015

Transit Museum Brings Back Its Vintage Subways and Buses for the Holidays

By Dana Schulz

Regardless of your faith, the holidays in New York City are a one-of-a-kind experience that many of us look forward to all year. For die-hard New Yorkers, it's not so much about the big attractions, but the smaller festivities that show the spirit of the city. Here at 6sqft, one of our favorites is the MTA's and New York Transit Museum's Nostalgia Trains. According to Gothamist, this year, they're rolling out eight subway cars from the 1930s to '70s and vintage buses from the 1940s to '80s, so holiday shoppers and history enthusiasts alike can revel in a little old-school charm.
Get the details

‘Open Gangway’ Subway Trains Getting a Trial Run in NYC

An open gangway subway in Berlin, photo via Second Avenue Sagas

December 3, 2015

‘Open Gangway’ Subway Trains Getting a Trial Run in NYC

By Dana Schulz

Despite the improved service that the MTA has been promising, most New Yorkers still find themselves crammed into subway cars like floundering sardines. But a newfangled, more spacious train could increase capacity by 8-10 percent. Second Avenue Sagas explores part of the MTA's 2015-2019 capital plan, released earlier this fall, that calls for the purchase of "10 open-gangway prototype cars with the $52.4 million expenditure allocated for 2016." This type of train, basically one long subway car with no doors in between, is popular all over the world, in most cities in China and Japan, in Berlin, Paris, and London, to name a few. It's not known yet when exactly they'll make their debut, how they'll be designed, or on what subway line they'll run, but of course the new idea comes with some concerns.
More details this way

Transit

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