Happy Birthday, NYC Subway
Boing Boing reminds us that the New York Subway celebrates it's 100th birthday this month. Not the oldest underground railway in the world (the London Underground has that honour), but it is the world's most extensive network.
My only experience of the NYC subway is a fleeting glimpse of a train on the elevated section across the Bronx from a taxi stuck in a traffic jam en-route from Newark airport to Stamford CT on a Sunday afternoon. I think the train, which resembled the old LT "P" stock was one of the now scrapped "Redbirds".
MYC's subways are expensive, patchworked, crowded, overrun, infuriating, filthy, and if I had to live without them I'd be heartbroken.
Funny what we get used to, isn't it?
Posted by: The Gline on October 28, 2004 12:48 AMYou took a cab from Newark to Stamford? Must've been $200! You Limeys and your strong currency...
Posted by: rj on November 4, 2004 02:30 AMPerhaps the MTA invests more on the high-profile tourist routes, but I was quite impressed by the subway in Manhattan last week (mainly the 5 & 6 trains, if that's indicative of anything).
Perhaps $2 for a single trip is a bit pricey if one only travels a couple of blocks (so walk!), but for longer trips it's reasonable (cheaper than the same distance by bus here in Lancaster, UK), and a $7 card lasting all day pays for itself within two return trips.
I have similarly limited experience of the London Underground, but as a tourist, travelling off-peak, I'd say New York's trains are about as good as London's, and New York has the edge in terms of organisation.