4 posts tagged “subway”
I usually work in our office in the Rockefeller center on Fridays. This Fri was no exception. Got of work just a little before 6 and walked to the subway at 6th Av. The brasserie below was doing brisk business and the gentle chatter and clink of white and red wine glasses momentarily seemed to drive recessionary thoughts away.
But soon I was staring at bicycles hugging lamposts on 49th Street between 5th and 6th Av under the shadows of Radio City and NBC? Just green riders or someone trying to avoid buying the metrocard? Does Brian Williams ride a bike to work or is it a dude who's seen a pay cut?
I still have my metrocard and don't plan on alternatives. So I rode home on the subway
Then rode with friends in their car to Somerset NJ for a sumptuous south Indian dinner at Hoysala
To get there, you drive on the NJTP which, mercifully, had normal traffic conditions for the Friday evening. Saw an Australias shaped cloud (do you agree?) and the usual evening airplane traffic at Newark.
All in all, a very satisfying evening.
Today was one of those "up and down R160" days on the E. Got an R160 from WTC around 8.40 (car 9163) and almost immediately I noticed that all 3 route maps in the car were on the blink. Everything else was OK - automated voice was doing its thing and the variable message displays were fine. Now imagine my surprise when the exact same thing happened on the return! I was in a hurry else I would have asked the operator. Any ideas why this might be?
More R160 train sets are definitely being introduced on the E and I have seen several cars in the 9300 series. My rides in R160s are getting more frequent as are sightings. It does appear that there are consecutive pairs of R160s running which makes sightings of two of them at WTC pretty frequent. The ride in the 53rd street tunnel is noticeably smoother and less noisy in the R160. No complaints on the lighting and temperature control front either. However, I’ve seen two recent automated announcement system glitches. The first one was when the automated announcement and the electronic display decided to play truant in tandem. Here I was on a WTC bound train hurtling towards Penn station and the announcement system insisted that this was a “Manhattan bound E Express train” next stop was “Archer Avenue JFK Airport”. The frustrated conductor would then come on line, apologize for the glitch and announce the correct stop. This continued till WTC. Even as it arrived in WTC, the loud and clear announcement was that the next stop was Woodhaven Blvd! creating confusion among some of the waiting crowd and elicitng quite a few what the f…? The other incident was when the audio announcement was correct but the electronic display was stubbornly stuck in Queens when we were at W4! In both cases, some kind of re-set ensured that the the audio and visual information was corrected before the trains left WTC. I wonder what kind of overrides do the conductors have?
The sound of a train running has been music to many ears - including those of yours truly. The source of the 'music' has usually been the clickety clack or the hooters/horns or, mostly in the case of diesel or steam locomotion, the sound of the engine itself. Subways/metros (usually consisting of electric multiple units) have been seen as dull in this regard (no engine, often underground, too noisy & crowded, often run down etc.) - but not anymore if you read this article in NYtimes. It appears that there is music in the electronic whine as some of the trains leave. I can attest to the whine though I had not made the correlation with a specific piece of music mentioned.
Users of some of the numbered subways (4,5,6,2,3...) and now some of the lettered ones (E, W, J....) have been getting used to new subway cars (The so called R140, R142, R160 etc. named after the MTA contract number) which have the characteristic whine (The NY Times article has a audio snippet of this). I am a regular user of the 'E' line which has a few of these new R160 trainsets running. I think there are at least 3 such trainsets on the E (see some of my previous posts on this).
These trainsets, of course, have features other than the musical whine for their users. They also have brighter lights, automated announcements that are crystal clear, better temperature control and user friendly station displays. An automated female voice gives you information about the next step ("The next stop is &th Av/53rd Street") and a male automated voice asks you to "stand clear of the closing doors" or to "please be patient as there is train traffic ahead". This is apparently based on research which suggests that people react better to information from women but instructions from men!
Finally, for those interested in knowing more about NYC subways, the MTA forum on railroad.net is an excellent resource.
