TRANSIT: Odds 'N' Ends

A FRIEND OF MINE IN NEW YORK used to have a giant subway sign collection. Not the signs permanently fixed to station columns, nor signs that would cause transit navigators to lose their sense of direction. But the odd construction advisories (taken only when they were getting about to expire) and the random public service advertisements for special events and how you can get there.

I love New York's construction advisory signage, since there is always construction or track work on the tangled underground maze of tunnels across the four boroughs. It can take some skill to decipher the advisories and how one might affect your travel. It is one giant game to me.

That is why I love the prank subway advisory signs as reported by Gothamist today. (As long, of course, the signs are done in good fun, and not used for further the forces of transit evil in the subway.)

SOME NIGHTS WHEN I LEAVE THE OFFICE, the Orange Line will run four-car trains. At the Court House station and at others in the system, the train will stop at the far end of the platform, causing some people who failed to anticipate this to run down the platform to catch the last train car before the door chimes sound.

In Brooklyn, there is something similar: the so-called "G-train Dash." Sewall Chan of The New York Times has a nice article on the much-maligned subway line, the only one that doesn't enter Manhattan. Anyone who has waited in Greenpoint, Bed Stuy, Carroll Street and elsewhere no the pains and joy of the G train. You might see some similarities to Metrorail's Green Line: infrequent service, increasing ridership.

Image from Gothamist