Gawker: Mta

I Was in the Subway When They Discovered a Severed Head on the L Train

Bobby Finger — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:10:01 EST

At 12:30AM Sunday, I thought the reason I wasn't getting home as early as planned was that piece-of-shit L train. Seven hours later I found out it was because, among other things, of a severed head. More »

Your New York City Subway Survival Guide

Hamilton Nolan — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:43:21 EST

In its infinite wisdom, the New York City Transit system has decided to stop shutting down the subways for repairs every weekend, and start shutting down the subways for repairs every weeknight. How will this affect you, the straphanger, and the "new breed" of trained subway thieves that prowl the trains to prey on you? Allow us to help you make sense of the new, improved New York Subway system. More »

New York Eliminates Horns on Taxis and Trash Cans in Subways

Brian Moylan — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:56:56 EDT

Public transportation in New York is about to get even better and demonstrably worse all at the same time. While the TLC is cutting down on cabbies honking their horns, the MTA is ditching the trash cans in subway stops. Man, this is going to get messy. More »

You Will Secretly Enjoy the Retro Boardwalk Empire Subway Car, But Must Pretend to Hate It

Maureen O'Connor — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:57:00 EDT

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HBO finally bought so many ads on the New York City transit system that MTA let them buy an entire car. Coming soon to a 2/3 track near you: A vintage subway car from 1917, with rattan seats, a ceiling fan, and ads for Boardwalk Empire. If you end up on this car you will probably enjoy it a little, but will have to pretend you don't, because you're sick of this mind control ad immersion bullshit, and don't want to be associated with the Instagram obsessives tweeting twee pictures of it. But secretly? Old-timey transit is fun. Admit it, you want to ride in this car. More »

Yoga Morons Pose All Over NYC Subway Car, Make Homeless 'Joke'

Lauri Apple — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 12:45:28 EDT

Yoga is a beautiful, ancient tradition that helpfully reduces stress and probably benefits your internal organs and soul and whatever else people are made out of. Unfortunately, Lululemonheads like these two have ruined it for the next several decades. More »

The Mystery of the Giant Subway Fridge

Adrian Chen — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:22:30 EDT

Out of all the crazy shit that happens in New York's subways, this might be the most quietly disconcerting: A filthy refrigerator sat on the West 4th Street subway platform for four days. More »

MTA Employees Are Just as Bad as Subway Passengers

Matt Cherette — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:47:58 EDT

It's not just passengers that are acting up on the subway. Employees of the MTA are misbehaving as well! Here's footage that a YouTube user (and Bloombergian anti-smoking activist, we're guessing) recorded of a couple of MTA workers smoking inside the Christopher Street 1 Train station on Sunday morning. Are you totally outraged yet? Is the smell of smoke better or worse than the usual subway odor of urine and feces? We're just grateful that these guys didn't follow in the footsteps of these people and strip off all their clothes. More »

NYC Subway Passenger Beats the Heat by Getting Naked

Matt Cherette — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:12:34 EDT

This video was uploaded to YouTube earlier today. And if I had to venture a guess, it looks like one young woman decided to beat the record-setting New York City heat by riding a Manhattan-bound D train completely naked from the waist down. No, it's not the most polite thing to do on the subway. But on a sweltering day like today, can you really blame her? More »

This Woman Feels Very Strongly About Her Right to Play Music on the Bus

Seth Abramovitch — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 23:26:22 EDT

This might provide some clues as to why no one in New York is riding the bus anymore. Asked by a driver to not use her iPhone's speakers to play her music, the woman unleashed an extremely loud, hateful, and profanity-filled tirade ("You need to shut the f*ck up and drive your bus, you miserable old f*cking man!...You f*cking honky!"), which was captured on video by another, pissed-off rider. iPhones fighting iPhones! More »

The Horror of Being Trapped in a Subway Elevator

Brian Moylan — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 13:52:31 EDT

On Friday night, 28 people were trapped in an elevator at the 181st Street subway station for more than an hour. Now we can all live through their ordeal. More »

The Disposable Subway Riding Glove Is Completely Idiotic

Brian Moylan — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 17:33:28 EDT

From the Products We Don't Need file comes Metro Mitt, a little plastic bag for you to put over your hands while holding the pole in the subway. It's supposed to make your commute more sanitary. God, this thing is stupid. More »

Rats Now Riding the Subway Like Regular Passengers

Hamilton Nolan — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 11:57:35 EST

Millions of rats living on the NYC subway tracks don't faze New Yorkers in the least. But recently, the rats have started venturing onto slumbering passengers. And now: alarming video evidence shows that rats consider themselves normal subway riders. More »

The Subway Is Making Strange, Beautiful Music

Brian Moylan — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 14:24:49 EST

William Hattar was riding the subway this morning and the doors made a different and really cool song when closing. Have a listen. Hey MTA, can we adopt "Doors Closing: Extended Dance Remix" as the official song of subway doors? More »

Off the Track

Brian Moylan — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 19:00:00 EST

[A crew shovels off the Q train track in Coney Island today. Plenty of New Yorkers are pissed that two days after the snow started their roads haven't been plowed and public transport is a mess. Image via AP] More »

The Post-Snowpocalypse MTA Bus Graveyard

Max Read — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 22:56:29 EST

You know who had it bad after Sunday's huge blizzard? The poor buses of New York City's MTA. Reader Jillian Babcock sent us these beautiful (and sort of creepy) photos of an "MTA bus graveyard" on East 88th St. More »

Man Stabs Parents and Throws Self into NYC Subway

Maureen O'Connor — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 12:17:15 EST

A 31-year-old Brooklynite stabbed his mother to death and slashed his father before running to Windsor Terrace's G-train station and throwing himself into the rails, to the horror of commuters. More »

New York Police Officer Accidentally Shoots Fellow Cop

Brian Moylan — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 12:19:20 EST

Yesterday an MTA officer was placing her gun in a weapon's locker and accidentally set it off. The bullet ricocheted and hit another officer in the gut. The cop is alright, but will never enter a locker room again. More »

Things Will Get Better Once We All Pay More for Worse Service

Hamilton Nolan — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 11:34:38 EST

NYC subways: even crappier this year than last year. Well, surely the fare hikes will change that. More »

Meet the Public Transportation Announcement Lady

Adrian Chen — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 11:31:46 EST

The woman who records the announcements for New York's subway system has never ridden the subway More »

Watch 45,000 People Run a Marathon in Under Two Minutes

Brian Moylan — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 17:57:31 EST

It took the runners hours to finish, but thanks to this MTA time-lapse video, you can watch the joggers in yesterday's NYC Marathon begin the race by crossing the Verrazano bridge in no time at all. Participation is overrated anyway. More »

Christmas and Retirement Are Luxuries We Can No Longer Afford

Hamilton Nolan — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:30:36 EDT

The Way We Live Now: riding dirty. Clocking dollars. Unretiring, training for the worst, and calling off Christmas. It's been one of those kinds of eons, hasn't it? More »

MTA Raises Prices Again

Hamilton Nolan — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 12:34:42 EDT

New Yorkers, the price of your Metrocard just went up 17%. More »

Cell Phone Service Coming to NYC Subway Stations by End of 2011

Max Read — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 01:42:00 EDT

Looks like NYC subway stations are getting cell phone service earlier than expected: Six stations—Along 14th St., and at 23rd St. and 8th Ave.—should be wired by the end of 2011. It will be both convenient and annoying. More »

MTA Can't Hear Your Complaints Over that Piercing, Unnecessary Alarm

Hamilton Nolan — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:55:28 EDT

The MTA is redesigning its service advisory posters to give NYC subway riders a clearer idea of which lines are fucked. But they're refusing calls to cut off those ceaseless shrieking emergency-exit gate alarms. Don't want to improve too much! More »

625 Volts of Third Rail Juice Is No Match for This Street Fighting Man

Jeff Neumann — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 06:12:00 EDT

Ever wonder what it's like to fall on the third rail? Just ask Andy Morris, who was thrown onto the tracks in East New York: "He first started twitching and then you started seeing smoke coming from his head." Ouch. More »

New York's Greatest Train Thief Arrested Driving a Trailways Bus

Jeff Neumann — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 06:33:54 EDT

Legendary train thief Darius McCollum was arrested yesterday for stealing a Trailways passenger bus from Hoboken, New Jersey, and driving it to Queens, saying afterward, "I'll bet they won't leave the keys in the ignition." It was his 27th arrest. More »

MTA Approves Awful Anti-'Ground Zero' 'Mosque' Bus Ads

Max Read — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:02:00 EDT

The MTA has agreed to run these ugly ads opposing the Cordoba House (or, in the ad's words, "WTC Mega Mosque") on its buses. Luckily, there are no buses left in New York, thanks to the MTA's service cuts. [NYP] More »

Our Worst Nightmare Realized: Subway Stations and Tracks To Have Cell Service, Wi-Fi

Brian Moylan — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:59:01 EDT

Not only will the city's subway stations be rigged to support your handheld electronic devices, but chatty citizens will be allowed to make calls in between stops, too. Is there anything worse than this? More »

Have You Seen This Masturbating Gentleman?

Maureen O'Connor — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:30:28 EDT

Riding a Brooklyn-bound 4 train, amateur photographer Kate Black noticed a man "pitching a tent" and "thrusting his hips" in ladies' faces. Thinking quickly, Kate photographed him, then declared a jihad against the pervert on her Flickr page. More »

The Subway Etiquette Hero Gets a Short Film

Brian Moylan — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:50:31 EDT

Jay Shells is the renegade artist who made those subway etiquette posters disguised as MTA signs. If he's an awesome outlaw, then why is his movie so damn boring? More »

The Final Frontier: Full-Train Subway Ads

Hamilton Nolan — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:02:33 EDT

First, the NYC subways rolled out relatively small ads on the outside (and inside) of train cars. In addition to ads on all other MTA property. Now: the first-ever full-train subway ad is here. Get used to it. [NYCtheblog; Pics] More »

The Nastiest Things You've Ever Seen on the Subway

Brian Moylan — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:59:33 EDT

We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we asked for your subway horror stories. Here are some of the grossest things we've ever heard, and the winner of our sick little contest. More »

What's the Nastiest Thing You've Ever Seen on the Subway?

Brian Moylan — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:12:32 EDT

The D train was just declared the dirtiest subway route in New York City. But in addition to old newspapers and empty bottles, there are some grosser things to be found on those cars. Time to share horror your stories! More »

Study: Rats Live in New York Subway, Avoid Traps, Like Food

Jeff Neumann — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 07:34:11 EDT

It only took the NYC Department of Health and the Metro Transit Authority two years to conclude a study that says rats live in subway stations, are hard to catch/kill, and like to dine in subway stations' "refuse room." More »

New York's New Subway Map: Now With 30% More Manhattan

Max Read — Fri, 28 May 2010 02:18:07 EDT

New York is getting a new subway map! It's the first redesign in more than a decade, and it mostly looks the same as the old map, but with new colors. Here are some of the big differences: More »

Upper West Side Conservative Blogger Will Save Muslims From Themselves with Bus Ads

Adrian Chen — Wed, 26 May 2010 22:55:23 EDT

You know what someone should do something about? All those Muslims who are desperate to escape their religion but just haven't found the courage to do it because Islam is so violent. Luckily this blogger woman will save the day! More »

MTA Severs Its Ties to Goldman Sachs

Remy Stern — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:10:58 EDT

Even the scandal-ridden MTA doesn't want to have anything to do with Goldman Sachs. More »

Straphangers Can't Quite Understand What Study Says

Hamilton Nolan — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 09:00:19 EDT

According to a new study, 55% of announcements on the NYC subway system are "garbled or incorrect." The MTA responded, "Wokwokwokwok." [NYP; Pic via. Related] Update! More »

It's Subway S.W.A.T. Team Time in NYC

Hamilton Nolan — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:16:45 EDT

The MTA is flooding the NYC transit system with cops in response to the subway bombings in Moscow today. So don't worry, the guys you see on the trains carrying submachine guns are there to protect you. In all likelihood. More »

We Can't Do Math So We Spent All Our Social Security

Hamilton Nolan — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:26:42 EDT

The Way We Live Now: Spending ourselves to death. The way we're unable to comprehend simple arithmetic, you'd think we were all educated in America's public schools. Hmm, what's everything we have minus everything? Can we still afford a VitaminWater? More »