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posts about #subways more →
New York City Just Gives Up on Subway Service
Feeling Better About Fare Increases
New York Subway Riders: Kinda Grope-y
Last Remains of Old New York Being Outed: Crotchety Subway Workers
The Gruesome L Train Incident: Solved
L Train Death? (Updated)
Smoke Clogs Subway Lines
Puking Pug Police Coverup Goes All the Way to the Top
Pukey Pug Hugger or Kooky Jew Boo-er?
Owner of Puking Subway Dog Treated Roughly

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If_I_Had_a_Poodle
11/22/09

In reply to New York City Just Gives Up on Subway Service
Everything you said about the misallocation of resources (more highways, less mass transit) is true for schools, too

Local funding of local transit and local schools with national funding of highways is a recipe for a big country filled with long roads driven by itinerant illiterates.
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badasscat
11/21/09

In reply to New York City Just Gives Up on Subway Service
Fares are simply taxes—incredibly regressive taxes, just like the sales taxes that New York City residents suffer to fund our own transit while suburban New Yorkers bitch about the prospect of being charged to clog our streets with their cars

Yeah, and we do that because if you think subway fares are ridiculous, look at LIRR or Metro North fares once in a while. And then look up how fast they've risen over the past few years.

You guys in the city really don't know how good you've got it.

You think $100 a month is a lot to pay for a monthly ticket? Try doubling it. For traveling the same distance in the same amount of time. And how about a 23% increase over the last 3 years?

And you wonder why we want to drive?
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cassandra
11/22/09

@badasscat: seriously, the LIRR charges something like $8, one way, for destinations in the five boroughs - forget actual Long Island. How can anyone afford that on a daily basis?

Pareene, I thought you were totally wrong about Bloomberg (and you are). But you are absolutely correct about the MTA.
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garbanzo314
11/21/09

In reply to New York City Just Gives Up on Subway Service
Can we also outsource all labor within the MTA to a non-union shop. The TWU has stood in the way of implementing new technology (they fought automated announcements in favor giving unintelligible conductors something to do), has made it impossible to fire workers for anything short of murder, and has hopefully featherbedded the system with way too much labor. And did we mention the sweetheart pension and benefit deals. In other municipal news, did anyone notice as part of the news about Bloomberg's city staff cuts that the benefits to salary ratio of city employees is 37% (in the private sector, it's less than 25% typically). Just goes to show that unions are bleeding the taxpayer dry.
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OMG! Ponies!
11/20/09

In reply to New York City Just Gives Up on Subway Service
$205 monthly LIRR pass plus $89 monthly Metrocard equals the reason I now drive.
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FitnessMadeSimple
11/20/09

In reply to New York City Just Gives Up on Subway Service
Thank you for this, Pareene. This is my favorite post you've ever written.

Also, MTA: everyone knows you are full of shit when you stall at the same stations every day for five minutes at a time and claim there is train traffic ahead.
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Edited by FitnessMadeSimple at 11/20/09 3:15 PM FitnessMadeSimple was starred

Mike Byhoff
11/20/09

@FitnessMadeSimple: I once heard that they were waiting for passengers to transfer from other trains and that there was train traffic ahead.

WHICH ONE IS IT!?
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FitnessMadeSimple
11/20/09

@Mike Byhoff: Well, I take the 6 express to the Bronx, and they pull this crap all the time. They stop at Parkchester, where the 6 local stops across the platform. If a 6 local pulls in at the same time or just after the express, they'll hold the express there for the NEXT local, so they can also transfer. They tell us there is train traffic ahead, but it is clearly bullshit, as they're suddenly able to move as soon as the passengers board from the following local. It is infuriating.
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happymisanthrope
11/21/09

@FitnessMadeSimple: More infuriating is when they use that announcement after you've been waiting 20 minutes for a train to arrive at the station.
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Unsolicited Advice
11/20/09

In reply to New York City Just Gives Up on Subway Service
I thought you loved centrally-planned bureaucracies? Good luck finding those "civil servants" by the way, that was good for a laugh.
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Pareene
11/20/09

@Unsolicited Advice: You're right! No one on earth has ever figured out how to competently manage a massive public transit system! Especially no one in Paris, or Tokyo, or London, where they had to cancel all the subways because there were no "civil servants" :(
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Unsolicited Advice
11/20/09

@Pareene:

I'd come up there and argue, but I think Septa's on strike again.
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allyzay
11/20/09

@Pareene: Last time I was in London, I got stranded at Euston at like 10 or 11pm with a pile of tarty, tacky MILFs - literally, hundreds of them - screaming out the lyrics to "Angels". Then I had to take a gypsy cab back, in which I found a cell phone, so I did the right thing and got in touch with the last person dialed to get the phone back to this person and they wouldn't leave for hours after coming to get their phone at a terrible barbeque restaurant, as if British people even understand the very concept of a barbeque! FUCK London's transit system.
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lobstr
11/20/09

In reply to New York City Just Gives Up on Subway Service
It's so weird to sit in a smelly shitty subway station in Milan and yet look up and see a digital board telling me the next Linea A train is 2:01 away. I don't understand why NYC can't just strike a deal with SONY or Mitsubishi and let them brand some dumb monitors and get 'em down there already -- the technology exists, wtf.
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DTurkin
11/20/09

@lobstr: Because that would mean actually investing in the network. As much as I hate London and it's Underground, you'll always know when the next train is due, and be able to phone someone to let them know you will be late.

I feel sorry for those living outside of Manhattan on the weekends.
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daveyjonesisdead
11/20/09

In reply to New York City Just Gives Up on Subway Service
Pataki slashed state funding for the MTA in his first budget, in order to give tax cuts to corporations. So, yeah - go to hell workers: no wage increases despite higher productivity, the stock market and housing that were supposed to increase your wealth are just scams, and your formerly 24-7 transit system is about 6 to 10, Monday to Friday.
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daveyjonesisdead
11/20/09

@daveyjonesisdead: Oh: and to keep up appearances while Pataki was Gov, they borrowed like hell to support construction and maintenance. Much of their present problem is because the payments on that have come due.
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Motoko Kusanagi
11/20/09

@daveyjonesisdead: I would gladly trade state funding for the MTA to get Albany and the rest of backwoods NY the fuck out of my city.
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DennyCrane
11/20/09

In reply to New York City Just Gives Up on Subway Service
You would throw Paul McCartney's girlfriend off the MTA Board? For shame, sir.
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SpicyMeatball
11/20/09

In reply to New York City Just Gives Up on Subway Service
Yep. Just found out today they just aren't running the N,W trains in Astoria during the day this weekend...at...all. Track work. Suuuuure. Would they ever pull that shit in Manhattan? There's no 4,5,6 train from 86th to 14th. People would lose their minds.
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jodru
11/20/09

@SpicyMeatball: They do it all the time on the 1 north of 168th street. Can't tell you how many times I had to take shuttle buses when I was living in Inwood.

Of course, that's terrain the MTA could give a toss about.
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Seeräuber Jenny
11/20/09

@SpicyMeatball:

That's one reason I'm so parochial. The only time I would have to leave Manhattan is on the weekends and I'm afraid I'd get lost and never return. Trying to figure out what's running is a complete joke.

Even in Manhattan, I've had terrible experiences in the last couple of years. Say, when the train decided to go Express with no announcement and I was left on a deserted platform in creepy neighborhood at three in morning. Wonderful.
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uptown
11/20/09

@SpicyMeatball: FYI - They fuck with the 4,5,6 line almost every weekend. Remember ... Your enemy is the MTA .... not the people dealing with the same shit service problems as you.
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SpicyMeatball
11/20/09

@uptown: I lived on the 4,5,6 line in Manhattan for 7 years. There is no comparison. Not even close. Believe me. That said, I fully agree that the MTA is the enemy.

#tips
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Seeräuber Jenny
11/20/09

In reply to Feeling Better About Fare Increases
orwellian .
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BadUncle
11/20/09

In reply to Feeling Better About Fare Increases
Optimism is what kept me on the F train for the last two days. Despair was my reward.
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Rozelle’s Bagman
11/20/09

In reply to Feeling Better About Fare Increases
INVISIBUL AIRE KWOTES
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Understater
11/20/09

In reply to Feeling Better About Fare Increases
In Toronto, a single-ride token is gonna cost $3.00 come '10 (which works out to like 2.80 USD)

Suck it up, NYCers!
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BadUncle
11/20/09

@Understater: Hey, until you can boast about crappy, erratic service, too, then you're just another city with a luxury ride.
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Understater
11/20/09

@BadUncle: I've taken the MTA, I've taken the TTC (both for extended periods of time)...and lemme tell ya, the former absolutely trounces the latter in terms of service.
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overunderover
11/20/09

In reply to Feeling Better About Fare Increases
Optimism was needed when the downtown 4/5 crapped out at 8:30 this morning. Please, tell me - how do electric trains stall?
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