That’s the aforementioned highest elevated station in the world, at 87.5 feet up. It’s served by the F and G trains, the former stopping relatively close to our hotel at 34 Street – Herald Square Station. The entrance was generic, but at least the mezzanine was clean and not dingy (cough, cough, Chambers Street). This station was pretty unique in that it was accessible for people with disabilities, but didn’t have an elevator. How did it achieve this? There was a long, twisting ramp from the mezzanine all the way down to the platform. It’s something I’ve never seen before, but I can see why: it’s not efficient at all!

The escalator heading down had this weird screen that occasionally flashed obvious advice to passengers (hold handrail, don’t run, etc.). Why was it there? I have no idea. The platform was also interesting; it sloped down, and then back up again leaving. I’m not sure why they did it this way instead of the opposite – if it sloped up coming in and down going out, that would help trains decelerate and accelerate, respectively. Seems like the actual layout just makes it a pain for train drivers to stop here.

The entrance sign seems to be a bit cut off.

The mezzanine.

Okay, this mosaic is pretty cool.

Another shot of the mezzanine.

Look at those ramps!

All right, thanks for letting me know.

This is pretty ugly.

Ditto for the platform. But it’s not as bad as some other ones (cough, cough, Chambers Street).

Oh, no, it’s blurry!

The pictures got out of order and Blogger won’t let me put this one back where it belongs, but here’s the mezzanine again.

The platform, also out of order.

The trip to Smith – 9 Streets was almost entirely underground, so I won’t get into too much detail. We headed down Avenue of the Americas (or 6 Ave), making every stop, as the F is a local. After a while, the train turned onto Houston Street (pronounced How-ston, not Hue-ston), and soon again onto Essex Street. After crossing the East River, we went down Jay Street in Brooklyn. Soon we were joined by the G on Smith Street, then we went above ground after Carroll Street Station.

We came up and made a hard left turn onto 9 Street, and came into the Smith – 9 Street Station. This station was indeed very high up, and the view…well, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

The actual station isn’t really that noteworthy.

Yup, that looks structurally sound.

I’m not sure what part of Manhattan this is.

What a view! The train gets in the picture, too.

A close-up of the train.

Stopped at the platform.

A G train comes in.

Stopped at the platform.

The G leaving…

…and going over a bridge.

Another nice view.

The station’s right next to a massive Lowe’s.

That’s a big parking lot.

One part of the station is unsheltered.

Looking over the rooftops.

I think this is looking further up Manhattan.

The bridge down to the next station.

An old water tower, I guess?

Another F coming in.

There were a lot of stairs, unfortunately no elevator.

The bit where you can cross over between tracks.

At least there’s an escalator here.

I guess that’s where we are?

I’m not too sure what this artwork represents, but it looks pretty cool.

Just out of fare control…

Another F train, back on the platform.

And leaving.

For some reason there are two express tracks that pass through here. They’re not used for revenue service.

Lots of traffic.

I love how the Freedom Tower sticks up above all the others.

And there’s the Empire State Building.

Okay, so here’s what we were planning to do: we wanted to take the G to the next stop, 4 Avenue – 9 Street, and change over to an R. The R would then, if the maps were any indication, go over the Manhattan Bridge (it usually goes through a tunnel under the East River, but the maps said that tunnel was being worked on and the R was being routed over the bridge) and take us up to Times Square, just in time for our dinner reservation. Simple, right? Hahaha, wrong.

First, we waited for a G. The reason we wanted to take a G and not an F was simply because of its notoriety: this is probably the most hated line on the entire New York subway. It’s the only one that doesn’t go into Manhattan, and the MTA clearly does not care about it. For one thing, the F was using these big long trains that filled the whole platform. So we were pretty surprised when this old, tiny little four car G pulled up at the station.

We left the station, but for some reason we were going really slowly. I was looking out the window, and I saw that we were switching onto the express tracks. Glancing out the other side, I saw that we were going right past 4 Avenue! Now we would have to get off at the next stop and take a train back! To this day, I still have no idea why we skipped that station, but geez, was it annoying!

Look at that rollsign! No electronics here!

Nice that they have forward facing seats. That makes it easier to look out the window to see the STOPS YOU’RE SKIPPING.

A nice view heading out of Smith – 9 Streets.

So we had to get out at 7 Ave. Though this station is underground, it’s actually higher in altitude than 4 Ave because of Brooklyn’s topography. A G train came going the other way, but we weren’t taking chances with that line. We waited for an F, and luckily it stopped at 4 Ave. We then made the transfer from elevated to underground to wait for an R.

7 Ave isn’t the nicest station.

Looking back the other way.

Go away, G, we don’t trust you.

The mezzanine (we had to cross over).

There’s a more welcome sight.

4 Ave Station, back out in the open.

Man, it’s bright!

The line goes into tunnel right after the station.

Heading underground.

Once again, it’s not a very nice station.

After a few noisy express trains went by, my attention was caught by a piece of paper on the wall. “The Montague Tubes are now open,” it said. This meant that the R would be going its normal route, contrary to what ALL the station maps said! We still had plenty of time before our reservation, luckily, so we decided to take the R up to Atlantic Ave – Barclays Center to change over to an N or a Q.

An R coming in.

Well!

I’m glad to see a station that’s somewhat nice (Atlantic Ave).

Guess the station used to be called Pacific Street.

Come on, another R?

After waiting for a pretty long time, an N finally arrived. The driver said some gibberish over the loudspeaker, and we were off. As it was a newer train, it had one of those cool LED map screens. But something was wrong with it: it said this train was stopping at all the stations that the R usually stops at! Was it an error? Nope, we stopped at Dekalb Ave, which the N usually skips to get onto the Manhattan Bridge.

So the Q was our last hope. We got out at Dekalb to wait for one, but another sign caught my attention: “All N, Q, and R trains are running via the Montague Tubes this weekend.” Look, I know you’re excited about the tubes opening again, but do you have to run every train through it? B and D trains were still running over the Manhattan Bridge, why not N and Q trains?

Still, though, the Q would be express at least, so we could still make our reservation. If one ever came. Really, we waited so long for a Q to come that it probably wasn’t even worth it. And then, there was another hitch: the Montague Tubes don’t have express tracks. Uh-oh…

The N coming in.

Again, this station is somewhat presentable!

Goodbye, N!

Why do they have a signal right in the middle of the platform?

Finally, a Q!

After a few stops in Brooklyn, we crossed the East River (sadly in tunnel) into Downtown Manhattan, where the streets are just as confusing as Boston’s. But the train was moving so slowly. We crawled through Whitehall Street and Rector Street (or Rrrrector, as the automatic announcement enthusiastically said) stations, but the worst part was between Cortlandt Street and City Hall. You know that bit on the Red Line just south of Harvard where the train goes around a really sharp corner and screeches a lot? Yeah, well imagine that for the entire distance between two stations. It’s really fun. Really. Fun.

Canal Street was the next stop, and then finally we switched over to the express tracks. The sad part is, we didn’t even skip that many stops: it really wasn’t worth it. And the local trains stopped at 49 Street, literally right outside of the restaurant we had a reservation for. But on the Q we had to go all the way to 57 Street (we could’ve gotten off in Times Square, but if you’ve ever been there you know how slowly those crowds walk), and ended up being a half hour late! So the moral of this story is: check the MTA website before doing anything.

So with that, we say goodbye to New York. Boston posts will be coming soon, I have a lot of catching up to do.

Note the Chinese lettering – Flushing is New York’s largest Chinatown.

Another shot of the bus.

The inside.

The back doors that you push! I didn’t get to try them, unfortunately.

They could use these screens for something else. Like stop displays to accompany the nonexistent automatic announcements.

Then we went past some two-story apartments and businesses that still had the Chinese lettering! We crossed over I-495, and passed through a cute suburban neighborhood. There was a high school, a college, and a graveyard all on the same block, then it went back to more small apartments.

Now, I’d just like to point out how confusing the street names in this area are. You’ve got 72 Ave, then 72 Road, then 72 Drive, then 73 Ave, then 75 Ave but 73 Terrace on the other side, what? The whole point of numbered streets is to make things easier to navigate! What’s with all these different types of roads tacked on to each number? And where’s 74 Ave? Ugh.

We then went through some projects, and after crossing over the Grand Central Parkway it got suburban again, but only for a bit. Merging off of Main Street (which suddenly joins the Van Wyck Expressway), we turned onto Queens Boulevard. This road was so wide that there was a nice sidewalk in the median. It was nothing as nice as the Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Boston, but still a good addition to the road.

We turned onto Hillside Avenue, and after stopping at Sutphin Boulevard Station, served by the F, we turned onto the station’s namesake. We went by the Queens Supreme Court, then there were a lot of businesses as we came into Jamaica. After taking one look at the beautiful Jamaica Station, I knew we had to get off here. So we did.

The next and final part will be about the various subway lines we took for incredibly short distances on our other trip to New York, as well as the highest elevated station in the world!

Very bright and airy.

I have no idea what a piano has to do with anything, but that’s very cool.

The mezzanine is kinda nice, I suppose.

Look at that crowd! Good thing we weren’t taking the E. The J boards on a lower platform.

A work train.

Ugh. I suppose that mosaic adds color.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to start at Times Square, the current terminal of the line (though it’s being extended to 34th St soon). Instead we got on at Grand Central, two stops away. It was an older train, but it was 11 cars long! This train must get really crowded! Ours certainly didn’t, though it was a Sunday.

Right after Hunters Point Ave the train left the tunnel, going over a subway yard, and made a sharp left turn north. There was a nice view of the city along this stretch. We made a stop at Court Square, then we took another sharp turn into Queensborough Plaza. After that we went over a massive Amtrak yard and along the very wide Queens Boulevard. Queens Boulevard is interesting in that the EL is over a median used for extra parking rather than over the street itself. It makes things a lot less dingy.

Soon we turned slightly northward onto Roosevelt Ave. Woodside was the next major stop, which is also served by Long Island Railroad trains. It creates a rather large, dingy elevated interchange. Soon after there was another interchange, interestingly between the elevated 7 and the underground E, F, M, and R. I’ve always imagined that these sorts of stations are hard to plan out.

It was pretty standard fare for the next few stops, until a little after 111 Street. At this point the track climbed up, making the globe from the World’s Fair visible over the trees of Flushing Meadows Park. Mets-Willets Point Station was in the middle of a massive parking lot and in an area with a lot of stadiums. Willets Point is also an interesting neighborhood: it’s all auto shops (my favorite!), and only one guy actually lives there. The roads aren’t paved, and the area doesn’t even have a sewage system, so it floods all the time!

We then crossed over Flushing Creek and the Van Wyck Expressway and unfortunately went underground. Flushing-Main Street was the next and last stop, but there wasn’t anything special about it (though Flushing – New York’s largest Chinatown – apparently has some pretty good restaurants). Our journey, however, was very interesting, and I would recommend it if you’re looking for an elevated line to ride in New York. Up next is the J, another elevated line, but one that’s quite a lot more…run down.

Coming into Penn Station from Amtrak, we did the exact same E to 6 trip from the previous trip to New York, getting on and off at the same stations and everything. As such, I won’t dwell on this trip too much.

The 4 runs along the Lexington Avenue Line, like the 6. The 4 has the added benefit, however, of being express. It really speeds up the journey; the trip from Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall to 86 Street on the 4 was four stops. The local 6 would’ve done it in 14 stops. The 5 1/2 mile trip from downtown Manhattan to 86 Street only took 15 minutes! Yes, New York express trains are the salt of the earth.

And finally, the S. There are three S services in New York, but the one we’re concerned with is the 42 Street shuttle. This is a very short line that runs from Times Square to Grand Central with no stops in between. The nice thing about the S is that since there are two trains running the route, there’s pretty much always one there when you enter the station. But it would be really boring to drive, just going back and forth. It almost seems like the S is where drivers go when they get punished. “That’s it! You’re driving the S!”