“Gosh, Miles, why would you put so many lines in a single post?” Well, blog reader, it pays to check the MTA website beforehand to see what service changes (no pun intended) are in effect on weekends. As you’ll see in the post, we ended up taking a lot of pointless train rides just because of weekend service changes. It all started with a trip to Smith – 9 Streets…

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.

As you may be able to tell, this is a long route. The Bronx Zoo to Jamaica is a pretty large distance, and therefore gets a lot of ridership that necessitates using articulated buses. The buses are fairly new and nice, yet they still don’t have automatic announcements! Get your game on, New York! I couldn’t understand what the driver was saying for the life of me! Anyway… getting off the 7 at Flushing – Main Street, we found we had just missed a Q44. Luckily, it still runs about every 10 minutes on Sundays, so another bus came soon.

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.

It turned out the bus we were on was a Q44 Limited – every Q44 trip excluding those during late nights and early mornings is, apparently, a Limited. It didn’t make much of a difference, though. We still made quite a few stops, as announced by the driver on his crackly, impossible to understand speaker.

The bus was reasonably crowded already, but throughout the trip it never got to a point where all the seat pairs were taken up. As we headed down Main Street, almost all of the businesses had Chinese writing on them. We went by the beautiful glass Queens Library and slowly we left the Chinatown. There were some apartment buildings, then we went by the Queens Botanical Garden and a field.

I put all the bus pictures at the beginning, but here’s something interesting we saw along the route: a traffic light that somehow got flipped upside down.

Though it was elevated almost the whole way, this was not a very nice ride. We went through some pretty bad neighborhoods on the J that were really badly maintained: graffiti, abandoned buildings, total wreckages of buildings. There was a nice view over the Williamsburg Bridge into Manhattan, but that came much later…

Of course we wanted to take the J the whole way, so when we got on at Sutphin Boulevard – Archer Ave – JFK Airport (does the name have to be that long?), we had to take it one stop to Jamaica Center – Parsons/Archer first. Okay, both of those stop names have “Archer” in them – do we need to be reminded at both stations that the train goes along Archer Ave?

The train at SB-AA-JFKA (It’s even hard to abbreviate!).

A quick glimpse at Jamaica Center – Parsons/Archer.

As you can see, the line is underground for the two Jamaica stops. After that, though, we rose up and turned onto Jamaica Ave, which was the aforementioned bad neighborhood. The El seemed pretty intrusive, too; we were very close to some of the apartments, and in some cases could see inside! The neighborhood got better and better as we went along, luckily. Woodhaven Boulevard was the next major stop, with 75th Street after. We went by a big field and a cemetery, then made a sharp turn onto Crescent Street, and then another turn onto Fulton Street.

A water tower near Jamaica.

A bad picture of that football field.

The cemetery.

Not the nicest neighborhood…

After a few stops we turned onto Broadway and came into the big mess that is Broadway Junction. This station has two elevated lines, a subway line, an above ground yard, and a Long Island Railroad Station to the south. As you can imagine, it’s pretty crazy. This is also the top New York subway station for weapons possession, which is…good to know.

That’s a nice building.

A typical view.

Looking down a somewhat suburban street.

A bus terminal.

Making the turn onto Broadway.

The yard at Broadway Junction.

We stopped at few more stations (including Kosciuszko Street, however you pronounce that), then at Myrtle Ave there was a transfer to the M. As it was a weekend the M was simply acting as a shuttle from here to Middle Village – Metropolitan Ave, but on weekdays it continues into Manhattan and Queens. It started to get more built up after Myrtle Ave. We crossed over I-278, then made an s-curve onto the Williamsburg Bridge. The view was pretty great, but there were a lot of supports getting in the way.

A bus terminal just before the bridge.

This was, unfortunately, the best picture I could get.

A development in Manhattan.

After the bridge the train went underground for some pretty depressing subway stations. If you thought some of the other ones were dingy, you haven’t been on the J. Anyway, since it was a weekend, the train terminated at Chambers Street, where we changed over to a 4. On weekdays it goes two more stops to Broad Street, in the financial district. Overall, this was certainly an…interesting ride, though the only part I would recommend was the bit over the Williamsburg Bridge.

Ugh!

Blech!

At least they tried to spruce it up with some artwork.

Up next is the Q44 bus, which we took from Flushing to Jamaica!

This was such a cool station that I decided to dedicate an entire post to it! Jamaica is the hub of the Long Island Railroad, has a connection with the Airtrain to JFK Airport, and has a subway station (with the overly long name of Sutphin Boulevard – Archer Ave – JFK Airport) served by the E and J lines. In fact, it’s one of the busiest railroad stations in the world, with over 200,000 daily boardings and over 1,000 trains passing through every day.

The Long Island Railroad station is pretty huge, and very striking from street level. It’s eight elevated tracks, with a huge steel glass canopy over them. The station is also home to the most useless moving sidewalk ever, as you’ll see in a little bit…

Look at that! It’s beautiful!

Not as beautiful.

The platforms themselves are fairly standard.

Under the canopy.

The mezzanine.

A train coming…

…and leaving.

Here it is, folks! Why would anyone ever use this?

We didn’t spend much time at the Airtrain station, since a lot of it was beyond fare gates. We were going to take a joyride to the airport, but five bucks is way too much for something so short. The area we did see was very nice, though.

Very bright and airy.

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

The subway station, on the other hand, was nothing special. It wasn’t as dingy as some of the ones in Manhattan, but it was pretty darn dingy.

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.

When Googling which New York subway line is the most scenic, I ended up on some forum. Everyone said to ride either the 7 to Flushing or the F/G to Smith/9 Streets, and we decided to do the 7 (though we did Smith/9 Streets on my more recent trip to New York – post on that coming soon!). The line is nicknamed the “International Express” because of all the ethnic neighborhoods it passes through, as well as the fact that it served the 1964-65 World’s Fair. It only has five underground stops before going elevated the rest of the way to Flushing. And it’s a really fun ride, too.

Eww…

The train.

Interesting colors inside…

If there’s a diamond around the 7 it means it’s an express train. Those only run during rush hour.

The subway yard.

Train inception!

That’s a lot of graffiti.

Nice view!

The Amtrak yard.

A typical view along the 7.

The huge globe.

Citi Field, as seen from Mets-Willets Point.

Speaking of Willets Point…ew!

The view of Flushing Creek.

The underground Main Street Station.

We took some interesting elevated lines on our trip to New York, but we also took a lot of underground lines. This is a post that covers all of the trips we made in the boring subterranean world.

The ticket area.

Blurry and bleak.

This mural attempts to brighten the mood. It is a nice mural.

The station platform.

A rather nice mosaic.

An old-looking C train.

Up close.

The E.

Fast-forward to the 77 Street Station!

It’s kinda nice!

The train coming in.

It’s blurry, but I like it.

86 Street isn’t as nice.

The standard entrance.

The S platform is pretty separated from the rest of the Grand Central platforms.

The track just ends here.

It’s crowded…

A better one of the train.

And a better one of the platform.

Times Square, again crowded and even more grimy.

This station is really complicated!

Represent!

Next up will be the 7, a mostly elevated line with some fantastic views. Until the next post…

Let’s be honest: assuming there’s no traffic, driving is both quicker and cheaper than taking the train to New York. But there often is traffic, and that can be pretty stressful. Flying is also stressful, what with security and the fact that it’s a pain to get to downtown from either of New York’s airports. So why not take the train? It’s scenic, fairly quick (a little over four hours; the Acela is about 45 minutes faster), and it’s not (that) stressful. So why not?

Here are the pictures I took on the ride – there are a lot.

The train at South Station.

It looks like we’re inside a plane!

Leaving South Station.

A nice view of the city.

Gross bathroom? You betcha.

The sink and trash.

The dining car. The pizza, interestingly, is the same brand of microwave pizza I eat.

The whole menu.

Some tables in the dining car.

Going between cars.

What a lovely picture of the light.

Some nice views.

Luggage racks and a trash bin that you probably can’t make out.

Look at all those boats!

A water view.

A really high bridge.

The bridge definitely taints the view.

New London seems like a really nice town (city?).

More boats.

Another view.

There are a lot of boats along the Northeast Corridor.

A swamp.

A yard.

I like “mind the gap” more.

More boats!

These apartments mean we’re getting close to New York.

The train goes on a spectacular bridge between the Bronx and Queens, and is really high up for a while. There’s a fantastic view of the skyline.

Some apartments.

Another view. The train goes underground after a while, going under the East River in a tunnel.

The gap at Penn Station was huge!

It’s not that nice, is it?

And now, the ride back, on the other side! This is a Metro-North train we were racing.

Look, more boats!

A nice view across the water.

More of an industrial scene.

Well, isn’t this just lovely. I think this is Bridgeport.

There was a lot of urban decay in what I think was Bridgeport.

Lovely.

A Metro-North yard with some older trains.

And a school bus yard.

Various swampy views.

This one’s less swampy.

Though this one is.

A beach!

That’s really nice.

Not so nice.

Another awesome view.

That monument is intriguing.

Beautiful.

More boats!

And more!

More swamps!

More water!

Man, I really want to know where that road goes.

Spooky…

A view out the back of the train!

A nice touch in the dining car.

Yay!

More lovely bridges.

Crossing the Providence River. The Providence station is underground, and is really dingy.

Providence.

A Commuter Rail yard.

And finally, the train from the front, looking a bit dirty.