Memo to the MTA
Dear MTA Conductors,
I appreciate it when you take special steps to make your announcements clear to the passengers on board the train. However, I think I speak for masses of young New York natives and all transplanted New Yorkers when I say that this message, which was made on my uptown Q train this morning, is completely useless.
Ladies and Gentlemen, due to a train in Brakes in Emergency on the BMT Line at Lexington Avenue, please take the IRT Shuttle at Times Square to Grand Central.
The only people these days who know what the “IRT” or the “BMT” is are 60 year-old ladies and subway nerds like me. The subway lines have had numbers and letters for almost forty years. And they have these designations for a reason. Use them.
Love,
Chris
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 at 12:46 pm and is filed under Life in NYC. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 17th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
says:hey, they get two points for the fact that you actually made out what they were saying. And that it was in English.
July 17th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
says:ohhh what is IRT and BMT…I am intrigued now..
July 17th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
says:Man I sure don’t like it when my Sea Beach line gets delayed…
July 17th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
says:Are the IRT and BMT code words for those insanely long, always flooded tunnels that stretch from Grand Central to Times Square?
July 17th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
says:You don’t have to be 60 to know them. I still use them - anyone who has parents from around here will probably still use the letter designations. And it’s more elegant.
What I don’t understand is the one conductor on the uptown A who will announce “Canal St. - Holland Tunnel.” Anyone riding the SUBWAY isn’t going to care about the tunnel. It’s not like we can walk through it.
July 17th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
says:You can wiki the crap out of the NY Subway. I got lost for quite a while clicking on all the links within the article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Subway
July 17th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
says:I’ll try to guess. The “BMT at Lexington Avenue” is the N/ R/ W to the Lex/ 59th Street station. The “IRT shuttle” has to be the shuttle between Times Square and Grand Central.
Presumably, if you want to get to 59th Street from Times Square, you should take the Shuttle to Grand Central (why not the 7?), then the 4,5, or 6 to 59th Street. They left out the part about the 4, 5, or 6. And presumably the N, R, and W are are still running from 59th Street out to Queens.
I had no idea that the Shuttle was part of the “old” (pre-municipalization) subway system. And I had parents who moved here in the 60s and I never understood the IRT/ BMT/ IND classifications.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:07 am
says:Yeah, I’m with you on the Wiki-ing. I spent hours on there learning about the abondoned tunnels and such. There’s some fun stuff on there.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:32 am
says:More elegant? Since when does elegance overrule clear and useful communication? If they’re numbered now, the announcements need to be made using numbers. Not everyone’s parents are from the area, hence Chris mentioning “transplanted” New Yorkers. I’m with Chris on this one.
July 18th, 2007 at 9:19 am
says:The shuttle, in fact, was part of the first original subway line that went from City Hall up the east side to grand central, made a left turn across town, and then went up the current #1 line. You can see the link when you are going between 42nd St and 50th st where the 1 line connects to the shuttle platforms.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
says:[…] I seriously think that Chris may actually have more anger issues than me. [EVI] […]
July 18th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
says:Yeah, I always tune it out when my parents talk about the IRT and BMT systems.
July 19th, 2007 at 5:15 am
says:[…] the good news: Trains are running through the East Side IRT tunnels (and, yes, some of us still know what the IRT is) but are not stopping at Grand Central. The closest stops are as […]