east village idiot

This morning - the morning of April 3rd - I was shocked to find that the staircase at 1st Avenue Station on the L Train that was scheduled to be closed until April 4th was already reopened. They were starting work on another staircase in the station today.

I was thrilled! For once, an MTA project was completed ahead of schedule.

Then I got down to the platform and was reminded of what the MTA is best known for - an L Train was sitting in the station, with its doors open, overflowing with passengers. In the five minutes that it sat in the station, not a single announcement was made on the train or platform about why it was sitting in the station.

Unwilling to cram myself into the train, I waited for the next train. After all, the overhead sign said it was only 3 minutes away. But 3 minutes later, it still said 3 minutes. 3 minutes after that, this message finally appeared on the sign:

Well, that’s helpful. “Delay” really tells me how long I’m going to have to wait.

After a few more minutes, I gave up and headed towards the M14 bus stop. On the way up, I caught a whopper of an announcement on a poster in the station: Manhattan-bound L Trains will be experiencing delays and running at slower speeds through June between Bedford Avenue and 1st Avenue while they work on the track. Fan-fucking-tastic!

When I finally got up to a crammed-to-the-gills M14 bus, one editorial comment on a poster summed up my commute this morning:

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 9:24 am and is filed under Subway Stupidity. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.