My worry about the platforms actually began when our school got a very stern warning from our rector (Principal) - apparently some of the boys had been screwing around on the platform on their way home, and a little girl had fallen between the platform and the train as a consequence. It happened when the train was stationary and she was pulled out unhurt, but it provoked an understandably terse letter of complaint and made us all think a bit harder before mucking about. I don’t know if this is the kind of thing you’re referring to when you talk about getting trapped between train and platform.
There also used to be another platform at South Ferry that was a tighter loop inside the platform in use now. Since the platform was on the inside of the loop, only the middle doors on each car were close enough to use safely. There was a wall along the edge of the platform with arched openings for these doors. There was also the old City Hall station, another tight loop, this time with the platform on the outside edge. No wall at this one, but only the end doors opened there.
I believe that the old City Hall station has been out of use since the Forties, and the inner loop at South Ferry was used for a Bowling Green to South Ferry shuttle as late as the Seventies.
Detail of South Ferry area (unused tracks in gray)
Detail of City Hall area
Note the gap at the old City Hall station (still used to turn trains around)
Gap fillers at South Ferry
South Ferry inner loop platform
There are also gap fillers of a more modest design at 14th St./Union Square.
In fact, it is not an urban legend. As discussed in this thread, this happened in the Grand Army Plaza station in Brooklyn in September 1982. Please see my post near the end of that thread for details of the incident taken from an autobiography of a police officer at the scene.
No…but then again…neither are sidewalks, garages, and bedrooms. The thing is how safe they are…obvously, subway platforms are less safe then bedrooms. The key is that so long as they aren’t dangerous (there’s a difference) there’s no reason to avoid them, or even make serious improvements on their workings.
Yes, people do fall, and are pushed in the NYC Subway System. In the last 20 years, since I moved to Enwye, it’s happened. I’m paranoid enough to change my stance when I hear a train approaching. I turn sideways, so that I am well balanced. If someone pushed me and I was facing the wall opposite me, I’d be dead meat. This way, I’ve enormous leverage. Paranoid, yeah. I also try to stand with my back near a column.
A bad way to go, I’d say.
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