Engineering hours and track maintenance. In NY I believe there are double tracks each way so it’s easy enough to just close one and maintain it while using the other. In London there is only one track in each direction due to space restrictions and so it must be closed for 4 to 5 hours per night.
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Personally, i’ve always found the NYC subway system extremely easy to navigate. It’s certainly a little more complicated than the London Underground, but if you actually take a moment to figure out where you are, where you need to be, and how to get there, then it really isn’t very difficult to find your way around.
Funnily enough, i’ve probably been asked for directions more in New York than in any other city. Despite the fact that i’m not a local, and have never actually lived there, i can usually help the person pretty easily, whether they need a subway line or just walking directions. I’m constantly amazed by the number of people who actually have maps, yet who seem to lack even the most rudimentary map-reading skills. I guess i can understand if you get lost in the mazes of little streets in Chinatown or Tribeca, but if you can’t work out how to get from Lexington and 23rd to 7th and 42nd, then you probably should avoid big cities in the first place.
As far as politeness/rudeness goes, i’ve generally found New Yorkers to be pretty friendly people, and ready to help if asked. They do get a little tetchy with people who dawdle on the sidewalk or in the subway, but as someone who likes to move at a decent speed, i like this attitude. If you want to move slowly, fine, but at least try to stay out of the way of people who need to go places.
As for the OP, maybe this simply betrays the fact that i’m not a NYer, but i often refer to the subway lines by color. There’s a very good reason for that, especially for a large proportion of NYC visitors: while the 1, 2 and 3 all start and finish in very different places (same for the green 4-5-6, blue A-C-E, orange B-D-F-V, etc.), the fact is that each of those lines describes a rather singular course when on the island of Manhattan, which is where most tourists spend their time.
If i need to get from midtown to Greenwich Village, or Chinatown to the Upper East Side, knowing the line color is often good enough, because i don’t need to know which part of Brooklyn, Queens, or the Bronx is the train’s final destination. If i’m trying to get around in Manhattan, all i need to know, for the most part, is the line color, and then to make sure that i know whether i need a local track, or whether an express is OK.
Of course, numbers become more important if i’m going off the island. I made a trip to Shea Stadium this summer, and knew that i needed the 7 to get there. I know that if i’m visiting my friend in Brooklyn, the L gets me a lot closer to his place than the J-M-Z.
But if referring to the subway by line color is the biggest problem you have in New York, then you must lead a pretty idyllic existence. I think you should just get over it.
Madison, Park, Lexington, Third, Madison, Park, Lexington, Third… 
Great post, friedo. I will nitpick and note that you forgot the R and V lines, which also run along Queens Blvd.
Oops, I stand corrected. But, the basic point, tracks not functionally interchangeable, does stand, I think.
How many New Yorkers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Fuck you!
Are they completely non-interchangeable (different platform heights, for instance)? I’m thinking of the similar situation in London, where deep line stock, with a low narrow body, which can run on the same lines as surface stock, but not vice-versa. (Useful pic)
Not only that, NY has many miles of unused “alternative” routes as there are quite a few stations no longer in use. There’s almost 200 miles of not-in-active-service track – Manhattan island is only about 15 miles long, and I believe the furthest reaches of Queens are around 30 miles from Manhattan. Total in-service track is about 650 miles.
I believe the platform heights are the same, but the platform widths are not. Because IRT (Division A) cars are narrower, the edge of the platform is closer to the track. Thus, the wider Division B cars can not fit.
Couldn’t agree more. As a Bostonian I’m sick of outsiders insisting we label our streets. If you’re from Boston you *know * what street you’re on, and if you’re not, then you shouldn’t be driving here.
Just a funny anecdote, I was in England this past March, and was trying to figure out what train to ride. Turns out, the routes were labeled by their destination, as well as time of departure. I was unaware that the number listed was the time they were expected, so asked a nice young couple, who happened to be about as drunk as I was at the time, when the 1135 was due. As soon as they stopped laughing, they told me it came at 1135. Boy, did I feel dumb!
That absolutely clears up everything. Thank you!
TAXI!
In 1992 I visited Hong Kong, and was amazed how the subway was so clean and easy to navigate.
“Why can’t we have this in NYC,” I thought.
Then I visited Washington DC. And Boston. And London. And many other cities, and kept thinking EXACTLY THE SAME THING.
NYC has always been behind the times with stuff like this, and reluctant to change. It’s similar to how someone in another thread characterized the Pennsylvania highway system: “We don’t care, you’re not from here.”
Another thing to think about is that people in NY have been carrying on in the face of adversity for so long that they’re not totally convinced life would still be worth living without that kind of adversity.
On the other hand, the Kingston Trio had The M.T.A. Song which never once referenced a color.
I’m another one who doesn’t like the “red line” business when talking about the NY subway. On the other hand, I have given directions by saying things like “You can take ANY BLUE TRAIN” when a tourist is trying to get from, say, West 4th Street to 42nd Street Port Authority. Itemizing the A, C and E seems a bit much. For them, I mean, not for me.
The one situation where I always have a lot of sympathy for non-NYers on the train is when you get the unexpected service announcement, like “This C train will run on the F line between W4 and Jay St.” There’s no way that can mean anything to you unless you know both the C line and the F line, and where your desired stop fits into that. And you usually only have a few moments to figure it out, because those doors wait for no man.
Speaking of NY subways, one of my favorite hobbies is freezing frames to figure out which trains and which stations are used/depicted in various movies and TV shows, and then figuring out if that’s a realistic train choice.
Oh, and if I might make a slight complaint about the NYC metro. Why on earth do y’all have stations so close together without the opportunity to change over any place nearby? I was at the Canal Street (NQRW yellow line) stop downtown, trying to head over to World Trade Center. Looking at the map, there’s really no good way to get the ten blocks or so over, unless I want to transfer up near Central Park, which was quite a bit out of my way.
Personally, I like DC’s metro better. If lines cross, you can transfer between them. None of this spaghetti nonsense.
Hey, I live on the red line! And there ain’t nothing wrong with that whatsoevah!
The answer was given above–the various tunnels were constructed by competing companies, who had no interest in making their competitors’ lines accessible. Much of the citys underground infrastructure (water, electric, sewage) was built while the lines were still owned separately, so there’s usually no way to build the connections now (or any time in the last few decades) without a massive, impractical overhauling of the entire underground landscape.
Not true. Although you’re speaking of a direct transfer the L train joins all the lines by going crosstown at 14th street. Several block-long tunnels were built to join all the lines to the L.
But it would probably be faster just to walk. New Yorkers tend to walk a lot.