Well after a rather crazy marathon flight via Sydney and Los Angeles, we finally made it to New York at around 11pm Friday night. Getting from the Airport to where we are staying turned out to be quite a challenge, involving the very flash air-train, the E-Line subway (which took forever, but nice to use the subway) and then eventually the 1-Line subway. Well, we should have taken the 1 but there was chaos, we had to switch to a bus, then walk for ages… but eventually got there at about 2am.
After having a very long sleep on Friday night (it felt like we hadn’t slept for two days so certainly needed the long sleep) we got around to exploring the place. Since then it’s been two pretty busy days, with a lot of subway catching and a lot of walking. It’s the weekend here so Manhatten has been somewhat surprisingly quiet (well, quiet by NYC standards). Here are a few thoughts that I’ve had:
- The fact that many of the subway lines are four-tracked is absolute genius. People switch between the express and local trains in way to suit them and make the trip fastest (who would have thought, transfering to save a few minutes!)
- The pedestrianisation of Broadway through Times Square is fantastic and makes the place really really welcoming to pedestrians. I can’t imagine how claustrophobic it must have been beforehand.
- Grand Central Station is…. spectacular.
- In general, the subway system is an interesting mix: highly efficient and effective yet somewhat sadly neglected in parts. It’s interesting that the subway trains are air-conditioned but the stations feel like a sauna.
A couple of photos:
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most lines in Japan use mixes of limited stops + express, and transferring between the two as you mentioned as well.
The neglect of the subway system is mirrored in so much of the US infrastructure which is often antiquated and decaying. It seems that the subway carries on going so well now because it was originally so well designed and built. To some extent, Americans are now getting stuff for free based on those past investments without investing in modern infrastructure for the future. There has been some coverage of this in the NY Times recently: Spit, Glue and Maybe Even Chewing Gum,
More Commuter Chaos in the Region, Paul Krugman’s opinion piece, and from last year, a piece about a report from the American Society of Civil Engineers.
This stuff
The only problem is that you quickly get used to the speed of the subway system and coming home gets really frustrating.
If you re into sports make sure you stop at Madison Square Garden, awesome experience and even better if you catch a event there! Grand Station is very impressive and I found the Subway every easy to use.
Just don’t mention the time it takes (75 years), the cost overruns (US$17bn current cost) and the general chaos caused by getting the Second Avenue Subway!
And if want a cool view of the city, go to the top of the Rockefeller center – much better than the Empire State as it is open air up there, no or short queues and cheaper too…
Agreed. Top of the Rock is way better than Empire State.
Yeah probably should have done that. The ESB queue was insane.
I woke up at 6am and was at the front door before it opened and there were no queues. By the time I went up and came down again the queues were stupidly long.
I went on a Sunday night, which I thought would be reasonably quiet. Forgot that it was long weekend.
Can you take some photos of really fat people..?
I guess there will not be many photos without the golden arches in them
Josh you must visit The Highline [http://www.thehighline.org/]… I know it’s not what most readers of this blog want to city rail lines turn into but it is a really cool piece of urban renewal, and of course it never was a transit line…. And at the great Grand Central the Oyster Bar down under the arches is a must….
What a neat idea! I’m generally opposed to putting pedestrians in tunnels or on bridges while cars are at ground level, but the Highline just looks like fun. Maybe the re-use of the old infrastructure makes a difference since it doesn’t work if I try and imagine it as a modern concrete viaduct.
Ah I’ve been trying to figure out where that is. Around 20th street and 10th Ave. Excellent!
The Highline has been really well done and connects a lot of different neighbourhoods together…
If you can, catch the subway up to the Bronx Zoo – it’s one of the best in the world…