New Yorkers* - are there any subway lines you haven't been on AT ALL?

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* both NYC-born and -bred, as well as those who've moved there since or have lived there at any time.

and yes, this thread has been inspired by the London tube thread about precisely the same topic (only in London, not New York).

― Tad (llamasfur), Monday, 16 June 2003 03:30 (twenty-two years ago)

seriously, i would say the JMZ line but that was only once and it was because i had to go to the LES from City Hall one day for work-related reasons. i've also only been on the G line once, four years ago to go to Greenpoint.

maybe a better title would be NYC subway stations where you've never been ... which would be the vast majority of outer borough stations.

― Tad (llamasfur), Monday, 16 June 2003 03:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't think I've ever taken the J or the Z. The M stops at Court Street though; I've gotten on by accident once or twice.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 16 June 2003 03:44 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/subway/SubwayMap.gif

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 16 June 2003 03:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I haven't been to the Bronx terminus of the 5, or the end of the M line, but I think that's it! Is that possible? The G train and the Jamesy have definitely gotten very little of my business, but I've been all the way with them at least once.

I know what I'm doing this week.

― Paul Eater (eater), Monday, 16 June 2003 04:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Or rather, I've been through all those stations. If you narrow it to stations we've actually walked around in, my score drops tremendously.

― Paul Eater (eater), Monday, 16 June 2003 04:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I've been on all the lines, but have skipped a lot of stations, e.g. most of the Bronx. Lisa's been working on an amazing project for a while, though: a photo within a block of every subway station in the city. See http://www.spiraling.com/station/ ...

― Douglas (Douglas), Monday, 16 June 2003 12:03 (twenty-two years ago)

excellent project! i am tempted to try a similar thing with every tube stop in London!

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 16 June 2003 12:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I haven't been on any of those new bastard lines that have started up since I left -- the V and the W. I remember the excitement when I finally took the Z -- that was the last train line I needed to take (except for that oddball S shuttle in Brooklyn, but, you know, I've been on other Ses... OK I guess that doesn't count).

I never did make it onto the JFK Express back in the day, which I'm still sad about.

There are plenty of stations I haven't been through -- I never made it very far into the Bronx or the outer reaches of Brooklyn.

― Chris P (Chris P), Monday, 16 June 2003 18:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I haven't been on the trains that started up since I left in 2001, but I moved around enough that I had ridden all of them at the point at which I left. I've got little experience with J/M/Z (apparently like most folks), though I did live in Carrol Gardens and use the G for travel within Brooklyn fairly frequently.

― martin m. (mushrush), Monday, 16 June 2003 18:37 (twenty-two years ago)

i take the V and W every day. i still haven't figured out where they end up, and why they had to designate these new lines. but i just take it for one stop (34th St to 42nd St).

― Tad (llamasfur), Monday, 16 June 2003 18:38 (twenty-two years ago)

The thing where the late-night W sometimes goes over the Manhattan bridge and sometimes goes through the tunnel is confusing.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 16 June 2003 18:40 (twenty-two years ago)

So was that sentence.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 16 June 2003 18:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I had to take like 6 trains to get to Astoria the other day because of the W. I hate that train. I wish it a swift death.

― Ally (mlescaut), Monday, 16 June 2003 19:08 (twenty-two years ago)

You know what I learned the first time I was in New York? You guys get so horrified if someone refers to, say, the 1/9 as the "red" line or the Lexington one as "green." I had no idea it could possibly be considered so gauche, it was like I'd casually mentioned how I like to beat up elderly women. And you can't say "Haha sorry, I'm from Chicago, we say the colors there" because the look you get back is like "Oh, you're not from here? I guess we couldn't tell from your totally unacceptable subway terminology."

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 16 June 2003 22:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Although now that I think about it the people who acted most like that was a total faux pas were one-time Chicagoans themselves, so maybe they were just taking their first opportunities to be knowingly snooty about it. I'll bet you some of them go back to Chicago and says stuff like "oh, I'm gonna take the one-nine -- I mean, oops, the Red Line, silly me, I keep thinking like I'm still in Manhattan, hahaha."

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 16 June 2003 22:27 (twenty-two years ago)

You know what I learned the first time I was in New York? You guys get so horrified if someone refers to, say, the 1/9 as the "red" line or the Lexington one as "green."

That's insane, since I never minded if you called either the red or green. When I was living in Queens (for 25 mins), I'd direct my friends to take the E train by saying the 'blue line that goes all the way into Jamaica'. (E is the most crowded line ever, BTW, with either no AC in the car---or one that blows hot air in the Summer. Somehow, it was always filled with people who forgot to use Irish Spring in the shower that morning.)

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Monday, 16 June 2003 22:35 (twenty-two years ago)

I'll bet you some of them go back to Chicago and says stuff like "oh, I'm gonna take the one-nine -- I mean, oops, the Red Line, silly me, I keep thinking like I'm still in Manhattan, hahaha."

Oh come on. A New Yorker in Chicago would never admit to mistaking it for Manhattan.

― Chris P (Chris P), Monday, 16 June 2003 22:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Although yes. It was always freaky when people referred to them as "the red line" etc. -- though after I visited Boston it made a bit more sense. Of course, there are the really old skoolers who talk about "getting on the BMT" and in the 10+ years I took the subway in New York I could never remember which lines were IRT or BMT or IRC or what.

Once a friend of a friend was in town. My friend lived in Queens, as did I, and she wanted me to meet her friend. So I was talking to them on the phone. I asked what their plans were and she said, "We're going into the city this afternoon" and he said "You know, Manhattan." And there was this awkward pause until she explained to him that, well, yes, that's what "the city" means.

― Chris P (Chris P), Monday, 16 June 2003 22:56 (twenty-two years ago)

What's good about that is when you move out of the city--and I don't mean to like Brooklyn or something, I mean to like Seattle--and still refer to it as "the City" in regular conversation with people. "The last time I was in the city..." and everyone is so confused.

― Ally (mlescaut), Monday, 16 June 2003 23:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Ha, I remember when I called my mom on it, she was banging on about the city and the person was confused, thought she meant Phoenix. So I was like, mom, they think you mean Phoenix. And she looks at me with this amazed expression and goes, "Who the fuck would think PHOENIX was the City?"

― Ally (mlescaut), Monday, 16 June 2003 23:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Hahaha!

That said, I'm really glad I don't live in New York anymore.

― Chris P (Chris P), Monday, 16 June 2003 23:46 (twenty-two years ago)

The W train is my favorite train and I don't wanna hear you fuXors complain.

I've read every subway line. Not every stop though. Not by a longshot.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 14:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm a thankless Manhattan snob, so there are lots of lines that span out into the other borroughs that I'm not exactly on first name terms with. Here in Manhattan, there's some new-ish line that has a stop in the low 60's on Lexington Avenue. Have no idea where it goes. People keep gettin' all excited about the proposed 2nd Avenue line. Yeah, great. By the time it's done, my grandchildren will be able to use it (but, by then, invariably we'll all be using personal jetpacks and flying bubblecars to get around in anyway).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 15:02 (twenty-two years ago)

This thread makes me want to put on a baseball uniform, smear warpaint on my face and chase the Warriors through the city.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 15:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Interesting how I said I've "read" every subway line. Anyone else done that? Anyone know what that means?

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 15:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I am Manhattan born and bred, and refer to train lines by their color, and haven't been ostracized yet. It's true though that nobody else does it, and I get a transgressive frisson when I do. I think it started when I was explaining repeatedly to my foreign friends how to get places, and got tired of saying, "You can take the A or the C, or the B or the D..."

However, I reaffirm my snobbery by using the antiquated terms IRT, BMT, IND, etc. to establish my native status.

― Paul Eater (eater), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 15:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I think the only line I haven't been on yet is the Z. Pretty good since I've only been here like 8 months or something.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 17 June 2003 15:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Yanc3y, I was going to point that out, I'm glad you did it for me. I imagine you sitting there, tourist stylee, pouring over the map voraciously, like a child reading Peter Rabbit for the first time. It's kind of a charming image, you should do that and let me take pictures and post them online, Hopefully while wearing a trucker hat.

― Ally (mlescaut), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 19:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Done and done!

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 20:11 (twenty-two years ago)

eleven months pass...

what the fuck is the deal w/ that fulton street station? where you have to walk for fucking MILES to get to yer subway? it's the most FUCKED UP subway station!!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 10 June 2004 03:45 (twenty-one years ago)

but at least there's a popeyes at the fulton/nassau exit of the station.

― phil-two (phil-two), Thursday, 10 June 2004 04:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Looking at that map makes me yearn to return to New York with great urgency and melancholy.

― Andrew (enneff), Thursday, 10 June 2004 04:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I heart the 7 line

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 10 June 2004 06:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Anyone ever actually seen the abandonded City Hall station -- the famous horseshoe-shaped one where they turn the 6 train around after the Brooklyn Bridge stop? Straphanger lore has it that it's the best station in the city, from an architectural standpoint. But it's been closed to the public for some time and apparently the only way you can get a good look is if you talk a conductor into letting you ride through the turnaround.

Eisbar otm re: the Fulton St. station. Adding to the confusion: it's actually called Fulton St. station for the IRT lines, but for the A/C it's Broadway-Nassau. Horrors.

― rasheed wallace (rasheed wallace), Thursday, 10 June 2004 10:56 (twenty-one years ago)

ah crap, the Times article on the proposed changes to the Broadway-Nassau station (and the demolition of the golf store OH NO WHAT WILL WALL STREET DORKS DO?!??!) is already in the archive.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 10 June 2004 14:45 (twenty-one years ago)

i've never been on a z train, although i use the j/m/z line. there was apparently an h train that ran for a while out canarsie way for a few stops, but i have no idea if it's still in operation.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 10 June 2004 14:51 (twenty-one years ago)

H TRAIN??!?!!?!?!???

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 10 June 2004 15:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I've been through the Brooklyn Bridge turnabout. City Hall Station really is pretty glorious: vaulted arches, colored tiles, chandeliers. Apparently there was a plan afoot to put a transit museum branch in the station, but "security concerns" scuttled it.

I read somewhere that the H train designated a Fulton Street, Brooklyn line. But that was a long long time ago.

― Dickerson Pike (Dickerson Pike), Thursday, 10 June 2004 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

fifteen years pass...

I watched way more of this than I probably should've (especially as only the first 33 minutes are overground).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pphgq49lslI

― nashwan, Monday, 21 October 2019 16:36 (six years ago)

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