Category Archives: Uncategorized

Since the COVID-19 pandemic sent the world into lockdown, transit systems have struggled with uneven ridership recoveries. The pandemic and the rocky return to normalcy should serve as a wake-up call to New York City Transit. Despite the signs in ridership recovery, the system is still nowhere near its normal pre-pandemic ridership levels. Daily ridesContinue reading “The Subway as Gears, or Scheduling for Reliability”

Manhattan 34th St-Hudson Yards (7) 34th St-Hudson Yards was initially planned as part of the city’s bid for the 2012 Olympics, and the often-proposed but never-built West Side Stadium. The station opened in 2015, three years too late for the Olympics, which didn’t happen in New York anyway, and was the first new station theContinue reading “(7) IRT Flushing Line”

Brooklyn (4)(5) IRT Eastern Pkwy Line Atlantic Ave-Barclays Center (2)(3)(4)(5) The Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) Atlantic Ave station was the southern terminus of the first ever extension to the New York City Subway. This extension, called Contract 2, was one of the most important events in the history of the subway. The history of ContractContinue reading “(4)(5)(6) IRT Lexington Ave Line”

This post will be different from my previous posts for a number of reasons. Most obviously because it is about Shanghai, China, and not New York, but also because the Shanghai Metro is very different from the New York City Subway. Rather than discuss each line in its own post, I am combining them allContinue reading “Secrets of the Shanghai Metro”

As you are all probably aware, this blog has not been updated in months. Don’t worry, it is not over, just paused for the moment. I started writing this blog as something to do during the weird part of 2020, when New York City was no longer the global hotspot for COVID cases, but IContinue reading “An Update”

Brooklyn (2) IRT Nostrand Ave Line Flatbush Ave-Brooklyn College (2)(5) The Nostrand Ave Line was built in 1920, but what exists today was never meant to be the whole line. It was built as part of the Dual Contracts, the period of most rapid expansion to the subway, when the city signed a number ofContinue reading “(1)(2)(3) IRT Broadway-7th Ave Line”

(N) Sea Beach Line New Utrecht Ave (N) The (N) follows the route of the historic New York & Sea Beach Railroad, a Brooklyn excursion railroad. For much of it’s history as a destination, Coney Island was well outside of the New York and Brooklyn city limits (two different cities until 1898) and was primarilyContinue reading “(N)(Q)(R)(W) BMT Broadway Line”

The BMT Jamaica Line is the MTA’s name for the tracks of the (J), (Z), and part of the (M) services, colored brown on the map. The Jamaica Line is the longest elevated line in the system. It is the descendent of the Broadway El Line, built in stages by the Brooklyn Elevated Railroad, theContinue reading “(J)(Z) BMT Jamaica Line”

The BMT Canarsie Line is the MTA name for the (L) service, colored grey on the map. The Canarsie Line was built in four distinct sections, with the oldest being 1865 and the newest being 1931. The (L) has some of the most beautiful mosaics in the station tiling in the system. The (L) isContinue reading “(L) BMT Canarsie Line”