Subway Bitching

I generally don’t complain about the New York subway much, because compared to London Underground (which I endured for over a decade), the MTA runs a pretty good, reliable and affordable operation that generally gets you where you want to go.

Today, however, two things happened on the subway that made me very frustrated.

The first incident occurred while I was trying to get into a subway station to catch the southbound A,C or E train at 23rd St & 8th Ave. A train arrived at the same time I did, and I swiped my Metrocard through the turnstile, but then I had to wait for a flood of people to come out through the bi-directional gate. After a bunch of people had come out I saw a small gap and pushed through, but in the process I nearly knocked a slightly dazed-looking middle-aged woman onto the floor — she literally shrieked! I mumbled some apologies and ran to the train, but it was too late — the doors were closed and I’d missed it.

But which MTA dumbass decided to allow turnstiles to be bi-directional in the first place? This is certainly not the first time I’ve tried to get in or out of a subway station, and found someone else trying to use the same gate, in the opposite direction, at the same time. It’s dumb, dumb dumb.

The second annoying thing occurred on the F train at Jay Street Borough Hall station. I watched a couple getting off the rear carriage with their young child in a Bugaboo pram/stroller (which I happen to know is a $700+ piece of baby transportation equipment), when the train guard closed the doors on them, crushing the Bugaboo between the doors. The father grabbed the doors and shouted angrily, and eventually the guard opened the doors again, but for God’s sake — surely the whole point of having a train guard to operate the doors is to AVOID crushing babies in strollers between the doors?! How hard can it be?

OK I feel better know — rant over.

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