Me + the MTA

I think I'm a subway geek. In fact, I know I am—even back when I lived in London in college, I had a crush on the Tube. I never get tired of looking at the MTA map. I check it twice. I never actually get tired of riding the train (except maybe at 3 a.m. on New Year's Eve, all alone with no one to be drunk with. Not that I know how that feels). I love getting off at stops I've never been to before, even if they're dripping with stalactites of dirty street runoff and swirling with discarded coupons and used-up MetroCards. The rats? You can look at them as vermin, right, or look at them as part of the charm. I'm not sure why a bunch of underground tubes are so fascinating and why a bunch of icons (a black Q in a yellow circle, a white B in an orange circle) are so interesting. You know how little kids get obsessed with steam engines and bulldozers and buses? I must be the same way, only I try not to giggle when the 2 train blows into Grand Army Plaza.

So I decided to make a pilgrimage to the New York Transit Museum here in Brooklyn—which, appropriately, is in an old subway station. They have a bunch of photos and explanations about how the system was built (starting in 1900), plus about 15 old subway cars from different eras. The older ones had some great ads:






And some of the older cars were done up in pretty colors:


Because I know you care as much about the underground as I do, here are a couple NYC subway facts!
• In 2007, 1.6 billion people rode the subway here. (We're fourth in line behind Tokyo's 3.01 billion, Moscow's 2.5, and Seoul's 1.7.)
• The newer trains have recorded announcements ("Stand clear of the closing doors, please!"). In 2006, MTA spokesperson Gene Sansone said, "Most of the orders are given by a male voice, while informational messages come from females. Even though this happened by accident, it is a lucky thing because a lot of psychologists agree that people are more receptive to orders from men and information from women."
• There are 26 subway lines and 486 stations (that's only 35 stations fewer than the rest of the country combined—which is actually kind of sad).
• If laid end-to-end, the tracks (842 miles of 'em) would reach from here to Chicago.
• Want to go for a ride—a long ride? Take the A from 207th in Manhattan to Far Rockaway in Queens—31 miles. I have no idea how long it takes. It's an adventure I'm not sure I'm willing to take.
• The busiest station, of course, is Times Square—58.5 million people elbow through there every year.

Believe me (I'm sure you do!), I could go on. I bet there will come a time when the subway is just the subway—never quite fast enough, clean enough, or relaxing enough. A hassle. A necessary evil. A screeching pain in the ass. For now, I'll just enjoy riding through underground tubes and giggling—on the inside, of course!—about stations like Hoyt-Schermerhorn, Ozone Park, Kosciuszko, and Moshulu...and the white 4 in the green circle.