All Aboard Platform C!

Ok MTA, I get it. Some things are not your fault.

But for Christ's sake

THERE IS NO PLATFORM C. WE USE NUMBERS. I do not know what possessed you and led to your odd decision to call out a platform that doesn't actually exist, but please don't do it again because I was so confused I needed an asprin. Cheers!

-OTR

Nice Talk

Had a conductor and a passenger launch into a full on conversation today on the 4:15. Nice to know there are conductors who actually care what happen to us when we step off the train. Whoever you are, thank you for being a caring human being.

OTR signing off.

PSA 2.0

Repeat after me:

I will not
-----
Stand on
-----
The left side
-----
Of the escalator
-----

Please tourists, for the love of God, some of us have to get home, so have some courtesy and move over. You are not exempt from the rules just because you're visiting. Just Sayin'.

The 5:55 UNexpress to L.B.

If you have taken the 5:55 in the last few months, you know how obnoxiously slow the train is. This train is an express from Penn with first stop Lynbrook but consistently goes 15 mph give or take. One can often see local trains overtaking us on the other tracks even though we are supposed to go as fast if not faster then them. After all, we are and express train. At one point, I was even on a 5:55 that just stopped at Jamaica and let passengers on and off because our train was going so slow that once the stop signal was given, they just opened the doors.

After Jamaica, things tend to speed up a bit.....

But once we hit Locust Manor, we're back to the same old snail speeds again. 

It is a dream of mine that one day, the 5:55 will actually go express speeds. Until then, we can only hope.

This is NOT OK

I'm sorry. I can take delays, schedule changed, fare hikes, and false promises; but I cannot take sewage on the bathroom door. Not only is this probably breaking 100+ health codes, it is also disgusting. This is a commuter service we pay 300+ for every month, and while it's not great, I can accept the rest of the downfalls of the MTA, but this is horrendous. 

sewage

SEWAGE!

Come on MTA, you are better than that!

NOT OK ON 123 - PART 2

AAAAAAND, the whole time, there were no extra trains to service the masses of people on the platforms. The whole time they just kept repeating over the intercom "Due to a person hit by the train on the L, there will be no L trains between something street Brooklyn and some other avenue Brooklyn." Not only is this completely unrelated, as the L train is 20 blocks south, they said it in a tone as to insinuate that the backup at Penn is due to the L train, which is completely untrue. The whole reason for the issue is the stairs THEY closed and besides, the L tracks never come in contact with the 1, 2, and 3 tracks. Get your act together and stop redirecting the blame.

NOT OK ON 123

Things have peaked. Remember my 1,2,3 post from a few days back? Well today, they closed the stairwells except for one, making up the line for even GETTING ON THE PLATFORM all the way to the turnstiles and even past. When I did get on the train, it was packed with people, and the same dense mass of people got off at 42nd street and onto the shuttle. This is getting ridiculous. IT NEEDS TO END.

Update: New Subway Cars Sourced

I got a glimpse of the new subway cars today and I have to say I am very impressed. Years ahead of any technology currently in use in the system, these new cars are significantly cheaper and reduce footprint by up to 30,000%. Needless to say, new Yorkers will be ecstatic to see these new cars rolled out next year.

TBH, this thing is probably better than the actual cars used on the subway.

Public Service Announcement

Please, for the love of God, do not sit on the outside of a row of seats. If you are first on the train, move over to the windows. Nobody wants to have to ask you to move or step over your bags. You are not so important that you can inconvenience everyone else just so that YOU can get off the train first. Have some common courtesy and move on over.

Thy license plate is a work of art

In the car to the station and I saw this masterpiece. W SHKDPR plate and William Shakespeare bumper stickers in the style of the Bernie 2016 ads. This cultivated driver gets an A++ for dedication and A+ for customized plates. I actually find this pretty cool as most custom plates are along the lines of L4MB0, S0KRM0M, and 1HV4KD2 (first to decipher in the comments gets a prize).

Really? only a northbound 2 or 3 every 8 minutes?

This is completely unacceptable. There should not be wait times exceeding 10 minutes in one of the busiest stations on the network, leading to conditions like this. UNACCEPTABLE.

Some one needs their license revoked; doo dah, doo dah!

Where do I begin? Is it the blue car at fault or the blue car? Was it a joint venture? You know, now that I look at it, it takes a special kind of effort to do such a bad parking lot but STILL not destroy the other car. You have earned my respect.

Subway Advertising did an oppsie

This is the 86th street 4,5,6 station on the Upper East Side displaying an ad stating "Trust us, your vagina will thank you." This ad would be okay in certain stations, but this may be the worst possible station you could have put it on. Why you ask? the block around the station is filled with private schools, Yeshivas, temples and churches, so you have tons of little children being exposed to this ad at a premature age and in the age of the Internet where they have all this information at their fingertips, well, you know what could happen. Verdict: somewhat acceptable ad, very unacceptable location.

We be zoomin

I decided to get this GPS speedometer app for my mobile to see how fast the trains are actually moving. So, I pulled out the app on the straightaway between Jamaica and Valley Stream and we managed to hit 83 mph (134 kph) which was pretty interesting because it did not feel like we were going that fast. Now you know.

It's not all bad

I know the main point of this blog is to talk about gripes with the MTA but I got some good pictures of the sunset that almost makes up  for it all (if only I had moved my finger :)

The new Public Storage?

Hey There! Can't afford storage? Just put it on the express tracks! 

I can't make out what any of this exactly is, but it seems like construction supplies which have been there a while. What cracked me up when I later examined the photo was the plastic toy-looking shovel by the platform. No wonder why it takes so long for construction to finish 😂

The Jamaica Sprint - Encyclopedia OTRica

The Jamaica Sprint

Encyclopedia OTRica

The Jamaica Sprint [ðə ʤəˈmeɪkə sprɪnt], Is the act of getting off at Jamaica to transfer to another line, but 

that train is across the station, requiring you to run up the stairs, run to the correct stairwell, 

and run down that flight of stairs before the "Beeps of Death" (article coming soon) sound and

the doors close. Often times this gamble leads to one missing their connection due to the 

improper track being announced or showing up on the schedule. Many times, one may also be 

on a late train, in which case, the engineer of the other train may opt to close the doors and 

move off before you have a chance to arrive. Also, if your connection is to a Diesel and you 

have to run all the way to the last door of a shorter train, the doors may close before you 

reach the car. Any way you look at it, The Jamaica Sprint may cause you to miss your train 

and wait in the unheated stairwell for another train to appear, hopefully on the right track.

The Six Seater - Encyclopedia OTRica

6 Seater - Encyclopedia OTRica

The Six-Seater (also know as the 6 seater) Is the point in a LIRR M7 train in which the two rows of seats facing each other meet. They culminate in this location to create the 6 Seater, in which a type of communal area. Often, when one has forgotten their source of entertainment or their phone has died, they can capture interesting conversations between friends or family members about Aunt Jane's divorce and your sister-in-law's step brother Barry's new speedboat. However, at rush hour, these seats get taken quickly, and you are forced into an uncomfortable position with the people next to and across from you. This experience is very similar to the four-seater, or the even rarer five-seater, although the five-seater has a much more logical layout.

Shhhhhh! Quiet Car!

Dear woman on the whatever train it was because I don't remember,

It's great that you are a political activist, but on the quiet car can you be a little less political and a little less active? I think the MTA employee near you would agree with me as I saw his facial expression as you started to get annoyed with the person on the other end of the line in a manner that the rest of the 6-seater and beyond could hear.  Just a heads up.

Cheers!
-OTR

I'm Angryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Well, I got on the train today and overheard someone talking about their connection at Jamaica getting canceled, which concerned me because I, too change at Jamaica for the train to Hunterspoint Avenue. So I looked on the floor where the service changes sheet was, and low and behold, as of Monday, my connection will terminate at Jamaica, without any decent reason. Absolutely lovely. Now I have to leave 30 minutes early to get in on time. 👍. Great way to start 2019!

Happy New Year!

Kewl art man!

Hey man, yea ur art is s0 k3wl m@n.

Because defacing MTA property is super SICK man!

All those people commuting home from a long day, yeaaa exactly what they wanna see, a reminder that they pay $300+ dollars for this, maaaaan. Keeeewl! And all those little kids that get on the train on the weekend with their parents, EXACTLY what we need to expose them too. Nah man, forget long division and geography and english, let's teach them some sick sexual phrases, yeaaa, kewl man!

Ok, theatrics aside, let's look at the price for one of these trains. Let's check out the Wikipedia page, eh?

Ok, lets zoom in a bit...

A bit further...

One last time...

Got it.

Verdict: If you have $18 million dollars to replace the train you plan to deface, go for it! If you don't, you have no right to ruin people's train rides that they pay over $1000 every year to use. I very highly doubt that the person who did this has $18 million dollars, or even $18. In fact, the only use of the number 18 to describe this person would probably be their IQ. This is not acceptable behaviour anywhere. Children need to learn (considering the likelihood of this individual being an adult is very slim) that this is not ok. You are not cool, and you are having a negative affect on all those around you. Moral of the story, if you wouldn't say it in front of your grandmother, don't etch it into a $18 million train.

(also in case this picture ends up as low resolution, it says "Take it deep" in all caps)

We have ourselves a friend!

Hey little guy! nice to see you have a permanent home here! Maybe we should build you nice house, get you some food, or something to drink. OR, maybe we should stop breeding an environment where you can run rampant in our metro system. Anyway, little guy, that decision is out of my hands. Adios!

Must be a lot of forgetful people on LI....

So I forgot my hat on the LIRR at some point and decided to check out the l&f to see if I could find it, and boy was I surprised at what I saw:

Shelves upon shelves of mobiles, and each shelf has different brands ranging from the dust collecting Blackberry and Nokia shelves to the iPhones and various Android brand shelves that were piled with all recent model phones. But this is not as bad as what I saw next.

Key fobs. An entire bucket full of key fobs, and not just any keys, car keys. The amount of people who have left keys for various makes of cars is astonishing. Not only this, the bucket is on the customer side of the plexiglass, where basically anyone can pick off a key fob. It is amazing to see that fobs for cars $30,000 and over are left out in the open while mobiles in the $300-$1000 range are protected behind the almighty armoured plexiglass.

By the way, Happy New Year 2019, cheers to a new blog that I actually hope to keep updated!