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Big difference east side vs west side in Manhattan. The Lexington Avenue line is horrible. Even if it is running on time, it doesn't matter because you'll have to wait a few trains before you find one that isn't packed.
Reliability: Good during the workweek. But it seems there's always bunches of lines shut down evenings and weekends.
Safety: Hasn't killed me yet. Most dangerous thing about it seems to be the other passengers.
Appearance: Ugly as sin.
Coverage: It is what it is. Easy to look at a map and see the non-covered spots (large parts of the outer boroughs, all of Staten Island, and the far upper east side and eastern East Harlem)
Rail cars: The new ones are OK, the old ones are pretty nasty. The seats at 90 degrees to each other are pretty dumb.
Stations: A British version of hell. Not flames, but dreary concrete, dripping water, dust and dirt everywhere, noise, and smells.
Price: Unzoned system is pretty dumb. Same price to go two blocks as 30 miles?
Management: If there's one thing everyone agrees on (except them), it's that they're bozos.
Train schedule: There's a schedule?
After having lived in Boston, and visiting places like DC, Chicago and San Francisco, I have to say I am very appreciative of such a comprehensive and generally fast system that gets me pretty much everywhere I need to go, within a few blocks. Of course I wish it were cleaner.
I will choose a comprehensive, fast system any day over some beautiful system that doesn't give me comprehensive coverage or has too much time between trains. Or shuts down at midnight or 2 am.
People in other cities are always whining about how their subway system isn't as good as NYC. Just wondering if NYC likes its Subway as much as everyone else.. or if its just one of those "grass is greener" things.
An F all the way down. Only transplants, and hard-core native nyers posters on here love the subway. Today had to return a car rented for a week. I wanted to cry when had to return it.
An F all the way down. Only transplants, and hard-core native nyers posters on here love the subway. Today had to return a car rented for a week. I wanted to cry when had to return it.
I own a car (all paid off), it's like having a kid. It needs insurance, and it needs to go to the doctor (mechanic) for check-ups. Trust me if I were not a family man, I would probably just have a ZipCar account or something. I work in the city - I barely drive during the week. I've always had my own car; in my 20s it was great to go drive and hang out in Brooklyn and in the city on weekends. But I'm in my mid 30's now - it better be a damn good reason that I'm in Manhattan on a Saturday.
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"The man who sleeps on the floor, can never fall out of bed." -Martin Lawrence
The smell takes some getting used to, but otherwise reliable and fast, with double track express services etc. Europe and Asia does it better in my opinion (1. Seoul, 2. Tokyo, 3. London are the best in my estimation), even if you factor in non-24 hour service.
Better than cities in the US; probably not better than many cities in Europe.
I drive out of necessity nearly every day. Even if I didn't, I'd keep my car.
The other day I went to another location (related to my work) that's in the city. Haven't been going to the city for work for years. Loved not having to drive---hated getting on the filthy/old trains followed by the bus I grabbed (that was disgusting and had water leaking through the roof EVERYWHERE while it was pouring on Friday) when it was obvious that my last train of the day was going to take forever...
Too overcrowded as a result of service cuts, especially on weekends.
Unnecessarily dirty.
Something should be done about station ventilation (fans to the outside) before people start dying on the platforms.
Otherwise, okay.
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