New York ARGH #1

NYC Subway.
Originally uploaded by daltonrooney

OK, so tonight I decided I needed to put into words my opinion of the Brooklyn bound L train departing from 14 Street Union Square station & the 14th street buses.

For the second time now, on a Thursday night at approximately 8:30pm when I'm heading home from Fashion Drawing class armed with 4 illustration boards (20x30"), my portfolio bag and school bag filled with textbooks, notebooks, markers & coloured pencils. I usually take the bus, but for some reason, it seems to take forever on this day. So instead of freezing my ass off in minus 5 degree weather, I head to the subway to take the L train home.

I struggle down the stairs into the warm subway platform, I see people, alot of people. More people than usual. My thoughts are: "Oh, they must be sick of waiting for the bus too or its cold out and they're retreating to the subway for warmth." I naturally assume, everything is normal and the train will come in approximately 2mins as the overhead digital sign indicates.

10mins pass and still no train. More and more people gather as time ticks away. People are cranning their necks to see if they can spot any sign of the headlights of the train - nothing. No lights, no whoosh of wind coming through the tunnel, no rumbling sounds on the tracks. 20mins, still no train and at probably close to 30mins, sign of track life appears and we feel the whoosh come through the tunnel and the L train finally arrives. At this point, I'm surrounded by a bazillion people, and note I am still armed with my art supplies.

We all stuff in. I find a good spot to stand, close to the exit so I can take my leave in about 2 stops. We all file in, find our places and brace ourselves for the inertia sway of the train taking off from the station. But the doors never close, the train never moves. The inertia I was anticipating never happened. And it never happened for another 15mins! The automatic announcement is made that there is a delay. We all wait patiently in the train, waiting for the doors to close.

Another automatic announcement is made, that the delays are due to traffic ahead on the track. Then automatic another announcement is made that the L train is out of service. People start to file out, frustrated and sighing. But there are some who remain, steadfast in their postion hoping that this is merely temporary and we'll be off soon. I am one of these hopefuls.

So I stand and wait. I pull out my phone to listen to some music and keep myself entertain or more truthfully, prevent myself from staring at the man in front of me who shows clear signs of agitation at this delay but refuses to leave the train. He is hopeful too, but a frustrated hopeful.

Finally, the conductor comes on and announces that the train is in service and that we will be moving shortly once the incident ahead of us has been cleared. 10mins later, we are finally moving...VERY SLOWLY...and then, we stop - right in the middle of the tunnel. GREAT...then we start moving again and literally crawl into the next station. OMG this is terrible. If I walked in the blistering cold, I would've been home by now!

At last, I reach my station. 2 freaking stations away from where I started. Sigh. I'm just glad I didn't miss my Grey's Anatomy.