How to Ride the New York City Subway (Guide to the NYC Subway)

in the underbelly of new york city is one of the oldest subway systems in the world built in 1904 the new york city subway runs 24 hours a day seven days a week it runs continuously through the boroughs of manhattan brooklyn queens and the bronx staten island has a line as well but you have to take the ferry to get there welcome to urban caffeine my name is thea and in this video we are going to talk about the new york city subway this video is actually the reason why i even started blogging about new york in the first place i wanted to create a video that i wish i had seen when i first came to new york i wanted a video that was detailed and hand-held you through the basics of understanding how to navigate the new york city subway watch and re-watch this video and i guarantee you will be a subway superhero by the end of this the new york city subway is one of the most efficient ways to get around the city and in this video i will help you navigate what bill hayes calls the human rubix cube in this video we are going to talk about how to understand why the subway lines are grouped the way they are and differentiating between local and express trains then we'll take a look at the subway map and how to read it we're also going to learn how to interpret the inconsistent signage system of the new york city subway i will make another video on the metro card and how to pay for new york city public transportation so subscribe and stay tuned for that video [Music] these are the subway lines of the new york city subway yes it seems weird how they are grouped together and how they seem so random with the multiple colors and alphanumeric labeling this is a result of decades of reordering and reshuffling to understand this grouping we have to know that the current new york city subway system was built by three independent subway companies the independent subway system the brooklyn manhattan transit corporation and the inner borough rapid transit company they built tracks and tunnels independent from one another so this is why you would see that stations don't all look the same and they have different aesthetics from one another by the 1940s the new york subway was consolidated under one operator today the new york city subway is owned by new york city leads to the new york city transit authority which is part of the metropolitan transportation authority which is run by new york state today these are the subway lines that run these respective tracks and like i said this is a result of decades of reshuffling for example you'll notice that the ind lines has letters from a to g but there's this odd m that's because the m used to be part of the bmt line or perhaps you might notice there's a j and an l m and n but where's the k there actually used to be two k lines one of them got decommissioned and the other got absorbed into the sea line as you can see the history of the subway system is as convoluted as the subway itself that is why we are not going to go over the detailed history of the subway but instead talk about the current subway system and how to use it to understand the subway in general we'll break down one of these subway groups the a c and e you'll notice that subway lines are grouped by color but it is not common to call them by color people don't call this the blue line instead they call this the a c e line if you look closely all the trains are grouped together by color according to the avenue that they converge at usually around midtown manhattan i'm noting this because you'll see why when you talk about local and express trains and to also help caution you that although subways share the same name doesn't mean they share the same stations [Music] the a line which happens to be the subway's oldest line terminates at 207th street in manhattan runs through brooklyn and terminates in queens in three different terminals ozone park lefferts boulevard far rockaway mott avenue and rockaway park this is why you will see the a train that's headed to queens labelled differently depending on where it is going to terminate [Music] the sea line terminates at 168th street in manhattan and at euclid avenue in brooklyn it runs parallel to the a line however they don't stop at the same stations that's because the a train skips some stations while the c train stops at all of the stations for this reason the a train is also referred to as the 8th avenue express train and the c train is the 8th avenue local train the e-line which terminates in queens and at the world trade center in manhattan converges with the a and c on 8th avenue and like the sea the east stops at all stations on 8th avenue so it is also called the 8th avenue local train the idea of express and local trains extends to all the other train groups i'm pointing this out because often you'll hear the voice of the subway say something like this local train the next stop is secondary now you know what a local and express train is crosstown trains are trains that cross manhattan in the east-west direction rather than the north-south direction the crosstown trains are on 59th 53rd 42nd and 14th streets i have another video that explains the street grid system of manhattan and it explains the avenues and streets and how to navigate in general and the link is in the description below one crosstown train we'll note is the 7 train the 7 train terminates in flushing queens runs along 42nd street in manhattan and ends in hudson yards when the 7 train is in queens it has local and express options the local 7 is designated with a circular shape and the express 7 has a diamond shape [Music] there is also a shuttle that runs between times square and grand central times square gives you access to trains running along the western portion of manhattan and grand central gives you access to the eastern side of manhattan so how do you know which stops are for the express train and which stops are for the local train the map will tell you the official map used by the mta is this the design of this map was first published in 1979 and has adopted minor changes since then all the white dots are for both express and local trains and the black dots are for local trains only and the name of the train line is also denoted next to the dots it happens pretty often that routes will get modified for example you might be on the c train here on 110 and suddenly the conductor announces that the train is going express that means that it is going to skip all the local stops in 2018 they also came out with a map that they used digitally honestly between google maps or any other map app that you have and station signage you can get around just fine which brings us to the next topic [Applause] while there's a nice organized existing map of the subway system good luck finding a map of the subway stations some stations like times square are pretty convoluted that's because these stations were assembled by unifying independent train lines that were not compatible in terms of size and length for example on 42nd street the a c and e do technically connect to the seven and one two three but you have to walk through this long tunnel which is practically an avenue away that's because originally the bmt and ind trains were longer and wider than the irt trains so the bmt and ind trains could not fit into the tunnels specially made for the irt trains and if you use the irt trains on the bmt or ind stations they are narrower and therefore there would be a large gap between the train and the platform which is pretty dangerous for passengers onboarding or off boarding the train so that's a bit of trivia for you anyways since stations lack mapping reading signage is key if you follow the arrows to the train you're trying to get to you will get there some signs are pretty straightforward like these but at larger stations you get something like this [Music] this left arrow is referring to all this information here exits out of the station to 42nd street times square or to port authority bus terminal as well as these subway lines and an elevator for accessibility and on the opposite direction you will find an exit out of the station on 40th street and broadway [Music] signage on platform can be confusing because labeling is inconsistent platform signs will indicate somewhere on its label the end of the line station but sometimes common stops along the way are added to help people orient themselves for example say you are at times square these two stations are actually called by many as time square station because they connect and this is the platform you are on this means that you are headed towards flushing main street which is in queens this is also the same train to get on to get to fifth avenue grand central and mets willis point so how they name destinations is inconsistent for example these two signs are referencing the same terminal some might think it's not a big deal because people tend to put two and two together but from a user experience design perspective this is pretty bad i wish they would clean up some of the signs but that's just me moving on for trains that travel up and down manhattan they are indicated as uptown and downtown on platforms the terms downtown and uptown are only in reference with manhattan say we are on 42nd street here is the platform for the a c and e the e and c will stop on one side and the a will stop on the other looking at the enc sign you will see that this train is headed downtown so on this platform you will have an e or c train that is headed towards the direction of downtown manhattan and brooklyn along 8th avenue and will stop at all stations the e-train will terminate at the world trade center at all times of the day the c-train will terminate at euclid avenue in brooklyn and when it's late at night on this platform there will be an a train that terminates at far rockaway and will stop at all stations along the [Music] way [Music] if you are unsure where the entrance is just look for these lamps that look like pokemon balls the vast majority of subway entrances have these lamps the ones that don't most likely are pretty prominent stations that you won't need the lamps to call them out as for entrance signage let's learn by example this is the name of the station 23rd street station this only has service to the one train and if you enter through this entrance you will have access to trains headed downtown only this sign means that this entrance has the four and five trains headed uptown and into the bronx but there is also an underpass that will lead you to the trains going the opposite direction and when a sign just has the name of the station in the train then the entrance offers trains going either direction so be aware of entrance signage when entering a station because the station that you're about to go to might not have the right train headed in the direction that you want but here's a tip trains follow the flow of traffic so if the traffic is going this way the train on this entrance will also go this way if you find yourself on a platform with the trains going the opposite direction and you can't find a way to cross the tracks so that you can be on the right platform on the right train going the right direction you might be thinking to yourself you can just exit the station and re-enter on the right side it's fine if you're willing to pay another 275 on your metro card but if you have an unlimited card you can't swipe within 18 minutes of your last swipe you will have to wait 18 minutes for your unlimited card to reset itself but you do have options you can get on the train going the opposite direction and just get off of a station that will allow you to cross the tracks so you can get on the train and just retrace your journey or if there's an attendant at the station maybe they can help you out and just let you in on the other side without swiping or if the next station is close by you can just walk there and then get on the train but long story short just be aware of the entrance signage in conclusion it's an understatement to say that new york city subway has a learning curve it has a steep learning curve but once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy to use and it's a very effective way to transport yourself all around the city don't be intimidated because it does pay off to understand the new york city subway i encourage you to stay tuned for my next video which will talk about the metrocard and how to pay for public transportation in new york city so subscribe and hit that notification bell also liking this video helps promote my content so i could continue making more videos like this one with that thank you so much for watching and happy subway writing you

Channel: Urban Caffeine

Views: 355,022

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Id: 9fL5etTRZzU

Length: 15min 14sec (914 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 06 2021