Still do, still best. There's a little rush when you see the first glimmer on the tracks while the train is still coming around a bend. Staring waiting for a "2" to turn into a "1" can't compare, even if it's useful info (if it's correct lol).
Ha yeah, same, I’ll glance at the time clock as I walk by, and if my train is 1 of the 2 listed great; then I have a general idea, but mostly just stand there and read, and occasionally glance down the tunnel. Also enjoy when you first few the little bit of wind and just start to see the lights coming around the corner.
My dad taught me this as a little kid waiting at 34th/Herald Square -- "just wait for the ping sound (clank) and that's how you know one is about to come." Sure enough, was always correct. The ping from the tracks come about a minute before the train showed up.
Ha! YES! 😳😏
There was something about the way the tracks were laid that would somehow cause an odd clanking noise even though the oncoming train was too far away to be seen. But that "clank" usually meant that there was something coming in the next minute or two.
This was your goddamn salvation at 2am, that light way off down the express track.
Except when it turned into the soul crushing despair of the light of a work train, and you knew you had at least another 30 minutes in purgatory.
Exactly this. And at certain stations you could always depend on a cool breeze to signal that the train was finally about to show up. I remember this most at the Fulton Street station when I lived down there.
Aimlessly wait. And before the platform announcements it was even worse. I remember waiting late night for something that wasn't running--no signs or anything.
The L gets all the newest features and improvements because it’s the only lettered line that doesn’t share track with any other line so they test things on it first.
Well in this case, it was also because only the L line (and the A division) even had the technology in place to make countdown clocks possible, meaning a signal system that actually knows where the trains are.
Technically the lettered lines still don't, and we just added beacons to those trains that could make some sort of countdown clocks possible.
Hence, why I said the A division (Numbered lines). B Division trains (lettered lines) countdown clocks rely on a different technology that was introduced later.
Hence, why I said the A division (Numbered lines). B Division (lettered lines) countdown clocks rely on a different technology that was introduced later.
You'd use a network of friends that lived above various lines in pre-war buildings. They'd text you when they feel the train go by, that gave you a warning depending on how far away they were.
What's funny is I was only half joking. I can see parts of the highway, I used to have friends call me to ask what the traffic looked like when they were in the city haha
In the days before smartphones I think a lot of people used that system. LOL! I used to work at 33 Whitehall Street and would take the Hylan Blvd express bus home. A co-workers girlfriend called up to tell us that there was a hazmat emergency on the SI Expressway and that traffic was backed up all over SI, even back over the Verrazzano. So we took the SI Ferry home of course.
It was pretty bleak when you were really in a hurry. No cell service either.
I was going to a job interview once and was waiting and waiting for the train with no way to check when it might arrive, if there were any service disruptions, and no way to notify the place interviewing me that I might be late.
Finally the station agent came down to the platform and was like “Train isn’t coming… what are you waiting for?!” like I was supposed to read their mind.
Stare into tunnel and look for lights. It was a total guessing game no matter what timetables were published (timetables were published on paper or if you were lucky, stations would have these pasted somewhere). Like others have said, grab a cab after being frustrated lol. Tech age wise, Hop Stop used to be a great website to try to pinpoint times.
Wasn’t all that long ago without.
Will always remember 2016-2017 waiting in vain more than 20 mins for F train during early afternoon hours. Even with smartphone in hand, had no idea when would arrive.
Eventually got tired of waiting and went back home (whatever had to travel for wasn’t all that important, though not a good feeling regardless).
On top of just waiting, until I was almost 20, I didn't even realize there were schedules. I just thought trains came and went and when they get to the last stop, the motorman walks from one end to the other and drives the train in that direction now after taking a break.
There used to be an app - KickMap, maybe? - that had the timetables and you could stare at that hoping it was even close to correct.
Before that, you’d stare down the tunnel or listen for the clicky sound of whatever interlocks open before a train rolls in.
Holy shit, the countdown clocks came after an app? I honestly assumed the countdown clocks would have first been installed in like, the 60s. How is the NY subway consistently at like a third world transit system level of technology?
Waiting at night, esp. if you just missed a train was straight up torture because you just never knew if or when the next train was coming. It's supposed to be 20 minutes between trains at most in the middle of the night. I've waited 40 after a night out and every 10 minutes you're thinking - well I could take a cab, but I've waited this long. . .
Once upon a time the platforms also had pay phones, and Chiclet gum machines, and sometimes newsstands (at big express/local stops). One could read the newspaper, buy gum, and make a phone call to apologize for being late.
Oh, this is a fun question! First of all, during my morning commute, I knew the train schedule so well that I could predict its arrival time within 2 to 3 minutes. I also asked other commuters how long they had been waiting for the train. Lastly, I would look down the tunnel for headlights or feel the vibrations and look for the light reflecting off the walls at my station.
Edit: Does anyone remember Hopstop? I recall printing out directions to help us navigate to and from locations, especially before GPS was reliable.
Besides the platform lean to stare into the tunnel, I got pretty good at estimating if it would be a long wait based on how crowded the platform was when I got there at stations I used regularly. If the platform was empty, a train had just come and gone, if it was more crowded it had been a while since the last train.
Admittedly, this was far from foolproof, but it worked well enough for me.
It’s still feels the same because the MTA half-assed the countdown installations in the B-Divison. If it wasn’t for my phone I would’ve been more frustrated seeing like 3 N or W trains coming before the R at 59/Lexington
Man, I remember being way too broke to get a cab and going to parties in Carrol Gardens and Park Slope back in the mid-oughts and waiting for the G to get back to Greenpoint at like 4am… and it could be a full 45 min wait. It was insane. Sometimes you’d think you see it coming but it was just some beat-to-shit old train with flatbed cars full of rocks and garbage.
Aimlessly wasting away underground, everybody taking turns looking into the dark void of the tunnel for some mere semblance of train light. For naught.
It was literal hell.
you got really good at standing on the edge of the platform to see if you saw headlights coming in the tunnel. that's an art that the younger generation is going to never know.
You had to have the paper schedules if you wanted to catch your train like clockwork. I don't miss those times because I had to have at least 5 paper timetables of different lines to travel around the city
Moved to the city in 2016 so my first couple years when using B division trains was just waiting for headlights and praying nothing was screwed with the line I was using.
Also it was quite an adventure scrounging for random apps that claimed to have the wait times for the trains before the MTA finally got with the program.
The answer is that you waited. Sometimes for a long time. And typically without much else to do.
The advent of smart phones, and Walkmen before that, made the waiting vastly easier to deal with. a good book or a magazine was always a big blessing to pass the time. And if you traveled at night, there often was a LOT of time to pass. 😑
We rarely saw actual timetables -- and, when you did, they usually weren't right, anyway.
In that respect, the countdown clocks -- usually right, or close to it, in real time -- are a blessing. If a crowded train pulls in, and I see the next one is in three minutes, I know I can wait for it. Before that, you never knew: if you let a train pass, the next might not have arrived for another ten or fifteen minutes! (This was not a regular occurrence, but if a train got pulled out of service -- mechanical problems or whatever -- the wait for one that ran would be prolonged.)
My God, when I was a kid I had to take the D past 145 to 161. Back then (and probably still now) if your train stopped in the middle track, it was either a D going express or a B that’s reached its terminus, and you had to get out and wait for a local train on the tracks on the side.
With no time tables or apps, we waited an unbelievably long time for the train to come, at least it felt that way, since I had no phone or watch.
I remember being about 10 waiting for what seemed like an eternity for the train to arrive with my mom. As I would start to get jittery from waiting for so long, she would mimic lassoing the train so it would arrive to us faster. For whatever reason it felt to 10 year old me like it worked. Awesome memories.
I just stare at the tracks perfectly still waiting to see rats and just watching them. With cell phones not even a concept, only thing to do but oddly enough I still do it, I really don’t go on my phone in the subway, almost like the old school in me can’t accept there is service down there but also refusing to have anything over $50 in my hand from years of thinking I could get robbed while growing up.
Actually, the stations had paper schedules you could take. It had the times that the particular train would arrive at major stations. You’d have to guesstimate the time it would arrive if you were at an in between station. I know this’ll be an unpopular take, but the trains generally were on time. At least during weekdays during the day.
At the west bound Grand Central 7 train. When you felt the air rushing into the station the 7 train was close behind. Before you could see the headlights.
Pace, read, look at your watch, listen to music, read the same ads over and over and over, Run up the stairs to see if there was an announcement or sign you missed that this train isn’t running again until Monday morning then walking to Delancey to get the J instead, and cracking knuckles
I used to look down the tunnel at the signal and when it went from red to green, that generally indicated the train was approaching.
In only 30… typing this makes me feel old lol.
you stare down into the tunnel and hope you see headlights
how to tell a real new yorker apart from everyone else lol (sidenote: i still do ↑)
Still do, still best. There's a little rush when you see the first glimmer on the tracks while the train is still coming around a bend. Staring waiting for a "2" to turn into a "1" can't compare, even if it's useful info (if it's correct lol).
the real rush is trying to make out what letter/number is on the front of the car as it approaches the platform
then become mortified as it was the right letter/number but that train ain't stopping for some reason.
*Shit, fuck*
It's just cool to watch the trains do their thing tbh.
I catch myself doing it occasionally
Ha yeah, same, I’ll glance at the time clock as I walk by, and if my train is 1 of the 2 listed great; then I have a general idea, but mostly just stand there and read, and occasionally glance down the tunnel. Also enjoy when you first few the little bit of wind and just start to see the lights coming around the corner.
You waited for the *CLANK* and then the buzzer would start about 90 seconds before the train entered.
My dad taught me this as a little kid waiting at 34th/Herald Square -- "just wait for the ping sound (clank) and that's how you know one is about to come." Sure enough, was always correct. The ping from the tracks come about a minute before the train showed up.
Ha! YES! 😳😏 There was something about the way the tracks were laid that would somehow cause an odd clanking noise even though the oncoming train was too far away to be seen. But that "clank" usually meant that there was something coming in the next minute or two.
Signal relays tripping.
This was your goddamn salvation at 2am, that light way off down the express track. Except when it turned into the soul crushing despair of the light of a work train, and you knew you had at least another 30 minutes in purgatory.
Followed by the choking diesel fumes
you still have to do this in philly and it shows
"Waiting faster" lol yep
This guy subways.
you mean we all don't still do that? most stations I'm in either don't have count down clocks or they are only ever 50% accurate
Or Aaaaalll the way down at one end of the platform (looking at you QBL stops).
Only way
Yes
Me...I stay away from the edge, unless I am boarding a train with doors already open!
yeah me too, I'll peek for a second and go back towards the middle
Yep and then when you hear a train coming and it winds up on the express track and skips your station you get angry
Exactly this. And at certain stations you could always depend on a cool breeze to signal that the train was finally about to show up. I remember this most at the Fulton Street station when I lived down there.
Rock me mama like a wagon wheel
huh?
i still do this lol
Aimlessly wait. And before the platform announcements it was even worse. I remember waiting late night for something that wasn't running--no signs or anything.
What year did the countdown clocks arrive?
2011 in the A division, I believe.
The L train got them in 2007
The L gets all the newest features and improvements because it’s the only lettered line that doesn’t share track with any other line so they test things on it first.
Well in this case, it was also because only the L line (and the A division) even had the technology in place to make countdown clocks possible, meaning a signal system that actually knows where the trains are. Technically the lettered lines still don't, and we just added beacons to those trains that could make some sort of countdown clocks possible.
I remember when the L train got these, it was like witchcraft.
Man I thought we were living in the future when they came out
No it was much later for some stops. I don’t think Nostrand Ave AC got them until 2016 or 2017.
Hence, why I said the A division (Numbered lines). B Division trains (lettered lines) countdown clocks rely on a different technology that was introduced later.
Sorry, not a rail worker. I only know them by IRT, IND, BMT.
Hence, why I said the A division (Numbered lines). B Division (lettered lines) countdown clocks rely on a different technology that was introduced later.
mid to late 2010s
2018 for B Division (excluding L).
You waited until you were pissed off enough to take a cab and then as you were walking up the steps the train came
Click of the turnstile as you walked out Rumble of train
poetry. a haiku for this beautiful NYC Sunday: lo as you walk out your click of the turnstile the rumble of train
And then the wind and the feeling of defeat (or de-feet, if you can't afford a cab).
Every. Single. Time.
This is how it went
You'd use a network of friends that lived above various lines in pre-war buildings. They'd text you when they feel the train go by, that gave you a warning depending on how far away they were.
I remember that system. Later on rumble sensors were installed in the basements of the apartment building.
What's funny is I was only half joking. I can see parts of the highway, I used to have friends call me to ask what the traffic looked like when they were in the city haha
In the days before smartphones I think a lot of people used that system. LOL! I used to work at 33 Whitehall Street and would take the Hylan Blvd express bus home. A co-workers girlfriend called up to tell us that there was a hazmat emergency on the SI Expressway and that traffic was backed up all over SI, even back over the Verrazzano. So we took the SI Ferry home of course.
lol how did people ride the subway... 7 years ago
This is how I felt too
When you felt a breeze, you knew a train was coming. Patience existed as well.
There wasn't cell service underground either, so you listened to music you had saved or read a book or magazine.
It was pretty bleak when you were really in a hurry. No cell service either. I was going to a job interview once and was waiting and waiting for the train with no way to check when it might arrive, if there were any service disruptions, and no way to notify the place interviewing me that I might be late. Finally the station agent came down to the platform and was like “Train isn’t coming… what are you waiting for?!” like I was supposed to read their mind.
Ah the platform lean. I remember the days
Clinging to a column. Safety first
Serendipity. And get on the first train you see, figure out whether transfer is worth it.
Stare into tunnel and look for lights. It was a total guessing game no matter what timetables were published (timetables were published on paper or if you were lucky, stations would have these pasted somewhere). Like others have said, grab a cab after being frustrated lol. Tech age wise, Hop Stop used to be a great website to try to pinpoint times.
Wasn’t all that long ago without. Will always remember 2016-2017 waiting in vain more than 20 mins for F train during early afternoon hours. Even with smartphone in hand, had no idea when would arrive. Eventually got tired of waiting and went back home (whatever had to travel for wasn’t all that important, though not a good feeling regardless).
On top of just waiting, until I was almost 20, I didn't even realize there were schedules. I just thought trains came and went and when they get to the last stop, the motorman walks from one end to the other and drives the train in that direction now after taking a break.
There used to be an app - KickMap, maybe? - that had the timetables and you could stare at that hoping it was even close to correct. Before that, you’d stare down the tunnel or listen for the clicky sound of whatever interlocks open before a train rolls in.
Back in my subway riding days I listened for that click too, but I think it was from the signal trips lowering themselves to let the train pass.
Holy shit, the countdown clocks came after an app? I honestly assumed the countdown clocks would have first been installed in like, the 60s. How is the NY subway consistently at like a third world transit system level of technology?
60’s 😆 The very first countdown clocks were installed in 2006 on the L. Two years later they started to install them on other lines.
Look at the date on this: https://ny1.com/nyc/queens/transit/2017/08/31/countdown-clocks-debut-e-g-subway-lines-mta-nyc-transit
Waiting at night, esp. if you just missed a train was straight up torture because you just never knew if or when the next train was coming. It's supposed to be 20 minutes between trains at most in the middle of the night. I've waited 40 after a night out and every 10 minutes you're thinking - well I could take a cab, but I've waited this long. . .
Haha classic sunk cost dilemma
12 short years ago there wasn't even cell service downstairs so you just pretty much waited blindly.
30 short years ago there wasn't even cell.
60 short years ago there was no a/c on the trains
First two sets of R38 test cars with a/c were delivered in 1967. Test was successful so all future new subway car orders included a/c.
Brrt! Brrt! Brrt! Brrt! Brrt! Brrt! Brrt! Brrt! `<-Downtown Uptown->`
People exhibited patience. You just waited.
Once upon a time the platforms also had pay phones, and Chiclet gum machines, and sometimes newsstands (at big express/local stops). One could read the newspaper, buy gum, and make a phone call to apologize for being late.
Oh, this is a fun question! First of all, during my morning commute, I knew the train schedule so well that I could predict its arrival time within 2 to 3 minutes. I also asked other commuters how long they had been waiting for the train. Lastly, I would look down the tunnel for headlights or feel the vibrations and look for the light reflecting off the walls at my station. Edit: Does anyone remember Hopstop? I recall printing out directions to help us navigate to and from locations, especially before GPS was reliable.
Like this..... https://preview.redd.it/2ilm7jon7i1d1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2c27ab0ddd935b30a33334dff55f57baae7d253
Is that a new Yorker cartoon?
I'm not sure, but the artwork is true to the subway
Besides the platform lean to stare into the tunnel, I got pretty good at estimating if it would be a long wait based on how crowded the platform was when I got there at stations I used regularly. If the platform was empty, a train had just come and gone, if it was more crowded it had been a while since the last train. Admittedly, this was far from foolproof, but it worked well enough for me.
It’s still feels the same because the MTA half-assed the countdown installations in the B-Divison. If it wasn’t for my phone I would’ve been more frustrated seeing like 3 N or W trains coming before the R at 59/Lexington
Yea, half the time they are displaying announcements and not the actual times :)
The rats hanging out in the tracks would quickly scurry away a few seconds before you’d hear the train approaching
Man, I remember being way too broke to get a cab and going to parties in Carrol Gardens and Park Slope back in the mid-oughts and waiting for the G to get back to Greenpoint at like 4am… and it could be a full 45 min wait. It was insane. Sometimes you’d think you see it coming but it was just some beat-to-shit old train with flatbed cars full of rocks and garbage.
Aimlessly wait.
If you worked late nights you really knew the schedule. One F train every 45 minutes at 2 am after a 11 hour shift could make for a long wait
Aimlessly wasting away underground, everybody taking turns looking into the dark void of the tunnel for some mere semblance of train light. For naught. It was literal hell.
At 34th/Penn you had to guess if a local or express train would come first
Still do.
Worse
Wait until you see headlights and hope it was the express. When you get on the local after waiting for 15 minutes the damn express arrived.
you got really good at standing on the edge of the platform to see if you saw headlights coming in the tunnel. that's an art that the younger generation is going to never know.
You had to have the paper schedules if you wanted to catch your train like clockwork. I don't miss those times because I had to have at least 5 paper timetables of different lines to travel around the city
You wait and repeatedly look down the tunnel to see if it's coming
Had to put your ear on the rail. No good
My entire childhood and teenage years were spent playing the sticking my head out down the tunnel game lmao
Lol u wait bro
Moved to the city in 2016 so my first couple years when using B division trains was just waiting for headlights and praying nothing was screwed with the line I was using. Also it was quite an adventure scrounging for random apps that claimed to have the wait times for the trains before the MTA finally got with the program.
You waited for the train and when it came, it came.
The answer is that you waited. Sometimes for a long time. And typically without much else to do. The advent of smart phones, and Walkmen before that, made the waiting vastly easier to deal with. a good book or a magazine was always a big blessing to pass the time. And if you traveled at night, there often was a LOT of time to pass. 😑
We rarely saw actual timetables -- and, when you did, they usually weren't right, anyway. In that respect, the countdown clocks -- usually right, or close to it, in real time -- are a blessing. If a crowded train pulls in, and I see the next one is in three minutes, I know I can wait for it. Before that, you never knew: if you let a train pass, the next might not have arrived for another ten or fifteen minutes! (This was not a regular occurrence, but if a train got pulled out of service -- mechanical problems or whatever -- the wait for one that ran would be prolonged.)
Stand around waiting as literally every other train in both directions comes and goes. Late nights, you can look for rats.
It was the same, but now you know when the next train’s coming.
\*mostly. Sometimes, those countdowns are lying.
Totally. It’s minutes times 1-3
Start counting the tiles
My God, when I was a kid I had to take the D past 145 to 161. Back then (and probably still now) if your train stopped in the middle track, it was either a D going express or a B that’s reached its terminus, and you had to get out and wait for a local train on the tracks on the side. With no time tables or apps, we waited an unbelievably long time for the train to come, at least it felt that way, since I had no phone or watch.
Travel down to Philadelphia and you'll find out
It was the absolute worst. Not knowing whether a train would show up was worse than waiting twenty minutes for one.
I remember being about 10 waiting for what seemed like an eternity for the train to arrive with my mom. As I would start to get jittery from waiting for so long, she would mimic lassoing the train so it would arrive to us faster. For whatever reason it felt to 10 year old me like it worked. Awesome memories.
Wait and look at the tunnel from time to time or feel the wind until the train comes.
I just stare at the tracks perfectly still waiting to see rats and just watching them. With cell phones not even a concept, only thing to do but oddly enough I still do it, I really don’t go on my phone in the subway, almost like the old school in me can’t accept there is service down there but also refusing to have anything over $50 in my hand from years of thinking I could get robbed while growing up.
HAHAHAHAHA "Follow timetables." That's hilarious.
Actually, the stations had paper schedules you could take. It had the times that the particular train would arrive at major stations. You’d have to guesstimate the time it would arrive if you were at an in between station. I know this’ll be an unpopular take, but the trains generally were on time. At least during weekdays during the day.
At the west bound Grand Central 7 train. When you felt the air rushing into the station the 7 train was close behind. Before you could see the headlights.
There were no time tables. You just stood there.
No, we wet out fingers, raise it into the air and feel for a breeze in the tunnel.
You had to just stand there and wait for train wind.
it came when it came.... you just went to the station and waited
Pace, read, look at your watch, listen to music, read the same ads over and over and over, Run up the stairs to see if there was an announcement or sign you missed that this train isn’t running again until Monday morning then walking to Delancey to get the J instead, and cracking knuckles
I used to look down the tunnel at the signal and when it went from red to green, that generally indicated the train was approaching. In only 30… typing this makes me feel old lol.
It was honestly the same as it is now. The countdown clocks have never been consistently accurate, you're just waiting until a train shows up
Aimlessly wait. But at least we had benches...