InsideTransit

Take a ride on the NYC subway today and you see a (relatively) clean system – no graffiti on the cars (except the new advertising wrapped cars), good quality announcements, air conditioning that works, and overall good service.

Go back 30 years to the 1980s and the NYC subway was completely different. I was a young kid during the 80s but I remember riding how different the subway was back then. The dirt, the endless amounts of graffiti, the crime, the lack of maintenance on the cars, I could go on… But it’s also important to remember the city itself was different back then.

24Flinching has put together a collection of photos from a variety of artists that take you back to the NYC subways of the ’80s.

Here’s one sample – check out the post for the rest of the artwork.

There’s Miss USA, Mrs. USA, Miss World and about 80,000 other beauty pageants each year across the world. But none are as cool as this one. German newspaper The Local is reporting that there will be a beauty pageant held in the Berlin U-Bahn.

The event will feature the same competitions as a normal pageant: swimwear, evening gown, talent and Q&A. From what we hear, there will also be a competition to see which contestant can stop the U7 bahn closest to an egg placed at the end of the station.

It looks like each contestant will be paired with a German fashion designer and the idea is to show off the designer’s clothing and also the bahn. Nothing better than an attractive woman coming together with an attractive subway car.

The winner wins a lifetime free pass on any German rail system (just kidding).

The NYC MTA has posted all of the new maps for the five boroughs that include the massive cuts that will take place on June 27, 2010. You can download the maps here. The changes are the biggest set of cuts ever in the history of the MTA. Many of the buses I take on a daily/weekly basis will see major cuts that will impact my ride in a very negative way.

The W and V subway lines will be discontinued and the M becomes orange and will go into midtown instead of lower manhattan.

The week of June 27th should be a very interesting week in NYC. My guess is that by mid-July the complaining and yelling will have subsided and commuters will just learn to deal with the situation. It’s certainly soothing to know the new MTA boss gets $6k for housing each month in addition to his salary.

Now here is something you will probably never seen on any transit system in the U.S. This one comes straight from the London Underground. A bunch of people went on the tube naked (yes, I mean completely naked) to promote an upcoming TV series where experts will help small businesses turn around and become profitable.

The Daily Mail has the full story (NOTE: LINK HAS NSFW NUDE PHOTOS) and they note, “Steven Suphi, behaviour change specialist and leadership guru, believes stripping off in the office will help boost employees’ confidence and develop trust. I believe this extreme process will help them push their boundaries and become a close team that trust each other enough to get naked together.”

I wonder what will happen if this TV show makes it across the river.

This railfan seriously misses death by about one inch — check out the video below. The man with the camera can’t even seem to get out any words like “MOVE NOW IDIOT” or “YOU ARE ABOUT TO GET HIT AND DIE” — instead he lets out some sort of bird mating call.

Please, I beg of you – if you are planning to railfan and take photos of very fast moving trains, be careful and look both ways.

The Neatorama blog posted a pretty cool video today. It’s from Copenhagen and apparently the passengers on a bus sing happy birthday to the driver. The singing isn’t in English but eventually you will realize what the passengers are singing. It’s easy to gripe all the time about public transit – here’s a nice way to say thanks. If you are someone who cries easily, you might not want to watch this one

Amtrak has announced the date for the third annual National Train Day. This year National Train Day is May 8, 2010. You can check out all of the events on the National Train Day website.

There are also events planned for Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington. It appears most of the events will be held at the main Amtrak station in each city. I am unsure if they will have the same train equipment tours as they had in 2009. Amtrak also notes that there will be art exhibits and fun activities for kids. And of course there will be a store to buy lots of fun things related to trains.

For those railfans located in NYC, Amtrak is preparing an event at Penn Station. If you have kids, take them to the National Train Day event in your city and get them excited about trains and transit in general.

Subway sandwich shop is sponsoring the National Train Day events.

The National Post newspaper in Toronto, Canada has put together an etiquette group they call the TTCC or the Toronto Transit Civility Commission. The idea is to post etiquette posters all around the Toronto subways to help people remember to:

1. take only the number of seats a human needs
2. to not stink
3. and to not do personal grooming on the subway

I would add one about putting your trash in the trash bin. Here in NYC I think there are more trash bins than there are people yet pigs throw their garbage on the tracks and on the ground.

The posters (one seen below) are also available in large sizes perfect for printing.

There is a very upsetting story coming out of Moscow, Russia this morning. More than 35 people have died in 2 suicide bombings in the subway system in Moscow.

“It was a terrorist act carried out by the female suicide bombers,” said Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, citing Russia’s intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service. “They were specifically timed — for … the train was nearing the station — to make the most damage.

The first explosion occurred about 8 a.m. at Lubyanka subway station, killing at least 23 people and injuring 20. The second explosion happened about 30 minutes later at Park Kultury station, on the same train line. The Emergency Situations Ministry reported 12 dead in the second explosion, with 20 more injured.

Read more on the NY Times and CNN about the potential reason behind the attacks.

This morning while attending a conference in Austin, I snapped a few photos of the downtown station (the terminal) for the new light rail that will begin service next week. I just missed a train by about 1 minute! The train had two cars and a coupler in the middle.

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