This is the forth post (Post 1|Post 2|Post 3) in a series of posts about completely split subway service (Map for the Day) with no service through blackout stricken Manhattan south of about 30th Street after Superstorm Sandy. I decided I had to see how navigating the city would be heading to Brooklyn to visit a friend. Governor Cuomo also announced a transit emergency making all Bus, Subway, LIRR and Metro-North Service Fare Free!
After a relatively dinner in Cobble Hill it was time for an adventure on my way home. Looking on-line there (and from my iPhone I learn M service has been restored in a very unusual way, Jamaica Center to 34th Street via 63 Street 2nd map of the day). My friend decides to walk me to the bus shuttle at Jay Street-MetroTech but I realized that being in Brooklyn with Lower Manhattan in a blackout meant a short detour to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade is in order. Only the Freedom Tower was lit.
I then wondered back towards Jay Street where shuttle buses were running and made a point of walking through the shopping arcade at Clark Street–(4 Photos)
I wait for one shuttle bus to leave and get on the next so I can have a seat. This bus soon leaves and feels like an uneventful ride through a few empty streets of Brooklyn and to the main entrance at the end of Flatbush Avenue to the Manhattan Bridge. There a cop moves out of the way and lets into the bus lane. The Lower Level of the bridge (3 Reversible Lanes) has been turned into a bi-direction bus lane for the special buses. We get to the Manhattan Side towers when all the bridge lights go out with only the lights of other buses and cars to light the way. I feel like I’m riding a bus through a rural area (maybe the FREX from Colorado Springs to Denver), not in the middle of New York City. We get to the Manhattan side of the bridge and turn north on the Bowery. At each intersection there are traffic or regular cops waring bright yellow reflective vests directing traffic with flashlights. At many intersections flares are spewing at the corners providing light. The dedicated bus lane is not in use at the moment with a line of cones by the sidewalk. The bus continues up 3 Avenue making fairly good speed through the night. At 23 Street I decide to get off wanting to experience a mile walk in the dark.
I start walking north and realize that getting crossing the small cross-streets is relatively easy, crossing 3rd Avenue is going to be tricky. Eventually I find a safe place to cross Third and head over to Lexington. At Lexington and 33 Street I see lines and crowds of people waiting to board shuttles back to Brooklyn. I continue up on the fairly deserted streets, passing a few restaurants (mainly pizza places) open by candlelight before getting to 40th Street when with alost a boom the streets lights turn back on. I walk the two final blocks to Grand Central and have a few final subway lines I want to ride before finally heading home.
I enter the station and get an uptown 4 train the two stops to 59 Street–(6 Photos). The lower level express platforms are taped off. There I get, off run over using the little underpass that connects the two local platforms and nothing else and get a destination sign photo of the 6 To Grand Central.
I walk the 3 blocks up to Lexington Avenue/63 Street–(3 Photos) where I descend to the Manhattan-bound platform and get there right as a Manhattan-bound M train is arriving. It’s destination signs all are correct ’34 St-Herald Sq’ and ’63 St-6 Ave LCL’ announcing this a 34 St-Herald Square-bound M train via the F line. There are though paper signs in each window that say M-Jamaica Center to 34 St-Herald Square since apparently Jamaica Center isn’t programmed into FIND.
I only ride this special M train one stop to 57 Street–(8 Photos) to get more photos at a unique station and also because there is one more train line who’s Manhattan situation I’m curious about.
I get off and walk over to 5th Avenue-59 Street –(6 Photos). I can’t get on at 57 Street-7 Avenue because its in the crane collapse zone it would have been closer.
There I wait about 12 minutes for an N train running only to 34th Street. It comes in, destination signs completely correct and bypasses 57 Street where two R68 B trains are spending the trains on the middle express tracks. We get to 34th Street where trains are using only the downtown Express track and I later look at my track map book and realize that this is the only possible track that can be used for short-turning trains at 34 Street from Queens. Hand made signs tell all passengers to board trains at the downtown platform. No wonder the M was restored and not the R, there wouldn’t be capacity at 34 Street. I go out the southern exit to see about the PATH station and not only are the gates closed on it (including the exit directly from the BMT at this end of the station) but all the lights are off. PATH hasn’t been able to restore power even to its stations yet! The glass wall passageway within fare control around the main PATH entrance area that connects the IND to BMT at the southern end of the station was lit but the PATH station itself is completely dark.
I end up on a D train as it is leaving but realize that there is probably an M train right behind it and I want to see what the Jamaica Center-bound trains are saying for sings. I take another detour on my way home (at this point its after 11:00pm) and get off at 42 Street waiting for the M train to enter. I also notice even this late that the MTA has a capacity problem trying to turn 3 Subway Lines at 34th Street even with not one but two diamond crossovers at a fairly complex interlocking. An M train soon comes in, its signed as going to Forest Hills-71 Avenue via 63 Street. Jamaica Center clearly isn’t in the FIND display system for the M train, hence the paper signs.
I take it back to 57 Street-6 Avenue and walk over to 59 Street-Columbus Circle where neither the Uptown A train or the 1 train looks like its coming anytime soon. The 1 trains countdown clocks aren’t even on. I end up finding a spot on the 60th Street mezzanine where you can see both the Uptown 1 Local track and Uptown A train. First a Downtown A train comes and I rush down to that platform to get its correct (except with 8 Av Line not LCL) destination sign.
9 Minutes later an uptown A train comes in running local. I take it to its current terminus (not running to my home) at 168 Street, just a 21 minute ride even via local. I exit at the front of the train to 169 Street and walk over to Fort Washington Avenue where I start walking north. I start wondering if there still M4s left this evening (they don’t run overnight) since its now a bit after midnight. and the bus route lacks BusTime. I look behind me and stopped at the light what do I see but an M4. I dash across the street and hop on at 171 Street for a nice quick ride (making just one stop, there maybe two other passengers) back to 183 Street to get home.