This is the second post (Post 1) 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!
In Penn Station, with the LIRR completely free and a train bound to Great Neck by way of Woodside about to depart (we could have just taken the LIRR out to Jamaica directly, but that would have been less interesting) me and my friend decide that’s the best way to start heading out to Queens. The train is relatively empty and its a quite uneventful ride through one of the Northern Two North River Tubes (the southern set of tubes flooded). We do notice that Amtrak’s Sunnyside yard looks unusually crowded but their no signs of flooding there. We get off at Woodside–(7 LIRR Photos)
The 7 train is totally shut but both the token booth and LIRR ticket office are open on the shared mezzanine–(3 Photos) beneath the 7’s elevated and above the LIRR platforms:
With no subway service at Woodside we have to walk to the nearest Queens Blvd subway stop, getting there we pass a gas station that has ran out of gas before getting to the 65th Street–(7 Photos) Queens Blvd Local stop where only the F train is stopping.
The F local train ride was fairly interesting because of all the random trains being stored on the middle two express tracks, removed from train yards prone to flooding and the fact that passengers for E train stations “Please walk south from the nearest F train station.” We got off the F train at Parsons Blvd–(7 Photos)
We then had a nothing walk the few blocks down Parsons Blvd, less than a half-mile down to Jamaica Center–(12 Photos) which only has J train service. This station was designed in such a way that both entrances have escalators directly down to the Lower Level J platform so the E platform was completely taped off.
We took a Hewes Street-bound J train (although the signs were saying Marcy Avenue because Hewes Street isn’t programmed) one stop to Sutphin Blvd–(9 Photos) Where to get to the mezzanine we had to venture via the E train platform.
From there we had about 20 minutes to wonder around Jamaica Station–(15 photos, 6 from a previous trip) before our hourly (and free) LIRR shuttle train that would whisk us to Brooklyn. Our plan was to simply take the J to Broadway Junction to the Brooklyn section of the A train but when it was announced that the LIRR was free it seemed like a great time to get a free ride on the branch to Atlantic Terminal, a trip I have only done once before over 8 years ago. We also noticed AirTrain JFK is operating but is also free with the Port Authority complying with the transit emergency. The departure monitors were the most telling here about how just one westbound destination is currently receiving train service. The tracks though were quite full of trains since the station is on high ground and is a good place to store trains out of harms way:
The train leaves on time at 2:45pm, us in the front car with a bunch of employees at the front door who soon open it and get off when we stop at the LIRR diesel shops at Boland’s Landing. We continue into the tunnel portion and my friend points out the abandoned Woodhaven Blvd in the tunnel that was built at the same time as the IND and has subway like tiling readable through the graffiti. We see daylight again at East New York that looks relatively unimproved since the last time I was there. We emerge on the viaduct above Atlantic Avenue I notice that trains no longer are suspended beyond the sides of the elevated, the rehabilitation has put a fence and catwalk for employees up. The station at Nostrand Avenue I realize I have to revisit because the MTA has put up subway (not LIRR) style signs but did virtually no other renovations. We returned underground for the quick trip into Atlantic Terminal–(5 photos) where we arrive at 3:15 on Track 1. Along the next platform we notice a feral cat chilling on the tactile warning strip and go and get a few photos of it before it dashes down and beneath the tracks. Good think because of the subway entrances all of the platforms at Atlantic Center are completely open with unrestricted access.
I have gotten to Brooklyn, the only way possible today (except by walking 4 to 5 miles) from Upper Manhattan entirely on Subways and Trains without setting foot on a bus!