This is the first post in a series of posts about completely split subway service (Map for the Day) with none through blackout stricken lower Manhattan. 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!
The day began when I walked to the still closed 181 Street (A) Station but the elevators had reopened so I ventured down that way:
I then walked down Broadway to 191st Street where the countdown clock at the tunnel entrance told me that service is running every ten minutes only to 34th St-Penn Station:
I took the 1 train to 72nd Street where I transfered to the 2 wanting the R142 34 St-Penn Station destination sign:
I took the 2 train down to Times Square–(6 Photos) where I ventured to the Shuttle by way of the closed 7 platform to use the escalator
I took the Shuttle to Grand Central where I met up with an old Transit Enthusiast Friend who lives in Brooklyn and had walked across the Manhattan Bridge before boarding a shuttle bus at the Bowery because the line was so long at the regular Jay Street Shuttle Bus Stop. The plan for the day is to venture back to Brooklyn by way of Jamaica, the only way to get there nearly entirely on the subway (and without the use of a bus or very long walk). At Grand Central the station feels nearly back to normal without Hudson Line Service and no service beyond Stamford on the New Haven Line and Mt. Kisco on the Harlem Line. The most notable thing going on in the terminal are people milling around at nearly every available electrical outlet, including on the ceiling. There probably all Manhattanites without electricity living south of 40th Street enjoying the heat and more importantly the electricity of the terminal to charge their phones. Here are is a departure monitor and the departure boards:
In the subway station, the Shuttle is running normally but only the Uptown Lexington Avenue Line platform is open (because of the switches trains are terminating there), the downtown and 7 platforms are closed:
We took the Shuttle back to Times Square. Then the 1 train down to 34th Street Penn Station where all trains are terminating on the middle Express platform, the local side platforms are completely closed
In the station we first found an incorrect (and old school) NJT/Amtrak departures monitor that is displaying the schedule like it is a normal weekday without track numbers since every train is canceled:
It turned out both the Amtrak and New Jersey Transit Concourses were completely closed:
These were the only three trains departing this hour from America’s normally busiest train station, the on-the-go touch screen even claimed the transit system is still shut-down:
