The New York City Subway in Manhattan
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Published 2014-10-25
The NYC subway system is really old and the infrastructure shows a lot of wear and tear; especially the stations are in pretty rough shape. The system is quite efficient, though. Many lines have four tracks, where the inner two tracks are used by express services, which only stop at major (interchange) stations. The platform layout at these stations allows for convenient transfer between express and local services.
This film was shot on a Saturday afternoon. Curiously, there seemed to be significantly less frequent service than during weekdays, with some lines even not operating at all. Some stations were quite deserted while others (especially those along the Lexington Avenue line) were overcrowded.
Enjoy!
Index to the film:
00:00 – 47–50 Streets / Rockefeller Center
01:20 – West 4th Street / Washington Square
02:23 – Spring Street (note the express service passing the station at 4:05)
04:26 – Canal Street
05:31 – Riding an R160 class train on the E line from Canal Street to World Trade Center
07:04 – World Trade Center station
07:33 – A brief view of the 9/11 memorial and the new 1 World Trade Center building
08:17 – Fulton Street (platform for J and Z lines; quite deserted this day)
08:38 – Brooklyn Bridge / City Hall
10:34 – Grand Central / 42nd Street
11:15 – 68th Street / Hunter College
All Comments (21)
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At 5:14 I love the sound of the train moving :) does anyone else love the sound too?
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It ain’t pretty, but you can’t deny the nyc subway will get you home at 3 am while you are drunk from a night of partying.
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Listen to all of the people in the comments, from a NY Brooklyn kid growing up. This was my childhood. I loved it when ever I stepped in into the city and subway. Loved it. Sadly i live in Jersey but it's nice out here. Still I miss the city.
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I used to have a LOT of subway dreams as a kid, and when I visited NYC as a teenager I was floored that the subways in my dreams looked like the ones in NYC despite me never being there before. The subways were one of my favorite parts of my trip to New York for so many reasons
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Living in Canada I found out that some of the trains date from the 1960s! Wow!
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The subway is a mess, but it's a beautiful one. It's disorganization and outdated infrastructure gives it a cozy feel I find
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sometimes NYC is a mess, but its my mess and i love it no matter what <3
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New York City is one of the places that I would really love to visit. Definitely on my bucket list of places to see.
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I miss all of it, even the dirty subway station, just everything
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A wave of nostalgia really hit me. I've lived in New York all my life and moved to Florida two years ago, and never expected to miss the subways. Appreciate even the things you hate most in life, you might really miss them one day. :,(
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In a week, I'm heading to NYC for the first time. These videos are great for getting a sense of the flow and atmosphere of using subways.
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It is one of my dreams to visit this wonderful City one day. Greetings from Europe
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this subway line may not be the most comfortable or modern but it gets the job done. the trains are ment to last and work hard not be luxurious super trains, and they do their job very well.
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My wife and I visited Manhattan in 2019, staying on West 47th. We used the subway a LOT in that week. OK, you maybe couldn't eat your dinner off the platforms, but we thought the stations we used were pretty OK, and certainly no worse than their counterparts in London. The trains were the real shocker, though - clean and almost 100% litter-free! Here in Scotland we have a subway in Glasgow - it's a lot smaller, but is invariably dirty and strewn with litter. NYC, 10/10. Glasgow, 2/10.
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Just watching this video I miss my hometown such much. Nice job you captured the heartbeat of NYC. The greatest city in the world.
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Saturday afternoons are a relatively low-volume passenger time on the NYC subway system. Certain stations that always seem busy on weekdays sometimes are busy on Saturdays too, but that's not the usual case. The Lexington line is very busy, because its companion, the long-awaited 2nd Avenue subway, is not yet open for service. As for the stations, yes they are old but the transport authority that operates the system has made some remarkable progress in cleaning up the old stations, repainting them, and doing general "fix-ups" to make them more palatable. Considering that the system carries 6 million riders a day, all in all the modern trains, along with the stations being modernized are providing a much better environment than in years past. Nonetheless, the waits for trains can sometimes be too long, and the trains are often overcrowded.
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It's been ten years since I've been in NYC and now I need to write something about this. Thank you for making this video available to bring those memories back, it really helps.
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Love NYC. Didn't need a car when I traveled there, I left my car in the hotel parking lot my whole trip. 😂
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5:13, The sound of the subway leaving the station just sounds super nice and smooth
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Really excellent videos! The joy of subways. If you haven't experienced, try it. It's the soul of new york city.
