I want to begin this article by telling you how a day in the life of a New York City subway rider usually goes. After a long, tiresome day at work or school, you head down to your local train station and wait for your next ride. You start sweating due to the extreme heat felt being underground for 10 to 20 minutes as you miss yet another train due to overcrowding. After fifteen minutes, a train finally comes by and has just enough space to fit you inside. Congratulations, you are now a part of a human sandwich, stuffed with other sweaty and smelly New Yorkers who are only an inch away from you and also underwent a very long and tiresome day at work. Don’t worry, though, because "it's Showtime!" A three-man performance group of kids who should have spent their day at school are now performing a dance number that no one cares about, but you still watch them move their bodies because it’s more entertaining than sharing awkward eye contact with that old lady right next to you.
Now, what if I told you that New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is actually doing something about this? Just this past week, plans have been unveiled to replace the New York City subway trains of today with train cars more akin to what is seen in places such as Toronto, London, and Paris. These cities have adapted to a transit system with train cars that connect without interior doors. According to the New York Daily News, these new cars will increase passenger capacity to around 10 percent. It actually sounds like a dream come true, as New Yorkers all around can finally envision a future where people will now be two inches away from us, and Showtime will increase to four-man performance groups. Oh, what a happy day!
As per Governor Cuomo’s wishes, these train cars shall also be coming with WiFi and charging stations. While I’m personally content with taking a break from real life while undergoing underground transit for at least thirty minutes every train ride, I guess I can also be content with watching Netflix and chilling by myself in the corner of the car as I jump from every bump the train endures. Based on conceptual renderings provided by the MTA of these brand new train cars, the designs are looking sleek and stylish, and cars shall also be implemented with digital video screens and more seats than usual.
There are many problems with the MTA, and it’s nice to know that they’re finally doing something about it and taking cues from how other cities are handling it. There is still a plethora of other problems that the MTA needs to take care of, such as updating its decades-old technology and promoting clean conditions on the trackway (it looks like it’s time to start taking cues from Eurasian metro systems’ platform screen doors). However, the problem of overcrowding is getting traction and hopefully these new train cars (and that new Second Avenue subway line) can do something about it.
Don’t get too excited, though, as these cars won’t be rolling out until at least 2020. So New Yorkers, expect another four years of standing just a little bit too close to someone who smells like they just finished eating from the nearby halal truck, a baby crying not too far off, a beggar asking for some change, and a Showtime performance of twelve-year-olds climbing up the pole and right back down again. It sounds absolutely fantastic, doesn’t it?
