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Rant: Subway Train Direction


Smoot178

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Seriously, how hard would it be for the MTA to put up some more informative signs.

 

When I visited New York, I could not tell which way the train was going. Most trains just have a first and last stop and how the heck should I know where the ending stations are.

 

If I get down into the Jay St. station, I have to guess which (A) train is going towards Manhattan or towards east Brooklyn. It gets confusing for a tourist after going down a few flights of differently orientated stairs, so knowing which direction is which is hard. To be honest, if I have a map all I would need is a simple arrow on the tunnel wall pointing in one direction (North, East, South, or West).

 

If I am ever in New York again, the first thing I will be purchasing is a compass.

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Seriously, how hard would it be for the MTA to put up some more informative signs.

 

When I visited New York, I could not tell which way the train was going. Most trains just have a first and last stop and how the heck should I know where the ending stations are.

 

If I get down into the Jay St. station, I have to guess which (A) train is going towards Manhattan or towards east Brooklyn. It gets confusing for a tourist after going down a few flights of differently orientated stairs, so knowing which direction is which is hard. To be honest, if I have a map all I would need is a simple arrow on the tunnel wall pointing in one direction (North, East, South, or West).

 

If I am ever in New York again, the first thing I will be purchasing is a compass.

 

A compass won't help because in the subway the trains run either north or south but that isn't always the direction that they are physically going. There are huge maps all over the platform and you can get a free one from any booth that actually still has a human working in it.

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I find that the subway signs are so simply laid out that if you think about what the sign means too much you'll not get it. They used to be more informative, but emergency reroutes etc made everything too confusing, so now you got things like "Uptown (A)(C)(E)" and some have an arrow some don't. the ones that don't sometimes say upper level lower level etc.

 

I find that stopping, taking a look all around & seeing which signs are tending to point which way helps a lot. I personally have never had a issue once i figured out how obviously descriptive the signage is back in 2001.

 

Also, i've never been to a station where uptown & downtown were not only clearly indicated, but also explained when which trains ran where. The map helps too.

 

I am very sorry you had a hard time navigating the system.

 

- A

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It wasn't too hard, it's just that once or twice I found myself on a train going in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go. It's really easy to figure out which track is which line, it's just whether it is going one way or another.

 

If I were going the wrong way, I'd hop off and catch one going the correct way at the next stop.

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Most route signs on the platform (hanging from the roof by the track) say "Downtown/Uptown via" or "Manhattan/Queens/Brooklyn." I'm assuming you're talking about island platforms, where trains going in opposite directions open on the same platform.

 

For your example, at Jay St, the route signs probably say "Manhattan" and then "(A) 207th St, Manhattan yada yada yada" and then on the other side "Brooklyn and Queens" with "(A) yada yada yada."

 

Plus, above every staircase going down to a platform there should be a sign telling which trains go uptown or downtown, express or local.

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