January 19, 2006
Today's Subway Delay Question
Gothamist was on an uptown R local when we were told that the train would face delays because of a sick passenger at Times Square. The conductor said the passenger had been there for a while, so there were major delays with express trains moving to the local. At the next stop, the conductor reminded passengers that the sick passenger at Times Square would cause delays - and then added there was a police investigation as well! Does anyone know what's going on? And isn't "police investigation" code for "body found in the tracks"?
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same thing happened on the 1 train this morning. i got off at chambers going uptown and the conductor mentioned that local and express 2/3 trains were going express to 34th due to a police investigation at 23rd.
Once during a massive delay I heard a conductor refer to a "roadbed incident" over the loudspeaker. Later found out that there had been a suicide jump in front of a train. Nice euphamism. "Sick passenger" I have heard many times -- a major delay might be a heart attack or something. "Dead passenger" might freak people out.
That happened to me once on the 1 line. They kept saying there was a delay because of track condition. Then they said it was a police investigation. Then they said it was a sick passenger. They went back to police investigation and seemed to stick with it in the end. Then they ultimately stopped service altogether. As I walked out to find other transport I overheard the conductor talking to the train driver about some guy who had fallen on to the tracks.
The "sick passenger" delay has got to be b*llshit. Think about it: you are in a crowded subway car at rush hour and start to feel sick-- who are you going to tell? How are YOU going to stop the train? There's no way. And if the sick passenger/train is in the station, yank that sick puppy outa there and move it on along!
No, the sick passenger routine is complete and utter hogwash.
I have heard this line before.
When I was coming back into the city after Thanksgiving riding an Amtrack train the conductor announced that we had a delay because the train in front of us (a MetroNorth train) had an 'injured costumer'. That same night I took the C to Brooklyn and the train stopped in the middle of the tracks before Chambers St because of an 'injured customer' in the train ahead. We slowly pulled into the station and were instructed to walk to the front of the train to exit into the station. The train ahead was parked in Chambers and there were police and firemen. The firemen were going down in between the trains. Rumors in the station were that someone was pushed but never heard anymore about it.
I don't think it was true, I think it's some kind of test to see how fast the authorities can respond to emergencies.
i was on the 1 train when it stopped at 23rd st, seemingly forever. what happened was somebody stole somebody else's ipod. some guy with a hero complex held the doors open and called the cops...so a stolent ipod is the culprit here, and nothing more. sheesh.
I was on the 6 going back uptown afterwork and the first stop (canal) as we were pulling in we could feel a succinct bump, like the train had gone over a speed bump, as it turned out that was a poor soul who had killed themself. apparently also they could only open one door at the end of the train and as we were walking through the carriages crossing through i could see a plethora of police with flashlights under the train cars, probably looking for errant body parts
i was on the uptown 1 late one Saturday when we stopped, seemingly endlessly, for a "sick passenger" at 86th street. the doors remained open, and i saw the conductor twice leave his little cube and walk down to the end of the train. after a LONG time, the conductor announced that we had to wait for the police (*not*, it should be noted, an ambulance) and we should all just hop on the bus, because we "weren't going anywhere anytime soon."
on leaving the station, i passed by the last car that everyone was peeking in to...and saw what appeared to be a dead person on the floor. awesome. :(
I have been on a train with an actual sick passenger, not a suicide or other fatality. I was on a downtown 6 during the summer of 2003 and a woman fainted -- she was sitting on one of the benches and just passed out. She woke up as the train pulled into 51st St but there was a 5-10 minute delay there while people in the train argued that she needed medical attention and the woman insisted she was fine. The MTA worker on the platform held the doors and kept saying they'd get an ambulance, but the woman refused. Finally, the MTA worker relented and let the train go. We got to 42nd St. and they took the train out of service. I have no idea why they did that, other than the long delay on that line. Maybe they could catch up the other trains if they ran the empty 6 off the line and out of the station. There were a lot of people waiting on that platform giving the "sick" woman dirty looks, me included.
Hero complex?? Before one takes any action you should ask yourself "what would Jack Bauer do?" In this case the gentleman acted accordingly. The 23rd st bound 1 train messed me up too but now that I know the reason was swift vigilante justice, I am more than happy to go up to 34th and backtrack. The terrorists can take away our civil liberties but they can not take away our iPods capable of watching Law & Order reruns. It was a video iPod right? Jack Bauer wouldn't have stopped service for a Shuffle.
I think we were on the same train this AM, Jen. I too was suspicious when the excuse went from sick passenger to policy investigation.
I got on a local (think it was a W) at Union Square around 9:45 a.m. and heard some half-hearted mumbling about a police investigation. The train crawled its way to 34th Street, and I barely paid any attention to the slumped figure in the two-seater bench to my right. Two cops got on the train at 34th and went right to the guy, one of them "woke him up," (not sure he was actually sleeping) and pulled him off the train. As we slowly pulled away the cops were searching his bag. The only suspicious thing I could see was that he was wearing two pairs of jeans (one was sagging) and they both looked new-ish. That's one way people shoplift jeans, that's all I know. Could it be that today's subway delay was to recover stolen jeans? If so, mission accomplished.
The sick passenger scenario is not always hogwash. On two occasions there have been fainters in my car. Both happened to occur on the Manhattan Bridge on the B/Q line. In one incident, the conductor did a great job assessing the situation while a fellow passenger (a nurse) and I helped the gentleman at Canal St. There was a small delay there and we proceeded to 14 St. where we were met by paramedics who checked the guy out. It turned out to be related to medication he was taking.
In the second incident, the fainter came to on his own. No delay there.
An injured costumer could be a real problem.
Especially around Halloween or the last week in July.
same thing happened on the 2 train last week. except then the 2 just stopped running at chambers. grr.
I was on the same train as a fainter once, a downtown A. The train stopped at Columbus Circle and sat there, waiting for the police and an ambulance. I was transferring there anyway, so I wasn't delayed, but I was in the station long enough to see a paramedic helping the woman who fainted off the train. (The police were actually already in the station and waiting for the fainting woman when we got there, so someone was doing his job well that day.) So sick passengers happen, but I always wonder about "police investigations."
I was also on a train once in which someone had pulled the emergency brake, and we sat for half an hour while the police and various MTA workers made sure everything was okay. I never knew what happened exactly, but got the impression it was pulled as a prank, and the conductor assured us once we were in motion again that everything checked out.
I've been a "sick passenger", so it's not total bull, though it might also be a euphemism for other delays. I was on an express train about a year ago and fainted right as I stepped off onto the platform. The train was delayed only a minute or so, as two other passengers helped me to my feet and to a newsstand in the station, where they notified MTA employees and the police. Once I was away from the train/platform edge, things went running as usual. The MTA told me I'd have to go to the hospital in an ambulance or sign a waiver, but I was so woozy I was in no capacity to argue with them, so I went to the hospital.
Next time I feel faint on the train, you better believe I will start telling people about it. I'm not asking them to hold the train any longer than it takes for me to get off of it, but I won't keep quiet next time and hope it passes.
I felt faint on a train once and thought I wzas going to vomit (ends up I had strep throat and a 101 degree fever but was too out of it to realize). I was on an express and started sweating and swaying and asked a couple of passengers if I could sit down until the next stop as I felt ill, but all I got was dirty looks. I ended up sitting on the floor and leaning against the door and getting more sirty looks. The point is, if you see a sick passenger, help them out, give up your seat, etc. I ended up making it to my stop and going straight to a doctor, but if I had passed out or puked, those "helpful" passengers would have been even more inconvenienced.
I've been on a train where there was a so called dog on the tracks..and suspended service..and three emergency breaks pulled cause someone thought it was funny...can't get over the dog on the tracks though..
I actually got ragingly sick on the N or Q train to Brooklyn a couple months ago and threw up all over the floor (no, I wasn't drunk, but got some sort of stomach virus and didn't feel well so I left work early). People gave me a seat once I threw up but I'm sure it's cause they didn't want to get barfed on. One nice man gave me a shopping bag to put my jacket in which I had barfed all over and a few people gave me packets of tissues. Other than that, the train did not stop or anything of the sort, even though I was throwing up everywhere. Sigh. Ah well, we're all human. Eep.
Police investigation is often the term used when someone finds a suspicious package in a station.
There was also some kind of incident on the uptown C train at Port Authority this afternoon, around 1:15pm. The C train had to stop halfway into the station, and we on the A train across the track heard screaming, but I have no idea what happened.
When you work EMS in midtown, not a rush hour passes by without at least four or five calls for people (mostly women) passing out in the subway.
my most intriguing incident was last year when my F train stopped between broadway-lafayette and 2nd ave because the train operator had seen an unauthorized person walking around the tracks. the train stopped, and electricity had to be turned off to prevent electrocution. we could hear the person banging around in the dark, trying to get away! the cops showed up, like 30 minutes later.
Alright all you park slopers out there. Explain this one:
Around about 1998, 7-8pm(ish) F train pulls into something like 4th ave station and just sits there with doors closed for what seems like an eternity. Doors finally open to allow in a full swat team with guns drawn zeroing in on one guy sitting on his own with an overcoat on. They tell him to raise his hands, which he does, then they open his coat and he is, in the words of my then GF who was in the same car, wired with bombs. They must have cuffed him because they then quickly lead him out of the car without further ado, doors close, train starts on it's way and the few ppl left in the car stare at each other in stunned silence. This was never on the news and I have never been able to dig up anything about it.
Sometimes thats code for kids kicking out train windows, and or people in conductor booths yelling on microphones
Regarding the park slope incident- There was definitely an incident right around 1998 that, from what I remember, SWAT raided a garage on 4th avenue that was being used by terrorists to build bombs. it resulted in a firefight of some sort, and apparently ended in some bruce willis style drama where they killed some guy right as he was trying to detononate some absurd about of explosives. I heard this from multiple reliable sources, but was very shocked at the lack of media coverage it got. What you are saying is quite possibly related, and might even be a variation in the recount of the same event.
Here's the cause for yesterday's dealy...
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/nyregion/20dead.html
Yikes. :(