Comments on: Pondering a clean, but closed, subway

By: sd280

sd280 — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 04:18:54 +0000

yes….please — something needs to be done! I don;t see what the big problem with closing the subway for just a few short hours every night in order to ensure cleanliness…something has to be done!!! I lived in London for a year and i didnt cringe every time i traveled the way i do here, in my native New York. I was on the other evening when a homeless woman sleeping on a bench was using the subway as her personal toilet. It was so disgusting! The subway shouldn’t be such an inferior good…it should be a normal and convenient good for all to enjoy! I hope they do something, anything, soon!

By: g

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 05:10:21 +0000

I do NOT think 24 hour service should be cut back. I’ve seen less filth due to food and more to just mud that people track in. Sure there’s an occasional spilled coffee but the floors aren’t much cleaner than the the streets that people walk on for blocks and blocks before getting to the subway.

By: a.v.

a.v. — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 21:43:29 +0000

I think there is actually quite a bit of cleaning going on down there, both on the cars and in the stations. I see people hauling away garbage and scrubbing floors at all times of the day and night. The problem is sheer volume of traffic. And the fact that in many stations, it doesn’t look all that much better clean than it does dirty.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:45:32 +0000

Most of the cars are already out of service at night. They can be cleaned then. Or midday, when service is reduced, also. As for the stations, how hard is it to hose down the walls and floors every once in a while? You don’t need to close the place to do it late at night.

By: Todd

Todd — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 17:31:14 +0000

Yeah, they can’t shut down the system for a length of time like that. Maybe for an hour at the most, like from 3-4am, but that doesn’t seem like enough time to do much of anything. Especially at the pace the MTA seems to work.

On a brighter note, I watched a station get power-washed late Friday night. The guy did a pretty good job and it smelled good afterwards! He wasn’t in the way and it didn’t take long at all. I don’t know how they clean the cars, but they should spray the stations like that every night!

By: D Gigs

D Gigs — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 16:12:00 +0000

Tokyo shuts down their subway system every day at midnight and reopens it at 5 in the morning. But in the interim, cab drivers hike up their local rates tremendously. I’ve heard a lot of Tokyoites claim that that has to do with the Yakuza having a hold on both the city’s subway system as well as the cab companies. I wouldn’t put it past the MTA to find some similar way to exploit New Yorkers if the trains were to be shut down late at night over here. They are kind of like our version of the Yakuza if you ask me.

What I propose is that the city developes special train cars with carpeting, cushioned seats, leg rests, the whole nine, and in order to gain acccess to these cars, one must be an active member of a newly designed group that helps clean up the subways (positive reinforcement through community service opportunities. Say a few hours per week.) Those who never help ride the crappy trains, and those who have done their part ride in luxury. I’m still working out the kinks as far as acccess cards and security issues go. But I think it would work.

By: Alan Peery

Alan Peery — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 10:22:57 +0000

If you want the New York subway system STATIONS cleaner, start a club. People sign up for $1/month direct debit (tiny money) that goes to fund a city-wide competition for the “cleanest subway station” and the money goes to fund a reward (dinner or cash) for the “station team as determined by the station manager”. Once you get more than $2500/month, start rewarding more stations.

Direct action, direct results.

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Top Posts « WordPress.com — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 23:58:54 +0000

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By: posternutbag

posternutbag — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 20:59:28 +0000

i am in the process of moving from DC to NYC, and while i do love my clean subway, i would MUCH rather have it be open later (especially on weekdays). you new yorkers shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth (ive never really understood what that means, but i think its appropriate here).

By: Mike Still

Mike Still — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 20:08:21 +0000

Having the trains close at 1am or even 2 would be a kick in the pants to the city’s restaurant and service industries. And I definitely agree that the cars themselves are generally pretty clean–its the stations that really get grimy–I often look around and wonder if it’d be possible to actually exhaustively clean any of the stations. Most of the real grime comes not from garbage, but from leaks in the station itself–I mean, we got stations with stalactites in them!