Maybe there’s love to be found on the subway after all. (Photo by flickr user your pal Matt)

When Patrick Moberg set eyes upon the cute girl sitting across from him, he shared an experience with every New York male: He fell in love with the cute girl on the subway. As we know, Moberg was too shy to talk to Camille Hayton, and so he set up a Web site. Boy meets girl; boy sets up Web site; boy gets girl.

At the time, the media reported this story as though Moberg’s experiences were somehow unique. He had the guts to post his subway crush on a Web site; let’s get him on Good Morning, America. Of course, as anyone knows, Moberg is not alone. The Craigslist Missed Connections list is chock full o’ subway stories. And that is where we enter these musings on subway romances.

The subways are the great irony of the New York City dating scene. Single folk in New York would rather subject themselves to the pain of trying to find a date in a crowded bar or club than talk to that cute stranger they see everyday on the subway. The person in the club is bound to be just as unhinged as the early-morning straphanger heading to work. But at least you have two things in common with your fellow subway riders: You both ride the same train, and you both have jobs. That must count for something.

It would be easy to strike up a conversation with the guy in the suit or the girl with the curly hair, right? You see each other every day. You ride the same train at the same time; you get on the same set of doors at the same stop; and one of you must know at which stop the other gets off. Just take the plunge.

But it’s just not that easy, right? We live in an insular world on the subway. It’s a means of transportation, and we like to stay anonymous in the train. The people who ride the 2 with you everyday from 96th St to Chelsea, who are they? We see the same people on the same train day after day and never say anything.

Instead, on the trains, we are hide behind our books, our magazines, our iPods, our sleep. Why? It’s an ideal social situation to meet someone different. But the subways remind us that New York is very, very big. While we may see the same few people everyday if we’re on the same train at the same time, we also see hundreds of people once and then never again. It’s a bit daunting, and when a stranger breaks that code of silence, we have to acknowledge the thousands and millions of people we never will know or see again.

It doesn’t have to be like this. Look at those Missed Connections. This guy had an easy opening; the woman wanted wanted him to talk to her, it seems. This guy just feels dumb. This girl leaves a vague message on Craigslist and won’t talk to her crush while he reads The Blind Watchmaker.

Imagine how nicer New York would be if we started talking to the people who caught our eyes in the subway. Maybe just a friendly “hullo” to break the ice would suffice. You never know what might happen, and I’m sure it’s more successful than the myriad frustrations expressed in Craigslist. After all, as the MTA is wont to remind us, if you see something, say something.

The exciting text message alert news is going to have to wait because we, folks, have a Beatles sighting. An MTA board member has been spotted by the British tabloids canoodling with none other than Sir Paul McCartney. Scandalous, I know.

The lucky lady in question is Nancy Shevell, a 2001 appointee of then-Governor George Pataki. Shevell, a leading northeast transportation executive, is the Chair of the Capital Construction/Planning and Real Estate Committee. That’s right; as Sewell Chan noted on Cityroom, Sir Paul’s latest flame is responsible for overseeing the first stages of the construction of the Second Ave. Subway.

Chan brings us more on this pressing story:

While the New York tabloids describe Ms. Shevell as married, her husband, Bruce A. Blakeman, a prominent Republican lawyer and a member of the board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said in an e-mail message: “I am legally separated from Nancy. The separation is amicable and mutual.”

The Sun, a British tabloid that is part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, reported that Ms. Shevell, 47, and Mr. McCartney, 65, spent last weekend together in the Hamptons. According to The Sun, the two ate at an East Hampton restaurant on Friday, visited each other’s mansions on Saturday, and embraced before sharing a breakfast on Sunday at a cafe.

The Sun, for what its worth, ran with the utterly tasteless headline, “Macca and the married cracker.” Murdoch’s mag reports that McCartney was shopping for lingerie before meeting up with his new paramour. Maybe we didn’t need to know that. Scotland’s Daily Record reports that the pair kissed in the shadows of Paul’s pick-up truck.

Ride the 5 train. While this branch of the Lexington Ave. express may only be worth a C-minus in the eyes of its riders, you’re bound to find love in some form or another.

We start on Sunday night with true love or at least a fairly strong infatuation. At around 9:30 p.m. on the 4th of November, Patrick Moberg, a recent RIT alum and a professional illustrator, was minding his own business on a Bowling Green-bound 5 train when his eyes fell upon a beautiful girl sitting across from him. Like millions of New Yorkers, he instantly developed a Subway Crush. But this was no ordinary subway crush. This was a crush on the girl of his dreams.

Like everyone else on the subway, Moberg was too shy, too hesitant to talk to this girl writing in her journal. When he finally worked up the courage to do it, she was lost in the crowd of departing passengers at Bowling Green. Like any tech-savvy 20-something, Moberg went out and created a Website whose sole purpose is to find this girl. Moberg, who at NYGirlOfMyDreams.co,, appears rather hipster-ish, claims he is “not insane” even though he has reproduced online an annotated drawing of himself and the girl.

Of course, he’s not insane. He, like every other single male in New York, falls in love with the first beautiful girl on the subway. That’s just how it works. As Jen Carlson at Gothamist noted, “expect to see a rotating cast of illustrated girls he’s fallen for underground.”

For his part, Moberg’s milking the story for all its worth. He has a video up on Vimeo in which he discusses why he didn’t just talk to the girl of his dreams. And he mentions that CNN wants to interview him. He’ll take his 15 minutes anyway he can, and if the girl hasn’t heard about this yet, she and her friends must live in a black hole. I’m rooting for him. It’s endearing, and anything that’s mercilessly mocked on Gawker should end well.

Meanwhile, if true love on the 5 train isn’t your style, there’s always sketchy folks riding the subway. On Monday, two men – or perverts, in the parlance of this article in The Post – were arrested for groping two women in unrelated incidents. One victim was 39; the other was 14; and both suspects have prior arrests and jail time on their records. Jossip is not surprised by this news, but seriously, folks, can’t we just stick to cute infatuations? No need to get all touchy on the subways.

For those of you interested, the full video is embedded after the jump.

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