Since you asked: here is “An Idiot’s Guide to using the New York City Subway” (and I apologize for the length – but this should serve as a fairly permanent post for future readers...

While the word “subway” suggests underground trains only, New Yorkers call all municipal rapid transit trains “the subway”, even though some of them run above ground. The term also refers only to the trains run by the New York City Transit Authority – it does not include suburban railroads, or the Port Authority’s Air Train to the airport and PATH trains to New Jersey.

The NYC subway system extends to four of the five boroughs of New York City: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It does not extend to Staten Island, and it also does not cross the city border anywhere.

The subway runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. While some stations are sometimes closed for maintenance work or construction, even in those cases there will usually be shuttle buses provided to provide service to those locations. Unlike rapid transit elsewhere, the NYC subway NEVER closes.

The fare to ride the subway is presently $2.00 for a single ride 9there are discounts for multiple ride combinations, and also unlimited fare cards for set periods.) The subway system is made up of a number of different lines that go from one terminal to another (unlike London, there is no truly circular, looping route.) Where these lines cross in the same or connected stations, you may “transfer” between trains. It is free to transfer at such stations. Indeed, it does not matter how far you are riding, or how many times you change trains. If you have paid your fare, you are allowed to ride practically forever on that same single fare.

When you enter a subway station, you are in an area that is called the “mezzanine”. In the mezzanine can be found the turnstiles, and in most cases a “token booth.” There is also a large map of the entire subway system on the wall, along with a bus map and a neighborhood map. You will also find machines where you can purchase fare cards, called “MetroCards”. You can also buy MetroCards from the “railroad clerk” in the booth. If you want your own subway map or bus map, the clerk has these in the booth -- they are FREE, so ask for one!!!

Now, in some stations, certain less-busy entrances may be closed at some hours – but the main entrance will be open all the time. (By the way, the way you can tell if an entrance is open 24 hours is that there is a green light over it – entrances with red lights are either locked part of the time, or can be accessed only with MetroCards) You will always find a staffed token booth at the main entrance to the station, even if other entrances or booths are closed.

There are a variety of ways of buying MetroCards – you can either buy a card with a set dollar amount (which you can increase by giving the clerk more money as the car is used; she can add the value to the card electronically), or you can buy a card with unlimited use for a certain period of time. The cards with set values may be used my several riders -- for example, if you have $20.00 of value on a card, up to ten different people can enter the subway using that one card. However, if you have an “unlimited use” card, you will NOT be able to share that card. Once used, such a card cannot be reused for 18 minutes, to prevent people from passing the card back for reuse by someone else.

Once you have your MetroCard, walk over to the turnstile. There is an electronic device with a slot where you “swipe” your card, at which point the device will give you an electronic message. All turnstiles are “right-handed”; swipe in the device on the right side of the turnstile you are entering. The device will give you a message. If it says “go”, walk through the turnstile. If it says “swipe again”, do so – most first-time users have a tendency to swipe too slowly, and the machine cannot read that. Swipe the card again briskly. If ther eis a problem, see the clerk - she can help you, and even buzz you into the subway if there is a problem with the card. If you have an unlimited MetroCard, and swipe several times without success, and then the machine says “card used”, go see the clerk. Do NOT ever jump over the turnstile because the card did not work -- and I cannot stress this strongly enough. If you do that, you may be arrested, and I mean put in handcuffs, taken to a police station, fingerprinted, and possibly kept in a holding cell overnight until you can be arraigned in court. In addition, when you are at a station with a “high-wheel” turnstile, which is something like a revolving door, NEVER double-up on a single fare with anyone. BOTH people may be arrested for the crime of “theft of service”.

Once you have entered the turnstile, you continue to the “platform”. In most cases, this is further downstairs -- although it may be directly in front of you. Keep in mind that some stations are large complexes, and have more platform areas than one – just because you found a platform it does NOT mean it is the one you are looking for!!! Look at the signs that show what lines stop there, and also whether that platform is for “uptown” or “downtown” trains. Keep in mind that in Manhattan, “uptown” means NORTH of where you are standing, and “downtown” means SOUTH. This is important – to get to 81st Street from 125th Street, you are going south, and want a downtown train. However, to get to 81st Street from Pennsylvania Station, you are going north, and so to go to that same station from a different starting point you want an uptown train.

The colors of the lines just refer to the streets in midtown Manhattan under which they travel, in order to keep the map from being too confusing. Call the trains by their names or numbers, NOT their colors!!! There is no “blue line”, for example, and trains with the same color may end up in very different places when they leave midtown Manhattan. If you are heading uptown to Columbus Circle from 42nd Street and you board the blue-sign-carrying E train because you think “the blue line goes to Columbus Circle”, you will never get to your destination, and will instead find yourself heading off for Jamaica in Queens! Look for A, or D, or #6, not “blue”, “Orange”, or “green” trains.

Because Manhattan – where the subway was first built – is a long and narrow island, the subway was designed to carry people faster over longer distances than other city’s rapid transit systems were. As a result, unlike just about every other rapid transit system in the world, the NYC subway has both local trains that stop at every station, and express trains that use a different track and that skip many stations, just stopping at certain major stations. Sometimes people mistake one for the other – for example, someone who wishes to travel up Central Park West from Columbus Circle to the Museum of Natural History at 81st Street – which has its own station – might board a northbound train, only to discover to his surprise that the next stop is not 72nd Street, as he thought it was, but is instead 125th Street in Harlem. How did that happen? Well, the rider clearly did not realize that several lines may use the same station, and instead of boarding the local “C” train, he took the express “A” instead.

How do you know what train stops at the platform? Look overhead – there are signs hanging from the ceiling that tell you whether the train is “uptown” or “downtown”, or whether the E and C trains stop there, and at what hours - and so on. All right, we know the E and C stop at this station – how do you know which one is pulling in now? Look at the front of the train – there will be a big lighted sign that gives the train’s letter or number. In addition, on the side of each car there is another sign that tells you what train it is – for example “A /Eighth Avenue Express/ to 207th Street.”

The train has two crew members – the person driving the train is called the “train operator” or “motorman”, and he rides in the very first car. In one of the two central cars is the “conductor”, who opens and closes the doors at each station. Unlike other cities, doors on NYC trains are opened by the conductor only – if there is a pause before the doors open when you get to a station, just wait, and don’t look for buttons or levers. If you would like to ask the conductor a question, or you feel more secure riding with him, you can position yourself on the platform to be where the conductor’s car will be when the train arrives. You can do this by looking for the “conductor boards”, which are black-and-white or black-and-yellow diagonally striped boards hanging from the ceiling in the center of the platform. Stand there and then just board that car when the train arrives.

Never jump onto the tracks – while it looks shallow, the roadbed is four feet from the lip of the platform, and it is NOT easy for most people to climb up that distance using just their arms!! In addition, the subway works with a “third rail” system, and even if you are not killed by being hit by an oncoming train, you can be electrocuted. If you drop anything accidentally onto the tracks, go tell the clerk in the booth or any member of the stain crew – a trackworker will be summoned to get the item for you.

And if you are lost -- ASK people. New Yorkers love to give directions, and will give you all kind s of advice. Transit Authority employees are more reliable sources of information than other passengers -- but they are often busy (being a railroad clerk, for example, can be a very hectic job) and may not give you the full answer you want. Your best always is to ask a Police Officer assigned to the NYPD Transit Bureau (look for a TB on his right collar point), and he will be happy to assist you.

And don’t worry about crime – the subway has almost NO crime, and is the daily choice of more than 4 million paying riders.