Walking between cars

[Trainmaster5]

Checked with a Train Service Supervisor and the situation has basically remained unresolved. Since I'm on the IRT,using R142 equipment, the storm doors are unlocked at all times in normal operation. The only time they would be locked is to prevent entering an unsafe or unsanitary condition. There is a new rule making it a violation of law to walk between cars except when the train crew or NYPD gives the OK. The supervisor said the old BMT-IND situation regarding 75 ft. cars remains the same but the new law applies to that division as well. It is now against the law to walk between the cars. This applies to all types of equipment in the BMT,IND, and IRT.

[Pelham]

Yeah they are really cracking down on walking between cars especially in ENY. You got Police Officers Uniform and Uncover just waiting for you to cross.

[Robert Paniagua]

And the same thing down in Washington, DC. I guess NYPD is now becoming like WMATA PD, while the storm doors on all WMATA cars are unlocked, you also cannot pass through between cars down in Washington, DC.

[bellstbarn]

I owe to other railfans a description based on a lengthy thread on Subchat. Several stub-end terminals in New York City are arranged as Woodlawn on the Jerome Avenue el. The person entering the station arrives at an island platform with the tenth car of the Next Train on one side or the other. People are known to enter that last car and walk forward through the train. It is illegal, and the Subchat discussion reports of police stalking the train there, waiting for someone to walk forward in the train, even though the train is not in motion. The crew might not even be aboard!
Link to a photo of this platform:
http://nycsubway.org/perl/show?47975

[Head-end View]

Wait a second here! Is it illegal to walk between cars, even when the train is stopped in a station, or as the above writer said, when it's standing at a terminal and will not be leaving for several minutes?

Trainmaster5, can you give us the fine point of law on this question?

[Pelham]

Yes it is now Illegal to walk or ride between subway cars while the train is in motion or stopped. This is a hot issue and see people getting stopped daily on this violation. This got to be the number one crack own enforcement going on in the Subways. They catching lots of people with warrents.

[Head-end View]

I don't get it. How and why did this become such a hot issue all of a sudden? What is the big deal about people walking between cars, except for maybe the 75-foot cars? People have been walking thru the cars for the last hundred years, and now the TA thinks it's a problem !!! ???................

[bellstbarn]

To Head-End View:
I read New York newspapers a lot. Just as Newsday raised a crisis about people falling in gaps, so the NY Post and News pounced on stories of people falling to their death between cars. The deaths bring lawsuits. The publicity makes it easy for the tort lawyer to demand a big settlement. I recall one situation in particular, maybe two years ago, where somehow the interconnecting door flew open on a crossover near DeKalb and someone tumbled to his death.
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Since almost all tort cases are settled prior to trial, as in a shakedown, the newspaper headlines make life easier for the lawyers. They know a jury pool (from which they must pick six, and only five need agree on the verdict, different from a criminal trial) contains a lot of folk who dislike big transit, big anything.
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I preferred the walk-through multis on 14th Street - Canarsie. Recall that the Standards were locked. I understand that Toronto has signed up for walk-through, non-articulated cars with diaphragms, similar to those on Paris Lignes 1 et 14.

[Trainmaster5]

The law says you cannot pass between cars unless NYPD or the train crew gives you permission to do so in an emergency situation. The Control Center, NYPD, or FDNY can declare an emergency but ultimately the train crew would be the people on the scene who would make the first determination.

[Robert Paniagua]

Yes it is now Illegal to walk or ride between subway cars while the train is in motion or stopped. This is a hot issue and see people getting stopped daily on this violation. This got to be the number one crack own enforcement going on in the Subways. They catching lots of people with warrents.

Yeap, exactly like WMATA Washington, DC's Metrorail, where MTPD Officers do the same exact thing, the storm doors there are unlocked, even though the cars are 75 feet long, but WMATA does not want people walking between cars while the train is in motion or even stopped, too. And yes, this is also a number one crack down enforcement down in Washington MetroRail along with eating food or drinking beverages.

[Head-end View]

Well, this discussion is giving me a whole new perspective. As one who's been walking between subway cars since about age 12, I'm a little surprised at this big change. Times are just changing too fast for me these days.

Bellstbarn; funny that you should mention Newsday's gap coverage, lawsuits, etc. Just this week a letter writer in Newsday pointed out that the gaps have been there over 35 years (since the platforms were raised for the M-1's) and howcome only now it's a big issue. He makes a good point. But again I guess times are changing.

[pennsy]

Interesting points gentlemen. I wonder how this situation would sit with those in authority today.

Quite a few years ago, when we were all single and footloose, we would spend evenings at the Atlantis Bar and Grill, Coney Island Boardwalk, next to the pier, or T head. Tex, the guitar playing singer from Brooklyn would play the night away, and we would sip our beers. In those days your draft card, which proved you were 18, was also your license to drink. After some time, we would head for home with the subway. After a while, if you had a bit too much to drink, your stomach would warn you. So we would pick ourselves up, walk between the cars, stick our heads out over the chains, and allow nature to take its course. After that we felt much better and returned to the car, and the others. From time to time another would take your place, and of course there were those that had preceded you.

What would have the authorities done with us if that happened today ?

[3rdrail]

A delightful (but interesting) story from the subway, Alan ! hahaha!

P.S. I hope that you weren't on the El ! hahaha!