What's At The Last Stop?

Saturday's New York Times contains this interesting article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/nyreg ... tstop.html

Brief passage:

• At the end of the line, the subway creaks to a stop a few yards short of the yellow crash bumper. A few stragglers, or a lurch of homebound commuters, head for the street.
  
  Going to the End of the Line Train cleaners wielding worn-sided corn brooms and generic spray bottles marked “lemon” or “Windex” amble onto the cars, rousting any sleepers and drunks unmoved by the conductor’s voice grating through speakers:
  
  “This is the last stop on this train.”

Multimedia:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008 ... ATURE.html

That's standard practice at the end of the run. The train is "fumigated"-cleaned of all filth and cleared of all passengers. Often this rule has made it difficult for homeless to stay on the cars between runs.

Oh, be a little more romantic! I visited all the "last stops" (except 241st St) during my tenure at NYCTA in the 1980s. The city was a lot poorer then, and some of the terminals (like New Lots Ave) were not places to linger. But the old Coney Island Terminal (which, I agree, went a lot better with the neighborhood than the new one) had an "employees only" lunchroom with a view of the Atlantic Ocean, which you could enjoy over a plate of knockwurst and sauerkraut.

I lived in Bay Ridge, which was then and still is a clean, well-lighted place. I'll agree that it looks like something out of the 50s...or maybe the 20s. I used to drop off a bag full of dirty laundry at the laundromat on my way to the subway, and when I came home at night it would be washed, carefully folded, and returned to the bag -- for less than $10. Rocco, of Rocco's Pizza, used to make up fresh spinach calzones for me. And you cannot find a bad pizza in New York.

And, once in a lifetime, everyone should visit Canarsie.

There's a LOT more to New York than Manhattan, folks, especially now, when no one lives in Manhattan but millionaires.

The old Coney Island terminal had character. The new one, which opened in May 2004 seems to be an eyesore with its massive girders and modern generic styling. The huge trainshed looks out of place.

R36 Combine Coach wrote:The old Coney Island terminal had character. The new one, which opened in May 2004 seems to be an eyesore with its massive girders and modern generic styling. The huge trainshed looks out of place.

So I got curious and looked up a pic of the new Coney Island Terminal. I liked the old one. It had character. It also was a bit run down. I did a painting of a portion of the interior. I liked the facade with the BMT insignia on it.

But...I like the new one as well. It is a little raucus but so was Coney Island in its hay day. My personal opinion is that it will fit well into the future of the area. They saved the facade.

I now need to eat a Nathan's hot dog.

More Coney Island, past and present:

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/stations?211:1042

-otto-

Thanks to -otto- my whole work day is in a shambles as I'm forced to look at all 100 bazillion pics of Coney Island. Couldn't tear myself away from it.

If the new terminal were the old one and they went to wreck it everyone would scream. I think it's great. They tried their best at having something resembling the BMT on a grand scale. You can't come down too hard on the NYCTA people as there's not a one of them from the outside world that can do an imitation of an air compressor.* The needs and masters of The TA are many and varied.

*Try this at home. Air compressor imitation:

"YYaaaaanehneynehneynehneynehneynehneynehneypmhpphmphtsshhtsshhssssshhhhhhhhhhhh"
This is the one in the old dialect.