Archive for May, 2008
Friday, May 30th, 2008
Union Square’s Fight Club
This is rich. A few steps from the 4/5/6/N/R etc. subways, in a broad stretch of pavement normally used for busking, dance crews, and sitting on the steps with friends and a cigarette, an urban Fight Club has taken root.
Bareknuckle pugilists of all skill levels (and in some cases, no skill levels) square off in […]
2 Comments » - Posted in Union Square by TJ
Friday, May 30th, 2008
You Had to be There, Vol. XVIX
Crowded 6 train headed downtown, 9:15 this morning.
I got on at 42nd. A guy squeezes by in front of me.
He’s a bit fey, neatly trimmed gray buzz cut, dressed in black, a large knapsack on his back.
He has a thermos in a side pouch of his knapsack. As he squeezes by me, the handle of […]
1 Comment » - Posted in iPod by TJ
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
Metro-North Proposes “Premium” Seat Prices
Metro-North has hired Steiner Strategies, the strategic marketing firm that’s working on the new Yankee Stadium with the Brothers McSteinbrenner, to find new revenue streams for the railroad to help offset a massive budget shortfall.
Steiner has worked with the Yankees to create $1,000 “Legends” seats and $250 “Field Championship” seats, and has proposed a similar […]
3 Comments » - Posted in Metro North, Premium Pricing by TJ
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
Bike Rack Suddenly Hottest Thing in Hummerville
We recently mentioned the new hotspot in Grand Central, and it appears Hawthorne train station has its very own hotspot too–the bike rack that TJ had sole us for for the past year.
Not only was the black Vespa–heretofore known as the Black Rider–there again today, but there was a sleek gray mountain bike as well. […]
No Comments » - Posted in Journal News, Vespa by TJ
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
Westchester Mag Namechecks TJ
Today in self promotion, we’re happy to report that the May issue of esteemed monthly glossfest Westchester Magazine cited our lil ol’ blog in a sidebar within a feature called “56 Things Every Westchesterite Must Do (At Least) Once.” Sadly, “Read Trainjotting…And Click on Those Annoying Google Ads” was not in the list of 56, […]
No Comments » - Posted in Joe Simonetti, Westchester Magazine by TJ
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
Italian Seductress Turns Up at Station
I’ve often lamented the fact that few cyclists opt to use the bike rack that I’d painstakingly (OK, it wasn’t that painful) lobbied Town Hall to install at the Hummerville train station.
I did, however, share the rack with a handsome silver mountain bike a few weeks back, and pulled up to the rack (sorry, it’s […]
1 Comment » - Posted in Bike Rack, Vespa by TJ
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
Grand Central Offers HotSpot
Grand Central is now offering wireless Internet in its Station Master’s office waiting area near Track 36. “Long an oasis with spacious benches, restrooms and an eye-pleasing floral mural,” says Metro-North, the waiting area ”is now a ‘hot spot’ for free wireless internet access. MTA Metro-North Railroad customers can now turn on their laptops and surf the […]
1 Comment » - Posted in Grand Central by TJ
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
TV Reporters Arrested While Filming Train Station
A reporter and camera man from Hartford TV station WFSB were arrested late last week by MTA police while filming a piece on a new train station in West Haven, Connecticut, reports the New Haven Register.
Leon Collins and his photographer face criminal trespassing charges for entering and area that was marked “Employees Only.”
The TV station […]
2 Comments » - Posted in StationStops by TJ
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
Commuters: Take Your $4.40 Gas and Shove It
Metro-North ridership is up almost 5%, reports the Journal News, as more and more would-be motorists are turning to the rails to escape the crippling cost of driving to work.
Ridership on the railroad has increased almost every year of its 25-year history, but increases near 5 percent are rare. The average annual increase is about […]
No Comments » - Posted in Journal News by TJ
Monday, May 26th, 2008
The Trainjotting Interview: LilSubwayCrybaby
Trainjotting will periodically cyber-sit with other members of the rail-blogging community to check out what’s in their head. For the inaugural edition of The Trainjotting Interview, we cyber-chat with the blogger behind LilSubwayCrybaby.com, an offbeat blast of magic realism in the form of a blog chronicle of bad behavior on the NYC subway.
One of LSCB’s recent pearls […]