Thu 24 Jul 2008
The Charm of the Franklin Avenue Shuttle
Posted by TJ under Uncategorized
The NY Times has a delightful little story (and slide show!) on the best little subway in all of New York. Formerly known as the “ghost train,” the Franklin Avenue shuttle landed a 97.7% on-time percentage in May, tops in the city and about a million points better than the 4.
With its two cars, single track and four stops, the Franklin Avenue shuttle in Brooklyn looks less like a part of the New York City subway system than a way to get around Mister Rogers’s neighborhood.
The trip from one end of the shuttle’s run to the other takes about 7 minutes, and the people who take it to and from work say they have just about the best commute in Gotham.
In the city of dark tunnels and crowded trains, the shuttle is quite pleasant. Regular riders said it was never very crowded. And the views are downright pastoral by New York standards. On the path toward Prospect Park from Bedford-Stuyvesant, automobile garages and repair shops give way to stone walls and trees that gently brush the sides of the shuttle.
The Franklin Avenue shuttle sounds like it’s just begging to be optioned into a children’s book.