New York Subways

The New York subway is at first quite difficult to get around on until you start becoming familiar with it. One thing that is noticeable in the subway system is a lack of clear signs and directions. Our first experience of the New York Subway was travelling from John F. Kennedy Airport to Penn Station and onto 96th Street Manhattan, on the way we met another traveller from Australia, his name was Ivaan, a short and timid Indian who was on an internship to the Australian Embassy in New York, he asked if he could accompany us as he was unsure of how to get to where he was going. Ivaan was towing a trail-along suitcase which resembled a small box-trailer. It is interesting to observe the predatory human behaviour of one person taking advantage of another when the latter person is clearly out of their comfort zone and in a low state of situational awareness. When approaching the subway ticket dispensing machines on the New York Subway there are always one or two African American men watching for people who clearly are unsure of what they need to do to programme the machine to sell them a ticket, these guys offer to sell you a ticket at to make things easier for you, the subway ticket most likely being already used, or only having a partial amount of credit on it, the best thing to do is to say no thanks and ignore them and continue to use the machine to obtain a ticket then eventually the guy goes away. Little Ivaan kept falling for this trick despite us telling him to ignore these guys. Ivaan followed us all the way to Penn Station, where he apprehensively said he was leaving us there, we asked if he was sure if he knew where he was going, and he said he was ok. We observed Ivaan leaving the subway to the street above, only to see him a short time later, his little penguin like figure, box-trailer in tow, attempting to go back through the subway gates, with the assistance of an African-American guy who had obviously sold him another ticket.

The subway system in New York is old, crowded and does not seem to have had any improvements and modifications for decades, but it works. It is an interesting atmosphere and there are many characters on the trains. On one ride, an African-American woman started to singing hymns and ending with references to the lord and blessing all on the train, most of the New Yorkers were oblivious to this as it is obviously a familiar scene.