NEW YORK — It had been a long time since I traveled on the quintessential North American subway. It was good to be back.

Since my last trip to New York, I traveled on several other subways, DC’s Metro every weekday, but also Chicago’s L, Boston’s T and Philadelphia’s SEPTA and PATCO on several trips. The first two have more pleasant underground stations than New York. Boston probably does too, as long as it’s on the heavy rail lines (Red, Blue, Orange) and not the Green line which is light rail. I remember both BART in San Francisco and Montreal’s Metro being better too. It’s not a mystery, the subways in those cities are mostly newer than New York, which is almost all more than 100 years old.

Manhattan’s subways are in better shape than say, Philadelphia’s Broad Street line though. Ooof.

I had another thought though on why the Big Apple’s underground is harsher than even other legacy systems like Chicago…

Fluorescent lighting

The stations I visited, almost along the 1 line, had fluorescent lighting. It’s not as ubiquitous as it once was so it was jarring. Nothing looks good in fluorescent light, even the traditional station mosaics on the subway walls. I wonder if softer LED lighting would improve the appearance and atmosphere of the stations. They won’t look new, but perhaps it will be easier to appreciate the genuine beauty of the mosaics at least.

A quick search reveals this is underway – The MTA Upgrades New York City Subway System Lights to LEDs (Electrical Contractor magazine).

That article was published in 2024. It’s a big system, over 400 stations, so perhaps they just have not reached the 1 yet.

Other observations

Since I stayed on the Upper West Side, most of my travel was on the 1 line. My “home station” was 79 Street.

Like most stations, it was just stairs, not escalator or elevator. Ah, early 20th century infrastructure!

I also used the C line, 81 St station, because there was a passenger struck on the 1 line at one point. That sounded familiar.

Since I had my bike for most of my trips, I used a few stations specifically for the elevator access – 66 St and Chambers Street. Other times, I just carried it down the steps.

It’s a cliche to say that New York has the best rapid transit system for good reason. Four tracks instead of just two on many lines. Frequency and breadth of the system beat aesthetics every day of the week. The grittiness of subway isn’t without appeal either. It certainly feels…authentic.

I bought an OMNY Card¹ which is aesthetically meh compared to the old MetroCard.² Or tokens, for those who go way back.

Stations used

Every year I tally my Metro stations entered/exited/transferred at so here is my 2026 NY Subway tally.

1. 79 St (1)
2. 81 St (C)
3. 50 St (C)
4. 50 St (1)
5. 66 St Lincoln Center
6. Chambers
7. Whitehall
8. Houston St

Not bad about 28ish hours in the city.

That’s probably it for this year, but I would not mind adding some more. I think I have been to 15 – 20 other stations in my lifetime, though I did not keep track at age 8, so I cannot be sure.

2026 New York Trip

1. ONE METRO NEW YORK ↩︎
2. Retired January 1, 2026 – Miles in Transit had some fun with the waning days of that card. ↩︎