Each time, yes each time, that I have used the New York Subway I have been in trouble. My friend who lives in NJ,my reason for using the damn NY subway, had once taught me of how to get a bus from Boston-NewYork and then use the transit connecting NJ to NY.
As easy as it sounds, it was always the other way round for me.
First thing, selecting the bus. I spend hours literally to find the right bus. I try to look for some awesome online deals and then everytime, yeah everytime, land up using the Luckystar bus service. They make me reach on time and they also have a 15 minute stop at BK. I hate travelling without any stops. Plus, sometimes, yes, you do get good online deals for this bus service. Like this time, I got my return ticket for $1 (!!!!!!) instead of the normal $15 ! So yeah, happy I certainly was. Generally there is this other bus service, called Greyhound, which drops you at a place, where you don't have to use the NY subway and you can get buses directly connecting to NJ. But this service never gives you online deals, so being the looker for deals, I prefer the other service.
As the sad tale goes, once I had to spend whooping $17 to find a way out of the Chinatown, that the bus dropped me at. I forgot it as an experience of using the NY cab for the first time.
Next time, I reached my friend's place like 2 hours late, half the time that I take to travel from Boston - NY. Why ? Cos there was problem with the Uptown trains and hence I had to take the downtown train first , get off at the next stop and then look for some other train which takes me to my destination !!!! Confused, don't be !!!
This time , with the excellent $1 ticket that I had got, I was sure nothing would go wrong. I left at 7.15 am to catch my 9 am bus from NY. It should have taken some 40 mins to reach if things had fallen in place.
So it starts from PATH station. The place where I get my train to NY subway station. I get in a PATH which really ( I swear) does mention 33rd street, my destination. But guess what, the train goes to WTC !!!!!! I get off at some previous station just to realise ,there is no other way but to go to WTC and then look out - what to do next ! So I reach till WTC, find some A B C Subways from there. Though , I decide to skip them , since I didn't wanna get more confused with that. So I take the same train back to the place where I started. I blessed my stars to start off so early and was assuming that now there wouldn't be problems to reach on time and take the nice 9 am bus ! I get the right train this time, and come in the NY rail station. I ( like a moron) ask some fellow passenger who had his headphones on, so as to whether to take an uptown or a downtown train to reach my destination !! And he tells me UPTOWN !!!!!!!!!!
I get in the train, D line and was happy for I would really make it this time.
And guess what, I start from the 33rd street and instead of going the descending way , the train starts moving ascending way. First comes 42nd street, then 59th street , and that's when I realise that I have boarded the wrong train. So I decide to get off at the next stop, which sadly doesn't come till 118th STREET !! Well, I get off and it's already 8 45 am !! I ask one more passenger and this nice guy takes me to the map and shows me a SPOT, somewhere way above where I should have been, and tells me , you are here , you need to go there, take a DOWNTOWN TRAIN !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh hell did break loose ! I ran and caught the next damn DOWNTOWN train from the other side.
Since I have written so much, I would like to tell you that I didn't get the right bus and had to shell out another $15 to take the next available bus !!!!
Phew !!!!!!!
I hate going to NY !!!
I just hate it !!
The NY transportation authority should definitely do something about this !!
They don't have charts of the train's route in the train. The driver keeps on yelling the next stop on the microphone , which sucks. Most of the time, it's hardly audible what he/she is saying !!
No specific maps on the station which tells you, where an UPTOWN train would take you and where a DOWNTOWN train would take you !!!
The only good thing is, if my mistake, you go to the wrong platform, you can enter the other side, without paying extra. That's not how Boston's MBTA works. But I think, that's a bribe they provide you for having such an devastatingly co-ordinated system !!!!!!!
The good things about my trip were -
Baby Aanya (That's what they named her) is one cute little angel...I have never seen or touched such a small child and was so excited and eager to do that !
I got two interview calls when I was there !! That's seriously something worth all the effort !!!!!
Gave one of them yesterday, and cherishing my memories with Aanya..do hell with the MTA !!!!!!
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