How to rule the subway

Click the thumbnail images on the left for photos of the New York subway through the years.

FAQs from the underground

Photograph: Cinzia Reale Castello

HOW DO I LINE UP MY EXIT?
You’ve probably already memorized which cars are closest to your usual exits. But there’s a way to determine the same thing for unfamiliar stations, too. “If you are pulling into a station with multiple exits, such as Times Square, think about where you want to pop up aboveground,” says Jim (just Jim) of SUBWAYblogger.com. “So if you want to be closer to 40th Street, and you are taking an uptown train, you want to get on the backend of that train. Then you will get off closer to the 40th Street exit.  Riding at the front of the train will let you out near 43rd Street. The exact opposite is true if you are riding downtown.”

WHERE WILL THE DOORS OPEN?
Look for black shoe scuffs on the yellow plastic coating that lines the subway platform, says Jim. When the train arrives, those patches should line up with the doors.

WHEN WILL THE TRAIN COME?
Riders on the L know when their train’s coming, thanks to automated signs (theirs is the only line that operates with the computerized system). When is yours coming? The numbered trains will be hooked up in 2009. But in the meantime, remember that red lights are bad. If you see them down the track, the trains are being held.

WHERE ARE CLEAN CARS?
As a rule, numbered lines are cleaner than lettered ones; the 2, 4, 5 and 6 are clean and the N, Q, R and D are dirty. But the L’s R160s are the finest, since they’re the newest.

HOW CAN I RIDE FREE?
We asked Straphanger message board fans for their picks, but they’re pretty goody-two-shoesy. (One even told us, “Let’s not encourage holding the doors open!” when asked how to best prop them. Our suggestion: your foot.) But one did call out the bigger stations—Times Square, Penn Station—for easily following someone through the emergency gates.

WHAT’S THE BEST STATION?
We asked the guy who’s studied them all—Randy Kennedy, author of Subwayland. “My favorite station is Union Square because it was cobbled together and they left a bunch of found architectural elements.” His worst: “Chambers Street on the J/M/Z looks like something from the war years or Escape from New York. That’s the place where I’ve seen the most rats.”

WHAT IS THE BEST LINE?
Kennedy sums it up best: The N goes from Park Slope to Manhattan quickly. And the R “connects nearly every interesting point south of 59th Street within a block or two walk. Columbus Circle, the Theater District, Times Square, Herald Square, Union Square, the Village, Chinatown, Wall Steet. All within a block of a Broadway local stop.”

WHAT’S UP WITH FARE HIKES?
You’ve heard about the potential rate hike—which involves different prices at off-peak times—but can’t figure it out, what with all the carrying the ones. To learn more (and then sound off), head to the MTA’s public hearing, Thursday 8 at 6pm at the Hotel Pennsylvania ballroom (401 Seventh Ave at 32nd St, second floor; mta.info).

HOW CAN I GET A SEAT?
Profile and hover. That’s Kennedy’s advice. Look for who might be getting off at the next stop—guys in suits at Wall Street, tourists in Times Square—and then get ready to pounce.

Photograph: Shani Bar-On

It’s 4am—what to do?

If you’re on drunk time, where every minute feels twice as long, cab it: After 4am, most of the major train lines run every 20 minutes (as opposed to every four to eight during the day), except the 4, which you can pick up as frequently as every 12 minutes on the southbound track, and the 6, which runs every 15 minutes going south. (Warning: The B, C, V, W, Z, 3 and 5 have no late-night service.)

At this hour, downtown and uptown trains usually run within five minutes of each other, so if you see one across the track, you know yours is on the way—or has just left.

Another useful tip: When a train comes, get on it, no matter what. “Late at night, if you are at an express station, if the local comes first, take it,” says David Pirmann of the underground fan site Nycsubway.org. “Or, if you’re already on the local, and you are coming into an express station, stay on the train you are on—unless the express is already there. From experience, this doesn’t always bear fruit—getting passed by the express you could have been on is definitely annoying—but you never know; the next train could be 10, 15, 20 minutes away.”—Mimi Wong