Tag Archives | subway

Los Angeles’ Hidden Original Subway System

By on May 25, 2012 in News 6

Gelatobaby‘s Alyssa Walker went on an unmissable clandestine urban exploration tour — through the abandoned subway system nestled below L.A., revealing an uninhabited sub-city filled with strange sights:

Behold the Subway Terminal Building, hidden in plain sight in the middle of downtown LA, where at one point during the 1940′s over 65,000 riders were shuffling down into the depths of Los Angeles to board a train which traveled beneath the busy streets. We found ourselves in a vast, pillared space that, even with the tracks and trains removed, felt very much like a subway station. We did reach the end, where there was, of course, graffiti. After being used as a fallout shelter, the tunnel was sealed in the 1960s.

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Take Off Your Pants And Ride The Subway

By on January 8, 2012 in News 20

Today is No Pants Subway Ride day, in New York City and around the world, wherever subway (underground) trains are to be found (all sorts of places, not just the obvious ones like London’s Tube and the Paris Metro). Started by comedy group Improv Everywhere, this is what it’s all about:

The No Pants Subway Ride is annual event staged by Improv Everywhere every January in New York City. The mission started as a small prank with seven guys and has grown into an international celebration of silliness, with dozens of cities around the world participating each year. The idea behind No Pants is simple: Random passengers board a subway car at separate stops in the middle of winter without pants. The participants do not behave as if they know each other, and they all wear winter coats, hats, scarves, and gloves. The only unusual thing is their lack of pants.

You can participate in the next edition, taking place this Sunday, January 8, 2012, around the world. [New York Details and Details for Other Cities]

A documentary about Improv Everywhere is currently raising funds on Kickstarter. Here’s the trailer showing how No Pants started:

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Escaped Boa Constrictor Runs Amok In Boston Subway System For A Month

By on February 17, 2011 in News 0

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The thing that every subway commuter fears most happened in Boston — a boa constrictor ran loose in the transit system for a month before being caught, after its owner “lost” it. How is it possible to misplace a boa constrictor on the subway? Via the experts on all matters snake-related, Business Insider:

For the past month, a 3-foot-long boa constrictor has been roaming the Boston subways.

Snake-owner Melisa Moorhouse lost her non-venomous boa, Penelope, on a Red Line train on the morning of Jan. 6. She notified police immediately, but they were unable to find the snake. It is legal to transport pets on the MBTA.

Last Thursday the snake was finally found. Red Line attendant Sharon Lynch, a snake owner herself, lured the animal into a box.

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New York Unveils Transit Surveillance “Ring Of Steel”

By on September 27, 2010 in News 2

092110bigmikeyNew York City has just enabled an advanced new underground surveillance network modeled on London’s Ring of Steel. Camera footage will enter a database searchable by objects, colors, and individuals’ physical features. The system a huge step forward from the previous camera network, which I’ve dubbed the Crumbled Paper Bag. Gothamist reports:

500 new surveillance cameras went live yesterday inside the Times Square, Penn Station and Grand Central subway station, and 500 more are on the way. Mayor Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly unveiled the new surveillance system, which provides real-time video images to the command center, and can analyze thousands of images to find a particular item. “If we’re looking for a person in a red jacket, we can call up all the red jackets filmed in the last 30 days,” Kelly told reporters. “We’re beginning to use software that can identify suspicious objects or behaviors.”

The $200 million system is part what will one day be a 3,000-camera network of “public and private-sector cameras, including those covering Lower Manhattan assets south of Canal Street,” according to a press release.

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Petty Criminals Unite! Subway Fare-Jumpers In Paris Form Insurance Fund

By on June 30, 2010 in News 8

03172010jumperAs someone oppressed by the ever-expanding ticket prices of New York’s corruptly-run MTA subway system, I find this example of criminal ingenuity inspiring: turnstile hoppers in Paris have formed an insurance fund so that whenever one of them is caught by the police, their fine/expenses are fully covered.

“It’s a way to resist together,” declared Gildas, 30, a leader of the mutuelle movement. “We can make solidarity.”

“There are things in France which are supposed to be free — schools, health. So why not transportation?” he said. “It’s not a question of money…. It’s a political question.”

The fare dodgers who jump the turnstiles or sneak in through exit barriers on the Paris Metro are practically as much a fixture of the city as the subway itself.

Those who get caught without a proper ticket, though, face fines of up to $60. So what’s a poor freeloader to do?

For about $8.50 a month, those who join one of these raffish-sounding mutuelles des fraudeurs can rest easy knowing that, if they get busted for refusing to be so bourgeois as to pay to use public transit, the fund will cough up the money for the fine.

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