The 5 Train

crowded unreliable. They will leave you deep in the bowels of the city on a crowded train with no escape. I have sat there for an hour underground no service w/​the creepiest people on the train. HORRENDOUS

The 5 train’s awful. The MTA constantly shuts it down in the Bronx. Like every weekend. I bet it’s just a mob thing where corrupt officials are giving construction contracts to their cronies. Meh. Stupid MTA. Stupid 5 train.

As other subway lines there are this is packed with different kind of people of different occupation. From Businessman to tourist to Bronx in-​dweller. The cars are not newest in the system but relatively clean and could get cramped.

This is my favorite subway line in NYC, due to the fact that it can get me to work in Midtown from Flatbush, Brooklyn in about forty five minutes. Luckily when I board the train going to work, it’s very rarely crowded, but more and more people get on in Manhattan. It’s well known to be a tourist line, since it has many stops along major tourist attractions.
The cars themselves are not the newest in the MTA system, but they are a step up from the oldest ones. The air conditioning kicks ass, especially during this dreadful summer heat, and everything is generally pretty clean. You get the occasional homeless person, but not as many as the F train.
What do I dislike about this line? The fact that it doesn’t run in Brooklyn late at night, or during weekends. This makes me have to take the 2, then transfer on the 4 in order to get to work, sometimes adding an extra half hour to my commute.
However, it being an express line, you’ll get through Manhattan pretty quickly, if you don’t mind being cramped by tourists. I haven’t taken it any further north than Harlem, so I cannot comment on how the line looks in the Bronx. But it does the job, and it does it pretty well.

very consistent compared to most trains. Seems to be very commonly on time. Crowded but what isn’t

Paaacked. Packed packed PACKED. If you’re riding the early morning commute from the Bowling Green stop onwards to about Grand Central or 59 street, be prepared to remain standing! It’s uncommon to be able to squeeze inside the seats.
Not complaining too much because it gets me to Hunter and I don’t go past the 149 street Grand Concourse station very often anymore. Plus it gets me to the ferry from 14 street and Chinatown fairly quickly and I’d count on that train before I’d count on the R.

I usually just take this one to go to Grand Central or other parts of Manhattan. Only been on it once to go to the Bronx Zoo. That’s a long trip, let me tell you.
Much like any other subway that I’ve been on but I’m very happy that it’s express from 14^th Street to the Brooklyn Bridge stop. That has made my trips to the Fulton Street stop much better & shaves about 10 minutes off the trip to the Brooklyn Bridge.

It’s public transportation it gets you from point A to point B not really sure how much you can or cannot like it. Well there is only one complaint, that sometimes taking this 5 train on the wknds it skips certain stops or there has been recent construction where you have to go an alternate route through the Bronx and transfer etc. and it seriously messes up my commute. AWFUL! One Saturday night took me nearly two hours to get into the city because of rail construction MAJOR FAIL!

*sigh* Yet another Manhattan Express train that is often too packed to get on.
But this train has been a saving grace when I’ve been far out in the Bronx, needing to get back home without taking a cab, and there is no 2 train in sight. So I’ll be generous and give you a 3-​star rating.

Sometimes the 5 train is just awful and sometimes it gets you somewhere really fast that you need to go in the Bronx. Last night, it helped me get somewhere fast. Good job for once. You know it gets really crowded on your average day after 42^nd Grand Central stop but then of course alot more ghetto people once it hits 149^th Grand Concourse. I have seen some fights on the train here going to Baychester in the past. I go to stop almost near the end: Gun Hill Road pretty much everytime I am actually on the 5 train.
–What can I say, I am still a regular taking the 5 train, even though it is not my everyday route anymore. Some weekends shuttle bus can really mess you up though if you have somewhere to be in a hurry. Unfortunate this happens on weekends, but better than a normal rush hour day though to do the construction or whatever. At least they don’t really fuck people schedules up too much during the week.

Uptown baby, Uptown! Riding the 5 to The Boogie Down after another awesome Unilocal event @ Duo Lounge in the City. Headed to the hood and what better way to do it than on the 5.
Yo, you get dinner AND a show! 3 black break dancers and an awesome Slim Shady look alike (I bet that’s not what Mom and Dad had in mind when they paid for your gymnastics class) treated us to a break dancing, flipping between the poles, unbelievable acrobatic sh*t!
The two «I can’t quite tell if your transvestites» across from me and the guy selling the one dollar snacks plus the customary gotta have junkie… ah OLD New York you’re still around and I love you!

I was standing in a New York subway car, and I wasn’t intimidated. I wasn’t confident or even oblivious to everything in the way that most tourists are, but I wasn’t intimidated. And that’s when a lot of things started to make sense.
I was wearing a shirt I had worn the entire day before, a day I had spent sitting in relatively cramped airplane seats for a two-​leg, multiple-​stop trip from Oakland to Newark. Thankfully, Kathy had had deodorant, and it was so hot that I didn’t really care if I smelled because no one would know I was the one who smelled.
I got a little bit carried away at one point. I tried to balance without holding onto anything, the way I do on BART every weekday. But it’s hard to do on the wobbly part of the BART track between MacArthur and 19^th Street, and from my limited experience, New York subways are way wobblier than BART. But I was close to a pole, and I think Kathy thought it was funny that I thought I could do it.
One thing I love about Manhattan is how oblivious everyone pretends to be. They’re not. They’re paying close attention in their own practiced, defensive, self-​aware way. It’s what I do on BART, but most public transiters in the Bay Area really are oblivious or they love drama or they don’t care. They really don’t care. People in New York have that reputation, but it’s a bad rap. They care a lot, but they don’t always have time to care about every last person. That’s not the case on the Pittsburg/​Bay Point line.
So the 5 Train. It’s pretty awesome. It gets you downtown in a hurry. It’s really far down the way you want all subways to be. It was a nice reintroduction to riding the subway after an eleven-​year absence.