Under the Subway

Last Monday I saw a view of a New York City subway train that I never want to see again - the underneath.

Twice a year the MTA (that’s the “Metropolitan Transport Authority” to you non-New Yorkers) holds training sessions for blind people on what to do if you should fall on the tracks in the subway.

The sessions are held at the Transport Museum which is housed in a disused station in Brooklyn and still has working tracks though the power is turned off.

Basically 20 or so blind folks get together (never a good idea in the first place), don paper overalls that make you look like part of the NYPD’s Chemical and Biological Warfare clean-up team, and get led down onto the tracks by an MTA worker.

They teach you how to use your cane to feel for troughs in the ground where you can survive by letting the train roll over the top of you. These troughs are not very deep and to the naked eye, it’s the last place you would think of lying down since you would be sure you were going to end up looking like somebody stepped and skidded on a plum.

Surprisingly they are deep enough, and just so I got the idea I was instructed to get down on my knees in front of a parked train with a torch so I could see right under it. True enough the underside of the train is a good 2 feet above the tracks and if you were to lie in the trough you would survive - your underwear wouldn’t though.

They also teach you to identify the electrified third-rail. This one kind of freaked me out and even though I knew the power was off I didn‘t want to touch it.

One thing you should never do is try to lie down so the train passes alongside you. There are metal shoes that stick out a foot or so on both sides to make contact with that third rail. You get hit by one of those and you are going to look you just got cheese-wired.

Well, in all the session was helpful if a little paranoia inducing. I got the impression that the MTA people who led us around the tracks were all volunteers taking time out to help us so thanks to them for that.