I've been in New York for three weeks now, and have already covered somewhere around 1/3 of the subway system. Many things have struck me as different from LU. They are listed in no particular order below.
- There are express trains which skip several stops to get passengers around faster and confuse tourists.
- The subway runs 24 hours a day. But you can have a long wait for a train after midnight.
- If you manage to get a seat it is a plastic bench rather than something vaguely soft covered in moquette.
- Most trains still have guards (or conductors as they call them)
- Guards seem to like shutting the doors while passengers are still boarding. This is the case even when the passengers in question were waiting well before the train arrived.
- On some subway lines the maintenance leaves something to be desired. The ride quality on some lines is so bad that it feels like the train has square wheels.
- As a result of this the noise, especially when a corner is encountered, is horrific.
- Many older trains don't have full width cabs. So everyone can have a "cab ride".
- There are no train describers. So people peer down the tunnels looking for headlights.
- The fare is a flat $2 regardless of how far you go.
- You can get 1 day, 7 day or 30 day unlimited Metrocards, but not annual tickets for some reason.
- It takes at least two attempts to get a turnstile to accept a Metrocard, which needs to be swiped precisely to be read correctly.
- You get free transfer to/from bus and subway.
- It is quicker to walk then to get the bus in rush hour.
- You need to use the entrance on the correct side of the street at some stations or either lose $2, wait 18 minutes if you have an unlimited card or take a train to the next station with a cross passage.
- Stations have long names based mostly on the road junction they are located at.
- Most stations have black (or maybe just not cleaned) walls, making them rather dark.
- The signage often leaves something something to be desired, and is sometimes completely wrong.
- The map is geographical and very difficult to follow.
- The "Pocket" map is about the same size as an OS map.