No Revolution Can Save the No. 9 Train
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
On a weekend otherwise marked by flag-waving and parades, no fanfare accompanied the march into oblivion of the no. 9 subway line. Its official demise comes today, apparently to the utter indifference of West Side commuters.
As of 5:30 this morning, the no. 9 line – which cohabitated with the no. 1 line along the West Side from South Ferry in Lower Manhattan to 242nd Street/Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx – had existentially reached its last stop. Since the train functioned only during the weekday rush, however, the no. 9 met its real end Friday, when the last train left Chambers Street at 6:52 p.m., a New York City Transit spokeswoman, Marisa Baldeo, said.
In the subterranean world of the red line yesterday, hardly any evidence remained that a no. 9 train had ever existed. At station entrances and on platform signs, the line’s circular emblem had been blotted out with black paint. Passengers disembarking from a no. 2 or no. 3 express at 96th Street were advised that “transfer is available to the 1 train,” with the no. 9 option conspicuously absent to the habituated ear. In stations and on New York City Transit’s Web site, system maps had been replaced with grids from which the no. 9 was noticeably expunged.
The line’s inglorious end went unnoticed by many riders on the West Side, some of whom hadn’t known about the decision to merge the no. 1 and no. 9 lines and expressed indifference upon learning of it. At Times Square yesterday, one regular 1/9 rider, Meine Gpoboffua, said with a shrug: “It’s all the same to me.”
The post-no. 9 era will be all the same for most West Side riders, particularly those who live between South Ferry and 137th Street, a segment along which both the no. 9 and no. 1 trains made all local stops. Commuters living between 137th and 242nd streets, however – where the no. 9 provided “skip stop” service – greeted the passing of the line with joy.
On a flier at 157th Street – one of the stations skipped by the no. 9 – that announced the lines’ merger, a tagger had scrawled, “Yay! Back together again!” At the station, mourners were few. Two riders, Cameron Miles, 23, and Scarlett McEachern, 29, said the 9’s confusing skip-stop service burdened riders with unnecessary transfers and the occasional missed station stop. The all-in-one service, Ms. McEachern said, “will be so much better.”
