The Canal Street train station is located on…Canal Street in Chinatown. There used to be a venue here called The Knitting Factory, which has since moved to Brooklyn. But for many years, it was located a few blocks from this train station.
The Knitting Factory had shows that started at reasonable times, and as such, ended at reasonable times. This should have been a plus, but the MTA does not like its riders having any positive advantages, so they made sure to turn this positive into a negative.
Case in point, the sign located on the N train platform that reads “Late nights, N runs on local track”.
Okay great. But WHAT TIME is “late night”? Was this sign made up by a youngster for whom getting home and into bed by midnight was a regular occurrence and not exactly “late night”? Was it made by a suburban housewife for whom staying in “the city” past sunset was “late night”? Who knows? Certainly not anyone who would need to know. Like me, who needed to know in order to get home.
Many nights, I would be leaving The Knitting Factory…let’s say around 10:00 pm-ish. Is this “late night”? How am I supposed to know if I should be waiting for my train here or on the local track? And where exactly is the local track? Well let’s find out, shall we?
In order to get to the local track from this platform, you must first walk up 21 steps. Then you walk up a little bit of a hallway, then down 23 more steps, through an underground tunnel, then up 25 steps and there you go – you are on the local track.
Now if you are reading this and thinking “so you are complaining about having to walk up 21 steps, up a little bit of a hallway, then down 23 more steps, through an underground tunnel, then up 25 steps? That doesn’t sound very far you lazy piece of shit”. NO . THAT IS NOT THE PROBLEM ASSHOLE.