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xeothought t1_j7dwma3 wrote

Reply to comment by Throwawayhelp111521 in Late for the train. by brooklynlad

Keep fighting the good fight. People are like "whatever it's the color of the line" but actually 1. calling it that is imprecise and only really works in Manhattan and 2. It's not weird to expect people to call things by the way they've been referred to for a while. Wanna call something the IRT line? go for it. But "Green Line" shows that you're not adapting to NY terminology.

Absolutely no one from NYC calls the trains by their color. They don't do that cause it doesn't work the moment trains split.

This is the same stupid shit for people dropping the "the" from neighborhood names. It sounds pedantic but it shows a lack of interest in the city and its history.

Edit: i'm not saying call it the IRT line. Just that some people do because that's what it was called in the past. But no one from the city calls it by its color. Come on people. Straight up you'd be made fun of if you did that as a kid lol. Cities have identity and this is part of it. Just like saying "standing on line" instead of "in line"

Edit 2: when you move to a city, you adapt to it. I swear this sub is full of the same people who went to CT during the height of the pandemic.

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sonofaresiii t1_j7e0arf wrote

> 1. calling it that is imprecise and only really works in Manhattan

Not really. I've been in Brooklyn before and been like "I know there's a yellow train around here somewhere, can you point me to it?" and that's been sufficient. I don't remember or care if it's the N/Q/R, I just want to be on it.

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Throwawayhelp111521 t1_j7i4zg7 wrote

You do understand that the N, Q, and R have some stops in common but then diverge? You'd better know which one you need.

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[deleted] t1_j7e6mcw wrote

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Throwawayhelp111521 t1_j7huoy3 wrote

I grew up in an Outerborough, although my parents were raised in Manhattan and I visited often. We always used the numbers or sometimes the old name of the train company, like the IRT. In the musical Hair, one song goes:

LBJ took the IRT/And found the youth of America/ on LSD.

LBJ didn't take the Red Line because that doesn't exist in New York City.

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TREYMANIII t1_j7ef0t9 wrote

I dont know how people can't understand what you're saying or the original guy who defended the idea of calling them by letters. It's not just "what you call it". They have colors and letters/numbers for a reason. Each color usually represent the street it runs down in Manhattan. (If anyone cared to notice, majority of the subway is designed to traffic everything into Manhattan first and foremost).

BDFM -6 Ave. NRQW Broadway ACE 8TH Ave. Just a few for example.

In Manhattan calling them the yellow line half way works because it's meant to show the route the trains share in that borough. But once you leave Manhattan and continue calling it the yellow line, you're asking for trouble. Tell a tourist take an uptown yellow train to forest hills and without further specific information, they'll end up in Astoria. Same with an uptown Orange train can mean the difference between a scared tourist in a rough part of the Bronx or somewhere in Hillside, Queens. Colors are a side guide mainly for appearance to tell the letters apart at huge stations like Times Square. But its best to give someone a letter.

We have too many tourists here to be vague like that. I've helped countless of them get to where they have to go. And when they used blue line, I told them the letter so someone headed to the air train to JFK on the E won't end up going past 125th Street on the A and C. God forbid the person is color blind.

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Throwawayhelp111521 t1_j7hvo5k wrote

The colors are not without meaning: for example, silver gray represents a shuttle line. The NYC subway has more than one shuttle. I'm not sure they're being used right now, but the shape of a symbol also matters. The default shield shape is a circle but a diagonal indicates a different route. They all convey info but as you said, they're imprecise.

In Boston, colors are used. If you say the Red Line or the Orange Line, first, that's what they're officially called, but there's also no chance of confusion, they're one line with a couple of short spurs.

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SuperCow1127 t1_j7e1wkc wrote

I absolutely guarantee you more people will know what you mean by "green line" than "IRT" or "Lexington Ave line."

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RyzinEnagy t1_j7dxvje wrote

They're called by their colors by people who live in Manhattan and never leave Manhattan. The color system was designed to group the lines that are together in Manhattan.

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DaoFerret t1_j7ecc0j wrote

Lived in Brooklyn half my life, and the other half in Manhattan. I’m sure I’ve heard them described by color a couple of times, but 99% of the time it’s by trains running on it (especially since with express/local color alone doesn’t tell you if the train stops there or bypasses a given station).

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Throwawayhelp111521 t1_j7hwil8 wrote

People who are New Yorkers and live in Manhattan use the numbers and letters. I live well above Midtown. If someone had to go to South Ferry, I'd never say, "Hop on the red line.: I'd tell them to take the No. 1 Local to the first express stop, and then to take the 2 or 3 Express to Chambers Street and then to switch back to the No. 1. If you took the No. 1 all the way down the trip would take an hour. If you took only the 2 or the 3 you'd have an unnecessary walk to South Ferry, assuming you knew which stop to get off at before you landed in Brooklyn.

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