I work evenings and weekends, and it seems that as often as not, there is track construction that causes diversions. Sometimes the C runs express. Sometimes the C runs express north of 125th Street but not south of it. Sometimes the C runs express south of 125th Street but not north of it. Sometimes the A runs local south of 125th but express above it. Sometimes the D runs local. In short, when you swipe your card through that turnstile, you never quite know what train you're going to end up riding. You know you'll get to your destination, but now how you'll get there.

This diary is a way for me to remember how I get to work every day. The commute home is usually pretty easy. I leave work at 1 a.m., and then there's only one option home: the A local from 42nd Street 13 stops north to 155th. Unless there is a construction-related diversion, it usually comes off without a hitch. There's a lot of stops to sit through, and the trains only run once every 20 minutes, so there's plenty of time to think while waiting on the platform. Sometimes diversions break in your favor, like when the A train has run express south of 125th Street but local north of it. I get a speedy ride straight to my station. Other times, diversions slow you down, like when the A runs local south of 125th but goes express north of it. Then, I get a slow ride all the way to Harlem and then have to get out at 145th Street and walk the extra few blocks home.

But the commute to work is far more interesting. I take the IND. Central Park West line, which is served not only by the A and the C trains but by the B and the D. I have the philosophy that it is always best to board any train that is going the general direction you want to go, even if it's not supposed to stop at your eventual destination. At best, it can help you get to where you're going quicker. (Like when you're going from 72nd Street to 42nd and Eighth. You need the A or the C at 42nd Street, but only the B or the C stop at 72nd. You board the B at 72nd, get off at 59th Street and find that the A is waiting across the platform). At worst, it simply divides the waiting you have to do into two short lengths of time at two stations, rather than one long time at one station. (You're at Whitehall Street and need the N train to go to Astoria, but the R arrives first and you take it to 59th and Lex., and wait there for the very same N train you could have waited for at Whitehall.)

My ideal downtown commute would consist of the following: I get on the C train at 155th Street and ride it one stop to 145th Street, and transfer across the platform there for the downtown A train, which is waiting in the station to make the connection with the C. The A speedily makes its way down to 42nd Street, stopping only at 2 intermediate station, 125th Street and Columbus Circle. As you will see in the diary, it seldom happens this way.

There's an A train at 145th Street but as the C train arrives it is closing its doors and pulling out. What the %$#&^*@#!! I decide to stay on the C until 125th. After a few minutes on that platform, the D train arrives. I get on, but it goes very slowly down the line. We pass the C train I had been riding while it is stopped at a local station, but it passes us again in between stations. Finally, the two trains pulls in at 59th Street at the same time. I sprint across the platform, and transfer back to the same train I had been riding before! I ride the C to 42nd Street and arrive at work pretty much on time.

Stations stopped at: 6 (145th, 135th, 125th, 59th, 50th, 42nd). Exercizes in futility: 2. Trains ridden: 2. Transfers: 2.

Saturday, January 11: The Debacle
As my co-worker and I enter the station at 155th Street at about a crowd of people is leaving, indicating that an uptown C has just arrived. We head down to the platform and wait. And wait. And wait. Not one, not two, but three uptown locals pass us as we wait for what was probably about half an hour. Finally we give up and decide to go walk down to 145th Street, as my co-worker makes fun of me for going to this station in the first place. By now at least a half-dozen other people are waiting on the platform with us. When we get to the top of the platform, another passenger tells us there is no service. "If you're waiting for the downtrain," he said, "it's not working." Why didn't they cordon off the platform? Why were we allowed to stand there like idiots for half an hour waiting for a train that wouldn't arrive? Why didn't anyone tell us there wasn't any service?

At that exact moment, the alarm went off telling us another uptown train was coming into the station. We took that one to 168th Street and transferred to a downtown express. We eventually arrived at work some 20 minutes late.

Sunday, January 12
As I learned the hard way yesterday, there is no downtown local service at 155th Street, so I walk down to 145th, and arrive just as the station's electronic sign is warning of an arriving downtown train. Shortly after I step onto the platform, the C train arrives, running express. I board it and zip down to 125th Street. I get off and wait around for a few minutes until a D arrives. I ride that downtown and as we pass 103rd Street we also pass the C I'd been riding earlier. I disembark at 59th Street, and less than a minute later that C pulls into the station at the same time as an A. Because it's express and because it's a longer train that lets out closer to the north stairs that I use at 42nd Street, I board the A. But the C departs first. For a second time on an express train I pass the C train I'd been riding on, this time at 50th Street. Trains: 3. Stops: 3. Transfers: 2.

Tuesday, January 14
Today I came to work from the Columbia University area, not from home, so this day doesn't count.

Friday, January 17: They Myth of the Express
I got on the local at 155th at the appointed hour, and lucky for me, just as it arrived at 145th Street, the A was arriving across the platform. I naturally transferred to it, under the assumption that express service is faster. This was proven to be a false assumption. For some reason, the A train always creeps along at slower-than-normal speeds between 145th and 125th. So at 125th Street, despite the fact that the C train makes an additional stop at 135th Street, we met up again with the C train I'd been riding.

Ah, but then there's the run between 125th and 59th. That's where the A train really starts cookin'. A motorman named Wayne McLamore, who drove the A train, said in 2001 that this was one of his three favorite stretches. As The New York Times described it, a "long, unfettered straightaway, conducive to speed."

Well, not today. We plugged along at a respectable pace at first, but then for no apparent reason, we got stuck between 72nd Street and 59th for a couple of minutes, giving that C train enough time to pass us. We met it again at 59th Street, where I got off to transfer to the Sixth Avenue line to meet a friend at a Sixth Avenue diner before work.

Saturday, January 18: Myth of the Express Pt. 2
Today I proved that I learned from last Saturday's mistake but not from yesterday's. Because of last Saturday's debacle (see "Saturday, January 11: The Debacle"), I walked straight to 145th Street without even thinking about going to 155th Street. With temperatures at 8 degrees, one wished that they had picked another weekend to do track work. When I got to the station, the C train was already waiting there at the express track, so it appears that again this week there's no local service between 168th and 125th. I got on and rode the train one stop to 125th Street, where I decided to get off and transfer to the express. After yesterday's experience, why did I decide this? Because of the allure of the express train. The feeling that if it doesn't make so many stops it's got to be faster.

At 125th Street, I waited for three minutes for the express train to arrive. My luck, it turned out to be the A train. We marched downtown at an orderly pace, passing that C train at 72nd street. But then we slowed down and before we got to 59th Street, that C train passed us. It waited at 59th but took off before we did. We passed the train at 50th Street but it passed us again and got to 42nd Street first. The end verdict: I would have gotten there quicker by taking the local. It's amazing how a three-minute wait is all it takes to make transferring to the express futile, and that's the longest run with no local stops in all of Manhattan. Total commute time: 20 minutes, 16 seconds, turnstile-to-turnstile.

Saturday, November 15
I have moved to 119th Street between Amsterdam and Morningside. The closest stop is 116th Street on the 1 and the 9, but because that line is so packed, I usually try to take the A from 125th Street, which is the second-closest station to my new apartment. However, if the D comes first, there is no reason not to take it for a transfer to the A or C at 59th Street/Columbus Circle. If the C comes first, however, that's a different story. Today, the C came first. Since nobody was waiting on the platform, I figured that the A or D must have just come, and why not take the C anyway? It goes where I'm going, after all. At 86th Street, the A blows by us, negating my whole hypothesis. I would have gotten to work faster if I had waited and caught the A, so I vowed never to take the local from 125th Street again.

Saturday, November 22: Assume Nothing
Note to self: Never make that type of absolute vows again. I stepped onto the platform and a half-empty C train came a few minutes later. Having learned my lesson last week, I let it pass by. A few minutes later, a crowded A train came into the station, but just before it got to the platform, it switched onto the local track! Great! If I'm going to have to make all the local stops I should have taken the C train, which came earlier and which had more seats available. I assume that the MTA must be doing repairs on the express track, and that all trains must be running local this day, and so I hop on the A train and the doors close behind me. But the train keeps waiting in the station, and the D pulls in over on the express track! If the D train can run on the express track, why not the A as well? If the doors had opened again, I could have gotten on the D train to 59th Street/Columbus Circle and caught the C that I had let pass by. But the conductor never opened the doors, even though the train was just sitting there in the station. So I got the worst of both worlds, stuck on that local A train, which I pondered as the D blew by us between 116th and 110th Streets. I would have gotten to work faster if I had taken the C that I allowed to pass, or if I had waited and caught the D that came two nanoseconds after the train I decided to take.