Well, that was fun

[jethrien]

Thank goodness it wasn't a real emergency.

Some kind of signal problem shut down the entire PATH line. After sitting in the tunnel for awhile, they finally dumped us out at Christopher Street. I was at the far end of the platform from the stairs. It took over 20 minutes to actually make it out to the street. I don't think I'd realized how must more densely you can pack a train than will fit in the platform. People were taking pictures of the crush with their phones. 15 minutes in, another train slowly pulled into the station and suddenly everyone started shuffling faster in an attempt to get out before even more people were dumped onto the platform. The train just slowly cruised on by, though. I wonder where the poor people on that train endeded up.

40 minutes late to work, of course.

Comments

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I just went to World Trade. That station is at least designed for crush. Christopher Street is the most ill-equipped station in the system, I think, for crowds of people.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

You were probably 10-15 minutes behind me. When I got on, everything was running steadily to both locations on a "10 minute delay", which usually means nothing. It changed to total lock-up while I was under the Hudson.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Christopher or 9th--the 9th Street station has that long tunnel after you get off the platform but before you can surface.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure the platform is overall narrower at Christopher, and the little stretch from the turnstiles to the stairs is definitely narrower. Though 9th isn't that hot either, it's true.

But then, it's taken me 20 minutes to get out of the 14th Street station once, on Hoboken's St. Patty's Day, so I think all of them can be a nightmare with a sufficiently sized crowd.