As all you New Yorkers know, this past Saturday was insanely cold- and somehow, whenever it’s super hot or cold the MTA becomes more unreliable than the classy National Inquirer. Knowing this, we prepared for our Saturday evening plans. Since on a normal night it would take us no more than 30 minutes from our apartment on the Upper East Side to the East Village, we left about 45 minutes in advance. Sadly, the MTA disappointed me yet another time in my short 25 years of existence. 

Thanks to the MTA’s major advances in communication with new signs that sometimes say how long it will be until the next train, we saw that the next 6 train would arrive in 16 minutes, which was a good 15 minutes above normal. We needed to get to Astor place, so even if we took the 4/5 (which wasn’t coming much sooner than that) we’d have to transfer to the 6 at some point and would just be waiting no matter what. Stupidly, we waited for the damn 6 train. 

What a glorious ride. We literally stopped for 1-2 minutes between each station due to “train traffic ahead”. What train traffic!? We waited for almost 20 minutes for this damn train! Finally, after nearly an hour on the train we were at 14th Street, just one stop away from where we wanted to go. We sat in the station for about a minute before they made an inaudible announcement that impolitely told us that this was the last stop before Brooklyn Bridge (which means they were bypassing the 4 local stops between 14th St and BK Bridge). That basically translated to: you’re inconveniencing us, so take your ass outside and walk!

Our walk was short to the East Village, only about 12 minutes. However, let me reiterate that it was FREEZING! So, 90 minutes later with numb noses, toes and cheeks and highly embarrassed for being over 30 minutes late, we arrived to our destination- a birthday dinner! Something you probably don’t want to be late for. 

Thanks, MTA, for making us just as reliable as you!