It's a trap to confuse the tourists.

[gridlore]

In preparation for the trip, I've been researching the New York Subway system. Why anyone would drive when you have this kind of service is beyond me, but that's another story.

One of the lines I've been looking at is the F line. This appears to run close to fimbrethil's place, and heads into Manhatten. Then I went out to the line page, and was amused to see that it is listed as the 6 Avenue Local.

I guess "local" in MTA speak means "it only hits 3 of the 5 boroughs."

Comments

[freetrav.livejournal.com]

isomeme and yohannon are both right, at a basic level, but it's a bit more complicated than that - local and express refer to the service pattern on the Manhattan trunk line - so even though at most hours, the  E  and  F  bypass most stations in Queens, they're still locals because their Manhattan segments are all-stops. Similarly, the  4  is classed as an express even though it's all-stops in the Bronx, because its Manhattan trunk segment is major-stops-only.

Incidentally, the color of the line's identification also tells you which trunk line it uses.

[isomeme.livejournal.com]

God, I'm envious. Here in LA, our entire subway/light-rail network can be sketched on a napkin. A small napkin. You've got your Red, Green, Blue, and Gold lines; the Red is slightly tricky as going north from downtown there are two flavors, one going (slightly) out Wilshire, the other clear up to North Hollywood. End of story.

Of course, I have gotten used to meeting long-time Angelenos who are unaware that the system exists. And when I rode the Red Line to jury duty (there's a station next to the courthouse), people looked at me like I was crazy when I mentioned how easy and convenient it had been for me to get there on the subway, but then proceeded to bitch endlessly about how awful traffic and parking had been.

LA has some kind of selective blindness when it comes to public transit.