Blood On The Tracks

From my end of the platform, it sure looked like a suicide attempt. A man lay across the tracks at the 1st Ave. L stop last Tuesday, and he was making no visible effort to get up. First came a wave of gasps, then the screams. "Someone's on the tracks!" "Stop the train!" "Stop the train!"

Train? We all leaned forward as one and saw the light gleaming on the rails. Yep, an L train was barreling toward the station. Everyone then bent further over the platform and began waving their arms like baseball umpires announcing "safe." But the gleam on the tracks got brighter, the rumbling louder. People began backing away from the yellow warning track; some plugged their ears to block whatever sound it makes when a subway car grinds a human being into three parts.

As the train became visible in the tunnel, its brakes began to screech, bringing it to a halt 20 feet or so from the mouth of the station. People cheered. The man on the tracks-who, it turned out, had fallen after suffering some kind of epileptic fit-was retrieved and assisted.

Had the train operator seen our frantic semaphores from a distance and applied the brakes? No. A quick thinking commuter had run up to the station booth, where the operator placed a call to someone at a switchboard-think Fat Kaz in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three-who then got in touch with the driver of the train, telling him to brake. This is the best if not the only way to stop a train approaching a station at full speed.

It's also the best if not the only reason to oppose proposals to automate the L train and close station booths across the city. Had the 1st Ave. station operator been an automated Metrocard dispenser, or had the driver of the oncoming train been inflatable, the man on the tracks almost certainly would have been crushed, and a whole lot of rush hour commuters would have needed a hug. They also would have been welcomed onto the homicidal train by a cheerful robot voice declaring Bedford Ave. as the next stop, while brains dripped from the car's wheels?

The fire that shut down the A and C lines last week refocused attention on antiquated relay signals and fuse boxes, which is fine. But overdue upgrades shouldn't come at the cost of scaling back what little human intelligence currently informs the MTA's day-to-day operations undergound. As most every other subway system in the world proves, nothing beats a combination of modern infrastructure and well-trained, breathing staff. That the MTA brass continues to push policies implying we must choose between the two tells us that none of them actually use the subway and hence have no business running it. If any position gets automated in the future, let it be Peter Kalikow's. With all that money saved, the city could build a shiny new booth for every old rusty one torn down. Throw in another fare hike or two, and the Authority might even be able to afford a relay system built before the second LaGuardia administration.

-Alexander Zaitchik