Man #1: We’ve got to get the L train goingleft!
Man #2: No, we’ve got to get the L train going right!
–C train platform, Penn Station
Overheard by: courtenay
Man #1: We’ve got to get the L train goingleft!
Man #2: No, we’ve got to get the L train going right!
–C train platform, Penn Station
Overheard by: courtenay
Dude: Do any of these trains go under water?
Chick: Yeah, you can feel it getting colder. It’s so cool.
Dude: Which train is it?
Chick: It’s one of those trains that goes from Brooklyn to Manhattan. I think it was the B or the G…
–6 train, Brooklyn Bridge City Hall
B&T Yankee fan, staring at subway map: It’s stopping at all of them… It skipped three. How do you know where it stops?
Conductor: 59th Street, transfer here for the N, R, Q, W, and Six.
B&T Yankee fan, still staring at map: Maybe we should get off here? Is this the one we got off last time? Maybe we should have taken the A. It goes right to Penn, right? Does this not stop at the black dots?
–4 train
Overheard by: Jess McGins — I eventually intervened
Tourist: Excuse me, can you tell us how to get to downtown?
Local: Downtown where?
Tourist: Times Square.
–N/Q uptown platform, Canal St
Guy #1: There’s a laundromat! Should we get off?
Guy #2: No, let’s get off on the way back. Then we’ll be on the right side.
Guy #1: We’re on the right side now.
Guy #2: But there’s no way down to the street on this side.
Guy #1: The stairs are right there.
Guy #2: But they aren’t safe.
–Metro-North
Conductor: This train will be going express to 137th Street. The next stop on this train will be 137th Street.
Hobo: 137th Street! And if you don’t like it, buy your own train!
–1 train
Overheard by: EthanK
Lady: Excuse me, can you tell me where Chinatown is?
Chinese lady: Chinatown is everywhere! Any way you walk, there’s Chinatown! It’s all around us!
Lady: Thank you [begins walking away from Chinatown].
Chinese lady: Not that way! Come, follow me. This way! Come on!
–Lafayette & Worth
Lost tourist: Excuse me, can you tell how to get to 38th Street?
Guy passing out Metro: 38th Street? Sure. Here, take one of these [gives him a copy of Metro]. Now just keep walking that way [points towards Fifth Avenue].
Lost tourist: Hey! Thanks!
–Grand Central
Overheard by: would’ve lied also
Girl: We should spend less money on the war in Iraq and use it to help countries like Africa.
–Principles of Economics lecture, Columbia University
Overheard by: Ed
Receptionist: I?m sorry, Mr. Jones* is out of the country… He went to Florida.
–Hunter College
Overheard by: Effy
Vendor: Welcome to Coney Island!
–Union Square
Irish tourists: Which direction is the lake?
–West Broadway & Canal St
Overheard by: Confused
Woman: Yeah, it’s the five bureaus: Manhattan, Harlem, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island.
–Metro-North
Overheard by: Amused
British man in funny hat: All we want is a way to make ourselves more comfortable…
Ruffled employee: I already told you — the organic laxatives are that way!
–Fairway Market
Overheard by: obviously chortling
