Richard Drew/Associated Press The South Ferry subway station reopened in April.Dear Diary:
Hurricane Sandy left the new South Ferry subway station in ruins. With a timetable of years before it’s back in operation, the M.T.A. had the wherewithal to reopen the old South Ferry, where approaching No. 1 trains scream as they tentatively round the bend, so that those waiting instinctively reach for their ears. Indicative of its antiquated design, the platform accommodates only the train’s first five cars. Station by station, riders move up one car to the next, while the train heads downtown â€" a bygone ritual revisited.
On a recent Saturday night, on my way home from work, I hurried down into the Times Square station at 12:05 a.m., just as the No. 1 train arrived. Boarding at the rear, I jumped from car to car, dropping in on a series of dioramas of life in Manhattan.
The various scenes included: Two model types, discussing a gig that paid $700. A reveler sleeping it off, tilting toward the tourist a seat away, and snapping out of it just short of resting his head on his shoulder â€" again and again. A minstrel, acoustic guitar on lap, who spontaneously burst into song. College girls sitting opposite one another, one anonymous inside her hoodie, the other, feet up on the pole, exhibiting her knee-high boots, both furiously texting. Two people asking directions to the World Trade Center, while the sports fan they engaged mistakenly directed them to the Barclays Center, until a woman intervened.
And, finally, a group whose tense expressions bore the anxiety of arriving at South Ferry in time to make the 12:30 boat.
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