F***ed By the F Train on a Friday night
Effed in Park Slope | Monday, September 30, 2013 at 7:00AM 
Image via Gothamist.comYou may have heard about the F train fiasco that occurred this past Friday night. Over 1,300 commuters were stuck underground for over an hour between the West 4th and Broadway/Lafayette stations. Friend of FIPS Michelle Paul gives us her first-hand experience of the shitstorm:
On Friday night I left work at 6:30 and got on the F train at 57th Street. I planned to exit at Bergen Street, go to Book Court, and then walk home enjoying the autumn evening. Instead I spent two hours underground enjoying the hospitality of the MTA.
A minute or two after the F left West 4th Street, we stopped. No one was particularly surprised. This was not out of the ordinary. I read my book. I eavesdropped on the conversations around me. I tried not to make eye contact with anyone creepy.
Eventually the voice of the conductor came on over the loudspeaker, with a surprisingly specific announcement: There was a broken rail on the track ahead of us, so we had to go back to West 4th. The train had not derailed, they were careful to say, but we couldn't continue on to Brooklyn this way. A ripple of exasperation spread through the car, coupled with preemptive exhaustion, as we all began to realize this would be a longer-than-usual commute.
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