Rapid Travel Chai

The New York City subway system runs 24/7, but in the wee hours there are numerous service changes that confuse riders. Setting aside the frequent “planned service changes” that cripple lines on late nights and weekends, the regular late night changes are challenge enough. The excellent regular subway map could not fully communicate late night landscape. So, the MTA has released a late night map in a limited print run and PDF version:

We’ve released the first-ever map showing the scheduled overnight service of the subway system, when three subway lines don’t run, three lines become shuttle trains, six express trains run as locals, and a night-only shuttle appears. The map has a gray background color to prevent confusion with the normal subway map.

The New York City Subway is the only large subway or metro system in the world to maintain service to all its stations around the clock. The overnight service shown in the night map runs generally from midnight to 6 a.m., although certain lines’ overnight service patterns depicted in the map may begin or end slightly earlier or later than these times.

For those wanting a hard copy :

The MTA has printed 25,000 copies of the map in tandem with its normal press run of a million copies of the standard subway and railroad map. The night map is available free of charge while supplies last at the New York Transit Museum, at Boerum Place & Schermerhorn Street in Downtown Brooklyn, and at the Transit Museum Annex in Grand Central Terminal. The night map, developed in-house by the MTA, is the same size as the standard map and similarly folds into a handy pocket-sized document. In addition to the folded version, 300 pristine, unfolded press sheets of the night map are available for purchase at the Transit Museum Annex for $20 each.

The Rapid Traveler loves to kvetch about the MTA and tries to avoid going anywhere on weekends because of the service disruptions, but he gives credit when due: this is a great resource. It would be really cool if they would make a living online map that adjusts lines by planned service changes, since the textual descriptions are befuddling to even expert straphangers.