Having had the chance in the past few days to explore both the new 2nd Avenue line in New York City and quite a bit of the Lisbon Metro, here are a few ooh la la snaps for subway nerds like you and me.

2nd Ave. NYC

Modern glass amid the brownstone at the current 96th St. northern end of the 2nd Ave. “Q” line.

 

A smaller, but still just as bright and shiny entrance a block or two south.

 

Do you, like me, tend to judge subway quality by steepness of access and cleanliness? If so, this new line rates highly on both.

 

Artwork by Chuck Close, or so I guess, at the end of the bright, shiny and currently clean hallway.

 

Fancy, relatively for NYC, display board shows upcoming stops. Note lack of humans in photo; New Yorkers don’t really seem to like tourists taking photos of them, even on a leisurely Sunday afternoon.

 

Lisbon 

The red line starts at the Airport. Yes…Lisbon has a train to its airport. It cost me 1.95 Euros to get me to Bairro Alto (about ten km or so). And yes, you get estimated times for the next train arrival.

 

Looking the other way at the Aeroporto Station. Note artwork top-right. Each station has unique thematic art, in this case caricatures of apparently famous Lisboners about whom I know nothing.

 

Long single-car, articulated train on the Blue Line to Santa Apolónia. Not needed here, but Lisbon gets top marks for its high-quality metal hand-straps.

 

One feels a bit less self-conscious taking photos inside a train car in Lisbon. The trains aren’t always quite as empty as this, however.

 

Big, bright and NYC 2nd Avenue level shiny Rossio train station. The biggest shortcoming I’ve noted, so far, in the Lisbon system is the lack of integration between the Metro and suburban/intercity train service. I can report the bus service helps make up for this, somewhat, but we true subway/train nerds are never quite happy with the lowly bus, are we?

More to come after another day slogging away on the Lisbon Metro. A tough job of idleness, but somebody gets to do it.