Fun Maps: What the NYC Subway System Would Look like in a 40 inch Snowstorm

The team at WNYC put together a fun map of what the subway system in New York City might look like, status wise, during a 40-inch snowstorm, suggesting that the transit shutdown during Juno may have been unwarranted. After all, the January 26th storm was the first time in the subway’s history that a systemwide shutdown ever took place. The WNYC plan makes the assumption that portions of lines aboveground could be turned off from service, something which MTA Chairman Tom Prendergast has said there are no current plans to do. Nevertheless, the WNYC projection is creative and puts forth a pretty decent alternative.

The study, turned into a map termed “Snowpiercer,” shows that in this scenario, 238 of the 368 stations in the NYC subway system would remain open, including some of the city’s busiest. They also contend that the scenario is a conservative projection, writing “it is likely that the agency could—and would—handle more.” Though this plan would cut off service to portions of Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn where there are elevated and open-cut section of subway lines, it would retain service to Jamaica, Bay Ridge and Norwood, in the Bronx. It also includes service over the Manhattan Bridge on the D line, because the track is “covered by the elevated roadway and so protected from the worst snowfall.”

Read more about the WNYC plan here, and see more from our Fun Maps column. Get in touch with the author @untappedmich.