I feel fortunate that my commute to work is a short jaunt down the R/W from 8th to Whitehall. In the morning, both downtown trains have already dropped off the Queens folk commuters in midtown, so the trains are usually comfortably empty. Most of the time the R/W straphangers are tourists headed to Battery Park to take the Ferry to Ellis Island.

One day I got onto the train as usual…except something smelled funny. We’ve all been on a trains where something smelled bad-funny (pee in the corner, homeless guy sleeping at one end of the car, someone eating on the train). However this smell was peculiar…it was the new train smell! I can only describe it as being as refreshing (or manufacturing-y) as “new car smell.” As if that wasn’t enough to make my morning, I had the whole car to myself!

Update: The MTA announced that the W line would be shut down as a result of impending economic doom.