Above, subway hell as we know it: chronic overcrowding caused by delays, service changes, and an infrastructure generally crippled by decades of neglect caused by Albany’s political games. Below, subway hell as it could be, in a fantasy world where not just chronic mismanagement but also demons and zombies are real and actively haunting the public.
First up, a literal depiction of subway hell in the form of giant mechanical centipedes in place of trains, and the undead instead of straphangers. Spoopy.
From the more common fear of death to the less common fear of bad fonts, a fearful imagining where all of the subway signs are in Comic Sans, a font which is basically synonymous with poor communication. As if the crackling instructions over the PA aren’t sufficiently unclear, this would truly be next level both in terms of bad communication and horrible design. Truly, the only imaginably worse font is Papyrus.
The surprisingly underused hashtag #subwayhell also reveals a few depictions of subway nightmares, some realized, some artistic fantasy.
Earlier this year Andrew Duncan Farmer and Bats Langley respectively wrote and illustrated a series of “Scary Stories to read on the subway,” featuring bone-chilling titles like “Insufficient Fare,” “Brunch in Williamsburg,” and “Bedbug.”
For more, take a look at the MTA’s press releases.