White Plains may not be the prettiest station – it has no Arts for Transit pieces, the bathrooms are absolutely horrible, and there are pigeons everywhere – but it feels a little bit like my other home. For those descending south from the upper Harlem Line, it is your first taste of the city, and of the big buildings to come. Alliance Bernstein has a large building that overlooks the station, and is visible from the platform. But as my friend would put it, everything north of here is “the bush”. Gradually turning more rural the further north you go, the land opens up into into large farms and rolling green hillsides, the Harlem Valley (Named for the railroad, of course).

White Plains is an important transportation hub of the Harlem Line. Almost all trains stop at here – every local, and even most expresses make the stop. It is a common place to have to change trains, switching from express to local, though most people don’t have to. Along with North White Plains, the station forms a dividing line between the local trains that service the Bronx and lower Westchester, and the locals that serve upper Westchester and Putnam counties.

Unlike most stations that I take a short visit to, I spend a lot of time at White Plains. Although most times I don’t really feel like taking photos, I do have a lot more than the other stations. And definitely more panoramas. I picked a bunch that I liked best. I must admit that my new favorite vantage point is the upper walkway over the track that leads to the parking garage. Except for the fact that there are security cameras everywhere. I am expecting that one day I’m going to get apprehended by cops for being a photo taking terrorist. In reality I am just a dork that is going to every station on the Harlem Line.

I only took the AirLink once, which was back in September, when I had a flight out of Westchester Airport to Orlando. Picking the bus up right in front of the train station is quite convenient. Plus the ride only took around twenty minutes. You’ll still be able to take the bus to the airport (route #12), but you’ll have to catch the bus a block away from the train station, and it will take a bit longer. And, depending on the time, you might have to transfer. If you are lucky enough to catch a direct bus, the travel time will double to around 40 minutes. If you get stuck making the transfer, travel time will triple and will be a little over an hour. If you need to figure out how to get to the airport, you can use the Bee Line’s Trip Planner.

In addition to the AirLink elimination, several other bus routes will be having some changes, so if you are a Bee Line rider, I suggest you look at their Route Changes page.

Hey guys, I’m workin’ here!

In order to get to the bus, I took the train down to White Plains from Goldens Bridge. I’m not exactly sure what kind of work is going on there, but there were several trucks and such doing some construction work at the station. I will honestly admit to you right now that I did not know that trucks that can ride also on the rails even existed. Then I saw a yellow pick-up truck fly right past me as I was waiting on the platform. It was too fast for me to snap a picture of, but apparently these larger trucks that were also there have little track wheels that can pop down and allow it to ride the rails.

Considering my exceptional ability to encounter drunk and crazy people, a delightfully intoxicated young man kept asking me when the train to New York was coming, his words incredibly slurred. He then walked back and forth up the platform a few times, impossible to walk in a straight line. As he wandered perilously close to the edge of the platform, it started a conversation about who would jump down and rescue him if he happened to fall off. Great. Finally he collapsed against the wall, and thankfully didn’t fall off the edge of anything.

In other news, the New York Transit Museum looks like they are going to be having an interesting new exhibit. I happened to make a post earlier in the week about some of my issues with the museum, all of which have been resolved. I’m not one for censorship, including self-censorship, and originally I had edited my post. Finally I decided it best to remove it altogether. The entire situation did allow me to learn a little bit more about the museum, most notably about their new exhibit: THE LAST DAY OF THE MYRTLE AVENUE EL: Photographs by Theresa King

Opening in 1888, the Myrtle Avenue el ran from downtown Brooklyn to Queens, passing through Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick, Ridgewood, and Middle Village. After eighty years, to the dismay of many passengers, the Myrtle Avenue el closed in 1969 and was demolished the following year. Yet, in the mid-20th century, the el’s wooden train cars and antiquated stations still held fond memories for riders who grew up in those neighborhoods.

THE LAST DAY OF THE MYRTLE AVENUE EL: Photographs by Theresa King is a photo essay shot in a single day forty years ago. The photographer recalls, “At midnight on October 3, 1969 over a thousand people eagerly awaited a train – not just any train, but the final train to run on Brooklyn’s Myrtle Avenue elevated line. These people were taking the last ride on this historic elevated train. As soon as they crammed on, the train rolled along from Brooklyn’s Jay Street station to the Metropolitan Avenue station in Queens. At the end of this sad journey, some passengers took artifacts to remember this very special old timer and bid a fond farewell. The pictures were taken during this last day at various stations along the Myrtle Avenue el in Brooklyn. During my childhood, I rode this train daily and loved the look of the station stops and the train itself. When I realized the line was due for demolition, I wanted to document a part of Brooklyn’s past that would be no more.”

The exhibit will run from September 29, 2009 – February 28, 2010 at the Transit Museum.