When I was first thinking of creating a blog about NYC Transit, a friend of mine from Denver mentioned a book he had read, called The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City by Jennifer Toth. The book documents the story of the hardscrabble lot who live in the dark and dirty nooks and crannies of the New York City Subway system.

There are very few days while waiting for a train, peeking down the tunnel to see if the lights are coming, that I don’t wonder what goes on down there. Similarly, when a Metro-North Train pulls into Grand Central Terminal you get a stunning impression of just how enormous these foreboding spaces can be.

I also think about how this is probably the best real estate deal on earth. Some of these people have built actual room-sized apartments down there - with electricity no less. And these aren’t all transients mind you - some of these people have lived below ground for 15 years or more. Make no doubt about it - with a permit, a reasonably safe entrance and a truck bed full of sheet rock, you could sell many a $400/sf condo down there.

Seriously, it’s very scary and inconceivable to most of us that anyone would live in the subway. But I guess if you are a drug addict, its fairly logical - you need to be in the city, where panhandling and drugs are plentiful, but you certainly can’t afford to live in a legitimate space. At the same time, its clear that some of these people band together and support each other as small communities, which is a plus.

Just thinking about the whole concept raises so many questions…some serious, some trivial…

Where do they go to the bathroom? I guess they just go anywhere, but I imagine if you live down there for any amount of time you need to set some ground rules so your surroundings are tolerable. Regardless, this has got to, um, add up, and I imagine out of that crew not everyone is the most thoughtful neighbor.

How do they get home? I would assume that you just pop off a station platform and down the tracks, but wouldn’t that cost you $2 every time? Perhaps they have some secret entrances - which would let them ride the subway for free as well.

What happens when MTA finds you? Seeings that some of these people have been down there for 15 years, MTA crews must run across them from time to time. Does MTA have regular patrols for this? I would guess they just kick them out - do they make them tear down their homes and clean up all their flotsam?

And I don’t even want to think about the vermin. The subway is home to both the biggest cockroach and rat I have ever seen - and the platforms are pretty well sprayed - down the tunnel it must just be horrific, especially around people and food scraps.

Well, I assume that many of these questions are answered in the documentary films Dark Days and In Search of The Mole People. Both movies attempt to get into the tunnels and interview the people who live there.

From the clips, it seems just unbelievably scary simply getting to the interviews - its dark (duh), and in some places you obviously have to walk on active subway tracks to get where you’re going, even stepping over the third rail.

Given that a lot of the residents are drug addicts and probably don’t have the best motor skills at any given time, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear how many bodies are down there, either hit by trains or electrocuted, or victims of overdose or violence. The intro to the book The Mole People reads:

“HE’D HEARD ABOUT THE TUNNEL. SOME MONTHS EARLIER A corpse was found in it, not far beyond the tracks, its face half-eaten by rats…”

It reminds me of the subway escape scene in the movie Cloverfield, which was definitely the best part of that movie. I think it was this scene, as well as the recent PBS special on Grand Central Terminal, and the ensuing discussion of it with the Trainjotting guys, that got me thinking about all this underground stuff.

Shamelessly I have compiled a list of other quality content on Amazon which covers everything and everyone underground in NYC - I’m definitely going to check out Dark Days, and I would love to see In Search Of The Mole People - but unfortunately it seems that it is only available on VHS, and I just don’t feel like hooking that thing up again one last time.

If you have seen or read any of these titles, please share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

You might also want to check out the review of new book The City Beneath Us.