Feb 16
2024 Rewind: Subway Surfers Caught Hooking Up on Top of NYC Train
READ TIME: 2 MIN.
This piece is part of EDGE's 2024 Rewind series. We're reaching into our archives and sharing some of our favorite stories from the past year.
Okay, this event didn't take place on top of a NYC "F-train," but it might as well have. Pics posted to social media show two subway surfers having sex on top of a transit car as it travels over the Van Wyck Expressway.
An X (formerly Twitter) user ("Jonathan Eli; @EJonatha4766004") posted pics of the incident that took place last Friday. It quickly went viral and was picked up by numerous media outlets. Eli labeled his posts as coming from "transits workers against corruption." He captioned his post, "What is the MTA doing about this?"
"In the pictures," the Daily Mail reported, "a third man can also be seen on top of the train watching the other men have sex. The subway surfers' identities are currently unknown."
"The MTA could not confirm when the pants-dropping stunt atop the No. 7 train occurred or whether it impacted subway service. But a spokesperson for the transit agency ripped into those who ride in off-limits parts of the transit system," reported the local NYC site The City, who was the first outlet to report on Eli's tweet.
"The only thing dumber than riding on top of a subway train is dropping pants in the process," said Tim Minton, the transit agency's communications director, told The City. "Those reckless clowns aren't thinking about the mess cleaners and other subway workers will have to deal with when their stupid stunt goes tragically wrong."
Subway surfing stunts such as these, though none nearly as provocative, have risen in recent years. "MTA numbers show there were 683 reports of people riding on top of or in between trains from January through September of 2023, the latest time frame for which those figures are available. The subway surfing craze peaked in May 2022, records reveal, with 162 reported incidents," said The City.
"An MTA spokesperson said that six people died while riding recklessly outside of trains in 2023, one more than the total number of such fatalities from 2018 to 2022."
