new york subway help please
 

I will be walking the Brooklyn Bridge with my student (70 of them), from Brooklyn side and then want to head up to Times Square. Can anyone tell me the best way to do this by subway with out any changes. Thank you

How old are they and will you be the only adult? Getting 70 students onto a subway all at once is going to be tricky. What if they don't all make it on?

I get nervous just thinking about herding 70 students on the subway.
www.hopstop.com is a good site for plotting routes.

from where are you starting?

Is there a master list of cell phones?

What are your plans if someone gets separated?

What day of the week will you be doing this and at what time?

Will you buy ticket ahead of time?

You have to assume that 70 people won;t be able to get on one car - so you need to have a planned meeting spot on the far end.

For directions on how to get between any two places in NYC go to hopstop.com. Pick out your route and make sure that each student (assume they are teens with cell phones, not small kids) knows the rout and how to duplicate it.

Also make sure they all know how to behave on the subway (a large group of teens can be seen as threatening by other passengers) and how it operates (lines, train letter or number and up or downtown). I think it likely that at least some will be separated so make sure all are competent.

(My DDs rode the subway alone from the ages of 11 and 14 - it's not difficult but you do need to understand it and keep your wits about it. If you have any kids that are truly naive suggest you keep them right next to you or whatever other adults will be there.)

Seventy kids? On the subway? Just you? No chaperone(s)? You must be joking.

Per the OP's other thread there are 80 total so it maybe its 70 kids and 10 chaperones???

But you'll still need contingency plans where to meet since the group will definitely get separated.

If there are chaperones it will make a huge difference. While my kids were in HS (they all belonged to the band) I would chaperone the annual band trip - that was 2 bus loads of kids. Four of those trips were to NYC, and with chaperones it was very doable. just make sure that some of the chaperones are bringing up the rear of the group to herd stragglers.

Hail a cab, all passengers ride for the same fare.

Really, seventy high school kids boarding a subway simultaneously?
As a teacher I would take thirty ten-year olds on field trips, it was a nightmare.

To answer the actual question, when you walk off the Brooklyn Bridge on the Manhattan side, City Hall will be directly across the street.

Cross the street and walk around City Hall (you might be able to cut through City Hall Park if this is daytime) to Broadway to catch an N or R train (shown as yellow on a transit map) from the City Hall station. Both these train lines go directly to Times Square without needing to change trains.

When you first cross the street, you may see another subway station, but these trains (4, 5, 6) DO NOT go directly to Times Square. You could get there eventually but would have to connect at other busy stations--a nightmare with 70 teenagers.

Please look at a map to understand the directions described.

ellenm: thank you, so much for advice and answering my question opposed to thinking that I would be so irrisponsible or crazy to take 70 students on my own and expect them all to board together. We have very strict rules about going on field trips.

I hope you will be in groups of 4 or each have your own pay per ride card when you enter the subway. Note the platform is narrow and... one day while I was waiting, someone asked me how to get to Manhattan where do you want to go? Turns out she was confused because one side of the platform said Queens, the other side said Brooklyn. Your students should know that they are heading uptown toward Queens.

A Guide Named Sue

Better yet, have the kids walk across the city hall park to the Park Place station for the 2 and 3 trains. Take the first one that comes heading uptown to Times Square - the 2 and 3 are express (4 stops) = quicker than the N or R locals (8 stops).

Park Place is just about 1/2 - 3/4 blocks farther than the city hall station. It's literally around the corner from the Duane Reade on Broadway. See here: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7127781,-74.0070702,18z

This won't be a problem at all if you break up into smaller groups and meet up at a predetermined location in the Times Square area. I'd recommend either Schubert Alley (behind the Viacom Building, which is on Broadway between 44th and 45th Streets) or the breezeway entrance to the Marquis Theater (underneath the Marriott Marquis hotel, one block further north). The former gets crowded and is open-air (there's a big Junior's cheesecake/diner there). The latter is covered and usually not as crowded. Both of these are 2 or 3 blocks from the subway exit if you exit on the west side of Broadway and 42nd Street.

The other subway alternative would be the Fulton Street Station, where almost all the downtown trains intersect. It's also nearby, and you can grab either the A or the 2/3 and it's a huge new subway station that's pretty grand for subway stations. I find this station a bit easier to get to from the bridge since you just walk down a couple of short blocks and don't have to cross City Hall Park. But either station works.

Just to let you all know, I went to New york with 70 pupils and returned with all 70. Everything went extremely well and the people of New York could not have been nicer.
We even went cycling, yes all 70 plus 10 staff through central park, and yes we cycled as a group and no, we did not upset anyone.

Where did you eat?

"I went to New york with 70 pupils and returned with all 70"
". . .we did not upset anyone."

Sounds like a very dull trip.
(Sorry, I couldn't resist!)

Sounds like Maria took in the convent orphans while Mr VonTrapp was away!

NeoPatrick...The trip was anything but dull.....how could it be dull, we were in New York
IMDonehere (great name) we ate in the typical tourist haunts Bubba Gumps, Hard rock etc (pupils choice)
The trip was a great success, we already have pupils signed up for the next one.