A mysterious bell keeps ringing at the 50th Street subway station in Hell’s Kitchen, baffling public transit riders, employees at nearby businesses and the MTA.
It’s a busy subway station served by the No. 1 train, located near Times Square, 50th Street, and Broadway.
New Yorkers are used to all kinds of sounds, but not this one.
“It’s been going on like this for about a week,” said Wyatt Babington, a barista at Tiny Dancer, a coffee shop inside the station.
A bell could be heard from the entrance to southbound Route 1. No one knew where it was coming from or how to stop it.
I wish the ringing would stop.
Wyatt Babington, a barista at Tiny Dancer coffee shop in the station.
“I wish the bells would stop ringing,” Babington said.
When passengers step off the subway, they don’t hear the bell, but they can clearly hear it when they reach the stairs, especially the second flight of stairs. The bell is loudest against the wall closest to the stairs.
Behind the wall is vacant commercial space that once housed a Duane Reade. Babington said MTA representatives visited the station on Monday and took photos of the interior of the old Duane Reade.
“He said he thinks this wall is the reason he hears noises when he comes up the stairs,” Babington said.
The MTA told NBC New York they could confirm the news did not originate from the subway station itself.
The alarm stopped by late Monday afternoon. Walgreens told NBC New York that it was made aware of the alarm at one of its stores, a former Duane Reade, and that the alarm had been shut off.
But not everyone in the subway station is bothered by the ringing.
“I’m not particularly worried. I’m used to things happening,” said Brooklyn resident Michael G. “I’m a native New Yorker, so nothing is shocking or weird to me.”
