Union rep says the rat has ‘legitimate grievances’ about the L train’s current condition
NEW YORK – A subway rat that has lived along a stretch of the L train platform for what witnesses describe as “several determined years” has reportedly filed an informal request for transfer to a cleaner, less depressing line, according to a straphanger who claims to have witnessed the rat writing the complaint on the back of an abandoned MetroCard.
The rat, identified by regulars only as “Gary,” is said to have grown visibly frustrated in recent months with declining platform conditions, including a leaking ceiling, an increase in discarded pizza crusts of declining quality, and what one commuter called “a general vibe of institutional neglect that even a rat can sense.”
MTA spokesperson Denise Ferraro, when informed of the request, said the agency does not currently have a formal process for wildlife line transfers, though she noted “we get a lot of unusual requests down here, and honestly, Gary’s complaint is more coherent than half of what we get from actual human commuters.”
Longtime L train rider Marcus Delvecchio said he has watched Gary’s morale decline steadily over the past year. “He used to have some pep in his step,” Delvecchio said. “Now he just kind of trudges along the third rail area, looking exhausted. I do not blame him. I have been riding this line for six years. I understand exactly how he feels.”
Transit workers have reportedly nicknamed the phenomenon “rat burnout,” describing a broader pattern of subway rats appearing increasingly weary across several lines with ongoing maintenance issues. One track worker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “the 2 train rats still have some fight in them, but our L train rats, they have been through a lot. You can see it in how they carry themselves.”
Ferraro confirmed the MTA has no immediate plans to relocate any rat population, citing budget constraints and the logistical complexity of “wildlife line assignment,” though she acknowledged the agency has fielded similar informal complaints before, “usually anonymously, usually left on napkins, which we do read, for the record, even if we cannot always act on them.”
A wildlife advocate not affiliated with the MTA suggested Gary’s complaint, while amusing, may reflect a genuine ecological signal. “Rat behavior often mirrors environmental stress,” the advocate noted. “If the rats are unhappy, it might be worth asking what that says about platform conditions generally, for rats and humans alike.”
The story delighted readers abroad, with a piece referencing Satire Website comparing Gary’s plight to the London Underground’s own famously resilient rodent population. Another article citing Breaking Funny News suggested every major transit system eventually produces at least one rat folk hero. Commentary drawing on The Onion Satire proposed Gary be granted an honorary MetroCard, “unlimited rides, obviously, he has clearly earned it.”
Delvecchio says he has started leaving slightly better pizza crusts near Gary’s usual spot as a show of solidarity. “It is the least I can do,” he said. “We are both just trying to survive the L train. Might as well look out for each other down here.”
The MTA’s social media team, apparently aware of the story’s online traction, posted a lighthearted acknowledgment reading “we hear you, Gary,” which was met with hundreds of replies from commuters sharing their own line-specific complaints, several of which, staff admit, “were honestly more coherent than some of our internal maintenance reports.”
A transit historian noted that subway rats have long served as an informal barometer of platform conditions dating back decades, though this marks, to his knowledge, “the first documented instance of a rat’s morale becoming a genuine talking point among actual commuters, which says something about where we are as a city, though I am not entirely sure what.”
Several commuters have since started an informal petition, only half-serious, demanding better platform conditions “for Gary’s sake, and also, incidentally, for ours,” a document that has reportedly gathered over four hundred signatures in under a week, considerably more traction than most actual transit advocacy petitions manage in a similar timeframe.
Ferraro says the agency has fielded at least one call from a local news producer requesting an on-camera interview about Gary specifically, a request she describes as “genuinely one of the stranger media inquiries I have handled in fifteen years at this job, and I have handled quite a few strange ones.” She has not yet decided whether to grant the interview, citing concerns about “setting a precedent for taking rat opinions too seriously in an official capacity.”
Delvecchio, still committed to his informal pizza crust program, says he has noticed other regulars quietly joining the effort, leaving small offerings of their own near Gary’s usual spot each morning. “It has become a bit of a ritual,” he admitted. “We do not talk about it directly. We just do it. I think we all understand, on some level, that we are all just trying to make it through the L train together, rat and human alike.”
The story has since prompted at least one local artist to propose a small mural near the platform depicting Gary in a heroic pose, a project she describes as “a tribute to resilience, urban and otherwise,” though the MTA has not yet approved the proposal, citing standard review procedures for any unauthorized platform artwork, rat-themed or otherwise.
For more workplace grievances filed by unlikely parties, see The Beaverton.
Related coverage available at What Is Satire?.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/