Regular riders say he has better attendance than most of their coworkers
NEW YORK – A rat that has, by the estimation of regular commuters, ridden the same stretch of the L train platform for at least three years has developed a small but devoted following among riders who say his consistency alone makes him more reliable than the actual train schedule.
The rat, unofficially named Gary by a group chat of roughly forty regular commuters who share the same platform each morning, is typically spotted along the eastern edge of the platform between 7:45 and 8:15 a.m., a window so consistent that several riders say they now use his appearance as an informal indicator of whether they’re running late. “If I see Gary, I know I’ve got about six minutes before the train,” said commuter Priya Osei, who has documented dozens of sightings in a shared spreadsheet the group now maintains half-jokingly, half-seriously. “If I don’t see Gary, something’s wrong. Either I’m early, or he’s late, and honestly at this point I trust his schedule more than the MTA’s.”
A Reputation Built on Reliability
The group chat, which started as a handful of strangers commenting on the same rat independently in a neighborhood forum, has since grown into a semi-organized community numbering over two hundred members, complete with a shared document tracking sightings, a rough map of Gary’s typical territory, and an ongoing, mostly unserious debate about whether recent sightings actually represent the same rat or a rotating cast of similarly sized understudies. “We’ve had this argument for a year,” said commuter Devin Marsh, one of the group’s founding members. “Some of us think it’s definitely the same rat. Others think we’re just pattern-matching onto whichever rat happens to be nearby. Either way, the name Gary has stuck, and honestly, does it matter which rat it is if the vibe is consistent?”
MTA officials, asked for comment on the platform’s unofficial resident, declined to confirm or deny Gary’s existence as a distinct individual, noting only that pest control efforts remain ongoing systemwide and that the agency does not track or name individual rodents, a policy one spokesperson called “probably for the best, given how attached people seem to get.”
Merchandise, Unofficially
The community’s enthusiasm has produced at least one unofficial sticker design, created by a graphic designer who rides the line occasionally, depicting a cartoon rat in a small conductor’s hat above the words “GARY: ALWAYS ON TIME.” The sticker has appeared, without any formal distribution effort, on at least six lampposts along the platform’s exit route, along with two laptops belonging to group chat members who requested copies directly from the designer.
“I didn’t expect it to take off the way it did,” said the designer, who asked to be identified only by her first initial, R. “I made it as a joke for the group chat. Now people I’ve never met are asking where they can get one. I might actually print a small batch, just to see what happens. It feels like the platform deserves a mascot at this point, given how much personality it apparently has.”
Not Everyone Is Charmed
Not all commuters share the group’s affection. Longtime rider Harold Fein, who has used the same platform for over a decade, said he finds the entire phenomenon “genuinely baffling.” “It’s a rat,” Fein said. “I understand the city gets to you eventually, but naming it, tracking it, making stickers, that feels like a sign we’ve all been underground too long. I just want the L train to come on time. I don’t need a mascot for that.”
Osei, defending the group’s enthusiasm, said she understands the skepticism but sees the whole thing as a harmless bit of shared culture in a city that can otherwise feel isolating. “Everyone needs something small to bond over,” she said. “Ours happens to be a rat. I’ve met three actual friends through that group chat. Gary might not know it, but he’s done more for this platform’s sense of community than anything the MTA has ever announced.”
What Happens if Gary Retires
The group has begun, only half-seriously, discussing what they’ll do if sightings eventually stop altogether, an outcome several members admit is inevitable given rodent lifespans, though nobody in the chat has said this out loud in quite those terms. “We’ve talked about a memorial sticker,” Marsh admitted. “Is that insane? Maybe. But this group chat has become a real thing in my life. I’d want to mark it properly, if it ever comes to that.”
For now, sightings continue on a near-daily basis, logged dutifully in the shared spreadsheet, with commuters continuing to treat Gary’s punctuality as a small, strange point of pride on an otherwise unpredictable line. Even Fein, the skeptic, admitted he’s started glancing for the rat out of habit now, despite himself, a concession he made grudgingly and asked not to be quoted on directly, though he ultimately allowed it. Continuing coverage of subway culture and its unofficial fixtures is tracked at bohiney.com.
Further context on New York transit patterns is available through The New York Times and Gothamist.
Further dispatches from the humor desk: The Onion.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com