glitch in the matrix story vault

Tags: source // unexplained // New York // travel // family // lost
Added to Vault(s): glitch in the matrix story vault // New York Story Vault

Experienced a full-on glitch in the matrix or timeline jump on NYC subway going the wrong way

• Original Post: Experienced a full-on glitch in the matrix or timeline jump on NYC subway going the wrong way

Experienced a full-on glitch in the matrix or timeline jump on NYC subway

Backstory:
My husband and I are new yorkers. I’m someone who believes in and has experienced supernatural experiences before but never a glitch this obvious and he’s truly the most logic-based, explain everything by data and science guy you could find. If he hadn’t experienced this with me, he wouldn’t have believed it to be true.

Yesterday we were taking the subway home after a long day out in Queens shopping for our first car. We live in Manhattan and this is a big first step to some other big life things we’re planning like moving out of the city and starting a family. I just found out I’m pregnant after a challenging infertility journey (also important because no alcohol or mind altering substances consumed by either of us!). After shopping we grabbed a bite to eat and spent the whole dinner discussing all of the big life changes, different possibilities of how things could pan out, where we should move after nyc, etc- all context to say something in me feels like what followed and unexplainable moments like this happen during times of big life shifts…curious if anyone else agrees.

Anyway onto the story…

So we took the subway back into Manhattan from Queens, a little bit of a hike. When we finally got back into the city, we exited the subway station and ended up hopping on a city bus because it was already approaching, rather than transferring to the usual subway line we’d take home. The bus drops us a little closer to the apartment and it was right there so we hopped on without thinking. This was dumb because we were distracted in conversation and moving too fast, and as soon as the bus started moving, we realized that we were going the wrong direction- downtown and not uptown towards our apartment (in NYC, “uptown” means heading north, “downtown” means heading south). We laughed at ourselves and got off at the next bus stop which luckily happened to be right at the subway station we planned to take originally. One that we frequent. Great!

Because we’d just made the mistake of going downtown instead of uptown, I triple checked the station sign outside before we went down the steps to make sure we were entering the UPTOWN tracks. If you aren’t familiar with nyc, many stations you have to enter on the correct side of the street to go the right direction. The sign was correct- I vividly can see the “for downtown train enter station across Lexington Ave” signage they had. We tapped in through the turnstile and waited 5 mins for our train. I know it was 5 mins because the digital platform sign read “Pelham Bay Park: 5 mins” (Pelham Bay Park is the final stop at the north end of the uptown 6 train line, so seeing it listed meant an uptown train was coming) to which I sighed because I was exhausted by our extended journey home. I also mentally checked the printed signage above the track itself to ensure it said “Uptown and the Bronx” (meaning that we were on the correct side of the tracks).

The train comes, we get on, and we’re chatting, only a handful of stops from home. Then we get to the next stop and the conductor announces it, as they do every stop, saying, “next stop: XX Street” - 2 stops DOWN from where we started, meaning we were not traveling in the right direction. I didn’t even catch it but my husband does. He jumps up and looks out the train at the platform to see that indeed, we’ve gone one stop below where we were. Again, we’re trying to go UPTOWN. We’re both frozen for a second processing and with the doors still open, I eventually am like, “cmon hurry we gotta get off.”

So we rush out the doors before they shut and stand there on the platform baffled. I look at the train that’s departing and the digital sign on the outside which says what the last train stop will be- which for an Uptown 6 train is “Pelham Bay Park” (the terminus mentioned earlier) indeed reads Pelham Bay Park. The train we’re looking at is saying it’s going uptown, as it travels downtown, and the platform signage around us also says it’s the downtown train.

We are completely speechless and trying to process. At least 5 different checks that we were on an uptown train as we are both are staring at the train going downtown and standing on the downtown side of the tracks. My mind is still spinning as I type this. We exit the station, cross the street to get to the uptown side, and eventually catch the uptown train without further issue and make it home, both extremely spooked.

Also notable is that nobody else on the train reacted to it going downtown, meaning it wasn’t like a signal switch or operator changed direction or something unexpected but intentional. If you live in nyc, you know the collective groan and scramble of people realizing the train is switching course or skipping a stop and jumping up, hopping off, etc. If anything, everyone on the train was watching our panic as we briefly figured out we needed to get off.

Both of our brains immediately tried to rationalize it and find a way we could have messed up. But we didn’t and we checked so many times, given the first mistake we made with the bus. And again, my very logic-minded husband was freaked out, a reaction I’ve never seen in him in 10+ years together.

The subway certainly does have “portal” vibes and I immediately told him we’d jumped a timeline. I’m so curious if any other New Yorkers have ever experienced something similar?

Follow-up comment by u/username:

Katie’s comments:

• Location: New York City, New York