Maybe with all its money, Google has turned its nose on NYC subway travel and opted to take a car service instead.

When Google Maps first came out a big request among New Yorkers was the lack of markers for subway stops. So there was great excitement when, in February of 2007, Google added subway stations to New York City maps. By great excitement, I mean the city stopped, said "Cool.", and continued rushing to wherever it was going.

Recently, I’ve moved so I’m taking a bunch of lines that I’m not familiar with. I use Google Maps regularly and noticed something. The stations are still there, but the train lines are missing. Now this is such a subtle change that I wasn’t even sure that they had been there in the first place. Then I asked a few friends, who felt relieved in realizing that they were not only ones going crazy wondering.

The above image shows what Google Maps used to show; station and lines. Now see below.

Where are the subway lines?  As any New Yorker can tell you knowing a station’s location is near useless without knowing what lines stop there. Why the change? I haven’t been able to find any announcements from Google thus far.

For now, I’m forced to rely on Hopstop.com, and a great recent find, the subway map at onNYTurf.com. If anyone can shed some light on this mystery, please do so.

Update 12/15/2007 – Google didn’t remove the train lines as much as hide them. Clicking on the station will give info on the lines servicing that station. Doh.

The ‘Get Directions" links give driving directions only, but perhaps there will be links to Google Transit (Thanks, Tom) in the future. Though that service does not yet include New York.