They are on a staircase leading to Bell.
A loud bell has been ringing relentlessly at a Manhattan subway station for nearly two weeks straight, leaving business owners perplexed and reaching for earplugs.
The shrill ringing — which sounds like a classic school bell — engulfed the staircase leading to the Downtown 1 train platform at the 50th Street subway station, although it’s unclear where exactly the noise is coming from.
No bells are visible anywhere in the immediate area, and its volume seems to fluctuate with no obvious direction throughout the tunnel.
“You can only hear it really loud here,” said Adiran Gallo, who owns three shops in the subway tunnel and has to put up with the noise all day at work. “And then once you get there, it’s super quiet.”
Gallo went down a few steps to show how the bell suddenly becomes indistinct in those few meters. Going back up the stairs, the bell becomes louder, then after a few more, it suddenly rings from behind.
“To be completely honest, it’s really strange,” Gallo said, noting that the bell can’t be heard at all from around the corner of the stairs.
It is unclear exactly when the bell began ringing at the Broadway and Eighth Avenue station. Some alert listeners said they first noticed it on June 23, but others estimated they had been hearing it for at least a week.
Employees at Gallo’s See No Evil Pizza now keep their doors closed to block out the noise.
“It’s a nuisance, but we keep the door closed so you can’t hear it,” one employee said.
“It stopped for a day and then started again. So it could be a power issue. I’m not entirely sure.”
“I called my landlord and talked to the previous tenant Duane Reade, and they can’t figure it out,” they added, referring to the storefronts on the nearby street level.
The MTA was not aware of the bell when contacted by the Post Thursday and did not respond to follow-up questions when the bell was still ringing Sunday.
At Tiny Dancer, a cafe across the street from See No Evil Pizza, the bell is less audible.
“I don’t really mind,” said barista Katie King, who started a week ago.
“I know it bothers other people. Like my boss asked me, ‘Do you still hear that?’
Regular travelers passing through the station noticed the bell, but most of them included it in the city’s landscape.
“I didn’t think anything of the ringtone. It’s just the New York vibe. You ignore these things,” one said.
News Source : nypost.com
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