It's more like "Uptown and the Bronx" versus "Downtown and Brooklyn." The NYC lines aren't signed as "Northbound" or "Southbound" per se. So it takes a little getting used to. In Manhattan you just have to remember that if the numbers flashing by outside the train are getting lower, you are going downtown (South). This rule of thumb doesn't hold in Brooklyn or Queens however. The D train in Brooklyn travels diagonally across the street grid, and the stations go: 79th Street, 18th Avenue, Bay Parkway, 50th Street... etc. and you are heading southeast. The system offers no compass-point orientation. It's confusing for visitors. but it makes sense in its way as any given train may travel east, then south, then west on a single run... coming in from Queens, up or down Manhattan, then out to Brooklyn, for example. The A train starts in Rockaway and heads due north for awhile, then south / southwest across Brooklyn, then north again to Harlem.

The trains are signed with their terminus, but this information isn't very helpful if you are, say, at Grand Central Station wanting to travel to Union Square, and the 4 train is signed "Utica Avenue," which is a completely irrelevant destination miles away in Brooklyn. In that case you'd just have to know that from Grand Central, Union Square is downtown -- south of you -- and on the train's way to Brooklyn. The terminus indicators are mainly for the regulars who are trying to spot a train that will take them home -- as in London, trains sometimes do not travel the length of the line.

The newer trains NYC have LED light-up linear, horizontal indicators inside the cars, an amped-up version of the Underground's ribbon-style line maps above the windows, which are excellent for seeing where you are in the line, what stop is next, and which upcoming stations the train will call at -- or skip. The older trains have nothing of the sort, sometimes not even system maps.

If he is right, they would soon run out of trains in Morden and close up shop, yes?