By September 1979, there were over 250 felonies per week being recorded on the New York subway

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[h=1]Hell on wheels: Striking images from the '70s and '80s show New York's dirty, graffiti-covered subway and its passengers amid the outbreak of violent crimes that took place underground at the time[/h]

• Swiss photographer Willy Spiller was living in the once crime-riddled city when he began documenting his underground travels, starting in 1977 and ending in 1984
• He published the images in his book, Hell On Wheels, first released in 1984 and reprinted again in 2016
• By September 1979, there were over 250 felonies per week being recorded on the New York subway
• Despite the dangers that kept some New Yorkers from braving the underground, Spiller was able to capture the seemingly glamorous hustle and bustle of city life

 

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Any real New Yorker knows the best way to navigate the city is via subway, but in the late '70s and early '80s the underground was one of the most dangerous places to be.
Swiss photographer Willy Spiller was living in the once crime-riddled city when documented his underground travels from 1977 to 1984, sharing the images in his photography book, Hell On Wheels.
Spiller captured not only the graffiti filled subway lines, but he also offered a glimpse into the lives of the people who rode subway system, which was once plagued with robberies and murder.
According to nycsubway.org, there were an outbreak of violent crimes underground in the last week of 1978, and the first two months of 1979 started off with six murders on the subway.
There were over 250 felonies per week being recorded on the subway by September 1979, making the crime rate much higher than any other mass transits system in the world.
However, despite the risks he was taking by documenting the photos, Spiller's colorful series sheds a different light on the New York's underground, which was still bustling despite its dangers.

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Swiss photographer Willy Spiller was living in New York when began documenting his underground travels from 1977 to 1984

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The colorful images of New York's underground are featured in his 1984 book 'Hell On Wheels', which was republished in 2016

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'These images hardly tell a story of crime and danger,' Dr. Tobia Bezzola wrote in the book's forward. 'Willy Spiller doesn’t discover darkness in the underground but rather an idiosyncratic, vivid realm of its own'

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Spiller's series sheds a different light on the New York's underground, which was still bustling despite its dangers

 

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During this time period, passengers were struggling with fears of crime, long wait times, malfunctioning trains, noise, and other deplorable conditions

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Between June 30th 1976 and June 30th 1977, subway ridership dropped by 25 million passengers. This was the start of an eight-year declined that saw 327 million passengers leave the metro system, according to nycsubway.org

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In the late '70s, Brooklyn man named Curtis Sliwa (not pictured) headed a group called the 'Magnificent 13', which began unarmed patrols on the subway between 8pm and 4am to discourage crime. The Magnificent 13 eventually changed its name to the Guardian Angels before expanding the operation to include of five of New York City's boroughs

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In 1979, Mayor Ed Koch was looking for law enforcement officials to come up with a plant to combat the outbreak of violence and crime on the subways

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By September 1979, there were over 250 felonies per week being recorded on the subway, making the crime rate much higher than any other mass transits system in the world

 

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At the time, Transit Police Chief Sanford Garelik was insisting that crime was actually worse on the streets, suggesting that the fear of violence was exaggerated by adults who were uncomfortable sharing close quarters with their younger counterparts

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In September 1979, Transit Police Chief Sanford Garelik was fired after cop publicly requested his resignation. He was replaced by Deputy Chief of Personnel James B. Meehan

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During this time, the subways were covered with graffiti both in and outside the train's cars, and Spiller captured this image of a teenage boy hanging off the side of the subway car as its doors were closing

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During New York City's most crime-riddled years, the Lexington Avenue Express (not pictured) was dubbed 'mugger's express'

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Despite the dangers that kept some New Yorkers from braving the subway, Spiller was able to capture the seemingly glamorous hustle and bustle of city life

 

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Spiller photographed numerous people getting on and off the subway without fear, including these two women walking together

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Although the subway was not as nearly as safe as it is today, people still fell asleep and read during their commutes

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Spiller captured the images as part of his daily routine, which often involved him taking the subway from downtown to Lincoln Center

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Spiller photographed these train passengers through a window on the subway cart, and they didn't appear to notice his peering camera lens

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Graffiti wasn't limited to just subway cars. Entrances to New York's underground featured spray painted names, initials and ominous messages

 

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'When you're sitting in a graffiti-covered car, you don't feel safe,' David L. Gunn, the president of the Transit Authority told the New York Times in 1989 when the New York Transit Authority celebrated the final journey of what it said was the last graffiti covered train. Spiller took this photo sometime between 1977 and 1984, before the subway was cleaned up

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Danger? The images capture the variety of characters who traveled on the subway - which looks far more dirty and graffiti-covered than it does today

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Relaxing: Despite the crime spree that took place on the underground trains, they were still used by young women such as this duo who can be seen relaxing with their feet up on the seats

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Happy as can be: One of Willy's images shows an older couple smiling with joy as the sit next to other passengers

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One of the images captures young people, who appear to be homeless, sleeping in the stations - something which still occurs frequently today

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Art? Many of the trains were covered from top to bottom in bold graffiti designs

 

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[h=3]CLEANING UP THE NYC SUBWAY[/h]New York City's subway was notoriously covered in graffiti in the '70s and '80s, with nearly every car vandalized at least partially with spray paint.
According to New York Magazine, in 1972, then-Mayor John Lindsay 'declared war' on the subway graffiti. The MTA slowly began chipping away at the problem, first rubbing it off with acid — a process that was found to be costly and ultimately ineffective. They also used guard dogs, razor wire, and fences to block out the taggers.
A misstep in 1983 saw the MTA paint subway cars white, and their work was almost immediately tagged up again with more graffiti.
In 1984, the New York City Transit Authority implemented a five-year program with the aim of getting rid of the graffiti all together. Increased security in the subway also kept the problem from rising up again.
In 1985, the MTA President David Gunn began the Clean Train Movement, which also involved cleaning each car when it got to the end of its run.
Finally, in May 1989, graffiti was cleaned off the last subway car, in the C line. At the time, that amounted to 6,245 cars being cleaned, rebuilt, or replaced altogether. In addition to the cars themselves, 250 of the 465 functional stations at the time were cleaned.
'When you're sitting in a graffiti-covered car, you don't feel safe,' president of the Transit Authority, David L. Gunn, said at the time.