>>Would a Res-Q-me escape tool be useful for escape from a subway car?<<

Probably not, as most train windows are made from Plexiglas or similar materials, and many also have layers of sticky material over them, so that when vandals try to scratch the windows with keys or whatever they have on hand (scratchiti) it just gums up, and the layers can be replaced. Besides, if the windows could be shattered that easily, the vandals would be doing that every night.

Some of the windows are designed to pop out, with rubber gaskets around the edges. And the end doors are usually unlocked, except in the cases noted above (on the longer cars for safety reasons, at the train ends, and past the conductor's position in the middle of the train if the conductor has a full-width cab)

>>("THANK GOD! I DEMAND that you arrest me and get me out of here!")<<

That would have been my thought had I been trapped in the blackout - even jail can't be much worse than that train!

>>Do compasses work in subway tunnels (with the metal tracks)?<<

a. I'm not sure but I will try.

b. Not that it makes much of a difference anyway - if you know where you're going in the train, you know about which way the train is facing, so finding direction below ground isn't that hard.

A compass is most useful when you emerge from below - sometimes the stairs wrap around a few times or you go through turns in the mezzanine and it's easy to lose track of where you're facing when you emerge.

>>Do ham radios work underground?<<

In the underround sections (most of Manhattan, the under-river tunnels, and some of the lines in Brooklyn and Queens), no. The tunnels are surrounded by metal on all sides.

Then there are lines that run in open cuts (trenches) where utility is limited to nearby contacts within reasonable line-of-sight, and embankment/elevated lines where ham radio, and cell phones as well, work just fine. These are mostly found in the outer boroughs.

In the underground portions of the NYC subway system, and much of the open cut portions, cell phones don't work either, although there are some other transit systems where cell phone repeaters have been installed in the tunnels so at least one service works.

That said, on the subway portions, if you pump 5W into a reasonably high-gain antenna, you can certainly reach other people on the train, and possibly someone not too far away on the surface, but I haven't done any systematic experimentation to find out. As for hitting a repeater, unless it were literally right above you, I'd highly doubt it and even then it's not likely.

One experiment I have done involved the N line in brooklyn, which runs in an uncovered trench. From inside the train, I couldn't reach a guy who was about half a mile away on one of the station platforms, this running 5W on 2 meters into a nearly full-size 1/4 wave vertical. I could reach a nearby repeater and pick up broadcast stations, however - it's all about line of sight.

About the most useful a ham transceiver, at least in the underground parts, would be is to pick up Transit communications - they have a system of repeaters in the tunnels. Theoretically, if one knew the input frequencies and the PL tones, and modified the radio to transmit out-of-band, one could talk to them as well, in a dire emergency.