They’re on a Stairway to Bell.
A noisy bell has been relentlessly ringing at a Manhattan subway stop for nearly two weeks straight, leaving business owners baffled — and reaching for earplugs.
The shrill ringing — which resembles a classic school bell — has consumed the stairway to the downtown 1 train platform at the 50th Street subway station, though it’s not clear where exactly the noise is coming from.
No tolling bell is visible anywhere in the immediate area, and its volume seems to ebb and wane without obvious sense throughout the tunnel.
“You hear it strongly only right here,” said Adiran Gallo, who owns three storefronts in the subway tunnel and has to endure the noise all day at work. “And then once you go there, it’s super faint.”
Gallo descended some steps to show how the bell becomes suddenly indistinct in those few feet. Back up the stairs, the bell grows louder, and then after a couple more, it’s suddenly ringing from behind.
“To be completely honest, it’s really odd,” Gallo said, noting that the bell can’t be heard at all around the corner from the stairs.
It’s unclear exactly when the ringing at the Broadway and Eighth Avenue station started. Some sharp listeners said they first noticed it on June 23, but others estimated they’d been hearing it for at least a week before.
Employees at Gallo’s pizza shop, See No Evil Pizza, now keep their door closed to block out the racket.
“It’s a nuisance, but we keep the door closed so you can’t hear it,” one employee said.
“It did stop for like a day and then came back on it. So it might be like a power thing. I’m not exactly sure.”
“I called my landlord and talked to the old tenant Duane Reade, and they can’t figure it out,” they added, referring to storefronts on the street level next door.
The MTA did not know about the bell when contacted by The Post on Thursday, and did not respond to follow up questions when the bell was still ringing Sunday.
At Tiny Dancer, a coffee shop across from See No Evil Pizza, the bell is less audible.
“It doesn’t really bother me that much,” said barista Katie Kong, who started a week ago.
“I know that it kind of bothers other people. Like my boss asked me, ‘Are you still hearing that?’”
Regular commuters passing through the station have noticed the bell, but most have written it out as part of the city scenery.
“I didn’t think anything of the ringing. That’s just the ambiance of New York. You tune these things out,” one said.
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