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2016 Best & Worst Subway Lines...


JubaionBx12+SBS

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Another year has come and gone, and with the end of 2016

comes Straphangers’ State of the Subway report card. Predictably,

there’s a fair bit of bad news in the report, but there’s also some surprisingly

good news—namely, that there was a three-way tie for the best subway line of 2016.

Yep, you read that right: three subways had good enough service this year to rise to

the top of the heap.

 

Those lines were the 7, the 1 and the L, though, as we all know, that's soon to change.

 

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Lol Dirtest subway car. I bet they didn't know that the (Q) cars could end up as a (N). Regarding announcement, I think any normal commuter riding a line knows that their train either doesn't have automated announcement and therefore perform poorly on the survey or do. The important part of the surveys are the Headway/ headway regularity.

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Not surprising, considering how many times I've waited 10-20 minutes for an (A) on a weekend, and how many (C) 's and (E) 's passed by.

20 minutes for an (A) train??? You must be exaggerating... *Sarcasm* <_< It's funny how many people are reporting such long waits for various subway lines, and yet there are people here that INSIST that it simply can't be.  It just goes to show how pathetic subway service continues to be, and even the (MTA) 's own figures show it, as on-time performance worsens each year.

 

(Q) is the dirtiest, not surprised with the amount of people that eat them peanuts and seeds and spit the shells onto the floor.

Yeah I would have to agree that the (Q) is quite dirty considering that it runs mainly new trains.  Another thing I have noticed is that there are more homeless people on the (Q) than I have ever recall seeing.  That could be contributing to the problem.  Considering how infrequent I use the line to go to Brooklyn it's amazing.  I'm not sure if it's the timing or what.  Two Saturdays ago was the first time in a while that I got a (Q) train without seeing a homeless person it.

 

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I'll also comment on the (5) train.  I think it's by far the WORST train in the system, especially if you need to go to the Bronx.  Any little thing will make the train make ALL local stops in the Bronx during rush hour, and having it run via 7th Avenue is a common occurrence as well.  Aside from that it is almost non-existent on weekends.  I really don't understand what in the hell the (MTA) is doing that they knock out service almost every weekend.  If I lived in the Northeast Bronx and relied on subway service I would be fuming.  

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The (A) has gotten much worse in the course of the past handful of years or so.... I remember times waiting for the (C) or (E) after work (when I was over in the village) over at Spring (due uptown), and you'd see a crap ton of (A)'s whizzing by on the express.... Now it's like, when I'm at 34th, you see a bunch of C's & E's before an A arrives (downtown direction, I'm speaking of here).... The E always came like wildfire, but it's the C I'm surprised with....

 

I was never high on the (5) to begin with - even before the onset of the whole guessing game of **ooh, ooh - which 5's are going to Flatbush, and which 5's are going to Utica** (although that was the straw that broke the camel's back for me, being closer to the Nostrand av line).... On the Bronx end, the folks around the Dyre line deserve much better....

 

As far as the (Q)'s filthiness, I don't really see it..... At worst, I guess I'll say that Q's are less cleanly than they used to be (bear in mind that the Q used to be one of the cleaner lines in the system).... Not for nothing, but on the topic of clean subway cars, I do find them in general these days much cleaner.... I don't find myself trying to sidestep newspapers, rolling breakfast/lunch/dinner from one end of the car to the other, or rolling cans/bottles..... The main thing in my experience that's still a bit of a nuisance is the dried up soda/beer (although the beer is far worse a problem on the LIRR, but that's another topic) sticking to my shoes.....

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The (A) has gotten much worse in the course of the past handful of years or so.... I remember times waiting for the (C) or (E) after work (when I was over in the village) over at Spring (due uptown), and you'd see a crap ton of (A)'s whizzing by on the express.... Now it's like, when I'm at 34th, you see a bunch of C's & E's before an A arrives (downtown direction, I'm speaking of here).... The E always came like wildfire, but it's the C I'm surprised with....

 

I was never high on the (5) to begin with - even before the onset of the whole guessing game of **ooh, ooh - which 5's are going to Flatbush, and which 5's are going to Utica** (although that was the straw that broke the camel's back for me, being closer to the Nostrand av line).... On the Bronx end, the folks around the Dyre line deserve much better....

 

As far as the (Q)'s filthiness, I don't really see it..... At worst, I guess I'll say that Q's are less cleanly than they used to be (bear in mind that the Q used to be one of the cleaner lines in the system).... Not for nothing, but on the topic of clean subway cars, I do find them in general these days much cleaner.... I don't find myself trying to sidestep newspapers, rolling breakfast/lunch/dinner from one end of the car to the other, or rolling cans/bottles..... The main thing in my experience that's still a bit of a nuisance is the dried up soda/beer (although the beer is far worse a problem on the LIRR, but that's another topic) sticking to my shoes.....

I just want to see what will happen with the (Q) now that it will run to 96th street (Upper East Side)... My boss lives on the Upper East Side and never uses the subway, but she does use the local buses to get to and from the office and drives elsewhere.  On occasion she will comment about how dirty such and such bus was.  I always laugh to myself and think if she actually stepped down to the subway, she'd really be in for a treat. :lol:  

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(Q) via 2 Av seems like a good alternative and pretty fast after 57 St Downtown and makes it easier to access rather than getting to Lex Av Line (4)(5)(6). Riders could get to Times Sq and 34 St area along Westside and not take 42 St Shuttle.
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(Q) is the dirtiest, not surprised with the amount of people that eat them peanuts and seeds and spit the shells onto the floor.

Speaking of the (Q) being the dirtiest the First train to SAS had a lot of litter in the first car, 2 bums in the second, halal food spilled all over the 3rd, and tissues all over the 4th. It was a mess.

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I'll also comment on the (5) train.  I think it's by far the WORST train in the system, especially if you need to go to the Bronx.  Any little thing will make the train make ALL local stops in the Bronx during rush hour, and having it run via 7th Avenue is a common occurrence as well.  Aside from that it is almost non-existent on weekends.  I really don't understand what in the hell the (MTA) is doing that they knock out service almost every weekend.  If I lived in the Northeast Bronx and relied on subway service I would be fuming.  

 

 

Damn! I Thought you would have known the answer to that! LoL

But to Answer Your question! North of 180 on the Dyre Line they are replacing the whole signal system. At the moment it still runs with the old IRT set up. They are Installed new signal and wiring so that part of the line can be ran like the rest of the system. Thats the only part of the system that RCC doesn't have and control over. Unionport Tower controls everything north of 180!

Also Being that the 5 seems to be my regular run these days, It aint nothing But a Help Line. Helps the (4) and (2). And since The (2) and (5) are the only 2 lines that can switch over via west or east and come back to its normal route, what ever happens on side (east or west) they will send that 2 train east and the 5 west! it happens EVERYDAY!

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Damn! I Thought you would have known the answer to that! LoL

But to Answer Your question! North of 180 on the Dyre Line they are replacing the whole signal system. At the moment it still runs with the old IRT set up. They are Installed new signal and wiring so that part of the line can be ran like the rest of the system. Thats the only part of the system that RCC doesn't have and control over. Unionport Tower controls everything north of 180!

Also Being that the 5 seems to be my regular run these days, It aint nothing But a Help Line. Helps the (4) and (2). And since The (2) and (5) are the only 2 lines that can switch over via west or east and come back to its normal route, what ever happens on side (east or west) they will send that 2 train east and the 5 west! it happens EVERYDAY!

That's the problem with the (MTA) though. They way that they treat subway lines should change.  While the (5) may be a "help" line, but it is the MAIN line for people who need East Side access that live in the East Bronx or the Northeast parts of the Bronx.  IMO it's absurd to have to take Metro-North just to have a reliable commute, but when I had to commute to areas near Morris Park, my only reliable option was either the express bus or Metro-North.  I would use Metro-North to get up there, and the express bus back because the commute would easily turn into a mess that would be over an hour one way.  The (MTA) gets away with it because those communities apparently don't speak up otherwise I have no idea how they put with the constant shuttle bus to the subway on numerous weekends.  In some cases they just don't care anyway because many people either drive or opt for the express bus or Metro-North because they feel it is safer in addition to being faster.  Either way it's crazy that it has been going on for so many years.

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As far as the (Q)'s filthiness, I don't really see it..... At worst, I guess I'll say that Q's are less cleanly than they used to be (bear in mind that the Q used to be one of the cleaner lines in the system).... Not for nothing, but on the topic of clean subway cars, I do find them in general these days much cleaner.... I don't find myself trying to sidestep newspapers, rolling breakfast/lunch/dinner from one end of the car to the other, or rolling cans/bottles..... The main thing in my experience that's still a bit of a nuisance is the dried up soda/beer (although the beer is far worse a problem on the LIRR, but that's another topic) sticking to my shoes.....

 

I feel like once we moved away from the bucket-style seating to bench style with the blue floors, it was probably easier to clean since things don't really pool in the bench seats, as opposed to bucket seats with puddles that I see all the time on the bus. Something just feels less gross about the NTTs.

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As far as the (5), signal replacements is exactly why. I went up to Dyre today to check it out and, while a good portion of it is done, the approach to Dyre still has the old IRT signals with red in the middle and a separate head for each movement. What else are they supposed to do - let the current signals rot? Other systems can do overnight work during the daily shutdown. We can't because there isn't a daily shutdown. Only 2 stations close on a regular basis.

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As far as the (5), signal replacements is exactly why. I went up to Dyre today to check it out and, while a good portion of it is done, the approach to Dyre still has the old IRT signals with red in the middle and a separate head for each movement. What else are they supposed to do - let the current signals rot? Other systems can do overnight work during the daily shutdown. We can't because there isn't a daily shutdown. Only 2 stations close on a regular basis.

 

That's the fact of life in a 24-hour city. More and more cities are moving towards 24-hour service, not away from it.

 

If the need is really so dire, that's what FasTrack is for. Has there been a FasTrack program recently?

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That's the fact of life in a 24-hour city. More and more cities are moving towards 24-hour service, not away from it.

 

If the need is really so dire, that's what FasTrack is for. Has there been a FasTrack program recently?

If it were in Manhattan proper, this project would be done.
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If it were in Manhattan proper, this project would be done.

 

Of course, and they manage to do it without shutting the subway down every night in Manhattan, so I don't see why all of a sudden the person I responded to is suggesting we shut down for a couple of hours, when that couple of hours could be lifeline service for the late-night riders on Dyre who have it bad enough as it is.

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Dyre has pretty low ridership. The busiest station is ranked 291st. The cost of Fastracking it probably doesn't offset the relatively small number of people affected by a shutdown. It's a matter of allocating costs and benefits. As a transportation engineer, I'm looking at it from an engineering perspective. The places they Fastrack are typically high-traffic locations. A signal replacement also takes quite a bit of time due to everything required.

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I predict that once the South Ferry and Cortlandt stations reopen (and the (L) partially closes), the (1) train will be, quite fittingly, the number one best line in the city. I've always had good experiences with it, despite its 2001 and 2012 misfortunes (and discontinued skip-stop service). I wonder how a new (9) service to Red Hook would affect it...

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I predict that once the South Ferry and Cortlandt stations reopen (and the (L) partially closes), the (1) train will be, quite fittingly, the number one best line in the city. I've always had good experiences with it, despite its 2001 and 2012 misfortunes (and discontinued skip-stop service). I wonder how a new (9) service to Red Hook would affect it...

The main issue with the (1) is overcrowding.  It runs well but I think gentrification is starting to catch up.  They will likely have to start more trains at 137th street to deal with that.  In addition to the gentrification, poor express bus service is also pushing more people to the (1) line in my neighborhood.  I see quite a few people that used to take the express bus in the morning now opting for the (1) line and then taking the express bus home.

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The (1) is one of the few lines that doesn't operate at or just under capacity, being tied for the fourth least-crowded line with the (J) and only slightly more crowded than the (G). That's why it generally runs so smoothly, even with old cars. It is the only IRT line operating under 90% maximum loading (78%, to be exact) and one of only two (along with the (6)) operating under 100%. It's worth noting that the other top lines (the (L) and (7)) are also the only other non-shuttle lines that never interact with other lines during normal service. Interlining has its pluses, but it also allows delays to propagate throughout the system.

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This methodology has a few biases built in. Local services that have tracks all to themselves such as the (1)(6)(7)(L) will be automatically ranked at the top due to high frequency (20+ tph) and more reliable service due to no interlining. Even the (G) and (J)(Z) are ranked very highly because they don't share sections with other services, even though objectively they don't serve the most popular destinations in Midtown and have quite high headways at rush hours.

 

The data collected in the report is really nice for determining quality of service, but the rankings may not necessarily reflect rider preferences. In terms of usefulness, the Lexington Ave line is hands down the most important subway line in the city and the entire country, and the raw ridership reflects that. In many ways, it's a victim of its own success since the SAS is yet to be completed.

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The data collected in the report is really nice for determining quality of service, but the rankings may not necessarily reflect rider preferences. In terms of usefulness, the Lexington Ave line is hands down the most important subway line in the city and the entire country, and the raw ridership reflects that. In many ways, it's a victim of its own success since the SAS is yet to be completed.

 

I don't think this report claims to be anything other than a quality of service measurement. Not every metric or report has to include everything and the kitchen sink.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The (A) has dropped off a cliff in the last 4 years or so.  Too many timers, infrequent service.  I have had to wait 15-20 minutes for an (A) during rush hour plenty of times.  Something really needs to be done.  The (1) also has problems north of 96th- bunching downtown results in battery runs uptown, and vice versa.  The (9) failed only because the skip-stop pattern was poorly configured- if the TA were to do a pilot program of peak-direction express service between 145th and 96th, I'm quite sure it would balance things out (we can forget about Dyckman to 242nd, that track is only useful for non-revenue moves).  Currently, it takes far too much time and far too many stops to get from north of 145th to midtown during rush hour.

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