bobtehpanda

On 9/21/2022 at 7:16 AM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

I laughed when I read about this yesterday. Cameras don't deter criminals, which is why you won't see people rushing back to take the subway. The guy that shot up that  train... I'm sure he wasn't concerned about cameras... Not to mention how many of them don't work. This is just putting lipstick on a pig. That $6 million would be better invested having more cops ride on the actual trains and not just standing around on the platform.

Right.

NYCHA projects are full of cameras. But at the end of the day, some dude remotely watching the cameras is probably going to take 10+ minutes to get to you, and you can do a lot of shit in ten minutes.

On 10/5/2022 at 1:09 PM, Lex said:

We should probably address the stretch between Queens Village and Floral Park beforehand.

what are you referring to?

On 7/27/2022 at 4:41 PM, Lex said:

I wouldn't. Fossil fuels take far too long to renew and burning them pollutes the air. I'm not sure if you've actually tried breathing around a diesel locomotive, but I have -- in electric territory, no less. Hard pass.

The current locomotives are breaking down right now, so unfortunately we don't really have the luxury of waiting around for electrification to finish.

Also, my understanding of how European locomotives work (and what the Siemens Chargers are ultimately based on) is a modular system where a diesel generator hooks into an electric drivetrain, so it would technically be possible to just remove the generator at a later date if electrification was extended.

On 7/4/2022 at 8:38 AM, B35 via Church said:

I've seen signs (plural) for $17 out in Nassau County.... Been up for months too.

Willowbrook Mall has been altering their hours quite a bit since covid hit.... At one point on weekends, they were opening at noon.... Then It went down to 11... Then it went up to 11:30... I couldn't tell you what it is now, because I've never had to take a leak, the last couple times I was at Willowbrook Mall.... But to close 8pm on a Saturday? Hell, even those Central Jersey & South Jersey malls stay open later than that.....

Every single White Castle I know of is short staffed; pretty much goes hand-in-hand with stores closing left & right here in the city.... There used to be like 10-11 White Castles here in Brooklyn alone, now I'm not so sure if there's 10 in the entire city anymore.... On the bright side (I guess), that one that was a couple blocks down from PABT along 8th av. is set to be opening back up (if it hasn't done so already)... The junkies that currently loiter around that infamous McDonalds on 35th/8th will be sure to (go back) festering around that White Castle for sure though....

I haven't been inside a Wendy's or a McDonald's for quite some time, but what I can say about Burger King (the ones I frequent anyway) is that they're either short staffed or overstaffed... Doesn't appear to be any sort of medium.... The BK that never fails working my nerves is that one in Flushing (was there yesterday as a matter of fact; Roosevelt/Main).... Line is like 20 people deep, mad cooks in the back, but one f***ing counterperson... Only her & the manager were in front, filling orders..... Several people walked off the line, but I was not going on that train with the hunger headache I had brewing... I was also worried about running into the Mets crowd, since they had an afternoon  game yesterday (just narrowly missed that madness, so that was good).....

Running a city based franchise has always been tough, because corporate wants you to run the same deals in Midtown or the Bronx that they're running in Tulsa, but the running costs are obviously not anywhere close.

Fast food makes more sense once you realize corporate usually owns the land and rents it to the franchisee. The fast food companies are real estate businesses that happen to help run restaurants on the side.

As a more practical reason: Columbia and NYU are institutions that do research and have conferences, and to some extent so do City College and Hunter College, so you have a fair amount of infrequent visitors who need to know where to go. Community colleges, less so.

(I don't really care, but hopefully New York can avoid some of the DC Metro sillyness around extremely long hyphenated station names like "U-St/African Amer Civil War Memorial/Cardozo")

If anything, I would suggest that hospitals are probably a more relevant renaming candidate than colleges, since those always have people visiting. Or even one-offs like "Woodhaven Blvd-Queens Center."

14 hours ago, Jamall Hayden said:

Why not? 

Low platform + high floor is really, really inefficient. In the days of the high-floor buses, the entire line could be held up by grandma struggling up the steps. Or a wheelchair lift taking forever, and possibly breaking down.

More inefficient = more time spent on the trip. More time spent = needing to hire more people and buy more trains to run the same level of frequency. Which is bad.

On 6/30/2022 at 7:41 AM, Kamen Rider said:

Many of the through running plans I've seen call for Penn Station to be rebuilt to emphasize the through running services at the expense of the terminating ones. I distinctly remember one plan calling for the station to be split in such a way that only westbound trains could use the north half and eastbound trains use the south half. this would extend to the river tunnels as well, as tunnels 2 and 3 under the east river would have their directions reversed. 

 

Meaning a westbound Empire connection train would have to run against traffic the whole way from Sunnyside Yard.

So I agree that that would be really stupid, and also half the think tanks are on some shit (like really, a mega-station in Port Morris? I want whatever they're smoking)

I will say that, in the event a real through-running plan shows up, it would be likely that we would see significant reconfiguration of the approach tracks around Penn Station anyways because they are a major slowdown point on the NEC; and it would probably be good to have a second, north Empire Connection track anyways if something like Penn Station Phase II is ever going to happen.

2 hours ago, Kamen Rider said:

Penn Station through running for the commuter railroads is, to be blunt, not happening any time soon.

there are a lot of details that often get skipped over.

 

For example, Amtrak. Despite owning the station, people forget it has intercity trains there as well and

many through running plans I've seen have completely forgotten the Empire Connection.  

Through running usually never actually means "every single train will through run." 

There will still be terminating trains. Most major train stations in systems with through running have a mix.

On 6/14/2022 at 8:31 AM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Makes no sense quite frankly.

IIRC, the proposal way back when was to build two extra lanes, which would almost certainly involve significant property taking along the entire route (the highway through Queens is super tightly constrained)

On 6/25/2022 at 8:00 PM, trainfan22 said:

Page 45 of this MTA PDF file has a rendering of the new Metro North Locomotives, looks nice! Sadly no renderings for LIRR even though they plan to purchase the same locomotives to replace DE/DM30s.

 

https://new.mta.info/document/89781

For future reference: in pdfs you can link directly to the page number like so:

https://new.mta.info/document/89781#page=45

3 hours ago, QM1to6Ave said:

Cool! It makes sense, since Amtrak already goes to/from Penn Station using the existing Hell Gate tracks. I remember years ago posting on here "why can't MNRR theoretically use Amtrak's track to go to Penn Station?" and one of the MNRR employees on here was like "well, it's impossible because we aren't taught how to operate that track" and I was like "well, why can't they just teach you that and get you all certified?" LOL

The issue there is that the West Side Line is a lot trickier to build the stations at.

62 St is in the tunnel. At 125 St the line is right up against the Henry Hudson Parkway. The Bronx stations are a lot less site constrained.

For similar reasons, we're not getting an Astoria station on the Hell Gate line, because they studied it and found that they might maybe be able to squeeze in a 4-car platform but it would be really expensive.

On 5/27/2022 at 1:28 PM, 7-express said:

I just don't think there are any more good routes going east anymore, particular for NE Queens riders.  The LIE/Van Wyck alignment is suicide, Northern Blvd continues to get nerfed by lane restrictions and congestion, Astoria Blvd has slow flow in Corona, and the GCP is another bag of suicide.  Even the LIE to BQE route the SX takes is slow now since the BQE section is backed up from Jackson Heights south every day.

What are the Chinatown vans doing these days?

Though, tbh even back in the day going east was kind of a crapshoot. You knew shit was going down if the vans started detouring through industrial Brooklyn streets. LIE gets f**ked up (particularly around Queens Blvd and Corona Park), GCP's f**ked up by LGA, BQE is the BQE, etc.

On 5/27/2022 at 2:45 PM, Krocyoin said:

Subway crime has been going back up again, and the X51 serves a community of Asians, and we had a uprising of anti-Asian hate crime especially in subway stations so the X51 could do well if it did return, hell it had 10 trips to Manhattan in the AM and 8 trips to Queens in the PM before it got eliminated, also the X51 had better ridership it's final year of service than some current express bus routes.

The Asians in the community take the Chinese vans, which are very well patronized.

They're faster, and cost less, than MTA routes, which is why the X51 failed in the first place. I'm not super convinced that you would be able to convince them to pay more money to switch to slower MTA service.

2 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

I'm surprised there are any increases to service past electrified territory....

Honestly, I doubt in practice there will actually be increases in diesel territory. There are barely enough trains to run the current level of service, even when they're all working.

On 5/31/2022 at 4:16 PM, QM1to6Ave said:

I'm curious, as I read about all the upcoming increases in LIRR service because of ESA (which is now apparently called Grand Central Madison), where is all the extra cash coming from to pay for service increases when ridership is down since the pandemic, and all the express buses are getting cut (excuse me, I mean "right-sized" as part of the redesigns)? This is making me want to buy a house out on LI, since that will apparently be a better commute 2 years from now than trying to get to the city from Queens.

So, normally the way these kinds of projects work is that the funding requests to the feds also include a plan of service and how it is going to get paid for. To some degree, this plan has to be followed, otherwise Uncle Sam gets testy that you didn't build and operate what you said you were going to, and they demand their grant money back.

That being said, ESA blew out its budget 3x, so who even knows? But technically these expenses have been known for years and are supposed to be budgeted for in advance. Operations is, thankfully, a place where the budget can't blow out 3x, unless the MTA somehow hired 2x ghosts for every employee they actually hired.

On 5/25/2022 at 2:50 PM, MHV9218 said:

Constantly, and then everybody complains that they wasted money and hired consultants lol...

I mean, we have long since sailed past the deregulation-era "but the private sector can do it better!" nonsense.

CAHSR was, for the longest time, a consultant-led operation, and look at how well that went.

On 5/24/2022 at 2:14 PM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Stores are private businesses that can set their own guidelines, and most opt to not require a mask. The federal mandate is different.

So on April 18, a federal judge in Florida issued a nationwide injunction on this mandate. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/classroom/2022/04/a-judge-struck-down-the-travel-mask-mandate-heres-what-that-means-for-you/

While that makes its way through the legal system, the mandate is not actually enforceable.

12 hours ago, Mtatransit said:

You haven't really experienced the Chinatown shuttle vans unless you either sat on a stool in the aisle, or in the front stair case. And they charge more than the subway too

More than the subway, but less than the express bus.

2 hours ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

 

I like the idea of a Bronx extension. The question is... Should it be an allowance for the future, or should it be included now at all costs? 

The MTA has not built any rail line this long in... well, ever. They choked the last couple times they tried to build big extensions (the '70s 2-phase SAS, the Archer Avenue Line, the QBL bypass, etc.)

Alas, one must learn to walk before they can run.

---

They still haven't released the big study, right? In what universe is "conventional rail" slower than a bus? Are they using horses to pull trains?

6 hours ago, MrTransitMan said:

What about forming a partnership, where services like these remain but there’s a financial incentive for the smaller fleets, doesn’t put the operating burden on the MTA, and having a more structured knowing of where these operations are allows these redesigns to be further improved? It’s nice to see the future IBX being considered, but having multiple modes of transportation being planned and “blended” could be an ease for everyone for the long run, even financially. 

This was tried out during the 2010 service cuts for bus routes that were replaced. It was, to put it mildly, a disaster.

In general, the Chinatown vans make a good deal of money (the model is essentially driver takes the fares) and don't want the MTA/City to ruin a good thing. Working with them means more regulation and bureaucracy, accepting free transfers cuts directly into their income, etc.

On 5/12/2022 at 10:39 AM, MrTransitMan said:

Flushing to Wall Street, the person was explaining. 
 

Any discussion about redevelopment for Rikers Island or in Astoria? Do you recall which routes were in their PowerPoint?

The problem there has always been that the Chinatown vans are cheaper and faster than anything MTA could run. It's why the x51 was cut in the first place.

It would be nifty if they could be brought "into the fold" and take OMNY with transfers, but I think that's a whole can of worms that the drivers themselves are not interested in.

On 1/26/2022 at 10:02 AM, mrsman said:

Agreed.  Given where the IBX runs, it is perfectly suited to handle trips from southern Brooklyn to eastern Brooklyn to northwestern Queens.  They should make every effort for the IBX to connect with all nearby subways, including the  in Bay Ridge.  As such, for the many New Yorkers who live in the outer boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens along one of the main lines that intersects with IBX, they can have a reasonable two-seat ride into LGA.  This also avoids the issues with running  trains through the Astoria NIBMY neighborhood, or even worse splitting  trains and having some service along the Grand Central Parkway.

FWIW, one of the most popular ways of reaching LGA by transit is to take the subway to Jackson Heights and then using the bus for the remaining distance.  IBX to LGA will basically incorporate this without the bus.  Much of Manhattan and most of Queens is a one seat ride away from Jackson Heights.  One quick transfer from there can get you to LGA.

If a Bronx extension is at all feasible, then running two branches, one to Bronx and one to LGA from Jacson Heights should also work. 

The East River is also quite shallow. There's no reason to split it across two branches, especially if you consider the construction/capacity/connection issues on the line through Hell Gate.

And Hunts Point is across the East River from LGA.

On 5/10/2022 at 1:49 PM, shiznit1987 said:

I thought the Ronkonkoma branch was the "favorite son" of the LIRR, seeing as almost all it's trains run express from Penn > Woodside > Jamaica. Babylon trains often are the ones slowing down to make Forest Hills and Kew Gardens. 

At any rate, common sense would say that rather than a total mixup of schedules, that they stick with a simple plan: Babylon, Ronkonkoma, Huntington, Long Beach and Port Wash trains all either serve Penn or GCT. Hemsptead and Far Rock alternate to provide half-hourly service to Brooklyn. Make track 1 @ Jamaica the "Penn Station" track, Track 2 the "Grand Central" track and Track 3 the "Brooklyn" track. 

I mean, the service plans published years ago were really not all that complicated. every train alternates between Penn and GCT.

Part of the whole Jamaica area reworking was to eliminate the possibility of Change At Jamaica being a thing that needed to be done for non-Brooklyn customers. I get the sense that they didn't like how having to hold for connections impacted things like OTP.

On 5/8/2022 at 9:07 AM, CenSin said:

I’m not understanding the logic where CBTC gets installed. Shouldn’t CBTC be installed around the choke point-heavy segment from 42 Street–Times Square to DeKalb Avenue where the junction is the key factor in train throughput? OR am I understanding the purpose of CBTC wrong?

CBTC is the next generation of signaling technology. At this point it might be that they're triaging which parts of the system have the oldest, original signaling systems.

But really no one really installs new fixed-block if at all possible; CBTC means less wayside equipment as well.

On 5/7/2022 at 12:01 PM, paulrivera said:

Holy old thread, Batman.

I do have a question though: I recall someone on one of the social media channels saying offhandedly that they're looking into LIRR/MNRR joint ticketing after East Side Access opens, so that for example not only a Fordham to Jamaica ticket would be available on one single ticket, but that it would be discounted somewhat as opposed to buying a Fordham-GCT and a Penn-Jamaica ticket separately. Does anyone know if that will actually be a thing?

At this point, doing so would basically be free money for the MTA, since zero people currently make that trip right now due to how much of a PITA it is, and how expensive it is.

The Atlantic Ticket was actually revenue positive despite the fare cuts, which is impressive if you consider how poorly it was advertised.

5 hours ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

LIRR's response to my complaint mentioned "infrastructure constraints along the branch due to the single track which exists between Great Neck and Port Washington." Those same constraints will still exist under ESA, so that service can never be increased. Instead, service will probably be cut in half, leaving headways of 80 minutes (peak) and 60 minutes (off-peak) to each Manhattan terminal.

They are extending a pocket track at Great Neck probably for that reason. https://patch.com/new-york/portwashington/mta-lirr-port-washington-branch-service-reduced-weekend

1 hour ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

I don't think you're understanding. They do not have the equipment to run service like a subway line like the . No comparison.  Doubled would be something like four trains an hour one way. The  by comparison runs about 12 trains an hour one way during parts of the day, almost three times as frequent.

The subway+bus is so much slower that waiting at most 15 minutes is not a huge deal.
 

Also, I'm pretty sure they were running four trains an hour already during peak pre-COVID. that equipment didn't just all disappear, and the train orders to literally double service on all of the LIRR were made before the pandemic.