bobtehpanda

2nd Av Line Branches - Third Av-Jamaica Center via the Atlantic Branch - Co-Op City - Jamaica Center - Springfield Blvd/Hillside Av - Kings Plaza via Utica Av (X) - TriboroRX (never happening, but it should be funded at some point in time) New Trunk Line - (Y) Astoria Blvd Line, from 125th St-Broadway - Jamaica Center via 125th St, Ditmars Blvd, Astoria Blvd, Kissena Blvd, and Parsons Blvd, roughly following the M60, Q69, Q19, and Q25 routes. A new yard would be built at the former Flushing Airport in College Point. If you're gonna foam, foam big

M60 SBS M60A: Current M60 route - 125th St - LGA via Astoria Blvd 116th St - Columbia University 125th St - Broadway 125th St - St. Nicholas Av 125th St - Lenox Av 125th St - Park/Lexington Avs 125th St - 2nd Av Astoria Blvd - 31st St Astoria Blvd - Steinway St Astoria Blvd - 49th St Astoria Blvd - 82nd St Delta Terminal, LGA Terminal C, LGA Central Terminal, LGA Marine Air Terminal, LGA M60B: 125th St - Flushing via Astoria Blvd 116th St - Columbia University 125th St - Broadway 125th St - St. Nicholas Av 125th St - Lenox Av 125th St - Park/Lexington Avs 125th St - 2nd Av Astoria Blvd - 31st St Astoria Blvd - Steinway St Astoria Blvd - 49th St Astoria Blvd - 82nd St Astoria Blvd - 94th St Astoria Blvd - 100th St Astoria Blvd - 108th St Shea Rd - 125th St (Game days only) Main St - Northern Blvd Main St - Roosevelt Av Local service is provided by an extended Q69 to Flushing, replacing the Q19. Peak Frequencies: M60A: every 12 minutes M60B: every 15 minutes Q69: every 15 minutes

Normal service runs in two sections: to Coney Island - Stillwell Av via the , and Forest Hills - Whitehall via the Broadway Express, switching to the local tracks after Prince St. to LES - 2nd Av via the 8th Av Express, switching to local tracks at Columbus Circle runs between Brighton Beach and 42nd St - Bryant Park.

This was certainly interesting... New one: Due to a sweltering heat wave in the summer, the power grid in Jackson Heights has failed. All trains running through Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Ave have been affected, and knowing Con Ed, the power will be gone for about 7-10 days.

runs from WTC - Norwood via 8th Av Express, making all local stops north of 145th. service is suspended. runs from Jamaica to LES-2nd Av via 6th Av Local. runs from Middle Village - Coney Island via the .

The MTA would probably have bigger problems than rerouting trains... How bout an actual real one - due to a water main break, Atlantic Av/Barclays has been flooded. Reroute trains accordingly.

As a person who actually lives on Hillside, I would rather make a transfer to a bus. The wait for the off-peak can be mind-numbing, and at least you can get a coffee or a snack while transferring in Jamaica. Two things: If you want to get to the Q44 from Woodhaven, you could take the Q53 to change to the Q58, or take a Jamaica bound bus (of which there are plenty) and change in Jamaica, and it would be less complicated. If you're heading to the Bronx using only buses from Woodhaven, you must have a lot of spare time on your hands... Also, how did the LIRR come up in here? I could probably count with one hand the riders on the Q23 who change to the LIRR at Forest Hills. Keeping that in mind, there are actually SIX stopping patterns on the Main Line: Penn-Jamaica nonstop, Penn express skipping Jamaica, Penn-Woodside-Jamaica, Penn-Forest Hills-Kew Gardens-Jamaica, Penn-Forest Hills-Jamaica, and Penn-Kew Gardens-Jamaica. LIRR service to Forest Hills is too infrequent to be useful to anyone on the Q23, and you'd also have to be in the first four cars of a Penn-bound train to make the transfer...

If full SBS is done along the Q43 route (doubtful, but you never really know), then that's a non issue, as Q43s will be using signal priority and (hopefully) camera-enforced bus lanes in Jamaica. The only reason that it's slow now is because the existing bus lanes are parking lanes half the time, and they're not really enforced. But, what am I thinking? Surely I'm wrong because saving $2.50 is something that isn't worth doing, because MTA transfers between train and bus are always timed and efficient, and because the trains are never delayed. (Transferring at Jamaica to a bus also gets you a good chance of nabbing a seat, whereas the E and F are almost always full in that area.)

Not to mention, but if you're going to any place on Woodhaven south of Metropolitan from Hillside (and you probably are, because you're suggesting the Q23), there are easier ways to do it from the Q43 than bus-->subway--> bus - all of that area is served by east-west bus routes that you can transfer to in Jamaica. No stair-climbing involved, and you save $2.25 (soon to be $2.50)

Not sure if this works, but service: Trains run in two sections, between 57th St & Ditmars and Prince St & Coney Island, making all local stops in Brooklyn service is suspended; runs local on Brighton service: Trains run in two sections, between 57th & Forest Hills, and Canal St & Bay Ridge. Extra , and service will be provided during this time.

Are we treating the current What If seriously? Cause if we're not, I'd like to add one of my own.

Some useful buses stop short of LGA - the 23, which links to Forest Hills, and the 33, which links to Midtown, Grand Central, and Penn Station. I would suggest Q32 service to the airport, but I have a feeling that would make the routes more crowded and unreliable than they are already. From a connectivity standpoint though, it would make a great transit line.

As an alternative, divert some Q34 trips to LGA, and on weekends divert some Q25 trips. The thing about the Q25 is that it's never that far from the Q65 in College Point, so the Q65 could theoretically pick up some of the slack for Main-St bound College Point riders. A Jamaica-LGA connection is great theoretically, but the problem is that there aren't that many routes going to Jamaica from Flushing. I find it odd that they outlined the need to improve Flushing-LGA access in the study but never actually did anything to implement it in the final report, but I assume that the wacky road layout around LGA precludes that (there's no good way to leave the airport towards the east without navigating on local streets)

The is meant to be a short shuttle from Grand Central to Times Square (the busiest and second busiest stations in the system), and it's pretty well utilized - it's certainly not empty when it's running. The is a commuter line that connects the busiest and second-busiest stations with the tenth-busiest station in the city (which also happens to be the busiest station in the outer boroughs). It is pretty much a consensus that the is overcrowded during the peak - hence, CBTC. If you shove the shuttle riders onto the , it would be a nightmare. Not to mention, the is located at a significantly lower level than the , so it would be more of a PITA to get to. The is not broken - why fix it?

This has been proposed since about the 40's or 50's... You could probably automate the Shuttle. It's a short line with short cars, so the TWU probably won't care, and it would be a great testing bed. The last time they did it though, the trains caught fire and they never spoke of it again. Keep in mind that we're going to be relying on the MTA to keep this moving walkway(s, cause there are no moving walkways that exist that could handle that flow over that distance with a single walkway) working and reliable. I for one don't mind because the MTA has had such a great track record maintaining its elevators and bathrooms.

The difference between the Q17 and the Q25 is within five minutes, and there's always the Q65 if they want a direct ride to Jamaica. The Q25 is slow on Kissena, and the slower speed makes up for the less "direct" routing. LGA is closer to Flushing than College Point... Also, infrequency never quite stopped the Q50, did it?

If they ever DO get around to running the new LGA transit plan (Bx41 access, M60 SBS, Woodside-LGA nonstop bus), they should also add two additional elements: Q25 extension to LGA - Gives most of Queens a two-seat ride to LGA, and provides a transit connection between LGA and JFK. The Q17 would take up the College Point segment of the Q25. (You could extend the Q34 there to preserve Kissena Blvd access, but you'd have to either close down the Q34's Whitestone segment or make it into a new bus line paralleling the Q16,) Q19 extension to 125th St - The M60 is a dedicated line to LGA, and mixing local trips with that would be an absolute nightmare due to the lack of space for luggage on the buses. M60A would be a strictly SBS bus, making express stops from 125th to LGA, and Q19 (rebranded as the M60B) would take all local trips for the M60, running from 125th to Flushing. This would provide Queens riders an easier connection to Manhattan and the western Bronx, and also provide a handy alternative to the 7, which will be shut down periodically due to CBTC work for the foreseeable future. If it were possible, I would rather extend the M60 and the Bx41 to Flushing instead of the Q19, but due to LGA's extremely complex road layout, I wouldn't bother with that.

Going back to the topic.. okay, here's a reason not to do it that isn't cost related: there's no practical way to build this. the MTA could either close the stations (bound to be unpopular, look at Smith-9th Sts, and they aren't even replacing that station) during reconstruction or fill in the platform space in between (if there is any). But what do you do once the platforms are done? We now have a platform space that is about 3 train lengths long. You could physically demolish extra, unneeded platform space, but you'd still need platform space of about two train lengths to connect to both the Beverly and Courtleyou exists. You'd need some way to physically block off where the train does not stop (and a place to mark where the trains actually do stop). The main constraint would be the width of the platforms - you can't really stick a fence or wall there because there's not enough physical space to do so without impacting pedestrian movement. Either way, if you close the two and replace them with one, you wouldn't really be saving that much time. The is not being extended to its south or west anytime soon, so there's no need to save time. If you want something faster than the on Brighton, take the when it's running. If you can walk normally at 6mph, then props to you, because that's the "running" speed on most treadmills. A half hour walk sounds about right, once you account for traffic lights, slow people in your way, etc. The MTA just needs to build more exits, entrances and passageways. Off the top of my head, Avenue A on the 1st Av station, Junius/Livonia on the , closing down Hewes/Lorimer on the and replacing it with a Union Av stop with transfers to the . The MTA should also build passageways connecting QBP and Queens Plaza, Fulton on the and Lafayette on the with Atlantic Terminal, and a passageway from the 165th St Bus Terminal to 169th St on the . If you did all of these, connections in the subway would be simplified, and the G would actually connect to non-IND lines in Downtown Brooklyn besides the .

By this logic, buses in Manhattan should stop on every block, because there are so many people and jobs in Manhattan. The effectiveness of any mode of transportation is determined by three things - frequency, speed, and convenience of stop spacing, in that order. The subway benefits heavily from the first two - frequency, and speed. No one is complaining about having to walk to 37th or 39th St, so if it ain't broke, why fix it? A better thread to have would probably be "Where should we add station entrances?" IMO most subway lines have decent stop spacing, and there aren't enough stations to close to provide significant speed savings (except maybe on the J/Z skip stop). On the other hand, a lot of station entrances, passageways, and transfers that should exist don't.

Just a few issues I have: Q31: The northern extension is fine, but i don't think that the Q31 should be rerouted - QCC just got short run Q30 trips, and rerouting the Q31 would duplicate the Q31 and remove north-south service on a short stretch of Utopia, where the nearest north-south service is quite a walk. If QCC needs more service, they can add more Q30 short runs. Q27: This actually wouldn't solve anything - the main bottleneck is not on Kissena, but on Main. Main is an absolute mess during the AM and PM peak on weekdays, and slightly less so on the weekends. There would still be traffic issues, just as the Q20, Q44, and Q65 all have to deal with issues despite minimal or no routing on Kissena. Q76: The southern extension is iffy because it'd make Q76 trips longer than they already are, and because there are better routes that could be extended (like the Q17, which has way more ridership). IMO the Q76 should be truncated on its northern end, and should turn left onto Northern and follow the Q12 routing to Main St. A new Q15 could follow the Q28 routing, resume the Q76 routing at Francis Lewis, and then assume the Q15 routing at the Cross Island. The Q15A would be renamed the Q14.

The IND Eight Av express is already slow south of 42nd - do we want to do that to the Sixth Av express, too? (There are only really two stops south of 42nd that the Eighth Av skips, 23rd and Spring, and doing this to the Sixth Av express would mean that there would be a one-stop difference between the Sixth Av local and express, making the express portion basically useless.) Really, at Barclays you could probably just build a passageway between Fulton St on the and Lafayette on the instead of building an infill station at the most complex point of the subway system. If the people at 42nd and 5th can walk, then the people at Barclays can walk too - it's not like Barclays Center is an incredibly dangerous area. Infill idea - convert Woodside to a local stop and 74th to an express stop - how many people actually use the - LIRR connection, anyways? Whenever the money for SAS Phase III falls out of the sky, they should also probably have a stop between 72nd and 55th - that is an awfully long gap, and they could probably change it to 51st and 60th or something.

out of complete curiosity are there going to be any major, visible differences between an R188 and an upgraded R142?

Two small ideas - 1. Rework the M22 Eastbound so that the M22 follows the M9 through Park Row and onto East Broadway. The current route can be confusing and disorienting to those who don't ride it on a regular basis, and East Broadway is a busier corridor than St. James Place and Madison St. 2. Extend the M11 to a stop in the general vicinity of West 4th St and Washington Square Park - the southern M11 terminus doesn't seem like a particularly big anchor, and it'd connect to a pretty big subway station and the NYU area.

Are you allowed to make left turns from Chambers onto Lafayette? Because if you are, the the M22's eastbound route should be the same as the westbound routing (Lafayette->Worth->East Broadway). It'd certainly be a lot more convenient for riders, because the M22 wouldn't need to make that U-turn by City Hall.