Jsunflyguy

5 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

I wouldn't look for ways to make life easier nearly to that extent, under a tunnel....

You may say otherwise working an evening shift that ends after the last train home leaves.

Some places in the Greater NY/NJ area did have these and they have been disabled....for obvious reasons.

23 hours ago, Deucey said:

I'm thinking it's disgruntled cops attempting to set the agenda - "fund NYPD fully and stop trying to stop them beating people when arresting them or NYC will suffer".

Since overt manipulation to get preferred results is par for the course for pro-authoritarian conservatives these days, I wouldn't be surprised if this stops suddenly when DeBlasio caves (again) after realizing he won't be the first NYC Mayor since NYC was just Manhattan to make it to higher office.

I can't imagine the closure rate on vandalism was very high before Cops decided to 'take a knee'. I can say I've personally given names, video evidence and in some cases an address, never heard back other than that it was forwarded to detectives. 

48 minutes ago, QM1to6Ave said:

I'm sick of hearing about subway delays from broken down work locomotives. These replacements can't come fast enough 

Having read some of the rules regarding work trains I'm surprised any of them make it through a river crossing. Let alone if there are any mechanical deficiencies. 

10 hours ago, RestrictOnTheHanger said:

You mean places like yards/layup tracks? Or for diverging moves over switches?

The Broad Street Layup tracks, the switches to the Montague Tunnel and a few odd routes in that vicinity were sped up; Marcy Ave to the Middle track was also increased slightly. Only one of these really directly applies to revenue trains

On 7/10/2020 at 9:44 AM, RestrictOnTheHanger said:

The thread has been dormant for a few months. Any news or observations on timer adjustments/speed increases from anyone who is still using the trains?

Recently a few areas had in the BMT East had their timers replaced with electric timers and higher speeds in general but mostly in areas that do not affect revenue service directly.

8 hours ago, Trainmaster5 said:

I was told 50 years ago that the  was a real estate front masquerading as a transportation agency. If you go back to the private companies and their contemporaries, trolley, els, and subway services benefited the traction folks and the real estate agents. I’m not saying that it was always a bad thing in the past but since the creation of the  the NYCTA and the LIRR appear to be pawns in a larger chess match. Just my take on the big picture. Gotta remember where my timeframe begins. The Lexington Avenue el still ran in Brooklyn and the Third Avenue el ran in Manhattan. I was working in RTO when the old South Ferry loop station was worked on and the first train to enter after the job was completed had to stop and get backed out because the ceiling was dropped too low. Was working the  heading n/b into the 149th st-Concourse Station when I encountered an improper display on a newly installed signal that some supervisors signed off on the previous weekend. The deputy Supt in the tower gave me permission to proceed past the signal but I, citing the rule book, called the Command Center and got the permission I needed. Because the work was signed off on and the contractors had moved on to Parkchester it took a few weeks before they had the time to come back and change the wiring in the signal. Signal Dept. wouldn’t touch it because it wasn’t their work and it was still under warranty. School car instructors came through and said that I, and two senior M/M on the AM tour, were correct in taking the action we did. The deputy and I became enemies from that day forward until I retired from the same  line. Another expert 😀, right ?  I still remember the look on his face when the General Supt of the IRT came to Dyre and made him read a letter of commendation the General had made up for me. Just like the folks who did the work in the Montague tunnel. Remember that someone had to sign off on that job, too. There are some really knowledgeable people on staff in the agency but they have been shunted to the sidelines while some people cozy up to “their “ experts and the contractors get paid no matter what. They just followed what the quasi experts asked for. Meanwhile the public pays the freight cluelessly. Just my rant. Carry on.

There's always someone willing to say things are ok, especially when the worst consequence of their error is a stern talking to, at best. The kind of people that think their willpower and interests are more important than the people on the receiving end of actions that they take so flippantly. 

On 5/28/2020 at 4:41 PM, Collin said:

My understanding is that with fixed block signaling, a track must have wayside signals in both directions to allow trains to run in the reverse direction, and that most subway tracks are not bidirectionally signaled, the exception being the center track on 3 track lines.  With CBTC, I believe it is much less costly to have the signals allow for reverse running.

This isn't the case, exclusive use shuttles do get run on tracks that are not reverse signalled. Trains proceeding in the unsignalled direction have an absolute block, meaning they can be the only train between two nominated points with this authority being granted by a Baton (or possibly the directive of a TSS at each point, not quite sure about that). CBTC would make it easier to set this up anywhere, but the problem is more of an operational one, using the Crosstown for an example the last Southbound location to turn a train is Bedford Nostrand. Beyond this point you are limited to single train operation which starts getting into 30+ minute headways per direction (in addition to possibly needing to pin stop arms and other unusual signal alterations).

12 minutes ago, Deucey said:

The first doesn’t jibe with the second.

Faster & Cheaper =/= Good and right. Suppose those polymers fail the next time a significant storm floods the tunnel? Now a new tunnel wall has to be built AND the cables replaced, vs if they just rebuilt the whole thing and repositioned the cables.

Shortcutting a critical piece of infrastructure is no way to get to a state of good repair. It’s like having a leaky oil pan on your car and just putting on gorilla glue hoping you don’t have to replace the gasket. The leak will return soon.

Semi-temp fixes cost more in the long run.

I feel like people approved of the  fix because Cuomo stuck it to the  and now that he's using that same unilateral authority for his own political convenience (as was the case before) a lot of the ole same folks are getting a taste of the ole Albany boot laces.

2 hours ago, brakethrow said:

Did Metro-North ever have wayside signaling at one point? Besides the few at interlockings.

Yes, all the way into the 80s they had searchlight type signals among the catenary.

12 minutes ago, bobtehpanda said:

Nobody rides the train anymore, it's too crowded.

The LIRR has long passed the point where they could reasonably accommodate everyone in seats during the rush hour, and the reason standing sucks is because there is no reason to stand on a LIRR train, which does legitimately make it very crowded. The solution to that is to make more standing room.

Yeah but we're not *JUST* talking about rush hour, if we're talking about a wholistic Transit solution then the fact that half the seats will disappear is relevant to the offpeak ridership as well, or are we improving off peak service in the hopes no one will ride the train. Also I bring up the people factor because---as they are wont to tell me when any inconvenience occurs---the customer is paying $300 a month for a peak ticket, with the expectation of sitting. If you tell them half the seats are going to disappear, a significant number of this people will go into the 'screw this im driving' category, or change their commute to lines that do have seats if they can. 

As far as being too crowded, yes the LIRR doesn't seat everyone during rush hour even though nominally all but 1 train does have enough seats for everyone. Some of that is load distribution and someone of that is the fact that counts are averaging out the peak days of peak trains, that being said if we have fewer seats we're forcing people to stand closer together which is going to suck a lot harder, especially since the Class 700 just has less physical volume for a similar amount of people, why would the public perceive that as better?

36 minutes ago, Union Tpke said:

The middle seats on trains are never used. Eliminating the seat cushion on the aisle seat didn't do anything. In addition, dwell times are ridiculously high because it takes forever to get add. Add people's unwillingness to be on public transit in years to come due to COVID.

Following your logic if people don't want the middle seat out of reluctance to sit near anyone and latent fears from COVID, then wouldn't a 2-2 configuration just encourage a 1-1 sitting arrangement since there would be no physical buffer, in addition to seats seeming narrower on the UK trains, but maybe that's the fat American talking. 

On 5/11/2020 at 1:44 PM, bobtehpanda said:

 

• LIRR 12-car M7 (1050 ft): 1272 passengers
• Thameslink 12-car Class 700 (795 ft): 1754 passengers; extrapolated to the LIRR size, 2316 passengers, an 82% increase in capacity

 

Why are you comparing the seated load of an M7 to the seated AND standing load of a Class 700? 

Also with roughly half the seats per car I'm sure New Yorkers will not be entertained by this 'efficiency'. They already complain about 'dangerously crowded' trains when people are standing in general. So doubling that is surely a political non-starter.

On 5/4/2020 at 6:55 PM, trainfan22 said:

The LIRR electric fleet is currently 100% M7 since the essential service started, as both the M3s AND M9s are in storage right now.

M9s are back to being exercised now that Kawasaki is working. No revenue runs thusfar.

On 4/29/2020 at 2:40 PM, Storrb said:

The main issue I have with the MTA's tweet is that guy is clearly not on the tracks. 

 

Well no, not at the second the picture was taken, but he got there somehow and the police are on the tracks to deal with the situation so the distinction is immaterial.

42 minutes ago, trainfan22 said:

The train will rush hour like crowds full of railfans, is that really enjoyable?

 

 

The last trip I went on, the primary thought in mind was 'somebody needs to shower'.

1 hour ago, NY1635 said:

A lot of Teachers in New York State have a Masters Degree to teach. They've taken issue with Mayor Deblasio and the Chancellor for putting them at risk. I think Dr. Phil was the only one who spelled out that it's not fair that the entire country is shut down because most of the cases are coming from the New York and New Jersey area. He pretty much stated that people's lives were ruined by a one size fits all plan when only two states and the surrounding areas had the most cases of Covid-19. 

This is such an American problem, no one can comprehend an issue unless it has makes a huge explosion. If states hadn't put in place stay at home orders those who were infected would roam freely to infect states that took no precautions. New York had to shutdown the soonest because we're such a nexus of travel and trade, but we hemmed and hawed, all in fear of the economic impact and "overreacting". The price for that is very obvious now. I'm imagining an NBA game in Texas, with everyone packed in and one person can spread it like wildfire. 

34 minutes ago, mine248 said:

Actually, it was this, not the train’s brakes being triggered at Parkchester 

Well, the trip cock tends to run into things when the wheels go on an adventure so it's very possible for the train to dump and not realize it's because the train derailed until you put your boots on the ground.

3 hours ago, bobtehpanda said:

I really do not get the whole economy argument. What is the point of money if you're not gonna be alive to spend it?

People don't think "2%" isn't that big of a number and they think that they can't just shovel some expendable people in the economic firebox and we'll keep chugging along.

Is there a short version of what you guys are going back and forth over?

Probably time to have the  go Lefferts and run the round-robin .

30 minutes ago, Trainmaster5 said:

Many moons ago 😁.

Weren't they trying to make that the Proto-RCC? I remember my Dad telling me they were rumored to have dreams of a large series of NX panels to cover the whole system.

The MTA needs to give up on Express service writ-large (perhaps QBL excepted) and cross honor on MNR/LIRR to get people off the subway for as long as possible.

2 hours ago, Deucey said:

Is this a sign more people have caught Rona, or just out because the numbers have jumped?

1 Positive result pretty much nukes a terminal. So there's one positive case and 27 additional quarantines. 

11 hours ago, danielhg121 said:

Hopefully, we could get a sound clips or the final transmissions to RCC as the train pulled into 110-St. Hopefully, he said his goodbyes before he left. Truly lost a hero.

I know someone who read the preliminary and I'd expect a heavily edited/redacted version at best. I hope they Union is taking a good hard look as to what occurred that night regarding the Operators personal safety...I'll leave it at that.