IAlam

I have yet ever to experience anything like this, but since it's CP anything is possible. They're the equivalent of Florida Man for B/O's.

Yeah, it's really bad today wearing a mask is probably the best bet today and tomorrow.

Before upgrading to my current phone the eTix app would constantly crash on my old phone. It would always run out of RAM and or battery so it was always too unreliable and unpredictable for me. My current phone doesn't crash but I've had my payment get rejected a couple of times which can get frustrating because the same card will work fine other times, but even then I am a heavy user so I'm pushing my current phone until it's dead, so I prefer not to use eTix unless it's a last resort like I don't have enough time to buy or the machines aren't working. I feel better knowing I have the ticket on me without having to worry about any phone issues. Also, I prefer to just stick the ticket on my seat and not interact with the conductor.

I'm actually a big fan of that, feels more spacious than the previous design. Seems like CS is getting the better passenger layout for now with the extra seat and the better layout. I hope the MTA makes the changes with the other ones soon.

Ok, so I think I've noticed a change in some of the new NOVAs being delivered. Before the gallery seating had a pattern that went something like flip seat, bucket seat, flip seat, bucket seat, & forward seat. But now some of the new ones have a different arrangement that goes, bucket seat, bucket seat, flip seat, flip seat, & forward seat. I wonder when they changed it but it seems to be a bit more spacious.

The fact that to this day that the MTA still doesn't accept cash boggles my mind. As far as I know, they're the only major agency in the US to have this rule too. The MTA wants to complain about fare evasion but fails to evaluate its own fare collection procedures. When you make it harder to pay your fare people just won't go through the effort. Coins only, broken TVMs causing long lines, and not to mention the issues of OMNY constantly providing read errors just make it harder to pay for those who are honest. On the LIRR side of things many stations only have 1-2 TVMs with some TVMs only offering certain tickets. The eTix app has a lot of bugs and issues that already dissuade me from using it unless it's a last resort. But for paper tickets, there are so many days where I just get on the train and a conductor never comes by to even collect it. I'm not fare evading when I have a valid ticket but I'm also not going to let a valid ticket go to waste when they don't collect it. Last Saturday I took 3 rides on the same ticket before they even collected it, and that's because my final ride was from Penn. Most of my rides are from 10-20 minutes but even then when I make equivalent trips on the MNR I usually get checked in ~5 minutes or less. The MTA really needs to reevaluate how they collect fares before outright blaming the passengers because most of the fare payment mediums have so many issues systemwide. But sorry for going off topic there for a moment I definitely agree some OMNY promotions could go a long way. I know GO Transit does weekend passes for a flat fee which was really popular, I think the MBTA did something similar too. Once the MTA implements OMNY on the commuter rails maybe they could do something similar with fare capping. Yeah, I've never had an issue boarding an NH train to Grand from Fordham. They always collect my ticket as normal and carry on.

The reason I still haven't fully switched over is because of the lack of support for partner agencies. Metrocard is still universally accepted while OMNY is only supported by the MTA. My EasyPay card work just about everywhere except PATH (But for some odd reason it does work on the AirTrain.) But that means OMNY support is still needed for NICE, PATH, AirTrain, Roosevelt Island Tram, Hudson Rail Link, and Bee Line. That's a lot of services that still need support

My bad I didn't even exist when those buses were rolling around I've only seen a few pictures. I don't know much about the fleet, except that they didn't last very long.

I was wondering about this when I first saw it I thought it was a flexible.

So yesterday I got on a QM5 to Midtown and the B/O took the GCP to the LIE. I always wondered if that was possible and I got my answer. The bridges are high enough for an express bus. Makes me wonder why for the Queens redesign there not exploring more route possibilities. Honestly there are so many minor route differences and infrastructure changes that have have a huge impact. Aside from opening up the use of the GCP and Van Wyck for more routes, they should focus on more bus priority. They might not be able to add an HOV lane to the LIE going to Queens but they can add bus lanes and bus signals on surround streets leading up to the LIE ie. VanDam St. and/or the service road leading up to the LIE. When I was in Seattle earlier this month I was impressed to see how much dedicated bus infrastructure they for commuter buses entering the city. They have dedicated roadways and on/off ramps just for buses, queue jumps, bus lanes, a little bit of everything. They’re by no means perfect, but they’re pulling out every trick they can to speed up buses. I feel like the MTA could learn quite a bit from them.

Yeah CS in general got one bad batch after another, the XD40/60's has so many issues from just a passenger perspective. On the regular, I see buses with broken signs and the ride quality is awful. There's so much leakage from the HVAC units that often you can see the trail of grime on the walls. (I typically find it worse on the blue and golds.) Not to mention the fact that the depo got a bunch of hand-me-downs for the Q12. Almost every day I see a couple 40ft's running on the line and the newer XD60s already look like they need to be replaced now. Heck, I can even see ops avoiding the XD40's I see the NG's running all the time into the night and weekend it amazes me how almost every day I get an NG considering they're aren't many remaining now. It's either that or the Nova but it seems like those ops are steering clear of the XD40's as much as they can. Those LFSA buses that CS originally had were much better in quality, and I can only hope that these new Novas are good since we're getting the majority of them.

The only rail line that could be used is the existing NSR row on Staten Island and even then there's no direct connection to the NEC. A new curve would have to be built in order for service to Staten Island to be feasible. But even then what benefit would that really provide? Staten Island to NYP wouldn't be faster by this rail line and going to WAS doesn't seem like it'd be more an appealing option than just getting on at NYP. That doesn't even get into the costly renovations and eminent domain needed to pull this off, I don't think it'd be worth the time, money, or effort required to build it. That time, money, and effort would be better spent on the Gateway Project.

As far as I saw today I didn't see any missing trips and plenty of new Novas out today I was surprised to see some white and blue Novas on CS routes until I read the forums. I saw 3 today on NIS one on the Q15A and another on the Q20B all with Staten Island stickers.

Not only that look at how much they've aged since then. The R142A that ended up on the look more or less the same as when they got them. The New R188's don't have much wear considering they're approaching 10 years old. Compared to the R142?A that still remains on Lex and 7th Ave which looks like they've been beaten up, abused and haven't seen a wash in years. It was the same thing with the R62's the condition that the cars were when the got it from the felt the same when they gave it back to the . I never felt the other IRT depos did a good job maintaining their fleet like Corona does.

I'm hoping they use a different seating layout I'm not a fan of the ones we're currently getting.

Any known differences on these units?

It makes me wonder why NJT provides private companies with buses with the operators' brand for commuter services. When you look elsewhere in NY and other states, private operators operate the bus with the agency brand and not the operator's brand. If you see a Saddle River bus in DC it won't look too out of place but an NJT-branded bus operated by Saddle River would. It would discourage private operators from blatantly miss using resources, I could still see things like rail shuttles and other emergency work being fine.

I would've thought it'd be the other way around since LGA uses Proterra's

So this was found on an express bus today

And the MTA could also replace it with another order with more up-to-date rails cars. The only good reason I could see option II being a good idea is if the MTA is worried they won't get future federal funds. Also if anyone wants to see what the and looks like here ya go.

New elevated rail lines aren't as loud as the previous el lines we have built, If you go to other cities like Philly or Seattle you can see they're much quieter.

Never say never, the R44's were plagued with problems causing their early retirement and WAMATA had to deal with the 5000's which ended up having an early retirement, replaced by the 7000's which are plagued with their own myriad of issues. I really hope the MTA doesn't double down on the R211 and use option II to replace the R68's for the reason stated above, fleet reliability can vary quite a bit between models. Putting all your eggs in one basket, kinda like how WAMATA did is a risky game. This also gives the MTA time to look at the R211 design and make changes, by the time an option II order would be complete the design of the train itself would be a decade old. The MTA should focus on a new design for the end of the decade/early 2030s based on the operations of the existing R211's over the next couple of years.

To be fair with how empty trains to GCM are I think the current service alone could handle it. There are plenty of people who use GCM too all that would happen is you get a different group of riders complaining. But now having made a couple of trips from both terminals, many more adjustments need to be made. For one thing trains out of Penn are beyond crowded, riding the LIRR out tonight and yesterday night out of Penn, these trains were as overcrowded as rush hour trains with people standing. When it comes to my opinion of what could be done to help (off-peak) For lines like Babylon, I think for the most part it's ok, it just needs to adjust the times a bit so that the Penn station trains are arriving and departing roughly every 30 min. Also going eastbound maybe the express train can be timed to come right before or hold for the local train from GCM so people can easily switch if needed. When it comes to Far Rockaway and Long Beach idk why they switch terminals on weekends but they should just stick to one full-time? Switch the Hempstead branch to a Penn line branch with Huntington trains to GCM making local stops west of Floral Park. For the mainline branch, I think it could help if both the Ronkonkoma and Huntington branches were retimed. When a Huntington train leaves GCM and Ronkonkoma train leaves Penn or vice versa they could meet at Jamaica. With trains holding for each other in Jamaica before departing. For the mainline from Jamaica westwards trains need to stop only making one stop, either all or nothing. I feel like that should apply to other sections of other lines as well. For example, when a train stopping only at Forest Hills is running late the train stopping at Kew Gardens is either forced to wait at Jamaica or the Forest Hills train gets delayed even more for being out of order. Trains should make all 3 stops between Jamaica and Manhattan or run express skipping all of them. Babylon, Huntington, and Ronkonkoma should run express to Jamaica. Far Rockaway, Long Beach, and Hempstead trains should make all stops. If needed trains could be timed so the locals are scheduled to leave a couple of mins after the express. That would also enable side-by-side running of two express trains from GCM and Penn to meet at Jamaica. Additionally back to back trains to the same destination in Manhattan need to be eliminated. There are 20 min gaps followed by 2 min gaps that don't make sense. With Port Washington, I'm really not sure what to do ideally this line would need to run 3 trains an hour so that Penn station trains don't get overcrowded but that would require more staff. Port Washington to GCT really only greatly benefits passengers west of Bayside. Especially since having to wait an hour for a train, it becomes easier and faster for a lot of people to just take a nearby bus and the to GC. GCM service outside of peak hours is debatable as to how useful it is. Excluding what I want to happen to the PW branch, this is what I think the service pattern could look like. For staggered connections at Woodside the train on the main line would be scheduled to come in a couple of mins before the PW train and the PW train would only hold an extra min or 2 if the main line train is late. (No more 10-15 min connections.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- |Time| GCM | Penn | Notes | |----|-------|--------|-------------------------------------------| | :00| RK | PJ | Hold at JAM | | :05| | HM | Hold at JAM (Connect with WH) | | :10| | | | | :15| | BB | Hold at JAM (Connect with OB or MN trains)| | :20| FR | PW | Staggered 3-4 min at Woodside FR -> PW | | :25| | | | | :30| PJ | RK | Hold at JAM | | :35| | | | | :40| | | | | :45| BB | BB(EXP)| Hold at JAM | | :50| PW | LB | Staggered 3-4 min at Woodside LB -> PW | | :55| | | | |----|-------|--------|-------------------------------------------| | | 5TPH | 7TPH | ~ 40:60 Split | -------------------------------------------------------------------

Stadler is flexible if they really want to bid on the order they can come up with individual push-pull cars based on the design. That being said there's been a big debate over this on the Amtrak forums. What it basically boils down to is if a manufacturer can figure out how to make a double-decker train that is accessible to all areas of the train ie diners, coach cars, sleepers, and observation cars. I'm not sure if the entire train needs to be accessible but at the bare minimum, a wheelchair passenger is able to get between at least one portion of one car to another.

My guess is they probably thought people who went to Atlantic or Hunterspoint Av and took the Subway to Manhattan would swap over, but even that seems disingenuous even if going to the Eastside or Lower Manhattan is faster via GCM under the current system some people are just too stubborn to change their habits. Otherwise, I can't see how they justified gutting so much service to Penn and Atlantic.