RR503

I live in Carroll Gardens, and I wouldn't mind express at all...

I go south a lot, and getting a quicker ride would be great. I wonder if they could get it to work nicely enough to synchronize arrivals at 7th avenue. 

What ever happened to express? Politics kill it? Or are they waiting for the culver rehab to finish...

Honestly, if they can (assuming they rebuild Kings Highway Interlocking and buy a few extra 211s), they should just run 2/3 of trains express in the peak direction as far as KH, and extend the with 10 cars there to add service at local stops. Then rebuild Bergen's lower level, and short turn whatever (F)s can't fit in CI at Avenue X (or even better, rebuild the crossovers at CI so all service can go there). 

The only hitch I see is the crossings that will have to take place at Kings Highway...

I hope stays local. Lets people at all the bklyn lcl stops have a 1 seat ride to Western Manhattan. The only forseeable problem would be the merge at Hoyt Schermerhorn. 

Anyway, this is m a n y years down the road. 

 

For the MU's they don't have enough cars, for the Dual Modes they can't add more cars cause the locomotive wouldn't able to handle it with the HEP on. IIRC the limit is 7 cars in a dual mode train.

 They definitely have spare rolling stock on weekends (which is what VG8 originally was talking about).

And yes, 7 is tops. 

The last MNR president wanted that, but then the safety crisis happened. 

Have they tried longer trains? Or are all already maxed out?

Also remember that service isn't free. Weekends = overtime, and with generally fewer people traveling, less farebox recovery. Maybe not every 20 minutes, but bi-hourly service would be great. 

Anyway, y'all should be appreciative that you aren't dealing with LIRR's weekend 'service.'   

I can confirm that they are C1s. The Naugatuck RR (a tourist op) purchased them for their services a while back. I guess they never got around to using them...

I think that just moving the or would be *much* easier. No need to stir the pot if nothing is wrong. 

Also running the as the only local for 2 stops on QB during nights/weekends seems like a recipe for angry riders. At least make it 8 (or 10 60').

.....But it listed and trains at Court Square, neither of which were running. Oh well...

When were the last subway cars with the blue stripe scheme retired/rebuilt/repainted?

TIA

I know I'm interrupting, but do any of you know what station on the SIRT is best for photographing large CPL signals (not the teensy dwarf ones they've begun to put in)?

TIA!

Weird question, but what was the car # of the first n/b. I can't figure out if I was on that or the 2nd.

Thanks!

If only all the complaining SIers would see it that way. But they won't.

 

As for Rockaway, I think it should be subway, not LIRR, because even if it has to share tracks with other lines, it will be a more frequent service during rush hours than LIRR could provide. But not the because it would require everyone headed for Manhattan to transfer to a train headed there, whereas an , or service would require some riders to transfer, but also have some riders who will stay on.

LIRR would be a lot easier to orchestrate w/ the surplus ESA capacity, but yes, subway would mesh better. As suggested above, pie in the sky would be Queens bypass + this.

If this is done, where would the trains lay up? I can't imagine that you'd run them back to jamaica yard, but then what are you're other options....

OK that I agree with.

Thanks for clarification. 

Yes, but then you're committing commuters from the Rockaways to both a long ride across Queens, and then local service along QB until at least Roosevelt, at which point the exp trains are quite crowded. I agree it's the most realistic solution, but I don't think it's a great one.

I do agree with the fumigation thing though.

As for development, Sunnyside is attractive because of its building stock, and even then, that's irrelevant as they are building things there. SI has very run of the mill, low density building stock (nothing crazily special) and therefore would be extremely susceptible to development.

Also, I don't really see your point. All you're proving is that subways raise real estate prices, which is....exactly what I'm saying will happen.

QB has -1 capacity available to add , and providing riders with shorter trains for increased patronage is a bad idea. The Rockaway Beach line should be LIRR, or be part of a second IND trunk in Queens/Manhattan.

As for SI, I think that you are being too negative. First of all, the line will be underground until it merges with the SIR, so aside from construction, there should be little surface disturbance. Secondly, development will definitely follow the construction of the subway. All the SIers who are complaining will shut up when they see seven figure offers for their houses.

But yes, in general I agree. SI should not be priority #1 (nor 2 or 3 or 4).

The subway is also late all the time, especially lines running through DeKalb, so it's not like you gain a lot in terms of reliability by running a train from Nassau to the 4th Av Express via Montague (and gumming up DeKalb every time a train passes through).

 

If you're going from SI to Downtown, the SI Expressway and the Gowanus all have HOV lanes; the only places that they don't exist in are the bridge and Battery Tunnel.

Also, granted, subway reliability is a problem, but Dekalb et al will not eat up 1/2 hr of time savings; 5-10 min at most. And anyway, the / (brown K) don't have to interact directly with any other line while going through Dekalb.

To answer your bolded question, yes. Clifton - WTC by express bus is 43 minutes, even with a local bus transfer. In a best case scenario this makes it there in 43 minutes even with express tracks, given that 43 minutes is how long a trip from Cortlandt to Bay Ridge would take.

 

This also has a very big downside, in that once you get to Clifton there isn't a lot you can do. Staten Island is not very dense at all; even if you were to through-run trains to the SIR, you wouldn't get much ridership, because the SIR is a sleepy commuter line with no major ridership generators except the St. George Ferry Terminal. Given that Staten Islanders riot the moment you so much mention building a townhouse, increasing density is out of the question.

 

The local buses that exist on the island today do not connect with SIR, and even rejigging them to do so wouldn't achieve much, because express buses that run already, today, run much faster than this proposed train connection. Heck, they run faster even at the stop most convenient to your extension. Even if they did, you would be asking a lot for a person to do local bus + SIR + subway, for... what, exactly? This extension terminates downtown, so you get a one-seat ride to a whole lotta nothing. Even if you could beat today's travel time of Clifton-Rockefeller Center of 1 hr, you would be asking someone to make SIR + subway + additional subway transfer over a one-seat ride, and this is before we talk about destinations that are not on SIR.

 

Because of geography and the express bus lanes, the only way to beat express buses from Staten Island and the Ferry from the North Shore would be to build a direct tunnel to the Battery, with maybe a stop at Governor's Island or Red Hook. However, because Staten Island is so anti-development, this kind of investment will never pencil out. This kind of pricey extension (even at normal world prices) would also be at the expense of much more deserving extensions in the rest of the city.

 

TL, DR; It's still slower, Staten Island will never be developed enough to justify it, it's a giant waste of money that could be spent elsewhere for better results.

Express bus is a lot slower than scheduled. There's a thing called traffic that ties them up, so they're late across the board. I'd estimate travel time to be closer to 1:15. Express bus lanes don't exist on the BQE, so that's moot.

Skipper,

What's the market there? Those who want downtown access can take the already...

The service only makes sense if a Staten island link gets built.

________________

Bobthepanda,

Yes, I agree they should be subways, but a. Cost and B. Surprisingly few people from those areas commute to Manhattan. It'd be better as a part of a LRT network that serves outer Queens/inner Nassau, funneling passengers to the LIRR in conjunction with freedom ticket.

And yes, I know I'm getting waaaay ahead of myself...

NYElevated,

Make the express station platform configure like that of Hoyt Schermerhorn; then you have better transfer flows.

I think LRT will happen. Subways are waaaaaaaaay to much $$$$ and the expenditure just can't be justified in lower density neighbourhoods. LRT is a middle option that provides more cap/better service than bus/SBS, but is nowhere near as pricy as subway construction.

I agree that RX is infinitely more realistic though.

How about LRT on linden boulevard from Saint Albans to a future Woodhaven LIRR station via Baisely avenue, Rockaway Boulevard, Woodhaven Boulevard?

Or a line down Utopia Parkway/Union Turnpike from the CIP to Jamaica. That would be nice.

Or a system of lines on Brooklyn/Queens following Utica Avenue from Myrtle to Marine park, with a cross branch on linden Boulevard/Church Ave from Conduit Boulevard to the (F)/(G) trains.

I'm 100% with you R42.

Queens commuters should get 1st priority here, and your idea seems to do that. The 60th street tube trains are all packed -- I know someone who frequents the Lexington Ave stop, and he describes it as being like a stampede, with people climbing over the sides of stairs etc. Any capacity here would be helpful.

Or paying consultants. 

Honestly, the is THE most inefficient organization I know of. 

They probably went to linden shops and then onto the Bay Ridge Branch that way. From there, you take it to Pond, where you can pick up the LMB to Jamaica. 

This has probably been asked before, but has the MTA considered splitting the at Broadway Junction and sending trains from Rockaway parkway to Broad street (or maybe up sixth using the other 5tph available on the local tracks)?

You could then run the northern segment as a shuttle.