Italianstallion

https://capitalandmain.com/will-public-transit-survive-covid-19-crisis-0401

On 3/25/2020 at 1:11 AM, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

Starting April 4 and until further notice, there will be no train service on the Harlem Line north of Southeast.

https://new.mta.info/precautions-against-coronavirus

It doesn't say that in the link.

On 3/6/2020 at 7:08 PM, Far rockaway said:

TRACK MAINTENANCE
Mar 9 - 13  •  Mar 16 - 20, Mon to Fri, 8 AM to 10 AM and 4:45 PM to 6:30 PM
 Rush hour service temporarily reduced to accommodate track replacement work near Canal St
 

Huh? This has to be done during rush hour? What a mess it will be.

On 3/6/2020 at 11:27 AM, CenSin said:

On most lines, there’s always the frustrating delay for trains entering terminals. Inbound trains are often held outside the terminals (sometimes several stations behind) to wait for outbound trains to leave the terminal as scheduled. That means if an outbound train is scheduled to leave every 6 minutes and there’s a conga line of 4 trains from West 8 Street to Sheepshead Bay, that train at Sheepsheead Bay is going to experience an extra 18~24 minutes of delay. The , similarly, might be held at Kings Highway, on the express track between stations, and on the tracks approaching Brighton Beach. I’ve heard similar problems on the and such as well. It’s not how trains are supposed to be run for best service, but it is a byproduct of physical constraints and/or tight operational budget.

Often, I hear the solution is to just increase the frequency of train service (a.k.a. just overclock the damn system), but that adds an ongoing (operational) cost which may be feasible in the best fiscal situation but not perpetually.

The other solution is just to have more terminal capacity, which is a one-time cost and (mostly) not subject to the ebbs and flows of operational dollars. From what I’ve observed on the /, the conga lines form often on the Flushing end despite 3 terminal tracks. I’m attributing this to the large footprint of the switches outside the station and the lack of tail tracks. In Queens, the does have 6 tracks it can turn trains on, but 2 tracks must pass through to dump passengers before turning. I don’t know how smooth that is in practice.

I could have sworn seeing early plans for the 34 street–Hudson Yards station include 3 tracks and 2 platforms. I cannot find the diagrams, but how much would that have alleviated the problem of trains waiting to enter the terminal station? There’s also the tentatively triple-tracked 125 Street terminal station planned for 2 Avenue’s . How much would that help with terminal operations? I can imagine the frustration of missing connections to trains since that is going to be a moderately busy transfer complex.

I don't believe the proposed 2nd Ave. terminal at 125th is going to have 3 tracks any longer. That plan was dropped.

4 hours ago, jaf0519 said:

The President of the LIRR, Philip Eng said he wanted to look into maintaining some trips to Atlantic Terminal. Nothing has officially changed from the original plans however, which would have the tracks to Brooklyn completely severed from the rest of the network. If you look on the MTA Modern LI portion of the website at the Jamaica Capacity Improvements section, this is a picture from a July 17, 2019 update. It doesn’t seem as if there is any room for the new platform tracks to connect to the existing tracks.

It doesn't matter if the new platform tracks don't connect to tracks east oif Jamaica. Tracks on existing platforms will continue to connect to the Atlantic Branch, allowing trains from LI to go to Brooklyn. The Atlantic branch will not be "completely severed" from the rest of the network.

1 hour ago, Deucey said:

Which leads me to ask why 207 St  ends at a wall instead of tail tracks? On maps it looks like there’s enough room on B-way to have them without reaching the Harlem River.

Or was it built with plans to go to the Bronx?

No particular need for tail tracks there. The leads to the 207th St. yards are just south of there, so tail tracks are not needed for train storage. They would help by allowing faster acceleration into the station, but many terminals don't have tail tracks.

21 hours ago, Deucey said:

So does this plan include moving the GCT platforms closer to the Lex Line instead of that 1000 ft walk?

Nope.

9 hours ago, Union Tpke said:

How is that a bug? 

145th can only be entered in the downtown direction. Uptown is exit only. The question was not about the number of platforms.

A Framework For Transit Planning In The New York Region 1986 Regional Plan Association Report by Union Turnpike, on Flickr

 

Somebody sure hated els.

23 hours ago, Jova42R said:

Does anybody know if you can see the old Queensborough Bridge Trolley Terminal from the  trains as they are going through the 60 St Tunnel? I saw on this track map that it is near the tunnel, but does anybody know if you can actually see it, like you can with the Williamsburg Bridge Terminal at Delancey-Essex?

The answer is no. There was never any connection or daylight between the subway tunnel and the trolley terminal. In addition I believe that by the time the subway got near 2nd Ave., it was well below the level of the trolley terminal.

10 hours ago, CenSin said:

New record on AM  (on my watch at least): 37 minutes from Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue to Broadway–Lafayette Street, leaving at 7:30 AM and arriving at 8:07 AM. This was achieved despite leaving the terminal late by ~1.5 minutes and holding in 2 Avenue for an extra ~10 seconds.

The  that was pulling in at Broadway–Lafayette Street at the same time has left Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue… at 7:22 AM—8 minutes before the .

Two minutes ahead of the timetable.

22 hours ago, Jova42R said:

It would be on the service road.

So then run it on an alternative route? Doesn't the Hudson Rail Link run there? This, as discussed earlier, could be BRT.

The Hudson Rail Link runs there - It could be BRT.

Do you know how narrow the service road is? One driving lane plus one parking lane.

Hudson Rail Link has teeny tiny buses, not suitable for BRT. Big buses would have a real problem on the narrow, curvy, steep streets.

I know, I live a few blocks away.

On 2/1/2020 at 6:31 PM, Jova42R said:

How expensive would it be to make a light rail in the service road/median of the HH Parkway in Riverdale, then link it to Manhattan? (See map below)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Pqspe1rMgN28JdgoqhpzHN7Qef81COTv&usp=sharing

Would this be feasible?

Do you have any idea how narrow the HH Parkway ROW is? No way could any tracks fit there, even if elevated. Also, the route on your map to and from Riverdale MNRR station goes through what's called the "estate area." No way those residents would want rail on their streets. And the grades uphill from MNRR would also be impossible.

You can get on at any station with a ticket for the same zone. Plus, the conductor usually doesn't get to you until a few stops have gone by anyway.

On 2/3/2020 at 9:50 PM, Lawrence St said:

Thank you, I dont know how that wasnt obvious lol.

What's the story with SI anyway? Why is it a NYC boro and not a NJ one?

That was decided between the 2 states about 250 years ago.

17 minutes ago, Around the Horn said:

That's basically what London has

Looks pretty easy to duck under.

On 1/26/2020 at 10:33 AM, T to Dyre Avenue said:

 

 

 

They should have connected Queens Plaza to Queensboro Plaza ages ago. 

Not that easy. One is a pretty high el, the other underground. It would work if they were on top of each other, but they are at least 4 blocks apart. Some heavy engineering for the ramps, stairs, escalators, elevators, and underground passageways that would be needed.

Service restored around 12:30.

17 hours ago, Trainmaster5 said:

Your last sentence sums up my feelings about the countdown clocks in the subway, especially when they were introduced. I have a few NYPD family members and when I brought them my concerns they said they were also conflicted by the safety vs convenience dilemma. We haven’t talked about it since then but if I have a chance I’ll bring it up. You’ve probably realized by now that some of these decisions are made by someone at a desk poring over “data” who has no clue what happens to the data when it comes to the real world. Stevie Wonder is probably more aware of the consequences then some of these cubicle dwellers. Just my opinion. Carry on.

So, we've had countdown clocks for several years now. Is there any evidence of crime going up in the intervals between train arrivals?

According to LIRRToday, MTA has put off eliminating cash for LIRR tickets until OMNY is fully rolled out.

https://www.thelirrtoday.com/2019/12/lirr-tables-plan-for-onboard-cash-ban.html

51 minutes ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

The civil liberties people will argue that the MTA has no legal right to close off the back door because, even though the act of fare evasion is illegal, the physical ability to evade the fare is a Constitutionally protected right. (They argued the same thing when the MetroCard turnstiles were first installed.)

I call bullshit on your point.

1 hour ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

So this tweet blew up on Twitter for all the wrong reasons. Shoutout to the one person actually keeping up with the 400+ replies:

 

What, did someone crap in the car?

On 1/3/2020 at 9:24 AM, CenSin said:

Was this one of those veiled attempts to skip “those people?”

I heard the was used to that effect.

Yes, many Howard Beach residents paid the extra fare to use the  as their private subway to midtown.

On 12/23/2019 at 8:36 PM, R68OnBroadway said:

238th on the  I think is available to enter northbound (IIRC they never removed the entrance after the Manhattan bound platform rehabilitation project). As for other stations like this, I think Dyckman  is also entrance only.

Yes, 238  northbound now can be entered with Metrocard.

4 hours ago, Jova42R said:

Hi! Does anyone know if you can transfer to the downtown  at Canal St? I know that with some lines, the second-to-last stop is exit-only in the terminal's direction.

Thanks!

@Jova42R

Canal St. is not a second-to-last-stop because you can continue southbound at Brooklyn Bridge by changing to the or .

Until recently I hadn't fully realized how ridiculously padded MNRR schedules are. Last week, I took the 3:57 local-express from Riverdale to GCT. From Riverdale this train stops only at Spuyten Duyvil, Marble Hill and 125th St. before hitting GCT. I noted that it was scheduled to arrive at 4:28 - 31 minutes later. Odd, I thought, I remember when similar runs 10 years ago used to be clocked at 26 minutes. Anyway, at Riverdale the train arrives at 4:02 - five minutes late.  That was annoying. Then it slows down more than usual approaching S. Duyvil to let an express cut in front.  With the express in front, we crawl into Marble Hill. Then we have a decent, not super fast run past all the local stops, but stop at the Highbridge yard to let an employee board - lose another 30 seconds.  I'm thinking, we will be very late. But as we pull into 125th I see it is only 4:17! We arrive into GCT at 4:28 - a runtime of 26 minutes WITH all the delays, and right on schedule. Wow.