R68OnBroadway

Is it possible to delete my account? Haven’t used it in a while.

Can you see the cars now in the yard from any of the passing lines?

1 hour ago, T to Dyre Avenue said:

I like it, except for the  running local on weekends. It would have to switch from the express to the local track and back to the express in both directions. We should be able to run the  with sufficient tph on weekends to be able to handle the Broadway local stations on its own, same as the  and  trains.

I’d also like for the  to run via 63rd so the merging at Queens Plaza can be cleared up, but if the  is seven days a week and the  is weekdays-only, then the  would likely have to stay wedded to its current route via 53rd.

I'd say that if we're going to move the  to 63rd we might as well cut the  completely (maybe keep the designation for the few short-turns to Whitehall) , and we should probably just extend the  to Forest Hills with 480 ft trains to give QBL local access to both Queens Plaza and the  (for stops west of Roosevelt), and given that most people transfer to the express anyways it won't make much of a difference. 

This is unrelated, but I'd also argue for extending the  two stops to 18th (and adding new switches just north of 18th) to allow for it to terminate out of the way of the  . You can maybe keep some short turns to Church but with fast switches and no fumigation you could make 18th work. 

How's this plan to streamline Queens service and eliminate the 34th st junction?

 - unchanged. 

 via the  to 96th, skipping 49th. Via Broadway local weekends and overnight, and via Montague overnight. 11 tph.

 service increased to 11 tph.

 runs to Astoria. Runs the same exact service pattern from Astoria - Bay Ridge at all times, including late nights. 12 tph. 

 Forest Hills - Whitehall Street. Does not run overnight or on weekends. 6 tph to Whitehall, 2 to Canal. 

 Forest Hills - Middle Village all times except late nights, when it operates to Essex Street. 10 tph. Any trains that cannot go over the bridge terminate at 2nd Av. 

Doing this makes the  the primary QBL local, meaning that the 34th Street junction is eliminated, and to ensure Astoria gets good service, you reduce Broadway-QBL to a part time line with 6th-QBL running more frequently. Service on QBL local over the weekend is still more or less the same. 

On 7/4/2021 at 4:28 AM, 1998NewFlyer said:

ENY would still have r160s for M service 

My mistake - I forgot the  was at ENY, not Jamaica.

I would say that the best way to distribute the cars would be:

• Send base order to 207/Pitkin to retire those R46's.  share 5-car R179s and R211s.
• 8-car R179s sent to ENY for service, then bump some 4-car R160s to CI for  service. R68s on  used to increase service on other CI lines (or sent to the  if demand is higher there). 
• Send option order to Jamaica for the , then send the R160s back to CI to retire those R46s there. Use the rest of the order for the  at CI.
• Use the 4 car sets to bump all of the 's R160s to CI.

This leaves us with:

ENY - R143/R179/R211

Jamaica - R160/R211

207 - R179/R211

CI - R68/R160/R211

On 10/16/2020 at 10:56 PM, Kamen Rider said:

if your money was on the Rockaway line being last, you just lost.

Beach 105th (my last OMNY station prediction) still hasn't been completed, so there is still a chance for my bet to be right...

57 minutes ago, Calvin said:

Chambers St on the  lines now have working elevators while the entrances has new floors and tiles. 

Is there any video of the renovated station?

3 hours ago, R10 2952 said:

Honestly, I'm fine with different train lengths; I do not believe in a 'one size fits all' approach.  I was a regular rider for years- only time it became crushloaded was if there were delays on it during rush hour, but it still managed to be more reliable than the  (for the most part anyway).  I'll agree that the  needs to be lengthened, though- maybe not 600 feet, but certainly 450 or 480 feet- the 300 foot Gs were always overcrowded during rush hour.

If we're talking trainlengths, the biggest problem I have is the 4 and 5-car sets being ordered; married pairs are better for operational flexibility- they're still the norm for the MBTA, SEPTA, CTA, TTC, RTA Cleveland, and many other transit agencies across North America.

My guess is that the MTA will fix both those issues when the R211s come in - at that point there will be enough R211s and 5 car R179s for  service, allowing the 4 car sets to be displaced to the  for 480 ft trains. 

39 minutes ago, Bill from Maspeth said:

(cut for space reasons)

 

Out of curiosity, which car type tended to be the most problematic of the ones you operated?

25 minutes ago, RR503 said:

The switches are already there, but there aren't crew quarters AFAIK. You'd recrew on the northbound at Church a la 205/BPK on the . I'm not even sure this would actually add runtime; keep in mind that the move down to the relay is slow and when I've observed at Church, s regularly spend 15-20 down there. 

What's your view on sending the  down to Kings Highway and terminating on the middle there?

6 hours ago, Lex said:

That was meant to be a limited number of trains.

Given that Cuomo interloped...

Seems like an idea that could make sense long term- it adds only a few minutes of runtime and can be done with simply adding some switches (IIRC 18th has crew quarters).

Wasn't there a plan to extend the  to 18th as part of the Canarsie shutdown?

Another great place to get some stormy action is the Astoria line (around 36th is probably best). Would definitely recommend filming out there if storm conditions come in again. Great video!

1 minute ago, MHV9218 said:

No shame in her making a good wage for a hard job. Whenever I see one of these right-wing papers pretending to get annoyed about a good-paying union job, I always want them to try to keep a straight face about private sector salaries. The problem isn't that MTA employees (company and transit) get paid too much, it's that we've made it acceptable for everybody else to get paid too little, all while CEO salaries are 20x what they ever were before, inflation-corrected. But I'm getting off topic.

When it comes to MTA work reform, it’s not really the issue of pay being too high but it’s really just labor requirements being too high- you don’t need 10 people working a 4 man job.

Have railfans been crowding the back window as well?

2 hours ago, NewFlyer 230 said:

It’s not necessary at Flushing Main Street because 95% of the time there is a  train already in the station so you just wait inside the train until it leaves the station. 
 

I would use the money to renovate stations that really need it like perhaps 63rd street-Rego Park, Parsons Blvd/Hillside Ave, and basically most other stations on the Queens Blvd line. 

On 6/29/2020 at 12:17 PM, vioreen said:

Am advocating for transit  to renovate stations like Flushing Main street and World trade center and add ventilations because some stations are scorching hot. 

If any station needs a renovation for AC, it’s West 4th Street. 

On a similar note, have they ever considered a turnstyle- like complex at any other stations? West 4th seems highly trafficked enough that it could sustain commercial businesses in its empty mezzanine.

4 minutes ago, RestrictOnTheHanger said:

Sometimes a work train is just an OOS passenger train.

There was an incident earlier this year where a broken down "work train" in the 60th st tube caused extensive delays on Broadway. 

When my train was held to allow the train to enter city hall lower level yard, I saw the "work train" was an OOS R46 train. 

Did it get stuck at the bottom because it was unable to climb back up the tube?

2 hours ago, bobtehpanda said:

This is what they did with Fulton Center, and Fulton Center actually got cancelled one time because it cost too much money.

As far as Bowery-Grand Street, I don't think this has been seriously considered, though it'd be worth constructing.

However, unlike Fulton Center this would be an immense improvement as navigating the very narrow  side platforms is far more difficult and dangerous than the wide  platform. 
 

That being said, they might look to build a mezzanine (or at least widen the platforms) to make the complex ADA compliant.

26 minutes ago, bobtehpanda said:

Prior to the introduction of the 6th Av Delancey-Essex was considered one of the most overburdened transfer complexes in the system. The cat's out of the bag.

 

Did the MTA ever consider a Bowery- Grand Street transfer? 

Also to add on, getting rid of the  will also make Canal also overburdened- the need to navigate the bridge platforms there make the complex a pain in the ass to traverse. The MTA should have a built a direct mezzanine a while ago with direct access to the  ,  , and .

Just now, Calvin said:

Despite the covid outbreak, the Rockaway Park Shuttle will run full length trains to/from Rockaway Blvd starting the 4th of July weekend. 

Has there ever been a proposal to do this full time? (Running to Rockaway Blvd that is.)

9 minutes ago, Deucey said:

With the "culture war" the racists and religious zealots have been waging since 1995, and Trump being a lazy Francisco Franco, and factoring in the Confederacy contemplating secession because Obama was POTUS, this country is doomed unless the actual conservatives retake the Republican Party and reeducate it's voters to have an actual ideology instead of "I H8 Libruls and gays and trannies and Hillary and Obummer."

As far as I am aware most mainstream politicians didn't take secession after 2008/2012 seriously. The current Republican party may be a disaster but their antics shouldn't be an excuse to dissolve the union. I wouldn't seriously consider it unless they started to crack down on most civil liberties (ex. banning abortion) or undertook some foreign policy disaster. The country is far stronger united on a global scale and I fear splitting it will leave a global power vacuum that an authoritarian regime such as China will be more than happy to occupy. Trump and his type, like the Nixon crew, will be out sooner or later and the younger generations are much more level headed in terms of policy and objectives. People like to act as if actions such as seceding are small but don't understand the implications and how much can change as a result of it. 

7 minutes ago, CenSin said:

NY should secede from the union with it's other productive neighbors. California should too. Let's see them ‘publicans run the rest of what they have to the ground.

Yeah, let's break apart the union and massively shift global politics for some $. Senate Republicans may not have great foresight, but I'm sure they are somewhat aware of how much money their states get from NY and are also aware of the ramifications of the nation's most financially prominent state declaring bankruptcy. 

3 hours ago, R10 2952 said:

Either way, anything that riders can reasonably interpret as a service cut will not go over well.  For them, cutting skip-stop service east of Broadway Junction will be a non-starter unless the MTA throws something in to sweeten the deal (such as peak express service west of the Junction).

Doubt it. Skip stop kills frequency on Jamaica and most riders would probably prefer a more frequent all stop service to today.

56 minutes ago, trainfan22 said:

Today I finally did an railfan trip I've been wanting to do for an while now, railfan one of the Babylon Branch express runs. 

 

I've ridden the Babylon Branch quite a few times in the past but it was always local runs, etc. Finally rode it today and man did it live up to hype! Hit MAS (80 MPH) and stayed in the 70s for a good duration of the express run. Second best commuter rail express run in the Tri State, only the 3900 NEC express runs on NJT is better IMO.

 

Coming back to the City the train I got was also an super express run, great day of fanning. Always nice to ride an commuter rail route from end to end.

 

 

Also, I saw four sets of M9s running in service, NO M3 were seen in service. Read on RR.net that the M3s have only ran in service once in the entire month of June so far. LIRR service is pretty close to an regular schedule from what I saw today, once a few more sets of M9s are in service the LIRR M3s might be done for good sooner rather than later.

Where do the expresses and super expresses stop?