AlgorithmOfTruth

What truly concerns me about all this are those "non-stop" sections that these planners have made so commonplace in the name of quote on quote route efficiency. It doesn't help people at all when they have to walk even further to reach a bus stop than they normally would in sacrifice of runtime. I might be a bit harsh in critiquing this new proposal draft, but I am calling out BS on the majority of it. I get the impression that the MTA is trying to pull something NICE with this crap. Nothing really creative, more like take apart and rearrange...

Wait, you actually can make it to Northern Boulevard from the Q27 (without having to dip/swipe your MetroCard 3 times) by transferring to the Q31 at 48th Avenue/Bell Boulevard, even though the Q31's headways suck.

I don't mean to discredit this, but I don't know if that necessarily means those R42 sets are absolutely and permanently out of passenger service. They were laid up at Pitkin Yard earlier this year for one reason or another.

@B35 via Church, I've been wanting to ask, what are your thoughts on demographic travel patterns in Queens relative to a bus route's overall effectiveness? For example, consider the proposed route travelling primarily along Springfield Boulevard to Fort Totten. I can be wrong, but I don't think residents from Queens Village and Cambria Heights in the proximity of Springfield Boulevard will be seeking destinations north of Queensborough Community College with regularity. I say this because I used the Q27 to get to class at QCC for a few years and most of the passengers who boarded the bus south of Union Turnpike were off by the time we reached the college, where a new ridership base was regenerated - students seeking Flushing and the . With the proposal severing this connection with Flushing, I don't know if the ridership will be sufficient enough to go through with the route alteration.

You might be fond of long, winding subway lines, but adding length comes with a host of factors that have a bad habit of destroying reliability on said lines when pressure is applied on them. What we want is for our subway lines to run as efficiently as possible, period. Some of the longest lines in the system fall victim to a mutual problem in particular: merging. An easy way to maintain that issue along a line is to ensure it's long enough to suffer through multiple "choke points."

I'm completely with you on that. The 62s and 68A's are very likely the best braking trains in their respective divisions. A bit of tweaking and they'll perform even better. However, they are aging, and ultimately, are not compatible with the modern hardware needed for ATO. I believe that's the reason why the isn't jumping on the idea of refurbishing them—CBTC.

I'm grateful for NYCTransitForums existing, as I learn a lot on here, but the moment a fleet swap update is posted, many users on here assume the position of a supervisor working for the in the car equipment and assignment unit. Consequently, you have people getting into emotional duels on here claiming they're 100% certain that car class x will go to yard y and vice versa. Patience is a vital component of maturity!

The primary goal of open-gangway subway cars is to increase passenger capacity by utilizing the existing space in between cars. Frankly, the couldn't care less about unpleasant aromas flowing through their trains, so as long they safely get people from point A to point B in a timely manner. I wish the had tested the open-gangway concept back in the 90s with the R110s.

No, not everyday. They come and go. They utilize the act of surprise to bust fare beaters. While they might be stationed at particular bus stops, their presence is random.

ATTENTION: Please be advised, there is an Eagle Team posted at 155th Street/Amsterdam Avenue enforcing payment of fare along the Bx6-SBS route. Just looking out for my fellow transit buffs to ensure that they stay out of trouble. Have a great day guys.

It's called the random thoughts thread for a reason dude... He didn't post anything out of line...

I've noticed a few spots throughout the system where T/O's are getting a bit too comfortable challenging timers. All it takes is for one signal to clear a hair slower to end your career due to careless underestimation. I don't care if I've been on the job for 25+ years and know my line inside and out without ever having suffered a safety-related incident on my employee record. No amount of experience would offer me the chance to operate in an audacious manner. Signals have a greater tendency to malfunction with age, and since it isn't clear if they've been inspected appropriately at periodic intervals, I find it reckless to assume they will clear because "you know they will, as you've seen how they behave numerous times already."

They might as well knock on the conductor's window and say, "Hey, why don't you hold on a minute for my friends? They're on their way down from the turnstyle area." Some MTA employees are courteous and will go out of their way for you, but some people use that as a reason to justify entitlement. Whether it be them thinking they can hold up an entire train because whoever they're with hasn't made it down to the platform yet, or it be their belief that the conductor will tolerate them playing musical cars at the same station is beyond me. Using the train's storm doors to walk from car to car isn't recommended, but she could've if she were in that much of a rush.

I've learned over time that common sense is not always common. She probably thought that since the C/R gave her a break opening the doors for her that she'd be able to dart to another car after she was obviously aboard the very same train. Getting somewhere on time using the MTA's services is already a gamble. Why risk it?

That's something interesting right there. I learn something new whenever I visit these forums. I've used the Fordham Road Station many times in the past and never knew that. Thanks for sharing.

Your defense of claiming "nothing good came out of it, so it shouldn't have been posted" has no rooting in the real world. Has every point throughout U.S. History been positive? No. However, did that stop people from publicly discussing it and studying it at universities? No. Do most stories covered on the daily news and media reflect meaningful experiences or ideas? No. Case in point, you learn how not to act, think, work, and live through taking note of others - especially those who choose to deliberately embarrass themselves in public, like the fool in the aforementioned video in question. The fact that you couldn't figure that out for yourself is baffling. At the end of the day, you've been made this thread's example of how people shouldn't strive to conduct themselves in public.

Furthermore, how many times are they going to alter the Q37's southern terminus in South Ozone Park? That thing is always bouncing back and forth from year to year it seems. Not only that, but I hated the crap 30-minute headways at night when I needed to get home from Kew Gardens.

Unless they took the 1 stop northbound to 155th Street and transferred to the Bx6, getting them to the 161st Street-Yankee Stadium Station.

Hate to break this to you, but don't complain unless you want to be stuck with no other choice than a job one day... As an extra extra with no seniority you're fair game to be thrown in the deep end at any point in time. I'm sure the crew office will straighten out anyone who whines about controllers being too "heavy" to hold down or not being able to be within earshot of full brake release on a set of SMEE's. There's absolutely no tolerance for that stuff. You are expected to operate whatever equipment your run presents you and get it to the other end. Period. Any transit vet will tell you that you have it much easier than compared to 20 years ago when 32s, 38s, 40s, and 42s dominated B Division.

So I've been thinking of the current Q31 routing and have thought of restructuring it as follows: 1.) No changes will be made to the existing route between Archer Avenue/Sutphin Boulevard and Utopia Parkway/Hollis Court Boulevard. 2.) Discontinue the section utilizing 47th/48th Avenues. Adjust the route to have it continue on Utopia Parkway until Northern Boulevard. 3.) Right turn onto Northern Boulevard. (Serving Northern Boulevard will stimulate ridership on the Q31. The residential streets along and near 47th/48th Avenues that it currently travels on are already dominated by the Q27.) 4.) Left turn onto Bell Boulevard.(Preserved Q31 section) 5.) Left turn onto 35th Avenue. (Preserved Q31 section) 6.) Right turn onto Corporal Kennedy Street. (Access to Bayside High School retained.) 7.) Upon reaching Corporal Kennedy Street/32nd Avenue, the Q31 will be consolidated with the existing Q28 route. 8.) Route ends where the current Q28 terminates at 23rd Avenue/Bell Boulevard. (A new connection to the Bay Terrace Mall created for Q31 passengers.) My goal is to boost ridership on the Q31 route by attempting to have it serve more ground in the proximity of both local and commercial businesses without having it deviate too far from it's primary focus of Bayside. This experimental concept might work by taking advantage of Northern Boulevard and the Bay Terrace Mall. After seeing next to no passengers aboard Q31's I've been on over the past few years when reaching the 47th/48th Avenues and/or 32nd Avenue sections, I knew something had to give in sight of improving ridership generation on the route...

Speaking of stations along the , have they visited the 3rd Avenue–138th Street Station?

If you are a probationary T/O and get called for the C/R job, you must resign from the T/O title before you can accept the invitation to become a C/R. If you choose to do that, you will start at the C/R minimum pay rate. Any seniority you gained as a T/O will be lost. You will have to start all over again from the bottom. The only way you could reestablish yourself as a T/O is if you were a permanent (completed probationary period) T/O BEFORE you decided to switch over to the C/R title.

From what I've seen, you need to have a balance of confidence and experience on your line to be an efficient T/O. Not too confident to the point where you're cocky, but confident enough that you aren't afraid to operate. For example, I was on a Brooklyn-bound train one day and had the most anxious T/O I've ever seen. We pull out of Fordham Road and head toward 182nd-183rd Streets. He makes about 10 separate brake applications that jerk everyone around before we reach the 10-car marker at 182nd-183rd Streets. He gets indication from his C/R and we make the approach to Tremont Avenue. We get up to around 10 MPH and he panics as we approach the yellow-over-S before the two-shot behind it. HARD BRAKING ensues. We must've made it down that slope at close to 0 speed before we actually reached Tremont Avenue. Needless to say, the rest of the trip went on in a similar fashion. If a T/O is that scared to operate, I don't see them lasting long! (Chronic lateness) This isn't to say that you shouldn't be cautious, but know your line, be familiar with how the timers behave, and be confident in your operation.

The R32s are significantly lighter than the R46s, so there is more lateral motion and buckling that gives off the impression that you're moving faster than you really are.

When I gave my two cents about the Q12 running artics I was talking based on experience. I used that route over the course of several years.