W4ST

OMNY has been installed at Chambers St . Didn’t have time to get a picture though.

That would be so slow though. If any train is going to Staten Island it shouldn’t be the R, IMO. Utica Avenue Line

And then less people will ride the subways, and then they will cut more service, and then less people will ride the subways, and then they will cut more service... I hope Cuomo is remembered as an idiot

That’s bad news. I really hope it gets built. That passageway was the only thing I was looking forward to in the project. It’s so close, they should connect it.

service is suspended. Excess trains turn at 2nd Ave or Prospect Park. service runs from 96th Street to Prospect Park via Broadway Express, 4th Ave Express, the Sea Beach Line, and the Brighton Line. (Not all trains would come back from Prospect Park to 96th Street) service runs from Canal Street to Astoria / Ditmars Blvd. trains run local south of Atlantic Ave / Barclays Center. trains run in two sections: Forest Hills to Whitehall Street, and 36th Street to Bay Ridge / 95th Street.

The one problem with them is the air conditioning units on the R62As. They constantly break down, seemingly more than in other cars. At least the trains run well, but the hot cars are a big problem.

It's probably a problem with the ATS system, which is present on the lines. This happened earlier this summer.

Bring a raincoat and check weather radar to try to return from the station at a time at which it isn’t raining as hard/at all.

If the is cut, there's no way to get to 7th Avenue from the Bronx by subway. However, if the is cut, you can still get to Lexington Avenue (It's inefficient, but you still can) The is the more important line in 7th Ave, since the can be replicated by the , so they try to keep it open, or keep its frequency higher.

The MTA can look at Nevins Street when it gets to it. For now, there are hundreds of stations in which it is definitely possible to add an elevator, and in which the MTA hasn't added anything yet. The MTA can add elevators to all of those, and then it can try to fix stations like Nevins Street. Maybe it can't add elevators in a couple stations, like Nevins Street, but that's no excuse for not adding elevators into the ESI or Astoria plans, or other future renovations.

I agree that the to Secaucus is a bad idea. Any NJTransit train that goes to Secaucus either goes to Hoboken or Penn Station. If you are going to Penn Station, you don't need the , and if you are going to Hoboken, you could transfer to the there instead. However, I think that sending the to Hoboken would be very helpful (if they could get the NY/NJ Bureaucracy out of the way). Any new capacity across the Hudson River is needed. It would also take some load of the PATH, which would give it room for more expansion (maybe extending the yellow line to Newark and adding a line to the airport or Elizabeth)

When Queens Blvd gets CBTC, the train will have to get NTT cars (probably R160s). This means it will have to exchange cars with another line, which will likely be the . They could get R46s this way. If the R211s come in, this exchange might not need to happen, but another change could push R68s onto the . When 8th Avenue gets CBTC, R68s will still be running, because the R211s won't retire them. The often run on 8th Avenue for service changes (at least the does, but the might in an emergency), so the , and probably the , will need NTT cars too. They will have to exchange cars with another line. They would probably exchange with the and give R68s to those lines, because the never have a reason to run on any of the lines that are getting CBTC in the next 5 years (8th Ave, Queens Blvd, Crosstown, Culver).

This is something I’ve always disliked about the new stations. None of them have any color. Even in some of the ESI stations, they removed the color that was there (specifically the ones on 4th Avenue, which are good otherwise). The reason I dislike this is that it makes it harder to tell at a glance what station you are at, by looking at the color of a column or the tiles. They all look the same. Also, white stations are getting boring.

This is how I would redesign the Flushing Line : The would now be a 4-tracked line, consisting of the (8) Express, and the (9)(10) Local. The (8) express would start at Hoboken, in a new extension. They would then go under the river, stopping at 23rd Street and 11th Avenue and Hudson Yards. They would then go to Times Square along the 's route today. At Times Square, the (9)(10) local would start. Times Square would be a four-tracked station. They would continue westward, stopping at 5th Ave and Grand Central, both of which would be express. Then, the (8)(9)(10) would follow the 's current route. The (9)(10) would make all stops, while the and (8) would only stop at the express stations: Court Square Queensboro Plaza 74th Street / Jackson Heights Junction Blvd Willets Point (express trains would stop here only on game days or during important events at the stadium) Flushing / Main Street The line would be built in different ways at different places. The express tracks would run separately from the local tracks, in a different tunnel, from Grand Central to just south of Court Square. Court Square would have a double decker structure, with the local (9)(10) to the west and the express (8) to the east. Queensboro Plaza would be built such that the (9)(10) shared the original two BMT platforms to the north, and the express (8) were on their own on the IRT platforms. The line would run with 4 tracks on one level on Queens Blvd, and then in a double-decker arrangement from 46th Street to Willets Point, which would all be on one level again. The line would then go underground at Flushing / Main Street, which would also all be on one level. Flushing / Main Street would be 4 tracks. The line would then split up. The (9)(10) would go on a new extension to College Point, the would go on a new extension to Bayside, and the (8) would go on a new extension through Pomonok and into Fresh Meadows.

I'm very late, but this wasn't exactly the intention. The idea was what you would do if the trunk line had been built differently from the start, like: where would you put the express stations, and how many tracks would there be. Deinterlining could be included though.

I like that. I had gotten this recommendation another time too, because the is shorter than the on its northern end. I think I will change my plan to add that. My one concern with weekends is that, if the ran instead of the , there would be 4 weekend lines on 8th Avenue, and only 2 weekends lines on 6th Avenue. In that case, I would have the run on weekends instead of the , and switch the northern terminals of the and .

I created an overall plan for the B division, which includes frequencies in trains per hour during rush hour and new routes. Only a few routes are changed, but this plan requires no new tracks or stations (the one exception is that modifications might have to be made at Jamaica Center. If no modifications can be made, some will have to end at 179th Street, and some will have to end at Crescent Street.) The main changes are that the and are switched south of 42nd Street, a is added, the is moved to SAS, and the is moved to Astoria. There are also some changes in frequency. Every station should get scheduled service at least every 6 minutes during rush hour, except for skip stop stations, which will get service at least every 8 minutes. During weekends, the and will not run. However, the will run its full route on weekends. The and would have frequencies of 10 tph on weekends to make up for the loss of these two lines. If this plan were implemented, it would be best to implement it when the R211s start coming in, because some of these lines would need increases in service. - unchanged (15 tph) - unchanged (10 tph) - 168th Street - World Trade Center - 8th Ave Loc (10 tph) - unchanged (10 tph) - Jamaica Center - Euclid Avenue - QBL Exp, 8th Ave Exp, Fulton Loc (15 tph) - unchanged (15 tph) - unchanged (10 tph) / - unchanged (15 tph) - Forest Hills - World Trade Center (10 tph) - unchanged (20 tph) - Forest Hills - Metropolitan Avenue / Middle Village via 63rd Street (10 tph) - 96th Street - Coney Island (via Sea Beach) (10 tph) - unchanged (10 tph) - Astoria - Bay Ridge / 95th Street (15 tph) It is true that in this plan, trains at 10 tph are running with trains at 15 tph, which could cause problems. However, I decided that it was preferable to having lines run at 7.5 tph.

Is this a program that you can download? I am interested in using it.

This was brought up by other people here before but I would like to put it back into discussion: cutting service to 5 tph due to adding CBTC is probably having a negative impact on service right now. I have heard multiple complaints about long waits this weekend. They should consider what other people in this group have proposed when these service changes occur that involve cutting QBL service to 15 tph total: ending the at Queens Plaza, raising the to 7.5 tph each and raising the to 6 or 7.5 tph, and running the or local when they are not running on the same track.

The MTA probably wouldn't do this because they haven't been investing in the in general, but I think that a 57th Street Flip would improve the situation greatly. In the 57th Street Flip, the Second Avenue Subway tracks would be connected with the Broadway Local tracks, partially through tunnels that already exist. This would deinterline Broadway (reducing the amount of merges for the ) and increase service and flexibility on the . The new service pattern would be: Broadway Express: Forest Hills to Coney Island via Sea Beach: 10 tph (could be increased to 15 tph if necessary) Broadway Express: Astoria to Coney Island via Brighton: 15 tph Broadway Local: 96th Street to Bay Ridge: 15 tph Broadway Local: Could go from 96 Street to Whitehall or from Whitehall to Bay Ridge or not exist, depending on what commuters want most. This would give Bay Ridge riders a shorter line with no merges and a lot of flexibility due to Whitehall, and would allow more trains to run on all of these lines (except Sea Beach, but they could probably increase service to 15 tph if necessary)

While they're fixing the elevators, they should add ADA accessibility to these stations. It's a good opportunity because they are closed (or the area where the elevators are is closed, in some of them) and there is a really large gap in ADA accessibility along the 1 line that needs to be filled. They should also renovate the stations that haven't been renovated recently, if they are being closed (168th was renovated recently, so it does not have to be renovated.)

That's a good idea. Perhaps, once SAS is extended into the Bronx, the station at 125 / Lex can be used for this new PATH-like line, which could start there, at 125/2nd Ave, or at 116/2nd Ave.

I've been thinking about Phase 2 of SAS. I would prefer for it to go straight into the Bronx, and end at 3rd Avenue / 149th Street. However, it looks like they will build the segment to 125th and Lexington. Building it to 125th and Lexington alone is relatively useless, as just about nobody already on the will make the transfer, and probably only a few people on the , so I think they must extend it. Going across 125th Street is a good start, but I think that they should make the line go across the river into New Jersey. The line would cross the river, with a stop at Edgewater. Then it would go through Palisades Park, Ridgefield Park, and Bogota, before ending at Hackensack. Edgewater and Palisades Park do not have good transit, with only infrequent buses, so this would help them out. It would also encourage more buildings to be built in this part of New Jersey, which is geographically fairly close to Midtown, but is in a location where it takes a long time (around 45 minutes) to get to Midtown on infrequent buses. These would be the stops, starting from 125th Street and Lexington Avenue. 125th Street and Lexington Avenue (connection to ) 125th Street and Malcolm X Blvd (connection to ) 125th Street and St. Nicholas Ave (connection to ) This station would have 3 tracks so that trains could terminate here if necessary. 125th Street and Broadway (connection to ) This station would have a diamond crossover just east of the station, so that this station could be used as a terminal before the New Jersey portion is built. Edgewater - Hudson Ave Central Blvd and Anderson Ave Central Blvd and Bergen Blvd Central Blvd and Broad Ave Central Blvd and Depot Pl (Connection to HBLR, when it gets extended there) Just before or just after this station, the line would go aboveground. Overpeck Corporate Office Park (west of this station, the line would be built over I-95, and then I-80) Park Ave and I-80 Palisade Ave and I-80 (West of this station, the line would be built next to or over the New York Susquehanna and Western Railroad track) Bogota - River Rd and W Fort Lee Rd Hackensack - Main Street (Connection to the Passaic - Bergen Rail Line, if it gets built) This is not a priority (I think some extensions in Queens and the Bronx should be built first) but if the MTA builds a cross-125th Street line, I think this should be considered. Forgot to add: The Bronx extension can be built as well, this is just another extension that could be built.

The thing is, there is a big difference between those examples. From Jackson Heights / Roosevelt Avenue to 34th Street / Herald Square, according to a test I made the takes 17 minutes, the takes 21 minutes, and the takes 24 minutes. That is a 4 to 7 minute difference, which is not always significant enough to warrant a transfer. Having the local go to Manhattan would ease some crowding on the express. On the other hand, from 36th Street in Brooklyn to 34th Street / Herald Square, the takes 24 minutes each, and the takes a whopping 37 minutes. That is a much larger 13 minute difference, which people are much less likely to wait for. Surely enough, most people from Bay Ridge transfer to a or train anyways, so they don't need the to take them all the way there. The in Manhattan has lots of transfers which will allow everyone to get where they are going with minimal transfers if they are not taking the or the .

I don't like the Canal Flip, but I am a proponent of the 57th Street flip, and I can describe why. In general, I believe that a 57th Street Flip would be useful only if SAS is extended southward along 2nd Avenue in Phase 3 without a lower level. (I would also suggest a branch to Queens on that line, but I am specifically discussing the interlining that would occur at 72nd Street) These would be the advantages of a 57th Street Flip in that scenario. - Balancing of capacity. The Broadway tracks leading to SAS would only be able to handle 15 tph in this case, so we would want to connect those to the tracks that don't need as high TPH. That would be Broadway Local, as Broadway Local is long and winding. On the other hand, Astoria needs a lot of service, as does the Manhattan Bridge, so those two should be connected. If this flip was not done, the Manhattan Bridge would only be able to run 15 tph on the Broadway tracks without interlining in Midtown, which would be in my opinion unacceptable. - Flexibility. If Broadway Tracks interline with 2nd Avenue Tracks at 72nd Street, they would want some flexibility on the line, as there could be problems associated with the interlining. Broadway Express is not very flexible, as it has no terminals for a long time, while Broadway Local has a terminal at Whitehall Street. Therefore, trains can be distributed better, with Broadway Local south of Whitehall able to take on 7.5 tph, 15 tph, or 22.5 tph when needed. - Destinations. If this flip was made, SAS riders would have a direct route to Downtown, and Astoria riders would have a direct route to Brooklyn. This is not too important, as most people are going to Midtown, but it would help some people.