Prospect

CBTC is designed to run trains closer to one another, but unfortunately that doesn't mean you're going to get a faster ride per se. Trains being held at Mets-Willets Point Blvd are usually caused by other trains being present in the Main Street terminal that haven't departed yet, where all tracks might already be occupied at the moment. Like I mentioned before, CBTC isn't going to magically speed up your trip, it will however help with increasing frequency.

It's due to the flagging rules that are in place to protect track workers on the trackbed from trains passing through their work zones. To save time, once you get out of work, I'd consider walking 5 blocks to Parsons Blvd/Archer Ave, catch the Q60 there (~11:40 PM) and then transfer in front of the Queens Center Mall to the Q53-SBS that will drop you off by the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue station. It'll save you the headache of sitting in a train crawling the whole length of Queens Boulevard. It was like that back when I was in college nearly 10 years ago and it's the same crap every night. I stopped taking trains along Queens Blvd overnight several years ago for the same reason. Try taking the bus instead.

Unpopular opinion, but my favorite: the M9. Goes through several neighborhoods with bustling scenes and is a quick shot when timed right.

Or when the E/F succumb to flagging just before 75th Avenue, causing people to miss the connecting Q37 at Kew Gardens by just seconds... And the kicker is that runs go missing on that line quite often...

What need is there to extend the Q34 a few blocks to Francis Lewis Boulevard? I've been on that bus plenty of times in the AM rush hour and was almost always the last person on the bus getting off at the last stop there... However, the idea of running the Q34 between Flushing and Whitestone on weekends might work though. They run the Q26 to primarily supplement and alleviate the Q27; it serves it's function when necessary. How would the Q26 benefit by being extended to College Point using Parsons Boulevard and 14th Avenue? It would be redundant to the Q20A, Q20B, and Q44-SBS if it ran using the streets you're proposing. Not only that, but there would be no connection to the subway at all under that configuration. Respectfully, I want to see the insight here.

With this being New York, I'm sure many people are hyper aware, it's just doing so in such a way without attracting the wrong kind of attention. Yeah, carrying pepper spray is also a good idea, I have a canister too, as there's too many troubled souls roaming the trains who are comfortable getting up close and personal in your space. Also, people could benefit by waiting near the wall and not at the platform edge, as several deaths have been caused by EDP's shoving passengers into the path of incoming trains.

I wanted to talk about personal safety in the New York City Subway system, as I personally have been taking trains less because of this reason. There have been countless incidents of people being robbed, stabbed, and even shot while taking trains. From my experience, I've seen people exhibit such antisocial behavior in Lower Manhattan, specifically in groups of homeless individuals who need help with their state of mental health. There are the homeless that are down on their luck, and then the others who present significant dangers to themselves and others. The former I have personally helped, but I feel the latter need to be addressed, desperately. Some have lengthy rap sheets of violent, repeat offenses who seek asylum in the subway and surrounding areas. Now, I understand that the bail structure here is f***ed up, which is more or less one of the reasons such people aren't stopped until they kill, but what can people who take the subway do to protect themselves? Not everyone here can afford to take the express bus, or can have their shift changed at their jobs. Since the city isn't eager to address the chronic mental illness crisis here, incidents will continue to occur...

Sure, I was saying that the 62A's on the 1 Line appear filthy, much more so than the ones that run on the #6. That's interesting, I didn't know that they go through an automatic car wash. Is that at the 207th Street Yard?

Comparatively, the 62A's assigned to the 1 Line look absolutely filthy. Some of those cars look so brown covered in that heavy layer of thick dust... It's the crews at the yards that are partly due to the problem, many of them couldn't care less...

Nice, those cars look good for their age!

Fewer people on the payroll means fewer trains, which means more packed trains... As a result, you need the available workforce to coordinate the implementation of CBTC and the R211's, which again, is also subject to delay for the reason stated above.

No, those projects are absolutely necessary! The signaling system is ancient that's very expensive to repair as they have to customize their own parts in-house and has limited ability to space out trains, and prone to daily malfunctions that delay the commutes of thousands of passengers every single day. The R46's are also approaching the precambrian period in age and with all those decades of wear and tear that have already more than worn them out at this point, it will be worth it in the long term to replace them with newer, more efficient technology. Repairing them is too unnecessarily timely and costly when they're beyond retirement age already. When ridership increases, these changes will allow the system to accommodate that extra demand, because doing nothing in your case will crash hard when demand elevates.

Yeah, but I feel that the civil service process pretty much kills the incentive to hire employees of quality in general, which, believe it or not, creates a bitter experience for some passengers. I'll never forget the time I got on the Q28 (Dispatched out of CS?) and there were 2 buses on layer. When I asked the B/O which bus would be leaving first he barked, "Which one do you think, huh?!" in a flustered tone. I got on his bus, paid the fare, and the guy proceeded to mouth off to me saying "how stupid of a question it was." Another night I had got on the Q12 on Northern/Springfield with some irate driver at the wheel. It was me and another guy waiting at the bus stop, I got on first, but the guy behind me took an extra 5 seconds to take his MetroCard out of his wallet and the B/O yelled, "you going to get on or not!" and slammed the door in his face and pulled off. I understand that working with the public isn't easy, and I've seen the livelihood sucked out of some newcomers, but you shouldn't be employed in a role in which you're incapable of adapting too. Never let a job change you. If you're optimistic and positive, resist the urge to become withdrawn and moody like so many of the bus drivers are. Some drivers do care. It brings me joy when I get them, but too many are few and far between. Flipping off customers, mouthing off to someone who never meant to cause you trouble, blatantly driving past people waiting at bus stops, I've encountered it.

I don't like that sleight of hand idea of theirs in conjoining the Q36, Q110, and Q112... There's boatloads of traffic on Liberty and Jamaica Avenues that would make me want to get off and walk if I were on that thing sitting like a duck...especially if it's the sole option on Jamaica Av, no thanks!

So, basically, any college that isn't well-known doesn't deserve addition in navigation within the subway system is what you said and mean. What you said actually contradicts your sentiment that including a college/university in a station name doesn't clearly define where you are by including that tidbit about City College and Columbia University... This move on the MTA's part, (with adding The Bronx Zoo to the list if they do) could possibly help stimulate some activity and change in The Bronx.