RtrainBlues

When I take the N6 at a crazy hour like 1:30am, it's standing-room only to Jamaica and crush-loaded. They really should add more N22x service since otherwise you get a large passenger load that gets on a local N22 in Jamaica and won't get off until Roosevelt Field, so there is no more room for local passengers to board and they get flagged. Also, you would think NICE would want to maximize its profits by adding service on busy routes like the N22 and N6, and cutting service on so many of the underutilized north-south routes (especially in eastern Nassau) and underutilized eastern Nassau routes that don't go into Queens.

The N22L made no sense since it bypassed the busiest stop on its route (Roosevelt Field); it's like asking an express train to skip Times Square. I would hope they instead add additional limited stop N22 buses between Jamaica and Hicksville (both rush-hours and mid-days) that stop only at major intersections. The nearby N24 could continue to make all additional local stops. Where do you see the new schedules posted? I cannot find them on the web site.

N/Q often pull into Ditmars Blvd way behind schedule due to merging delays at 34th St and severe overcrowding on N trains that now must make additional local stops. Platform at 59th/Lex is often severely overcrowded and is an accident waiting to happen. These delays cascade into trains leaving Ditmars way behind schedule, and often I see two Coney-Island bound N trains back-to-back by the time they reach 59th St, Brooklyn. Weekend E trains should continue to supplement 75th Ave and Van Wyck Blvd unless scheduled gaps in service on F train can be corrected. For example - 15 minute gap in service on certain Coney-Island bound F trains at 75th Ave early evening Sunday. R shuttle needs to be expanded to Court/95th at all times. Platform is often 3 people deep at 59th Street, Bklyn at 12:30am and 1am for people needing Bay Ridge service. The 5 should be extended to Flatbush Ave during weekends; it won't cause any delays at very infrequent 12 minute headways, and can supplement severely delayed 2 train service (often with waits of up to 20 minutes in the middle of a busy afternoon.)

Delays Posted: 12/22/2013 4:04PM Due to switch problems at 36 St (BKLYN) , and trains are running with delays. Allow additional travel time. Unfortunately, this advisory doesn't mention if the delays are in the northbound or the southbound direction, and how extensive the delays are.

Due to a rail condition at Sutphin Blvd, northbound trains are terminating at Forest Hills-71 Av and northbound trains are terminating at Kew Gardens-Union Tpke. Free shuttle buses are available at the affected locations. Too bad this is a weekend when E trains are suspended between Van Wyck Blvd & Parsons Blvd/Archer Ave so there is no subway service on either Hillside Ave or Archer Ave.

That's wonderful news - now I won't have to rush home by 10pm every night. Without the split service caused by Hurricane Sandy, Bay Ridge riders would have had to suffer massive delays with the 20 minute headway 36th-95th shuttle between 10pm and midnight, like they did during the previous Queens Blvd FastTracks. It was not pretty taking almost 2 hours to get home at 10:30pm - long waits for the local N, then another 20 minute wait for an R shuttle. It's just unfair that every time there was something going on in Queens, it would cause massive inconvenience to Bay Ridge riders.

Hopefully the Queens Blvd FastTrack will have no effect on the hours/frequency of the Brooklyn R service (Court St to 95th St) this week. Waiting for the R shuttle at 36th St is every Bay Ridge resident's worst nightmare: it can easily add 45 minutes to a commute (20 minutes to wait for a delayed D or N, then just missing an R, followed by 20 to 25 minutes for the following R shuttle).

Just a warning to anyone riding downtown A, C and D trains during this service disruption - They mean it when they say delays! The uptown ride from midtown to Washington Heights last weekend took 20 minutes (from when the train showed up), yet the downtown ride took 45 minutes (from when the train showed up). There were several spots along the way where there was track work (around 96th, 81st and 72nd) where trains crawled through on the local tracks. I wondered why there was a mass exodus off the downtown A at 168th in the middle of the afternoon (so passengers could catch the #1 train last weekend) and now I know why.

I saw an uptown A at Broadway-Lafayette (on the F line) around 7:30pm last night. Was there an unscheduled problem?

Are N4 and N4x buses usually on time during the week? On Sunday afternoons, they regularly leave the Parsons/Archer and Freeport terminals 10 to 15 minutes late, and then two buses arive at the final destination at the same time. I wish the N4x would run on weekends for people who want to save almost $20 round-trip on LIRR fares. That's a lot of money to save!!!

Service Change Posted: 09/14/2013 2:30PM Due to a police investigation at Smith and 9 Sts, northbound and train service bypassing Smith and 9 Sts. For alternate service to the Smith and 9 Sts station please take the B57 which is making corresponding stops along Smith Sts. Allow additional travel time. Planned Work No trains between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts and Church Av Service operates every 20 minutes between Bedford-Nostrand Avs and Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts Don't the people who write tihs realize that if the G isn't running between Hoyt-Schermerhorn & Church Ave, that it won't be going thru Smith/9th St? We need people who can read a subway map!

When they know they are having major capacity/signal problems in the Montague St tunnel, I'm not sure why they choose to send three trains thru the tunnel this weekend. Smarter thing to do would have been to reroute the R via the D from DeKalb to Broadway-Lafayette, then via the M or F to Queens.

The way to bypass the massive uptown N/Q/R weekend delays was to transfer to the D (or F) train to Manhattan, then transfer back to the N/Q/R at 34th St.

Catastrophic delays from Bay Ridge to Atlantic Ave today. Worst service in the past 12 months (when they had the disastrous all trains express from 59th to Atlantic about a year ago). Waited 10 minutes for an off-schedule R train (running on a weird 10 minute supplement), then waited almost 20 minutes at 59th St for an N train (it appears every other N train was running via the Q line which they never announced), and then the conga line began from 36th to Atlantic. I think we stopped dead on the tracks 8 or 9 times before we finally pulled into Atlantic Ave. No wonder they were sending trains over the Q and F lines. Next time they should send ALL D and ALL N trains over the F and Q lines, and just leave the R line alone to handle the 4th Ave corridor. (To top it all off, they sent all uptown F trains express skipping 4th Avenue/9th St to further inconvenience anyone who needed local stops along the 4th Ave D/N/R corridor.) I went to two different events today, and people were walking in 20, 30 , 40 minutes late (coming from all different parts of Brooklyn) and complaining about the MASSIVE delays in service. Whoever thought this up really needs to be reassigned.

So let's say I have a card that holds both an Unlimited $112 monthly Metrocard that's already been activated, plus $20 value. I swipe on the B70 local bus (which is covered by my Unlimited Metrocard). Then when I swipe on the X27 express bus 20 minutes later, it will deduct $3.50 from the $20 value (even though the B70 was covered by my Unlimited Metrocard)? But had I *not* taken the B70 local bus and I only took the X27, then I would have been charged the full $6.00 fare on the X27? So in essence it's cheaper for me to take the B70 local bus (or subway) before I swipe on an express bus?

Within the past few months, they have added running time to routes such as the N22 and N24. Running times now vary by time of day to reflect realistic traffic conditions, which has helped greatly to keep the buses on schedule.

Would have been helpful to know there were 20+ minute headways on the #1 train in both directions at Times Square today so I could have taken an alternate route. The #2 and #3 could have run local to supplement the #1 train. No countdown clocks were working, no announcements were made, people just kept waiting and waiting and waiting. Better communication and increased headways would have been much appreciated.

The R was running a shuttle between 95th and 59th only in Brooklyn. All Manhattan bound N and D trains were local to DeKalb. The N I was on was then rerouted via the Montague St tunnel, so I exited and waited for either a Q or D (the Q came first) via the bridge. Added about 25 minutes to the commute, since the N wouldn't wait for the R shuttle to arrive, and the N was further delayed (1-2 minutes at each stop) with people asking the conductor questions. The N train conductor should be instructed to answer the questions on board the train so as not to cause massive delays like what happened yesterday.

The "311" for Nassau County is 516 571 3000. They can direct you to whatever agency you need (transportation, etc).

If buses aren't making connections, instead of having such a tight connection where there's an hour wait if you miss the connecting bus, wouldn't it be much simpler & cheaper to reschedule the buses to allow up to 15 to 20 minutes leeway for the connection?

The Jamaica-bound N22X has been recently arriving at Roosevelt Field Mall at least 10 minutes behind schedule (and sometimes not showing up at all) so perhaps the N22X schedule is now being padded with extra run time along points in its route.

Due to its extra new stops, the N22X no longer will have any time savings compared to the local N22A. Riders from Roosevelt Field to Jamaica may find the N22A the better alternative now, since it still skips the roundabout routing via the Mineola LIRR, won't get stuck in traffic coming from Hicksville, and will offer all Roosevelt Field riders a seat since it's the first stop. I think the "express" part of N22X will be a misnomer since it will now take the same amount of time to get to Jamaica as the local N22A. (The past few weeks, the N22X buses have been so late & slow that the N22A local buses have been getting to Jamaica ahead of them.)

I forgot why did they do this? The air conditioning was better on one set of trains?

The N22express is working out great - practically every seat is taken whenever I take it. The N22/N22A often took over an hour to go from Roosevelt Field to 179th St, and it often flagged passengers down the line since it was crush loaded. The new N22 express is a win-win, since 50+ people per bus get to 179th St much faster (helps express passengers) and since 50+ people are no longer on a local bus taking up space, the local passengers won't get flagged anymore (helps local passengers). From feedback above, it looks like the N6express may need an additional stop or two in Nassau County.

Why would the N78/N79 be coordinated with the N24, as opposed to the N22, N22L and N22X? Varying traffic conditions would make it almost impossible to coordinate exactly. Passengers can take whatever bus to Hicksville that benefits them. It's impossible to coordinate the N78/N79 with all the different bus lines that go to Hicksville. The N24 is EXCRUCIATINGLY slow and usually takes well over an hour to get from 179th St subway just to Roosevelt Field mall during rush hour. And that's reverse peak without all the peak direction traffic.