Trainmaster5

Don't let the farebeaters enter the trains, period. Any other method delays the riders who have no connection to the perps. My concern is for the movement of trains. Turnstile apprehension is best , IMO , with platform stops a very distant second. POP on an SBS bus is one thing but POP on a subway in NYCT is a very different scenario. Cross honoring, postal workers in uniform, NYPD (in uniform or not) , NYCT or MABSTOA retirees, are some of the people allowed to ride for free in my experience. Same holds for the LIRR Conductor who actually do POP checks in the performance of their jobs. NYPD, today, is a different ballgame. Those in RTO are now taught to defer to the NYPD or the FDNY when they arrive on the scene. I was taught by my instructors, in a different era, to coordinate with the NYPD officers above the patrolman rank or with the FDNY Battalion Chief. I had a shooting incident once where only myself and a Captain from lower Manhattan interacted directly with each other on the scene and he and I relayed messages , me with my Command Center and he via his radio to his commander. One day, one stop away from there the FDNY was called for some reason I forget and when I made my station stop a Battalion Chief approached me about the call. I happened to have an RTO superintendent riding with me who overheard me talking with the Chief. When the Chief heard the superintendent identify himself the Chief ignored him and continued to talk to me. I had to call Command Center/RCC because the Battalion Chief ( old school ) would only deal with me or the Brooklyn Bridge Motor Instructor because we were Civil Service and the Superintendent position wasn't. NYPD/ FDNY are supposedly in charge when they arrive on the scene but they always deferred to me when they had a question about third rail power removal. Just figured I'd give some context to my previous response. Carry on.

I hope you aren’t being serious with the suggestion that Eagle teams patrol the subway. I’ve operated trains after 9/11 with extra police patrols and it was a disaster. We had undercover cops who carried special tech, especially on trains that traversed the under river tunnels. There were some medical institutions on the East Side that did chemo work. Riders enter downtown or . Union Square was one stop that stood out. Train gets to Bowling Green and we wait while the officers pull people off the train because the instruments detected something out of the ordinary. RCC is on the radio asking me, my C/R, and the ATD what’s going on. The other riders are agitated and delayed. Finally the police let the medical patients back on the train and we close up and head into the river tube. Now multiply that because the medical patients readily complied with the police and the farebeaters will definitely do the opposite and you have a recipe for disaster. My take. Carry on.

Wouldn’t advise you to touch them. Might get the shock of your life 😁. Resistors IIRC. Back in the day it was the cause of many grids overheating and causing track fires and such. I’ve seen some that were as red as apples. Not something to remember fondly. Carry on.

Rudy took the Transit Police and the NYC Housing Police from the control of the Transit Authority and the Housing Authority, respectively, because he wanted full control of both and to bolster his " law and order" cred, period. Perhaps you don't remember Rudy and Senator Al D'Amato posing as undercover cops but they came across as clowns in those photos. My opinion. Carry on.

I understand where you and the other folks are coming from. Problem is that the is broke. They’re in dire straits at the moment and, at least to me , they’d have to raise the fares to $5 or more on the NYCT end and raise the railroad fares by a big percentage to even pay for what they’re already got in the pipeline or the wishlist. Just my take. Carry on.

One would think that the line was IRT territory, right? The radio frequency says otherwise . I remember breaking in over there and after hearing the radio conversations my trainer laughed at my quizzical look. He finally said "history, kid". Heck my (5) line was an IND line.

To piggyback on your post I don’t think any one manufacturer would want to tie up their production lines with one product of subway, railcar or bus. IIRC the R62 and the R62A cars came about because Kawasaki couldn’t provide the amount of cars needed so they and the added Bombardier to the pot for production. The first few R62A cars are actually from Kawasaki and not Bombardier. Splitting up the contract that way also allows the prime contractor(s) to utilize different parts suppliers which should speed up the production process. Basically what I’m saying is that sole source production is time consuming and riskier in comparison to spreading it out. My take. Carry on.

Your second paragraph is spot on. A camera is good for identifying a perpetrator after a crime or people who might be assembling prior to committing a crime. Law enforcement personnel on the scene is a better deterrent. Problem is that you have to pay those people. Look no further than the red light camera program. Cost benefits. As to your first point. The doesn’t want to place large orders for equipment with any one manufacturer. Any delays or faulty equipment leaves them high and dry. Remember the faulty trucks on the subway cars or the Grumman Flxible bus fiasco ? Relying on a sole source is really rolling the dice, IMO. My opinion. Carry on.

Let me take this sideways for a moment. A Motor Instructor told our class 40 years ago about the long term goal of the . Reduce payroll costs. The R46 class of subway cars were designed to eliminate personnel, period. OPTO in the subway. Removal/reassignment of Station Agents Everything that he and his fellow instructors taught us back then is happening in some shape or form now. We were told that the hardest nut to crack would be the B/O title. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if route consolidation or outright eliminations is not an underlying factor here. Just my take. Sorry for veering off track. Carry on.

Truer words were never spoken my friend. He and I go way back but later on in life in our transit careers I've found that his insight in bus operations and management coincide with what my rabbi and mentors spoke about on the RTO side. Those who really know about operations in either department are ignored or exiled to some job with no clout or voice. Things got so bad in my case that my rabbi created a job for my C/R and I where we reported for work for almost 3 months to a location with no local supervision and the line Supt. and his deputy didn't even realize we worked their line. I took my screen name from the last TA trainmaster and my rabbi who was in line to ascend to that title before the title was eliminated and a bunch of yes men were put in charge. BrooklynBus has mentioned a few times in the past that that things had gotten so bad intradepartmental between those who actually cared about service vs the brownnosers who took their orders from the cost cutters. I , personally, became very cynical toward the and by extension NYCT, because there were people in the TA who grew up in the 5 boroughs and still lived there who would not step up for the local residents. I'm glad that people like B35 and yourself and a few others are wise to the game being played transit-wise. My take. Carry on.

After the initial investigation ( with no fatalities) the cars would normally be released and returned to service. That's the normal NYPD to protocol. This may be somewhat different seeing that it's been classified as a federal crime. Just speculation on my part. Carry on.

I’m not too sure about the power grid over there nowadays but back in my time the signal tower at 149st-Grand Concourse controlled the line from 125 and Lexington to Brook, the line up to 167 st, the up to Jackson/ Prospect and the from the Lenox Avenue junction northbound. I’m guessing that the power grid is basically the same thing even today. I happened to be in the tower one night when power was out and the tower operator showed me the layout. There’s an unmanned satellite tower at 138th and 3rd on the that got some use when I worked work trains late nights in the area. When I was a rookie C/R at Lenox on the the Command Center would tell Lenox to shutdown when an incident like this happened in that area. Hope this helps answer your question. Carry on.

I understand your frustration but luckily no one died. Calling for the death penalty is over the top. If that’s the case what should we do about the organizers of 1/6 in DC ? Someone did die that day. You’re traveling down a slippery slope, IMO. Carry on.

Because the unruly passengers and the " dead " battery sellers were going from car to car abusing the privilege, leaving the open to potential lawsuits because of hazardous conditions of difficulty of slips and falls. That's the point I was trying to make. Just how many mass shootings or fire conditions have happened since the introduction of those cars ? I've had a shooting incident on a downtown train at Wall Street on an R142 consist. Shooter had a beef with another rider, pulled his piece, fired it, missed , and fled to the street. There was no mass exodus from car to car or on the platform. Each incident is different so I wouldn't be too quick to condemn an entire car class for this incident. This dude was an obvious nutjob, IMO. We were taught in schoolcar to ISOLATE any problem. It may sound cold to some folks but unlocked doors or open gangways are potentially just as hazardous where I come from. I think it boils down to a " risk vs cost " factor to the . Just my opinion though. Carry on.

Does anyone remember why 75 foot cars have locked end doors ? Learn some history before commenting. My take. Carry on.

Imagine equating a wheelchair bound person with a bicycle transporting person ? I think that the bus manufacturers and the purchasing agencies understand the law, both federal and state, better than the person complaining. Maybe he wants to advocate consigning the wheelchair bound to “ paratransit “ because he is being delayed by these folks ? Just my take. Carry on.

Care to elaborate ?

Eliminate the section from Flatbush to Fulton Street. That would be covered by the B44 and B44SBS

Glad that you noted that it’s your opinion . It’s my opinion that any person who pays their fare and taxes has a right to board any public transit equipment that is funded by the taxpayers. Carry on.

Was reading a report that the is considering cutting the amount of subway service in the rush hours. I also saw that off hour and weekend service may be increased somewhat. This seems to dovetail with the early pandemic days and the business forecasts of more WFH employment coupled with spreading out of the workday. I also see that they are indirectly answering one of the questions that my coworkers and I brought up when we were first heard about CBTC signaling. One of the public benefits was the ability to run trains closer together. Some of us saw that as nothing more than a PR issue and this seems to partially confirm that point to some of us present when the concept was bandied about in-house. No one disputed the need for a signal system upgrade systemwide . The signal problems are painfully clear daily. The theory of running trains closer together was great, on paper, but the general public took it to mean that more trains would be on the road. The never promised more trains on the road. Even before the pandemic ridership losses. Since the rush hours always had the most service in the past please explain to me the benefits of running fewer trains closer together? What am I missing ? Carry on.

Count the number of ADA compliant train stations along the route and you will see what I've seen since I first saw the proposal.

Your last paragraph sums up my opinion 100%. I’ve been lucky enough to have met some very talented folks in RTO with some great ideas that were never implemented because they weren’t part of the clique in charge at that particular time. My take. Carry on.

A BIG difference !!!

I think the probably terminated at Jay and relayed at Bergen lower for northbound service.

Consider my Brighton line and it’s history. BMT Standards, Triplexes, SMEE equipment. #1, #7, QB, QT, Q, D, QJ, M and the NX at the southern end of the line which was actually a Sea Beach line along with the N. RR, RJ, and R were the Fourth Avenue local and the T, and the TT were the West End express and local. The IND connection over the Manhattan Bridge sent the D down the Brighton line and the F became the Culver line to Coney Island. I remember that the Brighton line riders hated the D train and they protested the loss of the Q variants to Manhattan. I take it as a generational thing but while NYCT can change the letters and numbers of the services that are run the names of the trackage traversed best describes the location and not the present day identifiers. Just my opinion. Carry on.