Kamen Rider

Okay, first of all, you had a bit of an “obnoxious tone” first, the whole “I’ve been riding the subway for almost 45 years…” and then when given a reason by me, that the CBTC computers aren’t built for it, you ignore it, to the point I had to repeat myself.

I’m only about 10 years behind you on riding the subway… and the knowledge I have today vs that of a little over a year ago is vastly different. My point of all that is that rider based knowledge… buff knowledge, has a limit. And that working down here shatters that limit. The reasoning for decisions that didn’t make sense to me a few years ago now is as common sense to me as breathing.

You don’t see or hear everything we have to do every day. You are only exposed to a tiny fraction of the work it takes to make the system run, just from our perspective as train crews. 

as an example. I mentioned “106 Ball”, that is the home signal at the bottom of the Williamsburg Bridge, just outside Essex street. All trains coming down off the bridge have to announce themselves over the radio to Essex to tower for our proper lineups to be given when we are about to pass that signal.

”Essex Tower approaching 106 ball you have the 1234 Juliet-Parsons to Broad”

did you know we had to do that, at various locations?  Most people don’t.

I didn’t. Until I started working here. Same probably from Comrade. 

Is it a possibility they end up on the F? Yes.

is it happening any time soon? No, because they are not qualified over there. Right now they’re not qualifying anybody.

the A crews aren’t fully up to snuff and they now have four trains running around.

18 hours ago, T to Dyre Avenue said:

Excuse me, but I’ve been riding the subway for the better part of the past 45 years. I think I know a hell of a lot more than “squat” about the system when I show interest in it. 

Okay then:

what’s a G2?

when the conductor has full indication but the train operator does not, what’s the probable cause?

what’s the significance of 106 Ball.

what’s the meaning of three short buzzers?

Which yard requires a hard hat?

what does ATPM mean?

If a train operator sees another employee standing on the roadbed with his arm straight out to the side, holding his flashlight steady, what does that mean to the train operator?

these are all things we who work for RTO have to know. Can you answer any of these off the top of your head?

The first supplements for 63rd GO have been posted and yes, those local E and F periods are for work train movement windows.

5 hours ago, T to Dyre Avenue said:

Excuse me, but I’ve been riding the subway for the better part of the past 45 years. I think I know a hell of a lot more than “squat” about the system when I show interest in it. And I really don’t think making a suggestion to add more capacity to the  line should be dismissed as being a “buff who don’t know squat!” You see, this agency (and its predecessors) has a history of saying “no can do” to suggestions made by the riding public, even when other transit agencies prove successful with the exact same suggestions. At least give me a real reason why 9-car 179 trains would be more trouble than it’s worth to operate. Instead of saying I know squat. Is that really too much to ask?

I did…

the B division CBTC control software is not designed to recognize a nine car train.

the other problem is the possibility of the train getting looped around, leaving it backwards to the way it should be.

the washes at 207 and Jamaica are on the loop tracks, for example.

Clarification.

the CBTC transponders are often installed in areas where CBTC itself is not available but CBTC equipped trains run.

The south end of the 4th avenue line does not have active CBTC.

I know we like to keep some details of how this system works to ourselves, but I will say there are different modes for CBTC and the mode down there is “doing this the old fashioned way with the signals.”

big clue… no flashing green signals at 95th street.

Because I can’t leave you children alone for hardly 10 seconds…

the 211T set at Jamaica is for CBTC integration testing. See how well the train behaves while under CBTC operation.

it is not there for passenger service. Not yet at least. This is just for using the QBL’s functional (somewhat) CBTC infrastructure. Assuming someone doesn’t look at the Queensboro Zone controller funny again…

as for running 9 car R179s… no. We’re not doing that. The computers would throw a fit, the CBTC wouldn’t know what do do with it and just because the 7 runs in that fashion does not mean the rest of us can do it.

we’re more likely to take a page out of the R188 playbook and order more B cars to turn them into 10 car trains.

and for the record that is not what’s been decided on when the time comes, that was me pulling that idea out of thin air.

the fact I needed to elaborate on that shows how little I trust you all with information these days if a basic statement can get so badly misunderstood.

so it looks like at least one R211 set will be doing CBTC testing on the Queens Corridor this week in the overnights. 

On 8/6/2023 at 10:02 PM, Vulturious said:

 

Back at it again with crazy proposals, I thought about what if a connection from the Brooklyn-Broadway (or is it the other way around? Doesn't matter) were to have a connection to the Broadway line heading uptown. 

Essentially a connection is made through the current active tracks along the Nassau St line with a new tunnel built cutting off the connection to the northbound tracks from Canal St keeping the southbound tracks intact. Basically the same thing occurs along Broadway with another Canal St style cut north of the switches between local and express. This next bit is pretty much optional, but I decided to include widening the area along the line to allow a connection between Prince St and Broadway-Lafayette St to allow for one last transfer between the express and local trains along Broadway. Obviously, Eastern Division is going to see platform extensions under this scenario because them sticking with the 8 car 60 footers while along Broadway Express is going to be atrocious.

New routing patterns follows (bear with me as I'll explain below why this is):
-  Bedford Park Blvd/145 St to Coney Island [Concourse Peak Local, CPW Local, 6 Av Express, via Manhattan Bridge, 4 Av Express, West End Local]
-  Norwood-205 St to Coney Island [Concourse Peak Express, CPW/6 Av Express, via Manhattan Bridge, Brighton Local]
-  Norwood-205 St to Brighton Beach [Concourse Peak Express, CPW/6 Av Express, via Manhattan Bridge, Brighton Express]
-  Jamaica-179 St to Coney Island [Hillside Av Local, QBL Express, via 63 St, 6 Av Local, South Brooklyn Express, Culver Local]
-  Forest Hills-71 Av to Church Av [QBL Local, via 53 St, 6 Av Local, South Brooklyn Local]
-  Jamaica Center to Bay Ridge-95 St [QBL Express, via 53 St, 8 Av Local, via Montague St, 4 Av Local]
- (Yellow) 96 St-2 Av to Jamaica Center [2 Av Local, Broadway Express, via Williamsburg Bridge, Brooklyn-Broadway Peak Express, Jamaica Av Local]
- (Yellow) 96 St-2 Av to Metropolitan Av [2 Av Local, Broadway Express, via Williamsburg Bridge, Brooklyn-Broadway Local, Myrtle Av Local]
-  Astoria-Ditmars Blvd to Coney Island [Astoria Local, via 60 St, Broadway Local, via Manhattan Bridge, 4 Av Express, Sea Beach Local]
-  Forest Hills-71 Av to City Hall [QBL Local, via 60 st, Broadway Local]

I decided to get rid of the  and  since more people know the  and  along the Eastern division especially since the  would no longer be running along Brighton, might as well not keep it around. Now for how the  is running into Brooklyn to begin with, a new connection is made to cover for the lack  service. I wanted to keep  routing short since it's just too long honestly and just isn't reliable. As for the service in South Brooklyn, because of the lack of Broadway service along, I decided to swap around the  and  to basically be what they used to be during the 90's with basically the  running around as the , but got rid of it the Q's name since there's no need in keeping it around. I would've had the  running around on Brighton, but I decided keeping the flexibility between 3 different trunk lines running around along 4 Av, the  and .

Service patterns follows:
-  Rush hours to Bedford Park Blvd, weekdays to 145 St, weekends to 96 St replacing (yellow) trains, late nights to Atlantic Av-Barclays Center express along 4 Av
-  Rush hours peak express in the Bronx,  trains run weekdays only
-  Hillside Av Express during rush hours, local during weekends and late nights
-  Hillside Av Local during rush hours, in service weekdays only
-  Current service pattern
- (Yellow) Peak express along Brooklyn-Broadway during rush hours, late nights local in Manhattan
- (Yellow) Current service pattern
-  Late nights local in Brooklyn stays running along Manhattan Bridge
-  Late night single track shuttle between Canal St and City Hall.

Crazy is right... So you take what you perceive as being wrong with the R... and make it the E's problem instead...

First off, the entire point of making the B the Brighton express was it removed the West End shuttle. That way all four lines to Coney Island had direct Manhattan service at all times. Going back to the shuttle... bad idea.

Problem 2... there's no place to put a switch at City Hall unless you finish out the lower level and abandon upstairs. 

Problem 3... Chambers St? Fulton Street? Broad Street? those stations are getting abandoned for what reason?
 

Then, as I keep yelling at Wally but he never seems to listen to me... the infrastructure of the BMT east cannot deal with 10 car trains. Platform extensions are just ONE of the multiple issues that a lot of you never consider when you think about these. The yard tracks at ENY, Canarsie and Fresh Pond cannot hold 10 car trains. The shop tracks in ENY barn cannot hold ten car trains. The signal blocks are not designed for 10 car trains. 

I know a lot of people have been putting 4040/9 and 4050/9 down saying “oh, they’re just going to end up on the shuttle, gangway cars won’t work” blah blah blah…

but you’re forgetting one tiny detail…

they’re still prototypes. A production 211T could have a completely different set up. It could include functionalities that the two we have now won’t.

the prototype of the “Bluebird” multi-section train didn’t come with couplers, for crying out loud.

On 8/8/2023 at 8:02 PM, Chris89292 said:

Pretty sure it’s just a bot responding to your request, no way the MTA will do something from wherever their HQ is located, it’s not like they care anyway, as long as the bots or the people responding with a click of a button on their screen get paid 

They are very much humans and they are very nice people who sit in the corner of RCC and post this stuff.

3 hours ago, CenSin said:

Didn’t they do a shutdown to renovate the entire branch not too long ago?

no, they did a shut down to replace the bridge over the Lower Montauk followed by replacing the viaduct leading into Myrtle Broadway. 

Also her automatic announcement system needed tweaking.

Her inspection cycle was up.

again… can you guys please stop trying to make guesses on how the train’s systems work…

just because it might be the case on something else does not make it the case on the 211s. 
 

They are designed differently. They are wired differently. These are not the NTTs of 20 years ago.

1 hour ago, Wallyhorse said:

And one reason nights and weekend, I revive the old late-night  shuttle by having that run between 47-50 and 57th using the uptown track.  That solves that issue for those who need 57/6th. 

you know what also solves the issue...

WALKING!

This is not 1980s NYC anymore. people are not afraid of Manhattan after sunset anymore.

4 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

They really need to rethink this  /  service change for this weekend. Instead of having two ‘s running around and confusing people, do this:

No  service running.

 trains run between Wakefield & Flatbush Ave, all times.

 trains are running between East 180th St & Dyre Ave.

 trains run between New Lots Ave & 96th St and via the  to/from 137th St-City College.

So then what runs overnights? Do you shut down the Clark Street tube? Do you send the 3 to new lots all night? What about the 4?
 

Another reason for doing it the way it was done? Crew assignments.

on a normal night, there are five crews working the midnight tour on the 3. Meanwhile there are anywhere from 14 to 18 overnight 2 train crews depending on the day of the week. 
 

and on top of this, no matter what you do, we have to people crew the 42nd st shuttle.

We’re still trying to get the announcements on the pilot set to play properly. Like I said, last time I was on it, I had to shut them off because I got tired of resetting it.

I mean… there was that time Drake fans trashed South Street Seaport…

and the time the “Belibers” shut down Roosevelt Felid Mall.

Okay, first of all… they are not “carts”. I keep seeing people use that on Twitter and it annoys me. Carts are what you push in the supermarket.

these are train cars.

secondly, he didn’t know… because we don’t do that. They are not going to interfere with a train that way. Not only that, outside of the core rush hour period, management recently told us they want us to make more connections. Strange as it might seem to outsiders, we conductors actually have discretionary authority on our trains. If I know another train is coming across the platform and if I know I am not jacking up the road, I can make the train wait.
 

thirdly, we get the holding lights at 36th because we are waiting for Murphy Tower to give us our lineup. However long that takes is on them.

5 minutes ago, Daniel The Cool said:

I mean to be fair when they did a similar G.O like this back in 2003 which lasted for like a couple months, that's what they did. 

What else was the D doing in 2003... or more specifically... what was it NOT doing?

It wasn't going to Brooklyn. 

The B and D had to share 34th street to turn around, so their service levels were cut back already, so the D could get away with it then. 

You thought single pocket operation on the D at Bedford Park would be a good idea…?

On 7/31/2023 at 7:12 AM, RTOMan said:

No that has nothing to do with CBTC that's a sensor they use for ITRAC for train movement they are all over the B Div.

If  it was a CBTC  set up there would be transponders on the roadbed.

these guys barely understand what ITRAC even is... 

Just because “they used to do it”… 

DOESN’T MEAN IT WAS A GOOD IDEA.

They got rid of the B shuttle by making those changes to south Brooklyn after the bridge tropes for the same reason, they realized how stupid it was.

We can't shut it down, the line now depends on it running to operate.