shiznit1987

Here's my list of transfers and station improvements that the MTA should consider building: 

1) Connecting DeKalb Ave  and Nevins St   in Brooklyn with a fare zone passageway. Will reduce crowding at Atlantic-Barclays 

2) Speaking of DeKalb, the current station should be reconstructed where the island platforms are extended to meet the 4th Ave express tracks, and then the current  tracks would be on the outside pair, with the  tracks being served by new side platforms dug out. So In effect, the station would consist of two pairs of side platforms for the  and two island platforms serving the  . This means in the future we can deinterline DeKalb and make it a easy transfer. 

3) Woodhaven Blvd   needs to be made an express stop. Just do it already.  

4) A connection should be built between Hoyt-Schemerhorn  and Nevins St  as well

5) A transfer between Queens Plaza and QB Plaza

6) A transfer between Lex-63rd st  and Lex-60th  

7) A lower level built on the Lex Express at 51st so the  can stop there. 

8) Connect Columbus Circle   and 57th St on the  

9) Connect Prince St  to the Bleecker St complex  

7 hours ago, Kamen Rider said:

The operations planning people want route consistency as much as reasonably possible. The N running via the bridge during the day vs the tunnel at night does not add new stops, it’s effectively just running on an express shortcut.

 

move the F back and forth between 63rd street and 53rd (unless you expand M service which is a whole other can of worms) every day is not something they condone at this time, especially at this time while CBTC East work is still ongoing.

 

i mean, it took the better part of 60 years for someone to say “you know, maybe the M should at least go to Essex street on the weekend at very least”*, sending it back to Queens is going to take a lot of justification to get people to agree with the idea.

(*I still complain openly that the Myrtle el, which for the record is my home line, is the only two transfer to midtown zone at night, but that’s a rant for another day)

The tunnel  most definitely adds new stops: Court St, Boro Hall, Whitehall, Rector and Cortlandt. 

FWIW I do sympathize with your point, it's not convenient for either the MTA internally nor the riding public when one service has three or four different service patterns in a single day (see 1990s  trains). My own personal proposal features an expansion of  QB service to weekends, leaving only late nights to contend with, in which case all riders know stuff changes all around past 11pm or so. Having  on 53rd all times except late nights (late nights 63rd st) isn't beyond the pale in context of changes the system already undergoes. 

On 3/20/2024 at 9:38 AM, RTOMan said:

Yes they will be done with 63rd street come April 1st  (im sure with a few GOs for punch work a shutdown weekend)..

Service patterns will go back to how it was before  63rd, 53rd...

For those who wish (and i mean wish) for the flip flop not happening because the  will be cut back as it is already and just adding more switch movement in the 36th street area just isn't worth the CBTC glitch factor.

It Glitches out often in that area.

Weekend late night late evening service however might be different (ill really find out once i see that supplement)..

  service local a bit more so no more Full time  express service in Queens.

I can't see them letting the  go local late nights. People already have ridiculous bus rides just to get to Jamaica to make everything local would set everyone off. CBTC work is one thing but I don't see the MTA being let off the hook for that one. 

On 3/19/2024 at 10:53 PM, RSMG106 said:

 

 It is best for the to run via 63rd Street, and continue running on the local tracks to Forest Hills, and allow for the to be via 53rd Street. This service pattern is popular with riders, and it is sadly being thrown out of the window in favor of how it was prior to the shutdown.

Ironically, that's part of the problem right there. Everyone loves the  down 53rd st so much so that by the 1990s Lex/53rd was dangerously overcrowded. I want the / swap too, but that might be part of the MTA's calculus. 

All this is just security theater until they overturn the bail laws. Who's gonna care about getting caught with a piece when they're out within 24 hrs. Waste of money. 

As for gun control, NYS has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation. Canada isn't shooting free either, Toronto has some rough pockets plus the TTC has had a recent crime wave. Britian now stops people for *knives* in the poor parts of London, Birmingham, etc. 

Unless you address a) drug addiction, b) forcing the mentally ill into treatment, no more coddling c) giving these teens/young men jobs d) fixing the schools and finally real consequences for serious crime, then nothing is going to change. 

For what it's worth, QB service has *never* been this smooth with both the  and  running along 53rd st. i am going to miss this GO badly...

What are my chances of catching an R211 on the weekend? I was thinking of getting out there this Sunday but I don't want to waste my time...

On 1/2/2024 at 5:24 PM, IAlam said:

There is demand it's just that it shouldn't be the job of the Q44. Had it been a Flushing to Fordham route that would be one thing but Jamaica to Fordham, is just too much. Jamaica to Fordham would honestly benefit from a regional express bus, but we don't do that here in MTA land.

This is why I suggested breaking up the Q44: 

Q44 SBS: Fordham to Flushing

Q45 SBS: Flushing to Jamaica w/ possible extention to JFK. 

On 1/1/2024 at 8:27 AM, MysteriousBtrain said:

The first part, I felt NIMBYs had a huge play in the Q73 not being a factor in the final plan.

The second part, idk I thought that too bit if it was gonna go further east I would give it a LTD variant. But the current eastern terminal is good as is

What I may be more interested in is if the Q64 was able to be extended west connecting Glendale Mall to Forest Hills for easier connections of the mall and the . (One could argue or won't really do much but it's also a way to take ease from the long ride to Victor Moore so I feel 50/50 on this).

I'd love if the Q64 went straight down 71st then down Metropolitan to Atlas Park. Would make for a nice subway connector for Forest Hills/Glendale. The Q23 can be cut back to Continential to serve as a FH-Corona crosstown. 

Honestly, alot of this new plan is just shuffling deck chairs. What happened to expanding SBS? Right off the bat Q46, Q66, Q60, Q69, Q43, Q4, Q5, Q6, Q111 should all be SBS. I do love the new Q98 thou. Personal note: MTA *refuses* to up frequency on the Q53/Q52. Why?

12 hours ago, Bill from Maspeth said:

"Buy America" is not nonsense because the manufacturing of the cars gives Americans jobs, rather than those jobs going overseas.

And there is no such thing as an "off the shelf design".  That is because even though the gauge may be standard, the clearance window varies from system to system.

 

 

Designs can be calibrated for system particularities. If Alstom and Siemens can build HSR trains in Europe with several different power systems, signaling regimens, and even different track guages (Spain) then that's not an issue. 

While in spirit I do in fact want American jobs here we need to face facts: We don't have the business demand of Europe or Asia for heavy rail equipment. We can dig our heels in and accept that only a few players will set up shop in the hopes of reeling in a "big fish" every 5 or 10 years of so or realize that if we're to expand upon the uptake of transit in this country we need to find a way to get costs down and this is one way in which it can be done. 

8 hours ago, Kamen Rider said:

The idea then is to bid for other agencies contracts when not working on our own.

It sounds tempting, but only SF DC Chicago and Boston have systems of a size and scope to make it worthwhile. Remember that Alstom, Siemens and Kawasaki are all conglomerates with multiple endeavors other that heavy rail car manufacturing. It's a huge lift to have to put up the immense upfront capital costs of a manufacturing facility and retain the thousands of employees to excecute 500-1000+ car orders. 

What we should do is drop the Buy America nonsense and purchase off the shelf designs that have been working around the world for decades rather than MTA management demanding that we reinvent the wheel because "New York is special"

7 hours ago, ArchytectAnthony said:

Yeah I also have the same feeling for things like station renovations, installing cbtc, trackwork etc.

Imo, I feel like the mta relies so much on contractors for everything that it feels like the mta doesn't even do anything in house. Especially when relying on them too much can and has caused many issues and delays in various projects from what I can tell. (Not to mention corruption lol).

Construction and signaling should definitely be in house. If the MTA had an in-house construction agency like WMATA did during their boom years of the 1970s to 1990s I bet alot more could get built. Railcar manufacturing is too sporadic to be effective in house. There's a big order at best every 10 years but in some cases there's been 20 year gaps in purchases. 

17 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

I love how they said the  and  like the  has been running one since they came out lol.

Most people see the  and  as a combined entity so no biggie. The local news has never seen it fit to be super on point when it comes to the subway. 

6 hours ago, Chris89292 said:

I hate how the MTA has to close only 1 side of the platform during Station Rehabilitation on the  and , they could’ve closed it all together and get the work done much faster, people can just walk to the next station, they know something good is coming out from it, the delays on these projects are insane 

Considering how far behind they are at Woodhaven Blvd, heck-to-the-NO on closing both sides. It's bad enough I no longer have the option of taking the Q53 to the  when I need/want to get to Jamaica, but then to not have that option coming home is too much. 

If one (side) platform can't be done on time why trust that two would? Plus, the 82nd st station on the  is monsterously busy I can't see it being fully closed. 

What is everyone's thoughts on passenger-activated doors in the subway? In Paris and other european cities the doors don't open automatically, intead you push a button. I think this would help extend the life of door motors as outside of peak hours and busy stations not all doors will need to open all the time, plus it might make C/R jobs easier too as doors cannot be opened last minute. 

Personally, I'm in favor of extending the M60 to Flushing. Stop and think about it: You would now have an SBS link from Flushing not just to LGA, but now to Astoria and Upper Manhattan. Another option would be breaking apart the Q44 SBS into two pieces: A Q44 SBS from Fordham Plaza, thru Parkchester and Flushing to LGA and a Q45 SBS from LGA, to Downtown Flushing, then down Main Street to Jamaica. This Q45 SBS could be extended down to JFK as well. 

While I realize this isn't the spot to discuss this, let me just ask the forum: Will congestion pricing kill Back to the office, thus negating any potential ridership increases?

My two cents: 

• I'm glad they're ditching the idea of combining the Q10 and Q64, very dumb idea. Same for sending the Q23 down Union Turnpike. 
• I actually like the Q63. It will have the side effect of helping speed up and better regulate Q66 service. 
• Not sure what extending the B62 to Astoria is supposed to do for anyone. 
• I fear the proposed B57 is a nice idea, but will fare badly in practice. 
• I hope they don't cut the Q53 back from Woodside. Just extend the Q52 to Jackson Heights and please, please, please increase the frequency. 
• I also think that sending the Q27 and Q17 into College Point will also kill reliablilty. Maybe have College Point be served by their own routes? I do like the Q17 being cut back to Fresh Meadows thou. 
• I like the Q75 idea. 
• Breaking up the Q38 for no real reason doesn't make sense to me. 
• Removing Q47 from Calamus Ave pretty much kills any reason for the route to exist. All the ridership is on Calamus. Just keep the bus on Calamus until Grand then route it to 80th St from there. 
• Not feeling the Q21 extention. Leave the Q11/Q21 alone.  

Maybe i'm reading it wrong, but Forest Hills and Kew Gardens are slated to get a massive service boost with each other's trains stopping at the other. I'm stoked. 

The only thing is that due to the driver shortages, the Q60 can be hit or miss at night. If I'm coming from the city, I'll always take the  to Roosevelt then assess what's running from there (Q53, the OBL, Q47 etc). 

Considering the fit the North Shore is having over the elimination of Port Washington skip-stop I had a thought: 

There's an area just past the Bayside station that has room for a couple of sidings that could turn trains. With this in mind, my proposal is to basically split the Port Wash into an "inner" and "outer" zone with two predominant service patterns: 

"Outer Zone" trains stop at Woodside then continue express to Bayside, afterwards making all stops to Port Washington. 

"Inner Zone" trains make all stops to Bayside, then turn around at new sidings just past the station. 

there would be 30 mins off peak service on both zones with trains alternating between GCT and Penn. 

In the short term, the answer is HEETs, HEETs and more HEETs. 

In the longer term, I'd like a two-door system where the first set of barriers are open and the second closed, tap your OMNY/Metrocard, that first set of doors closes behind you and the second one that's in front of you opens. The turnstile resets to close the second set of doors and open the first after 2 seconds for the next passenger. This is so people don't try to jam their way in behind people. 

I don't have any answer for the buses other than expanding the eagle teams to non SBS routes. 

Speaking of "Grand Central Madison", I noticed on OpenRailwayMap that there are tail tracks down to 39th St. How hard would it be to connect those tracks to the existing east river tunnels and create a loop, thereby sending almost all LIRR trains to Grand Central. 

16 hours ago, T to Dyre Avenue said:

 

While I continue to have mixed feelings about restoring service onto the RBB, I would like to see a real solution to the two-headed mess called Woodhaven and Cross Bay boulevards. I don’t claim to have the solution, but if it can involve some sort of improved bus, bike or rail transportation that will encourage more people who drive on Cross Bay/Woodhaven to leave their SUVs at home, then I’m all for it. At least if rail is restored to this corridor, the right-of-way doesn’t have to be built entirely from scratch, unlike many other, better candidates for subway extension in Queens (though some new tunneling would be required to connect into the existing system, of course).   

But again, I have mixed feelings. And I do think there are better corridors that merit an extension of the subway. The problem is, almost all of them would have to be built entirely from scratch. A potential Queens Super Express or an  extension to Rosedale/Laurelton would likely not be, but they would still need some new tunneling to connect to the existing system. 

IMHO, living right along Woodhaven myself, I'd prefer a light rail that makes the same stops the Q52/Q53 do now with Woodhaven Blvd station converted to an express station. That truly would cover all the bases IMHO. I don't think that Eastern Queens should see subway extentions unless there was some massive increase in total subway capacity into Manhattan. These ideas of sending the // further into Queens don't account for the fact that the trains are already saturated and any extention eastward would either just pick up the same riders or simply overwhelm the system. Instead, there should be light rail lines along the LIE, Union Tpke, Sutphin, Merrick, Hillside, Lefferts, Woodhaven, Northern, etc, connecting to the subway to both speed up service and boost intra-boro transit capacity.