CenSin

lol: “long run” and “city” 😂 Has any entity after the separate IRT, BMT, and IND built their infrastructure with future needs in mind? The same thing’s been playing out for the past half-dozen decades: less money, less infrastructure. The trunk that was supposed to be SAS has been pared down to a twig, all while building the stations for more capacity than any which preceded it—the capacity which’ll drop to zero the moment a train becomes stuck anywhere along the double-tracked trunk. And anything they build in the future will be bolted on to this bare-minimum foundation.

The problem is bigger. The 125 Street branch essentially becomes the alternative to a Bronx extension. The reason is simple: Phase 2 will connect to all three branches of the Lexington Avenue line, spanning a wide swath of Bronx. That removes the urgency to actually extend the line north. The 125 Street extension would seal the deal since it would add the connections, tying the knots with the remainder of the Bronx branches. With the 125 Street extension done, the politicians can then pat themselves on the back for an unsatisfactorily satisfied transit need.

Looks like the schedule is not king after all. I got to Brighton Beach on time (5:56 AM). Conductor straight up said that supervision wants the train leaving 5 minutes later than scheduled (5:57 AM, the first of the day to leave Brighton Beach). lol

The dysfunctional consequence of election cycles combined with sports team rivalry guarantees it. Pardon the pun, but short-term results and sticking it to the others is always going to trump the long game for maximum public benefit. Assuming SAS continues getting extended, it will only get extended to where the money and political power are strongest, like a steel wire to a magnet. Manhattanville is gentrifying, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that there’s talk of a crosstown extension while the Bronx, Midtown Manhattan, and the Lower East Side have waited decades for their el replacement. Once a critical mass of affluent residents builds up and the political representation shifts to match, a 125 Street extension might be more realistic than today. I’ve been making plans to move to Manhattanville myself, and in doing so noticed how strong the allure of self-interest bends my own opinion. Those who have followed this thread have seen arguments I made years ago for giving SAS a straight shot to the Bronx instead of diverting it parallel to 125 Street where it will forever siphon off capacity from any future Bronx extension. But now I’m not so sure that I could be a purely rational champion for the extension that the Bronx deserves. When tempted with the idea that one can have both east and west side access right at his own doorsteps, the “all for me, none for thee” mentality rears its head, and I’m not sure I can avoid looking the other way as a mostly needless extension robs my neighbors of a much needed one.

Brighton is bad because the alternative is first transferring to the and then the or (i.e., an indirect transfer to an alternative) or taking the train backwards to Coney Island to transfer. 4 Avenue is fine because there are 3 links to Manhattan. Flushing is fine from Woodside to Flushing–Main Street. You get 3 chances to dip for another train (one of them being between the Flushing express and local). Past Woodside going railroad south, if the problem reaches Queensboro Plaza, you’re out of luck.

This is why I insist on these criteria for picking a place to live or work… R.O.W. must not have a double-tracked choke point into Manhattan (e.g., Brighton) without a direct alternative that is accessible before that choke point; or Two independent R.O.W.s into Manhattan (e.g., at Myrtle–Wyckoff Avenues); or At least at a triple-tracked express station where trains can bypass obstructions without skipping my stop.

Parents didn’t buy them enough toys. Give them a third rail or something to play with and they’ll go away.

…that the standard of discourse for some politicians of a particular party would sink so low. I just got a text message from one of them. This is the second election I’ve seen such angry verbiage about political opponents on the heels on Election Day—and on the local level (I.e, not Trump). Unhinged rambling is par for the course for them.

It’s a sure bet every single time.

They probably figured such a use case was too narrow. Trains that haven’t entered the East River tunnel would turn in Brooklyn. 🖕 “Transfer to the for Fi-Di, folks.” For the rest of ‘em, they figured running trains over the bridge whether to Broadway or 6 Avenue provided adequate coverage. The only people screwed are those already in the East River tunnel. Can’t spare a dime for those. On the other hand, for the longest time, the MTA also maintained a lot of redundant switches along some lines. Take the prior to all the switch reconfiguration this past year. It had: For northbound trains stretching from Avenue U to Ditmas Avenue, the only 3 switches between the express and local tracks were all for switching express trains to local. Weekend service changes were fun when they had work done around Ditmas Avenue northbound—express all the way from Avenue X to Smith–9 Streets if not all the way to Jay Street–MetroTech. Now the situation is partially reversed. They removed a switch which once existed going southbound towards 18 Avenue. Where trains were once able to switch to the local track from the express track after bypassing Ditmas Avenue, now they can’t do that until Kings Highway. Any construction on the southbound Ditmas Avenue track makes all southbound trains express from at least Smith–9 Streets to Kings Highway. I’m not complaining though.

Would probably just confuse riders and no need to add to the run time What do you mean? Those s already do that―and without any benefit to would-be passengers.

Let it be known that I was an idiot this morning on the Brighton Line. train has a door problem at Newkirk Plaza. train shows up. Okay. No biggie. I need to be at Chambers Street and would rather bet on the door problem clearing up than take the 2 extra stops. Then the next arrives. Well… the door problem has got to be fixed soon right? I stay on the . I also see another holding behind us. Then I see a arriving on the express track! Alright, so I run across the platform to the express . Surely that problem is going to take a while longer. The local leaves the station and the express holds in the station. The that was stuck behind arrives across the platform. I get on that train instead after having been burned by 3 bad bets. And then… what do you know? It moves and crawls into Parkside Avenue. The express also started moving, pulling a little ahead of us. I don’t know if it’s some kind of iron rule at the MTA, but it seems they do not like trains arriving out of order. They held that express and let the local one into Prospect Park first.

Just got back home on the to Coney Island. PM rush is atrocious because of all the s carrying air to the yard. They hold trains at 86 Street and those trains hold other trains at Avenue U and so on. It’s ridiculous how long such a movement takes. That rushed past at 18 Avenue. We caught up with it at 86 Street. Somehow it bypassed us 8 minutes ago, but was idling at 86 Street, and then blocked us for another 5 minutes to crawl into the yard. More out-of-service trains clogging up revenue tracks for yard access? lol no.

You could have the dedicated to Ozone at Park and leave the dedicated to the Rockaways now. The problem is that folks at Ozone Park prefer to wait longer for less service than to be served trains at more normal frequencies.

So tantalizingly close to Broadway Junction! Would it not be more efficient to just have the bus extend all the way to the rest of the line? Imagine getting on the , only to get off at Atlantic Avenue, just to hop on a bus to Broadway Junction to get back on a train again. It would even make more sense for wheelchair accessibility. Livonia Avenue is the northernmost station that is wheelchair accessible so the bus ought to extend at least to there.

There you have it. The MTA itself has provided a reason in favor of having trains skip 49 Street. I thought that the distance between the underground and elevated platforms would make a 137 Street transfer station much more palatable to commuters. It could take advantage of the obtuse angle between 125 Street and Broadway for a gentler curve under the elevated line. The covers a lot more area than the or , so it ought to get a transfer station. The is also the only north-south route in the area which has the least crosstown transfer options. Folks have to go all the way down to 96 Street to get a that’ll take them to 149 Street–Grand Concourse for the for the east side of Manhattan or mid-eastern Bronx. The and have the and at 145 Street, which provides access to the east without the roundabout way of going across Manhattan.

Awesome. Now make them sing, so the rest of them can be scooped up and put into prison.

I would be looking at it, as the main purposes of such a connection to the 8th Avenue line from the SAS at 125/St. Nicholas would be (for at least now): Giving the SAS line access to Concourse and 207th Street yards. In an emergency, the and trains would be able to use such to get to the SAS and from there, go to 63rd/Lex and use that to eventually get back to their regular lines. Such also opens up a ton of operational flexibility for G.O.'s and the line, and even more so on the if eventually as I think should be done, Phase 4 is extended into Brooklyn through a new Schermerhorn Street tunnel that would run under the Transit Museum station (Court Street), possibly with a new stop south of the TM before joining the Fulton Street line using the as-present unused tracks/platforms at Hoyt-Schermerhorn, allowing the to be the Fulton local to Euclid (extended late nights to Lefferts) with the and both running express in Brooklyn. Prognosis doesn’t look good for your proposal: Straight from the horse’s mouth (page 25 in the PDF, page 243 printed on the page):

A lotta things look good on paper. As for the execution…

You know how cute young kids can be when they are pretending to be cashiers with their toy cash registers/monopoly money or professors in a classroom? Then they occasionally have momentarily rational outbursts (e.g., about investing or publishing a research paper) that fall apart when you poke even gently. Those vibes…

No train would need to crap itself. Even in normal operation, there is no way an express can run for 7 stations without catching up to a local train, at which point it moves no faster than the local train. It might as well open up and let people on and off. lol. Skipping the one and only transfer station (168 Street) in the area? Local only for the college crowd? Who does this express really serve?

There’s no free transfer between platforms at Marcy Avenue. If you walk up to the wrong platform and the train just left, you’re waiting until the train on the other track leaves and the one after that train before you are moving. An alternate change would be to install an underpass.

What potentially cheap physical changes using already existing infrastructure would massively increase the quality of commutes during common planned changes (especially on the weekends)? I can think of 3 which are low-hanging fruit. Between 7 Avenue and Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center: A switch added to facilitate termination of trains between Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center and Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue. There is already a provision for switches there, and planning work that cuts Brighton off from Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn is frequent. East of 4 Avenue–9 Street: A switch in each direction between the local and express tracks to allow for transfers between 4 Avenue local trains and Culver trains when the planned work is northwest of the station. The tunnel portion for a few hundred feet isn’t under street level or even any buildings, but actually an above-ground tunnel with a parking lot for a roof. Removing columns here isn’t as much of a problem as removing them from under an occupied building. West of Marcy Avenue: Switches for turning back trains so people can connect to the bus terminal by Marcy Avenue when the Willamsburg Bridge is out-of-service.

One vocal side basically says “jail time/death sentence for anything!” The other side says “clear everything out of the jails!” Where is representation for the happy medium where we can take the weed dealers’ bunks in Rikers and give them to the fare beaters instead?

I was worried this would be some pushover, but 400+ pounds is some pretty hefty weight. I’m hoping that means it’s scratch, stab, smash, shatter, shock, and waterproof.