QM1to6Ave

Looks like I might get some free tickets from a colleague to the hockey game at UBS Arena on Tuesday night. I’ll probably take LIRR there and back, but I’ve read there is a long walk to the game and that the trains are often packed. Any one have advice for the trip? 

8 hours ago, Robert Spire said:

Now the majority of bus operators at MTA Bus are from what's called the consolidated list which are operators hired after June 6, 2009. If they cut CP express service, if they want to work express that bad they can always pick into EC or YO the next year. I'll make a point of saying there's no more people hired from Queens or Steinway Transit driving anymore and only about 65 or so Queens Surface operators still driving at CP out of about 560 operators. 

That is very interesting information! Yeah, I can think of only 1 or 2 old timers I still see driving regularly on my routes. Even the guys I used to see who got hired around 2009 have mostly disappeared. I see a few on occasion, but I see so many new faces regularly, which suggests lots and lots of turnover on these picks.

On 3/26/2024 at 9:46 AM, Gotham Bus Co. said:

Empty buses is a great way for them to lose work due to service cuts.

I'm sure they figure they will just pick a different line. Given the crazy high absenteeism level, there is more than enough work to go around to just barely fill service, even if they made cuts.

On 3/26/2024 at 10:09 AM, Bill from Maspeth said:

No.  The operators at College Point do whatever they want.  It's a total lack of supervision.

Right, that is my point. The CP B/Os don't have any consequences for their actions, so they do everything they can to avoid having to work. You may remember my posts from the height of covid, when I had to get VG8 to contact MTA higher-ups to get the dispatchers to meet me at my stop, to catch the B/Os who were turning off their signs and blowing past me, so they could have empty buses and not drive into the city.

Ever since then, I've noticed that B/Os don't say "you're welcome" when folks say "thank you", they don't kneel the bus, they block seats, they sit at the terminal and leave a few minutes late consistently, and all sorts of other small things that just drive away riders over time.

I actually did listen to a City Council hearing from a few days ago, with Richard Davey, who made a point of saying they are looking into expanding EXP service concurrent with congestion pricing, but then also noted that absenteeism on the DOB side is statistically significantly higher now than in years past, and they didn't really indicate any solutions to this. He did also note they are trying to improve bus tracking to include tracking on detours, which is nice. 

2 hours ago, 7-express said:

It doesn't make sense to me though.  Folding up a row or two of wheelchair seats won't significantly reduce demand or occupancy.  Other than annoy the couple people who can't sit there anymore.

I know it sounds crazy, but these guys will do anything to annoy passengers so they stop going on that bus. I've seen them be incredibly petty with passengers they don't like

5 hours ago, 7-express said:

I am noticing on the newer buses I get on, at least one wheelchair seat is flipped up or pulled forward for no real reason.  I don't get why a B/O would do this...other than decrease overall capacity of the bus?

The front seat being blocked offer never ended on CP buses but they'll generally let a regular move it and sit up there, at least on the ones I've been on.

Don't get me started about service reliability/service delivery.  It's been atrocious over the last couple of months with missing runs and proven by the MTA's own stats.

I 100% believe the BOs do it to keep people off of their buses so they can have empty runs. I think since covid, they got spoiled woth empty buses and never wa t to go back to full runs

THank god I've been able to avoid having to take the bus too many times per week because of some job modifications. It's been a while since I encountered a real a-hole B/O, but today's guy on the QM1 takes the cake. He blocked off 4 sets of seats (i.e., both sides of the two front rows) with his personal belongings and tying all the seatbelts together like a spider web, plus he flipped up all of the wheelchair seats. The bus ended up getting fairly crowded, so a lady flips down one wheelchair seat. The B/O starts yelling at her "I put that seat up for a reason! You can't put down the seat" Meanwhile, she got on at the last pick-up stop so there is clearly no wheelchair passenger. The lady apologizes and moves to a different seat. If it was me, I would have yelled "what is the reason? Go ahead and call command and tell them your reason for blocking seats and causing an ADA violation. Let's see what they say, jacka**"

I was too tired to take pictures and report the B/O like I used to do, because nothing ever happens anyway to get these guys in trouble.

On 3/4/2024 at 9:53 AM, RTOMan said:

Put it this way its more interesting.. I have to make it my business to be aware of whats going on more than ever now..

Railroad goes to chit im ping ponging a lot which is cool i like to stay busy...

Ha! Sounds like something new every day, cool!

13 hours ago, RTOMan said:

Meaning im just staying at the terminal relaying trains or taking a train or two or three to the yard...

Got it, that sounds cool. Is that more interesting or more boring than being on the (F)oxtrot?

58 minutes ago, RTOMan said:

Oh i totally forgot about this i guess  now that im switching i dont pay attention that much to Road stuff..

CBTC in effect on this dates along the Culver...

From Kings Highway to West 8th Street all tracks..

Effective 2200 hours on Friday, March I, 2024 - 2359 hours on Sunday March 3, 2024.

Effective 2200 hours on Friday. March 8, 2024 - 2359 hours on Sunday March I 0, 2024.

Effective 2200 hours on Friday, March 15, 2024 - 2359 hours on Sunday March 17, 2024.

So some of yall can go outside and see those flashing greens...

IF its in effect though maybe someone can verify....

What are you switching to?

16 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

Oh boy. I can't tell you the amount of times I try to enforce something and I get immediately screamed at, or someone threatens to harm me. 

Point is,  needs to do something about this, agency wide. We shouldn't have to be defending ourselves for doing our jobs. Have more police presence, speed up response times, and actually enforce the #1 which causes most of these problems in the first place, which is farebeating.

I see the Eagle Team on the M15 much more frequently in the last few weeks (as in, I never saw them once for about 7 years on the line), but even they have no power to actually stop someone who just walks away from them. I've even see Transit cops working with the Eagle Team, and they let people slip right past them without getting tickets.

5 minutes ago, Lex said:

I mean, have you seen the 20 years leading up to COVID smacking us in the face?

Yeah, things did start to go downhill after the 90s. Sigh, the 90's were good times (well, not for everyone, but for me at least)

1 hour ago, JoshTheScrub said:

Man... these poor MTA workers going through it, it's sad.

And going off topic, I worked city seasonal aide for city parks during the summer and lemme tell y'all, people get mad when you enforce a rule on them (most of them comply, some turn violent) they wanna turn up because they can't follow one simple rule. These people don't treat us city workers with respect... like we gotta defend ourselves on the job before someone actually hurt us or kill us for the littlest things. 

I've noticed that issue got really bad since covid. People are so angry, they are just looking for any reason to verbally or physically assault anyone. Respect for others has gone to zilch since covid. I even heard a report on the news that some researchers are trying to measure levels of anger in the population because all these researchers have noticed anecdotally how much more angry people have become

On 2/9/2024 at 1:53 PM, LGA Link N Train said:

I was lucky enough to catch both 211T Sets, they’re running Back to Back as I’m typing this. But I gotta say, I prefer the Soft Shell’s a little bit more over the hard Shells. Outside of that, I like how the FIND Displays have the upgrade of presenting your car number and station navigation. Outside of that, nothing too crazy or Different from the 211A outside of the Gangways. I do hope that these trains are successful as they do feel nice. 

What type of station navigation do the cars display? I haven't been on them yet. 

6 hours ago, mikecintel said:

What stations are those?  The ones I got too they are working.  Unless they are doing maintenance.  I stills says "Metro card" only?

34th-Penn comes to mind, as well as some other midtown stations, last I checked. 

On 1/25/2024 at 9:37 AM, mikecintel said:

Yes I see it is like me calling the reps about when the senior reduce fare physical OMNY card will be mail and they don't even know when they will mail it.  Also they don't even know when all the OMNY vending machines will be install at all the 472 stations.

THe OMNY readers I see in stations are still not in service

I'm sure they end up finding some fraudulent overtime in maintenance, where the guy who claimed to inspect the car was actually in Florida

On 1/19/2024 at 9:42 PM, Around the Horn said:

As seen publicly posted to twitter

 

I'm LOLing that they require "an extremely precise stop" at these stations...as opposed to the usual "sort of precise" stop?

3 hours ago, 7-express said:

ABC7 has posted an interview with the train operator in front of the disabled 1 train who was acting as a flagger.  Seemed to point the finger at a radio communication technical error: https://abc7ny.com/subway-collision-derailment-train-operator-new-york-city/14310375/

Wow, that is a powerful interview. I hope this T/O Valentine didn't just get himself in hot water by talking to the press.

9 hours ago, Cait Sith said:

Whatever that is deemed to be too much info or whatever, hit the report button and we'll take a look at it. Us mods and the admins aren't around all the time to look at everything on this site, but the reports notify us.

And as for the second part. It's not just forums where information is going around like wildfire, its places like Facebook/FB Messenger, Discord groups(which has become extremely popular among these teenage fans), facebook groups and more. And I do have to side with @R32 3838on the statement that employees do tell these kids sensitive information in various places on the internet, as a lot of these kids always try to make friends with employees for their own gain(which is especially true on Instagram).

Social media, and the internet as a whole has become a hunting ground for information for these kids, not just transit forums like this one.

That is very interesting...you always hear about adults who groom kids to trick them into being abused and whatnot, but these kids sound like they are "grooming" the adults and manipulating them! Pretty scary.

1 hour ago, Peter Dougherty said:

At yesterday's NTSB conference they stated that the light train had the brakes and motors cut out in the front five cars; the R62As here are arranged in two 5-car units to make up a train.  The front half of the train was rolling essentially like a shopping cart; no motor, no brakes, just being pushed and stopped from the 5-car unit behind. It was said that there were two employees at the head end looking out the front, ostensibly relaying signal and track information to the train operator who was in the 6th car of the train and making control inputs from there.

It's highly doubtful that the local track's home signal (X-288) would have been showing anything but a stop indication at this point for at least two reasons: A conflicting/crossing movement was lined in front of it, and the block was occupied. The very design of an interlocking is to prevent this precise thing, by displaying a stop indication, enforced with a trip arm. With the lead car's brakes cut out, getting tripped would have had no effect. As such I strongly doubt the signal system or the tower/OCC operator(s) would have any blame at all. I hope there were platform cameras recording to capture the light train's actions; that will be absolutely key, in my opinion.

To me, it all comes down to why that train was in the station at all, and even if it was authorized to be there by supervision, did it stop at the home signal? If it did, why did it move with the signal still displaying a stop indication? If it didn't stop, why didn't it stop if there were TWO crew members observing the road ahead, both radio equipped, both presumably with the ability to issue a stop command to the train operator 300 feet behind them.

Another question I have is if the A division road channel on the radio was clear at the time or congested, and whether the crew was operating on that road channel, or the train-to-train "talkaround" channel. The transit system's radio system infrastructure is essentially a holdover from the 1960s only with more modern radios. I don't know where the road channel's transmitting antenna is located for that section of track, but it's entirely possible that if the train crew was operating on the talkaround channel and the dispatcher-to-train (road) channel was also transmitting at the same time and with enough power, a stop command might not have been easily heard. With FM radios, whoever has the loudest signal wins and that's what the receiver captures; it would override a weaker signal underneath it. Granted this is a stretch, and wild speculation on my part, but as somewhat of a radio expert, I can tell you I've seen this situation occur many, many times, where a simplex transmission is missed because a repeater or a different and stronger simplex transmitter keys up at the same time; the weaker signal is not received. If the STOP command was given and the channel was congested, it's possible the train operator never received the command. But that still doesn't answer the question of why it didn't stay stopped at the home signal.

Thank you for that summary!

10 hours ago, Kamen Rider said:

when we cut out the brakes on a train, the trip cock does nothing. 

Ahh, thank you! This may sound dumb, but what does "cutting out the brakes" mean exactly? The train can still be stopped.manually, right?

I don't understand how one of the two trains wasn't stopped by a red signal 

1 minute ago, Kingsbridgeviewer382 said:

Maybe? Best case scenario, it's just the flooring that got bent and can be replaced easily. Worst case scenario, the frame is too damaged for a repair to be feasible. Either way, that 5-car set (2411-2415) is going to be out for quite a while.

Yeah, they won't even be able to touch it for a long time while the investigation is underway. I wonder if NTSB gets involved here.

Jesus, I don't remember seeing pictures like that in a while. I'm confused as to what happened exactly--sounds like a work train hit the train and then the derailed from the impact (or from crossing over a switch from the impact?). I'm sure details will come out, but that is really scary.

I'm guessing stop arms don't stop work trains that cross red signals?