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Caelestor

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Everything posted by Caelestor

  1. In North America, transit operators are obsessed with faster running times on trains, but in reality, all off-peak trains should be running local wherever possible. Off-peak trains won't be able to compete against cars based on travel times, especially during a pandemic, so might as well ramp up the frequency as much as possible. For instance, all Babylon Branch trains should be stopping at Lynbrook, but they should skip Valley Stream because of the track configuration. Likewise, all Far Rockaway and Long Beach trains should be running local to provide high-frequency service, especially for the Queens stops.
  2. I think the 50 St Crosstown should stay on 50 St, terminating at a transfer with a extension up 10 Ave. So the stops in Manhattan would be Hells Kitchen - 10 Ave , 8 Ave-Broadway (with potential transfer to Broadway 49 St), 6 Ave - Rockefeller Center , and Lexington - 3 Aves . I also think that the (8) shouldn't be duplicating LIRR service. Either build an entirely new line under Northern Blvd, or have it takeover the PW branch completely. In the latter case, the stops would be all existing LIRR stops + new stops at Queens Blvd (future Triboro RX), Broadway/Elmhurst QBL, Junction Blvd, 108 St, and Bayview Ave. Great Neck would be significantly reconstructed to allow most trains to terminate there.
  3. From a capacity perspective for the MTA as a whole, the Park Ave Line (125 St - 42 St GCT - 14 ST USQ - Fulton St - Downtown Brooklyn - Atlantic Ave / Barclays and onwards) is the best relief line that can be built for the entire Lexington Ave Line. It would also allow for the entire Atlantic Ave terminal plus half of GCT to be repurposed for other purposes. The question is, is this more important than building Gateway, lower SAS, or the Northern Blvd / 50 St crosstown line?
  4. I think both the 50 St and 57 St crosstown lines need to be built, and it comes down to what is more important - offering a large catchment to 50 St, or offering better transfers to downtown and uptown express lines, namely the since the don't stop at either 50 or 59 St. I personally favor the former (YMMV), and the missing transfers aren't as a big deal to me, because all the uptown/downtown lines have platforms that touch 50 St, compared to Columbus Circle and Lexington Ave / 59 St. As a bonus 50 St has the better alignment through the growing business district in LIC, and if connected to a brand-new Northern Blvd line, the line could be built with 21st century-standard full automation and platform screen doors. The shouldn't be running into Midtown; any East River tunnel into Queens is better off continuing east towards the seriously underserved parts of the borough. In a fantasy world, the current terminal at Court Sq would be closed and the would run up 21 St, stopping at 44 Dr and 41 Ave in a Phase 1 extension. In Phase 2, it'd stop at 36 Ave, Broadway, Astoria Blvd, and Ditmars Blvd. Lastly in Phase 3, it would turn west towards Randall's Island and become the 125 St Crosstown in Manhattan for those uptown connections. The should be extended up 10 Ave to 41 St for the connection. In the past, I've argued that it should continue further up to 72 St but it may be better to send it east along 57 St. The MTA would have its hands tied by a 50 St - Northern Blvd line, and the along 57 St would certainly allow for phased construction. It probably makes sense for the to become the QBL bypass and allow it to take over the eastern QBL local stations full-time so that it won't conflict with the in the future.
  5. The best transfers connect multiple-service lines that are perpendicular with each other. The 7 Ave transfer to 57 St -7 Ave is like Lexington Ave - 63 St but with 4 track pairs instead of 2, plus the added flexibility of connecting 8 Ave with SAS / Astoria. Similarly, the Columbus Circle transfer to 57 St - 7 Ave effectively is another orthogonal transfer because the CPW riders can access the 60 / 63 St lines heading east. A superstation complex in northwest Midtown would be a nice complement to the gigantic Times Sq / PABT complex, which is being connected further to Bryant Park via the TSQ - GCT . Lexington Ave / 59 St - 63 St can be another superstation in northeast Midtown, and if a 3 Ave line is ever built, building a 60-63 Sts stop would neatly connect the two complexes together. If the northern tracks of the Manhattan Bridge had to be shut down again for a very extended period of time, it might be worth doing a Chrystie St Redux to connect the Williamsburg Bridge tracks with the 6 Ave express tracks and redirect the Manhattan Bridge north tracks up 2 Ave. The combined with the current would allow for greater service along the Rutgers St tunnel.
  6. The Astoria-Bay Ridge line is compromised by The Astoria terminal can only turn 15 tph Solution: Extend the line to LGA, or turn some trains at Astoria Blvd or Queensboro Plaza The Bay Ridge terminal can "supposedly" only turn 10 tph, but I believe it's much higher than that Solution: Fix the terminal or extend the line to Staten Island The City Hall curve can only support 20 tph Solution: Better signaling is required I think 20 tph between Bay Ridge and Astoria is probably adequate, in conjunction with improvements such as open gangways. Really great proposal - continues the Jamaica Line down Fulton St for a better walkshed before merging back with the original Jamaica Ave tracks. I think it's okay to keep the existing stops between Myrtle Ave and Broadway Junction, Cleveland St, and Forest Parkway, but turning the more like the is pretty good.
  7. Shutting down entire trunk lines for longer than a weekend will only happen if Fastrak-style maintenance occurs. Service on parallel lines would need to be increased accordingly. That said, the subway is going to see frequency decreases, the question is how much. Off-peak weekday headways shouldn't be slashed because the peak workers should have trains to operate. Weekend and late night (if/when it returns) service are going to see the brunt of the cuts. Also, the NYC Subway has too many stations which can be costly in terms of upkeep and the number of crews needed to maintain frequent service on lines that stop too much. Stations should be located once every 1000 meters so about half a mile, or even more if stations are double-ended. Temporary station closures were done at the height of the coronavirus peak and they can be effective in conserving resources. Candidates for temporary closure, based on distance to nearby stations and ridership, would be : 18 St, Franklin St Van Siclen Ave : 104 St : 103 St : 75 Ave : Ave I, Cortelyou Rd, Ave H (since Triboro RX doesn't exist), Neck Road President St, Intervale Ave, Burke Ave, 219 or 225 St (these stations should be replaced by an accessible 222 St stop in the future), maybe Nereid Ave (but probably not because it's the terminal)
  8. Astoria - Bay Ridge + Forest Hills - Whitehall St or Forest Hills - WTC. Regarding the BMT Jamaica Line, one course of action would be to Build an accessible Union Ave stop with a free transfer to the and close Hewes and Lorimer Streets. Build a flying junction at Myrtle Ave for the . Run all trains local between Marcy Ave and Broadway Junction to increase ridership along this gentrifying part of Brooklyn. Chrystie St reconfiguration - Connect the Williamsburg Bridge to the 6 Ave express tracks and send the Manhattan Bridge north tracks up 2 Ave. I haven't thought of a good solution for the eastern Jamaica Line yet because the walkshed there is so bad. Maybe split the line into two: a new elevated express section between Cypress Hills and Broadway Junction for the to Jamaica, while the Fulton St segment is extended down Rockaway Blvd towards the . Alternatively, the subway could take over the LIRR Atlantic Branch / BMT Archer Ave Line, build some intermediate stops along the LIRR ROW, and abandon most of the Jamaica Ave segment. In any case, the eastern Jamaica Ave has an outdated route for modern NYC and it's hard to do much with it at the moment.
  9. The Northern Blvd / Midtown crosstown line, which I'll tentatively call the (8), is probably the second most-important trunk line that should be built, after lower SAS. It would divert not only riders with better stop spacing under Northern Blvd itself, but also QBL local riders who currently transfer to the at Jackson Heights. Specifically, the line could take an express route under Sunnyside Yards such that it would only stop at Vernon Blvd and Court Square between Lexington / 3rd Aves and Broadway / Northern to minimize station construction costs. The (8) would naturally be deinterlined from other lines and could be "future-proofed" with improvements such as open gangways and full automation. As for 34 St, it is a great corridor for subway service but I think 50 St is better because the latter's walkshed covers most of the Midtown CBD and could divert a lot of the normal to riders.
  10. OPTO, no overtime, and overhauling the labor requirements for weekend/overnight maintenance have to be the primary way forward. Labor requirements have to be the bulk of the MTA's costs, and this is a great opportunity to bring the agency in line with late 20th-century standards. As for service cuts: Do them well if it comes down to that. Keep the off-peak service and hit the rush hour trains and peak-hour only extensions, reflecting how all office jobs are WFH these days and to reduce the expensive labor requirement associated with them. Also, no express service should be cut because that's just effectively halving the trunk lines capacity where ridership is expected to be the heaviest. As for the : it's basically just a short-turn , and its New Lots Ave segment can easily be taken over by the during all service hours. If we're reducing the to a full-time shuttle, might as well just axe it and the relatively low-ridership 148 St branch completely and run more trains to Nereid Ave. Such a move wouldn't be completely negative because in the long run: No removes the flat junction north of 135 St from normal operations and associated delays The Bronx will get more train service overall to Harlem and the West Side. Increasing service will reduce service, but service can be increased in response. In a deinterlined IRT, the would serve both the upper White Plains and Dyre Ave lines, the would handle Jerome and Lexington Aves, and the and would just be replaced by increased service on the . The only thing stopping this from happening is the admittedly awkward transfer at 149 St - Grand Concourse. Otherwise, I don't see any full weekday services being cut. During the last service reductions, the wasn't really cut, only the in lower Manhattan and its not cost-effective peak hour extension along the West End. The was only cut because the could be extended to Astoria, but that's not an option since SAS is open. I see the being cut to 145 St, but removing it entirely should only be done if there is no economic activity going on. Granted this could happen if a second wave happens, but let's hope that doesn't happen because in that case the are gone as well. And the , not the , should be running to Brooklyn. The serves the busy Broadway corridor and the makes 6 stops in Manhattan.
  11. I still think the best non-pandemic option is to just build SAS Phase 2 as a single four-station extension into the Bronx along 3 Ave, stopping at 106, 116, 138, and 149 Aves. The latter two stops get you transfers to the and , which will free up capacity on both IRT trunks. The 125 St line is nice, but I've always seen it as part of the Triboro RX, with 116 St being the transfer to the SAS. I'm ambivalent on a temporary terminal at 116 St. That stop is only a mile away from the existing 96 St station by bus, though admittedly the choice isn't between terminating Phase 2 at 116 St vs 125 St or 149 St , it's a short extension or no construction at all.
  12. Island platforms are preferred because you only need one set of stairs, escalators, elevators, etc. to handle traffic uptown and downtown. Get rid of the mezzanine and just have exits at each end of the station to maximize coverage. That said, given the current economic reality, I would delay SAS Phase 2 indefinitely until a new crowding baseline on the is established, or until ridership/revenue recovers, probably in ~2 years. If/when stimulus comes in by a transit-friendly federal government, Gateway has to be the priority because the existing tunnels are falling apart, though that project needs to be reevaluated to not have a giant money-consuming cavern at Penn South.
  13. I'll just quote what I posted last week. My ranking for cost-cutting measures would be OPTO, then peak service cuts. If ridership doesn't rebound, only a train every 4 minutes is needed on the trunk lines - basically what the IRT runs during regular weekday hours. FWIW I think ridership will plateau for the rest of the year and the service cuts are coming sooner than later.
  14. I don't think short turns such as 137 St on the and Myrtle-Wyckoff on the are going away. In terms of fleet requirements, short turns are very efficient because fewer trains need to run empty to the ends of the lines, especially during peak hours when the labor requirement is the highest. For that reason, I think the could actually be safe this time around and it would be the (peak) headways that would get longer. Following this logic, what would be cut is a combination of peak-only and express service, especially if more people are WFH, so that service is more uniform throughout the day. If I had to make some tough decisions: Eliminate skip-stop service: this might be a service improvement for local riders. Cut the to 145 St. I don't think the can be removed from Brighton, 6 Ave, or even CPW without consequence but most Concourse riders prefer the anyways. Eliminate rush-hour trains to Rockaway Park. The excess trains could be sent to Lefferts Blvd instead. Brooklyn IRT reconfiguration: Extend the to New Lots Ave full-time, running local east of Franklin Ave. Most trains run express between Franklin and Utica Aves during rush hours to minimize congestion at Rogers Junction. Make Flatbush Ave the usual terminal for the . Some trains run local to New Lots Ave during peak hours. Make Utica Ave the usual weekday terminal for the . During peak hours, some trains may be extended to New Lots Ave or shortened to Bowling Green to minimize congestion. This "allows for" further cutbacks to the part-time and services if necessary. Death by a thousand cuts - Longer peak headways on the . That said, I would just switch to OPTO like every other metro in the world, and redirect the excess staff to managing crowds at busy stations. It's possible to reduce costs without actually impacting paying passengers.
  15. The J Church is probably gone from the subway forever because it runs only one car and doesn't serve half of the busy Market St / Twin Peaks Tunnel stations. Plus with the delays at Duboce Portal, transfering to the underground station at Church and Market isn't a huge time difference overall. I can see the L Taraval returning to Market St when ridership rebounds because transfer volumes at West Portal may be too much. The K Ingleside, which runs only one car trains, really shouldn't be entering the subway but trains can't easily turn near West Portal; hence why the K and L will be interlined when really the J and K should be the ones combined. The swap is an interesting idea that I hadn't heard of, but it trades the problem of too many merges along Queens Blvd for a 40 percent capacity cut along the 63 St line, which really should be avoided. I think the only real solution is to take the off QBL to add more trains through 53 St and 63 St. As for the , there's a deinterlined Astoria - Bay Ridge line (with QBL - Whitehall St short turns) just waiting to be used...
  16. The trains are still running from 1 to 5am, so it's not as if the lack of late night service actually saves any money. The real issue is the homeless, but that should be fixed through another social program to get them off the trains. The solution to construction woes is more FASTRAK-style complete shutdowns on select lines, whether it be weekday late nights or entire weekends. Othersise, lagging and poor practice will cause service to degrade to unacceptable levels. As for cleaner subway cars, better utilization of rolling stock would do wonders. Overnight train cars could be scheduled to run on an afternoon peak - late night - morning peak shift and be maintained at the yards during midday hours.
  17. The ESA to Atlantic proposal is politically convenient because it preserves LIRR's "territory", but I have to agree that connecting MNR with LIRR will have bigger benefits for regionral rail riders. The line that really needs to be built is GCT to Atlantic; reconstructing and electrifying the West Side Line would also create a second line would be the Hudson Line to Jamaica via Penn. (Once MNR is extended downtown, it could even connect to SIR via a long underwater tunnel, but I rank that very low in priority given Staten Island's aversion to upzoning). On the NJT side, through-routing the NEC line with the LIRR Port Washington Line and the MNR New Haven Line via Hells Gate should be done ASAP while the Gateway Tunnel to GCT via Penn is built. The Morris & Essex Lines should be connected to ESA via Union Square and Hoboken. Lastly if the Erie lines ever get electrified, they can be throughrouted with the Atlantic Ave LIRR via Downtown Manhattan, but that would require the aforementioned long NY harbor tunnel to be built so that the Harlem Line can be rerouted towards SI.
  18. Out of all the proposals on the table, the only trunk line that could be 4 tracks is 2 Ave, mainly in order to accommodate the additional capacity that would come from the Jamaica Line / 6 Ave express, Manhattan Bridge North / 2 Ave Phase 3, and the Broadway Local / Fulton St local via a new East River tunnel, and Nassau St / Bay Ridge local via Montague St tunnel takeover. Even then, it might be better just to build a parallel line under 3 Ave to not disrupt the , when/if ridership demands it. As a potential bonus, the 3 Ave line would have just as good or even better transfers at 14 St, 42 St, 53 St, and 60/63 Sts. Also, the ideal stop spacing for all-stop metros is ~1 km (0.6 miles), because stations can and should have entrances / exits at both ends. In NYC, this would be ~10 blocks, as seen in the IND local stop spacing. Express stations should typically be every 3 km (2 miles), equivalent to 1 in every 3rd local stop. In NYC, this would be about every 40 blocks, as seen in the IRT express stop spacing. Outside of NYC, regional rail such as Paris RER, London Crossrail, the non-local Tokyo commuter lines, typically serve as the "express lines" since the metros typically cover an area equivalent to just the length of Manhattan and the regional rail system serves as a suburban / express overlay to relieve crowds on the older metros.
  19. Unlike 2010, the can't run to Astoria so the will stay put for now. Night service will probably be cut; namely the would all stop running earlier in the evening.
  20. So QBL bypass doesn't rely on SAS. I just think SAS should be built first, because it's guaranteed to be heavily ridden at all times of day. QBL bypass is mainly there to relieve peak-hour QBL crowds and it would have mediocre ridership during off-hours. There shouldn't be any trains between 21 St - Queensbridge and 36 St; the purpose of the bypass is to deinterline everything and max the 53 St and 63 St tunnel capacity. So all 63 St trains run on the bypass to Forest Hills, and local to 179 St. All 53 St trains run QBL express between Queens Plaza and Jamaica Center or 179 St. The is re-extended to Forest Hills and the can keep running via the 11 St cut, but the future of the QBL local is to run crosstown under 50 or 57 St. I agree that the Sunnyside stop I suggested should be connected to Queens Plaza and the new LIRR station. Woodside should be an underground stop with an island platform, free transfer to the . There's a stop at 51 Ave for a future connection to the Triboro RX. Agreed on Woodhaven Blvd and Forest Hills.
  21. As a data scientist, you've convinced me against interlining 36 St. I was surprised to see that officially, the is only 3 minutes faster than the at rush hour, so increasing service and reducing delays along 8 Ave / 53 St should theoretically keep riders' total travel time unchanged. That said, I think sending all express trains via 63 St won't really shift ridership from QBL express to local that much, since many riders will just stay on the 6 Ave / 63 St trains (and Broadway via the transfer at Lex Ave / 63 St) because the line is already in walking distance of the 8 Ave / 53 St trains. I could also see transfer volumes at Jackson Heights - Roosevelt Ave increasing even more as riders switch over to the for Court Sq and Lex Ave / 53 St, so Woodhaven Blvd should be converted to an express stop. On that note, the only way to truly solve QBL's overcrowding is to build another line. The 63 St to QBL merge has always been very inefficient since it was never supposed to happen. The needs to be taken off QBL and put on the bypass line. With less tunneling and fewer stations (Northern Blvd / Sunnyside, Woodside, 51 Ave, Woodhaven Blvd, Forest Hills lower-level), the QBL bypass is the most cost-efficient subway expansion in Queens and should be built after modified SAS phase 3 is complete.
  22. I agree that the should run local because the 63 St line doesn't stop at Queens Plaza like the currently all do at 59 St. However, it's simpler to have only the run on the local tracks between 207 St and WTC full-time, and move the to 53 St / 8 Ave express. Then all the B division trunk lines Concourse / CPW express / 6 Ave express 207 St / CPW local / 8 Ave local - 53 St / 8 Ave express 63 St / 6 Ave local lines - Astoria / Broadway local SAS / Broadway express can be deinterlined from each other in Manhattan. This also standardizes the headways at 4 minutes on the , 6 minutes on the , 8 minutes on the so that continued interlining on QBL and at DeKalb Ave remain smooth.
  23. The Harlem Line should be extended downtown, connecting with Atlantic Terminal. Then ESA should be connected with the Morris & Essex lines. Lastly, build the SI and Hoboken to Downtown tunnels, and send the Harlem Line towards SI, once the Erie lines are fully electrified. In the meantime, SAS Phase 3 should still be built because the demand is clearly there. Build it as an extension of the Manhattan bridge north tracks, not upper SAS however, to remove the reverse branching.
  24. The is cut back to E 180 St, so the net result in Manhattan is that 7 Ave loses an express train for the weekend. On the other hand, Brooklyn gets to keep the (via Lex) when normally it would just be the running.
  25. If the Franklin Ave can remain in service until today, so can the Nassau St shuttle (call it the for clarity) after Williamsburg Bridge services are connected to the 6 Ave express tracks. Anyways, the future of the Nassau St line is to head uptown after Canal St as the SAS express, stopping at Houston St, 14 St, 42 St, 55 St, 72 St, 116 St, and running into the Bronx as the Third Ave line. As for 50 St / 8 Ave, the solution is pretty clear. Local trains should be stopping at the upper level, and express trains stopping at the lower level. Then the 6 Ave express tracks can fully take over the CPW express tracks, and simplify the Manhattan services into 207 St - WTC local, 24/7 145 St lower level / Bedford Park Blvd (rush hours) - 6 Ave express, weekdays Norwood - 6 Ave express, 24/7 53 St - 8 Ave express - Fulton express, 24/7 53 St - 8 Ave express - Fulton local, 19/7 As for Queens Blvd, the lines should be 53 St - QB express 63 St - QB express 53 St - QB local 63 St - QB local which does keep reverse branching on QBL but at least the problematic 53 St / 6 Ave and 60 St / QBL merges disappear. If the is cut off from Williamsburg Bridge, then it can be retired and the entire 63 St / 6 Ave / Culver line can be rebranded the lines. Then on Broadway, the can take over the entire Astoria / Broadway / 4 Ave local tracks, with short-turn trains between Queensboro Plaza and Whitehall St, and the can take over the entire SAS / Broadway express tracks. In a full-deinterlining scheme for the Manhattan bridge, the would run via West End and the would run via Brighton, but I'm not certain that's entirely necessary yet if the rest of B Division is fixed. If the 6 Ave express tracks are connected to the Williamsburg bridge and the Manhattan bridge north tracks run up 2 Ave, then the would take over Brighton.
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