SUBWAY - Random Thoughts Topic

[vioreen]

16 minutes ago, 4 via Mosholu said:

Judging by the track elevation north of 179 Street - Jamaica on the inner tracks, there's no reason why it shouldn't be an elevated extension. Note that the outer tracks there, which go down to a lower level, were always meant to be for relay purposes.

Those tracks could be raised as the line is being expanded

[JeremiahC99]

21 minutes ago, vioreen said:

Those tracks could be raised as the line is being expanded

 

38 minutes ago, 4 via Mosholu said:

Judging by the track elevation north of 179 Street - Jamaica on the inner tracks, there's no reason why it shouldn't be an elevated extension. Note that the outer tracks there, which go down to a lower level, were always meant to be for relay purposes.

Where do you guys propose the portal can be placed for this to happen?

[Around the Horn]

2 hours ago, Jova42R said:

 

 

I proposed a Queens TramLink which would partially serve as an  extension (and maybe you could extend the Streetcar Shuttle to 179th)

See here for the proposal:

 

The "tramlink" is completely unnecessary. No need to be cute (see the joke that is eBART) just extend the damn  train.

1 hour ago, JeremiahC99 said:

 

Where do you guys propose the portal can be placed for this to happen?

Hillside Avenue widens just west of Springfield Blvd for the Second System line out to the city line. I personally would build this underground with WTC Cortlandt-like stations close to the surface. 

[T to Dyre Avenue]

5 hours ago, Jova42R said:

 

 

I proposed a Queens TramLink which would partially serve as an  extension (and maybe you could extend the Streetcar Shuttle to 179th)

See here for the proposal:

 

Your Queens TramLink could possibly work for busy Queens bus lines with tight frequencies. But in this case, the bus riders already transfer directly to the . Why make them take a bus to a tram to the ? That’s turning a two-seat ride into a three-seat ride. We don’t want to make riders have a longer commute with an extra transfer. 

2 hours ago, Around the Horn said:

The "tramlink" is completely unnecessary. No need to be cute (see the joke that is eBART) just extend the damn  train.

Hillside Avenue widens just west of Springfield Blvd for the Second System line out to the city line. I personally would build this underground with WTC Cortlandt-like stations close to the surface. 

I could go for that. I like what they did with that station. This should be a relatively easy extension project. 

[Deucey]

4 hours ago, Around the Horn said:

The "tramlink" is completely unnecessary. No need to be cute (see the joke that is eBART) just extend the damn  train.

And they built it at Standard Gauge, so if it EVER gets extended to Tracy or Stockton, it'll be just as slow and barely useful as the Altamont Corridor Express.

Edited June 1, 2020 by Deucey

[bobtehpanda]

2 hours ago, Deucey said:

And they built it at Standard Gauge, so if it EVER gets extended to Tracy or Stockton, it'll be just as slow and barely useful as the Altamont Corridor Express.

What does standard gauge have to do with speed? Pretty much all HSR around the world is standard gauge.

[bobtehpanda]

7 hours ago, Around the Horn said:

The "tramlink" is completely unnecessary. No need to be cute (see the joke that is eBART) just extend the damn  train.

Hillside Avenue widens just west of Springfield Blvd for the Second System line out to the city line. I personally would build this underground with WTC Cortlandt-like stations close to the surface. 

Agreed. Stops at 188, Francis Lewis, 212, and Springfield.

Springfield/Hillside is an unusually large intersection; you might actually be able to provide underground ramps for a paid-area bus loop.

[Deucey]

2 hours ago, bobtehpanda said:

What does standard gauge have to do with speed? Pretty much all HSR around the world is standard gauge.

The rest of BART is at 5'6" broad gauge. eBart is running DMUs and if it's expanded to the Central Valley, since the grades on the Diablo Range hit 5-7%, either the tracks and Hwy 4 have to be rebuilt to run on the actual Pittsburg line, or it's going to take a meandering route to a canyon or valley which reduces speed.

[Lex]

32 minutes ago, Deucey said:

The rest of BART is at 5'6" broad gauge. eBart is running DMUs and if it's expanded to the Central Valley, since the grades on the Diablo Range hit 5-7%, either the tracks and Hwy 4 have to be rebuilt to run on the actual Pittsburg line, or it's going to take a meandering route to a canyon or valley which reduces speed.

I wouldn't be surprised to find the logic behind it to involve higher costs with broad gauge operations. After all, broad gauge construction and maintenance -- especially at nearly a full foot wider -- is much more expensive.

[Deucey]

2 hours ago, Lex said:

I wouldn't be surprised to find the logic behind it to involve higher costs with broad gauge operations. After all, broad gauge construction and maintenance -- especially at nearly a full foot wider -- is much more expensive.

IIRC, they went with that for better cornering and stability, but I don't think it ever showed to be better than standard gauge.

[Lawrence St]

Has anyone else noticed since the Coney Island and Jamiaca Yard swap finished theres been an increase in train BIE's and door problems on the and ?

[darkstar8983]

5 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

Has anyone else noticed since the Coney Island and Jamiaca Yard swap finished theres been an increase in train BIE's and door problems on the and ?

yes, due to those broke-busted R46s

[bobtehpanda]

13 hours ago, Deucey said:

The rest of BART is at 5'6" broad gauge. eBart is running DMUs and if it's expanded to the Central Valley, since the grades on the Diablo Range hit 5-7%, either the tracks and Hwy 4 have to be rebuilt to run on the actual Pittsburg line, or it's going to take a meandering route to a canyon or valley which reduces speed.

You could also run standard gauge EMUs, which is what CalTrain is doing. 

12 hours ago, Lex said:

I wouldn't be surprised to find the logic behind it to involve higher costs with broad gauge operations. After all, broad gauge construction and maintenance -- especially at nearly a full foot wider -- is much more expensive.

This is the explicit reason for eBART existing.

If BART could be rebuilt today it would probably be a standard gauge system similar to DC Metro.

10 hours ago, Deucey said:

IIRC, they went with that for better cornering and stability, but I don't think it ever showed to be better than standard gauge.

There was a whole lotta politics involved too, including but not limited to

• drinking too much of their own train of the future Kool-aid, so a bunch of aerospace engineers decided reinventing wheels was going to be worth it somehow
• SP not wanting direct competition or to be bought out, hence a totally incompatible gauge being chosen

[trainfan22]

Been riding the subway more often these past couple of days, ridership is still light, but some noteworthy things happened today....

 

 

The R160  train I rode, one of the doors got stuck in my car and the C/R had to come and cut out that problematic door, trip was smooth sailing from there on out. Transferred at Canal for the Broadway BMT, a 160  showed up first, went express, train was empty and it hauled ass down the Broadway Express, very fun ride.

 

 

Coming home, took the  train home and got an 179, at 14th street, an  express caught up to my   and both trains arrived at Canal at the same time,  got the lineup first and went ahead at Canal. Normally, when a  train goes in front of the  at Canal St, usually the  blows past it around the Clifton - Washington Stop. But this time, that same  train that was right behind my  didn't catch up until Rockaway Ave! I wonder what delayed that  train, it was a 179 and was tempted to transfer in Manhattan, but it was more crowded than my  and thus harder to social distance.

 

 

Also the  seems to running on 7 minute headways.

 

 

Riding the subway during this pandemic has been fun, little to no dwell time, trains are practically empty, etc. I was in quarantine for most of the pandemic, but started venturing out more often now that Covid-19 has died down a bit, thus it "feels" safer to travel.

[CenSin]

23 minutes ago, trainfan22 said:

Covid-19 has died down a bit,

What makes you think it died down any bit? 🤨

[Deucey]

1 hour ago, bobtehpanda said:

You could also run standard gauge EMUs, which is what CalTrain is doing. 

Caltrain runs in the "valley" on the peninsula. All the hills/mountains are on the west side of I-280 (if you like driving hard on curves, drive Skyline Blvd/CA-35 to get your twists, straightaways, drops and a panoramic view of the entire Bay Area.)

[trainfan22]

1 hour ago, CenSin said:

What makes you think it died down any bit? 🤨

That the city will start to reopen June 8th?

 

I will say, it's crazy how the protests have damn near knocked Covid-19 out of the news cycle.

[Around the Horn]

9 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

Has anyone else noticed since the Coney Island and Jamiaca Yard swap finished theres been an increase in train BIE's and door problems on the and ?

I haven't seen recent data but as of February there was actually a decrease in delays and faster run times after the swap began.

[bobtehpanda]

2 hours ago, Deucey said:

Caltrain runs in the "valley" on the peninsula. All the hills/mountains are on the west side of I-280 (if you like driving hard on curves, drive Skyline Blvd/CA-35 to get your twists, straightaways, drops and a panoramic view of the entire Bay Area.)

If you want to go up hills fast, two things matter; your torque and friction. The former is provided with electric motors, and the latter is why some metros go for rubber tires. Broad gauge has nothing to do with hill climbing.

[CenSin]

1 hour ago, trainfan22 said:

3 hours ago, CenSin said:

What makes you think it died down any bit? 🤨

That the city will start to reopen June 8th?

 

I will say, it's crazy how the protests have damn near knocked Covid-19 out of the news cycle.

The protests are exactly what will bring COVID-19 back to full strength. We had people socially distancing until Memorial Day. Then the protesters and rioters amassed in huge groups. Then the police amassed in huge groups. A lot of them didn’t even wear masks. Cuomo, being the proud man that he is, would not backpedal on his commitment to reopening on June 8 of course.

Come June 30, we might see an uptick in positive cases again.

[darkstar8983]

Looks like the  are running close to weekday rush hour service levels now

Edited June 2, 2020 by darkstar8983

[Collin]

11 hours ago, CenSin said:

The protests are exactly what will bring COVID-19 back to full strength. We had people socially distancing until Memorial Day. Then the protesters and rioters amassed in huge groups. Then the police amassed in huge groups. A lot of them didn’t even wear masks. Cuomo, being the proud man that he is, would not backpedal on his commitment to reopening on June 8 of course.

Come June 30, we might see an uptick in positive cases again.

I don' think there will be an uptick, just like there wasn't after the Michigan protests, or spring break in Florida.  I'm sure Cuomo will walk back on his commitment to reopen if NYC doesn't meet the metrics.

[Bklyn Bound 2 Local]

closure alternatives (post COVID)

Why doesn't the  send the  down to Canarsie? It would boost the tph to 15 from the  's current 6-7 tph due to the closure. And not only that, the  can run from Broad Street to Canarsie or from Jamaica Center to Canarsie thanks to the relay tracks outside Broadway Junction. And since the  isn't running many trains, some of the 's cars could be sent to the , maybe even some R143's. Since the  is the #1 replacement for the , it would make service better and be a great G.O. to document. Another alternative could be sending the spare R46's from the  onto the  since the  is the 's #2 replacement. The  would not suffer i this scenario because the  is implementing CBTC on the Queens Blvd Line, so R46's cannot run on the  lines.

[Calvin]

https://nypost.com/2020/06/02/mta-resuming-full-service-next-week-wants-help-from-volunteers/?fbclid=IwAR2NMItkZhAsEfZxxSRFo9ZOMjXXaMuJqeB7vdk07fLL3YVaygTR1AMMeLE : Article about full service on the MTA NYC system

Full service resumes next week, but, let's see

https://nypost.com/2020/06/01/retailers-cancel-reopenings-amid-protests-over-george-floyds-killing/?fbclid=IwAR3WobPBdiVBxS7Q8xfx1Ng9ujVGMlaTRPGeen2sOFF5hfWdW9GXYpstyso : Retail stores cancelled reopening at that week due to chaos that has happened this week. 

Edited June 2, 2020 by Calvin

[Calvin]

There's a talk that starting Monday, the 8th, the and Express service will return in-passenger service. The put-ins/drop-offs at 111 St may come back. 

Edited June 4, 2020 by Calvin