SUBWAY - Random Thoughts Topic

[Dannny]

Thanks for the Info @Calvin. I was just checking the weather for tomorrow and saw that there is more snow on the way. I didn't get to see about the subways, but as of now is everything running normally? That's when the snows supposed to hit, tomorrow morning. 

Edited January 30, 2018 by Dannny

[Calvin]

^ Everything will run normally tomorrow morning.  If there's heavy snow, then the MTA will announce it early morning through the news. 

 

[Lawrence St]

You should have seen the crowd at 3 Avenue-138th St tonight. There were more then 100 people all trying to push their way into the tiny shuttle buses. If they always putting 60 footers on the M35, why not put them on the 4 shuttle, like seriously.

[Daniel The Cool]

1 hour ago, RR503 said:

Yes they do, but remember that the  is express in Midtown and in Brooklyn, making for fewer stops overall. The  isn’t. It’s a full length local service, making it more unreliable. The cutback from BPB shortened the  route significantly, thereby improving line performance. 

The actual reason was they wanted to keep to make it easier for the  to use each other R32s/R38s if needed since both lines were already at Pitkin Yard as well as it being easier for the  Trains to borrow each other's fleet if needed (Which they still do to this day) or in better words, better yard access. The other reason was to eliminate those Friday night moves where they had to run a few OOS  Trains from Concourse Yard to 135th Street layup to 174th Street Yard which I heard it was causing congestion.  

 

This was said in the old SubTalk Site btw when it was announced.

[N6 Limited]

Some people you just can't help. (maybe this belongs in the subway stories thread) 

This guy asked me if the train was going to Jamaica, I said yes, so he boarded. He told me he was trying to go to Long Island,  so I asked him if he's needs the LIRR or the N4?  He said N4, so told him to stay on to Jamaica Center.

But,  I looked up and saw that the train was going to 179th street. So naturally, I thought there must be some track work or something and was going to investigate on my phone.

The guy was like "we're going the wrong way" and I said, "well the train is going to Queens..."  He jumped off at the next stop (for what? I don't  know,  the next to Jamaica Center is probably at 5am lol)  

Anyway, I checked the mta site and it says "No trains between Briarwood and Jamaica Center" there's a shuttle bus from Union Turnpike. 

Oh well. 

Edited January 30, 2018 by N6 Limited

[78 via Stew Leonards]

1 hour ago, Daniel The Cool said:

The actual reason was they wanted to keep to make it easier for the  to use each other R32s/R38s if needed since both lines were already at Pitkin Yard as well as it being easier for the  Trains to borrow each other's fleet if needed (Which they still do to this day) or in better words, better yard access. The other reason was to eliminate those Friday night moves where they had to run a few OOS  Trains from Concourse Yard to 135th Street layup to 174th Street Yard which I heard it was causing congestion.  

 

This was said in the old SubTalk Site btw when it was announced.

Interesting stuff. I wonder what went on behind the scenes with all these 80s/90s moves within the subway system

[AlgorithmOfTruth]

What's up with T/O's overrunning the 8-car stop marker on the Jamaica Center-bound platform at Woodhaven Boulevard on the line? I have seen it happen more than once, and while railfanning one day, I had a T/O call in RCC saying the stop marker was "moved." Is this true? Hopefully these aren't probationary T/O's who are extra extra, because 2 Broadway is relentless with probies who screw up...

[Dannny]

The R46  is out today. I caught it this morning on the way up. It came into 96th as a diamond  shortly before 8:15. I will post my photos/video of it later.

Edited January 30, 2018 by Dannny

[Lance]

13 hours ago, CenSin said:

Maybe he should blend in with the passengers during midday hours to see how lazy some of the contract workers are. I pass by on the when they run the trains express in one direction for inspection or maintenance work, and I always see a row of consecutive guys with hard hats and vests on just sitting on a bench and using their mobile phones. Perhaps this Byford could make notes of where all these lazy bastards are and hold their supervisors/companies accountable.

This city can’t have nice things because of these leeches. Gotta clean up the MTA from the bottom up.

Nothing really hammers that point home more than this picture captured when those wall tiles fell at the 86 Street station in Bay Ridge last November.

Courtesy: NY Post

There's a joke in here somewhere.

10 hours ago, 78 via Stew Leonards said:

Why did they ever stop running the  to Bedford Park with the  ?

To add on to Daniel's previous comment, it was the logical progression of the service changes that began in '88 with the elimination of the 8th Avenue . When that line was permanently suspended in favor of expanded service, the would run local between 168 Street and 145 Street as there was no weekend service along Central Park West. In the early 1990s as a test, weekend train service was extended from its then-present terminal at 145 Street to 168 Street, allowing trains to run express along the entire stretch of 8th Avenue. That would continue as part of the '95 Manhattan Bridge closure and would become popular enough to warrant "full-time" service to 168 Street in lieu of the running to Bedford Park Blvd.

2 minutes ago, Dannny said:

The R46  is out today. I caught it this morning on the way up. It came into 96th as a diamond  shortly before 8:15. I will post my photos/video of it later.

Since it's the reverse trip of the to 96 Street, isn't it always out?

[Dannny]

2 hours ago, Lance said:

Since it's the reverse trip of the to 96 Street, isn't it always out?

Sometimes it’s a R160 , so sometimes if it’s a R160, it goes down as a regular .

[Lawrence St]

So, to recap the events from last night:

On the going uptown, the operator accidentally signed up the train as a to Woodlawn. Conductor made no announcements on what was going on or that the train was going to Woodlawn, even when we reached 125th St he made no announcement. 

 

At 125th St, the service change helpers (those guys in the orange vests) shouted that if we wanted an uptown , we would have to go downstairs and transfer to an uptown on the downtown platform. Apparently both of them thought the was split at 125th St, not that there were no trains between 125th St & 149th St. Then the announcement came over the speakers accurately stating what the service change was, but not a lot of people.

After leaving 125th St, the conductor still had the train signed up to Woodlawn, no manual announcement as usual.

When we got to 3rd Av, a lot of passengers were in shock trying to figure out why their was going over the line. So most of them rushed out of the train and started banging on the conductors window asking them what the hell was going on. I quietly exited 3rd Avenue to where the shuttle bus and the crowd was ridiculous. People were on the road, rushing over to a shuttle bus the moment the driver signs it up, only for the driver to move foward and push most of the passengers on the side away, it was crazy.

Not only that, the shuttle buses stopped at random places along the sidewalk instead of the actual bus shelter where it says "FREE SHUTTLE BUS TO 149 ST". I didn't get on a bus only until after the 5th one came.

I finally get to 149th St, there's a uptown on the downtown platform getting ready to depart. And as usual, people rushed over to the conductors window who was trying to set up the TOD and banged on it asking if it was going uptown or downtown. Because she was rushing, and I don't blame her, she signed up the train as a to Burnside Avenue, but didn't knock off the stops before 149th St. So that only caused more confusion because the train was programmed wrong and announcing the stops wrong.

 

Overall, it took me TWO and a half hours to get from 86th St to Woodlawn.

[CenSin]

When shit like this happens, I generally provide help when asked by confused people since I keep myself vigilant and updated. That’s until some transit employee thinks his vest makes him a better source of advice and gives the wrong information after shutting me out of the conversation.

[kosciusko]

13 hours ago, Lance said:

Courtesy: NY Post

There's a joke in here somewhere.

That's infuriating to look at.

Reminds me of the tale from east side access;

Quote

Amtrak union workers added to the delays in other ways. Several years ago, they convinced a labor arbitrator that they should be doing construction on the project that the MTA wanted its own contractors to do. But as the federal government pointed out in 2012, though Amtrak unionists won the argument, the workers solved the problem by “opt[ing] to supply twice the personnel than is necessary.” Some worked, some watched, and with so many people jammed into a confined work space, construction proceeded “at half speed,” the feds said. One contract involving Amtrak that was supposed to take two years and cost $137 million has cost $297 million and is finally nearly finished in its fifth year.

 

[Calvin]

Passed by Westchester Yard during the PM rush and there's no R62A leftover with 3 5-car R142As in-storage. 

 

[Lawrence St]

So, day 2 of the late night service change went down like this:

I was better prepared for it as I took the from Fulton St to transfer to the at 149th St, and I thought it would be easy from there.

I WAS WRONG!

When I got to 149th St it was 9:50ish, and the workers still hadn't started working on the tracks or even put those warning lights on the tracks yet, even though the service change was suppose to start at 9:30. 

Anyway, the uptown platform was still not closed and when I got to the mezzanne I was surprised, so I went on the uptown platform (even though my gut kept telling me to keep my ass on the downtown platform.) When I got to the platform, i noticed 4 things wrong.

1. As I said, the workers were just sitting on their phones and laughing, they still didn' start the service change yet. They didn't even bother telling the passengers that no more trains were coming here, and keep in mind the platform is very packed.

2. The countdown clock said the next was in 7 minutes, but every minute the clock would change to DELAY then back to 7 minutes again. (This showed me that was actually going to 3rd Av.)

3. The countdown clock on the downtown platform said the next to New Lots Avenue was in 1 minute, and below it, a to Woodlawn in 17 minutes.

4. The uptown comes on the downtown platform (because this was the first train to 149th St.) Then the workers started screaming at passengers that the uptown was on the downtown platform. So everybody ran like a maniac to the opposite platform, and caused major confusion. People again started banging on the conductors window asking him if this was a downtown or an uptown (4). New passengers coming from the don't know that this is going back up, so that caused more chaos. Then we finally departed after 10 minutes with doors being held open and confusion alp over the place. When we got to 161st, the passengers who didn't know that this was an uptown got mad and started screaming at the conductor.

 

 

So yea...i am not using the subway after 9 anymore...

 

[R32 3838]

Yesterday i only saw 2 R46 and the rest were R160's and 4 sets of R32's.  I only saw 1 R32 put in going to lefferts blvd leaving the yard. I wonder Whats going on.

[RR503]

1 hour ago, R32 3838 said:

Yesterday i only saw 2 R46 and the rest were R160's and 4 sets of R32's.  I only saw 1 R32 put in going to lefferts blvd leaving the yard. I wonder Whats going on.

Maybe you didn't see every in service  train? 

As for the R46  swap, I heard it was on temp. hold for budgetary reasons (I don't exactly see how that makes sense, but I trust my source), but that it should continue in the near future. Again, hearsay. Don't take this to be absolute fact -- I'm sure some more knowledgeable poster can clear this up. I don't want to be the source of rumors. 

[VIP]

Also the 2 R179’s haven’t been in service. 

[RestrictOnTheHanger]

On 1/24/2018 at 6:52 PM, RailRunRob said:

Yep i'll go thru some folders see if I can create a drop box.

@RailRunRob were you ever able to put more CBTC docs up?

[Jemorie]

Speaking of the , what's the real reason why it has been 480 feet long all these years? Besides the usual vague responses like "eess ridership deem too luu duhhhhh", "dey jus dun hav enough cars, gee ova it duhhhhh" etc?

[RailRunRob]

7 minutes ago, RestrictOnTheHanger said:

@RailRunRob were you ever able to put more CBTC docs up?

Yep I put a few up. I'll DM you.

[trainfan22]

50 minutes ago, VIP said:

Also the 2 R179’s haven’t been in service. 

Also the equipment testing G.O on the Brighton Line seems to have been cancelled for this week, wonder what's up with those 179s.

[B46 via Utica]

3 hours ago, VIP said:

Also the 2 R179’s haven’t been in service. 

 

 

 

They look like they're just chillin right now.

 

Edited February 1, 2018 by B46 via Utica
Photobucket

[4 via Mosholu]

2 hours ago, Jemorie said:

Speaking of the , what's the real reason why it has been 480 feet long all these years? Besides the usual vague responses like "eess ridership deem too luu duhhhhh", "dey jus dun hav enough cars, gee ova it duhhhhh" etc?

I think it's due to the former train. The initially ran as ten 60 foot cars from the Grand Concourse Yard while the was only eight 60 foot cars since it was the 168 to WTC service from the 207th Street Overhaul Shop. When the was moved to run in the former train service pattern during the weekend in 1995, that was when it was decided to decrease the car length from ten to eight cars. Therefore, it all comes down to YARDS because some lines cannot accommodate longer train lengths in the car shops.

[P3F]

You can't see the tracks from the 7th Avenue platforms, but the sound of those lines rumbling by is surprisingly pronounced. I wonder if people waiting on the platform get confused, since they're waiting for a train on a two-track line, but hear trains that they can't see.