SUBWAY - Random Thoughts Topic

[Union Tpke]

I have seen them more frequently as of late.

[biGC323232]

2 hours ago, JX248 said:

How common are R160s on the ?  I usually see one every once in a while if I'm lucky, but today I ended up riding two of them... 

Not that common..☺️...Most of the R160s at Jamaica is used on the ....But on a normal wkday a set or 2 will pop up on the ....as a matter of fact this past wkend there were a few sets on the 

[paulrivera]

16 minutes ago, biGC323232 said:

Not that common..☺️...Most of the R160s at Jamaica is used on the ....But on a normal wkday a set or 2 will pop up on the ....as a matter of fact this past wkend there were a few sets on the 

Yea, basically the equivalent of when the R32s were mainly on the . It was just as uncommon to see an R32 on the back then as it is to see an R160  train today.

[MysteriousBtrain]

Last Friday I saw 2 R160 s back to back.

[VIP]

There’s more R160’s on the  on weekends, and as Paul said the weekday R160 assignment on the  is the same practice when an R32 would pop on the line when Jamaica had R32’s for  service. 

 

[Calvin]

The  had a lot more R46s than 6 sets from what I'm seeing lately

[Lawrence St]

Is it true that they store unused R46's in 36th St yard?

[S78 via Hylan]

7 hours ago, Calvin said:

The  had a lot more R46s than 6 sets from what I'm seeing lately

It uses up to 8 during the rush.

[Around the Horn]

1 hour ago, Lawrence St said:

Is it true that they store unused R46's in 36th St yard?

They haven't done that in at least a decade

[VIP]

On 5/14/2018 at 5:05 PM, S78 via Hylan said:

Nothing really special here, but the R143 consist that I’m on (8245-8248) is displaying “JAMAICA EXPRESS” instead of “EXP”. Not sure if other sets do this.

Edit: The R160s do this as well, but not the R179s.

Good! Less confusing for those whom aren’t abbreviation savvy, much more thorough too. 👍🏽

On 5/13/2018 at 7:02 PM, paulrivera said:

R142 7176-7180 have those new fangled yellow stanchion poles now.

idk if this is old news, but I just now found out.

Are the looped stanchions at the ends, like the “Cuomo scheme” R160’s ? or are ALL the stanchions looped  throughout, like the ones from R160 set 9802-9798

[Calvin]

Not trying to make a big deal out of this, but after the past few weeks on a Monday, there's a service change most of the time on the  and  lines. 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Fast Track is a disaster tonight. They ended service on the and lines wayyy too early past 59th street which means the is getting SLAMMED. Of course they aren't providing extra service either.

Edited May 16, 2018 by Via Garibaldi 8

[jon2305]

13 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Fast Track I'd a disaster tonight. They ended service on the and lines wayyy too early past 59th street which means the is getting SLAMMED. Of course they aren't providing extra service either.

Its complete nonsense and there's still another week left of this to deal with. 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

14 minutes ago, jon2305 said:

Its complete nonsense and there's still another week left of this to deal with. 

I don't understand how they didn't add more service to the ... When I saw that I walked right out of the station walked to 63rd and Broadway and got the express bus. It's a short week for me so I'm on a pay-per-ride and thought I'd use my Metro-North tickets that are still on my phone. We'll see tomorrow... 60 minute delays tonight... I think not...

Edited May 16, 2018 by Via Garibaldi 8

[brakethrow]

Damn alot of these train operators out of Flatbush/Crown Heights look young as hell. Saw one earlier looked no more than 25.

[Daniel The Cool]

103rd Street on the  And  finally has a PA system. 

Edited May 16, 2018 by Daniel The Cool

[Missabassie]

On 5/14/2018 at 10:40 PM, MysteriousBtrain said:

Last Friday I saw 2 R160 s back to back.

 

On 5/15/2018 at 12:03 AM, VIP said:

There’s more R160’s on the  on weekends, and as Paul said the weekday R160 assignment on the  is the same practice when an R32 would pop on the line when Jamaica had R32’s for  service. 

 

 

On 5/15/2018 at 1:09 AM, Calvin said:

The  had a lot more R46s than 6 sets from what I'm seeing lately

 

On 5/15/2018 at 8:30 AM, S78 via Hylan said:

It uses up to 8 during the rush.

Yeah those R46s need to go.... or that is to say they can't go soon enough. The needs the R160s more than the , but the latter also benefits from using them.

[Missabassie]

12 hours ago, brakethrow said:

Damn alot of these train operators out of Flatbush/Crown Heights look young as hell. Saw one earlier looked no more than 25.

😃😃 Well, we all gotta start somewhere....

[VIP]

1 hour ago, Missabassie said:

 

 

 

Yeah those R46s need to go.... or that is to say they can't go soon enough. The needs the R160s more than the , but the latter also benefits from using them.

Agreed. 

[Coney Island Av]

The summer is almost here. Temperatures will soar high, and I (+ most of the teenage users on this forum) will finish up the school year in June. I'll get a handload of photos during that time, since I really love exploring the subway during the summer. 

But my favorite part of the summer are the "Nostalgia Rides" that are held by the transit museum. This is a shot I took last summer of the Train of Many Metals trip to Coney Island.

Have any of ya'll gone to, or plan on going to these nostalgia train rides? I'd strongly recommend you to do such- not just for the h*ll of it, but to also ride cars that are retired and way older than the R32, R160, R179, and R211. 

 

[N6 Limited]

23 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Fast Track is a disaster tonight. They ended service on the and lines wayyy too early past 59th street which means the is getting SLAMMED. Of course they aren't providing extra service either.

 

22 hours ago, jon2305 said:

Its complete nonsense and there's still another week left of this to deal with. 

 

22 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

I don't understand how they didn't add more service to the ... When I saw that I walked right out of the station walked to 63rd and Broadway and got the express bus. It's a short week for me so I'm on a pay-per-ride and thought I'd use my Metro-North tickets that are still on my phone. We'll see tomorrow... 60 minute delays tonight... I think not...

I'm checking now. 20 min Gap between the  and

 168th Street just left Canal

 Columbus Circle  20 mins

Followed by an  one min later, and then another  10 mins later. 

So the last train doesn't even go to 207th

The  runs local after 9:45PM this week, so that's why they're not adding  service.

Edited May 17, 2018 by N6 Limited

[Calvin]

The 160s have changed their announcement from introducing the gender with the message, to "Hello, everyone, this message is from MTA."

Edited May 17, 2018 by Calvin

[trainfan22]

15 minutes ago, Calvin said:

The 160s have changed their announcement introducing the gender with the message, to "Hello, everyone, this message is from MTA."

The lady who voice those new announcements name is Velina Mitchell. Another name to add the group of the usual suspects who records automated announcements for the NTT fleet. 

[Trainmaster5]

After a lunch date with some friends and some fellow " pensioners" I figured I'd pass along some observations from some old folks, RTO, Surface, and CED. I mentioned a thread to them where someone was complaining about the not running it's scheduled trains in the subways. Let's just say that the Surface guy shook his head while the rest of us got into it. I don't know how or what the NYC schools teach these days but two of us remember a class trip to the old Pennsylvania station back in the day. We weren't in the same school but she and I distinctly remember the tour guide showing us and explaining railroad schedules to us. When I entered schoolcar as a C/R my instructor was surprised that I knew about the " 5 minute" rule regarding lateness.  He thought a transit employee had given me a heads up. To wit, a train can arrive up to five minutes past it's scheduled time and not be considered late. Airlines used to have the same policy back then. I brought up the schedule subject here because some people seemed to obsess over the concept. Let me make this point as clear as I can. The subway schedule is a guideline, period. It was not written by an entity in a " burning bush" nor was it etched in stone and delivered to the masses from the mountaintop. It's simply a guideline that, if everything is operating correctly, shows a time when service should arrive. Let there be a signal problem, equipment trouble, or something passenger related and that schedule goes out the window. I worked in the IRT so let me show a few examples that I know about. S/B train at 86th or 77th St with a problem during the am rush. The Command Center would tell Parkchester to drop an interval or two and Pelham to run a flex so instead of Pelham running 10  trains an hour they would cut back to 6 or 7 instead. Forget re-routing down the Lex express because that's already jam packed. If we move the problem to the 7th Avenue side the procedure is basically the same. S/B between 96th St and Times Square with a problem ? Depending on the situation the order(s) would be 137 drop a few or ( major trouble) shutdown, VC go on a flex and drop an interval or two and for the " Big Enchilada ", Lenox shut down service.  IIRC all transportation providers have the disclaimer on their schedules, tickets, and websites these days. I had a job where I would travel " light" from East 180th St , loop at Bowling Green, and go in service from there. There were times when the Grand Central dispatcher would tell me to loop, bypass Bowling Green, and head up to Union Square and go in service there when my C/R and I determined we had a sufficient load. That's real dispatching  and realtime scheduling, Lol.The other thing I want to mention is this idea of speeding subway trains over switches. The only high speed switches I'm aware of are located on railroads in the metropolitan area. Think of the east and west ends of LIRR Jamaica station, for example. Maybe looking down from Rockaway Blvd/ Liberty Junction on the the old Ozone Park LIRR station and plant would have them. Perhaps south of Newkirk on the Brighton or the Sea Beach line could have had them installed years ago ? What I'm getting at is I doubt the would install any type of high speed switches where there are columns present so that precludes the "subway" IMO. Railroads and subways are not the same thing especially when it comes to operations. Seems to me that the   screwed up and slowed down service too much with their policies and the general public wants to speed things up, which I understand, but neither side seems equipped to do it safely and reliably. Maybe they should consult with those who know the job ? Carry on.

Edited May 17, 2018 by Trainmaster5
spelling

[Via Garibaldi 8]

7 hours ago, Trainmaster5 said:

After a lunch date with some friends and some fellow " pensioners" I figured I'd pass along some observations from some old folks, RTO, Surface, and CED. I mentioned a thread to them where someone was complaining about the not running it's scheduled trains in the subways. Let's just say that the Surface guy shook his head while the rest of us got into it. I don't know how or what the NYC schools teach these days but two of us remember a class trip to the old Pennsylvania station back in the day. We weren't in the same school but she and I distinctly remember the tour guide showing us and explaining railroad schedules to us. When I entered schoolcar as a C/R my instructor was surprised that I knew about the " 5 minute" rule regarding lateness.  He thought a transit employee had given me a heads up. To wit, a train can arrive up to five minutes past it's scheduled time and not be considered late. Airlines used to have the same policy back then. I brought up the schedule subject here because some people seemed to obsess over the concept. Let me make this point as clear as I can. The subway schedule is a guideline, period. It was not written by an entity in a " burning bush" nor was it etched in stone and delivered to the masses from the mountaintop. It's simply a guideline that, if everything is operating correctly, shows a time when service should arrive. Let there be a signal problem, equipment trouble, or something passenger related and that schedule goes out the window. I worked in the IRT so let me show a few examples that I know about. S/B train at 86th or 77th St with a problem during the am rush. The Command Center would tell Parkchester to drop an interval or two and Pelham to run a flex so instead of Pelham running 10  trains an hour they would cut back to 6 or 7 instead. Forget re-routing down the Lex express because that's already jam packed. If we move the problem to the 7th Avenue side the procedure is basically the same. S/B between 96th St and Times Square with a problem ? Depending on the situation the order(s) would be 137 drop a few or ( major trouble) shutdown, VC go on a flex and drop an interval or two and for the " Big Enchilada ", Lenox shut down service.  IIRC all transportation providers have the disclaimer on their schedules, tickets, and websites these days. I had a job where I would travel " light" from East 180th St , loop at Bowling Green, and go in service from there. There were times when the Grand Central dispatcher would tell me to loop, bypass Bowling Green, and head up to Union Square and go in service there when my C/R and I determined we had a sufficient load. That's real dispatching  and realtime scheduling, Lol.The other thing I want to mention is this idea of speeding subway trains over switches. The only high speed switches I'm aware of are located on railroads in the metropolitan area. Think of the east and west ends of LIRR Jamaica station, for example. Maybe looking down from Rockaway Blvd/ Liberty Junction on the the old Ozone Park LIRR station and plant would have them. Perhaps south of Newkirk on the Brighton or the Sea Beach line could have had them installed years ago ? What I'm getting at is I doubt the would install any type of high speed switches where there are columns present so that precludes the "subway" IMO. Railroads and subways are not the same thing especially when it comes to operations. Seems to me that the   screwed up and slowed down service too much with their policies and the general public wants to speed things up, which I understand, but neither side seems equipped to do it safely and reliably. Maybe they should consult with those who know the job ? Carry on.

That's all fine and good, but you must also admit that having such a set-up deters ridership. If I know there's supposed to be a train every so minutes and there isn't one well then that likely means that the trains will be a mess. It also allows for trains to be pulled from running their scheduled runs and the doesn't have to say a word about it, just not run the trains while people sit there and wait. It just means LESS accountability. I mean that's like going to a restaurant and yes, you don't have a set time on when you'll be served, but you expect to be served within a reasonable amount of time, and if you aren't, you may just get up and walk out. I've done it myself. My point is people have places to be and the should at a minimum be able to communicate when there are issues. Don't put that there's "Good Service" when people are sitting here waiting and waiting and there's no train. If there's an issue simply say so so that people aren't wasting their time and can make other arrangements. At this point, most of us pretty much expect there to be delays and check the status board.

Edited May 17, 2018 by Via Garibaldi 8