SUBWAY - Random Thoughts Topic

[NewFlyer 230]

30 minutes ago, mrsman said:

All true.

Archer Ave is a big service reduction for  .  It seems that a big reason for doing so was to promote economic development in Downtown Jamaica by getting rid of the unsightly el.  But as we all know it is extremely short sighted, because the subway never got extended as far as the el did, so places that were close to the end of the line are now beyond walking distance from the subway.  How much is land worh that is no longer served by rail transit.

Kind of similar to the destruction of the Jackson Park Elevated in Chicago.

https://chicago.curbed.com/2011/12/2/10419932/the-biggest-urban-renewal-flubs-jackson-park-l

Instead of Archer, the IND line should have branched southwards.  The  already does this as it splits at Briarwood, making a stop at Jamaica-Van Wyck (providing transfer to the old  stop at Metropolitan) and then continued straight down the Van Wyck.  Imagine if the Van Wyck el that was built to serve JFK, was actually part of the line with stops at every major avenue that crosses the Van Wyck between Jamaica Ave and the Belt Parkway.

What adds salt in the wounds is that this is a pattern that happened before.  Tear down the el, because the subway is coming soon.  Tell that to the folks along 3rd Ave.

 

The  tracks beyond Jamaica Center do in fact travel south but I think it would be very costly at this point to continue the line south into SE Queens. The time to do that was years ago. Now I think the best thing to do is to continue the  along Archer Ave to 168th street and call it a day. They can provide the  with a better terminal and it would close the transit gap in downtown Jamaica because the  on Hillside was never a good alternative. I doubt there are that many folks walking from Archer Ave/Merrick to the 169th street station. I suppose if the  got extended to 168th they would have to also extend the  there too. 
 

As far as how to better serve Southeast Queens, I think it would be cheaper to modify the existing LIRR Atlantic branch (I believe that’s the one that includes Locust Manor, Laurelton & Rosedale and convert Valley Stream into a two platform station. However the new island platform would be for terminating trains coming from NYC. I was thinking the MTA could add additional stations at 108th Ave, Linden Blvd, Baisley Blvd and have trains run from Valley Stream to Penn Station & or Grand Central when it opens up. Anyone needing Atlantic Terminal & Brooklyn can either transfer at Jamaica or take a Far Rockaway train on the weekdays. I would have the price for such service be $4.50 the city ticket price to encourage ridership and maybe have service run every 30 mins on this new NYC LIRR shuttle service. Maybe this idea is an overkill but I think it would still be cheaper than to implement than a  extended into Southeast Queens because good luck with construction and funding for it. 
 

 

[trainfan22]

 

 

Never seen them post this before (revenue trains running with delays due to slow work trains) I seen one of those snow blowers passing though Hoyt S/B towards Pikin? with a diesel.  

[Calvin]

The TA is very cautious when they say "Please be careful of slips or falling when boarding the train". When the  train was about to leave, a man slipped on the side of the platform but not close to the train or edge but however, boarded the train. 

[bobtehpanda]

3 hours ago, NewFlyer 230 said:

The  tracks beyond Jamaica Center do in fact travel south but I think it would be very costly at this point to continue the line south into SE Queens. The time to do that was years ago. Now I think the best thing to do is to continue the  along Archer Ave to 168th street and call it a day. They can provide the  with a better terminal and it would close the transit gap in downtown Jamaica because the  on Hillside was never a good alternative. I doubt there are that many folks walking from Archer Ave/Merrick to the 169th street station. I suppose if the  got extended to 168th they would have to also extend the  there too. 
 

As far as how to better serve Southeast Queens, I think it would be cheaper to modify the existing LIRR Atlantic branch (I believe that’s the one that includes Locust Manor, Laurelton & Rosedale and convert Valley Stream into a two platform station. However the new island platform would be for terminating trains coming from NYC. I was thinking the MTA could add additional stations at 108th Ave, Linden Blvd, Baisley Blvd and have trains run from Valley Stream to Penn Station & or Grand Central when it opens up. Anyone needing Atlantic Terminal & Brooklyn can either transfer at Jamaica or take a Far Rockaway train on the weekdays. I would have the price for such service be $4.50 the city ticket price to encourage ridership and maybe have service run every 30 mins on this new NYC LIRR shuttle service. Maybe this idea is an overkill but I think it would still be cheaper than to implement than a  extended into Southeast Queens because good luck with construction and funding for it. 
 

 

Right. The original plan involved the E just taking the line entirely, but that's no longer possible in 2021; in 1968, LIRR ridership had been in steep decline, and so it was projected that they would be fine with just the line to St. Albans. Today, there are too many trains to fit on a single pair of tracks; you'd probably need to triple or quadruple the line through St. Albans.

[R32 3838]

11 hours ago, NewFlyer 230 said:

The  tracks beyond Jamaica Center do in fact travel south but I think it would be very costly at this point to continue the line south into SE Queens. The time to do that was years ago. Now I think the best thing to do is to continue the  along Archer Ave to 168th street and call it a day. They can provide the  with a better terminal and it would close the transit gap in downtown Jamaica because the  on Hillside was never a good alternative. I doubt there are that many folks walking from Archer Ave/Merrick to the 169th street station. I suppose if the  got extended to 168th they would have to also extend the  there too. 
 

As far as how to better serve Southeast Queens, I think it would be cheaper to modify the existing LIRR Atlantic branch (I believe that’s the one that includes Locust Manor, Laurelton & Rosedale and convert Valley Stream into a two platform station. However the new island platform would be for terminating trains coming from NYC. I was thinking the MTA could add additional stations at 108th Ave, Linden Blvd, Baisley Blvd and have trains run from Valley Stream to Penn Station & or Grand Central when it opens up. Anyone needing Atlantic Terminal & Brooklyn can either transfer at Jamaica or take a Far Rockaway train on the weekdays. I would have the price for such service be $4.50 the city ticket price to encourage ridership and maybe have service run every 30 mins on this new NYC LIRR shuttle service. Maybe this idea is an overkill but I think it would still be cheaper than to implement than a  extended into Southeast Queens because good luck with construction and funding for it. 
 

 

 

It would cost way more to extend the to 168th vs extending to rosedale via the Atlantic branch. The tail Tracks end right next to the ROW north of South Rd. All they need to do is dig a hole, Built a portal and add like 2-3 stations on the ROW and that's it.

 

[NewFlyer 230]

11 hours ago, bobtehpanda said:

Right. The original plan involved the E just taking the line entirely, but that's no longer possible in 2021; in 1968, LIRR ridership had been in steep decline, and so it was projected that they would be fine with just the line to St. Albans. Today, there are too many trains to fit on a single pair of tracks; you'd probably need to triple or quadruple the line through St. Albans.

I don’t think ridership would be an issue if they went ahead and had the  take over that branch of the LIRR to Laurelton station because it would greatly improve travel times for many SE residents plus it’s cheaper for residents. The problem with the LIRR is service is infrequent and the prices are just way too high even for local travel. 
 

For the  to take over the Atlantic Branch the Montauk branch for the LIRR in SE Queens would have to be increased to 4 tracks but I don’t think the space is there which shoots down the idea. They should have done this in the late 60’s when things were considerably cheaper in comparison to today. 

3 hours ago, R32 3838 said:

 

It would cost way more to extend the to 168th vs extending to rosedale via the Atlantic branch. The tail Tracks end right next to the ROW north of South Rd. All they need to do is dig a hole, Built a portal and add like 2-3 stations on the ROW and that's it.

 

The Long Beach, Babylon, Montauk, West Hempstead (Rush Hours) and Far Rockaway Branches would all have to fit onto the 2 track Montauk branch in SE Queens. Maybe they can make it work but they have the current Atlantic/Montauk setup in SE Queens for a reason. They would need to add 2 more tracks to the Montauk branch but I don’t think the space is necessarily there. 
That why I was suggesting to have the  go to 168th and fix the transit issues in Downtown Jamaica. 

[MHV9218]

18 hours ago, trainfan22 said:

Never seen them post this before (revenue trains running with delays due to slow work trains) I seen one of those snow blowers passing though Hoyt S/B towards Pikin? with a diesel.  

Happens pretty frequently thanks to the diesels and the almost completely defective hybrid sets though – some of those can barely make it over the Manhattan Bridge...

[Lil 57]

I know that there were delays due to the storm but the  train was running every 12-15 ish minutes for most of the day then the 4-5 minute headways scheduled. Almost every train I went on was packed due to this. 

[trainfan22]

1 hour ago, Lil 57 said:

I know that there were delays due to the storm but the  train was running every 12-15 ish minutes for most of the day then the 4-5 minute headways scheduled. Almost every train I went on was packed due to this. 

There was an weekday recently where the was running 8 minute headways rather than the usual 4-5 minute headway.  Most likely due to the crew storage.

[darkstar8983]

12 hours ago, trainfan22 said:

There was an weekday recently where the was running 8 minute headways rather than the usual 4-5 minute headway.  Most likely due to the crew storage.

That’s the new service levels. Every 4-6 minutes AM rush and every 8-10 minutes ALL other times (middays, PM rush, evening, and weekends) except late nights. Although this morning, the  was every 15 minutes

Edited January 31, 2022 by darkstar8983

[YankeesPwnMets]

Did anyone hear about this incident?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGKfC25SOH8

[trainfan22]

2 hours ago, YankeesPwnMets said:

Did anyone hear about this incident?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGKfC25SOH8

I didn't hear about this, thanks for posting. I'm assuming vandals set that train on fire.

[biGC323232]

15 hours ago, YankeesPwnMets said:

Did anyone hear about this incident?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGKfC25SOH8

Wow...Its getting worst in this city... 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

16 hours ago, YankeesPwnMets said:

Did anyone hear about this incident?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGKfC25SOH8

 

14 hours ago, trainfan22 said:

I didn't hear about this, thanks for posting. I'm assuming vandals set that train on fire.

Apparently, someone come on the train with a suitcase on fire. They've been setting a lot of fires in SoHo to keep warm in the street, and I suspect some EDP did this here as well. Last time I took the subway a few weeks ago, on the  train I had THREE EDPs in my car for what was at most a 15-20 minute ride, with two of them sitting next to each other. One of them dropped some chips or something on the floor, and the other guy next to him started eating the food right off of the floor. Took the  next and had two more EDPs on that train.  I really feel for the people that have no choice but to take the subway. It has really deteriorated. Pre-COVID, it was common to see people shooting up along on the  line right on the platform.

Edited February 1, 2022 by Via Garibaldi 8

[Deucey]

Pretty sure I saw this, but I was sitting on the  and people were in front of me, but did anyone else see a  train run southbound on the uptown express track at TSQ ~5 minutes ago (5:20-5:25)?

Edited February 1, 2022 by Deucey

[Vulturious]

8 minutes ago, Deucey said:

Pretty sure I saw this, but I was sitting on the  and people were in front of me, but did anyone else see a  train run southbound on the uptown express track at TSQ ~5 minutes ago (5:20-5:25)?

Trains Rerouted

  trains are delayed and/or rerouted while we get NYPD assistance for a report of smoke at Central Park North (110 St). 

 trains are stopping along the line between Nevins St and 149 St-Grand Concourse in both directions. 

The last stop on northbound  service will be 96 St or 137 St-City College on the line. 

Posted: 02/01/2022 05:26PM

 

Maybe it was short-turning at Times Square?

[YankeesPwnMets]

7 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

 

Apparently, someone come on the train with a suitcase on fire. They've been setting a lot of fires in SoHo to keep warm in the street, and I suspect some EDP did this here as well. Last time I took the subway a few weeks ago, on the  train I had THREE EDPs in my car for what was at most a 15-20 minute ride, with two of them sitting next to each other. One of them dropped some chips or something on the floor, and the other guy next to him started eating the food right off of the floor. Took the  next and had two more EDPs on that train.  I really feel for the people that have no choice but to take the subway. It has really deteriorated. Pre-COVID, it was common to see people shooting up along on the  line right on the platform.

The amount of EDPs on the subway now is insane. I feel like it is impossible to take the train at night now without coming across at least one, no matter how short your trip is, the line you take, or the neighborhood you're in. I've never felt the need to actively avoid taking the subway due to safety reasons, but these past 12 months has really changed that. 

The city and the MTA want people on mass transit, but they'll had a real hard time convincing people to get back on the subway if they're just going to allow it to be a rolling asylum. 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 hour ago, YankeesPwnMets said:

The amount of EDPs on the subway now is insane. I feel like it is impossible to take the train at night now without coming across at least one, no matter how short your trip is, the line you take, or the neighborhood you're in. I've never felt the need to actively avoid taking the subway due to safety reasons, but these past 12 months has really changed that. 

The city and the MTA want people on mass transit, but they'll had a real hard time convincing people to get back on the subway if they're just going to allow it to be a rolling asylum. 

Can't say I disagree. The  has become esp. bad. On several occasions now I've had people smoking in the car I was in, and not always cigarettes either, or you get on right by 242nd and you're already met with homeless people.

[paulrivera]

4 hours ago, YankeesPwnMets said:

I've never felt the need to actively avoid taking the subway due to safety reasons, but these past 12 months has really changed that. 

At this point I'm only taking the subway if I'm with a group of people. The fact that we've gone back to the 70's/80's mentality of "travel in packs" and to be ultra-alert while travelling the subway... smh.

I had to go to downtown Brooklyn a few weeks ago, and instead of taking the  straight down, I wound up going BxM3-LIRR to Jamaica-LIRR to Atlantic Terminal. It cost me like triple the money the subway would cost and took double the time, but since it was a one-off trip I put a high price on my personal safety.

But that's $30 a day. Who the hell's going to do that route every day?

[Vulturious]

15 minutes ago, paulrivera said:

At this point I'm only taking the subway if I'm with a group of people. The fact that we've gone back to the 70's/80's mentality of "travel in packs" and to be ultra-alert while travelling the subway... smh.

I had to go to downtown Brooklyn a few weeks ago, and instead of taking the  straight down, I wound up going BxM3-LIRR to Jamaica-LIRR to Atlantic Terminal. It cost me like triple the money the subway would cost and took double the time, but since it was a one-off trip I put a high price on my personal safety.

But that's $30 a day. Who the hell's going to do that route every day?

Sorry to hear, unfortunately I don't think anything is changing anytime soon. Especially with a nearly 4000 page report by the MTA on why they can't build PSD's (just continuing the backwards minded tradition like always), I get the feeling nothing is changing unless more and more people speak up, but I doubt that. It's not even just the MTA we gotta worry about, it's the city, the state, I don't really see much else going on to improve anything other than proposals that are either just straight up trash or aren't being put forward enough. I don't know just my thought, maybe someday.

[YankeesPwnMets]

On 2/1/2022 at 7:59 PM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Can't say I disagree. The  has become esp. bad. On several occasions now I've had people smoking in the car I was in, and not always cigarettes either, or you get on right by 242nd and you're already met with homeless people.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/video-shows-fire-on-subway-train-after-lit-suitcase-rolled-into-subway-train-with-riders-aboard/3529476/

 

Turns out the suitcase incident wasn't even the first incident of a  fire that week. 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 hour ago, YankeesPwnMets said:

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/video-shows-fire-on-subway-train-after-lit-suitcase-rolled-into-subway-train-with-riders-aboard/3529476/

 

Turns out the suitcase incident wasn't even the first incident of a  fire that week. 

This is crazy!

[jon2305]

If this becomes a common occurrence (God forbid) this city is in for a new dark era. The homeless situation around the has gotten worse and worse and worse....... SMH very toxic environment to say the least.

Almost every station uptown on the is full of junkies and homeless on both ends of the platform. It's something that has truly surpassed what I've seen in my life. It is crazy & toxic and in my opinion it's despicable that this bs has gone on and on. What is our beloved city or state doing about this? Were is all this rhetoric of "more cops on station platforms and train cars?

They've become soo focused on telling people what to do...... to wear a mask, get vaccinated or face consequences like (losing your job) but there's no immediate action on treating the homeless-mental health crisis.  My time on the subway has become limited within this last year alone. I don't even bother with it especially on weekends. It's become a jungle. I only hope and praying for my loved ones whenever they have to ride the subway for work or anything else that they making there safe.

Edited February 3, 2022 by jon2305

[7-express]

A third fire apparently started today on the when someone lit a shopping cart on fire: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/shopping-cart-set-ablaze-on-nyc-subway-3rd-fire-on-same-train-line-within-week-cops/3531055/

[Via Garibaldi 8]

14 minutes ago, jon2305 said:

If this becomes a common occurrence (God forbid) this city is in for a new dark era. The homeless situation around the has gotten worse and worse and worse....... SMH very toxic environment to say the least.

Almost every station uptown on the is full of junkies and homeless on both ends of the platform. It's something that has truly surpassed what I've seen in my life. It is crazy & toxic and in my opinion it's despicable that this bs has gone on and on. What is our beloved city or state doing about this? Were is all this rhetoric of "more cops on station platforms and train cars?

They've become soo focused on telling people what to do...... to wear a mask, get vaccinated or face consequences like (losing your job) but there's no immediate action on treating the homeless-mental health crisis.  My time on the subway has become limited within this last year alone. I don't even bother with it especially on weekends. It's become a jungle. I only hope and praying for my loved ones whenever they have to ride the subway for work or anything else that they making there safe.

Every train that I have boarded of late has had EDPs and or homeless. Got the  at 57th and 6th today and there was a guy in terrible shape just sitting there with no shoes on and filthy socks. No jacket or coat. I actually felt bad for him. It's really as bad as I've seen it. I was so happy I was only going two stops. I took it mainly because traffic at that time was a mess and I needed to run some errands, but I have not felt comfortable riding. You don't know when people will snap and who is carrying what.