SUBWAY - Random Thoughts Topic

[Snowblock]

5 hours ago, NewFlyer 230 said:

I find it interesting how the  and  are running every 20 minutes while the local  and   trains are running every 15. The local trains along Queens Blvd are nearly empty while the express trains are running with SRO or half full cars. It’s impossible to practice social distancing on the express trains. 

You give someone a choice  - ride the express train but the likelihood of picking up the virus is there, or ride the local and be absolutely safe but it might be a couple more minutes, and that tells you why the  and are the packed ones. I can only imagine how the Flushing riders are dealing with no express whatsoever.

[Calvin]

 trains are running 8-car trains to address social distancing, seen on video . 

 

Edited April 4, 2020 by Calvin

[Maxwell179]

1 minute ago, Calvin said:

 trains are running 8-car trains to address social distancing, seen on video . 

8-car R46s & R68(A)s ?

[Calvin]

8 minutes ago, Maxwell179 said:

8-car R46s & R68(A)s ?

Yes

[MeeP15-9112]

20 minutes ago, Maxwell179 said:

8-car R46s & R68(A)s ?

They even have two 10 car R160s out and about on the  .

Also, what are these dots on select A cars of R46s? They are above the numberboard on the #1 end.

Heres an example:
R46 dot sticker

Edited April 4, 2020 by MeeP15-9112
Specificity and added question.

[Lex]

37 minutes ago, Trainmaster5 said:

It’s just my take but if the local trains are running almost empty and the express trains are running crowded one would have to be rather stupid to get on the express, no ? I wouldn’t want to be crowded on any public conveyance these days. Especially if I have a choice. Am I missing something here ? Just curious. Carry on.

It largely has to do with the local/express perception (that, admittedly, has some merit, especially over longer distances, but is perhaps a bit too much of a driving force), but there's also the issue of where the trains go. The  is an especially bad offender, seeing where it goes in Brooklyn and the Bronx.

[Trainmaster5]

35 minutes ago, Snowblock said:

You give someone a choice  - ride the express train but the likelihood of picking up the virus is there, or ride the local and be absolutely safe but it might be a couple more minutes, and that tells you why the  and are the packed ones. I can only imagine how the Flushing riders are dealing with no express whatsoever.

Thanks Snowblock . I was hoping that someone would see the point of my post. Perhaps I value human life differently than others. As far as the argument about Broadway and the avenues goes IMO it might be safer to walk a few blocks rather than being cooped up in a crowded subway car. Of course I’m focusing on Manhattan rather than the outer boroughs.  To each his own I guess. Carry on.

Edited April 4, 2020 by Trainmaster5
Context

[R10 2952]

11 hours ago, Calvin said:

 trains are running 8-car trains to address social distancing, seen on video . 

 

Haven't seen a full-length since a G.O. 10-11 years ago; was in the rear of the train and had to get off at Metropolitan/Grand station for the - not fun cause they used the south side of the platforms to expand crew facilities- so narrow it was like walking a gauntlet. 

On another note, all that graffiti in the station- looks like there's been more trains and stations getting hit recently.

Edited April 4, 2020 by R10 2952

[LGA Link N Train]

So I was looking through RPA's website, and I found this old plan for Jamaica Center regarding the 2nd Regional Plan. I'll have to look into it in greater detail later, but what I gotta say is that this is pretty cool:

http://library.rpa.org/pdf/RPA-Plan2-Jamaica-Center.pdf

 

[CenSin]

1 hour ago, LaGuardia Link N Tra said:

So I was looking through RPA's website, and I found this old plan for Jamaica Center regarding the 2nd Regional Plan. I'll have to look into it in greater detail later, but what I gotta say is that this is pretty cool:

http://library.rpa.org/pdf/RPA-Plan2-Jamaica-Center.pdf

 

Map 15 (page 51) would have been a terrible plan. The way the track maps depict the changes evokes the worst of:

• the reverse branching that will neuter the 2 Avenue Line when they get to phase 3;
• the preclusion of an additional East River tunnel from 2 Avenue/East Houston Street because of the way the Chrystie Street connection was built;
• the Culver/Crosstown connection

[Collin]

9 hours ago, R10 2952 said:

Haven't seen a full-length since a G.O. 10-11 years ago;

Full length  trains have most commonly run during the following G.O. which from what I can find, happened as recently as December 2018.  The  replaced the  to Coney Island, which ran via the  to Euclid.   trains were cut back to 2nd Avenue Lower East Side.  The extended ran full length R46 and R160 trains that were borrowed from the .

[MassTransitHonchkrow]

Just thought I'd check in and see how you guys are doing down there, and rethink how you approached me when I tried sounding the alarm.

Do you still believe I was fear-mongering?

[Lex]

10 minutes ago, MassTransitHonchkrow said:

Just thought I'd check in and see how you guys are doing down there, and rethink how you approached me when I tried sounding the alarm.

Was that really necessary?

[MHV9218]

Nothing predicted has happened for any of the reasons predicted even remotely in the order stated. So, no.

[RTOMan]

54 minutes ago, MassTransitHonchkrow said:

Just thought I'd check in and see how you guys are doing down there, and rethink how you approached me when I tried sounding the alarm.

Do you still believe I was fear-mongering?

Im doing just fine moving these trains thanks....

[Deucey]

1 hour ago, MassTransitHonchkrow said:

Just thought I'd check in and see how you guys are doing down there, and rethink how you approached me when I tried sounding the alarm.

Do you still believe I was fear-mongering?

Actually I do. And I’m going to formally advise you to stop it - since during this stay-at-home order period I figured out how to use these moderator buttons.

[Union Tpke]

On 4/3/2020 at 10:42 PM, paulrivera said:

Here’s a random thought:

When we get back to a sense of normalcy, does anyone think that NYCT will revisit and maybe change their 125% loading guidelines going forward?

If they do, it will to cut service more. As @RR503 has mentioned in the past, we need to move away from loading guidelines to schedule our service.

[CenSin]

5 hours ago, MassTransitHonchkrow said:

Just thought I'd check in and see how you guys are doing down there, and rethink how you approached me when I tried sounding the alarm.

Do you still believe I was fear-mongering?

It’s the internet. All victories are pyrrhic.

[MeeP15-9112]

Did the B division have yard stickers on their cars like the A division?

[Calvin]

8 minutes ago, MeeP15-9112 said:

Did the B division have yard stickers on their cars like the A division?

Not really. Just a few color circles on some 46s (not every one). 

Yellow = Jamaica, Blue Diamond = Pitkin  -> That was before. 

[MeeP15-9112]

18 minutes ago, Calvin said:

Not really. Just a few color circles on some 46s (not every one). 

Yellow = Jamaica, Blue Diamond = Pitkin  -> That was before. 

So thats what those dots are for! The blue diamonds IIRC were used on JA—Pitkin 46s and then there was the few that were involved in the JA—CI swap (5842-5).

Edited April 6, 2020 by MeeP15-9112

[MHV9218]

Sharing a little research.

Going off some photos, it looks like black-on-white Unimark signs showed up on the 8th Avenue Line from Chambers through at least 81st, possibly a little higher beginning in the spring of 1969. Express stations got the new signs and at least the majority of local stations too. That lines up with the Unimark contract for design in 1966-1968 slowly being implemented. These signs were made properly, with what I believe was photographic enlargement of the lettering instead of the hand stenciling that showed up on a lot of the other signs during that era. [Either that, or really professional stenciling.] The more northern stations didn't get updated until the mid-1970s, when some of them received white-on-black signs with a white square for bullet (the transition style) turned up for the first time. Those were hand stenciled signs and they weren't modular like the Vignelli signs, but the current form of a single metal sign with a steel support riveted inside. Basically of these lasted until around 1988-1990 when the last of the original overhead signs, many panels replaced and the others covered in stickers for service changes, were finally replaced. Some stations received well-made porcelain overhead signs with 10" bullets around that time, but soon the cheaper sheet metal signs with small bullets that we know today took their place. A lot of stations still have the 1988ish porcelain signs installed, with sheet metal signs hanging over them. One became visible while signs were being replaced 59th St. not long ago, but it was quickly covered up. Another set of porcelain signs with standard Helvetica, not Medium, turned up and a number of stations during the mid-90s. Many of those are still up, all the way out to the Rockaways. That generation marked the end of porcelain overhead signs in the subway. All the other 8th Ave signs are late-90s and 2000s-2010s sheet metal.

In terms of pillar signs, nearly every station kept its original 1932 porcelain signs until the 1980s, some later. Most stations received number-only white-on-black enamel signs that read '72, 81' etc. around 1982 or 1983. Some didn't – Chambers kept original signs until the early 1990s. Those signs were first replaced with larger enamel signs that included the word 'Street' in the mid-90s at some stations, and in the 2000s with non-enamel signs of the same variety (and the correct Helvetica weight). The last of the 1982-1983 signs were removed from 135th and 72nd over the past few years. Some of the mid-90s signs are now being replaced with cheap, poorly-designed sheet metal signs, like at West 4th and Chambers.

Edited April 6, 2020 by MHV9218

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

110th Street will reopen in the morning:

 

[Union Tpke]

4 hours ago, MHV9218 said:

Sharing a little research.

Going off some photos, it looks like black-on-white Unimark signs showed up on the 8th Avenue Line from Chambers through at least 81st, possibly a little higher beginning in the spring of 1969. Express stations got the new signs and at least the majority of local stations too. That lines up with the Unimark contract for design in 1966-1968 slowly being implemented. These signs were made properly, with what I believe was photographic enlargement of the lettering instead of the hand stenciling that showed up on a lot of the other signs during that era. [Either that, or really professional stenciling.] The more northern stations didn't get updated until the mid-1970s, when some of them received white-on-black signs with a white square for bullet (the transition style) turned up for the first time. Those were hand stenciled signs and they weren't modular like the Vignelli signs, but the current form of a single metal sign with a steel support riveted inside. Basically of these lasted until around 1988-1990 when the last of the original overhead signs, many panels replaced and the others covered in stickers for service changes, were finally replaced. Some stations received well-made porcelain overhead signs with 10" bullets around that time, but soon the cheaper sheet metal signs with small bullets that we know today took their place. A lot of stations still have the 1988ish porcelain signs installed, with sheet metal signs hanging over them. One became visible while signs were being replaced 59th St. not long ago, but it was quickly covered up. Another set of porcelain signs with standard Helvetica, not Medium, turned up and a number of stations during the mid-90s. Many of those are still up, all the way out to the Rockaways. That generation marked the end of porcelain overhead signs in the subway. All the other 8th Ave signs are late-90s and 2000s-2010s sheet metal.

In terms of pillar signs, nearly every station kept its original 1932 porcelain signs until the 1980s, some later. Most stations received number-only white-on-black enamel signs that read '72, 81' etc. around 1982 or 1983. Some didn't – Chambers kept original signs until the early 1990s. Those signs were first replaced with larger enamel signs that included the word 'Street' in the mid-90s at some stations, and in the 2000s with non-enamel signs of the same variety (and the correct Helvetica weight). The last of the 1982-1983 signs were removed from 135th and 72nd over the past few years. Some of the mid-90s signs are now being replaced with cheap, poorly-designed sheet metal signs, like at West 4th and Chambers.

Amazing research. It would be amazing if you could share some photographs to accompany this. Keep up the great work!

[Union Tpke]

Essential Service 
 Posted: 04/06/2020  5:00AM 

 trains run every 30 minutes between World Trade Center and Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer as part of MTA's Essential Service plan.

We're running as many trains as we possibly can with the crews we have available.

Essential Service 
 Posted: 04/06/2020  5:00AM 

trains run every 30 minutes between Inwood-207 St and Ozone Park-Lefferts Blvd/Far Rockaway as part of the MTA's Essential Service plan.

Essential Service 
 Posted: 04/06/2020  5:00AM 

 trains run about every 30 minutes between Norwood-205 St and Coney Island-Stillwell Av as part of the MTA's Essential Service plan.

Essential Service 
 Posted: 04/06/2020  5:00AM 

trains are running every 15 minutes between Middle Village-Metropolitan Av and Forest Hills-71 Av as part of MTA's Essential Service plan. 

Essential Service 
 Posted: 04/06/2020  5:00AM 

trains depart Jamaica-179 St and Coney Island-Stillwell Av every 20 minutes as part of the MTA's Essential Service Plan. 

We are running as many trains as possible with the crews we have available. 

 

Essential Service 
 Posted: 04/06/2020  5:00AM 

service runs every 30 minutes between Jamaica Center and Broad St as part of the MTA's Essential Service plan. 

We're running as many trains as we possibly can with the crews we have available.
 

Essential Service 
 Posted: 04/06/2020  5:09AM 

 trains run every 30 minutes between Astoria-Ditmars Blvd and 86 St as part of MTA's Essential Service plan.

We're running as many trains as we possibly can with the crews we have available.

Essential Service 
 Posted: 04/06/2020  5:00AM 

  trains run every 20 minutes between Forest Hills-71 Av and Bay Ridge-95 St as part of the MTA's Essential Service plan.

Consider taking the B63 as an alternative.

We are running as many trains as possible with the crews we have available.

Essential Service 
 Posted: 04/06/2020  1:22AM 

trains are running every 30 minutes between 96 St and Coney Island-Stillwell Av as part of MTA's Essential Service Plan. 

We are running as many trains as possible with the crews we have available.

Edited April 6, 2020 by Union Tpke