End of Brighton Rehab = Large GO

[Amtrak7]

The Brighton station rehabs will finish up on September 12. I assume that ( express service will also be restored on that date. But to allow for the switch construction, a large GO is needed. It's not on the MTA site yet, but hints are up:

 

( Service ends early

Evening, 8 PM, Friday, Sep 9

 

Take the or instead.

 

Last train toward 145 St: Last train toward Brighton Beach:

Brighton Beach 8:23 PM 145 St 8:45 PM

DeKalb Av 8:50 PM 59 St 9:00 PM

West 4 St 9:02 PM West 4 St 9:10 PM

59 St 9:12 PM DeKalb Av 9:22 PM

 

Note: No service between Prospect Park and Stillwell Av beginning at 10 PM.

 

Note the last line: that's the weekend GO.

 

Also, that same weekend the is out between Bway Jct and 8 Av and that means to Manhattan.

[Mysterious2train]

While I know that that a shutdown is necessary to return the line to normal, is it really smart to do a big shutdown the same weekend?

 

Just as long as there are enough shuttle buses running, I guess.

 

On the plus side, if buses from Ulmer Park are used on the , that gives me a chance to catch an LFS in an odd place :cool:

[CTK246]

Can't wait for Brighton Express.

[R68 Subway Car]

Thank you bro. This is great news. I cannot wait to see Brighton Express service again.

[TwoTimer]

I hope people are not gonna be chasing down that last brighton local

[mark1447]

Its over for now... But soon the ( may end up going local again(Prospect Park to Newkirk) when ever they start work north of Newkirk.

[TwoTimer]

I dont think theres any work planned for the open cut

[MattTrain]

Great to hear the ( returning express again, but honestly it doesn't make much of a difference in time saving.

[Quill Depot]

Glad to hear this. Now it's time to rail fan the ( on the Brighton Line.

[FlushingExpress]

The Brighton station rehabs will finish up on September 12. I assume that B express service will also be restored on that date. But to allow for the switch construction, a large GO is needed.

 

I do not think Brighton Express service will be restored that day. In addition to realigning the tracks north of Newkirk Avenue, dismantaling and removal of the temporary platforms and finishing touches to Kings Highway and Newkirk Avenue have to be made before the express tracks can be used again and I highly doubt that is going to take just one weekend to complete.

 

I hope people are not gonna be chasing down that last brighton local

 

Did anyone tried chasing down the last Brighton Express train two years ago? Time flies; it felt like only yesterday that I rode on the B through the slow Brighton Express on its last day of service, which was the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, to and from my Friday class (where I made a new friend) at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the weather was not cooperative. The suspension of express service was well worth because those Brighton stations were old and needed complete rebuilding. They look so good now!

 

Its over for now... But soon the B may end up going local again(Prospect Park to Newkirk) when ever they start work north of Newkirk.

I dont think theres any work planned for the open cut

 

The stations north of Newkirk Avenue as well as Sheepshead Bay and Brighton Beach were already renovated in 1996-98. There is no need to work on them, though track work may force all trains to operate local only or express only in one direction and local only in the other. Ocean Parkway and West 8th Street were renovated during the Coney Island Terminal reconstruction in 2002-05.

 

Great to hear the B returning express again, but honestly it doesn't make much of a difference in time saving.

 

That is why the ( may as well be a permanent Brighton Local with the . When the announced the suspension of express service two years ago, residents in my neighborhood of Sheepshead Bay started crying foul and demanded that the agency find alternative ways to complete the station repairs. Now two years later, many people along the Brighton Line say service is better with all trains running local. The main reason for that is crowding. When the ran express, it was much more crowded than the , but now both trains have the same general amount of riders.

 

Over the last 20 years, population on the Brighton Line has shifted to the point where many local stations, particularly Avenues U, M, J, and Cortelyou Road, are being used just as much, if not more, as the express stations. Having the run local gave local riders direct access to Sixth Avenue even though most Brighton residents preferred Broadway service. The Brighton Express only saves 4-6 minutes and those minutes are effectively canceled out by the extra time needed to wait for a local or express train. If you want to know more about this, go to http://www.sheepsheadbites.com and read some of the MTA-related posts there. BrooklynBus and I follow this blogger.

 

Thank you bro. This is great news. I cannot wait to see Brighton Express service again.

Can't wait for Brighton Express.

 

A continuation of my response to MattTrain's post, I frankly do not care that the will start running express again in a month. It is one of the system's crappiest lines with very low scheduled service (trains have 8:00-8:15 minute intervals during rush hours), lots of bunching and gaps between trains (probably because it almost always gets held between DeKalb Avenue and the Manhattan Bridge for like 3-4 minutes to let the train go through first and another 5-6 minutes just before curving into 59th Street to let the proceed; this is why I was almost always late in my two semesters at John Jay College), and the R68/68As it uses were once great, but now absolutely suck (they are so fat looking and slow, provide poor A/C and announcements, and their MDBF went from best in the system to second worst in just six years). That is why unless I see R32s on the B, I will stick with the train when school resumes next week because of its superior R160s, more frequent service, and friendlier, healthier riders even though it too suffers from irregular train intervals ever since it got extended to Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard and the became the full-time Broadway Local. Besides, only the Q has direct access to the until the connection between Broadway-Lafayette Street and Bleecker Street opens. Speaking of which, does anything know when will that happen?

 

The only thing that saved the from ranking worst in last year's State of the Subways Report Card was the fact that riders had the best chance of getting a seat on that line and this was a direct result of it running local in Brooklyn (I am betting my tuition that it will rank worst this year). I used to rank it as my second favorite line right behind the , but now put it was third worst with the only trains I hate more are the due to its lack of scheduled service, ghost-town stations, and almost entirely underground route and the due to its long scheduled waits, irregular service, slow and boring underground ride, and dirty, slow, and dull R46s.

 

Glad to hear this. Now it's time to rail fan the B on the Brighton Line.

 

Trust me, it is not going to be fun with those chubby chick R68/68As. They have been failing much more frequently than ever. Since May, I had been late to school nine times because the train in front of my broke down. The good news is if that happens when all four Brighton tracks are in service, it will not have as much of an impact to train service when only two were in operation, unless the break down occurs north of Parkside Avenue, since trains can be rerouted from the local to the express track or vice-versa.

 

The only thing you are going to enjoy is watching an R68 and R160 leaving an express station simultaneously and the Q accelerating quicker and leaving the B behind until it reaches the next local station. It happened all the time in my last semester at City Tech in Spring 2009 and will happen almost all the time since the Q is 100% R160s (that is the best thing to ever happen to that line) where as back then, it was a mix of R160s and R68/68As.

 

While I know that that a Q shutdown is necessary to return the line to normal, is it really smart to do a big L shutdown the same weekend?

 

Just as long as there are enough shuttle buses running, I guess.

 

On the plus side, if buses from Ulmer Park are used on the Q, that gives me a chance to catch an LFS in an odd place :cool:

 

I am sure there are enough shuttle buses. None of those that the LFS fleet was supposed to replace have been retired yet and last year's service cuts left the with plenty of spare buses.

 

Well, I think countdown clocks would also help with evening out the ridership along the and because riders will know when to expect the next train. What would help even more is if riders can check on their phones as to when the next train will be arriving at the station, this way they could time it and not sit around and wait for the , which as you say can be SLOW if you have to wait. However, as someone who lived almost all of my life in Sheepshead Bay and then moved for a short bit to Midwood before moving to Staten Island, I can tell you that the B is infact needed as an express line. What you could do is perhaps have skip stop service along the Q line at the local stops if they are indeed becoming in such high demand, which I can certainly see. I've only used the line once or so since construction because I don't bother the subway when going back to Sheepshead Bay. I just use the express bus (BM3). :cool:

 

I would love to see countdown clocks along the Brighton, Broadway, and Sixth Avenue Lines, especially so I would know which way would be faster coming home from school, transferring at Bleecker Street for the B or 14th Street-Union Square for the Q. I use the timetables to determine what time I should leave my house to catch the right train. Skip-stop service was considered when the reconstruction began, but deemed impractical because the B and Q serve different lines in Manhattan, unlike in 1986-88 (when skip-stop service was implemented on the Brighton Line during platform extensions), when the D and Q both served Broadway while the north Manhattan Bridge was closed. You would not have to ride the express bus if the IRT Nostrand Avenue Line was extended to where Kingsborough Community College is today as planned in the 1930s.

 

When I used to live in Sheepshead Bay and would use to go to the city, the B was great if you could catch one right away because it seems as if they always show at odd times and they're not frequent enough either. :mad:

 

If there is one line that runs like sh*t IMO it is the B and D line. For anyone who has waited at Rockefeller Center for either of these trains, they take FOREVER to show up and the trains are usually pretty crowded, so I don't get the subpar service on these two lines. I guess it is just the MTA being frugal. :mad: :tdown:

 

The imo was better as a Brighton Local. Today, it suffers from slower and more irregular service since the West End Line is longer and has more stops than the Brighton Line and it shares tracks with B, N, and A. The R68s, which the D has always used since 1996, really kill the express run along 4th Avenue and Central Park West. Of course, we all know why it had to go to West End, residents there want direct, around-the-clock access to Grand Street and Sixth Avenue.

 

Wowz, I am surprised that the R42s have no MDBF... beats the R160s XD.

 

More like it is not possible to get an accurate MDBF number for the R42s since they are only 48 in service. No matter what, every subway car will break down eventually.

 

It just terminates on the northbound track, and then the next crew takes it back out southbound, and it crosses over south of the station. On weekends, this apparently doesn't really affect the F, as it's in and out.

 

I too had thought Queens Plaza would have been better, but hat would really be the same thing (in front of the E, with the addition of having to clean the train out to relay. So I guess 57th is better after all.

 

On weekends, the F has 10 minute intervals, so the M terminating at 57th Street should not be a huge problem. Having it terminate at Queens Plaza would cause more congestion because there are two trains serving there, the E and R, with combined intervals of 4-5 minutes.

 

On the R68 and R68A criticism, the B and D were both above the system average on break downs, as the State of the Subways Report made clear. The stats clearly show that they are performing well.

 

From 2009-2010, the R68/68As performed well and I did not have a major problem with them. It was not until earlier this year that they started breaking down at a high rate. Wait until this year's report card, which should be released within the next two months, to see how well the fat girls performed in 2011.

[Brighton Local]

This is awesome news! Gotta' love Brighton with 4 tracks in service..:tup:

[Via Garibaldi 8]

That is why the ( may as well be a permanent Brighton Local with the . When the announced the suspension of express service two years ago, residents in my neighborhood of Sheepshead Bay started crying foul and demanded that the agency find alternative ways to complete the station repairs. Now two years later, many people along the Brighton Line say service is better with all trains running local. The main reason for that is crowding. When the ran express, it was much more crowded than the , but now both trains have the same general amount of riders.

 

Over the last 20 years, population on the Brighton Line has shifted to the point where many local stations, particularly Avenues U, M, J, and Cortelyou Road, are being used just as much, if not more, as the express stations. Having the run local gave local riders direct access to Sixth Avenue even though most Brighton residents preferred Broadway service. The Brighton Express only saves 4-6 minutes and those minutes are effectively canceled out by the extra time needed to wait for a local or express train.

 

 

Well, I think countdown clocks would also help with evening out the ridership along the and because riders will know when to expect the next train. What would help even more is if riders can check on their phones as to when the next train will be arriving at the station, this way they could time it and not sit around and wait for the , which as you say can be SLOW if you have to wait. However, as someone who lived almost all of my life in Sheepshead Bay and then moved for a short bit to Midwood before moving to Staten Island, I can tell you that the is infact needed as an express line. What you could do is perhaps have skip stop service along the line at the local stops if they are indeed becoming in such high demand, which I can certainly see. I've only used the line once or so since construction because I don't bother the subway when going back to Sheepshead Bay. I just use the express bus (BM3). :cool:

 

Great to hear the returning express again, but honestly it doesn't make much of a difference in time saving.

 

 

When I used to live in Sheepshead Bay and would use to go to the city, the was great if you could catch one right away because it seems as if they always show at odd times and they're not frequent enough either. :mad:

 

If there is one line that runs like sh*t IMO it is the and line. For anyone who has waited at Rockefeller Center for either of these trains, they take FOREVER to show up and the trains are usually pretty crowded, so I don't get the subpar service on these two lines. I guess it is just the being frugal. :mad: :tdown:

[+Young+]

When the is out and the goes to Manhattan, how does it relay at the 57th Street Station? I'm a little confused about that, since that station only has two tracks (one for the N/B and one for the S/B ). IMHO, it would make more sense to send the trains to Queens Plaza and relay there, just like the Nostalgia Train does in December.

[Rick44]

I am glad the service will be restored on the Brighton Line, even though it's not a direct impact to me since I live in C.I. I hope the ( is restored to it's old service, because of the R68's breaking down & being slow, it's a waste of time to have an express on that line. However if they run on the local, they slow the , as they do now.

[Eric B]

When the is out and the goes to Manhattan, how does it relay at the 57th Street Station? I'm a little confused about that, since that station only has two tracks (one for the N/B and one for the S/B ). IMHO, it would make more sense to send the trains to Queens Plaza and relay there, just like the Nostalgia Train does in December.

It just terminates on the northbound track, and then the next crew takes it back out southbound, and it crosses over south of the station. On weekends, this apparently doesn't really affect the , as it's in and out.

 

I too had thought Queens Plaza would have been better, but hat would really be the same thing (in front of the , with the addition of having to clean the train out to relay. So I guess 57th is better after all.

[Amtrak7]

The GO is posted... and to save the MTA money, there's no shuttle bus service between Brighton Beach and Stillwell!

 

No trains between Prospect Park and Stillwell Av

trains, B68 and free shuttle buses provide alternate service

Weekend, 10 PM Fri to 5 AM Mon, Sep 9 - 12

 

trains run between Prospect Park and 57 St-7 Av.

 

B68 and free shuttle buses provide express and local service between Prospect Park and Stillwell Av.

 

• Express buses run between Brighton Beach and Prospect Park, stopping at Sheepshead Bay, Neck Rd, Avenue U, Kings Hwy, the Flatbush Av Station and Prospect Park.

 

• Local buses run between Prospect Park and Kings Hwy, making all station stops.

 

• B68 bus service is available between Brighton Beach and Stillwell Av (additional service will be provided overnight).

 

Manhattan-bound customers between Brighton Beach and Stillwell Av:

For faster service to Manhattan, take the B68 to Stillwell Av and transfer to the or trains.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Well, thank God for the BM3... I may decide to go down to Sheepshead Bay tomorrow to my barber for a haircut and I certainly would be quite irritated if I had to deal with that crappola above. :mad:

[Amtrak7]

Well, thank God for the BM3... I may decide to go down to Sheepshead Bay tomorrow to my barber for a haircut and I certainly would be quite irritated if I had to deal with that crappola above. :mad:

 

This ain't tomorrow...

[R68 Subway Car]

On the R68 and R68A criticism, the ( and were both above the system average on break downs, as the State of the Subways Report made clear. The stats clearly show that they are performing well.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

This ain't tomorrow...

 

Even so I would still be irritated. I would have to deal with the whole construction mess. I remember one weekend I was waiting for the BM3 going back to the city and I saw all of these shuttle buses going down Ocean Avenue by Ave X. Real pain in the @ss and then you have to transfer from that to the train. In my case, even with regular service the would be annoying because I would have take the slow @ss from Downtown and then transfer to the from there.

[TwoTimer]

Could just extend service to brighton beach too.

[Brighton Local]

Could just extend service to brighton beach too.

 

This is what should always be done when the doesn't reach Brighton. At least an extension would help to get to Stillwell & Manhattan quicker..

[Radioguy]

Then why not reinstate the while we're at it?

 

I mean that only half-sarcastically (I'd kill to have something like that back in BK). B)

[Wallyhorse]

While I know that that a shutdown is necessary to return the line to normal, is it really smart to do a big shutdown the same weekend?

 

And given that Sunday is the 10th Anniversary of 9/11. This is where if I were Bloomberg, I would look at ordering the to have NO G.O.'s that weekend as traveling in NYC is going to be a major hassle with that weekend being the 10th anniversary of 9/11, with any projects scheduled for that weekend pushed back one week.

[TwoTimer]

And given that Sunday is the 10th Anniversary of 9/11. This is where if I were Bloomberg, I would look at ordering the to have NO G.O.'s that weekend as traveling in NYC is going to be a major hassle with that weekend being the 10th anniversary of 9/11, with any projects scheduled for that weekend pushed back one week.

 

Problem is then many weeks of the year you can make that argument for many large scale events (Mets-Yankees, NYC Marathon, PR parade, etc). 9/11 is only more symbolic in our history and that's all.