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Worst express


SubwayGuy

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Speaking of traffic, what gets me is you'll wait for a while for a (4) or (5) train at Wall St and then from Brooklyn Bridge to 14th st and 14th st to 42nd street, they play that message sometimes talking about "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have train traffic ahead of us. Please be patient" and I think to myself what f*cking train traffic? :mad: I was waiting for a train for at least 10 minutes. Is that really true or is that just BS?

 

trust me its COMPLETE BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Even the train operator admitted it!!!!!!!!! 4/5 err idiots holding doors I laugh when the cops fine them. Sometimes I kick ppl who hold doors

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(4)(5) between franklin ave & atlantic ave ESPECIALLY MANHATTAN BOUND TRAINS! it's faster to take a goddamn local train!

(2)(3) brooklyn bound between 14 & chambers streets. more particularly by canal & franklin streets.

 

of course the bronx has no 2 way express service for some stupid reason so that's scratched off the list!

 

I hate, I cant stress on this enough, I hate it when express service ends with the express/local merging! 3 ave-149 st (2)/(5) & marcy ave (J)/(M)/(Z) I'm looking at you!

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Ill do what some others do here, comments in red.

All of the IND-built lines have the potential to be much faster. They were built that way. Average human limitations (and thus, timers) limit things too much. CBTC might make the IND lines what they were meant to be.

 

 

I never understood that either. From 36 Street to Queens Plaza, sometimes the (M) or (R) beats the (E) to Queens Plaza, and the (E) goes straight through the switches too while the locals travel along a diverging track facing-point. Of course, I don't use it often (I use the (F) to Queensbridge–21 Street to get to Coney Island) and even then, only in the late evening.

Inside of Queens Plaza itself, there are two blind trips that override the existing station timers if because of the proximity of the switch outside the station and how fast (E) trains could enter in there. They clear at 3 (yes THREE) miles an hour. Hitting them is equivalent to hitting a home signal. ouch. And if you do hit them, supervision in the tower on the north end hears it, bell goes off in the Queensboro master, and you are out of service right there. (E) T/O or rerouted (R) T/O don't play with that area AT ALL

 

The way I understand some of these restrictions on speed is limited, but I'd deduce the following from what I've observed:

  • Trains going through tight curves slow down for obvious reasons, but only approaching. Once the first car gets on the straight segment of track, the train operator is usually free to speed up. I don't know if CBTC would make a difference in approaching curves.
    Which is still incorrect operation, usually there is a resume sign that indicates when the whole train has cleared the curve and normal speed can resume. Some places have timers until the whole train has cleared the curve ((A) line from 168-175 both directions is an example), others have only until the first car or two has cleared it (n/b 57-5Av on the Braodway), leaving the train free to wrap while the rest of the train is still on it. Some people do, but only to the posted speed of the timer (since we have to be below to clear it).
  • Trains traversing consecutive curves (those sections shaped like an S or several S) slowdown a lot. Not much can be done here to speed things up short of taking the whole thing apart and building another passage. Exactly
  • Trains slow down when traversing switches in a facing-point motion on a diverging path or trailing-point movement merging into straight track. Or going over switches period if they're not set to straight. Notable exceptions exist, and the most common are 141st junction (2)(3) and sound of west West 4 (green/green goes to left over the switch, green/yellow goes straight with 20mph speed limit even tho its completely straight)
  • Trains slow down in the presence of any switch that is in regular service. They also slow down when approaching a station that has such a switch just beyond it. 36 Street on the 4 Avenue line ((D)(N)(R)) and Queens Plaza on the Queens Boulevard line ((E)(F)(M)(R)) are such examples. Sometimes there's an anomaly like Church Avenue on the Nostrand Avenue line ((2)(5)).Excellent
  • In extreme cases, trains will halt before entering a station because another train in the station on another track is merging (or about to merge) into the same track. I noticed this when there was a G.O. where the (D) ran express to 59 Street (4 Avenue) and the (N) ran local. I took a gamble and waited for the (D). The (D) waited just north of the 59 Street station while the (N) left the station and switched to the express track.
    The "rule" doesn't preclude trains from being on both tracks at the station. If the (D) were already in the station, it would stay there while the (N) proceeded. (The opposite actually happened in my experience; the (D) was local and went ahead while the (N) waited.) Station time allows a train to enter a station and close in on a train ahead of it, as long as the train has cleared the signal beyond the station. However, not all signals in a station are on ST, and not all work as designed, and now you ARE in violation of a rule, so I generally only do it when I see the train ahead of me is moving away at a normal rate, then I almost don't even have to slow down, just roll the train in 10-20mph depending on the area.

 

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And no one has beaten you back for kicking them?

I understand you'd be upset they are holding up the train, but I call bullshit on what you supposedly did. There's no way you'd be posting here still unless you are either lucky or the other people didn't bother to retaliate against you. And this is assuming you are telling the truth.

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And no one has beaten you back for kicking them?

I understand you'd be upset they are holding up the train, but I call bullshit on what you supposedly did. There's no way you'd be posting here still unless you are either lucky or the other people didn't bother to retaliate against you. And this is assuming you are telling the truth.

 

sometimes I do it but not all the time. I am telling truth

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i just have too say too everyone that you need not too forget that the system was never made for what we all want today when it comes too all out service, for one back when all these lines were made there wasnt no where near ass much people as we have today, its sad but they made it over 100 years ago. the bronx wasnt nealy as packed as it is today and that goes for all the outter boroughs. express was never made for what we need today and thats why its not all perfect

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1. (A)(B)(D): they have the longest express sections of all trains in the system, but use the system's heaviest and slowest cars. The R46s and R68/68As really kill the runs on Brighton, 4th Avenue, 8th Avenue/Central Park West, Concourse, and Fulton Street. The "dash" between 34th Street-Herald Square and West 4th Street-Washington Square is the only place where the (B) and (D) can go past 45 MPH and the Jamaica Bay crossing on the (A) is faster than its Brooklyn and Manhattan sections. Their local counterparts, the (C)(F)(M)(N)(Q), which happen to use the system's two best cars (R32s and R160s), can outrun them in service until they reach a local station.

 

2. Weekday (Q) Broadway Express: what the hell is the point of having it run express there if it always gets held at 34th Street-Herald Square and/or Prince Street to let the (N) or (R) local that it just passed by go through first. This effectively cancels out any time the Broadway Express saves and actually makes the travel time between 34th and Canal Streets longer that it would be if it ran local. The late night/weekend express run is better since it skips 49th Street and stays on the express track the entire way instead of switching with the local and causing delays.

 

3. (4)(5) Lexington Avenue Express: trains have lately been running much slower than normal, especially for Brooklyn-bound trains between 59th Street and 14th Street-Union Square. They usually run 40+ MPH, but now barely top 20. The (6) is faster than them for pete's sake. The slow down cannot be the result of construction since there are no track workers and trains do not honk or run at restricted speed.

 

4. (J)(Z) between Myrtle and Marcy Avenues: the express run, while unique, is lame, saving no more than 90 seconds from the local while doubling waiting time for riders at the three stations the trains bypass. It is even worse if they get held at Hewes Street or Myrtle Avenue to let the (M) cross. This completely wastes the express. Skip-stop service definitely needs to be expanded to operate during the full rush hour frames and in both directions and I really wished there was a way to have peak direction express service between Myrtle Avenue and Broadway Junction as well.

 

5. Any local train rerouted to express due to construction: because of workers and work trains on the adjacent tracks, trains often have to run less than 10 MPH for most or all of the express sections, which in turn makes them slower than their normal local service and requiring everyone to allow additional travel time even if their stop is not being bypassed.

 

As you can clearly see, New York City Transit is a genius when it comes to ruining the purpose of express trains.

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I can remember sitting in a C/R schoolcar class discussing this same topic. The motor instructor in charge of our group asked us a simple question. What's the difference between an "express" and a" local" train. Naturally all 30 of us said that the express was faster. He smiled and told us to go back to our Lionels because we were all wrong, especially concerning rapid transit. We all grumbled and he just smiled at us for a few minutes. In the NYCTA at that time the correct answer was that an "express" train made fewer stops than a "local" train did. We pointed out that an express train which made fewer stops would arrive at a point before a local would. He stated that, in theory, we were correct but in the NYCTA he could point out locations where he, as a local motorman, could outrun the express train many times. He gave examples and most of you have named some of those same locations, 30 years later. Remember that he was operating before the proliferation of all these timers yet some of these spots are still with us. I should point out that he was specifically talking about rush hour operations when comparing"express" runs to "local" runs. I took his advice with the proverbial " grain of salt"until I picked a job on the (5) line in the pm rush. Even before ATS hit the scene the n/b (6) that left Brooklyn Bridge with me would beat me to 14th St-Union Square most of the time. In fact, depending on train traffic, we would usually connect with that same local at Grand Central. I'm sure there are other C/Rs and T/Os out here who can point to similar scenarios on their respective lines. To sum up an express train isn't guaranteed to be faster than a local at all times. Carry on.

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- Queens Blvd express {[Jackson Hgts (E)(F)] - Queens Plz (E), 21st/QB (F)}

 

in either direction, it lags too much for my liking... you never move at a constant rate; intermittent movement.... it's annoying....

 

I definitely agree with this, especially Manhattan-bound. Queens-bound isn't as bad, but still.

 

And both the <6> and the <7> have their issues, but I feel that you can use the <7> and transfer to a (7) without having to excessively wait. However, if you want to take the uptown (6), taking the <6> to Hunts Point and waiting is a bitch (excluding like a one hour period).

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The "dash" between 34th Street-Herald Square and West 4th Street-Washington Square is the only place where the (B) and (D) can go past 45 MPH

 

Yep, the 68s and the 68s go really fast up and down that stretch HOWEVER, most of the time going uptown, trains are held by the dispatcher. That same (F) or (M) I see at W4 WILL BE THE SAME (F) or (M) I see at 34th which is just ridiculous.

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  • 2 months later...
Counter to the "best" threads...name express runs you think are the worst and why.

 

 

I vote for (or is that against?) the northbound <7> due to awful dispatching at Main Street. <7> is regularly held outside the portal while one or two (7) trains pass by and enter the station ahead of us. Why bother having an express if it's always held to give priority to the local? :mad:

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