LIRR And MNRR Random Thoughts Thread

[Far rockaway]

On 5/21/2023 at 3:00 PM, checkmatechamp13 said:

The West Hempstead Branch isn't within walking distance of the Hempstead Branch. Riders would end up having to take a bus to reach either the Babylon/Long Beach Branches or Hempstead Branch.

What time is that shuttle?

They could just do inbound/outbound. Reverse-peak ridership should always be encouraged on any commuter mode, since the marginal cost is low (Since B/Os would otherwise be deadheading back to their home depot).

In any case, I think reason would be that the B/O might log in as the opposite direction (So if it's a Midtown-bound SIM8, it might log in as an Arden Heights-bound SIM8 and accidentally charge the senior citizen half price for a peak trip).

The shuttle is 1:08PM. It operates on Friday's only. But there is also a 6:17 AM shuttle that operates from Penn Station to Jamaica everyday making a stop at Woodside. The 1:08PM Friday only shuttle operates non stop express to Jamaica.

[QM1to6Ave]

On 5/21/2023 at 3:00 PM, checkmatechamp13 said:

The West Hempstead Branch isn't within walking distance of the Hempstead Branch. Riders would end up having to take a bus to reach either the Babylon/Long Beach Branches or Hempstead Branch.

What time is that shuttle?

They could just do inbound/outbound. Reverse-peak ridership should always be encouraged on any commuter mode, since the marginal cost is low (Since B/Os would otherwise be deadheading back to their home depot).

In any case, I think reason would be that the B/O might log in as the opposite direction (So if it's a Midtown-bound SIM8, it might log in as an Arden Heights-bound SIM8 and accidentally charge the senior citizen half price for a peak trip).

Funny enough, I was just talking with someone who lives in west hempstead and she was saying that she purposely takes the long walk to one of the Hempstead stations as her exercise, and when her neighbors pass her while she is walking, they offer her a ride and look at her like she's crazy when she says she wants the long walk LOL. I think she lives on the edge of west hempstead so it isn't such a crazy long walk

Edited May 29, 2023 by QM1to6Ave

[Lawrence St]

14 hours ago, Calvin said:

* A pointer on the Atlantic Terminal branch.  Between said terminal and Jamaica, St. Albans, Locust Manor, and Rosedale, also: Hollis and Queens Village, the ticket cost and ride is $5 either way. That's also included during the peak hours.  Last week, when riding the Shuttle from Atlantic to Jamaica, a LIRR conductor notified passengers that this entire shuttle line is $5 by paying Atlantic ticket to the machine. There were instances that passengers paid an off-peak fare only to go to a few stops at that line, but not affected if going past Queens borough: destination as Ronkonkoma or Huntington, Oyster Bay etc. 

* Re-cap for $5 fares on the LIRR is from terminals in Manhattan, Penn Station and Grand Central and Queens stations off-peak going up to Little Neck on the Port Washington branch. Only the 3:15 PM departure leaving Long Island City and 3:30 PM at Hunters point Av is considered city ticket if going to Queens Village or by Rosedale, transferring at Jamaica station. 

* The Metro-North is only Grand Central and Harlem-125 St valid on the Hudson line up to Riverdale, Harlem line up to Wakefield for the $5 fare off-peak. New Haven line only has Fordham going from Grand Central and vice-versa. 

New Haven technically doesn’t count, but Harlem tickets to/from Fordham are accepted despite being in different fare zones.

Which brings up a good question, why is Botonical Garden not a seasonal stop on the New Haven line? Seems a lot of people go to Fordham just to come back up one stop.

Edited May 29, 2023 by Lawrence St

[B35 via Church]

On 5/27/2023 at 7:18 PM, trainfan22 said:

Thought about fanning the Danbury Branch one of the next two days, then I saw that it runs on 3 hour headways when it's on an Sunday schedule, nvm lol. 

I still have yet to ride that branch (only did New Canaan & Waterbury)... Albeit a long time ago, on separate occasions, I've only taken buses to Danbury (from Norwalk via that 7 Link, and from MNRR Brewster, via that Danbury-Brewster shuttle)... It's been about a handful of years or so, since I've been out to CT in general....

(almost did so this past Saturday though, but the BL-13 arrived before the CT311 (Port Chester - Stamford) did, so I said f*** it & just crossed the street... lol)

Edited May 29, 2023 by B35 via Church

[QM1to6Ave]

6 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

New Haven technically doesn’t count, but Harlem tickets to/from Fordham are accepted despite being in different fare zones.

Which brings up a good question, why is Botonical Garden not a seasonal stop on the New Haven line? Seems a lot of people go to Fordham just to come back up one stop.

I think the MTA broadly could benefit from more creative collaboration with public events, spaces, etc and have some mutually beneficial cross-promotion...the site gets advertised, and the MTA gets more customers (especially on their more expensive, underused modes of transit). I've seen more efforts at this in the past few years, but there is a lot more room for growth. 

[checkmatechamp13]

3 minutes ago, QM1to6Ave said:

I think the MTA broadly could benefit from more creative collaboration with public events, spaces, etc and have some mutually beneficial cross-promotion...the site gets advertised, and the MTA gets more customers (especially on their more expensive, underused modes of transit). I've seen more efforts at this in the past few years, but there is a lot more room for growth. 

To put things into perspective, NJ Transit constantly does promotions every season. The MTA definitely has room for improvement in that regard.

[QM1to6Ave]

19 minutes ago, checkmatechamp13 said:

To put things into perspective, NJ Transit constantly does promotions every season. The MTA definitely has room for improvement in that regard.

Yeah, and they are still having B/O's collecting coins on their routes lol...the MTA could do all sorts of things with OMNY promotions and so forth

[Lawrence St]

24 minutes ago, QM1to6Ave said:

I think the MTA broadly could benefit from more creative collaboration with public events, spaces, etc and have some mutually beneficial cross-promotion...the site gets advertised, and the MTA gets more customers (especially on their more expensive, underused modes of transit). I've seen more efforts at this in the past few years, but there is a lot more room for growth. 

I agree, but I think the reason why is because of CT’s rail rules. Remember that whole debacle with people not being able to board inbound NH trains at Fordham? 
 

In my opinion, the city stops on the Harlem Line need some big improvement. Tremont and Melrose should have been extended to 6 car platforms already, Botanical Garden should be a seasonal stop for select NH trains,  Woodlawn should be extended to 8 cars, and Wakefield/Mt Vernon West should be consolidated into one 10 car platform station.

[QM1to6Ave]

1 minute ago, Lawrence St said:

I agree, but I think the reason why is because of CT’s rail rules. Remember that whole debacle with people not being able to board inbound NH trains at Fordham? 
 

In my opinion, the city stops on the Harlem Line need some big improvement. Tremont and Melrose should have been extended to 6 car platforms already, Botanical Garden should be a seasonal stop for select NH trains,  Woodlawn should be extended to 8 cars, and Wakefield/Mt Vernon West should be consolidated into one 10 car platform station.

Ahh, interesting

[46Dover]

I spent Memorial Day hunting for the MN 208 unit.  Found it on the first try at Grand Central, then took a trip on the Hudson Line to Tarrytown to get a photo op (since it looked as if it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon from GCT).  Well as my train pulls into Irvington, 208 comes flying past and I’m cursing my cursed luck in front of a live studio audience 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤦‍♂️

[IAlam]

On 5/29/2023 at 9:47 PM, QM1to6Ave said:

Yeah, and they are still having B/O's collecting coins on their routes lol...the MTA could do all sorts of things with OMNY promotions and so forth

The fact that to this day that the MTA still doesn't accept cash boggles my mind. As far as I know, they're the only major agency in the US to have this rule too. The MTA wants to complain about fare evasion but fails to evaluate its own fare collection procedures. When you make it harder to pay your fare people just won't go through the effort. Coins only, broken TVMs causing long lines, and not to mention the issues of OMNY constantly providing read errors just make it harder to pay for those who are honest. On the LIRR side of things many stations only have 1-2 TVMs with some TVMs only offering certain tickets. The eTix app has a lot of bugs and issues that already dissuade me from using it unless it's a last resort. But for paper tickets, there are so many days where I just get on the train and a conductor never comes by to even collect it. I'm not fare evading when I have a valid ticket but I'm also not going to let a valid ticket go to waste when they don't collect it. Last Saturday I took 3 rides on the same ticket before they even collected it, and that's because my final ride was from Penn. Most of my rides are from 10-20 minutes but even then when I make equivalent trips on the MNR I usually get checked in ~5 minutes or less. The MTA really needs to reevaluate how they collect fares before outright blaming the passengers because most of the fare payment mediums have so many issues systemwide.
 
But sorry for going off topic there for a moment I definitely agree some OMNY promotions could go a long way. I know GO Transit does weekend passes for a flat fee which was really popular, I think the MBTA did something similar too. Once the MTA implements OMNY on the commuter rails maybe they could do something similar with fare capping. 

On 5/29/2023 at 9:48 PM, Lawrence St said:

I agree, but I think the reason why is because of CT’s rail rules. Remember that whole debacle with people not being able to board inbound NH trains at Fordham? 

Yeah, I've never had an issue boarding an NH train to Grand from Fordham. They always collect my ticket as normal and carry on.

[NBTA]

The new pride logo that was found on the 188s are now on some M7As. I can confirm that whatever train 4179 is on, the entire set has it.

[QM1to6Ave]

13 hours ago, IAlam said:

The fact that to this day that the MTA still doesn't accept cash boggles my mind. As far as I know, they're the only major agency in the US to have this rule too. The MTA wants to complain about fare evasion but fails to evaluate its own fare collection procedures. When you make it harder to pay your fare people just won't go through the effort. Coins only, broken TVMs causing long lines, and not to mention the issues of OMNY constantly providing read errors just make it harder to pay for those who are honest. On the LIRR side of things many stations only have 1-2 TVMs with some TVMs only offering certain tickets. The eTix app has a lot of bugs and issues that already dissuade me from using it unless it's a last resort. But for paper tickets, there are so many days where I just get on the train and a conductor never comes by to even collect it. I'm not fare evading when I have a valid ticket but I'm also not going to let a valid ticket go to waste when they don't collect it. Last Saturday I took 3 rides on the same ticket before they even collected it, and that's because my final ride was from Penn. Most of my rides are from 10-20 minutes but even then when I make equivalent trips on the MNR I usually get checked in ~5 minutes or less. The MTA really needs to reevaluate how they collect fares before outright blaming the passengers because most of the fare payment mediums have so many issues systemwide.
 
But sorry for going off topic there for a moment I definitely agree some OMNY promotions could go a long way. I know GO Transit does weekend passes for a flat fee which was really popular, I think the MBTA did something similar too. Once the MTA implements OMNY on the commuter rails maybe they could do something similar with fare capping. 

Yeah, I've never had an issue boarding an NH train to Grand from Fordham. They always collect my ticket as normal and carry on.

Yup, the paper tickets are great because you can keep them each time the CR is too lazy to come around and collect it lol

[Lawrence St]

13 hours ago, IAlam said:

The fact that to this day that the MTA still doesn't accept cash boggles my mind. As far as I know, they're the only major agency in the US to have this rule too. The MTA wants to complain about fare evasion but fails to evaluate its own fare collection procedures. When you make it harder to pay your fare people just won't go through the effort. Coins only, broken TVMs causing long lines, and not to mention the issues of OMNY constantly providing read errors just make it harder to pay for those who are honest. On the LIRR side of things many stations only have 1-2 TVMs with some TVMs only offering certain tickets. The eTix app has a lot of bugs and issues that already dissuade me from using it unless it's a last resort. But for paper tickets, there are so many days where I just get on the train and a conductor never comes by to even collect it. I'm not fare evading when I have a valid ticket but I'm also not going to let a valid ticket go to waste when they don't collect it. Last Saturday I took 3 rides on the same ticket before they even collected it, and that's because my final ride was from Penn. Most of my rides are from 10-20 minutes but even then when I make equivalent trips on the MNR I usually get checked in ~5 minutes or less. The MTA really needs to reevaluate how they collect fares before outright blaming the passengers because most of the fare payment mediums have so many issues systemwide.
 
But sorry for going off topic there for a moment I definitely agree some OMNY promotions could go a long way. I know GO Transit does weekend passes for a flat fee which was really popular, I think the MBTA did something similar too. Once the MTA implements OMNY on the commuter rails maybe they could do something similar with fare capping. 

Yeah, I've never had an issue boarding an NH train to Grand from Fordham. They always collect my ticket as normal and carry on.

What's wrong with etix? I've never had an issue unless it was a system-wide outage which the conductors knew about.

[Gotham Bus Co.]

19 hours ago, IAlam said:

The fact that to this day that the MTA still doesn't accept cash boggles my mind. As far as I know, they're the only major agency in the US to have this rule too. The MTA wants to complain about fare evasion but fails to evaluate its own fare collection procedures. When you make it harder to pay your fare people just won't go through the effort.

 

I don't know if the tech has improved, but 30+ years ago, the farebox mechanisms that processed bills had a nasty habit of damaging some of them beyond usability.

  

I wonder if all buses should be fare-free just to get away from the fare collection infrastructure.

[checkmatechamp13]

23 hours ago, IAlam said:

Yeah, I've never had an issue boarding an NH train to Grand from Fordham. They always collect my ticket as normal and carry on.

Starting April 14th, 2019, they eliminated that rule, so if you rode recently, there would be no issues. But prior to that date, the official rule was that they were supposed to charge you from whatever the previous stop on that train was (Mount Vernon West, New Rochelle, Stamford, etc)

[IAlam]

12 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

What's wrong with etix? I've never had an issue unless it was a system-wide outage which the conductors knew about.

Before upgrading to my current phone the eTix app would constantly crash on my old phone. It would always run out of RAM and or battery so it was always too unreliable and unpredictable for me. My current phone doesn't crash but I've had my payment get rejected a couple of times which can get frustrating because the same card will work fine other times, but even then I am a heavy user so I'm pushing my current phone until it's dead, so I prefer not to use eTix unless it's a last resort like I don't have enough time to buy or the machines aren't working. I feel better knowing I have the ticket on me without having to worry about any phone issues. Also, I prefer to just stick the ticket on my seat and not interact with the conductor. 

[Lawrence St]

Kinda shocked how no one’s mentioned this, but there are budget cuts coming for the New Haven Line from the CT side of the railroad. According to the link, peak service will be downgraded to 60% of current levels.

https://www.courant.com/2023/06/02/opinion-cutting-metro-norths-new-haven-line-service-a-bad-deal-for-ct/

I don’t get why they can’t take funding from other rail lines (cough cough SHORE LINE EAST cough) and use that for the NH line in terms of priority. SLE has barely got its ridership back and they’re still running half empty trains up and down the branch

[QM1to6Ave]

10 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

Kinda shocked how no one’s mentioned this, but there are budget cuts coming for the New Haven Line from the CT side of the railroad. According to the link, peak service will be downgraded to 60% of current levels.

https://www.courant.com/2023/06/02/opinion-cutting-metro-norths-new-haven-line-service-a-bad-deal-for-ct/

I don’t get why they can’t take funding from other rail lines (cough cough SHORE LINE EAST cough) and use that for the NH line in terms of priority. SLE has barely got its ridership back and they’re still running half empty trains up and down the branch

Yikes, that is quite a cut they want to make

[Mpn4179]

12 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

Kinda shocked how no one’s mentioned this, but there are budget cuts coming for the New Haven Line from the CT side of the railroad. According to the link, peak service will be downgraded to 60% of current levels.

https://www.courant.com/2023/06/02/opinion-cutting-metro-norths-new-haven-line-service-a-bad-deal-for-ct/

I don’t get why they can’t take funding from other rail lines (cough cough SHORE LINE EAST cough) and use that for the NH line in terms of priority. SLE has barely got its ridership back and they’re still running half empty trains up and down the branch

They’re going after Shore Line East as well, not just the New Haven Line.

The governor was proposing to reduce SLE to 44 percent of pre-pandemic levels while reducing New Haven Line to 86 percent of pre-pandemic levels. I don’t know when he decided to change it to 60 percent, because that would make it even worse.

Most likely, they will reduce the express portion of the New Haven Line, since the express makes local stops East of Stamford, all in the state of Connecticut. The local portion (West of Stamford) will probably stay intact or have a slight reduction, since majority of the stops are in New York State.

Only the Hartford Line will stay intact… for now.

[checkmatechamp13]

3 hours ago, Mpn4179 said:

They’re going after Shore Line East as well, not just the New Haven Line.

The governor was proposing to reduce SLE to 44 percent of pre-pandemic levels while reducing New Haven Line to 86 percent of pre-pandemic levels. I don’t know when he decided to change it to 60 percent, because that would make it even worse.

Most likely, they will reduce the express portion of the New Haven Line, since the express makes local stops East of Stamford, all in the state of Connecticut. The local portion (West of Stamford) will probably stay intact or have a slight reduction, since majority of the stops are in New York State.

Only the Hartford Line will stay intact… for now.

Hopefully as part of that, they can consolidate trips so that intermediate travel is easier. Right now, if you're trying to get from Stamford to say, New Rochelle, it is very difficult with all of the trains running in non-overlapping zones.

For Shore Line East, the sad thing is they invested in the new electric cars for it. I would try my hand at extending Metro-North trains out to Old Saybrook (with a crew change at New Haven if there's territory issues between Amtrak and Metro-North crews) to see if that increases ridership. Even if there aren't that many riders going all the way to NYC, I'm sure there are some who are going to areas like Bridgeport and Stamford. 

[xD4nn]

6 hours ago, checkmatechamp13 said:

Hopefully as part of that, they can consolidate trips so that intermediate travel is easier. Right now, if you're trying to get from Stamford to say, New Rochelle, it is very difficult with all of the trains running in non-overlapping zones.

For Shore Line East, the sad thing is they invested in the new electric cars for it. I would try my hand at extending Metro-North trains out to Old Saybrook (with a crew change at New Haven if there's territory issues between Amtrak and Metro-North crews) to see if that increases ridership. Even if there aren't that many riders going all the way to NYC, I'm sure there are some who are going to areas like Bridgeport and Stamford. 

M8s used on SLE cannot be used on GCT trains. Clearance issues east of New Haven result in the third rail shoes of the SLE M8s to be removed. 

[Lex]

59 minutes ago, xD4nn said:

M8s used on SLE cannot be used on GCT trains. Clearance issues east of New Haven result in the third rail shoes of the SLE M8s to be removed. 

Like what?

[xD4nn]

Just now, Lex said:

Like what?

[Lex]

2 minutes ago, xD4nn said:

And those are from what, exactly?