Worst Commute of the Week

[JubaionBx12+SBS]

This topic is here for highly active posters to vent a little and bring added life to this site. The idea is for posters who have experienced really bad commutes to post a story about it in this topic. Other posters will read these stories and vote on who experienced the worst commute each week. That poster with the worst commute gets the NYCTF equivalent of a Pokey award and each week (or month) depending on activity the slate is cleaned. 

Let's see where this goes and what the mods will do with this.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

55 minutes ago, JubaionBx12+SBS said:

This topic is here for highly active posters to vent a little and bring added life to this site. The idea is for posters who have experienced really bad commutes to post a story about it in this topic. Other posters will read these stories and vote on who experienced the worst commute each week. That poster with the worst commute gets the NYCTF equivalent of a Pokey award and each week (or month) depending on activity the slate is cleaned. 

Let's see where this goes and what the mods will do with this.

LOL They probably won't like it, but I like it. Hearing real stories puts things into perspective.

[Lance]

I can't speak for the rest of the staff, but I don't mind the topic. Just one thing and this should be fairly obvious, but please don't post fake stories. There is no shortage of headache-inducing transit problems, so please do not take it upon yourselves to invent a transit nightmare. Other than that, have at it folks.

[S78 via Hylan]

I’ll start it off: 

True story that happened yesterday:

As I was going home from work tired and hungry, there was no  trains running in Queens and I had just missed the LIRR, so I decided to take the Q56 as there was no Q24 nearby. One shows up nearly packed to the brim, so I passed it up and luckily, there was another behind it. That bus must have been put in by a dispatcher since it started where I was waiting (by Jamaica Av and Sutphin Blvd). 

I’m thinking that this ride is smooth sailing until we hit traffic just before Lefferts Blvd. From that point on, the ride was a total drag.... 

The only good thing was that my bus went NIS for most of the trip. 

I’m sure some will have stories much worse than mine, but I just wanted vent.

 

[Mysterious2train]

Didn't happen to me, but I guess yesterday's power outage on the Queens Blvd Line. One confused guy ended up at 96 St-2 Av on a rerouted , wanting to get to 179 St in Queens. I didn't really know what to tell him since the Queens Line was totally knocked out. He was about to get out and walk to the M101 to go uptown to W 179 St (Washington Heights) after looking at Google Maps, until I talked him out of it. So he just got back on the train heading back downtown and I don't know what happened to him. 

[Deucey]

This is from Winter 2015, but I took the Shortline Bus from Ramsey NJ to PABT from my job.

At the time, I was renting a room on 148th/Bway.

Shortline bus took 2.5 hours for a 45 minutes trip because of a traffic jam in the Lincoln that put traffic at a standstill all the way to NJ 495 and the Turnpike.

I finally get to PABT. Track fire at West 4th St meant no IND trains were moving in Manhattan. 7th Av Line platforms were packed as bad as the pics of  uptown platforms earlier in the year when trains broke down. M5 bus - normally slow AF, was even worse bc yellow and gypsy cabs swarmed to pick up fares.

Took two hours walking due to tourists, but I walked from 42nd to 148th - arrived at 11:45, back out at 6:30am. I think the trains started running again when I got to 125th and 8th Av

 

[checkmatechamp13]

Probably not the worst, but here goes: Last Tuesday, I caught a SRO X17A (fortunately, I was at least able to get on). After some traffic at the normal pinch point by the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, I decided to get off (since I was already standing) and take the train to Fulton instead of my normal routine of continuing to Park Place to catch the  to 145th or the  to 96th Street for the . Anyway, long wait for the , I just missed the  and then we crawled all the way from 59th to 125th. Had I realized it was going to be that bad, I would've just taken the  . At the end, it cost me about an hour.

10 minutes ago, Mysterious2train said:

Didn't happen to me, but I guess yesterday's power outage on the Queens Blvd Line. One confused guy ended up at 96 St-2 Av on a rerouted , wanting to get to 179 St in Queens. I didn't really know what to tell him since the Queens Line was totally knocked out. He was about to get out and walk to the M101 to go uptown to W 179 St (Washington Heights) after looking at Google Maps, until I talked him out of it. So he just got back on the train heading back downtown and I don't know what happened to him. 

Ugh, that's gotta be rough. I guess if he took the  back to Delancey Street, he could catch the  to Jamaica (or just the LIRR or an express bus if he was fed up and wanted to go home)

8 minutes ago, Deucey said:

This is from Winter 2015, but I took the Shortline Bus from Ramsey NJ to PABT from my job.

At the time, I was renting a room on 148th/Bway.

Shortline bus took 2.5 hours for a 45 minutes trip because of a traffic jam in the Lincoln that put traffic at a standstill all the way to NJ 495 and the Turnpike.

I finally get to PABT. Track fire at West 4th St meant no IND trains were moving in Manhattan. 7th Av Line platforms were packed as bad as the pics of  uptown platforms earlier in the year when trains broke down. M5 bus - normally slow AF, was even worse bc yellow and gypsy cabs swarmed to pick up fares.

Took two hours walking due to tourists, but I walked from 42nd to 148th - arrived at 11:45, back out at 6:30am. I think the trains started running again when I got to 125th and 8th Av

Damn, I think that might be a winner. Whenever I need to travel between Northern NJ and Upper Manhattan, I always go by way of the GWB Bus Terminal. I would've taken the train to Paterson or Broadway, took a jitney to the GWB Bus Station, and made my way from there. Not sure how much of the mess you would've avoided, but I'd trust that over anything involving the PABT.

[Union Tpke]

I was going to go to the MLP movie (don't judge) with some of my family. The countdown clock at Kew Gardens said it would take 3 minutes for an E to come. We waited for about 10-15 minutes. An announcement played announcing no service east of Continental because of the power issue. The countdown clock changed to 1 minute or delay. We ended up having to take a taxi. I hate taxis! I won't mention how much it cost.

[Deucey]

3 hours ago, checkmatechamp13 said:

Probably not the worst, but here goes: Last Tuesday, I caught a SRO X17A (fortunately, I was at least able to get on). After some traffic at the normal pinch point by the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, I decided to get off (since I was already standing) and take the train to Fulton instead of my normal routine of continuing to Park Place to catch the  to 145th or the  to 96th Street for the . Anyway, long wait for the , I just missed the  and then we crawled all the way from 59th to 125th. Had I realized it was going to be that bad, I would've just taken the  . At the end, it cost me about an hour.

Ugh, that's gotta be rough. I guess if he took the  back to Delancey Street, he could catch the  to Jamaica (or just the LIRR or an express bus if he was fed up and wanted to go home)

Damn, I think that might be a winner. Whenever I need to travel between Northern NJ and Upper Manhattan, I always go by way of the GWB Bus Terminal. I would've taken the train to Paterson or Broadway, took a jitney to the GWB Bus Station, and made my way from there. Not sure how much of the mess you would've avoided, but I'd trust that over anything involving the PABT.

That was the only way to get to Konica Minolta HQ - aside from NJT trains - bc the local buses didn't go up 17. 

I think transit from outer regions are too centralized on PABT and the railroad stations, but that's where the major job centers are.

But regional buses to GWB terminal would save capacity at PABT AND bring revenue to the Subway.

[RR503]

40 minutes ago, Deucey said:

...

But regional buses to GWB terminal would save capacity at PABT AND bring revenue to the Subway.

...along with worsened crowding on the  

[Deucey]

 used to go to Far Rockaway with  and  ; extend it to Dyckman and use the yard leads to turn around. Upgrade the signals to run trains 2 minutes apart and overcrowding at 175th is mitigated.

Or run the NJ buses to 168th to give access to the .

Only needs to be during rush hour. But we're getting way OT.

[bobtehpanda]

2 hours ago, Deucey said:

But regional buses to GWB terminal would save capacity at PABT AND bring revenue to the Subway.

They used to run such buses. No one used them.

[Jchambers2120]

29 minutes ago, Deucey said:

 used to go to Far Rockaway with  and  ; extend it to Dyckman and use the yard leads to turn around. Upgrade the signals to run trains 2 minutes apart and overcrowding at 175th is mitigated.

Or run the NJ buses to 168th to give access to the .

Only needs to be during rush hour. But we're getting way OT.

Your suggestion will probably hurt more people than it'll help. You just introduced two new merges at 168th street and Euclid with trains running every two minutes which will cause inevitable delays. Not only that, now the A has to wait at 190th street for those C's to clear out and either head to the yard or relay and enter swrgice in the opposite direction. Also, do those upper Manhattan and Queens riders want a local service and do we even have enough cars to implement such a service?

 

Back to the OT. Those debris that fell onto the tracks on 7th avenue really screwed up the IRT. A single train made its way into Brooklyn and the had to cover for the since they weren't sending any out of New Lots Avenue. Utica avenue which is already a madhouse during the Am rush was extra crowded. I had to let a leave before I could board the next train. So I'm waiting on the platform and the clock says the next was 13 minutes away and oh boy the passengers had a fit! All you heard was teeth sucking and cussing. Well that originated out of New Lots Avenue, but they pulled a train out of the Utica relay and placed it into service about 5 mins later. Luckily I got a seat since the doors stopped right in front of me, but it didn't matter. Everybody was on top of each other and a fight almost broke out twice because people started stepping on each others shoes. Fulton street looked like japan from the crowding.

[Deucey]

6 minutes ago, Jchambers2120 said:

Your suggestion will probably hurt more people than it'll help. You just introduced two new merges at 168th street and Euclid with trains running every two minutes which will cause inevitable delays. Not only that, now the A has to wait at 190th street for those C's to clear out and either head to the yard or relay and enter swrgice in the opposite direction. Also, do those upper Manhattan and Queens riders want a local service and do we even have enough cars to implement such a service?

 

Back to the OT. Those debris that fell onto the tracks on 7th avenue really screwed up the IRT. A single train made its way into Brooklyn and the had to cover for the since they weren't sending any out of New Lots Avenue. Utica avenue which is already a madhouse during the Am rush was extra crowded. I had to let a leave before I could board the next train. So I'm waiting on the platform and the clock says the next was 13 minutes away and oh boy the passengers had a fit! All you heard was teeth sucking and cussing. Well that originated out of New Lots Avenue, but they pulled a train out of the Utica relay and placed it into service about 5 mins later. Luckily I got a seat since the doors stopped right in front of me, but it didn't matter. Everybody was on top of each other and a fight almost broke out twice because people started stepping on each others shoes. Fulton street looked like japan from the crowding.

Actually I left out a phrase after mentioning  sharing trackage to Far Rockaway. Should've included "...So sharing express/local service in a non-express section shouldn't be an issue." So it's only one merge instead of two.

[Deucey]

12 minutes ago, bobtehpanda said:

They used to run such buses. No one used them.

I'm surprised by that, given how many short buses and NJT buses go to/fro GWBT, as well as the traffic levels on the bridge.

 

Same time, I'm not, since PABT and the stations are right next to where most of Jerseyans work. Guess the folks busing across the bridge work in the Bx or Inwood.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

I thought I would be left out of this since I've been on vacation here and there, but apparently not.  I got a Super Express  bus this morning, or so I thought.  I get on and get my seat and start to get settled in only to realize something is wrong.  A lady went to the front almost immediately to inform the driver that he was going the wrong way.  After asking him some questions, he realizes he is indeed going the wrong way (he was going via Henry Hudson Parkway and was supposed to go via Riverdale Avenue and skip Spuyten Duyvil entirely), so we then had to backtrack via Blackstone Avenue to get back on to West 239th street to head down Riverdale Avenue.  Then we get to Riverdale and 236th to then be saddled with a wheelchair, so now the bus is almost 20 minutes late.  Of course traffic was heavy, and then we had to drop off the wheelchair which took almost 15 minutes.  When all was said and done a trip that should've been maybe 45 minutes was an hour and 30 minutes and I was late to work, albeit only a few minutes, but still.  

[CenSin]

Today's morning commute might possibly be the worst of the month!

There were trains on the Manhattan Bridge (both directions) and conga lines stretching into Brooklyn.

[DaTransitMan4608]

I've had some bad ones before, but I'll stick to the ones that stick out most in my head. 

 

I think it was about 2 weeks ago, I was heading into class from NJ on the 139. I saw on Twitter that there were delays due to an overturned tractor-trailer near 15E on the NJTPKE. For a second I thought about opting for the train, but decided against it because I figured it would be cleared soon. 

Boy was I wrong....

The bus crawled from exit 12 on. The entire truck lane must not have been going any faster than 25mph. The stop and go traffic was absolutely terrible. To make matters worse, the Port Authority went and closed the XBL early due to "low volume". I left Old Bridge at 9am with the intention of arriving in NYC at 10am since I had class at 11am. I didn't get up to Elizabeth until 10am, didn't pass the airport until 10:50. Luckily my professor is very understanding so he told me that I wouldn't be penalized. To wrap this one up, I got into the city around 11:45 and the taking it's sweet time to show up certainly didn't help things. 

Now this is one is from last year, around this time I think. I managed to have the worst luck with this one. I was taking the NJCL in for some reason this semester, and one morning, the Express train I'm on went BIE at Woodbridge for some reason. We sat there for about 30 minutes I believe before we were on our way. I was about a half an hour late to class, but again, understanding professor. Coming back in the evening though was interesting. I had fallen asleep on the train as I had been extremely tired. I was awakened by the HVAC cutting off, I woke up to find us sitting in the Woodbridge station, the end display signs blacked out and the lights slightly dimmed (I was on a Multilevel). The conductor came over the PA saying the train suffered a mechanical problem and they're trying to get it fixed. They gave us the option to stay on, our wait for the local behind us. I opted to stay on out of curiosity to see how this would play out. Conductor came on the PA saying that the train isn't going anywhere, so I opted to just bite the bullet and catch the local behind me. 

[Harry]

10 hours ago, CenSin said:

Today's morning commute might possibly be the worst of the month!

There were trains on the Manhattan Bridge (both directions) and conga lines stretching into Brooklyn.

I think my co-worker was also caught in this because that was the first thing he mentioned to me when he saw me.

[78 via Stew Leonards]

Several times back in 2012, I was on the Bee-Line 21 to school in White Plains, and there was a down powerline on the northbound deegan service rd, so we had to use the deegan itself, bypass McLean Ave, and get off Exit 1-Hall Place. Meanwhile this bus would travel up Central Park Ave up to Yonkers Raceway, turn around, take Central Ave BACK SOUTH to McLean Ave, only to turn around and go back north once again. Easily took 15-20 min away doing that and it was annoying as hell.

[78 via Stew Leonards]

On 10/10/2017 at 10:45 AM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

I thought I would be left out of this since I've been on vacation here and there, but apparently not.  I got a Super Express  bus this morning, or so I thought.  I get on and get my seat and start to get settled in only to realize something is wrong.  A lady went to the front almost immediately to inform the driver that he was going the wrong way.  After asking him some questions, he realizes he is indeed going the wrong way (he was going via Henry Hudson Parkway and was supposed to go via Riverdale Avenue and skip Spuyten Duyvil entirely), so we then had to backtrack via Blackstone Avenue to get back on to West 239th street to head down Riverdale Avenue.  Then we get to Riverdale and 236th to then be saddled with a wheelchair, so now the bus is almost 20 minutes late.  Of course traffic was heavy, and then we had to drop off the wheelchair which took almost 15 minutes.  When all was said and done a trip that should've been maybe 45 minutes was an hour and 30 minutes and I was late to work, albeit only a few minutes, but still.  

They need to bring back the real BxM1 Super Express, that only made 3 stops in Manhattan

[Via Garibaldi 8]

3 hours ago, 78 via Stew Leonards said:

They need to bring back the real BxM1 Super Express, that only made 3 stops in Manhattan

They did away with that when they had the BxM18 make those stops along 5th thus giving BxM2 and BxM1 riders Super Express service. I've been pushing for later BxM18 in the morning. The last one ends far too early. Two more trips would be great.

[78 via Stew Leonards]

13 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

They did away with that when they had the BxM18 make those stops along 5th thus giving BxM2 and BxM1 riders Super Express service. I've been pushing for later BxM18 in the morning. The last one ends far too early. Two more trips would be great.

What they need to do with the BxM18 is speed it up in the nonstop section. Some of that takes way too long. Maybe use something other than 5th/Madison Avs north of 57th. Also maybe use the FDR Drive between 23rd St and City Hall

[JubaionBx12+SBS]

Since checkmate is the only poster who hinted at a vote I guess the winner for the first week is Deucey. 

[LegoBrickBreaker101]

I posted this in the unplanned service changes thread, but I'll post it here too since I think it's a good contender for "Worst Commute of the Week".

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of getting stuck in delays caused by a power outage on the 6th Avenue Line and ended up being late to class, the delays reached as far as the Bronx...

My  ran local in the Bronx instead of express (which was fine since that happens occasionally) but we were held at 161st Street for 10 minutes, and again at 145th for 20 minutes when the conductor said we would be going on the  line. We made local stops along CPW, got stalled at 81st Street for 20 minutes, and again at 59th for 5 minutes until the conductor said we would be going on the 6th Avenue line again. We went one stop to 7th Avenue, and got stuck for another 30 minutes. I finally gave up and walked to 49th Street to catch the . On my way to Union Square, I saw a on the express track probably heading to 96th Street. A 50 minute commute ended up taking two hours, and I think my conductor also mentioned a power outage at Rockefeller Center.