Queens subway meltdown spanning 5 hours to be investigated, Andy Byford says

[AlgorithmOfTruth]

I remember heading to The Bronx last year when the  train that I was on had gotten taken out of service due to a critical power failure north of 145th Street. Everything was going smoothly without incident until we reached 145th Street, then BOOM! "Due to an outage of power, there is no  train service in both directions between 145th Street and Norwood–205th Street." is what my train's Conductor had announced over the intercom. I had to get to the Fordham Road  train station and was so pissed! Then, as we're disembarking the train, I see an MTA employee in an orange and yellow vest run to the turnstiles and stands there eyeing the riot of passengers making their way up to the station's exit. He is questioned by a female passenger and is immediately inundated with obscene language and gestures from the crowd as they swarm both him and the Station Agent's booth. "Take the Bx19 bus to the 149th Street–Grand Concourse station where you can continue your trip by transferring there to the Bronx-bound  train." is all we had gotten from the Station Agent. Once we were outside awaiting the next Bx19 bus to The Bronx, the crowd grew larger and more irritated. I felt like I was at some concert with people yelling indiscernably whilst standing in such close proximity to me. When the next Bx19 bus had arrived, the Bus Operator's facial expression was priceless as he saw the heated mob rushing towards his bus. All I remember was some light exchange between him and the first passenger who had boarded, which then ensued a swarm of bees filling the bus like a hive seeping with honey. I had to wait for the third Bx19 bus to arrive nearly 30 minutes later before I could finally board, and even still, it was full to the brim. By the time I had gotten off the  train at Fordham Road, my trip had accrued an extra 1 hour 30 minutes and now I had to walk all the way from Jerome Avenue to Webster Avenue along Fordham Road, which took me at least 15 minutes. By the time I had made it to my destination, I found that it took me over 3 hours to complete my trip, when it shouldn't had taken any longer than an hour and a half from Queens!

[bobtehpanda]

14 hours ago, Deucey said:

Stupid question: why don't trains have brake lights so the operators behind them know the train is stopping?

Trains are heavy and don't break that fast. If you can see the brake lights it's already too late.

9 hours ago, Deucey said:

Too true, but then I think of Bx1/2 and the M5 and they're packed for their trips paralleling a subway.

Same with B38/Ltd. Not so much with B25. B48 tends to be empty or full as it parallels Franklin (S). And then Eastern Pkwy has no buses on it.

I think it'd be a better idea to have one on QB going from 71st/Continental to 59th/Lex at least, but then that's a 2 hour bus ride, and that's saved only for Manhattan.

The Q60? S Jamaica - 60th/2nd. And the Q32 from Elmhurst to Penn.

[bobtehpanda]

11 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

Infuriating.... And I don't think the MTA really understands how helpless a feeling that is, to be standing within a massive crowd that all knows that they are going nowhere, nowhere fast.... What's never told is that heated squabbles b/w passengers often ensue in these situations, due to the frustration (some people have very quick tempers)... This is why I tend not to say a damn thing to anyone whenever a train goes OOS or whatever... Whenever I'm asked a question, I don't even say the words "I don't know", I shrug my shoulders instead.... The guy pacing back & forth on the platform cursing like a madman possessed, that's the guy you better make space for (if you don't want no type of shit to go down)....

Anyway.... Yeah, I'm going to revert back to my conspiracy theory regarding sabotagery..... Mighty funny how it went from "Cellll-a-brate good times - Come ON !!! We have record breaking subway ridership".....

...to the amt. of these so-called meltdowns that have taken place, in such a short amt. of time.

There is something to be said about that.

It's because the media started sniffing around Cuomo after he disbanded the Moreland Commission and picked petty fights with the mayor. Blood in the water for those sharks.

9 hours ago, Deucey said:

That's why I can look outside the office window and think on one hand how stupid it is that the Q32 goes from the middle of Queens to pass by 49th/Madison, but on the other hand makes me wonder why there aren't more bus routes that parallel subway routes in regular service.

Granted, you have the fact that in most cases,buses that duplicate rail service tend to be low-ridership lines if they exist at all. But running these lines so when there is a train disruption planners can pull rolling stock and run buses as limited stop/super expresses until the disruption ends seems like a smart contingency investment.

But in 's defense, can't do planning like this if their money is always short.

The problem is that you need quite a lot of buses to match the subway. The Sandy Bus Bridge only worked by turning all of Manhattan HOV3+ and scrambling every bus in the region they could find to go between Barclays and Midtown.

[NY1635]

17 hours ago, Deucey said:

Too true, but then I think of Bx1/2 and the M5 and they're packed for their trips paralleling a subway.

Same with B38/Ltd. Not so much with B25. B48 tends to be empty or full as it parallels Franklin (S). And then Eastern Pkwy has no buses on it.

I think it'd be a better idea to have one on QB going from 71st/Continental to 59th/Lex at least, but then that's a 2 hour bus ride, and that's saved only for Manhattan.

The Q60 already travels along Queens Blvd to 59th/Lex. It gets shunned because very few people are willing to put up with the massive congestion on the approach to Queensboro Bridge.

[trainfan22]

16 hours ago, AlgorithmOfTruth said:

I remember heading to The Bronx last year when the  train that I was on had gotten taken out of service due to a critical power failure north of 145th Street. Everything was going smoothly without incident until we reached 145th Street, then BOOM! "Due to an outage of power, there is no  train service in both directions between 145th Street and Norwood–205th Street." is what my train's Conductor had announced over the intercom. I had to get to the Fordham Road  train station and was so pissed! Then, as we're disembarking the train, I see an MTA employee in an orange and yellow vest run to the turnstiles and stands there eyeing the riot of passengers making their way up to the station's exit. He is questioned by a female passenger and is immediately inundated with obscene language and gestures from the crowd as they swarm both him and the Station Agent's booth. "Take the Bx19 bus to the 149th Street–Grand Concourse station where you can continue your trip by transferring there to the Bronx-bound  train." is all we had gotten from the Station Agent. Once we were outside awaiting the next Bx19 bus to The Bronx, the crowd grew larger and more irritated. I felt like I was at some concert with people yelling indiscernably whilst standing in such close proximity to me. When the next Bx19 bus had arrived, the Bus Operator's facial expression was priceless as he saw the heated mob rushing towards his bus. All I remember was some light exchange between him and the first passenger who had boarded, which then ensued a swarm of bees filling the bus like a hive seeping with honey. I had to wait for the third Bx19 bus to arrive nearly 30 minutes later before I could finally board, and even still, it was full to the brim. By the time I had gotten off the  train at Fordham Road, my trip had accrued an extra 1 hour 30 minutes and now I had to walk all the way from Jerome Avenue to Webster Avenue along Fordham Road, which took me at least 15 minutes. By the time I had made it to my destination, I found that it took me over 3 hours to complete my trip, when it shouldn't had taken any longer than an hour and a half from Queens!

You could walked from 145th station to the GC 149th station, the bridge the Bx19 travels over between Harlem and The Bronx has an walkway, I did that walk before, it's not an long walk. Your commute would have been much shorter if you did that.

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

I'll consider myself a lucky bastard, because I ran a little late, and without checking the MTA website, instead opted to try out taking the Q38 to the  to the  to the  instead of the Q47 to the  that day. Took a little less than an hour to get to Downtown Brooklyn. 

17 hours ago, AlgorithmOfTruth said:

I remember heading to The Bronx last year when the  train that I was on had gotten taken out of service due to a critical power failure north of 145th Street. Everything was going smoothly without incident until we reached 145th Street, then BOOM! "Due to an outage of power, there is no  train service in both directions between 145th Street and Norwood–205th Street." is what my train's Conductor had announced over the intercom. I had to get to the Fordham Road  train station and was so pissed! Then, as we're disembarking the train, I see an MTA employee in an orange and yellow vest run to the turnstiles and stands there eyeing the riot of passengers making their way up to the station's exit. He is questioned by a female passenger and is immediately inundated with obscene language and gestures from the crowd as they swarm both him and the Station Agent's booth. "Take the Bx19 bus to the 149th Street–Grand Concourse station where you can continue your trip by transferring there to the Bronx-bound  train." is all we had gotten from the Station Agent. Once we were outside awaiting the next Bx19 bus to The Bronx, the crowd grew larger and more irritated. I felt like I was at some concert with people yelling indiscernably whilst standing in such close proximity to me. When the next Bx19 bus had arrived, the Bus Operator's facial expression was priceless as he saw the heated mob rushing towards his bus. All I remember was some light exchange between him and the first passenger who had boarded, which then ensued a swarm of bees filling the bus like a hive seeping with honey. I had to wait for the third Bx19 bus to arrive nearly 30 minutes later before I could finally board, and even still, it was full to the brim. By the time I had gotten off the  train at Fordham Road, my trip had accrued an extra 1 hour 30 minutes and now I had to walk all the way from Jerome Avenue to Webster Avenue along Fordham Road, which took me at least 15 minutes. By the time I had made it to my destination, I found that it took me over 3 hours to complete my trip, when it shouldn't had taken any longer than an hour and a half from Queens!

If you're coming from Queens, unless it's at night, I would suggest in the future to somehow make your way to the Q44, unless you live in Western Queens. It'll usually be as fast (or faster) that way (you can transfer at West Farms Square or at the Last Stop to a Bx9 towards Fordham). I personally have done that, but only when buses are running so frequent. Either way, travel from Queens to The Bronx ain't pretty (nor easy).

[checkmatechamp13]

 

 

On 2/21/2018 at 11:00 PM, AlgorithmOfTruth said:

I remember heading to The Bronx last year when the  train that I was on had gotten taken out of service due to a critical power failure north of 145th Street. Everything was going smoothly without incident until we reached 145th Street, then BOOM! "Due to an outage of power, there is no  train service in both directions between 145th Street and Norwood–205th Street." is what my train's Conductor had announced over the intercom. I had to get to the Fordham Road  train station and was so pissed! Then, as we're disembarking the train, I see an MTA employee in an orange and yellow vest run to the turnstiles and stands there eyeing the riot of passengers making their way up to the station's exit. He is questioned by a female passenger and is immediately inundated with obscene language and gestures from the crowd as they swarm both him and the Station Agent's booth. "Take the Bx19 bus to the 149th Street–Grand Concourse station where you can continue your trip by transferring there to the Bronx-bound  train." is all we had gotten from the Station Agent. Once we were outside awaiting the next Bx19 bus to The Bronx, the crowd grew larger and more irritated. I felt like I was at some concert with people yelling indiscernably whilst standing in such close proximity to me. When the next Bx19 bus had arrived, the Bus Operator's facial expression was priceless as he saw the heated mob rushing towards his bus. All I remember was some light exchange between him and the first passenger who had boarded, which then ensued a swarm of bees filling the bus like a hive seeping with honey. I had to wait for the third Bx19 bus to arrive nearly 30 minutes later before I could finally board, and even still, it was full to the brim. By the time I had gotten off the  train at Fordham Road, my trip had accrued an extra 1 hour 30 minutes and now I had to walk all the way from Jerome Avenue to Webster Avenue along Fordham Road, which took me at least 15 minutes. By the time I had made it to my destination, I found that it took me over 3 hours to complete my trip, when it shouldn't had taken any longer than an hour and a half from Queens!

Out of curiosity, did the power failure only affect the  or did it affect the  as well? If the  were still running, I would've just taken the  to Inwood for the Bx12 (or in the case of other West Bronx neighborhoods, to 175th Street for the Bx3/13/11/35/36). 

16 hours ago, NY1635 said:

The Q60 already travels along Queens Blvd to 59th/Lex. It gets shunned because very few people are willing to put up with the massive congestion on the approach to Queensboro Bridge.

That goes to 60th Street & 2nd Avenue, not Lexington Avenue. 

[BreeddekalbL]

Mr byford ia refreshing, old ta regemes would be like too bad oh well it happens

[INDman]

On 2/21/2018 at 10:32 AM, Deucey said:

Stupid question: why don't trains have brake lights so the operators behind them know the train is stopping?

That’s what wayside signals are for.

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

On 2/22/2018 at 9:11 AM, NY1635 said:

The Q60 already travels along Queens Blvd to 59th/Lex. It gets shunned because very few people are willing to put up with the massive congestion on the approach to Queensboro Bridge.

I would say that so much. I've seen loads of people at multiple times throughout the week at 2nd Avenue. The inbound ridership might be different, but outbound ridership is relatively decent for most of the day. Try catching the Q60 between 8:45 PM-9 PM at 2nd Avenue on weekday evenings. 

[NY1635]

1 minute ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

I would say that so much. I've seen loads of people at multiple times throughout the week at 2nd Avenue. The inbound ridership might be different, but outbound ridership is relatively decent for most of the day. Try catching the Q60 between 8:45 PM-9 PM at 2nd Avenue on weekday evenings. 

I'm honestly considering that option during late nights because I'm tired of being stuck on the at Jackson Heights, or the being ridiculously slow during the PM rush because of delays, or signal malfunctions. It's like the closer I get to LIC, the worse train traffic gets.