MTA Argues That Subways Are Stabilizing, But New Report Suggests Delays Are Worsening

[Via Garibaldi 8]

TRANSIT

Subways delayed every weekday morning in August except one, according to Riders Alliance report

The D and R lines topped the list with service issues on 16 mornings. The N line was a close second with 15 mornings of interruptions.

Morning subway service suffered service interruptions every morning in August except Thursday, Aug. 23, according to a report unveiled by the Riders Alliance on Sunday. Photo Credit: Vincent Barone

By Vincent Baronevin.barone@amny.com  @vinbaroneUpdated September 16, 2018 4:08 PM

They were the dog days of train service.

Signal problems delayed subway trains every morning during the month of August — except Thursday, Aug. 23 — according to a new study from the Riders Alliance.

Released Sunday on the heels of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s decisive primary victory, advocacy groups are using the findings to keep pressure on the governor and other state electeds to modernize the city’s troubled subway system.

“Our goal is to make every day a Thursday, Aug. 23,” said John Raskin, the executive director of the Riders Alliance, at a news conference outside of the Barclays Center.

“Every one of these delays represents thousands of people who are late to work, losing pay, sometimes being threatened that they’ll get fired from their job — thousands of people every morning,” Raskin said. “And we all need our elected leaders, starting with Gov. Cuomo, to raise the billions of dollars we will need to modernize the MTA and fix the subway system.”

Every line except for the L experienced signal delays or mechanical issues during one or more of the 23 weekday mornings, between 6 and 10 a.m., according to the study. The D and R lines, which saw issues on 16 mornings, tied for the most. The N line was a close second with 15 mornings of service interruptions.

Raskin said the Alliance did not have the resources to analyze other months as well.

August marked just over a year since the MTA enacted its Subway Action Plan. The $836 million effort aims to stabilize service that was in such a rapid decline that Cuomo issued a controversial “state of emergency” to speed up repairs.

Other groups, like TransitCenter and the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign, joined the Riders Alliance on Sunday in calling for Cuomo, who controls the MTA, to work with state legislators to pass a robust congestion pricing plan for New York City, which could mean bringing new tolls to drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street.

Congestion pricing could raise between $1 and $1.5 billion annually for transit improvements, according to estimates, and is sought to help pay for the MTA’s $40 billion and widely-praised Fast Forward plan to modernize transit service over a 10-year window.

“The subway is one of the reasons our city is great … but it’s failing us, and the governor is shirking his responsibility for fixing it,” said Colin Wright, of TransitCenter. “Riders are miserable. They see a system that is getting worse, not better. Congestion is rising and the subway is literally crumbling.”

In a statement, MTA spokesman Jon Weinstein defended the Subway Action Plan as an initiative that “stopped a steep decline in service” and brought “a series of vital improvements.” He called the Riders Alliance report an “oversimplification.”

“The complete modernization of New York City Transit, in particular the upgrading of our signal system, is essential to providing safe and reliable subway service, which is why a predictable, sustainable source of funding is vital to making the full Fast Forward plan a reality,” Weinstein said.

But Brooklyn Councilman Brad Lander called the notion that subway service has improved since last year a “fantasy” and didn’t buy the “gloss” from the MTA.

“We have the same subway crisis — in some respects even worse,” Lander said.

Fixing the MTA was a key campaign issue for gubernatorial challenger Cynthia Nixon and remains one for GOP candidate Marc Molinaro. Molinaro last month released a detailed, 30-page report to solve the “waste, fraud and abuse” at the agency. Both supported Fast Forward and congestion pricing as a means to pay for a portion of it.

“I think that the substance of the primaries demonstrates that the crisis in the transit system is on every voter’s mind — no matter what level of office people are running for,” Raskin said. “And you saw it in the election for governor; you saw it in the elections for state senate — that when the people talk about whether or not government is working, the failure of the transit crisis is an indication that everyone is looking to about whether our government is meeting New Yorkers’ basic needs.”

Cuomo has attempted to pass blame to the de Blasio administration, frequently pointing out that the city owns the subway system. But the city leases the system to the state-run MTA and Cuomo appoints the authority’s chairman and CEO.

Last year, Cuomo endorsed congestion pricing and assembled a panel, titled Fix NYC, to craft a plan for the city. He failed to get support for the full plan among state lawmakers. On the Friday after his primary win, Cuomo stressed the need to take up congestion pricing in Albany.

But he also demanded an increase in transit funding from the city, saying the city and state should split the cost of the MTA’s next capital plan — the authority’s five-year blueprint for major projects and the structure through which Fast Forward will likely be funded.

“The governor single-handedly revived the idea of congestion pricing, has been leading the charge to pass it and succeeded in securing the first phase this year,” Peter Ajemian, a spokesman for the governor, said in a statement. “The Riders Alliance time would be better spent convincing those who need convincing — members of the Legislature and City Hall.”

source: https://www.amny.com/transit/subway-delays-riders-alliance-1.21064946

 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

And then of course there's the commute this morning...

---

'Massive' Monday Morning Delays On The F, B, D, M Subway Lines (Also Problems On 2, 3)

BY JOHN DEL SIGNORE IN NEWS ON SEP 17, 2018 8:58 AM

The scene at Hoyt-Schermerhorn this morning around 8:45 a.m. (Courtesy Skippy Santiago)

Monday is back with a vengeance in the NYC subway system, with the MTA reporting 'extensive' delays on the B, D, Q, E, M, and F lines. Commuters stuck seething underground are describing the delays as 'massive,' 'shitty,' and 'annoying!'

The MTA says the source of this morning's problems is twofold: a sick passenger at Rockefeller Center, and signal problems at Broadway-Lafayette causing extensive delays on the B and D lines, forcing the suspension of M train service in both directions between Delancey Street and Forest Hills-71 Ave.

One frustrated commuter from Park Slope tells us, "An F train just dumped its entire load of passengers on Monday rush hour off at 4th-9th, not because anything was wrong with the train... but due to 'delays along the F line.' Not sure how stranding a whole bunch of passages helps that. Next F train is eight minutes away, with the next one after that eighteen minutes away!

"The platform is basically flooded with people who are not getting off for at least a half hour. What happen to going express when there was delays and/or congestion? I’m guessing that was a dumb excuse."

The signal problems also forced northbound F trains to be rerouted along the G line from Bergen Street to Court Sq, then over the E line to Jackson Hts-Roosevelt Av. Some F trains also wound up on the N line, apparently:

There's now a third source of F (and E) train delays: At 8:35 the MTA announced that southbound E and F trains are running with delays because a train's brakes were automatically activated at 36 Street in Queens.

The problems seem to be causing ripple effects on other subway lines.

Honestly, I've tried to publish this subway shitshow report three times during the past twenty minutes, but each time there's been a new problem I need to add to this morning's litany of misery. So refresh often for updates!

As for the signal problems at Broadway-Lafayette, the MTA says work crews "are on the scene making repairs and we hope to resume normal service soon."

Twitter comment & source: http://gothamist.com/2018/09/17/monday_subway_ughway.php

[Around the Horn]

They didn't even mention the stalled  train that FUBAR'd 4th Avenue and made me 15 minutes late for class...

They sent my  train via Montague and the following  had caught up to us at Atlantic on the local. For several minutes they didn't know who was going first.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 minute ago, Around the Horn said:

They didn't even mention the stalled  train that FUBAR'd 4th Avenue and made me 15 minutes late for class...

They sent my  train via Montague and the following  had caught up to us at Atlantic on the local. For several minutes they didn't know who was going first.

I was along Lexington this morning, and from 96th street on I saw nothing but large crowds at the bus stops. That usually signals that either there's large gaps in bus service or something is wrong with the line.  I would be curious to know when the  supposedly "stabilized" the system? The City was supposed to be receiving updates on how progress was coming along given the fact that they provided half of $836 million in emergency funds.  

[RR503]

This is what happens when only the very top echelons of management espouse any sort of vision. The actions taken simply do nothing. 

The system's crisis today is largely one of operations. Yes, we have an unusually large number of discrete incidents for a major transit system, but said incidents are only as bad as they are because there's no room for error anymore. Flex capacity is a thing of the past, dispatching has become solely reactive, and the first priority of those in RTO is to not get fired -- an indictment of managerial culture, mind you, not of the rank and file. Add into this melee extraordinarily high ridership, two decades of deferred maintenance and unspeakably low worker productivity, and you have yourself a disaster. 

Such a wide ranging problem of operations and culture requires a wide ranging solution in the same field. Fast Forward began to address that need, but then we all got caught up in the CBTC funding debate -- one surrounding a technology that serves as nothing but a distraction from these pervasive structural problems, issues that, mind you, carry across technologies. Take timers, for example. There has been much strum und drang over the now-mythical list of 30-odd timers that were considered the 'worst' by the agency. While that's a start, that's nothing. Thousands of locations have been modded to be governed with GTs. To make a dent in that number, there must be a true systemwide evaluation of all grade timing relative to the federally mandated safety margin (135%) laid out in the NTSB's post Williamsburg Bridge report. There must also be recognition that GTs are only one small issue in the mix. Lengthened control lines and more restrictive STs also contribute to the erosion of capacity, and thus should be evaluated with equal attentiveness. There is, of course, also the issue underpinning all of this -- non-conformity in braking/acceleration rates -- that needs to be addressed objectively and transparently by the agency so that we, the riding public, can know where the agency is laying on the horsesh*t. And then there are operational issues that lie beyond the timers/braking matrix -- poor radio reception in tunnels, badly planned and unproductive GOs, a lack of an adjacent track separation mechanism for said instances, etc, etc. 

There are also the more cultural changes equally -- if not more -- necessary. Ever since the financial crisis of the '70s, New Yorkers have been completely distrustful of their government. This attitude -- one characterized by fear and pettiness and an all-encompassing obsession with liability and risk -- underpins most issues in and around the agency, and thus needs to change. We aren't dropping dead anymore. Unions need to learn to give, management needs to learn to think creatively and actively, politicians need to stop passing the buck. For if this culture of fear, this embrace of organizational balkanization, this undervaluation of management, and this inability to own one's mistakes continues within the MTA and without, no fix will ever save the city. An organization with formative power over the urban environment cannot sit forever in its own blood, swatting at the rocks thrown at it. It will do so at the expense of the city -- it must get on its feet and anticipate realities, even create them.  

I do not mean to be alarmist here, but what we're witnessing today is a war for New York. One not only between the battered, forced conservatism of old and the optimism of new, but also between the city and irrelevance. New York is built upon functioning rapid transit. Thus, if the system is not resurrected, New York faces doom; its model of urbanism will be made infeasible. No other system exists that can sustain New York's densities and diversities. If the subway dies, the city dies too. 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

27 minutes ago, RR503 said:

This is what happens when only the very top echelons of management espouse any sort of vision. The actions taken simply do nothing. 

The system's crisis today is largely one of operations. Yes, we have an unusually large number of discrete incidents for a major transit system, but said incidents are only as bad as they are because there's no room for error anymore. Flex capacity is a thing of the past, dispatching has become solely reactive, and the first priority of those in RTO is to not get fired -- an indictment of managerial culture, mind you, not of the rank and file. Add into this melee extraordinarily high ridership, two decades of deferred maintenance and unspeakably low worker productivity, and you have yourself a disaster. 

Such a wide ranging problem of operations and culture requires a wide ranging solution in the same field. Fast Forward began to address that need, but then we all got caught up in the CBTC funding debate -- one surrounding a technology that serves as nothing but a distraction from these pervasive structural problems, issues that, mind you, carry across technologies. Take timers, for example. There has been much strum und drang over the now-mythical list of 30-odd timers that were considered the 'worst' by the agency. While that's a start, that's nothing. Thousands of locations have been modded to be governed with GTs. To make a dent in that number, there must be a true systemwide evaluation of all grade timing relative to the federally mandated safety margin (135%) laid out in the NTSB's post Williamsburg Bridge report. There must also be recognition that GTs are only one small issue in the mix. Lengthened control lines and more restrictive STs also contribute to the erosion of capacity, and thus should be evaluated with equal attentiveness. There is, of course, also the issue underpinning all of this -- non-conformity in braking/acceleration rates -- that needs to be addressed objectively and transparently by the agency so that we, the riding public, can know where the agency is laying on the horsesh*t. And then there are operational issues that lie beyond the timers/braking matrix -- poor radio reception in tunnels, badly planned and unproductive GOs, a lack of an adjacent track separation mechanism for said instances, etc, etc. 

There are also the more cultural changes equally -- if not more -- necessary. Ever since the financial crisis of the '70s, New Yorkers have been completely distrustful of their government. This attitude -- one characterized by fear and pettiness and an all-encompassing obsession with liability and risk -- underpins most issues in and around the agency, and thus needs to change. We aren't dropping dead anymore. Unions need to learn to give, management needs to learn to think creatively and actively, politicians need to stop passing the buck. For if this culture of fear, this embrace of organizational balkanization, this undervaluation of management, and this inability to own one's mistakes continues within the MTA and without, no fix will ever save the city. An organization with formative power over the urban environment cannot sit forever in its own blood, swatting at the rocks thrown at it. It will do so at the expense of the city -- it must get on its feet and anticipate realities, even create them.  

I do not mean to be alarmist here, but what we're witnessing today is a war for New York. One not only between the battered, forced conservatism of old and the optimism of new, but also between the city and irrelevance. New York is built upon functioning rapid transit. Thus, if the system is not resurrected, New York faces doom; its model of urbanism will be made infeasible. No other system exists that can sustain New York's densities and diversities. If the subway dies, the city dies too. 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've been reading, CBTC is by no means a miracle worker anyway.  The process to implement every line onto that set up is slow and painful, so even if the monies were there, it would take years before we reaped the true benefits of it anyway.  I feel like I keep hearing about short-term solutions that can help and then there's nothing in terms of follow up. Byford said he'd look at the timers and see if perhaps speeding up trains would improve things. Haven't heard anything about that.  I also must say that I go out of my way to avoid the subway where possible, so I really haven't been using it unless absolutely necessary.

[TheNewYorkElevated]

53 minutes ago, RR503 said:

This is what happens when only the very top echelons of management espouse any sort of vision. The actions taken simply do nothing. 

The system's crisis today is largely one of operations. Yes, we have an unusually large number of discrete incidents for a major transit system, but said incidents are only as bad as they are because there's no room for error anymore. Flex capacity is a thing of the past, dispatching has become solely reactive, and the first priority of those in RTO is to not get fired -- an indictment of managerial culture, mind you, not of the rank and file. Add into this melee extraordinarily high ridership, two decades of deferred maintenance and unspeakably low worker productivity, and you have yourself a disaster. 

Such a wide ranging problem of operations and culture requires a wide ranging solution in the same field. Fast Forward began to address that need, but then we all got caught up in the CBTC funding debate -- one surrounding a technology that serves as nothing but a distraction from these pervasive structural problems, issues that, mind you, carry across technologies. Take timers, for example. There has been much strum und drang over the now-mythical list of 30-odd timers that were considered the 'worst' by the agency. While that's a start, that's nothing. Thousands of locations have been modded to be governed with GTs. To make a dent in that number, there must be a true systemwide evaluation of all grade timing relative to the federally mandated safety margin (135%) laid out in the NTSB's post Williamsburg Bridge report. There must also be recognition that GTs are only one small issue in the mix. Lengthened control lines and more restrictive STs also contribute to the erosion of capacity, and thus should be evaluated with equal attentiveness. There is, of course, also the issue underpinning all of this -- non-conformity in braking/acceleration rates -- that needs to be addressed objectively and transparently by the agency so that we, the riding public, can know where the agency is laying on the horsesh*t. And then there are operational issues that lie beyond the timers/braking matrix -- poor radio reception in tunnels, badly planned and unproductive GOs, a lack of an adjacent track separation mechanism for said instances, etc, etc. 

There are also the more cultural changes equally -- if not more -- necessary. Ever since the financial crisis of the '70s, New Yorkers have been completely distrustful of their government. This attitude -- one characterized by fear and pettiness and an all-encompassing obsession with liability and risk -- underpins most issues in and around the agency, and thus needs to change. We aren't dropping dead anymore. Unions need to learn to give, management needs to learn to think creatively and actively, politicians need to stop passing the buck. For if this culture of fear, this embrace of organizational balkanization, this undervaluation of management, and this inability to own one's mistakes continues within the MTA and without, no fix will ever save the city. An organization with formative power over the urban environment cannot sit forever in its own blood, swatting at the rocks thrown at it. It will do so at the expense of the city -- it must get on its feet and anticipate realities, even create them.  

I do not mean to be alarmist here, but what we're witnessing today is a war for New York. One not only between the battered, forced conservatism of old and the optimism of new, but also between the city and irrelevance. New York is built upon functioning rapid transit. Thus, if the system is not resurrected, New York faces doom; its model of urbanism will be made infeasible. No other system exists that can sustain New York's densities and diversities. If the subway dies, the city dies too. 

Facts!!! City and state government (as well as the people) need to work together to keep this subway system functioning properly or it's gonna be like with what's going on with world governments and bitcoin; the subway is gonna be in the stone age if no serious investment is done in the next 10-20 years. 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 minute ago, TheNewYorkElevated said:

Facts!!! City and state government (as well as the people) need to work together to keep this subway system functioning properly or it's gonna be like with what's going on with world governments and bitcoin; the subway is gonna be in the stone age if no serious investment is done in the next 10-20 years. 

I think it goes beyond "serious investments". Construction costs for the  are the highest in the world. They just received almost $1 billion dollars for an emergency stabilization plan and we haven't seen any real improvements.  The agency is spending hundreds of millions of dollars just to renovate ONE station.  That is simply not economically sustainable long term, so you would need perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars to get this system into the 21st century.  

[TheNewYorkElevated]

1 minute ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

I think it goes beyond "serious investments". Construction costs for the  are the highest in the world. They just received almost $1 billion dollars for an emergency stabilization plan and we haven't seen any real improvements.  The agency is spending hundreds of millions of dollars just to renovate ONE station.  That is simply not economically sustainable long term, so you would need perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars to get this system into the 21st century.  

True, true... Problem is, where are they gonna get the billions of dollars from? 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

2 minutes ago, TheNewYorkElevated said:

True, true... Problem is, where are they gonna get the billions of dollars from? 

That's precisely the problem.  It isn't that funding isn't happening.  It's that they need much more funding at the moment...

[NoHacksJustKhaks]

1 hour ago, RR503 said:

If the subway dies, the city dies too. 

What's more alarming is that this takes out, and/or puts extreme pressure on the agency's buses and LIRR/ Metro-North too. This could expand the issue to transit desserts, and the entire NY metropolitan area as well (largest in the US). Which, without any service, makes the outer regions greatly useless as part of the area in the first place. Less varieties of transportation (let alone any at all) is a bigger threat to metro areas than people think.

43 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

That's precisely the problem.  It isn't that funding isn't happening.  It's that they need much more funding at the moment...

Too sad that the MTA has been neglected by the city and state for many years in terms of funding, combine that with all the past events of this century that hurt the MTA hard (2008 fiscal crisis, Hurricane Sandy) and it's pretty clear the agency is getting more and more fragile. Needing more money that still isn't enough.

[bulk88]

On 9/17/2018 at 6:09 PM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've been reading, CBTC is by no means a miracle worker anyway.  The process to implement every line onto that set up is slow and painful, so even if the monies were there, it would take years before we reaped the true benefits of it anyway.  I feel like I keep hearing about short-term solutions that can help and then there's nothing in terms of follow up. Byford said he'd look at the timers and see if perhaps speeding up trains would improve things. Haven't heard anything about that.  I also must say that I go out of my way to avoid the subway where possible, so I really haven't been using it unless absolutely necessary.

Based on 6th avenue line and QBL, it takes 6 months of weekend shutdowns to replace signals at ONE station. 2018 was 42nd cutover. 2017 was 34th street. 47th street is last half of 2018.

 

Roosevelt was 2016. 75 avenue and Union Turnpike 2017. Forest hills and briarwood are 2018. The work done is 1 signal head and 1 trip cock per weekend closure.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

5 hours ago, bulk88 said:

Based on 6th avenue line and QBL, it takes 6 months of weekend shutdowns to replace signals at ONE station. 2018 was 42nd cutover. 2017 was 34th street. 47th street is last half of 2018.

 

Roosevelt was 2016. 75 avenue and Union Turnpike 2017. Forest hills and briarwood are 2018. The work done is 1 signal head and 1 trip cock per weekend closure.

All I know is if you use the subway during nights and weekends you had better have your cell phone handy. Yesterday morning I had to be somewhere early. Got on the subway at 57th and 7th. First off, I don't think that station has ever seen a power washing. It is filthier and filthier each time I use it just from a lack of cleaning. Aside from that I was extremely confused when a came roaring down the tracks as opposed to the . I got on and just listened for the next stop since I wasn't going far. Train was packed too. This was maybe 08:30 in the morning.

[bulk88]

2 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

All I know is if you use the subway during nights and weekends you had better have your cell phone handy. Yesterday morning I had to be somewhere early. Got on the subway at 57th and 7th. First off, I don't think that station has ever seen a power washing. It is filthier and filthier each time I use it just from a lack of cleaning. Aside from that I was extremely confused when a came roaring down the tracks as opposed to the . I got on and just listened for the next stop since I wasn't going far. Train was packed too. This was maybe 08:30 in the morning.

By now everyone should know about the full A/D/F/Q swap 6th ave shutdown GO. It is every other weekend for all of 2018 and chunks of 2017. Only time 6th ave isn't shutdown is holiday weekends.

 

Before SAS opened how was 6th avenue shutdown? I can't remember. F via 53 via 8th ave to West 4, and terminate at 2nd ave, G extended to CI? Or F to Queens Plaza, via 60th tunnel, to Broadway, Manhattan bridge, 4th avenue D to CI and D via 8th ave to Jay Street, but then E must go through 63, but the broadway connector was OOS, right, so what served 63 tunnel?

[Via Garibaldi 8]

24 minutes ago, bulk88 said:

By now everyone should know about the full A/D/F/Q swap 6th ave shutdown GO. It is every other weekend for all of 2018 and chunks of 2017. Only time 6th ave isn't shutdown is holiday weekends.

 

Before SAS opened how was 6th avenue shutdown? I can't remember. F via 53 via 8th ave to West 4, and terminate at 2nd ave, G extended to CI? Or F to Queens Plaza, via 60th tunnel, to Broadway, Manhattan bridge, 4th avenue D to CI and D via 8th ave to Jay Street, but then E must go through 63, but the broadway connector was OOS, right, so what served 63 tunnel?

Pretty much impossible. We have so many visitors using the subways on weekends now that people won't know. The only people that will know are the regulars using the line every weekend.