Abysmal intervals on the (A) train?

[VIP]

2 hours ago, Mulysa said:

The A train very often has bunching, so one train will be >10 minutes away, and the new 2-3 with have 2-3 minute gaps during rush hour. Quick analysis of the timing from: http://toddwschneider.com/posts/nyc-subway-data-analysis/ shows "The A train has a notably flat and wide distribution, which explains why the first graph in this post showed that the A had the worst 75th and 90th percentile outcomes, even though its median performance is middle-of-the-pack."

It's been going on for more than the past few weeks, but maybe its just been more noticeable lately.

The  is just trash and the R46’s add more insult to injury. 

[S78 via Hylan]

23 minutes ago, VIP said:

The  is just trash and the R46’s add more insult to injury. 

Just trash in what way? There’s factors that add to this:

-The longest line in the system which means it’s prone to delays

-Several merges/chokepoints with other lines

- Outdated signals/timers

 

Many folks on this forum fault certain fleets because they don’t like them. That needs to stop. 

 

 

 

 

 

[VIP]

12 minutes ago, S78 via Hylan said:

Just trash in what way? There’s factors that add to this:

-The longest line in the system which means it’s prone to delays

-Several merges/chokepoints with other lines

- Outdated signals/timers

 

Many folks on this forum fault certain fleets because they don’t like them. That needs to stop. 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t care what model the train is, it’s the service pattern and as far as car class, the R46’s and models alike do not handle crowds well and dwell times are longer. What needs to stop is people assuming and  trains being scheduled at 5-7 minute headways during rush hours. The  needs 2-4 minute scheduled intervals. 

[S78 via Hylan]

3 minutes ago, VIP said:

 What needs to stop is people assuming and  trains being scheduled at 5-7 minute headways during rush hours. The  needs 2-4 minute scheduled intervals. 

For the reasons I just mentioned above, that is not possible. In addition, the  doesn’t have extra sets laying around for 2-4 minute intervals.

[VIP]

4 minutes ago, S78 via Hylan said:

For the reasons I just mentioned above, that is not possible. In addition, the  doesn’t have extra sets laying around for 2-4 minute intervals.

That an MTA problem not the customers.The  runs 45 trains throughout the day and shares tracks with a few different lines and is more reliable than the  

[S78 via Hylan]

29 minutes ago, VIP said:

That an MTA problem not the customers.The  runs 45 trains throughout the day and shares tracks with a few different lines and is more reliable than the  

No one said it was the customer’s problem. And unless you haven’t been paying attention recently, there’s been many delays along QBL and even the Culver line.

[VIP]

59 minutes ago, S78 via Hylan said:

No one said it was the customer’s problem. And unless you haven’t been paying attention recently, there’s been many delays along QBL and even the Culver line.

That’s allegedly because of new signals along the Queens Boulevard Express tracks. And Culver service has always been sporadic with consistencies. 

[RR503]

27 minutes ago, VIP said:

That’s allegedly because of new signals along the Queens Boulevard Express tracks. And Culver service has always been sporadic with consistencies. 

The new QB express signals made Roosevelt better but FHills much, much worse. Culver's issue is that the  somehow always gets screwed with  at 47-50 and/or inconsistent midtown dwells and/or Bergen . 

About the , you all must realize that there's a certain amount of gappiness programmed into the line's schedule. For many reasons (asymmetrically frequent merges being the most important), very few subway lines actually run perfect intervals. Leaving 168 SB from 4-5 PM, the headways are (rounded to the nearest minute, because let's be real, those 00:00:30 mean nothing in today's subway ops culture) 4 mins, 6 mins, 2 mins, 8 mins, 4 mins, 3 mins, 5 mins, 4 mins, 7 mins, 4 mins, 3 mins, 4 mins, 2 mins, 4 mins. That shouldn't cause the conditions that the OP describes, but with poor dwell management, trains following long gaps are liable to be significantly (in relative terms) impacted by platform crowding. Then, of course, there is the  merge at 145, which with that interlocking's pitiable operation, can only make things worse.

I'm struggling to explain the recently observed worsening of this issue, though. It's possible ops changes have things running closer to/further behind schedule (meaning you could be hitting a gap you missed), but I'd think the more likely scenario for the s/b PM specifically has to do with the loss of stops at 167 and 174-175 on the . Knowing the MTA, those losses were probably not put into the schedule properly, and thus are in all likelihood causing chaos at 145, which aggravates existing service inconsistencies (those inconsistencies, of course, are compounded not only at 145, but also at 59, where the result of the  interaction is spat back out at  trains, which in turn delays  service further).