Subway On-Time Performance Hits Highest Level Since 2013, Officials Say

[Harry]

 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Right... That's why I keep arriving to my destinations LATE when I take the subway. 

[Harry]

I've noticed the lines I use (mostly the Broadway local and express) moving a lot faster lately especially in Brooklyn.

[LTA1992]

1 hour ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Right... That's why I keep arriving to my destinations LATE when I take the subway. 

Or, you know, you could leave earlier like any other responsible adult who knows public transportation can have issues...

On top of that, don't you use Unlimited cards? You have even less of an excuse. If you TRULY wanted to get somewhere on time, you'd do everything in your power to do so.

Can't always blame the service for that.

Edited December 16, 2019 by LTA1992

[CenSin]

Heh. The s have been horrendous in the morning from Coney Island. The 7:56–8:13 trains tend to bunch up already by Newkirk Plaza.

[GojiMet86]

I've noticed less and less delays over the last couple of months (except for those couple of signal incidents on the Flushing line and those recent 12-9s).

[Via Garibaldi 8]

5 hours ago, LTA1992 said:

Or, you know, you could leave earlier like any other responsible adult who knows public transportation can have issues...

On top of that, don't you use Unlimited cards? You have even less of an excuse. If you TRULY wanted to get somewhere on time, you'd do everything in your power to do so.

Can't always blame the service for that.

You don't have a clue of what time I leave nor what the circumstances are to be opening your mouth to lecture me about "leaving earlier". You need to get a grip. I can certainly blame the service because when I don't take the subway, I arrive ON-TIME every time, with time to spare! The issue is the trains run very infrequently compared to the schedules, and are often too crowded to get on, so I have to wait several trains to get on one, and/or there is a long wait in between trains that shouldn't be. I cannot leave any earlier than I do, as I need the train from my office, so that is not an option, and the commute to and from Manhattan should not take over an hour.  We are talking about going from Midtown to the Washington Heights/Hudson Heights area. I have one hour to and from, with about a 20 minute cushion.  According to the  schedule, from Columbus Circle to 168th should take anywhere from 15-20 minutes, but I can spend 20 minutes just getting a train, not to mention the issues with the few stops getting to the  train. I get the or  from Bryant Park or Rockefeller center to 59th Street, and that too can be an issue as the trains are too crowded to get on.  In short, when I push back where I need to be by an extra 30 minutes and give myself an hour and 30 minutes, then I can get there, but getting there in an hour is hit or miss with the subway, so I have stopped doing that where possible.

My answer to "doing everything in my power" is don't take the subway, and I arrive on-time.  Simple as that.  I also don't understand what having an unlimited Metrocard is supposed to do?  I have one and so? The only subway option to where I am going is the  train.  

Maybe you don't have a life. Maybe that's why you can afford to spend hours on the subway going one way, but I have things to do and places to be.

Edited December 16, 2019 by Via Garibaldi 8

[CenSin]

On 12/16/2019 at 1:00 PM, LTA1992 said:

Or, you know, you could leave earlier like any other responsible adult who knows public transportation can have issues...

On top of that, don't you use Unlimited cards? You have even less of an excuse. If you TRULY wanted to get somewhere on time, you'd do everything in your power to do so.

Can't always blame the service for that.

Could replace this entire piece with an example about internet/TV bills:

Quote

 

Or you know what? You could pay the fee like any other responsible adult who knows ISPs (like Comcast and AT&T) will tack on extra random fees without warning.

On top of that, don’t you have a job (a.k.a. income)? You have less of an excuse. If you truly wanted fast unlimited internet service, you’d pay every penny in your bank account to get it.

Can’t always blame the service for that.

 

Like… what is reasonable anyway? Trains not getting to place according to schedule is like ISPs advertising a low monthly price and tacking on additional fees to line their own pockets.

Another example, for the statistically-inclined:

Quote

Reliable train service can be illustrated using a normal distribution curve with a tiny standard deviation. Even if your trip was 2 standard deviations off from the mean, you would still not experience more than a few minutes of difference from the scheduled run time. In your daily planning, you could get away with giving yourself just an extra 5 minutes and not have to worry about being late 95% of the time.

Unreliable train service can be illustrated using a normal distribution curve with a huge standard deviation. Even if your trip was within 1 standard deviation, you would still have a few minutes of variation in run time. In your daily planning, you would have to give yourself an extra 10 minutes just to not be late 68% of the time. To be not late 95% of the time with unreliable service…

Well, you get the idea. We want reliable service so that we don’t have to shell out our extra unpaid/unproductive time to cover for the MTA’s failure.

Edited December 18, 2019 by CenSin

[subway4832]

Of course they would brag about OTP being at an all time high; they padded the living hell out of all the schedules, which allows extra runtime/leeway for delays and congestion. In reality, service is still spotty.

[Union Tpke]

1 hour ago, subway4832 said:

Of course they would brag about OTP being at an all time high; they padded the living hell out of all the schedules, which allows extra runtime/leeway for delays and congestion. In reality, service is still spotty.

Oh, it's worse that that. Wish I could say....

[Trainmaster5]

12 hours ago, Union Tpke said:

Oh, it's worse that that. Wish I could say....

Weekday 15:00 Dyre scheduled to arrive at Bowling Green at what time?  Anything past 15:55 is definitely padding in my book. Carry on. 

Edited December 20, 2019 by Trainmaster5

[Lex]

3 hours ago, Trainmaster5 said:

Weekday 15:00 Dyre scheduled to arrive at Bowling Green at what time?  Anything past 15:55 is definitely padding in my book. Carry on. 

The 15:01 departure from Dyre Avenue (to Utica Avenue) is scheduled to arrive at Bowling Green at 16:03, 62 minutes later.

(For the listed timepoints, the allotted time in minutes is 12/15/9/11/9/5.)

Side note: I don't understand why the  is given 12 minutes to go from Flatbush Avenue to Franklin Avenue and from Dyre Avenue to East 180th Street. The only thing the two really have in common is the fact that they branch off of other stretches of track, so I hope that's merely due to a physical difference in length.

[subway4832]

Those extra few minutes of padding is most likely to accommodate for merge delays, which happens extremely often on the . You should see the late night runtimes, schedule gives almost 20 minutes between Franklin and Flatbush Late Night on the  and almost 15 minutes of padding from 125 to 149 GC on the .

[RR503]

Dyre-180 and Flatbush to Franklin are the same because...they are. There's no really big truth to be found in that. 

45 minutes ago, subway4832 said:

Those extra few minutes of padding is most likely to accommodate for merge delays, which happens extremely often on the . You should see the late night runtimes, schedule gives almost 20 minutes between Franklin and Flatbush Late Night on the  and almost 15 minutes of padding from 125 to 149 GC on the .

Northbound  runtimes on the overnight from Flatbush to Franklin are 12; 13 during rush hours. Southbound you have a padding hold at Church, which blows runtimes up to 20. 

Honestly, though, padding isn't the best way to think about longer schedules. *To a point* longer schedules help make service better because your merge interactions work, your crews are in the right places, etc. Issue is a) when longer schedules aren't fine grained adjustments to segments with longer runtimes or that will be subject to some supplement/GO congestion but instead just padding spammed at the ends of lines or b) when you add so much runtime that trains run hot and end up getting held a bunch, lengthening actual runtimes. 

Really this all is just an argument for moving to runtime-based service metrics....

[Jemorie]

1 hour ago, RR503 said:

Dyre-180 and Flatbush to Franklin are the same because...they are. There's no really big truth to be found in that. 

Northbound  runtimes on the overnight from Flatbush to Franklin are 12; 13 during rush hours. Southbound you have a padding hold at Church, which blows runtimes up to 20. 

Honestly, though, padding isn't the best way to think about longer schedules. *To a point* longer schedules help make service better because your merge interactions work, your crews are in the right places, etc. Issue is a) when longer schedules aren't fine grained adjustments to segments with longer runtimes or that will be subject to some supplement/GO congestion but instead just padding spammed at the ends of lines or b) when you add so much runtime that trains run hot and end up getting held a bunch, lengthening actual runtimes. 

Really this all is just an argument for moving to runtime-based service metrics....

Work under traffic during off-peak hours increases running times, so all of the ’s printed schedules for every line in the system reflect that. That’s the only reason why they are “on time”. As for rush hours, every line’s tph is different.

The  is just playing around as always.

[RR503]

5 hours ago, Jemorie said:

Work under traffic during off-peak hours increases running times, so all of the ’s printed schedules for every line in the system reflect that. That’s the only reason why they are “on time”. As for rush hours, every line’s tph is different.

The  is just playing around as always.

Yes, though increased weekend/midday running times are almost always reflected through end-of-line holds at gap stations rather than actual interstation adjustments.

A fun bit of trivia: there's one extremely common runtime add that's done in an interstation because there are no gap stations convenient to the corridor that needs extra time. Can any of you name it?

[Amtrak706]

On 12/19/2019 at 4:33 PM, Union Tpke said:

Oh, it's worse that that. Wish I could say....

Do tell...

[CenSin]

13 hours ago, RR503 said:

Yes, though increased weekend/midday running times are almost always reflected through end-of-line holds at gap stations rather than actual interstation adjustments.

A fun bit of trivia: there's one extremely common runtime add that's done in an interstation because there are no gap stations convenient to the corridor that needs extra time. Can any of you name it?

You're talking about those annoying holding lights that are there because the MTA doesn't trust itself to get trains to the terminal on-time?

[Union Tpke]

On 12/20/2019 at 5:43 PM, RR503 said:

Yes, though increased weekend/midday running times are almost always reflected through end-of-line holds at gap stations rather than actual interstation adjustments.

A fun bit of trivia: there's one extremely common runtime add that's done in an interstation because there are no gap stations convenient to the corridor that needs extra time. Can any of you name it?

11th Street or Gold I presume.

[RR503]

On 12/21/2019 at 7:20 AM, CenSin said:

You're talking about those annoying holding lights that are there because the MTA doesn't trust itself to get trains to the terminal on-time?

The schedule version of that, yes. Let’s say NYCT expects  trains to lose 8 minutes along Queens Boulevard. The supplement schedule they write will have an 8 min long hold at the south end of the line (that location being itself a massive issue given having trains run late except for the last few stops throws merges to hell) with the expectation that the  will arrive at that station 8 mins late and thus will not need to hold.

@Union Tpke yes! 11 St is where the  gets added time for QB. 

Edited December 22, 2019 by RR503