"Transfer is Available to the L train" announcement heard in Manhattan this past weekend

The L line is in the midst of five weekend partial shutdowns through Monday, May 18.   The line. which normally runs between 8th Ave and 14th Street in Manhattan and Rockaway Parkway in Canarsie, Brooklyn, is not running between Manhattan and Lorimer Street on weekends and weeknights through May, due to extensive trackwork in the underwater tubes which carries trains between Brooklyn and Manhattan.


But you would not believe there is a weekend shutdown in Manhattan, not with conductors working on the 1/2/3/F/M/N and R lines, making "Transfer to the L Train" announcements when their train approaches the appropriate 14th Street stop.  I went to Manhattan last Saturday (4/25) and made these observations to listen if the "L" portion of the normal transfer announcement could be heard.  Since I took the 2 train from the Bronx to Manhattan, my first stop would be 14th Street and 7th Ave on the 1/2/3 lines.  These observations were made from 5:30 to 5:53 PM of which three out of five passed. 

Time	Line	Direction	Car #	Result
5:30	2	SB	6571	Fail
5:35	1	NB	2246	Fail (asked if L was running)
5:42	1	NB	2396	Passed
5:46	2	SB	6620	Passed (asked)
5:53	3	NB	1480	Passed (asked)

 

That's a pretty good rate for such a small sampling,  Sadly, it all goes downhill from there when I walked through the passageway from the 1/2/3 platform to the 6th Ave platform on the L then upstairs for the F and special M service.  The M was running on it's normal weekday route from Metropolitan Ave to 47/50 Streets then rerouted to the 57th Street/6th Ave F line station where it would turn back to Metropolitan during the day and evening hours. 

Time	Line	Direction	Car #	Result
6:14 PM	F	NB	9199	Fail
6:19	M	SB	9971	Fail
6:30	M	NB	8641	Fail
6:39	F	SB	9888	Fail
6:55	M	NB	8408	Fail

 

All five times, conductors failed to override the automated "Transfer is available to the L (portion) train" announcement. The conductor on the 6:55 PM M train did make an manual announcement about the suspension of L service but that was well after the train arrived at 14th Street and the doors opened.  Here is a quick video of a 57th Street-bound M train with the L transfer announcement on one of the three M trains.

Finally I went to the Broadway N/Q/R lines and rode the N and R local trains a few times - - the cars on the N line are newer than the cars running on the R line - thus the N line would have automated announcements inside each subway car while the R line has manual announcements made by the conductor's voice.  5 observations, 5 failures - all 5 of them the L transfer announcement can be heard.

Time	Line	Direction	Car #	Result
7:13	N	SB	8835	Fail
7:24	R	NB	5762	Fail
7:31	N	SB	8670	Fail
7:35	R	NB	5783	Fail
7:52	R	SB	5711	Fail

I would say it's mind boggling for these wrong announcements being made every day - the partial weekend suspension of the L line has been all over the news media and on the MTA website.  Now while these observations are made on a Saturday evening, could you imagine if these wrong announcements are made at 2 AM in the morning when the same partial suspension of the L line takes place overnight on weeknights and you would wind up waiting for the next train on 10 to 20 minute intervals?  Also, every station (including) terminals, has a list of weekday and weekend service changes - - there is so much information about the specifics of the L line weekend work, it's hard to miss. This means that Train Service Supervisors are not monitoring these announcements for clarity and accuracy.  NYC Transit continues to be a mess with misinformation from these wrong announcements - - and we now pay $2.75 a ride or $116.50 over a 30 day period for this incompetence?  Nothing changes with NYCT - - see for yourself when you ride the subways this weekend or next - - listen for the L train announcement when your A/C/E/1/2/3/4/5/6/F/M/N/Q/R train reaches a 14th Street stop in Manhattan.. 

Obsolete information on the so-called "new" MTA Neightborhood Maps - same old story

I've met Paul Fleuranges, Senior Director of Corporate and Internal Communications of MTA NYC Transit - - he is a nice person who has developed a lots of customer friendly initiatives.  Mr. Fleuranges also said in an August 12, 2014 MTA News story that the MTA kept the neighborhood maps up-to-date.  I  disagreed with Mr. Fleuranges' statement because I posted how beyond outdated the MTA's neighborhood maps were on the MTA Weekender. 

Recently, the MTA added a dedicated page on full length neighborhood maps  - - for the first time, they are neatly organized by neighborhood and are .pdf files showing the entire maps.  They also (finally) updated the additions of the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn and Gateway Mall plus Metro-North's Yankees-East 153rd Street station in the Bronx. 


That's the good news - now the bad news - they failed to update a lot of stuff, hundreds of errors and many of them are over 25 years old with the same mistakes from the original 1985 maps and are "proudly" displayed on the MTA's weekender page.  Let's take a look at some neighborhood maps.  Unless otherwise noted, the closing or discontinuance of a particular location is noted by the year. 

Long Island City - - Municipal Parking Garage at Queens Plaza E/M/R station (2008), Sunnyside Center movie Theater on Queens Blvd between 42 and 43 Streets (end of 2014), Goldwater Memorial Hospital on the south end of Roosevelt Island (2013)

Pelham Parkway - Allerton Theater on Allerton Ave (1993, now a CVS store), Westchester Bee Line Route 90 to Playland on Boston Road (mid 1990s), Bx55 is still listed while Bx41SBS+ is not (2010 and 2013, respectively).  Parkway School on Gun Hill Road (unknown)

Grand Concourse and Yankee Stadium:  Apple Bank located at Heritage Field, the new park across from Yankee Stadium, instead of the SE corner on East 161st Street, Bronx Terminal Market is missing, Staples is located south of East 149th Street instead of inside the Gateway Mall. 

The Rockaways:  Peninsula Hospital (2012)

Crown Heights:  Caledonia Hospital (2003. now an apartment complex),  Classon Ave exit from Franklin Ave/IND subway station, outbound side (1980's)

Midtown West:  Virgin Megastore and Loews Theater (2009), Criterion Center multiplex (2003, now Toys-R-Us), Nokia Theater (now Best Buy Theater), Belgium Consulate (now office building across from Bryant Park)/   Missing from this map are the ESPN restaurant, Conde Nast and Bank Of America office towers. Oddly enough, many of the updated/corrected locations can be found in the Penn Station/Times Square map detail instead. 

Ridgewood:  A popular discussion board, Subchat, has been dissecting these maps - - one poster who goes by the name The Silence, posted a beautiful summary of mistakes and obsolete information on this map.

University Heights:  NYPD 46th Precinct (on Ryer Ave) is missing and 44st Precinct at wrong location (not on Sedgwick Ave, supposed to be on River/Jerome near 169th Street) are missing.  Also old subway entrances at 182/183 and Fordham Road on the B/D lines are still there.

Woodlawn:  Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center (now Montefiore Medical Center)


These errors, plus missing locations where ADA elevators were installed in the past 5 years, as well as closed subway entrances I addressed in my original post - - are all still there on these maps.  It goes to show that MTA continues to ignore these errors because they really don't care - - and they lie about it too because a lot of places need to be updated, contrary to what Paul Fleuranges said last year about these maps are constantly "updated".


You cannot trust the MTA to do something right anymore.