Subway observations on Saturday 1/16

When Andrew Cuomo announced new customer friendly initiatives for MTA New York City Transit, such as Wi-Fi and charging ports on board trains and buses, a 30 station renewal blitz involving full closures as selected stations, and more On-To-Go kiosks, I was excited to see great things happening in the subways and buses.  Unfortunately as far as informing customers about service diversions on weekends, it's the same old story in certain areas.

Last weekend was a most interesting one if you ride the lettered lines withing Manhattan, particularly the IND 6th Ave and 8 Ave lines where it was a mess.  The A and C lines were running on the F line in both directions between West 4th Street and Jay Street-Metrotech.  The D line was running on the A express line in both directions between 59th Street-Columbus Circle and Chambers Street.  The E line was rerouted on the F line between Roosevelt Ave/Jackson Heights and West 4th Street.  These diversions made for some interesting observations, including a full station closure at 7th Ave and 53rd Street on the D and  E lines since they were both rerouted.  That and West 4th Street station was a game of cat and mouse in catching your train - the D stops on the upper level express tracks where the A/C/E lines normally stop while the E stops on the lower level local tracks where the D and F lines normally stop there on weekends.  Here are a few photos on that rare D at Chambers and Canal Street stations:

That said, I tool a ride into Manhattan for a few hours worth of observations around the subway system and saw some good things going on, as well as some bad things.  Let's look at the good things first:

THE GOOD:  The announcements at station platforms have been consistent, even at the IRT stations - - frequent announcements on the A/C/D?E diversions were made here. Another good thing was the information regarding the elevators at 125th Street  On my 6 train into Manhattan, the conductor announced the elevators were not operational but advised to check the MTA website for alternatives.


THE BAD:  The wrong information given by conductors is still present - - and I wonder why most of these conductors are not aware of these service changes.  Additionally, some of the temporary signage installed along columns at subway stations are wrong.

34th Street-Penn Station (8th Ave) has an island express platform - - the signs wrongly indicate that no trains are stopping there and all trains are stopping at the local platforms

If anyone read this sign at at 34th Street and wanted to get to 7th Ave/53rd Street, they would be lost as the D does not go to 7th Ave station.  Lack of proofreading and quality control exists when you make signs for a 2 week period when the second week has a different set of directions due to another line being detoured.  

Likewise, signs can be correct in a way, however another option would be helpful. These signs are at Chambers on the A and C - - normally when A and C lines are running on the F line between Manhattan and Brooklyn then Chambers Street is closed.  However the D was running to Chambers Street - therefore this platform was open so anyone could take the D Uptown.  In fact, the D train was a better option than the E train as the E would stop at the lower level (rerouted on the F line) while the D stops at the upper level, then same level as the A/C lines.

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Let's look at the announcements now - - my first observations were on the 6 line at 51st Street where there's no E service at the connecting Lexington Ave/53rd Street station. As before, a Pass means the announcement about the E station closure was made while a Fail indicated there was no announcement on the E closure, other than "Transfer to the E train" heard over the train's PA system.  All times are in the afternoon on Saturday 1/16

Time	Line	Direction	Car #	Result
12:29 PM	6	SB	2096	Fail (E and M)
12:37	6	NB	7096	Pass
12:42	6	SB	7649	Pass
1:00	6	SB	1781	Fail

Then I headed over to the 7 line for observations about the D - a transfer point between 5th - all of them failed as the "Transfer to the D (and F) lines" were made. Because NYC Transit uses railroad North-South directions (never east-west) for all subway lines, trains heading towards 34th Street-Hudson Yards were traveling southbound (SB) while Main St-Flushing bound trains were going northbound (NB).   On the 1:35 PM train, I heard the B/D/F/M weekday announcement.  On all of the southbound trains I rode on, I also heard the incorrect E transfer at Times Square.  And these are the retrofitted newer cars.  

Time	Line	Direction	Car #	Result
1:07	7	SB	7315	Fail
1:12	7	NB	7367	Fail
1:16	7	SB	7859	Fail
1:20	7	NB	7892	Fail
1:35	7	SB	7326	Fail (BDFM)
1:36	7	NB	7872	Fail
1:47	7	SB	7218	Fail

 

Next stop was Fulton Street for the A/C closure.  I rode back and forth on the 2/3 lines.  A few of the announcements I herd were correct - - all of the on the 3 line where older cars from the 1980s are used.  The so-called "new technology" trains (NTTs) on the 2 line all failed because none of the conductors bothered to make the announcement about the A/C suspension.

 

Time	Line	Direction	Car #	Result
2:07	2	SB	6351	Fail
2:13	2	NB	6630	Fail
2:18	3	SB	1397	No announcement
2:23	2	NB	6316	Fail
2:38	2	SB	6636	Fail
2:49	2	NB	6401	Fail
2:53	3	SB	1321	Pass
2:58	2	NB	6451	Fail
3:21	3	NB	No car #	Pass

Finally, my last set of observations were the N/Q/R lines at 34th Street/Herald Square (no D at the 6th Ave side of this  complex).  Although I made only 4 observations, the only one that passed was on an R train where subway cars are over 40 years old.  

Time	Line	Direction	Car #	Result
4:18	N	SB	8826	Fail
4:24	R	NB	5760	Passed
4:32	Q	SB	8653	Fail
4:44	Q	NB	9088	Fail

Oh and other things to note - - those wrong signs at Hunts Point Ave on the 6 line were never changed.  Bx45 and Bx54, respectively.

That's all folks. Brace yourselves for the first winter storm of 2016 this coming weekend and I will be on top of things when NYCT and MTA implement their winter plans, including suspension of B service and all other express service on Friday evening.  Oh, while at Times Square, I saw ads for one of my favorite mobile games, Clash of Clans - - and here are the pictures.