What's wrong with MTA NYC Transit? Part 3, what NYCT refuses to tell you.

It's 8 PM on a Friday evening and your home is near the Kings Highway subway station on the Brighton B and Q lines in Brooklyn.  You need to run this quick errand or meet someone in the Upper West Side of Manhattan and come back home before the snowstorm blankets all of NYC during the entire weekend.  You follow the advice of MTA New York City Transit and check their webpage for the latest service changes related to the snowstorm and you find out that B and Q service are running normal.  You want to make sure they are running normal by calling the Travel Information Center and speak to a live agent about the status of B service, he tells you that B service is running normally and even tells you the next two northbound departures from Kings Highway.

So you get to Kings Highway and wait on the platform in 10 degree weather, you rub your hands while brushing you face against the cold wind as you see lights on the northbound express track, visible all the way down from the curve south of Neck Road, 2 local stops away.  The "B" train approaches Kings Highway station when suddenly the train operator sounds his horn and bypasses you, with no passengers aboard the 8 car train.  You mutter in disgust as you wait a few minutes for a Q local train to stop at Kings Highway.  All the while, there are no announcements on the platform as the Q train approaches; as you start to board the Q train, you take one last look down the track when you see another pair of lights on the northbound express track.  You and other people get off the Q train to wait for what is presumed to be another B train until it passes by Kings Highway again, without stopping and no passengers aboard the train. Now you are ticked off at what is believed to be an absence of B service and you take the next Q train into Manhattan - - after waiting nearly 20 minutes for a B train which never showed up. 

This is not a rarity that NYC Transit does not meet it's goal in informing customers - - this is reality and the type of information which NYC Transit deliberately withholds from their customers is common in their day-to-day operations.  The above story was an example related to NYC Transit's winter weather operations, called Cold Weather Plans.  In this MTA Cold Weather poster, service on certain subway lines made be reduced, suspended or running on local tracks on the eve of a major winter storm which is forecast to dump 6 or more inches of snow across the NYC region or bring temperatures down to the zero degree mark.   The Cold Weather Plans are required to protect subway cars from freezing temperatures and or snow accumulations by storing them in underground tracks, usually on express tracks while lines running on express tracks such as the 2/3/4/5 lines in Manhattan would be running on the local tracks instead.  The winter plan is activated no later than 11 AM the day before a snowstorm or icy conditions hit the NYC area.   These plans are identified as Plan 1 through 5 with 1 being the minimal action needed with subway cars "topping up" or leaving them in yards with motors running, while plan 4 requires all subway cars stored in underground tunnels for the evening or all weekend.  Service on the A/D/E/F/N/Q/2/3/4/5 and < 6 > lines would run on local tracks at various locations.  Additionally, B service is suspended after 8 PM weeknights while a little known suspension on AM rush 5 trains from Nereid Ave also takes place (more on that later).    Plan 5, the most severe plan initiated, involves the complete shutdown of all subway service.   During the brutal winter of 2013-14, Cold Weather Plan 4 was in effect on the following days: December 13-16 (weekend), Jan 2-5 (weekend) 7, 8, 21, 22, 23 February 3,4,5,6 ,13,14-17 (weekend) 28-March 3 (weekend)   Of these nights when B service was suspended only three nights they posted that B service was suspended, these dates were Feb 4, 13, and 14.   B service can be suspended because there is sufficient service on other lines (A/C/D/Q) for customers to use.  If you are lucky, you might see these posters in B line stations, note the wrong departure time at DeKalb Ave towards Brighton Beach.

 

 

   
On the night when B service is suspended (and I have verified this information), they would post somewhat bogus service changes like this.  Note that this alerts was retrieved at 8:59 PM, when the above poster shows the last northbound B train departed West 4th Street

 

 

 

Trip Planner will continue to list normal B  service departures at each station.  And a few calls to the Travel Information Center between 9 and 10 PM (well after B service ended) on the nights when Plan 4 went into effect, agents sometimes told me that B service is still running.  This creates a lack of communication to not only customers but the news media as well.  Media outlets, such as radio station 1010 WINS  and NY1/News 12 cable channels frequently provide traffic and transit updates every 10 minutes and they cannot be at fault when NYCT refuses to make these winter service changes public, then these news outlets won't be able to tell listeners/viewers about the B suspension.  It is also worthwhile to note that I haven't seen any service changes along the Queens Blvd E/F/M/R lines when E and F trains run local during cold weather plans - - I cannot say if it's a fact or not that all express service in Queens is suspended because I didn't go out there to make any observations.

 

 

FastTrack on the Queens Blvd E/F/M and R lines in Queens was scheduled for the week of Jan 21-24 - - the entire 4 nights were cancelled due to winter weather but nobody took down posters like these at Roosevelt Ave/Jackson Heights complex.

 

 

 

 

Another lesser known but equally important is the suspension of  < 5 > AM rush hour service from Nereid Ave.  All of these 5 trains come from the adjacent 239th Street yard just north of Nereid station.  Since all of the trains are stored in Manhattan underground tunnels, they will be coming up to the Bronx on the middle track and simply run to 241 Street before being placed into service e on the 2 line towards Manhattan.  Therefore it is not possible to run regularly scheduled 5 trains from Nereid Ave; NYCT never posted this service change due to the NYCT Cold Weather Plan.   Since customers at Nereid down to Bronx Park East normally wait for a Manhattan-bound 5 train, they wait in the freezing cold to find out there is no 5 service.  NYCT screws customer who go to work in the morning and use the 5 train into Manhattan.  No stations announcements about the 5 suspension were ever made either.  The screenshot below is a sample taken from MT's subway time application, which seems to be the ONLY reliable source of information.

 

 

 

In one more instance where NYCT refuses to tell customers, which happens all year, is the PM 5 rush hour services towards Nereid Ave.  Many weekdays, 2 and 5 trains become backed up on the upper White Plains Road line all the way down to Gun Hill Road.  To alleviate congestion on this line, NYCT will order some 5 train to Nereid on the express track north of East 180th Street, to Gun Hill Road/White Plains Road and terminate there.  This service plan I do like because it takes some 5 trains out of the northbound local track and reduces congestion, they can use the middle track to run from Gun Hill Road to 239th Street yard.  However, none of this service change is anywhere on the MTA website, not on the 5 line timetable, nor on the 5 service information.  Across the Bronx, the 4 line runs some northbound trains only to Burnside Ave (express 167 straight to Burnside) and, unlike the 5 PM runs to Nereid, the 4 Burnside runs are clearly shown on the 4 line timetable and are noted on destination signs in trains.  So what is the problem in NYCT refusing to acknowledge about a service change which makes 2 and 5 service more efficient?  Customers are so used to the musical chairs on the 5 trains to Nereid that they wait for 2 trains at East 180th Street anyway. 

 

 

NYCT has a duty to inform customers - - and they arbitrary disseminate certain pieces of information while withholding others.  This is unacceptable.  Customers need this information, not only for winter service changes or the 5 rush hour service, but all service changes in general.  Those NYCT employees who are responsible for distributing the information to other units - - and who intentionally withhold such information - - should look for work elsewhere.

  

What's wrong with MTA NYC Transit? Part 2, the signs and posters

How bad and incompetent can NYCT make any type of blatant error in a website or map and leave it there for years?

So incompetent, the blatant error involved a hospital in the south Bronx which closed in 1966.

That's not a typo, I said 1966, at the height of the Batman TV craze and the television premieres of the original Star Trek and Mission:Impossible series, is when St. Francis Hospital in the Bronx closed it's doors.  There were pay phones instead of cell phones, Facebook and Instagram were never heard of.  But 48 years later, St. Francis Hospital is still on the neighborhood maps which were first designed in 1985 and "updated" in the early 2000s.  When the Weekender was introduced by the MTA in 2012, the same error appears in this webpage, see screenshots below - all taken directly from the MTA's Weekender application for Android phones.



 

It might be an abnormality if that was the only mistake in the neighborhood maps.  Sadly, there are over 100 mistakes, some of them really outrageous such as the NYPD 40th Precinct at the wrong location; NW corner of East 149th Street and Melrose Ave.  The 40th Precinct is unmistakably located on the NW corner of Alexander Ave and East 138th Street right by the full time entrances to the 3rd Ave/East 138th Street subway station on the 6 line.  Also note the wrong corner for Citibank

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Looking for the Gateway Mall to do your shopping and the new Yankees/East 153rd Street rail station on Metro-North's Hudson Line?  Don't bother finding it in the MTA Weekender, the Bronx House of Detention (closed in 2000) is still standing there according to the  neighborhood maps.   

 

 

 

 

  

The MTA may have renamed the newest station complex name in to Court Square and added the Q/M lines in Long Island City but they haven't touched the Municipal Parking Garage at Queens Plaza, now an office building which houses the NYC Department of Health.  The garage was razed in 2010.

Coney Island has Luna Park. not Astroland Park.  The Brooklyn Cyclones play at MCU Park, not Keyspan (even though it's the same ballpark)

Where is the Barclays Center?  This arena is 2 years old and not on the "latest" neighborhood map.  Also note the old B63 bus routing before 5th Ave was permanently closed between Atlantic Ave and Flatbush Ave.

 

 

 

 

The 44th Precinct in the Bronx is at the wrong location,  Also (not shown) the 43rd Precinct on Ryer Ave, near East 183 Street is missing.

There are a lot of other errors to list such as old exits along certain stations on the B/D Concourse lines in the Bronx, Eastern Parkway on the J, movie theaters such as the Loews Elmwood and Trylon theaters in Queens as well as the Allerton theater in the Bronx, and Prospect Hospital, closed in the early 80's.   Recently, the MTA and NYCT collaborated with NYC Department of Transportation in producing the next generation Neighborhood maps  based on NYC DOT's successful WalkNYC wayfinding neighborhood maps with a maximum 12 block radius for each station.  Paul Fleuranges, Senior Director of Corporate and Internal Communications claimed in the linked MTA story that "Though we’ve kept the MTA’s neighborhood maps up-to-date,..." the pictures I posted show that Mr. Fleuranges statement is false as nobody corrected them for years.  The same neighborhood maps with the mistakes can been seen on the MTA Weekender's pages online.


Signs are wrong too, like the recent job fair held at the NY Transit Museum on May 19th, the E train hasn't run to Jay Street since the early 1970s.  Dozens of NYCT employees installed them and nobody caught this mistake.

 

 

 

 Here's a mind-boggling location to place a sign - - not just wrong station - - wrong line, borough

AND division.  This sign (installed around 1999) was to inform customers about signal system modernization on the West End Line in Brooklyn, part of the current D line, along with a proposed completion date of 2002. 

 

 

 

 

The sign was mistakenly placed at Central Park North-110th Street on the West Side 2 and 3 lines in Manhattan instead of  a station on the West End line (sounds alike) and sits unnoticed (or just ignored) by NYCT employees for over 15 years.  So we have wrong line (West Side instead of West End), wrong borough (Manhattan, instead of Brooklyn) and wrong division (IRT instead of BMT)

 

 

Sometimes reading signs can be confusing.  How about the set of posters at Gun Hill Road/White Plains Road station on the 2 line?  Which poster is correct? 

 

 

In January, 2013 when the highly successful FastTrack nightly work program made it's only appearance on the 2 line in Brooklyn, the information about 4 trains replacing 3 service in Brooklyn was really hilarious - - especially when 4 trains from Borough Hall and Bowling cannot stop at the Hoyt Street-Fulton Mall station due to the existing track layout.   If NYC Transit managers really know how their own subway system works, they would realize that they need to add two sets of switches north of Hoyt Street.    

 

 

 

Sometimes signs can have the right directions but in the most time consuming and circuitous manner.  This poster was taken at East Tremont/West Farms Square.  The robotic instructions on this poster tell you to take a downtown 2 train all the way down to 149th Street/Grand Concourse then double back up, when a 5 to 10 minute walk to East 180th Street will allow you to catch uptown 2 (and 5) trains there.   Sorry for the blurry picture

 

 

 The MTA website has improved in their accuracy but still suffers from years of neglect to correct their mistakes.  The current subway map  doesn't note that there is no elevator service at 63rd Street-Lexington Ave station through February,2015 due to all elevators being replaced at this station.  Other mistakes I found on some webpages are the Q18 and 64 bus route errors in the Flushing, Main Street LIRR page as well as missing the Q20A/B.  Funny part of this error is the QBx1, listed on the NYC Transit bus list, was replaced by the Q50 (and Bx23 in the Bronx) which is shown on the same page within the MTA Bus Company list.  The joint LIRR/Metro-North Cityticket map shows weekday services when the discounted program is not in effect, such as the Hudson River bus connections, the M train at Forest Hills, the 5 line at Atlantic Terminal and the M98, Q26 bus routes. 

 

 

The above examples show a complete ignorance of NYC Transit of correcting these errors.  NYC Transit should take a pro-active approach in fixing mistakes instead of ignoring them.  I will watch closely the new neighborhood maps and will post an upcoming blog about them when I see more of these maps at stations.  As for the other errors I posted, that is why customers get confused about the service changes.  On the other hand, very few customers actually read the service notices.  

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

What's wrong with MTA New York City Transit? Part 1, announcements

To oversee the nations largest urban rail system is a daunting task, there will be good days and bad days in running the railroad.  But what shouldn't be difficult to oversee are the announcements, in trains and on station platforms.  Announcements should be accurate and reflect current lines of operation as well as any major planned service changes.  However, from what I have observed over the past 20 years, the announcements inside subway cars are left something to be desired as if some conductors really don't want to be bothered and supervisors don't care about the accuracy of these announcements.

A typical announcement as the train approaches the station should have the following:  Name of station, transfer lines, rail connections and special bus transfers, such as the M60 to LaGuardia Airport or the M15 SBS+, finally followed by another announcement detailing the line you are on, direction of travel (Manhattan-bound) and next stop followed by the requisite "Stand Clear of the Closing Doors".  The announcements about transfer to other lines should be accurate to the time of day..  For example, a E train approaching Queens Plaza station on a Saturday should not allow the "transfer to the R or M train" announcement because the M train does not stop at Queens Plaza on weekends.  Furthermore, when there is a major planned service disruption, such as the suspension of 7 train service in Manhattan, then "transfer to the 7 train" is clearly wrong.


However, if I collected a penny for every wrong announcement, I would be making over $2,000 a week.  To illustrate the severity of the situation (and most customers don't listen to announcements anyway), I spent a Sunday afternoon/evening traveling to Manhattan and Brooklyn on July 20th.  On that day, the 7 and 5 trains were not running in Manhattan, PATH train service is not available at World Trade Center , and work on the R Montague tubes is winding down.   I went to Borough Hall on the 2/3 lines (R Borough Hall station is closed on weekends),  then to Fulton and Park Place, also on the 2/3 lines (no 5 service at Fulton, no PATH connections near Park Place).  Finally I finished up on 6th Ave with 42nd Street/Bryant Park on the D and F lines (no 7 train service).

The results are truly appalling, less than 20 percent of all announcements observed by me, or questions asked by me to conductors) were  deemed accurate - - of the 27 total observations from 4 to 8 PM, only 5 passed the test.  I started with a ride on the 1 train from the Bronx into Manhattan, inside car #2231, at around 3:45 PM the conductor announced the C line transfer at 168th Street (no C trains at 168th Street). 

I transferred to a 3 train at 96th Street, inside car #1307, I faintly heard the conductor announcing the 7 line suspension at Times Square.  We continued to Borough Hall in Brooklyn, my first stop.  For each train observation, I would try to listen for the announcement, if I could not hear the announcement then I would ask the conductor as a test if the R or 7 train was running.  A "pass" meant the conductor accurately did not make or allow the R, 7 transfer or PATH connection announcement or told me the line was not running.  A "fail" meant the conductor made/allowed the R, 7 or PATH announcement or told me the line was running - - or just didn't know if the line was running.  Because my time for the day was limited, I tried to spend 30 minutes or more at each location so I can get a good sampling.

Borough Hall (4:30 to 5:15 PM) - all samples were on the 3 line in both directions - - all of them failed by announcing or telling me that R service on a Sunday is available at this complex:

Car #           Direction             Time                     Pass/Fail
1391                 NB                    4:35                      Fail (asked conductor, yes running)
1615                 SB                    4:43                       Fail (asked conductor, don't know)
1360                 NB                   4:48                       Fail
1412                 NB                   4:59                       Fail
1401                 SB                    5:00                       Fail (conductor doesn't know)
1326                 SB                    5:07                       Fail (conductor wasn't sure)


Then I went on a northbound 4 train at 5:15 PM , car #1196 - - the conductor NEVER said anything at Bowling Green about the 5 train not running in Manhattan.  I continued to the Fulton St complex.  The intent was to listen for announcements about the 5 line transfer  - - only 1 out of 4 passed for a 25 percent success rate

Line          Car #            Direction                Time        Pass/Fail

C              8425              NB                          5:22          Fail
A              5862              NB                          5:26          Fail (asked conductor)
A              6076              SB                           5:30          Fail (asked conductor) 
F*             9398              SB         `                 5:33         Pass (asked conductor)


My next stop was Park Place by way of taking a northbound A train at 5:42 PM, car #5974, when I asked the conductor about the PATH train at WTC station, I was told it was running.  I went over to the Park Place 2/3 and rode them between Chambers and Wall Street to listen for the "connection to PATH" at Park Place, as well as the 5 transfer at Fulton Street.  Virtually all conductors I observed for this nearly 1 hour period, failed miserably

Line         Car #            Direction                   Time             Pass/Fail

2               6982               SB                           5:53             Fail (PATH and 5)
2               6675               NB                           6:00            Fail (PATH)
3               1395               SB                           6:05             Fail (PATH)
2               6610               NB                          6:12             Fail (PATH and 5)
3               1373               SB                           6:24             Passed (5) Fail (PATH)
2               6602               NB                          6:30             Fail (PATH and 5)
2               6560               SB                           6:35             Fail (PATH and 5)
3               1449               NB                           6:45             Passed (5) Fail (PATH)


On the last observation, the conductor announced the J at Fulton Street, and the M at 14th Street.  Perhaps she does not normally work on weekends.  I went to Times Square, then took a walk outside to 6th Ave for the D and an F and rode them for a few minutes.  The observations were now listening for the 7 train transfer announcement.  I selected this transfer point because it requires to wait for another F train to Queens.   Though I had a few observations, the pass rate was much better here.

Line        Car #             Direction                    Time           Pass/Fail

D             2594                 NB                             6:56            Fail
F              9825                 SB                             7:06            Pass
F              9585                  NB                            7:22           Fail
F              9224                  SB                             7:36            Pasds



As these observations show, it's best to check the MTA website for any planned service changes and use TripPlanner+ if possible (but TripPlanner+ can be flawed too as I will discuss in another part).  Most conductors need to read the service changes and make the proper adjustments in their announcements, be it their own voices or Charlie Peller's automated announcements in the newer subway cars.   The R weekend Sandy reroute over the Manhattan Bridge has been going on for almost a year and it's unacceptable for conductors on the 2 and 3 lines to continue making R transfer announcements when that station is closed.  The R Montague tunnel was hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy (save for the A train along the section between Howard Beach the and Rockaways), in the 2 months from November 1 to December 21, 2012 when the Montague tunnel reopened, all conductors on the 2/3/4/5 lines announced the R transfer at Borough Hall when there was no service at this station 24/7.  You would really think that managers and employees going to work at 130 Livingston or 2 Broadway would hear these wrong announcements as they were heading to work.  Of course it shows that these NYCT managers are more interested in their paychecks than the customers they serve.

The automated announcements are another deficiency which NYCT failed to address.  They are on the newer subway cars on the 2/4/5/6/7/E/F/J/L/M/N/Q and R lines.   The announcements are automatically applied once the train enters the station and are set to one of the five specific times of the day:  rush hour, midday, evening, weekend and late night.  These time parameters do not take into account specific lines which may not operate the entire timeframe.  For example, Z train service in Manhattan is scheduled to leave Broad Street during the PM rush from 4:55 PM to 5:45 PM.  Since the rush hour block is 3 to 7 PM, it is not uncommon to hear announcements about transferring to the Z train on a 4 train at Fulton Street at 6:30 PM when the last Z train left Broad Street 45 minutes earlier.  The Bx41 Select Bus Service+ schedule shows the last southbound bus leaves the Gun Hill Road intermodal center at precisely 9 PM seven days a week, while the last northbound bus leaves The Hub (East 149th Street on 3rd Ave) by 9:45 PM.  But I could ride a 2 train at 10:30 PM, well after the last Bx41 SBS+ bus left both terminals and hear the "Transfer to the Bx41 Select Bus Service" at both 3rd Ave and Gun Hill Road stations.  

In short, the MTA and NYC Transit have ignored for years about how the on-board train announcements work, and how accurate they are.  They simply do not have any concerns for the riding public they are supposed to serve.  If MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast and NYC Transit President Carmen Bianco rode the subways and really listened to these announcements then this mess would have been corrected a long time ago.  

What's wrong with MTA NYC Transit?

What is wrong with MTA New York City Transit, the world's largest subway system ever built?

Plenty!

Don't get me wrong, the NYC subway system is one of the best deals around.  You can travel from Eastchester in the Bronx to East New York in Brooklyn for only $2.50.  Or if you really want to stretch your fare, how about Wakefield-241st Street in the Bronx to Tottenville in Staten Island via. a well timed ferry connection?  The subway takes me to work and back home, I have no complaints about that. On-time performance is not like one of MTA's sister agencies, Metro-North Commuter railroad with a on-time performance of over 95 percent systemwide, but the subway runs very well compared to the dark days of the early 1980's when nearly half of all train runs were cancelled due to poor maintenance.   MTA NYC Transit has also implemented new customer-friendly initiatives. such as the Weekender app, PA/CIS (Public Address/Customer Information Screens for the IRT numbered lines, the 42nd Street shuttle and the L line, Select Bus Service (SBS+) and Bustime.  All this is so wonderful for customers to use in today's mobile world.  But NYC Transit suffers greatly from a lack of oversight in disseminating information to the millions of customers who ride the subways and buses daily.   Either NYCT is ignorant on what their publish or fail to monitor their operations.  Sometimes they outright refuse to post certain service changes, hoping that no one will take notice.  Other times they install a sign which has the wrong bus route or post a location which was closed years ago on their neighborhood maps and they fester for years, sometimes decades before they get fixed. It's a matter on how the information is distributed/posted, and how accurate the information is.  More importantly, how deficient information is addressed and correct in a timely manner, which should be in a couple of days, not months and years.

This blog series will explore the many areas within NYC Transit (maps, timetables, service notices, event notices, announcements, etc.) and how they can improve on these areas.  Due to the large amount of content, this blog post is divided into 5 parts:

Part 1 touches base with announcements and how NYCT fails to address this issue

Part 2 looks are some of the errors and how long they have been left unnoticed by NYCT employees and senior management.

Part 3 examines areas where NYC Transit fails to tell the millions of customers about certain palnned and unplanned service changes, many of then intentionally. 

Part 4 explores the recent rash of major service disruptions, some from NYC Transit and other from LIRR/Metro-North and how there is an absence of communication or how . 

Part 5 offers suggestions for NYC Transit to consider in their day-to-day operations.

I will try to publish at least two parts a week. 
       

24 Live another Day - - not the same 24 (SPOILER ALERT)

Last Monday was the conclusion to another bad day for Jack Bauer in the revived 24 franchise, "24: Live another Day".  As much as I though the ending was better than Season 8, the overall show was definitely not up to par with the earlier seasons of 24.  I think the low point of this day was the "planned" surrender and death of President James Heller by one of Margot Al-Harazi's reprogrammed drones, which really was pathetic that Jack and President plotted to access Al-Harazi's computer systems to loop the footage of Heller standing in Wembley Stadium while the real President Heller stealthy makes an exit with Jack (but would the missile take out one-half of the stadium, not just Heller?). 

Also the finale shootout seems ripped right from the ending of Season 1 - - both locations are in the docks, Jack finds out that something terrible happened to a loved one (Nina Meyers lies to Jack about his daughter (Kimberly) drowned in the waters from Season 1, whom he later finds out that Kim was found alive - while in LAD, Jack's ex and President Heller's daughter, Audrey Heller was killed by a backup shooter),  Finally, we see Jack seeking vengenace for the men responsible for the people responsible for those deaths (at least Jack thought so in Season 1).   It seems like everyone is going through the motions - it's a matter of finding out who were the moles (Steve Navarro, played by the brilliant Benjamin Bratt from Law and Order - and Adrian Cross, the hacker whom Chloe O'Brian was working for.)

But for it's faults, 24 LAD still remains a good show to watch, with quite a few plot twists and surprises, including the series' first ever "silent clock" done twice in the same episode - - once for Audrey and another for Jack himself (I won't tell you why but it sure opens the door for Jack to come back for day 10.). The silent clock is used to introduce a commercial break after a major character is killed off or dies.  If you take away the comparisons to Days 1, 2 and 5 (with the best 15 minutes of television watching, ever - - President Palmer's assassination in a hotel room), then 24 LAD is still appointment television. 

Spending some time at a Vision Zero town hall meeting

EDITOR'S NOTE:  The comments and observations in this blog (or any other blog I write) are my own personal viewpoints and are not the viewpoints or comments of NYC Department of Transportation.  Also specifically for this blog post, I volunteered to visit this workshop on my own time and no one had asked or suggested to me in attending this or any NYC DOT workshop.

I attended a NYC DOT Vision Zero workshop inside Herbert H. Lehman College of CUNY last Tuesday, May 6th.  There were plenty of wayfinding signs from the Bedford Park IRT 4 station, along Bedford Park Blvd and through the campus to the music building where the town hall took place.   I checked in then was directed to a specific table, one of 30 inside this building.   At table #28 where I was assigned to, a DOT employee was seated along with 4 other people.  The employee provided a visual demonstration on what NYC DOT does to make NYC streets safer with a manual slide show along with explanations on the many traffic calming methods they use to reduce accidents and fatalities. Then he went on to explain how Vision Zero works.  There was ample time for a Q and A session of which I raised the issue about STOP signs and how STOP sign running is not among the 10 reportable safety conditions in the Vision Zero homepage.  (I should have also talked about cell phone use which is much more serious than disobeying STOP signs.) The DOT employee showed us some pictures which I could easily identify the locations, including Bruckner Plaza at White Plains Road and The Hub intersection.  We also had an opportunity to fill out a survey form and a Vision Zero worksheet where I could write down the intersection or street and identify the appropriate safety conditions.   Finally, we were directed to a workstation where different NYC maps were shown to pinpoint the offending locations along with a iPad station to record and share the issues on their webpage.

 I cannot stress enough that safety is to be shared among all stakeholders: pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, truck and bus drivers as well as engineers who redesign NYC streets, community boards and elected officials who raise certain issues to NYC DOT as well as the consequences who fail to drive or walk safely.  Just see what happens when an impatient driver goes against traffic to cut in front of the left turn line on northbound Baychester Ave at Boston Road and end up kissing the KFC parking lot and store with 1 adult and 2 children injured in the chaos.  At least that's what my reliable source tells me about the cause of that accident.  Or last weekend when this drunk driver flips and slams his minivan into a flower shop, then runs away from the accident scene near the intersection of White Plains Road and the Cross Bronx Expressway.  The driver was caught by witnesses chasing him and turned the soused driver over to police who arrived at the scene moments later.  You can say anything negative about Vision Zero, including a new bill to the NY State Legislature authorizing NYC under NY State Vehicle and Traffic Law, Section 1642 as a city with more than 1 million residents (and the only city in NY State, so far) to lower the citywide speed limit from 30 to 25 MPH (unless otherwise posted, lower or higher than 25 MPH, of course), but we need safer roads for everyone.  That and stiffer penalties for the most serious offenses like cell phone use or speeding, take their cars and licenses away from these idiot drivers - - permanently.

And before I say good night - - look who I caught this morning, texting while driving, on State Street near Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan: 

 

NYCT's mess on May 2-5 - the F train derailment and Brooklyn 2/3/4 lines

MTA New York City Transit has a lot of questions to be answered for the incidents this past weekend of May 2-5, not only about the F train derailment in Queens but also for a General Order in Brooklyn (transit jargon for trackwork) which ended 90 minutes late.

On Friday May 2, at approximately 10:40 AM, six of the 8 cars of a Manhattan-bound F train derailed just west (railroad south) of the 65th Street/Broadway station in Queens, injuring 19 passengers.  The first and last cars of the derailed train did not jump the tracks.  The cause of the accident was a broken rail which was in one of the five most trouble-prone track hotspots in the NYC Subway system with 205 broken rail incidents between 50th Street/8th Ave in Manhattan and 71st Ave/Forest Hills in Queens, all along the busy 53rd Street and Queens Blvd corridors.  The cracked rail was installed only 3 months ago, in February which is puzzling since the Track Inspection Car detected the crack shortly before the derailment.

Due to the F train derailment, from Friday afternoon through 5 AM Monday morning, E and F trains were running local in Queens, with overnight shuttle bus service between Queens Plaza/21st Street Queensbridge and Roosevelt Ave.  R trains were not running north of 57th Street in Manhattan and 71st Ave/Forest Hills in Queens, while Friday afternoon/evening M service was running only between Essex Street and Metropolitan Ave.   Weekend work on the 7 and J/M lines were cancelled due to a massive mobilization by NYC transit crews in re railing the derailed F train and making track repairs along the E/F Manhattan-bound express where the derailment occurred.. 

To make matters worse, the information about these service changes is fair on the MTA website - - at one point, they posted that certain bus lines were being diverted due to work related to the F train derailment, see my screenshot below

As you can see, all but the Q53 bus route would be affected since it runs partially on Broadway where the derailment took place (and the Q53 runs a few blocks away).  The Q60 runs along the entire length of Queens Blvd while the Q1/2/36/43 and 77 bus routes run between Jamaica and points east - - about 6 miles away from the derailment site.  Absent from his service advisory is the Q70, the new limited bus route between Woodside and LaGuardia Airport, which runs on 39th Ave.  Therefore almost none of the bus routes listed above would be affected by any delays related to this derailment.

I was in the trenches Sunday evening on the weekend after the F train derailment and it was ugly - - no platform conductors or announcements at the Lexington Ave N/R platform  (there was no R service at this station) and 6 line conductors mentioned nothing about no R service at 59th Street. 

That's not the only thing which happened that weekend - on Monday morning, service on the well publicized Brooklyn 2/3/4 lines  south/east of Franklin Ave were supposed to be restored  by 5 AM Monday morning after a planned 55 hour weekend shutdown.  Instead, the shutdown continued until 6:30 AM, 90 minutes late while shuttle buses had to be kept on the road - - along with very few of these buses because they didn't anticipate the trackwork to run past 5:30 AM.  The overrun cause a ripple effect on the entire length of the 2/3/4/5 lines because the 3 line starts running from New Lots at 5:40 AM with a special 5 train from New Lots (the first 5 train originating in Brooklyn) shortly afterwards at 5:50 AM.  Regular 5 service from Flatbush Ave would start at 6:07 AM.  The problem with running this G.O. late is that many of the early AM trains which have to be placed in service from Flatbush or New Lots Ave are stored in Livonia yard which was cutoff due to the late trackwork as well as other trains from the Bronx and Manhattan are coming to Brooklyn with limited options to turn at Franklin or Atlantic Aves.  My 5 train from the Bronx had to the turned at Bowling Green (through a loop track from the southbound side to the northbound side) because of the mess and chaos on the IRT mainlines, all caused by this late clearance.

Obviously, NYC Transit had nothing to say about why thousands of customers along the 2/3/4/5 lines were inconvenienced - - they should explain why the construction project didn't end until 6:30 AM.

And there are 4 four more weekends of this 2/3/4 Brooklyn shutdown, good luck.