Home MTA Hold that train

Hold that train

by Benjamin Kabak

I’m going to do something I don’t do too often in this space: I’m going to rant about the way the MTA handles train transfers at stations with island platforms. Here we go.

On Tuesday, when I was on the way back to Brooklyn from work, I took a B from West 4th St. to DeKalb where I would switch to an M or R to take me to Union St. and my gym. Usually, it’s a pretty quick ride; during rush hour, I can get a B to DeKalb or a D to Pacific St. and the M/R trains usually show up after a few minutes’ wait.

Tuesday was no exception. As the B pulled into DeKalb, the R train was sitting across the platform with the doors open seemingly waiting for connecting passengers. The B did its usually crawl into DeKalb, and we sat for a beat before the doors open. The entire time we sat there, the R had been posed, doors open awaiting passengers.

When the doors to the B finally opened, the doors to the R slammed shut. All of us waiting for that train — the Bay Ridge-bound passengers and the folks looking for stops in between — were denied our connection. It was an inexplicable move by the MTA. Why bother holding the doors to the R open just to close them when the passengers on the B finally decamp from their train?

A few minutes later, an M showed up to whisk us south through Brooklyn, and I was soon at Union St., the incident largely forgotten for most of the people who were stymied by the R. I however couldn’t help but think about that R train. How many times have we seen this happen? Whether it’s at Broadway and Lafayette on the BMT IND or W. 72nd St. on the IRT, trains will routinely close their doors right as a train on the adjacent platform pulls up. Frustrated passengers are left staring at lights receding down the tunnel while their desired transfer heads off into the distance.

It wouldn’t be too hard to or too inconvenient for train operators to hold their doors and extra 10 or 15 seconds at major transfer points. It wouldn’t throw off the train schedules, and it wouldn’t create back-ups in the tunnels. It would create good will and positive feelings from other passengers, and that is something the MTA could sorely use these days.

You may also like

10 comments

Cap'n Transit June 6, 2008 - 8:04 am

I could be wrong on this – and it’d be nice to hear from some conductors – but my impression is that this is not from “the MTA,” but more low-level.

Whenever I see something like this, the only interpretation I can come up with is that the tower wanted the passengers on the B train to make that connection, so they kept the signals red to keep the R in the station. They figured that once the conductor saw everyone pulling up in the B ready to transfer, he or she would hold the doors. Instead, the conductor is thinking about the schedule and shuts the doors.

If I’m right, then the solution is to have more communication between the tower and the conductor. The dispatcher needs to communicate their intent, monitor and follow up. Or at least wait a little longer before giving the R train the signal.

Reply
ScottE June 6, 2008 - 8:49 am

I think that explanation is close, but not exactly what happens. Whenever the tower or dispatcher wants to hold a train in the station, he’ll light up the three light bulbs (usually orange or green, sometimes one or two are broken) which hang over the platform-edge just outside the conductor’s booth, and hold the signal at red. He figures that once the connecting train shows up, give them 30 seconds or so, then they can shut off the lights, turn the signal green, and the trains can be on their way.

The problem is what Ben K. described above, that the conductor of the second train waits before opening the doors. The tower knows the trains have been there long enough for passengers to transfer, so he gives the trains the green light to close the doors and move. Hence the situation at Dekalb (and Nevins St… and Queensboro Plaza….)

Reply
EMK June 6, 2008 - 10:52 am

Nice rant.

I’m wouldn’t know what the cause of the problem is, but you can take it one step further. I take the #1 train every day to and from work, and what I’m about to describe happens more often than not.

I get down to the Times Square station to find a #2 or #3 express train on the track, but no local. I get on the express and take it all the way to 96th street – hoping to catch up to a local #1 I may have missed minutes before. In between those two stops, we don’t pass ANY local trains. We pull into 96th street and there is a #1 train in the above situation, and it always pulls out before we can transfer. Now, the next local train is 7 stops away and is about to pick up passengers from EVERY local stop between 42nd and 96th (including the major transfer spot at 59th). That train will be crowded and slow. If they held that #1 at 96th street, they could have alleviated train crowds on that late #1.

I could go on about how terrible 96th street is as a stop with only ONE of FOUR entrances open for use now, due to construction, but that would be off-topic.

Reply
The Secret Conductor June 7, 2008 - 4:01 am

lol

yeah, that 2 and 3 train connection to the 1 train at 96 street always annoyed me when I was going uptown.

Allot of why it happens is below, but for the most part, I think its half and half over there. The 1 train can be empty and will pull off and now you are now waiting for a full train that you left at 42nd street when you were on the express train to meet up with you at 96 Street. Many times, I would just get off the train at 42 or 79th if the 1 train was across the platform.

Reply
Kid Twist June 6, 2008 - 11:37 am

At certain stations, dispatchers can hold trains by lighting up three orange bulbs at trackside (the three green bulbs are a starting signal at terminal stations).

But in most locations, the disptachers (and the rest of the MTA don’t control the arrival and departure of the trains). It’s up to the train crew. (If the signal is red, it’s usually because there’s traffic ahead, not because someone is holding the train.)

My understanding is that at rush hours and midday periods, trains are not supposed to stick around for connections. Waiting even 30 seconds delays the line and theoretically, there are plenty of trains so it does not matter if people miss one (ahem). Late at night, train crews are supposed to wait to allow for connections.

I don’t recall where I heard this but I don’t think I invented it. If it seems like one train kept its doors open while you pulled in across the platform, it could be because the conductor was trying to close up and someone was holding the doors.

Maybe some of these conductors shut the doors in people’s faces out of spite, but that’s a whole other issue.

Also, Broadway-Lafayette is an IND station, FWIW.

Reply
Benjamin Kabak June 6, 2008 - 11:40 am

When I say “the MTA” in this post, what I really meant were the workers. I don’t think the word on holding trains comes down from MTAHQ. But the dispatchers and train operators should be a little more lenient when it comes to express/local connections.

Reply
Marc Shepherd June 6, 2008 - 11:53 am

My empirical observations are consistent with what Kid Twist said. During rush hours, they don’t hold for connections. The theory is that it’s more important to keep the line running efficiently, and if you miss a train there normally shouldn’t be more than a 5-minute wait for the next one. So when a train has a green signal, it goes, no matter what is happening on the opposite platform.

During non-rush periods, they generally do wait.

Reply
Todd June 6, 2008 - 4:17 pm

When I say “the MTA” in this post, what I really meant were the workers.

I hate the… Well, you know.

Reply
The Secret Conductor June 7, 2008 - 3:42 am

Ok here goes.

If it is during rush hour also called commission hours, trains are not required to make the transfer for multiple reasons (schedule, traffic, congestion). The only time it is vital to make connections is between 12am (maybe earlier depending on the schedule) and 5:30AM

When I am ahead of schedule, I will wait for a transfer, but if I am not, as soon as the doors clear up, I close them (and sometimes it LOOKS like I am closing the doors just when the other train is about to enter but it is usually just someone still in the door and we would have been gone already if it wasn’t for those individuals).

The conductor is the ones who closes/opens the doors. The train operator moves/stops the train.

Example 1:For those who do not believe that 15-30 seconds wouldn’t make a difference: It does. If I were to keep that up, the train would be about 4 minutes late (and I know because I did it when I first came out of school car all brand new and trying to help everybody out). What I do is that I pick a spot where I will be willing to wait at or if I know that something is going on with the service, I will wait.

Example 2: For those who do not believe trains have congestion problems: It does. If I am on schedule during rush hour and I wait at, say 42nd street for the E (I’m on the A), the train will get filled up with people from the E. Now I go to 59th street and the people their not only had to wait an extra 1 minute (the tower decided to put the D train in front of us because we were late and they were early) but now there are more people waiting for the A at 59th street but the train has more people on it so they don’t fit. I get to 125th street and even MORE people are waiting for the A. Now I have to wait for people to get off and get on and by the time I get to 148th street and I am 4 minutes late.

Example 3: Sometimes the tower holds us to make a connection either using traffic lights or holding lights within the station. At this point sometimes they do take the lights off before the connecting train is totally in the train. Some conductors do close the doors and give the train operator indication to take off, which I think is wrong UNLESS you are behind schedule. If you are behind schedule, you have to make the choice because you are the man on the front line and hopefully you know the train line and how it behaves (unless you are new or a floating conductor of which you should just wait)

That is a rough example. As a conductor, sometimes you just have to make a judgement call. Same as with a bus driver. Allot of people complain about just missing the bus, the bus driver seeing them run up to the bus and even people banging on the side of it, but the bus driver main concern once they close those bus doors are the people IN the bus, the traffic around the bus, and MTA property.

And finally, people always think we see people running up/down stairs, but we don’t always see you MOSTLY because we are actually looking at the train line and trying to see if anybody is stuck in doors, hanging off the train, and other such craziness. In fact there are times I just do not see the train coming on on the other side of the island platform because I am totally focused on what I am doing (which is closing the doors).

I hope that clears some thing up.

Reply
Charles June 7, 2008 - 11:00 pm

it does
nice explanations

Reply

Leave a Comment