Comments on: Daily News: The MTA’s Doomsday scenario

By: MTA’s Self-Fulfilling Prophecy « Duncan Writes!

MTA’s Self-Fulfilling Prophecy « Duncan Writes! — Sun, 24 May 2009 18:23:42 +0000

[...] 0 Comments Tags: blog, budget crisis, mta I’m not an expert on MTA business, but perhaps cutting service and making riding transit less appealing might *not* be the right strategy for saving a system that [...]

By: count Z

count Z — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:30:31 +0000

Think of how the 7 and 6 pairs work. You could apply that service model to create a 1 pair, peak direction only.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:56:19 +0000

We had the Franklin vs. Canal debate on Straphangers, too. They have basically the same ridership – as of 2007 Franklin is a bit higher, and if I remember correctly the 2006 data said Canal was a bit higher. I argued for keeping Canal because Franklin is very close to Chambers while Canal isn’t very close to Houston, and because there’s a better chance Canal will get gentrified, for example if Chinatown keeps expanding.

But overall you’re right – station closures won’t really reduce spending by much.

By: Marc Shepherd

Marc Shepherd — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:26:03 +0000

Yeah, that’s basically the issue. There’s no point incurring the community wrath to close a station when you’re not actually saving very much by doing so. If they were building the 7th Avenue Line today, the stations would be farther apart, but closing them now doesn’t make any meaningful dent in the deficit.

Franklin Street, by the way, does not have low ridership; it is about average, and indeed, higher than Canal.

By: Marc Shepherd

Marc Shepherd — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:11:09 +0000

People do travel in the reverse-peak direction. The idea here is to save money sensibly, not just to use tracks mindlessly because they happen to be there.

By: Second Ave. Sagas | A New York City Subway Blog » Blog Archive » » The fare side of the Doomsday scenario

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:13:07 +0000

[...] 2nd Ave. Subway History « Daily News: The MTA’s Doomsday scenario [...]

By: herenthere

herenthere — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:35:34 +0000

Maybe I should write a letter to the editor of the DN that it is not the MTA to blame, rather the politicians who voted (or not at all) against congestion pricing.

By: count Z

count Z — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:31:34 +0000

Why not shift some local trains to the unused express tracks on some lines without actually increasing the number of trains? You could potentially shift from local to peak-direction express on the 1 above 96th, the D below 36th, and the 2 and 5 above 149th, not to mention those infernal F express tracks. That would mean lower operating costs for the MTA– you’d reduce the run time of some of the slower trains, reducing labor costs as well as making it faster to get downtown. (I got the idea from Caltrain in San Francisco, which took a huge chunk out of their operating costs by shifting most of their rush-hour local service to run express end-to-end.)

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:45:17 +0000

It doesn’t. It might speed things up a bit, but the 1 travels through fairly sketchy areas between 14th and Chambers. Manhattan outside Midtown proper is surprisingly deserted late at night – past about 9, even Broadway is dead south of 34th.

There might be a good argument for axing Franklin, which has low ridership and is very close to both Canal and Chambers, and possibly 18th, but beyond that, there’s nothing in Manhattan. We had a discussion about this on the Straphangers forums a while ago – there were people arguing for closing the above two stations, plus Hunterspoint Avenue on the 7, Beverley on the Q, and a few more I don’t remember.

By: Benjamin Kabak

Benjamin Kabak — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:02:16 +0000

I was thinking more along the lines of the Franklin-Houston-Canal-Christopher quartet and then 14-18-23-28 quartet. It’s ridiculous to think that between 34th St and Chambers St, there are 10 stops inclusive of the two end points.

I don’t think closing the one or two stations I would axe, though, really saves much in the way of money.