Before I went to sleep last night and before the 19 inches of snow stopped falling, the MTA started to cancel services. Buses went first, followed by the above-ground shuttle routes and finally the Q train between Prospect Park and Stillwell Ave. Transit didn’t have to shut down the A train across Broad Channel or the N or D trains in the open-air parts of their routes in Brooklyn, but the authority was prepared to if necessary.
What we saw happen last night was part of the MTA’s new approach to blizzard-like conditions. As amNew York’s Theresa Juva details, the agency is working to establish a new Level V plan that would involve preemptively shutting down services before the storm becomes a major issue. It’s a way to ensure that people don’t get stranded. “It’s planning for extreme storms in which suspension of service or suspension of some services may be required,” MTA Chair and CEO Jay Walder said. It is, of course, far, far better to be safe than sorry.
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Regular trains were used to plow the snow in the past. Is Walder saying that practice is being discontinued? If it is, the MTA should consider funding more snow plow trains. (NYers will expect close-to-normal service in winter conditions. It never sleeps! Also, if not using the revenue trains to plow snow increases their longevity, I’m for that.)
“It’s a way to ensure that people don’t get stranded.”
Except if people get stranded by the cuts.
Leaving people unable to get where they want to go is very different from trapping them on a train.
And if service continues until people are trapped, then the line still has to shut down, but the snow removal equipment can’t get through. That means it’s a lot harder to get the line back up and running.
Your other story indicates that there was no service out of Stillwell for much of the night – that means the F and N and D as well as the Q. And I got email alerts about the A in the Rockaways.
I was awake until 4:50 am this morning and I can tell you for a fact, according to the MTA website, not one train was serving Stillwell Avenue. No F trains past Church, no Q trains past Prospect Park, No N trains past 59th and D trains were cut short as well, I just don’t remember where they terminated service. Because of switching problems no A trains were running on the entire length of the Rockaways from Euclid. No 5 trains past 180th.
While all this was taking place I knew schools would be closed but I thought it was more appropriate if Bloomberg would declare so around 10:30 the previous night so that people can have some level of certainty in planning their move for the next day as opposed to panicking at the last minute when you wake up. I got home at 8:30 the previous night right around the time when the weather was changing over from sleet to pure snow. I dusted a chunk of snow off of my completely covered car and it took just two hours for that spot to be completely covered as if I never even touched the car. So yes by 10:30 things were bad and not to mention the thunder and lightning that came with the package just like the 12/26/10 storm. I don’t have a problem with the city’s response, but I do have a problem with when you’re actually watching this time and you don’t read the warning signs from the storm itself.
Capt’ Obvious was written all over this one.
If the snow had died down by midnight, I don’t think there would have been major problems during the AM rush, at least for the trains.
The problem is that the heavy snow kept falling well into the night.
And that’s my point. The forcast called for it to continue as such through the night. If by 10:30 you had continued snow and the NWS calls for a winter storm (not watch) until 6 am, then that advice should be taken seriously.
The forecasts I saw – earlier in the day, not at 10:30 – called for 6-8 inches. Had that been upgraded by 10:30? If so, I agree with you.