Home Service Advisories Transit readies 6th Ave. for a FASTRACK treatment

Transit readies 6th Ave. for a FASTRACK treatment

by Benjamin Kabak

The FASTRACK express heads to 6th Ave. on Monday night, and Transit has laid out the week’s service closures. From 10 p.m.-5 a.m. each night beginning on the evening of Monday, February 27 and ending in the morning on Friday, March 2, there will be no service along 6th Ave. between 57th St. and West 4th St. in both directions. Here’s how service will operate instead:

  • D trains are rerouted and operate in two sections:
    • D trains will operate between 205th Street and 59th Street-Columbus Circle, then via the C line between 59th Street-Columbus Circle and West 4th Street, then via the F line between West 4th Street and 2nd Avenue, the last stop.
    • D trains will operate between Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue and 36th Street in Brooklyn, then via the R line between 36th Street and Whitehall Street in Lower Manhattan, the last stop.
  • F trains operate via the E line between Roosevelt Avenue and West 4th Street in both directions. For service to Lexington Avenue/63rd Street, Roosevelt Island and 21st Street-Queensbridge, customers should take the Q. Q service will be extended to 21st Street-Queensbridge via the F line after 57th Street-7th Avenue.
  • Manhattan-bound B and M service in Brooklyn and Queens ends at 9:30 p.m. Service in Manhattan is available until 10 p.m.
  • Free Shuttle buses provide connecting service between the Grand Street D station and both the Canal Street N/Q/R/6 and Broadway-Lafayette D/F stations.

With the various routes along 6th Ave. branching off to numerous locales both north and south of Manhattan’s so-called Central Business District, this is a tricky FASTRACK to run, but things seem to make sense. F trains will run via the E until West 4th St. before heading into Brooklyn, but any D trips from Manhattan to Brooklyn require a pair of transfers. I’d say anyone needing a D train late at night next week is better off finding a different route if possible.

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16 comments

AlexB February 23, 2012 - 7:56 pm

Seems dumb/shortsighted that a switch from the 6th ave local to the express between W 4th and Broadway Lafayette was not constructed when the Chrystie St Connection was built. If they had done so, the D only would have been rerouted between Columbus Circle and W 4th, similar to the F. How hard is it to built a track switch now?

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Andrew February 23, 2012 - 10:28 pm

There are structural columns in the way.

There used to be a diamond crossover south of Broadway-Lafayette, but it had to be removed to make way for Chrystie St. The northbound crossover has always been north of the station, so it wasn’t in the way.

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The Cobalt Devil February 23, 2012 - 9:05 pm

Crossing my fingers that they hose the piss smell off the Sixth Ave line platforms. For some reason they are ALWAYS the pissiest smelling platforms in the entire system.

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John February 23, 2012 - 10:22 pm

Jamaica Van-Wyck, Sutphin Blvd-JFK, and Jamaica Center are very close competitors.

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Alex C February 23, 2012 - 11:21 pm

23 St southbound could definitely use some cleaning. Smells like a sewer on most days.

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Frank B. February 24, 2012 - 12:18 am

It seems that this FASTTRACK work quite literally is very fast. Is this honestly a major significant piece of progress, or is the MTA vastly overblowing the benefits of FASTTRACK as a PR move?

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Alek February 24, 2012 - 9:03 am

Did you notice that they will reroute the “Q” to 21st-Queensbridge? OLD SCHOOL Q LINE! As for the D I don’t understand why can’t the D go back to normal after West 4th? Is this issue related to the switch?

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TP February 24, 2012 - 9:21 am

And is the D running local above 59th Street? It’s not mentioned anywhere but it looks like it on this pdf: http://advisory.mtanyct.info/p.....CK_map.pdf

Note that 72nd, 81st, and 86th on the map say “C-D.” The D usually never stops there, even during late nights. It looks like it’d be more accurate to state that the D is running on the C line between… I don’t know, 145th and West 4th? If it’s running local above 59th, it’s not running as a D, ’cause D never makes local stops above 59th. Only the C does.

The train running local really adds to travel times beyond the closed section. The MTA never seems to care about randomly running things local though.

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Benjamin Kabak February 24, 2012 - 9:24 am

My assumption is that the D is running local north of 59th St. just as it is running local south of DeKalb next week. You’d be surprised though at how little time running local actually adds to a trip.

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pea-jay February 24, 2012 - 10:41 am

Why didn’t the MTA just swap the D and the F routing in Brooklyn? Send the F over the broadway line and the Manhattan Bridge and have it pick up all the D stops. Have the D go down 8th Ave to Metrotech and then hit all F stops in BK. both the D and F have Coney Island terminals and Brooklyn re-routes from Coney aren’t that uncommon. This way all Sixth Ave stations and track could be hit this fast track

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TP February 24, 2012 - 9:33 am

It adds 4 minutes between 59th and 125th, assuming no idiots are holding the doors. That’s 4 minutes earlier I could be in bed.

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Brian February 24, 2012 - 2:24 pm

This line confuses me. “Manhattan-bound B and M service in Brooklyn and Queens ends at 9:30 p.m. Service in Manhattan is available until 10 p.m.” Where3 do those b and m trains go they cant just stay in Mnahttan, their respective terminals are in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.

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Benjamin Kabak February 24, 2012 - 2:26 pm

Last trains leave their terminals at 9:30.

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Al R. February 26, 2012 - 1:02 pm

Actually, the A is going to run express during the entire Fastrack. That’s why the D is running local on CPW. The C runs local on CPW then switches to the express tracks north of 59 Street-CC until midnight.

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Andrew February 26, 2012 - 4:55 pm

Why do you say that “any D trips from Manhattan to Brooklyn require a pair of transfers”? Most lines in Manhattan connect directly with the south D – the 1 at South Ferry/Whitehall, the 2 and 4 at Borough Hall/Court and Atlantic/Pacific, the A/F at Jay/MetroTech, and the N/Q at Atlantic/Pacific.

The north D and south D don’t connect directly, but how many people need that connection?

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Nathanael March 1, 2012 - 6:39 pm

It is clear that the reundancy of the IND is very helpful for doing stuff like this.

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