Home Service Advisories FASTRACK arrives in Washington Heights tonight

FASTRACK arrives in Washington Heights tonight

by Benjamin Kabak

Screen Shot 2013-02-25 at 9.44.47 PM

You can take the A if you want to get to Harlem, but from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. each night this week, you can’t take the A train to get to Inwood. FASTRACK arrives shortly in upper Manhattan, and the A train won’t operate north of 168th Street.

This one’s pretty easy: Take the 1 train to nearby stations or take the M4 bus for direct service to the A train stations. Next up is an overnight closure on the IND from 53rd St. to Roosevelt Ave., but that’s not until mid-March.

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11 comments

Jeff February 25, 2013 - 10:52 pm

Disappointing that the MTA didn’t also give the bus options on Broadway (M100, Bx7, M5 until GWB Bus Terminal).

Also, unless the M4 route was changed for this GO, the map is wrong – going Northbound, the M4 runs West on 165th from Broadway to Fort Washington and Southbound it runs South on Fort Washington until it intersects Broadway at about 158th St.

Hopefully no one gets lost because of this.

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Rico February 26, 2013 - 8:54 am

MTA has always, in the past, provided a shuttle to the stations at 175th, 181st, and 190th when service on the A line is shut down north of 168th. The 1 line does not provide an alternative, as there is a steep cliff and no east-west through streets between the A and the 1 through most of the corridor. When did MTA start doing service reductions without notice or hearing? Jeff is correct about the M4 route; it does not make a close connection with the A. Also, the M4 does not run between 1:00 AM and 5:00 AM.

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Alek February 25, 2013 - 10:55 pm

The Queens Blvd Fastrack is so mysterious to many of transit fans. Everybody is tossing over about what the MTA’s plan on the Queens Blvd Fastrack. We will find out in March possiblity the first week of March.

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Frank B February 26, 2013 - 12:01 am

That’s going to be an absolute nightmare; while certain lines in The Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn parallel one another, really nothing parallels Queens Blvd; If you’re in Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, or Woodside, then you’ve got the LIRR; the 7 train will replicate service to some extent; I imagine most will simply take the IRT to Jackson Heights and transfer, but otherwise its going to be an egregiously bad nightmare; you’ll get a taste of how bad things would’ve been for Queens had the IND never been built.

That being said, I’m happy FastTrack is coming to Queens. The IND needs a little sprucing up.

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Someone February 26, 2013 - 7:56 am

That being said, let me just say that had the Second System been built, things would have been better were a Fastrack to happen.

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John-2 February 25, 2013 - 11:04 pm

I suppose it’s also worth noting the 1 has its own overnight shutdown at the other end of the line apparently to sledgehammer out a new, wider entrance at the front of old South Ferry, to access the new mezz and R transfer. Get those ADA waivers ready.

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Someone February 26, 2013 - 7:55 am

Site: “There is no advisory scheduled for the selected date and route.”

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John-2 February 26, 2013 - 8:58 am

Since I used the 2/25/13 date to pop up the advisory, the page changed after we hit 2/26. The service advisory was no 1 train service to Rector last night, and 1 trains ran express from 14th to Chambers and terminated on the express tracks, so work could be done in the loop.

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D in B February 26, 2013 - 11:06 am

These updates are helpful but it would be interesting to know what type of work the MTA is doing on these various Fastrack projects.

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Benjamin Kabak February 26, 2013 - 11:10 am

The MTA will post a summary of results off of this page at some point this week. It’s honestly fairly boring work. Past FASTRACK work has included the following:

Track – Generated 9,733 bags of debris, removed 31,800 pounds of scrap and debris, scraped and cleaned 10,415 linear feet of track, replaced 68 tie blocks, installed 1,205 plates, 32 running rails, 1,579 friction pads. Generated 14,550 pounds of scrap debris.

Third Rail Operations – Cleared 2,534 identified defects, scraped and cleaned 9,350 feet of track under and around the third rail.

Signals – Serviced six signals, 14 switches, painted signal cases, signal heads and insulated joints, supported Track Department on rail jobs.

Infrastructure – Installed 510 linear feet of handrail and150 linear feet of no clearance signs, cleaned 2,000 linear feet of no clearance signs and cleaned 1,400 linear feet of track drain, sound and tap 290 square feet, repaired 90 square feet of benchwall, maintained seven pump rooms and sealed 22 leaks.

EMD – Optimized pictures on monitors and cameras at Whitehall St, City Hall, Canal St and 23 St Stations and completed inspections and testing of all public address system equipment.

Station Environment – Replaced 24 platform edge, 37 way-finding directional and seven handicap signs, 1,088 tunnel lights and 1,260 station lights, repaired 240 linear feet of rubbing board, scraped 22,550 square feet of paintable station surface area and painted 22,100 square feet of paintable station surface area.

That’s what they did, for instance, along the Broadway line a few weeks ago.

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SubwayNut February 26, 2013 - 11:54 pm

I live in Washington Heights and just got home, FastTracked. The service advisory the MTA totally blotched. It wasn’t the M4 I took up Fort Washington Avenue but a normal shuttle bus that said A Train to 190th Street on the destination signs (like they’ve run when the line has been closed in the past) and stopped in front of the station at 168th Street and St. Nicolas Avenue, not at the nearest M4 stop a block away at 168th Street and Fort Washington Avenue. The supervisor/employee at the stop outside when I asked “Is the M4 stopping here?” Said its not the M4 but “It’s a Shuttle Bus, all the signs are wrong.” There were also no signs inside the station (I was actually getting off the 1 train) directing me to the shuttle bus (like there usually are) and had to ask employees confused if I had to walk the block to Fort Washington Avenue (really walking home and looking for the M4, got used to it after Sandy) to catch the M4 at its usual stop. None of the stops had the normal shuttle bus signs either.

This experience was totally different from this weekend when I had to go to the Bronx and ended up on the Shuttle bus from 149th Street-GC to 3 Ave-149 Street (replacing the 2 train) and there were almost too many signs, the walls of the transfer stations were plastered with them.

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