When the MTA unveils something new, the Transit Fan in me totally geeks out. That’s what happened this week when I arrived back home in New York after my trip out west. I saw one of these posters (at right) announcing the service changes.
Now, every week these posters pop up, and most people have come to know and trust the old ones. A white background, some black letters and a red stripe would announce the change.
But no more! The new posters are colorful and, supposedly, more informative. Now we have a blue band at the top proclaiming “Service Changes.” We have a smaller, orange band telling us that it’s a weekend change. And then we have the text of the service alert as black text on a salmon background. The familiar black band of the MTA is on the bottom.
Now, while the MTA website in some places still refers us to the black and white posters, the new ones are here to stay. These new posters are intended to be easier to follow. The question, “How does this affect my trip?” provides a summary of ways to get to your destination in spite of this service changes.
I’m less thrilled, however, with the next section. “Why is my service being changed?” the poster demands to know. Well, on every poster I’ve seen so far, the answer is always the same: “We are performing XXX work to make sure that subways continue to operate safely along the X line.” Well, thanks. Good to know the MTA is making sure the subways are continuing to operate safely. And here I am, thinking that these service changes were in place simply to mess with tourists who don’t really know where they’re going anyway.
I still wish these posters had colors to match their subway lines. The posters for the West Side IRT should have red subway bullets; the one’s for the IND and BMT should have blue or orange bullets, depending upon the line in question. But for now, these new posters will work.
With that in mind, here are your service changes for the weekend. The highlights:
- Shuttle buses on the L past Lorimer St.
- Weekend Manhattan-bound N trains are going over the Manhattan Bridge until Monday when the N will run along the R at all times for a few weeks.
- Brooklyn-bound Q trains running on the R over the weekend.
- West Side IRT express trains are running local.
Enjoy the weekend.
7 comments
Quick thought on the color coordination you mentioned. If it was color coordinated and then you have something like the __ running local on the __ lines (being different colored lines, like the 4 and 1 or something) then what color would you use? Could get confusing.
You should have a look at the weekly press release explaining the weekend service diversions (see http://www.mta.info/mta/news/releases/). For each diversion, they are pretty specific about exactly what is being worked on.
If they can put it in a press release, I don’t know why they can’t put it on a sign. I agree that “We are performing XXX work to make sure that subways continue to operate safely along the X line.” isn’t very illuminating.
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