Every Friday, when NYC Transit sends out the weekend service advisories, the press release always discusses the agency’s $10 billion capital improvement plan. Yesterday, Infrastructurist ran a piece on China’s transit investment plan.
Outside of New York, the U.S. is hardly committed to transit, and here’s Jebediah Reed’s take on it:
As of March 31, China has committed $259 billion to the project, and plans to spend nearly a half trillion dollars more in the next three years, boosting the total investment to $730 billion by 2012…The US–a country with a per capita GDP about 16 times that of China–has set rail as a national priority and has committed… $13 billion. Or, about 2 percent as much in China. This, of course, is in a place where it costs a hell of a lot more to get anything done.
“Why, oh, why,” he asks, “do we have such difficulty approaching serious projects with the required seriousness in this country?”
The discussion on Infrastructurist moves into the comments, and it is, of course, enlightening. China’s approach to everything — politics, governing, investment, society — is far different from ours. Yet, China has the right idea in investing in a legitimate national rail network. If they can do it, so can we.
Anyway, just something to think about for Memorial Day weekend. I’ll be back with new content on Tuesday morning unless I got inspired during the long weekend. In the meantime, let’s get to the service advisories.
A few notes: The subways will run on a Sunday schedule on Memorial Day Monday. That means, for example, no B, V and W trains, among others. Pay attention the service advisories. Some run only through Monday morning and others encompass Memorial Day.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 23 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 25, Bronx-bound 25 trains run express from 3rd Avenue-149th Street to East 180th Street due to cable installation near East 180th Street.
From 4 a.m. Saturday, May 23 to 10 p.m. Sunday, May 24, 3 trains run in two sections due to track panel installation:
* Between 148th Street and Crown Heights-Utica Avenue and
* Between Crown Heights-Utica Avenue and News Lots Avenue (runs every 20 minutes)
From 4 a.m. Saturday, May 23 to 10 p.m. Sunday, May 24, there are no 4 trains between Crown Heights-Utica Avenue and New Lots Avenue due to track panel installation. Customers may take the 3 instead.
From 5 a.m. to 12 noon Sunday, May 24, there are no 5 trains between 149th-Grand Concourse and East 180th Streets due to rail repair. Customers may take the 2 instead.
From 4 a.m. Saturday, May 23 to 10 p.m. Sunday, May 24, the last stop for some Bronx-bound 6 trains is 3rd Avenue-138th Street due to track panel installation between Morrison-Sound View Avenues and St. Lawrence Avenue.
From 4 a.m. Saturday, May 23 to 10 p.m. Sunday, May 24, Bronx-bound 6 trains run express from Hunts Point Avenue to Parkchester due to track panel installation between Morrison-Sound View Avenues and St. Lawrence Avenue.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 23, to 5 a.m. Monday, May 25, Bronx-bound 6 trains run express from 3rd Avenue to Hunts Point Avenue due to platform edge rehabilitation at Cypress Avenue, East 143rd Street, East 149th Street and Longwood Avenue stations.
From 4 a.m. Saturday, May 23 to 10 p.m. Sunday, May 24, Manhattan-bound 7 trains run express from Willets Point to Queensboro Plaza due to track panel installation.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 23 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, May 26, A trains run local between 168th Street and Euclid Avenue due to switch renewal south of West 4th Street.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 23, to 5 a.m. Tuesday, May 26, there are no C trains running due to switch renewal south of West 4th Street. Customers should take the A instead.
From 4 a.m. Saturday, May 23 to 10 p.m. Sunday, May 24, Manhattan-bound D trains run on the N line from Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue to 36th Street (Brooklyn) due to work at the 38th Street Yard.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 23, to 5 a.m. Tuesday, May 26, Brooklyn-bound D trains run local from 34th Street-Herald Square to West 4th Street due to switch renewal south of West 4th Street.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, May 22, to 5 a.m. Monday, May 25, free shuttle buses replace trains between Norwood-205th Street and Bedford Park Blvd. due to a track chip out north of Bedford Park Boulevard.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, May 22 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, May 26, Manhattan-bound EF trains run local from Forest Hills-71st Avenue to Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue to due to a track chip out north of Grand Avenue.
From 12:30 a.m. Saturday, May 23 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, May 26, Jamaica-bound EF trains run local from Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue to Forest Hills-71st Avenue due to a track chip out north of Grand Avenue.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 23 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, May 26, Brooklyn-bound F trains run on the E line from Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue to 42nd Street-8th Avenue, then on the A line to Jay Street. This is due to switch renewal south of West 4th Street and the Broadway-Lafayette to Bleecker Street transfer connection.
From 8:30 p.m. Friday, May 22 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, May 26, there is no G train service between Forest Hills-71st Avenue and Court Square. Trains run every 20 minutes between Court Square and Smith-9th Streets. Customers should take the E or R instead.
From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 23 and Sunday, May 24, Manhattan-bound J trains skip Flushing Avenue, Lorimer and Hewes Streets due to rail replacement at Gates Avenue.
From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday, May 24, uptown N trains skip 49th Street (Manhattan) due to track cleaning. – It’s like a trip to the dentist!
From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Saturday, May 23, uptown N trains skip Prince, 8th, 23rd, and 28th Streets due to track cleaning.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 23 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 25, N trains run local between Pacific Street and 59th Street (Brooklyn) due to subway tunnel rehabilitation.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 23 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 25, Brooklyn-bound NR trains are rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge between Canal Street and DeKalb Avenue due to subway tunnel rehabilitation. Customers may take the 4 at nearby stations.
From 12:30 a.m. Saturday, May 23 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, May 26, R trains are extended to the Jamaica-179th Street F station due to a track chip out north of Grand Avenue.
From 6:30 a.m. Saturday, May 23 to 7 p.m. Sunday, May 24, there is no Franklin Avenue Shuttle service between Franklin Avenue and Prospect Park due to rail repair. Free shuttle buses provide alternate service.
14 comments
“If they can do it, so can we.”
Oh but I disagree. There are little – if any – labor laws, plus a centralized economy and politics means funding is alot easier. It’s far from an apples to apples comparison where the average construction person makes a few dollars a day, with no environment laws or restrictions. The China approach may be right but there is comparison here.
I’d take your analogy further…China’s current construction standards and worker safety standards today are closer to the U.S. circa 1909, than the U.S. circa 2009.
I won’t say that lax safety standards were the main reason for the rapid construction of the original IRT subway lines, but I will say that this was a contributing factor.
I’m not talking about expansion from a labor law perspective though. I’m talking about dollar investments. We invest so much into highway spending. If we invested this much into rail, people could just leave their cars at home over vast differences. It’s simply a matter of will.
I wonder what they could possibly be doing to the tracks leading to the 38th Street yard on the West End line. It looks like a lot of destruction so far.
They ought to do away with the EIS process for green projects. There’s a great article that shows that for every dollar spent on transit 3 dollars come into the city in the form of jobs. So technically we should have 30 billion dollars flowing into the city after this stuff is finished.
First off, I support increased spending on mass transit infrastructure here.
Secondly, China’s current steps to expand its rail system is just like how the U.S. expanded rail service back then…1800s? They want to connect their major cities and industrial areas, just like the U.S. did. Only major difference is that they are taking advantage of technological advances AND the Chinese gov’t is taking a central role in these projects instead of letting it go into the hands of private enterprises such as the rail monopolies back then.
So it isn’t that the U.S. is not spending its money on rail, but that it’s China’s turn in history to delve into rail networks.
Except that China already HAS a rail network. The new spending is for high-speed rail.
I wonder what a “track chip out” is. And why it’s causing the R to traverse the region of said “chip out” overnight rather than being it’s usual stubby shuttle. Guess I’ll find out later when I attempt to take it home.
A track chip out is when they take up the tracks and chip out all of the concrete road bed to completely replace it.
Interesting, thanks. And yeah, the R was the usual Shuttle last night–yay, a combined forty minutes of waiting for the N and the R…. I have no idea what they were talking about with this “extended to the Jamaica-179th Street F station” silliness, unless it was running in two parts.
The R is extended to Jamaica during the time it would normally run to Forest Hills only (not overnight).
Yeah–they could have made that a little clearer.
They ought to do away with the EIS process for green projects. There’s a great article that shows that for every dollar spent on transit 3 dollars come into the city in the form of jobs. So technically we should have 30 billion dollars flowing into the city after this stuff is finished.
The Mta should clean the Canal St Station on the N/Q lines because it is really dirty.