The poster at left — click it to enlarge — has gone up through the subway system. It is a rather innocuous warning about the impending winter. Because snow will slow down above-ground and at-grade subway lines, Transit is warning customers now, before it snows, to allow for travel time on service changes when the snows start to fall.
In cars along the BMT Brighton Line — the Q and the B — a similar sign has gone up in recent weeks. This one — available at the end of this post in full — warns of leaves on the tracks. Because much of the line from Prospect Park to Coney Island is in a tree-covered trench, falling leaves tend to create slippery rail conditions. Trains may experience problems braking, and although not frequent, delays may plague the lines as a result.
For Transit, these two signs represent the new face of customer relations. The agency is trying to keep straphangers in the loop about problems that may crop up along popular subway lines. Yet, as Sewell Chan explored, some people simply do not trust the MTA no matter what. In an article on the sign, Chan managed to track down a bunch of riders who accuse the MTA of making excuses for sub-par service.
“Because of leaves?” one rider, Sylis Gordon, asked incredulously on Wednesday as she waited for the Q train at the Parkside Avenue station. “That’s new.” She looked around her, noticing garbage on the tracks, but said, “There aren’t that many leaves.”
Kate Jassin, 29, a doctoral student at the New School who was waiting for the shuttle at the Prospect Park station, exclaimed: “Delays because of leaves? That’s amazing.”
To counter the problem, the transit agency has operated a vacuum train that sucks up leaves and other debris over the tracks once a week, as well as a special rail-adhesion train that applies “a gritty material that helps create some friction between the wheel and the rail” each night, said James E. Leopard, the line general manager for the B and Q and the Franklin Avenue shuttle.
Mr. Leopard said he decided to post the roughly 500 signs — focusing on 14 stations at or below street level, as well as in subway-car windows — starting in the middle of last month. The signs are to be taken down by early next week.
Now, I don’t believe that Ms. Jassin’s and Ms. Gordon’s comments are indicative of any sort of widespread popular opinion. Plus, these two probably know about as much about running a transit system as I do Medieval French literature. But these comments don’t exist in a vacuum: People — riders, customers, advocates — simply do not trust the MTA.
I believe this sense of distrust comes from Albany. It comes about when Carl Kruger blames the MTA for his own mistakes. It comes about when corrupt comptrollers level false charges of bad booking at the agency, and it comes about because our city and state leaders cannot make the commitment to mass transit that the area requires and demands.
The MTA isn’t creating excuses that aren’t there. Leaves, trash, snow, anything outside can get on the tracks and slow down trains. By knowing ahead of time, most rational riders would simply allow a few minutes. But with the MTA, few in New York are rational, and overcoming this PR problem is just as much a solution toward public acceptance and support as finding $200 million to cover an unexpected budget gap is.
Click through for a full view of the leaves poster.
10 comments
I like these signs because I like it when common sense is encouraged. It’s one of the most important kinds of senses.
It’s great to see that the MTA is finally seeing it that way, because its biggest and largest advocate should be its ridership, who not only fights fare hikes, but fights the right people over fare hikes – Albany not the MTA. If the MTA can get louder, more common, irrational riders to finally see the value in the system and the value in fighting for it rather than against it, so much the better. Now if only we can get the MBTA in Boston to do a PR campaign like this…
I think it’s a good that they’re trying to reach out to the riders, but the sign is a bit confusing to me. The first column says “Service… may run local” (italics are theirs), but the middle says “Service will change…” (underline is mine) starting with a G-line suspension. Will change when? When temperatures are low? When leaves fall? All winter? Again: good idea, sub-par implementation.
Leaves falling on the tracks are a real and chronic problem for many commuter railroads in the fall. The leaves get crushed by the wheels and leave an oily residue on the tracks. Braking trains skid on the oil, which not only causes them to overrun their stops, but it flattens part of the wheels. They then need to be taken out of service for repair. (see here . I wonder if NYCT conferred with LIRR on this.
But you’re right, people are under the misapprehension that the MTA are a bunch of crooks, and also that the Mayor is responsible for the health of the MTA. This is why, as I mentioned in a comment earlier this week, the MTA needs to go on the offensive. We saw something like that in February, but I’d really like to see some fingers pointed towards Albany.
On an unrelated note, has anyone been to the LIRR part of Atlantic Terminal (Flatbush-Atlantic-Pacific, depending on your train) lately? They finally took down the blue plywood that’s been up for the 3+ years I’ve used the station — it looks really nice (and there’s daylight underground!). If my cameraphone wasn’t so lousy, I’d snap some photos and send them to Ben.
I can understand why bad weather and leaves could cause problems with service, delaying the trains and increasing travel times.
I don’t understand why leaves being on the tracks or winter weather in general mean trains have to run local or stop running earlier or not run in certain hours. Especially in areas that are entirely underground. The local tracks are immune from these problems, but the express tracks are more prone to them? What? Why would an uptown 3 train ever need to run local in Manhattan because of winter weather? The connection isn’t apparent to the average rider, so it sounds like BS.
It’s because the MTA stores their rolling stock underground on the express tracks during snow, ice, or extreme cold to protect them from frozen debris and freezing hydraulic lines.
It would be nice if they had explained that in sign. Sometimes a more detailed explanation helps.
And I thought it had to do with trains being taken out of service for repairs (better taking out an express than a local, so all stations are served). But your explanation makes more sense.
And yet, this doesn’t do anything to help riders like myself on Wednesday who waited from 8:15 on as two consecutive F trains went through the East Broadway station over a 15 minute period without stopping. Now if someone could explain that..
Great. Yet another excuse to suspend G service between Court Sq and Forest Hills. ;P
How is there ice in an underground tunnel? ;D
Haha, now wait a minute, I feel the need to defend myself. I spoke to the reporter for 5 whole minutes and those are the 6 words they chose to publish. To be honest, I simply exclaimed that because I found it hilarious that I was approached by a reporter on a subway platform and asked what I thought about the delays because of leaves on the tracks. I actually told her I hadn’t noticed any delays or any of the signs. Are we cool?