A draft of a proposed sign that the MTA will post in buses starting early this month. (Courtesy of the MTA)
With June upon us, the countdown to the service cuts has begun. Although some U.S. Senators are trying to secure $2 billion in aid for cash-starved transit systems, the MTA knows that money is not likely to come soon, and the authority has to move ahead with its cuts.
Rarely in New York City history has the MTA implemented service changes as immediate and sweeping as though on tap for the end of June, and while we explored the changes to the subway map on Friday, the entire bus and subway systems must be reconfigured for the new service patterns. At its board meeting last week, the MTA unveiled its Service Reduction Implementation Plan (PDF). The changes are extensive.
As the W and V meet their deaths, as the Q replaces the W north of 57th St., and as the M takes over the V’s Sixth Ave. route to Forest Hills, the MTA must begin to pepper stations with signs such as the one shown at right. These signs will begin to appear in fare-control areas at all impacted stations by mid-June. Transit will also blanket stations with audio announcements and distribute pamphlets with the new route information. Despite this coverage, confused straphangers will still blame the MTA when the M mysteriously arrives at 63rd Drive in Rego Park on June 29.
At over 150 stations currently served by the G, M, N, Q, V and W trains, the MTA will have to change it signage. Nearly 3000 graphics explaining service patterns will be stickered over or completely rewritten. Some of these edits will be made early this month before the service changes go into effect, and for a few weeks, the system will appear to be in a state of flux as trains arrive where the signs say they shouldn’t and terminate ostensibly too early.
The rolling stock too presents a challenge. Along the BMT Broadway, Sixth Ave. and Queens Boulevard lines, the newest train cars will have to be reprogrammed, and the automated announcements will be updated. The FIND displays in the R160s will be changed automatically on June 27, but for the R143s, the strip maps will be edited with stickers. Conductors too will handed a new script. For what it’s worth, the M up Sixth Ave. will have the new R160 cars. Customers along those stops will have to adjust to shorter trains.
For buses, the changes too will lead to visible alterations. The MTA is eliminating 21 local and 12 express buses with weekend service eliminated on 12 local and two additional express bus routes. Routes will be changed, and service frequency will be scaled back for 39 other routes.
To inform customers of these changes, signs such as that atop this post will adorn buses and audio announcements will be played on endangered routes. The map will change, and new timetables will be published in late June. It is an ambitious rollout plan, to say the least, and for the next 27 days, Transit employees will have their hands full.
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An early-morning TV appearance
On a semi-related note, I’ll be appearing this morning on FOX 5’s Good Day, New York to talk about the upcoming service cuts. The segment will air live at at 8:15 a.m., and the questions will involve the Public Transportation Preservation Act of 2010 and whether or not Congress will be able to act in time to prevent the MTA from implementing these cuts. If you’re up early, be sure to check it out.
16 comments
A skinny variant of the top sign has graced many stops near my Bay Ridge home for weeks, but I suspect that few riders are paying much attention to the notices with their vast list of routes and changes and the tiny text. The mayhem which the agency is hoping to avoid will take place as expected.
so if the M line goes to 6th ave what train is gonna run in its place towards myrtle ave?
No, the M is going to run from Myrtle to 6th Avenue. The Chrystie Street Connection allows trains to get from the Williamsburg Bridge to the local 6th Avenue tracks.
What will be cut is the M service in Brooklyn, meaning that people in Boro Park, Sunset Park and Park Slope see less service.
Whilst Williamsburg and Bushwick will have the same of better service because those riders will now have direct access to Midtown as well as Downtown. This should help out the L as well.
Except for those poor souls who connect to the local Broadway stations (i.e. who transfer from the G) and who want to go downtown. This will now involve yet another transfer.
If you want to get from the G to Lower Manhattan, you’d be better off transferring to the A/C in Downtown Brooklyn.
My guess is that the V Train as we know it will never return. When and if the MTA wants to provide more service along the West End Line in Brooklyn, it will do so by extending the J, not by restoring the M Train to its current route.
Or by reintroducing the W (which has to happen for Second Avenue) and extending it into Brooklyn.
Actually, we don’t know if it has to happen.
For a long time, Astoria was served only by the N. (Before that, the R. Before THAT, the RR.)
How do we know if the Q will be replaced by another line in Astoria when it starts running to 96 St./Second Ave.?
Fair enough. If Astoria ridership drops precipitously, then the N alone will suffice. But if you look at loadings on the N and W today, you will see that, at current loadings, both routes are very crowded.
Or service could be increased on the entire N, but that would be difficult operationally (through the DeKalb area, primarily) and would overserve the Sea Beach line. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have some N’s drop out at Whitehall? And why not give them a different letter, like W?
It is also interesting that the M will have fewer cars than the V which will mean more crowded trains on Queens Blvd.
The Manhattan description of bus route changes is they type of sign that should have been displayed before the hearings. The signs that were posted were totally deficient in terms of adequately describing the changes to be understandable, which is why many were caught by surprise to learn afterward they were losing their bus route.
will the R now get more of the R160’s that were used for the W?
Looking good in that suit on Fox.
And don’t forget that the only one of these changes that will DEFINITELY not be permanent is the Q running to Astoria, because the Second Avenue Subway construction is finally past the point of no return.