I appeared on NBC New York with Chuck Scarborough last night to discuss the line segment closure plan.
When word leaked out on Sunday night of a looming Transit plan to engage in partial line-segment shutdowns to speed up necessary track work, straphangers wondered if this would be the end of the 24/7 subway system as we know it. A day later and with an official MTA presentation on the books, we have a better sense of what this means for late-night weekday subway riders. It’s not great news for that relatively small group of riders, but it could mean fewer weekend headaches for the rest of us.
First, Transit addressed the rational behind the plan. Noting that 82 percent of the recent increase of subway service has occurred during off-peak and weekend hours, Transit now recognizes that it can no longer use those times to load up on disruptive work. It’s time, Transit officials said, to get creative.
“We are one of the few transit systems that operate around the clock, so it’s always a challenge to find time to do work on the tracks, especially with ridership up on weekends and overnight,” MTA New York City Transit President Tom Prendergast said. “Closing segments of lines so that we can get in and get the work done quickly benefits everyone. It’s safer for workers, less disruptive for riders and gets projects done more quickly for everyone.”
Just how much quicker the project get done will determine the future of this pilot, and it’s important to note that this project has two distinct components. The first involves partial line segment closures. These are set to occur for four nights in a row once per quarter on one Manhattan trunk line at a time from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. The following table lists the line, first-quarter shutdown dates, service area and number of impacted customers. The authority claims only a 10-15 minute increase in commute times, and it’s clear that, based on transit redundancies, those folks on the East Side in Midtown will have to walk the further for alternate subway service.
- 4, 5, 6: January 9-13, no service from 42nd St.-Grand Central to Atlantic Avenue, 38,500.
- 1, 2, 3: February 13-17, no service from 34th St. to Atlantic Avenue, 23,000.
- B, D, F, M: February 20-24. No service from 59th St. to West 4th Street, 35,000.
- A, C, E: March 12-16. No service from 59th St. to Jay St, 39,000.
I’m not yet sure how this will impact service on the E, F or 1 trains. The work here will involve track and signal repair as well as trackbad cleaning.
The second part of this plan is the one that should be drawing more headlines, but as it impacts fewer commuters and all in the Outer Boroughs, it hasn’t drawn as much scrutiny. For a few distinct capital projects, the MTA will engage in a continuous line shutdown over a series of days. By doing so, the authority will quickly complete capital projects and then have fewer weekend service changes.
The MTA has identified four projects that will impact riders and subway service. First, the authority is planning a nine-day shutdown of all Manhattan-bound F service from Parsons to Forest Hills. Second, the D train will run only local in both directions for nine days from Norwood to 145th St. Third, for 16 days, all D trains will terminate at Bay Parkway. Fourth, for 16 days, there will be no 2 service between 241st St. and Nereid Avenue.
Drilling down on the Forest Hills work, Transit says this nine-day shutdown will eight weekend and 20 weeknight shutdowns for a savings of $1.3 million — or 21 percent — for that project alone. Furthermore, Transit estimates that 90,000 customers would experience 150,000 hours of delay with a shutdown instead of 190,000 customers experiencing a combined 225,000 hours of delayed travel for weekend and off-peak work. Of course, knowing the MTA’s on-time rate when it comes to delivering projects, these projections should be taken with a grain of salt, but these are the numbers upon which the MTA is making its argument.
Ultimately, putting such a line shutdown program in place involves a balancing out. How can the TA provide enough service around the clock? What work schedule is least disruptive to the overall patterns of commuters? As the Authority says, “No time is a good time to do work.” If the line-segment shutdown plan — both for routine maintenance and capital projects — can improve our commuters in the long run, it is at least worth a shot.
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