The Eighth Avenue FASTRACK removes subway service from western Manhattan.
As the map above reminds us, the last of the first round of FASTRACK treatments dawns tonight as the A, C and E trains are siphoned elsewhere to allow crews to attack 8th Ave. At 10 p.m. this evening and continuing until 5 a.m. tomorrow, the following, as I wrote last week, is in effect:
The C train will shutdown at around 10 p.m. while the A will run along the D and F lines from Columbus Circle to Jay St. It will make local stops as the E does as well along the 6th Ave. line with a southern terminus at 2nd Ave. Once upon a time, IND trains via the 53rd St. tunnel ran either to the Hudson Terminal or 2nd Ave., and that is essentially what the E is doing again.
Once this treatment wraps on Friday morning, the MTA will have blasted four of the major Manhattan trunk lines. The Broadway line avoided FASTRACK because it’s in a better state of repair than the other routes, and the Nassau St. stations weren’t included. Chambers St. on the J/Z needs more than just cosmetic work anyway.
As we know, FASTRACK will continue this year with a similar slate of planned shutdowns extending into late November. It is, in other words, the new normal. Next year, the MTA will look to shut down track segments north of 59th St. while the Outer Boroughs may have to wait until 2015. It’s trickier elsewhere outside of Manhattan because duplicative service isn’t always a short or practical walk away.
So now, a FASTRACK nears a first-quarter wrap up, allow me to pose a question to you: Is it worth it? The MTA can save money and speed up maintenance that otherwise keeps trains running, but we have to live through longer overnight commutes. Personally, I haven’t seen FASTRACK impact my life or commutes yet, but I know plenty of late-night straphangers have had minutes added to their rides. It doesn’t sound as though these diversions will soon go away.
18 comments
Are B and M service also ending early? Or will there be six services running down the 6th ave line, four on the local tracks? The MTA website doesn’t say.
I’m fine with all of these things if they can communicate the changes well, which until now they’ve been able to do.
I’d assume so, but normally the last B of the night leaves each end of the line at around 10pm anyway so it’s only maybe 1 or 2 trains they’re not running. The M would lose a whole hour of service though.
I know it’s anoying, but it’s for only four nights.
According to the website, M service does end early.
http://travel.mtanyct.info/ser.....getstatus4
I’m fine with the FasTrack changes continuing. I would much rather see one week of well communicated service changes, than scattered changes on random nights & weekends. Here’s hoping that they roll it out to the Canarsie line soon, as I’d love to actually be able to depend on that line on any given weekend.
They should do Fastrack on the 42nd st shuttle. Grand Central station platforms smells like piss with crap mixed in and walls looked horrible.
Oh no, here we go again.
It wasn’t me! But really, the Shuttle platforms are filthy (notice the years of dirt hanging off the ends of the Times Square platform from previous attempts to hose them down).
And yes, they smell like piss.
I agree with the TS-GCT Shuttle route – along with a good powerwash, they need to relocate track 4 and install some sort of timing mechanism for when the train doors will close
conductors on that train infuriate passengers by not giving them enough time to get around the platform, salmon swim upriver against the gush of people flooding off the train and actually get on – ridership from that platform must be abominal
better yet, reconstruct the whole terminus – what we have today is horrendous!
if that terminus is horrendous, does that make the nassau street stations comparable to third world stations?
Question for anyone familiar with subway operations:
Does Fastrack result is fewer total delays?
In other words, does shutting service for a few nights net significantly few nights where trains move at a crawl, get re-routed etc?
Attempting to do maintenance between trains is grindingly inefficient; construction/maintenance work of any kind makes little progress if one must frequently reposition oneself, move tools, apply tool to whatever object, then reverse all that before the next train.
From what I’ve read on nycsubwayforums and in the MTA’s releases, Fastrack has absolutely been a good thing for the affected lines. It allegedly gets a full 1-2 months worth of work done in both stations and on the tracks.
From what I understand, the unimpeded access to the tracks allows unprecedented cleaning of track beds and signal equipment which prevents switch and signal problems, thereby significantly reducing delays during peak service.
Now if there could just be a program to deal with door blockers and sick passengers!
On the 8th Avenue line, the uptown A crawls between 14th Street and 34th Street. Often, it’s faster to take the local then it is to take the express. The uptown express has to be at least a minute slower then the downtown express on the same stretch. It can’t be a traffic issue, as I’ve waited at least 5 minutes for an express at 14th street and the A train still crawls. It must be a track condition. To anybody in the know, are there any plans to improve this stretch with the current Fast Track?
It has nothing to do with the track. The signals are enforcing a speed limit due to switches and curves in the area. As far as I know, it’s been this way since the line opened. The local track doesn’t have switches there, and locals can’t pick up quite as much speed, so the local doesn’t need the speed restriction.
Even at full speed, bypassing one station doesn’t save much time (well under a minute). Take whichever train comes first.
Well, first off, looking at the track map, there are no switches between 14th and 23rd street, which is where you really notice the crawl. If anything, the speed seems to pick up between 23rd and 34th. I don’t understand why these switches need so much slowing down so soon before the trains go over them. The “switches and curves in the area” that you mention apply to downtown as well, yet that direction isn’t nearly so slow. In fact, there are many areas of the subway where switches are traversed where the trains aren’t nearly so slow. Maybe they need to install some high speed switches at this location?
What curves? That’s a straight section of track. I’ll give you switches, but then why isn’t the downtown train equally slow? Downtown A flies, uptown A crawls. It’s true that it has been this way for a while, but I don’t think it’s been forever.
It’s not straight – the four through tracks separate to make way for the fifth track. Unfortunately, the facing point switch where that fifth track splits off from the northbound express is at the curve (the track map isn’t accurate there). That, I assume, is why northbound speeds are restricted.
The southbound geometry is similar, but (a) it’s a trailing point switch, not a facing point switch, so the derailment risk is lower, and (b) it’s closer to the previous station, so trains don’t have the opportunity to build up as much speed.
It’s been that way as long as I can remember – decades. I think it’s original.
As for the slowdown beginning south of 23rd, that is, unfortunately, the nature of speed enforcement through a fixed-block wayside signal system. (Read up on timing signals at http://www.nycsubway.org/artic.....mesig.html if you’re not familiar with how they work.) CBTC will eventually solve that problem.