Everyone’s favorite late-night service suspension returns this week as the MTA gears up for another round of FASTRACK work. The agency quietly unveiled the year’s remaining dates in posters that have sprung up over the past few weeks, and tonight, work begins anew on the West Side IRT. As of 10 p.m. tonight, all 1 train service is suspended south of 34th St.; 2 trains will not run between 34th St. and Atlantic Ave.; and 3 train service is suspended entirely. Those leaving the Bruce Springsteen concert at MSG this evening will find no southbound 1, 2 or 3 service at Penn Station.
Meanwhile, Transit is beginning what could be called Phase 2 of FASTRACK this week as well. Beginning on Saturday at 5 a.m., the authority shuttered Manhattan-bound stations on the Queens Boulevard line between Parsons Boulevard and 71st Ave.-Forest Hills. The closure is supposed to last until 5 a.m. on Monday, April 16th. According to Transit, this full segment shutdown for an extended period of time is aimed at speeding up work. Through weekend advisories, such a treatment would generally last many weekends, and both progress and commutes would be slow. By targeting the area in a condensed period of time, the inconvenience is greater for a week but lesser overall.
For those riders impacting, the following applies: E and F riders at 75th Avenue wishing to travel toward Manhattan must board a Queens-bound train, travel to the Union Turnpike-Kew Gardens station and transfer to a Manhattan-bound train; E and F riders at Briarwood-Van Wyck Boulevard must board a Queens-bound train and travel to the Jamaica-Van Wyck (E) or Parsons Boulevard (F) stations to transfer to a Manhattan-bound train; F riders at Sutphin Boulevard (F) must board a Queens-bound train and travel to Parsons Boulevard (F) to transfer to a Manhattan-bound train.
15 comments
Ben,
Did you ask the MTA why they didn’t do the Fastrack on the J/Z?
I know you don’t like this but I think this is a good thing. We gave the “let’s run a system 24 hours a day everywhere” thing a good long run and it’s not as efficient or sufficient for maintenance. And we feel the pain of that everyday.
Agreed. Getting it done when the fewest people ride, in somewhat less time, and evidently for less money, is exactly the right idea.
There’s a middle ground between running a system 24 hours a day and closing it at 10pm. Most systems close around 1am. 10pm is just idiotic and will force people to switch to cars.
The system isn’t closing at 10pm. One line is. In most cases, another line is a short walk (e.g., one block) away.
Copenhagen is able to run a 24 hour system and keep up with maintenance by running trains on single tracks during the night. New York should be able to do the same, especially on 4-track lines.
Copenhagen is a new system, with very different maintenance needs from New York’s, and it was designed from the outset to accommodate late night single tracking.
I live off 75th Avenue and I gotta say, it’s a tad annoying that this service change is happening during rush hours. Hopefully the platform is a bit cleaner come next week!
The service change is 24/7. The traditional approach would have trains creeping through the area slowly for a month or two.
Does Ben or anyone else here know if work on the #7 line extension has resumed? I mean, I’m not belittling the tragedy that took place there, but the investigation of why it happened could take months.
The need to do the J/Z line in Manhattan. I bet they are planning something big there since the stations are in dire need of new tiles among other things.
Odds are the J/Z work, if it happens, will wait until after the uptown connection between the B/D/F/M and 6 opens at Bleecker/B’way-Lafayette. That way, they can turn trains at Essex (or run the M overnight — or even reroute the J — via Christie to 57th-7th) and passengers normally using the J on the Nassau Loop would have an easy transfer to and from the 4/6.
Do Fastrack right now, and you could still go from Essex downtown via the IRT easy enough, but to get back from downtown to Essex would require taking the A from Fulton to West Fourth, and then the F to Esssex (or transfer directly to the M if it’s still running).
The point of FASTRACK isn’t to install station tiles. The point is mostly to make repairs to tracks and signals and other things that the public doesn’t look at. If the tracks and signals are in good condition on the Nassau line, then FASTRACK won’t be happening there.
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