Today’s subway service additions are brought to you by the letters A and N, and it’s mostly good news. Even as the city some swimmies.
Beginning on Sunday, the MTA will resume A train service to Howard Beach and then send a shuttle bus to Mott Avenue in Far Rockaway. The shuttle will run until the North Channel Bridge and subway infrastructure through Broad Channel are rebuilt. MTA and state officials called the damage to the line “absolutely unprecedented” and say it will “take months” to restore full service.
Still, the Governor wanted to stress some transit service for the area. “The people of the Rockaway Peninsula were especially hard-hit by this storm, and restoring transportation service to them and to Howard Beach is a priority for my administration,” Governor Cuomo said. “This combination of subway and bus service will provide them with immediate transit relief while the entire system is rebuilt.”
Meanwhile, a short time ago, Transit started running N trains along the Sea Beach line in Brooklyn again. This section of track from 59th St. to Coney Island suffered severe flooding and damage due to the storm surge. According to the Governor, the MTA had to “replace and inspect 10 train stop mechanisms, 20 relays and other vital train detection equipment.” The N is now running its full route from Astoria to Coney Island.
Cuomo’s office also provided a brief update on the remaining service outages: The R train’s Montague St. tunnel is dry, and crews are working to assess and repair the damage. Crews are working to get the 1 down to Rector St., another station that suffered water damage from the flood, and are also working on J/Z service south of Chambers St. There is no timeline for the resumption of any of these remaining services.
And consider this your Friday service advisory post. There are no other weekend diversions or changes as the MTA has its resources focused on restoring full subway service in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
18 comments
Saw a Transit Forum post about some stuff falling out of the ceiling in the Montague Tunnel, but I haven’t seen any official confirmation by the MTA. If it is true that may keep the R in split service for a while longer (though when the Steinway Tunnel had its fatal roof collapse 40 years ago at the First Avenue crossover, it didn’t take the MTA that long to patch and re-open).
I continue to be impressed at the MTA’s pace of restorations. While they have not announced timelines for restoration, stuff just keeps getting restored, day after day. Apart from the Rockaways line and South Ferry, we may see everything back in a few days. New Jersey Transit and PATH are not looking good by comparison. Perhaps they simply have fewer workers, of course.
Considering the Broad Channel trestle burned down in 1950, I don’t if “unprecedented” is the right word, but yeah, looks bad. Any news on a possible shuttle train service along the peninsula? Or $2.00 fare on the Far Rock LIRR?
Why can’t they just run the R across the manhattan bridge?
The MTA doesn’t want to bother with switching.
It’s more than that. Running 3 trains across the Bridge would create capacity issues as well as headaches through DeKalb.
With the capacity on the Bridge maxed out, it would be a real nightmare. You’re better off with it terminating at Jay Street, and providing IND 6th Avenue and IND 8th Avenue Service.
Running 3 lines across the Manhattan Bridge is possible. When the B,D,Q all ran on 6th Ave (90’s-early 2000’s), they all fit on the north tracks at 30tph.
There is also the MetroTech transfer with the A,C, and F. With A,C,F running, riders can take those trains into Manhattan. The 8th and 6th Ave trunks parallels the Broadway Subway. Transfers to IRT 7th and Lex Ave trains give access to Lower Manhattan.
What they can do is push the R to Canal St to relay back north. That allows the Q (and/or N) to run express south of 34th st.
The Manhattan Bridge trains didn’t run at 10 tph each until both sides of the bridge opened in 2004.
But you guys do remember when the B,D,Q trains ran across the bridge via 6th avenue in the 90s? I mean I do understand the capacity issues and why they would like to keep it to a minimum.
People are beginning to notice how badly NJ Transit Rail is doing. Apparently the damaged rolling stock was stored at Kearny.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....51186.html
Um, I know it “never flooded before”, but look at your elevation maps and read the storm surge predictions next time, guys. This is not what I call competence.
They continue to have absolutely no service to Newark Broad Street, for reasons I cannot comprehend. (Perhaps they stored all the rolling stock for the Morris & Essex and Montclair/Boonton lines at Kearny?)
On the other hand, the light rail division of NJ Transit is doing OK, being all up and running again.
Now, PATH I expect to have problems, given the unavoidable flooding of 100-year-old tunnels.
But what is going on at NJT Rail Operations? They had, at the very least, the entire length of the electrified Gladstone Branch to store rolling stock on, and they didn’t.
The damage to the M&E and Montclair/Boonton lines appears to have been less than the damage to Metro-North’s Hudson or Harlem lines. Yes, there were power outages, but power’s been restored on the west end of these lines for several days now. Still nothing. Entire electrified lines have been built faster than this. Is it simply a lack of manpower (maybe they could borrow workers from the MTA), or what?
Stupidity is a strictly enforced rule in many an organization. Doing something right is seen as a threat to the doofus crowd.
You have to remember that getting the job done is a byproduct for those folks; they resent work and and proud of milking the most pay, perks and promotions for the least actual production. Once in a rare while it becomes visible, then it’s “unavoidable” “unprecedented” “who could have predicted that low elevation, coastal facilities would flood?” etc etc.
A while back the MBTA in Boston had a massive flood on the Green line. They didn’t bother to close the flood doors which had been installed decades earlier by the original builder of the lowest tunnel entrance. Your taxes paid for the rebuilding.
Been there, seen that.
Well, not my taxes per se — I’m on NY, and at the federal level I’ve been benefiting from the Bush tax cuts on unearned income and have been paying far less than my fair share of taxes for years. But I get your point.
It’s good to see that competence exists in some organizations, though; the MTA response to the storm was frankly brilliant and whoever the storm coordinators and planners were should be named and promoted.
“At the federal level I’ve been benefiting from the Bush tax cuts on unearned income and have been paying far less than my fair share of taxes for years. ”
Good to see someone else willing to admit this. At the state and local level we have just about the highest taxes as a percentage of personal income in the country. But as a 1-4 family homeowner I’m screwed less than average.
Not to invite a big digression on this but the Alternative Minimum Tax has meant that the Bush Tax Cuts have been meaningless to many of us in high wage / high coat of living areas like NY.
They might benefit someone, but I don’t know how.
The AMT kils this part of the country, and our local representatives do nothing about it.
Most of the rest of the Bush tax cuts were just disguise for the big cuts — the cuts in the rates on dividends and capital gains (to 15%). Those cuts happened in the AMT too. This is primarily to benefit the very rich, though it incidentally benefits anyone whose income is mostly from dividends and capital gains.
I’m lucky to have done well on investments. It just seems wrong that I’m paying less in taxes than someone making the same amount of money from, you know, actually working.
The Bush tax cuts need to expire, and thankfully they will expire on December 31 if Congress does nothing.
At Jay St-Metrotech customers can easily transfer to the (A,C) trains to Lower Manhattan since the R train stations are close to the A/C. Customers can also use the F to 34th street where they can transfer the Queens bound R trains.
Don’t forget that the 1 is terminating at 14 St this weekend, while 2/3 trains are running local between 42 St and Chambers, all as part of restoration work at South Ferry.