FASTRACK hits the East Side local

This week’s FASTRACK along the East Side local tracks leaves riders with plenty of alternate routes.

Excuse the lateness. I didn’t have a chance to post this update before my family Seder tonight. FASTRACK arrived a short while ago on the local 6 train this evening, and the outage will run each night this week from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

As changes go, this one’s easy: The 6 train will run express from 125th St. to 42nd St. in both direction, bypassing 51st St., 68th St., 77th St., 96th St., 103rd St., 110th St. and 116th St. Customers looking for the interim stops can either walk from nearby express stations or transfer to the M101 Limited, making all local 6 stops and running up 3rd Ave. and down Lexington Ave. The worst of this week’s changes concern the 5. Service along the 5 train into Manhattan will end early, and riders will have to switch to the 2 at Grand Concourse to catch the 5 at East 180th St.

And speaking of FASTRACK, my next “Problem Solvers” session at the Transit Museum will focus on this new maintenance program. Scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9th, I’ll be quizzing Larry Gould, a senior director in Transit’s Operations Analysis division about FASTRACK. We’ll tackle the complexities involved in making routine repairs without disrupting vital service for a transit system that never sleeps. Here’s the Museum’s description:

While the closures for FASTRACK are brief, the planning process is extensive. As a part of the Operations Planning division, Gould helps determine what parts of the subway system can be shut down, decides when to shut them down, configures service to accommodate the shutdown and coordinates customer communications. Join the New York Transit Museum on Tuesday for another installment of Problem Solvers, a series of informal discussions that takes an intimate look at the most interesting people and topics relating to moving millions of New Yorkers in a city with a century-old transit system.

Larry Gould is Senior Director, Operations Analysis in the Operations Planning division of MTA New York City Transit where he is responsible for short term service planning for capital construction, maintenance, emergencies, contingencies and special events. A native of the Bronx, Larry attended New York University as an undergraduate and graduate school at the Northwestern University Transportation Institute. Outside of NYC Transit, Larry is executive officer of the New York Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism, an advocate for compact, mixed-use neighborhoods, and he won the Sloan Public Service Award in 2004.

RSVP right here.