So two pieces of news — one big and one small. First, the big. I’m getting married this weekend!
Second, this is the weekend the MTA is extending weekend J train service to Broad St. For riders of this line, the weekend extension provided a connection to Fulton St. and its slate of trains. It also eliminates a transfer at Chambers St. for access to Lower Manhattan. It’s ultimately not clear how many passengers will benefit from the service. The MTA claims 14,000 weekend riders will enjoy this service, but even if that’s high, sending the J a few stops further south is a low-cost customer-friendly improvement that will help those who need and use it.
Anyway, it’s a light weekend of service changes. Travel safe. I’ll see you on the other side of getting married.
From 12 noon to 5:00 p.m. Saturday, June 13, the 116 St station is EXIT ONLY. Use the 110 St or 125 St stations instead.
From 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Sunday, June 14, the 77 St station is EXIT ONLY. Use the 68 St or 86 St stations instead.
From 11:45 p.m. Friday, June 12 to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, June 13, Inwood-207 St bound A trains run express from 59 St-Columbus Circle to 125 St.
From 12:01 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Saturday, June 13, Queens-bound A trains run local from 168 St to 59 St-Columbus Circle.
From 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Saturday, June 13, 168 St-bound C trains run express from 59 St-Columbus Circle to 125 St.
From 5:45 a.m. to 8:00 Saturday, June 13, Coney Island-Stillwell Av bound D trains are rerouted via the N from 36 St to Coney Island-Stillwell Av.
- To 9 Av, Fort Hamilton Pkwy, 50 St, 55 St, 71 St, 79 St, 18 Av, 20 Av, Bay Pkwy, 25 Av, and Bay 50 St, take the Coney Island-bound D to 62 St-New Utrecht Av or Stillwell Av and transfer to a Manhattan-bound D.
- From these stations, take a Manhattan-bound D to 62 St-New Utrecht Av or 36 St and transfer to a Coney Island-Stillwell Av bound D or N.
From 12:01 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Saturday, June 13, Coney Island-Stillwell Av bound D trains run local from 145 St to 59 St-Columbus Circle.
From 12:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Saturday, June 13 Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer bound E trains run local from Queens Plaza to Forest Hills-71 Av.
From 12:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Saturday, June 13 E trains run local between Forest Hills-71 Av and Roosevelt Av.
From 12:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Saturday, June 13, Jamaica-179 St bound F trains run local between 21 St-Queensbridge to Forest Hills-71 Av. Coney Island-Stillwell Av bound F trains run local from Forest Hills-71 Av to Roosevelt Av.
From 11:15 p.m. Friday, June 12 to 5:00 a.m. Monday, June 15, Coney Island-Stillwell Av bound Q trains run express from Prospect Park to Kings Hwy
43 comments
congrats Benjamin on your wedding.
At long last! Congratulations Ben!!! Are you guys getting married in The Transit Museum? That would be fitting!!!
Congratulations!!!
Congratulations Ben! Best wishes for a lifetime of happiness for you and your wife to be.
Congrats!
I had no idea the J train was being extended. This is permanent? I always wondered why they turned the train around at three different stations (Chambers, Broad, and I swear they turn them around at Fulton sometimes) that are so close, depending on time of week. It was nutty. So all J trains go to Broad now, all week and all night? The J won’t differ on weekends at all?
Fulton was only done for a shuttle train.
Congratulations, Benjamin. I’ll be looking forward to your continuing news, that is, if you still have the time! LOL!
Bob
14,000? That makes it sound like they should do this regularly. That’s a lot of people to force to transfer, some of whom likely already transferred from something else.
Congratulations on the wedding!
Congratulations, Ben!!! Wish you both all the happiness in the world!
Congratulations, Ben!
The transfer at Fulton St will be a big benefit for J riders who needed to transfer twice (or more). It will also make it possible for the first time for ADA passengers to reach Manhattan on the J on weekends. I never understood the rationale for closing two stations on weekends, although I suppose terminating at Chambers is logistically easier since the train doesn’t need to relay beyond the station.
IIRC even if they don’t have to, I think they do (did) relay the train beyond the station at Chambers, though … have taken the J from Chambers on the weekend once and recall it coming in empty on the northbound track from the south.
Immediately south of the J-train Chambers Street station is a pocket track that connects the inner downtown track to the inner uptown track. The switch for this pocket track is activated by the train operator. The train simply discharges riders at the inner platform, enters the pocket track, the train operator changes position and when scheduled returns to the Chambers Street station on the inner uptown track, and takes on riders. This pocket track sits along-side the usual uptown track just north of the Fulton Street station.
Mike
Congratulations to you and the future Mrs. (does she prefer Ms.?) Second Ave Sagas!
Congrats Ben!
Great to see the MTA respond to the revitalization and increased demand in both the Financial District and the neighborhoods along the J in Brooklyn.
How much money could they have possibly been saving by cutting it back to Chambers on weekends all these years, especially now that we don’t necessarily need to staff every station with booth clerks? (Or was it because of crime concerns?) I think they can get away with an unstaffed Broad Street on weekends. Cost should be very minimal.
The M to Midtown on weekends they ran during the L outage should also be permanent. It can’t cost that much more to run these trains the couple extra stations, yet the benefit to riders is huge.
The M to Midtown is not a smart move. Trying to relay trains there is a massive pain, as there are no pocket tracks and other services use said tracks in both directions.
I would quickly reconsider if you said the last stop would be Queens Plaza, though.
Running the M to Queens Plaza isn’t a bad idea, although QBL residents would likely put political pressure on MTA to run it all the way to 71 Av which is currently impossible because of hilariously inefficient flagging policies.
Pressed submit before I could finish that last thought. There is currently a major signal upgrade project occurring on Queens Boulevard, so almost every weekend there are three lines sharing a track while there is construction work nearby. Because it is apparently impossible to put up a temporary fence to seal off the work zone, all nearby trains must crawl, which lowers capacity so much that the E, F, M and R would not all be able to operate there.
Typical MTA incompetence.
It’s always difficult to make inferences from track plans, but couldn’t the D train run along the 6th Ave Local tracks at weekends, so that the M train could be turned round at 42 Street?
Alternatively, make the M train permanent seven days a week, and cut the R train short at weekends. More turning opportunities on the Broadway lines than the 6th Avenue lines it appears.
But the R provides a link between Queens Plaza and the Broadway line that no other service provides — that’s why you can’t cut it back.
And if you were to cut it back to Queens Plaza, then you’d have to cross the tracks for the E and M lines to get to the pocket track in the center.
At least if you run the M to Queens Plaza, you can run it into the pocket track without crossing any other tracks.
And I believe the D must use the express tracks north of 42. So you can’t use them to relay an M train.
tl;dr: You can run the M to Queens Plaza but you really can’t do anything more creative without track changes.
Running the D via 6 Av Local forces switch hell — especially for the sake of having the M make just a few more stops.
Cutting the R short on weekends makes it much harder for Queens Boulevard riders to access Broadway, which would put more people on the 7 and E just to get a Broadway train; considering that the next meeting points for Broadway in general are at Queensboro Plaza in Queens (N) and 42 Street, that further complicates matters. Now imagine if the 7, E, or N had significant issues but the R would be able to compensate if not for the fact that it was inexplicably limited.
Congrats Ben!
Best wishes to you and yours, good sir.
Woo hoo! Is Mrs. SAS a lawyer as well?
Is it THIS weekend that the J is being (re-)extended to Broad Street? The ‘Weekender’ for 12 June-15 June 2015 says that it goes only as far as Chambers Street, but of course it could be wrong.
At the TA, the left hand is often unaware of the right hand’s activities.
Starting Sunday, June 14th.
Congratulations Ben and best wishes!
A quick question – what is the purpose of the ‘exit only’ station closures at 116 and 77 Sts? I don’t believe I’ve seen this done before in the time I’ve lived here. Also – how will this be enforced? Will the turnstiles be shut off? If people can leave the station they can’t rope off the entrances at street level. I’m very curious about this.
Purpose is crowd control and the NYPD will erect barricades around the entrances. What’s noticeable is the MTA announcing stuff like this in advance to better inform people.
It’s fairly common on the London Underground too. At particularly busy times a station might be exit only or entry only or trains only stop west bound but not east bound.
I can think of Camden Town and Covent Garden off hand but there are other stations close by.
Also for example on NYE some stations will be entry / exit only for either the whole night or part of it.
And as these are posted in advance people should be aware.
There are street festivals going on so there will likely be police officers at the top of the stairs preventing people from entering the system there. The point is to prevent everybody from flooding the station at once. If people have to walk to the next stop, the natural difference in walking speed will allow the crowd to space itself out.
Because the MTA will try to contain the crushing load of riders for the National Puerto Rican Day Parade (77th Street) and the 116th Street Puerto Rican Day Parade (116th Street). So the NYPD will enforce the overall flow and to prevent fare evasion there.
Congrats from across the pond to you and the future Mrs SAS.
BTW I’ll be in NYC from 2nd – 8th July so please try and limit any closures that time!
Congrats Ben!
Also notice that almost all of the changes are for Saturday only. This is because Sunday is the beginning of a new pick*, and the powers that be want to run as normal a service as possible.
*A pick is a period of time for which TA workers choose which intervals they will run on which days of the week. Every six months or so, schedules are tweaked and employees re-choose their schedules.
Actually it due to the Puerto Rican parade. That parade is the most attracted parade and the MTA wants to limit construction.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Congrats!!!
Congratulations, Ben!
Congratulations!
Mike
Congratulations bro.
Congratulations on the wedding!!!
Congratulations and good luck.
I would have liked to have rented a transit bus for my wedding, but federal legislation, pushed through by private bus companies, makes that illegal.
Congratulations to you and the new Ms. Subway.