Subways are for sleeping: NYC Transit survival thread

My card works smoothly on the F line, like shit at the Prince St R/W

not gonna go into my hour-plus JUST USED travails tonight with an idiot booth clerk involved

i still think trying to hide a yearlong track work project is goddamn amazing even for the MTA

http://gothamist.com/2018/07/30/surprise_subway_work_here_to_derail.php

seem to be a lot of 'emergency brakes activating' lately

this happened a few weeks ago to a train i was on when it was about halfway into the station. we sat there for 10 or 15 minutes before someone finally went around and unlocked one door on each car by hand. which would not have been comforting in a real emergency

What a commute I had this morning

Excited for flooding content

seem to be a lot of 'emergency brakes activating' lately

I've been noticing this too! Did somebody turn up the sensitivity on whatever activates them systemwide?

my (exhausted, overheated) hunch that the A/C is out on the 1 more than other lines turns out to be correct

http://gothamist.com/2018/06/15/hottest_subway_guide_2018.php

Just experienced what seemed to be an unnecessary emergency brake activation

“Hell is other people”
No, it’s being kicked in the face by a pole dancing subway performer in a hot car while surrounded by other people

fuckin hate the 1 car with the ac off, seems to be the first car i walk into every day

http://gothamist.com/2018/08/09/clark_street_elevators_only.php

lol

L train shutting down completely between Man and Bk this weekend and also several other weekends in the coming months

I thought the shutdown was going to be total from the get-go

this isn't the actual shutdown yet right

as a n/w train rider i can't get worked up about "down between Manhattan and whatever borough I live in for the weekend"

(it *is* absolute horseshit for ppl who work on weekends)

Bent or deteriorated cards, you can get them replaced at the booth? I had some expired cards with money still on them and the booth attendant moved all the money to a new card.

they sometimes can and sometimes can't - if their thingy can't confirm the amount on the card you get stuck with the sad "mail this in to request a refund" envelope/form.

D trains are stopping along the N line between 36 St (Bklyn) and Stilwell Av in both directions.
There is no R train service between 36 St (Bklyn) and Bay Ridge-95 St in both directions.
These service changes and delays are because of Con Edison loss of power in Brooklyn.

— NYCT Subway (@NYCTSubway) August 10, 2018

btw the last time an extremely unhelpful clerk gave me one of those envelopes, i literally said to her "I don't do that shit."

i don't live on the L, thank god, but it's absolutely absurd that they won't dedicate a bus lane on the w'burg bridge during the shutdown

with any luck these weekend previews will help demonstrate that before the shit truly hits the fan

I have to start work on Monday (just for a couple of months while in town) and I couldn't sleep last night because of anxiety about having to take the train again during rush hours.

Lol day 3 of a new job for me and I guess one non-hellish commute out of three is not bad these days?

Hi @MTA last night I was on an A train stalled under the river for 90 mins (eventually we all had to walk to the front car to hop onto the high st platform) and now I’ve spent 50 mins on a C train that became an F train and is now a D train.

But congrats on the new app pic.twitter.com/bpCcvujrHq

— Kengo Tsutusmi (@kengos) August 8, 2018

Add this to the list of NYC infrastructure failures getting worse with climate change:

The down 4/5/6 platform at Union Square hit 104° F, making it the hottest temperature recorded in the subway. Other similarly busy stations were close behind.https://t.co/ODh21Grffo pic.twitter.com/1EegUkBLy7

— Alexander Kaufman (@AlexCKaufman) August 13, 2018

when I was in Chicago the other day they had an enormous fuck-off industrial fan on the O'Hare platform, and while all these platforms are so crowded I don't know where the MTA would put one, it sure seemed like an amazing idea

meanwhile

nyc subway about to risk it all pic.twitter.com/eBeUOp5pPQ

— angy mobley (@andymoney69) August 13, 2018

Southbound N trains are running on the D line from 36 St to Coney Island Stillwell Av while the NYPD safely retrieve goats from the tracks. pic.twitter.com/oDy0KVk6PL

— NYCT Subway (@NYCTSubway) August 20, 2018

nice Monday

http://gothamist.com/2018/08/27/b_q_n_r_j_z_trains_bad_sad.php

my commute involves three trains and improbably ALL THREE OF THEM lacked air-conditioning

vote Nixon

http://gothamist.com/2018/09/07/subway_mta_forget_it.php

Moving trains a full avenue block away from most of the subway lines while keeping MSG in its current place so that we can have a nice headhouse is NYC's approach to transit in the 21st Century in a nutshell. https://t.co/4YgTKMBPak

— Second Ave. Sagas (@2AvSagas) September 6, 2018

xp -- regardless of one's thoughts on nixon vs. cuomo the air conditioning issue is something neither of them can fix, because it's an issue with cars specific to the 1 and 6 lines, and those cars don't get replaced for about six years (it presumably takes a while to get a replacement of train cars, and they can't pull from lines that run different kinds of cars)

wait, i thought all A-division stock was interchangeable... what would be specific about the 1 and 6? versus the 2, 3, 4, and 5?

but anyway though, cuomo has been governor for eight years - he could have said day one "i am going to build on the recent turnaround in the subway system and prioritize catching up on maintenance and replacing old rolling stock." he didn't. or more recently he could have looked at byford's report-back and said "yup, this is the visionary thinking we need to kick the system into the twenty-first century - we need to fund this urgently, top priority" - he didn't. so at least nixon, by virtue of not being cuomo, hasn't already demonstrated that she doesn't give a shit about teeing up medium- and long-term investments which would include replacement cars.

the cars with the frequently broken air conditioning are R62A cars, almost all of which run on the 1 and the 6 lines (64 cars out of 69 total)

(I haven't been able to find anything that says *why* they only run on the 1 and 6 lines, but I assume there's a reason given that they're the local trains.)

aha, got it, thanks!

wonder if they're just like really old and rickety and consequently no one wants to test them at express speeds...

according to signal problems not really, which is counter-intuitively the problem (since that means they're not a priority to be replaced):

Unfortunately, this means the problem isn’t going away any time soon. Although hot cars are a nuisance—or during heat waves like this week’s, actually dangerous—R62As are still serviceable foot soldiers with a mean distance between failure of 100,475 miles. That’s below the system average of 119,908, but well above the ancient R32s (31,114), R42s (34,217), and R46s (71,357). Those will have to be replaced first.

man, sounds like a lot of cars have needed replacing for a while. if only new york state had had a governor during the past!

but again, i do appreciate you doing my homework for me on the cars!

Dude the R32s were built in 64/65!!

I love em but it’s so insane that they still run them.

sounds like they need to be sunk in the sea like the old 'redbird' cars

i think that's illegal now. but pile them all up in fresh kills park and you have endless opportunities for annual instagrammable artistic installations!

or wait, i've got it - chain them all together, stick pontoons on them, and claim it's a new combination ferry/subway line across the east river. wait for it to fill up with selfie-taking williamsburg condo dwellers on opening day, then sink the whole works.

They were still ‘reefing’ old cars up until a few years ago I think? Not actually sure why they stopped.

last night's D train adventures

http://gothamist.com/2018/09/07/d_train_trap_beware.php

Dude the R32s were built in 64/65!!

Wonder if they were showcased at the World's Fair as "The Subway Car of the 21st Century"

https://media.giphy.com/media/antEdpKLTJ7fq/200.gif

^ This is why I carry a headlamp in my bag.