Every New Yorker hates to hear the dreaded words \u201ctrain traffic ahead.\u201d We at the MTA don\u2019t like saying them either. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve come up with a first-of-its-kind plan to untangle some of the worst bottlenecks in our system.<\/p>\n
Often these delays are not caused by anything broken, but by the layout of our physical infrastructure \u2014 complicated interlockings where the tracks and switches look like a mess of subway spaghetti, terminal stations that constrain capacity, sharp curves and switches that restrict speeds, and old signals that force us to run trains farther apart for safety.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t forget \u2014 our system was designed more than a century ago, when the subway was run by three different companies that were later stitched together. Pain points were inevitable. Now we have examined 70 such locations, identifying 25 as the most promising candidates for upgrades in the MTA Capital Plan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of them is DeKalb Av in Brooklyn, where 18 switches (first installed during President Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s administration) allow 300,000 daily riders to pass through on five routes: the B, D, N, Q and R trains. It\u2019s all very analog \u2014 when delays happen, crews sometimes need to use paper maps to direct traffic. In 2026!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fortunately, we\u2019ve already started upgrading signals on the B and D lines. We\u2019re also working with contractors on designs to straighten out the curves on the interlocking tracks so that trains can pass through faster.<\/p>\n
But sometimes the fix doesn\u2019t have to be so labor intensive. Last December, we swapped F and M lines to eliminate a merge at Queens Plaza that was snarling service for all the lines running along Queens Boulevard.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since then, trains have been moving faster in key segments. At Roosevelt Island \u2013 where folks often had to let multiple trains pass before they could actually squeeze onboard \u2013 trains are 25% less crowded on average. Ridership at other local stations in western Queens has also increased. We want to replicate that success all over the City.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New Yorkers deserve a subway that works as hard as they do. By targeting the biggest choke points in our system, we can improve reliability where it matters most so that \u201ctrain traffic ahead\u201d is no longer a daily nuisance on your commute.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every New Yorker hates to hear the dreaded words \u201ctrain traffic ahead.\u201d We at the MTA don\u2019t like…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":973506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,9904,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,3586,1269,390736,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-973505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-mta","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-op-ed","tag-opinion","tag-train-traffic","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=973505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/973506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=973505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=973505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=973505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}