Questions from an out-of-towner

[Yellowspoon]

When I was in NYC last month, I took several lines to the end. Ont thing I noticed, at the end-of-the-line, the train would halt, but the operator waited ten to twenty seconds before opening the doors. After the first time, I timed them. Why? At normal stations, the doors would open within 2 seconds of stopping.

Lex @ 59th. I have always known that the Lex express tracks were below the local tracks, but I never know how deep.The BMT tracks to Queens run under the #6 local tracks but above the Lex express tracks. Were all six tracks built at the same time, or were the Lex express tracks built later than the BMT tracks?

[GojiMet86]

Might be the conductor getting his things ready when geting off the train.

[rr503]

Might be the conductor getting his things ready when geting off the train.

They have to change cabs at the terminal. For whatever reason, it's standard practice to change cabs and zone up from the other before opening doors at the last stop.

About Lex-59: all of it was built at about the same time. The express tracks weren't originally meant to stop there, so they ran them deep to help ease the engineering of the BMT. The express platforms were added in the '50s-early '60s (1962 completion IIRC).

[Kamen Rider]

up until I want to say about ten years ago, the conductor would move from one cab to the other while the train was still moving, but stopped that in favor of safety, so now they wait for the train to stop, which causes the delay. this is mostly a deal with full cab fixed set trains. The older SMEEs still running around (R32 and R42) which still have half cabs use difference procedures.



When the IRT was built, the trains still used trailer cars, so keeping the tracks level was seen as a benefit for the express while the locals followed the surface contours so the stations could be shallow enough to not need escalators or elevators.