Railroad Forums 

Discussion relating to the past and present operations of the NYC Subway, PATH, and Staten Island Railway (SIRT).

Moderator: GirlOnTheTrain

 #1386058  by Jeff Smith
 
...as opposed to Second Avenue Subway Construction. This thread will cover actual operation of the new line, as opposed to continuing construction on Phases II, III, and IV.

The reason for the new thread? Well, a separate topic for operation of the new line may make discussion a little easier. Another is this recent blurb from Second Avenue Sagas concerning the headways on the eponymous subway line:
MTA Board to approve W train resurrection as 2nd Ave. Subway operations come into view
...
...The Q will no longer stop at 49th St., eliminating an unnecessary choke-point between 34th St.-Herald Square and 57th St., and when the Second Ave. Subway opens, the Q will run from 57th St. to 63rd St./Lexington, 72nd St., and 86th St. before terminating at 96th St. and 2nd Ave. The Upper East Side won’t know what hit them.

But there’s a rub, and in a way, I’ve buried the lede again. The Upper East Side may be thrilled with the subway, but they’ll be less thrilled with the headways on the Second Ave. Subway which threaten to be the longest in the city for peak-hour service. During the public hearings on the W train proposal, one person asked the MTA to disclose headways on the Second Ave. Subway, and the answer is in these tables:

<see the link for the tables>

As you can see, the MTA isn’t really revising the Q train schedule to respond to shifting demand. Currently, Q trains are relatively empty crossing the Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn in the morning and vice versa in the evening. When the Second Ave. Subway opens, while the Manhattan Bridge ridership likely won’t change, Q train demand south from 96th St. to parts south in Manhattan will spike, but the MTA is planning to run trains at eight-minute headways. Only weekend, midday and evening Q service will see improvements when the Second Ave. Subway opens, and Upper East Siders are going to be shocked at the long waits, especially when compared with the peak-hour frequencies on the 4, 5 and 6.
...
 #1386652  by Jeff Smith
 
Mmmmm, pretty map:

AMNY
Second Avenue line, W train depicted in new MTA subway map

A subway map that includes a portion of the Second Avenue subway line, as well as the addition of the W train, was released by the MTA after its board meeting Wednesday night.
The map shows the new Q train stations at 72nd, 86th and 96th streets along Second Avenue, which is the first portion of the line scheduled to open in December 2016. It also adds the W train in Queens and Manhattan.
The MTA voted Wednesday to revive the W train beginning in November of this year. It will run local between Whitehall Street in Manhattan and Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard in Queens on weekdays. The Q train would temporarily stop at 57th Street before the Second Avenue line opens and the N train would run express in Manhattan.
Map credit: MTA

.
Attachments:
Map excerpt
Map excerpt
SAS Map.png (643.87 KiB) Viewed 7613 times
 #1386982  by Head-end View
 
Really? Eight minute headways during rush-hours? And looking at the new map, I'm surprised at the spacing between stations. Fourteen blocks between 72nd and 86th St. Hmmm...... ya' might have to walk seven blocks to catch the local only train.
 #1390684  by Paul1705
 
Supposedly the 86th Street station will have an additional entrance around 83rd or 84th Streets. I'll have to check there again to see what's actually being built.

Likewise the 72nd Street station is going to extend a few blocks to the south.
 #1413184  by Jeff Smith
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/19/nyreg ... ening.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

HURRAH!
2nd Avenue Subway Will Open on New Year’s Day, M.T.A. Says

After nearly a century of delays and disappointment, the first phase of the Second Avenue subway is finally opening to the public on New Year’s Day, officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said on Monday.

The first subway train will leave a new station at 96th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan at 6:04 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2017, said the authority’s chairman, Thomas F. Prendergast. At an event on Monday to reveal the artwork at the new stations, Mr. Prendergast invited the crowd to ride the line.
...
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has been pressing officials to open the line by the end of the year, said local leaders would take a ceremonial ride on the Second Avenue line on New Year’s Eve and perhaps toast the opening of the long-delayed project with champagne.
We will celebrate that day at railroad.net by locking the original construction thread: Second Ave Subway Construction thru Phase I open

A new thread for Phase II construction will start here: Second Avenue Subway Phase II - IV Planning / Construction
 #1413462  by GirlOnTheTrain
 
MTA Estimates 200,000 Riders To Use 2nd Ave Subway Each Day
“On Day One, we will see it serve more than 200,000 people on that line. That’s more than Chicago’s and Boston’s systems combined,” MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast said earlier this month at an agency board meeting. “On Day One, we will decrease crowding along the Lexington Ave. line by more than 23,000 people on an average weekday.”
 #1413473  by The EGE
 
Boston's Red, Orange, and Green lines all exceed 200,000 passengers per day. Each. Someone didn't do their research.
 #1413608  by Head-end View
 
I agree. It's not likely that one line in NYC with only a few stations is going to carry more passengers than the entire system in Boston or Chicago both of which are not small systems. Especially Chicago with its many lines and branches. I hate when public officials who should know better make blatant mis-statements of facts like that.
 #1413800  by MACTRAXX
 
Everyone:

I found the routing of the Q train via the new Second Avenue Subway to be an interesting choice...

What makes this interesting is that the Q train will not serve the Borough of Queens at all...
I would only use Q as a designation letter for a Queens-bound service...

I feel that the Second Avenue route should have been assigned the W routing with the Q running
along with the N to Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria - the exact opposite of what will operate...

T (or perhaps Y) could have been also used for this initial Second Avenue route - is T a future SAS
assigned letter? Is NYCT planning to add a color such as teal for the SAS route?

This leaves I,K,O,P,U,V and X as letters currently unused or assigned. Are any other letters being
held - or to be assigned to any new future routings? I can see all of these letters being used with
the obvious exceptions of I or O...

In closing it is good to see the long awaited Second Avenue Subway route finally opening its first
segment - but it should have not been designated the Q train...

MACTRAXX
 #1413803  by railfan365
 
Yes - the plan is that when Phase III of the SAS will open (I expect that in about 35 years), the T designation with teal coloring will identify the service going up and down th elength of theSecond Avenue, while the Q will continue to cover the part of SAS North of 63rd Street, and go along 63rd Street to 7th Avenue and down to Coney via the Broadway Express, Manhattan Bridge, and Brighton Local. On a historical note, the Q route identifier has nothing to do with Queens - that is the orignal coding for Brighton Line Service.
 #1413822  by Kamen Rider
 
the Q has only gone to Queens for a short while, 1989-2001 (via 63rd to Queensbridge) and 2010-2016 (Astoria).

It was assigned as a southern division letter when the BMT got their letters. the pattern is still kind of visible. IND A-H, BMT eastern J-M, BMT southern N-T.

That being said, the BMT 63rd street tracks only connect to the express tracks at 57th street. Unless you really want to ruin the Broadway line, we leave it as intended.
 #1413909  by Head-end View
 
Hmmm.........many years back when the J-train was the QJ, I always just kind of thought it meant Queens-Jamaica. It's interesting to find out that was not the rationale at all. In those days, it didn't terminate at Broad St. Manhattan, but went down the Brighton Line. :wink: