protrain wrote:I think this came up in another thread a little while ago, but...
The 4 E trains that leave 179th Street in the AM peak leave at 7:12am, 7:31am, 7:51am, and 8:11am. In the PM, the 179th Street trains leave WTC at 5:08pm, 5:28pm, 6:40pm, and 7:20pm.
The main reason that these trains run is because, I believe, that the maximum capacity of the upper level Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer terminal is 12 trains per hour. When more are run in the peak hours, the extras must go to 179th Street. I think this limitation is mostly due to the placement of switches and the setup of the tail tracks. While this may seem like bad planning since this line was just built in the 1980s, you must remember that this was never really intended to be a permanent terminal here (hopefully, it won't be forever!).
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Another reason that there are 4
E trains leaving from the
179th Street-Jamaica Station in the morning rush and
4 E trains terminating at the
179th Street-Jamaica Station during the evening rush is to alleviate passenger congestion at the
Union Turnpike Station.
After the
E-train was diverted to the new stations at
Jamaica Center, the MTA noticed that there were a considerable amount of passengers switching from the
F-line to the
E-line at
Union Turnpike. It became such a problem that the
E-trains were being delayed by passengers holding the doors, trying to squeeze onto the already crowded
E train. There was a Transit Worker who was assigned to make sure that passengers wouldn't hold the train doors or try to squeeze onto the crowded trains but it didn't help the situation.
It was decided that 4
E trains would leave from the
179th Street-Jamaica Station and 4 trains would terminate at
179th Street-Jamaica Station to help alleviate the passenger congestion.
The
E trains terminating at
179th Street-Jamaica in the evening rush are supposed to have signs stating that they're terminating at the
179th Street-Jamaica Station.
Passengers who catch the
E train at
179th Street-Jamaica can see the schedule for the 4
E trains, departing the station in the morning rush, by checking the board located within the main token booth. Passengers should keep checking the sign to see if the schedule has been changed.
