Railroad Forums 

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

Moderator: GirlOnTheTrain

 #1541288  by orangeline
 
I saw a news story attributed to Reuters that the NYC subway will stop running overnight service on all lines to permit daily deep cleaning of trains. Patronage is down some 90% and this permits the agency to take this action. I went to the MTA site and looked to see if there was any mention of this. I didn't see any. Is the Reuters story true or is it "fake news"? If true, this would be the first time in 115 1/2 years that NYC did not have 24 hour rail transit service, correct?
 #1541302  by Backshophoss
 
There's a bustition/ride share option when the subways are down for needed workers,there will be equipment moves as well
There's debate if this is temporary or permanent on going.
 #1541371  by Jeff Smith
 
They've been talking on and off about this for years for several reasons: the wear and tear, the lack of maintenance downtime, the cost. Frankly, I would not be surprised if this becomes permanent. The deficit after COVID is going to be monstrous. You've also got a personnel issue after COVID, very tragic.
 #1541473  by railfaned
 
The graffiti artists are all going to have fun with this shutdown idea!!!
 #1541476  by GirlOnTheTrain
 
Jeff Smith wrote: Sat May 02, 2020 12:58 pm They've been talking on and off about this for years for several reasons: the wear and tear, the lack of maintenance downtime, the cost. Frankly, I would not be surprised if this becomes permanent. The deficit after COVID is going to be monstrous. You've also got a personnel issue after COVID, very tragic.
Not if they keep hiring off of established lists...IJS!!
 #1541477  by GirlOnTheTrain
 
railfaned wrote: Sun May 03, 2020 10:27 am The graffiti artists are all going to have fun with this shutdown idea!!!
Why? Stations are maintaining staffing, if you were closing the booths on the night tour entirely - which they are not - you would have a graffiti issue. A few weeks ago when things were really hairy and people were over doing triples Whitlock got tagged really bad. Simply having someone sit in the station is actually a decent deterrent, believe it or not.
 #1541481  by orangeline
 
GirlOnTheTrain wrote: Sun May 03, 2020 10:33 am
railfaned wrote: Sun May 03, 2020 10:27 am The graffiti artists are all going to have fun with this shutdown idea!!!
Why? Stations are maintaining staffing, if you were closing the booths on the night tour entirely - which they are not - you would have a graffiti issue. A few weeks ago when things were really hairy and people were over doing triples Whitlock got tagged really bad. Simply having someone sit in the station is actually a decent deterrent, believe it or not.
That may be true, but I'm guessing that graffiti artists may use trains in yards as their canvases. Not every train in every yard or other storage area can be under surveillance all the time!
 #1541484  by GirlOnTheTrain
 
If you think every train is being laid up for those four hours you're sorely mistaken. There's not enough yard capacity. There will be sweeper service running for employees, and logically if contractors are being brought in to yards to sanitize trains, then there will be more human presence than normal.
 #1541544  by railfaned
 
If you think every train is being laid up for those four hours you're sorely mistaken. There's not enough yard capacity. There will be sweeper service running for employees, and logically if contractors are being brought in to yards to sanitize trains, then there will be more human presence than normal.
After viewing a long video of the A train run from the Bronx to Rockaway Park, I was amassed at how much graffiti was on the walls of the express tracks tunnels, especially in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. If they can tag all those tunnels on an operating system, what do you think they will do to a non-operating system.
 #1542005  by Rbts Stn
 
eolesen wrote: Sat May 02, 2020 5:50 pm It’s also the only legal way to get the homeless off the trains....
This should not be overlooked
 #1542075  by Backshophoss
 
There will be trash trains roaming the system,the Money/supply train roaming the system feeding the token booths and TVM's.
Work extras, Fleet shuffling moves between yards.
There's still the service trains running,without passengers,from what I've seen on the NYC transit forums.
 #1542216  by GirlOnTheTrain
 
That's cute that you think there's still a money train - revenue has armored trucks now ;)

Also, under the guise of "safety" they took cash out of the booths until the situation resolves - I could rant about why that's in air quotes, but this isn't the place.

Back to the topic of trains or lack thereof overnight: Every train that is written on the essential service timetables that was running overnight prior to the implementation of this shutdown this week is going to run as a sweeper train for employees, NYPD and FDNY. Employees have to have their vest and show ID to board.

So as I said before, it's not a true shutdown - the graffiti artists will have no more of a field day than they normally do, considering service is still running roughly 20 minutes all night, and one of the purposes of running sweeper trains is to monitor for vandalism.