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

Moderator: GirlOnTheTrain

 #1589674  by Gilbert B Norman
 
Hope all find interesting and informative as I "shot" one of my ten articles a month I'm allowed to share (The Times now limits its $1400yr Home Delivery subscribers to ten shared articles a month; seems "draconian", but who am I to question Gray Lady's wisdom):

New York Times

Fair Use:
The sun rises on a weekday in New York City, and at a Queens subway station the daily grind resembles its old self: Thousands of people pile onto an open-air platform above a bustling neighborhood, waiting in the cold to crowd onto rush-hour trains toward work, school and other essential appointments.

Hours later, as darkness falls, another rush hour begins. But this one, at a formerly hectic subway station in Lower Manhattan, feels jarringly different. In a neighborhood lined with office buildings, a once-reliable stream of white-collar commuters has thinned to a trickle. As trains arrive, finding a seat is not hard.

Nearly two years after the coronavirus engulfed New York, causing a virtual abandonment of the country’s largest transportation network, riders have slowly returned to the subway in an uneven pattern that underscores the economic divide at the heart of the city’s fitful recovery.

Stations in lower-income areas in Brooklyn, Queens and Upper Manhattan, where residents are less likely to be able to work from home and typically depend more on public transit, have rebounded far faster than stations in office-heavy sections of Manhattan, including some that were once the busiest in the system, where many workers are still able to work remotely.

The problems hobbling the subway have gotten worse since the arrival of the fast-spreading Omicron variant, which has reversed a recovery that had been progressing for months. The system is also contending with fears about crime and public safety that were amplified after a woman was shoved to her death in front of a train on Saturday by a 61-year-old man at the Times Square station.

After cratering by 90 percent in the spring of 2020, weekday subway ridership in November had reached about 56 percent of prepandemic levels, with 3.1 million riders on an average day, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the system.
 #1589716  by GirlOnTheTrain
 
Meanwhile Craig Cipriano was telling graduating conductors in September they expected to be back to 5 mil a day by the new year...that comment aged well, didn't it? ;)

The usual suspect stations are still busy at rush hour, but outside of the rush they're pretty quiet. Plenty of IRT trains are packed to the gills in the Bronx no matter what time of day it is.
 #1589747  by STrRedWolf
 
Gilbert B Norman wrote: Tue Jan 18, 2022 8:24 am Hope all find interesting and informative as I "shot" one of my ten articles a month I'm allowed to share (The Times now limits its $1400yr Home Delivery subscribers to ten shared articles a month; seems "draconian", but who am I to question Gray Lady's wisdom):
($1,400/year? Geeesh, the site says $520/year for the print and $52/year for just digital.... )
GirlOnTheTrain wrote:Meanwhile Craig Cipriano was telling graduating conductors in September they expected to be back to 5 mil a day by the new year...that comment aged well, didn't it? ;)

The usual suspect stations are still busy at rush hour, but outside of the rush they're pretty quiet. Plenty of IRT trains are packed to the gills in the Bronx no matter what time of day it is.
All the IRT's? Or just the 4/5/6? (The T can't come fast enough).

Ether way, that's still surprising. NYC needs more transit. It's just that the focus has shifted from white collar to blue collar workers.
 #1589750  by Gilbert B Norman
 
STrRedWolf wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 8:39 am ($1,400/year? Geeesh, the site says $520/year for the print and $52/year for just digital.... )
Intro rates to get you "hooked". Well, I've been for now over 70 years.

Web? I don't know how to read a paper on the web - and at my age, darned if I'm about to learn beyond sharing articles.

But I guess I've progressed beyond scissors, envelopes, and postage stamps. Lest we forget how the term "clips" evolved. :P :P
 #1589861  by STrRedWolf
 
Gilbert B Norman wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 9:54 am
STrRedWolf wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 8:39 am ($1,400/year? Geeesh, the site says $520/year for the print and $52/year for just digital.... )
Intro rates to get you "hooked". Well, I've been for now over 70 years.

Web? I don't know how to read a paper on the web - and at my age, darned if I'm about to learn beyond sharing articles.

But I guess I've progressed beyond scissors, envelopes, and postage stamps. Lest we forget how the term "clips" evolved. :P :P
Eh true, true. It's rare that I'm buying a newspaper anywhere and I have an Amazon Kindle that I can read the articles off of. If they offer sending it to the Kindle daily for coffee-shop, no-network reading just like the regular paper, I'm for it. Don't need to be online all the damn time.
 #1589879  by Allan
 
STrRedWolf wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 10:52 am Back on topic, I kinda wonder if NYC MTA will adjust their off-peak frequencies.
Well, as of yesterday the B and Z service was restored as was the <6> and <7>. The W may be back sometime next week.

Covid infections amongst train crews has gone from 14% to 7% so I think the MTA will slowly restore off-peak service.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... suspension
 #1589965  by STrRedWolf
 
Allan wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 1:00 pm Well, as of yesterday the B and Z service was restored as was the <6> and <7>. The W may be back sometime next week.

Covid infections amongst train crews has gone from 14% to 7% so I think the MTA will slowly restore off-peak service.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... suspension
Yeah, the Omnicron variant is burning out. The vaccines are keeping it from killing folk, turning it into a flu.
 #1590039  by GirlOnTheTrain
 
STrRedWolf wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 8:39 am All the IRT's? Or just the 4/5/6? (The T can't come fast enough).
You should have seen the 2 at midnight last night in Midtown. Train did not empty out until past E180 and a fair chunk got off at the terminal. It's not Lex exclusive.
 #1590064  by GaryGP40
 
Interesting article! I hope that with a (hopeful) wane in sick people, it will return to normal service very soon. I think too people are tired of being unable to travel and enjoy things so there's that too.

It'll be interesting to see how areas that are more prone to "remote workers" will fare as opposed to areas where more people need to rely on public transit and being able to get to their jobs/go shopping, etc. as the article suggests. I'd think it would be likely that that lower Manhattan would see more "remote" workers as opposed to Midtown, the Bronx, etc. I have a good friend in NYC and they rely on the subway a lot to get around when it's not as easy to bike or drive, etc.