Doomsday Budget - What Would You Cut?

Some of the potential cuts include eliminating the W and Z:

NY Times City Room Blog

For New York City Transit, the biggest component of the authority, the deficit-closing plan would eliminate the W and Z subway lines; eliminate service on the M line to Bay Parkway in Brooklyn; shorten the route of the G line, which will permanently stop at Court Square in Long Island City, Queens, instead of 71st and Continental Avenues in Forest Hills, Queens; lower the frequency of most letter-line trains to every 10 minutes from every eight minutes on weekends; lower the frequency of all trains to every 30 minutes from every 20 minutes from 2 to 5 a.m.; eliminate overnight bus service on 25 routes; and eliminate the X27 and X28 express-bus lines on the weekends.

What do you all think?

art's for transit. It may look nice, but up keep of the projects sucks away money that could be used for other needs.

Kamen Rider wrote:art's for transit. It may look nice, but up keep of the projects sucks away money that could be used for other needs.

A certain amount of money in each rehab must be for art in order to receive state aid.

My cuts-

V/W eliminated
M cuts to 9 Av. rush hours
8 min. headways extended to 10 min.
N runs via bridge, shuttle Canal-DeKalb nights
5 shuttle on weekends
3 shuttle (135-148) weekends/nights
Eliminate 5 Bronx express
Cut alternate terminal trips (E to 179, 5 to Utica/New Lots/238, 4 to New Lots, A to Rockaway Pk) Since the main terminal can't handle the extra capacity, cut enough trains to go within capacity limts.
A runs local in Manhattan weekends

All non-SI Express buses eliminated non-rush hours
Most important of all, cut line manager program.

since i'm sick of saying the same bit about this, i'll just touch on a techinal diffcaulty. Relaying at Wet 4th would require one or both express tracks be removed from service for through trains. there is no interlocking to handle such a move coming off the cut. a train heading for the cut must be on the local track before stoping at west 4th and a train heading for the bridge must be on the express. lets just say being a towerman at west 4th interlocking would be a head ache waiting to happen.

before the express tracks were built, the center tracks at West 4th ended at a blank wall. all interlocking is now north of the station. A train heading for the bridge line must be on the express and a train heading for the cut to essex must be on the local before they enter the station. the simpler anwer is not to use west 4th. the real question is does this service need to run at all? why can't it just stay as a shuttle. The V doesn't run at night anywhy, why not just leave the M shuttle. we're suposed to be cutting expenses here.

In a situation where drastic severe cuts had to made or the system would stop running, I would propose the following:

Cut W completely, it is underutilized.
Cut A to Rockaway Park (and Shuttle).
Abandon shuttle to tsq.
Cut Z completely. J runs express between Essex St and Myrtle Ave (some of you might not support this one!)
5 train runs from Bowling Green to Eastchester/Dyer Av only. Cut entire Brooklyn run and service to Wakefield.
3 train runs only as shuttle from New Lots Av to Chambers. Abandon 148 St and 145 St stations.
Cut V completely.
Cut B completely. No reason Brighton line gets express service when the other BMT lines don't.
M terminates at Broad St.
Cut Franklin Av shuttle and abandon Park Pl, Brooklyn. Connections can be made at Altantic/Pacific instead.

None of these changes would have a large effect on anyone's commute. They would also keep almost all of the stations open.

I love the idea of cutting the times sq. shuttle, completely useless, use the 7. In addition:
Shorten the V line in queens to queens plaza.
Eliminate the express #7 train
Eliminate the Z
Bye Bye W
Bye Bye express #5
#5 runs to Eastchester ALL times
B always terminates at 145th St.
E will always run to Jamaica Center (not 179th, hence cutting trains)

I haven't discussed any changes in brooklyn since I rarely ride the train there

hi55us wrote:I love the idea of cutting the times sq. shuttle, completely useless, use the 7.

The 42nd st shuttle is one of the fastest way to get between GCT and NYP, which is surprisingly common. Not to mention its triple tracked, as opposed to the far less frequent, double tracked 7.

Eliminate the express #7 train

Need that for Mets games alone. I don't think you realize just how slow the 7 can be when its crowded and the dwell times get particularly long.

Eliminate the Z

This I'll give you. Same situation as the 9 a few years back. Doesn't really save any time, as the time saved in skipping a few stops is lost in waiting for the right train to actually stop at the station. Kinda surprised they didn't drop it back when the ditched the 9. (Of course, then I wouldn't be able to take a trip on my initials, but I can check those feelings)

I agree, cutting the shuttle is a dumb move. yea, the 7 runs the same route, but not at the same intervale level, nor does the shuttle need to contened with people coming from queens.

The E peak runs to/From 179th are used to maintain the proper TPH needed for the IND QB. The Parsons interlocking was not designed to be a terminal and is used to the max already. 179th with just the F has open capcity.

The Brigton gets express service becuase it can be used properly. the Culver and West End are three track lines and the Sea Beach has no express stops. what's the point of leaving capity sit around unused. the only point where a B and a Q effect the operation of the other on the brigton line is the homeballs at Parkside with tell which train will be allowed to head north to Propect Park first. Last I heard, about two years ago, it was a frist come-frist sent operation.

I agree - no need to cut the shuttle. It's too bad that the shuttle can't be extended to the west side vs. the 7. The 7 is so deep at both GCT and TSQ. That would be a most inconvenient transfer.

I would not cut the 5 Bronx express, either. The 5 sees a lot of commuters from areas of the north Bronx, and areas just north of the Bronx such as Mt. Vernon and Pelham. I bet even some folks from City Island and Co-Op City take it. I actually used to drive in and take it from Pelham Parkway.

Skip-stop is a complete waste.