According to the news this morning MTA prepared for today's storm by parking trains on express tracks in the tunnels last night rather than the yards exposed to the snow. This sounds like a great idea and apparently helped them get underway quickly this morning with the exception of no express service until all trains were on the move. Is this standard procedure? Has it been done before? It's the kind of this people complained about NJT not doing in advance of Sandy.
Yes, they're referred to as snowbirds. NYCT is operating under a plan 4 which means all sorts of delightful things like laying up trains on express tracks and crews having to show up 2 hours early for their put-ins (and reporting to different places than normal) because the trains aren't where they're supposed to be. (Example: you normally do a 1 train put in out of 240th yard, but the train is laid up on the middle track by 103rd street, etc)
After that wicked storm several years ago where that A train got stranded they're a lot more cautious about the storm prep.
