191 Street Station on the (1)
I received an MTA Text Message Alert about this while I was on a Bx20 heading for the 207 St terminal of the (A) train. Looks like I made the right choice this morning! [I usually take the (1) train through 191 St.]
(1) line Service Alert at MTA.info
The shock here is not that NYCT uses twitter – they’ve been using it for a long time – but rather that they are actually releasing photos of the interior of the station, from right after the ceiling collapse to current views of the repair efforts. Check these out before someone at NYCT or the MTA catches wind of this and makes the photos disappear!
Link: http://twitpic.com/photos/NYCTSubwayScoop
Source: SubChat
Today’s Metro newspaper features a short(!) article on the subway ceiling collapse at the 181st Street subway station on the (1) line. As usual, the reporter asked some subway rider member of the public to offer an opinion. The genius she chose made this enlightening remark:
“[The 181st Street Station is] old,” said Luz Contreras, 46. “The station at 191st looks old, too. I’m worried if something happens here, it could happen at the other one next.” (emphasis added)
Is that so? No, Luz. The station at 191st Street was COMPLETELY REFURBISHED in 2003-2004. And it looks fantastic. Maybe the nice white tiles and walls have gotten dirty since the renovation, but dirty does not equal old!
Take a look at some photos. In each row, the photo on the left is from before the renovation, and the photo on the right is from after the renovation.
Those last two are the most clear example.
Here are some bonus photos from after the renovation:
Now if you want to complain about something, how about complaining about NYCT’s deplorable operational response to this incident? That’s my next blog post 🙂
Last night, apparently part of the ceiling collapsed at the 181 St station on the (1) New York City Subway line, causing debris to fall onto the tracks. This is causing all manner of mad craziness this morning. I took the Bx10 to the Bx7 to the (A).
Bad news for residents of Van Cortlandt Park, Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, Kingsbridge, Inwood, and Washington Heights, though the latter two have the (A) train to make up for it.
My Bx10 driver correctly announced several times that there was no (1) service, and to take the Bx7 or Bx20 to 207 St for the (A) train. However, the driver of the Bx7 I transferred to did not make any such announcement, and thus a lot of people exited his bus at 231 St to walk down to the (1) station 🙁
Then in my station in midtown, I heard the much lauded “Dedicated Announcer” announce that there was shuttle bus service between 242 St and 168 St (making all stops), and that all (1) trains running between 242 St and Dyckman St would be running express. Express????
MTA officials were too busy tailgating with NJ Transit officials at Penn Station New York today to notice the significant and glaring error in their all important press release.
The press release, meant to announce the beginning of both LIRR/MNCR+NJT joint-ticketing to the Meadowlands and direct Metro-North New Haven line service to Secaucus, is only successful with the former. That’s because the press release GOT THE DATE WRONG of the first direct New Haven line train!!!!
In addition, Metro-North will be introducing a new direct service from major New Haven Line stations to the Meadowlands (via Secaucus Junction) for football games starting at 1 p.m. From there, shuttle trains will bring fans directly to the new Meadowlands Station and the game. Metro-North New Haven line direct service begins as the regular season kicks off on Sunday, September 13 with the NY Giants/Washington Redskins game that starts at 1 p.m. [Emphasis added]
Good job, MTA. Way to go.
You see, the 9/13/2009 game actually starts at 4:15 PM, thus making it ineligible for direct New Haven line service. The correct start date of direct New Haven line service is Sunday, September 20, 2009, when the New York Jets host the New England Patriots with a 1:00 PM kickoff.
In case the MTA goes and corrects the press release, below is a screen shot with the offending material highlighted.
UN believable
UPDATE: DepartureVision is actually online and working for possibly all stations in the system. Go here, click on a station, and then add “-mobile” after the “tid” part of the URL. Source: Railroad.net NJ Transit Rail forum
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New Jersey Transit has announced the trial implementation of real-time train arrival / departure boards available to mobile-internet users for the Secaucus Junction train station. It is being called DepartureVision™.
Using a mobile phone or device with internet capabilities, you can now see the upcoming arrivals / departures for the upper and lower levels (separately) of the Secaucus Junction station, including the scheduled arrival time, track assignment, and train status (on-time, 7 minutes late, etc.). A cool feature is that clicking on a train’s arrival time brings up a list of all the stops that train will be making after Secaucus Junction. Quite importantly, and as noted in the press release:
Customers who use the new Meadowlands Rail Line to travel to and from football games or major events will be able to check their Secaucus connections from Giants Stadium.
Score!
To see a large screen shot of what DepartureVision looks like, click the image below.
DepartureVision for the Upper Level of Secaucus Junction - click to see a higher resolution image
For much more information about this great new service, read the Customer Notice.
I hope this trial is very successful, and leads to DepartureVision being made available for all train stations in the New Jersey Transit rail system.
So….
Service Alert fun for the day
Why exactly does a switch problem at Dyckman Street cause the suspension of southbound (1) train service??
Yesterday afternoon I caught two interesting/funny service alerts posted at mta.info. The first one mentions Bowling Green-bound (5) trains, when (5) trains go all the way to Flatbush Av. Oops. The second one describes a low power condition at Grand Av. What’s a “low power condition”, what causes it, and how does it actually affect the trains or signals?
Oops: should say Flatbush Avenue-bound
What's a "low power condition"???
There’s a temporary loss of power between the Prospect Park and Parkside Avenue stations on the Brighton Line. Those NYC Subway commuters are in for some delays…
MTA New York City Transit - Service Alert
And this is after there were big problems out in the Rockaways this morning, affecting (A) and (S) service.
Temporary schedules/timetables have been posted to the MTA/NYCT website for the G subway line. These temporary timetables are in effect throughout July and August 2009 due to “extensive system maintenance.”
Temporary schedules for the G line
