Service Diversions 06-03-13
I have just updated the Service Diversions by removing the weekend work that wrapped up a short time ago & moving up the latest planned work for this week, next weekend & beyond in some cases.
As a reminder, FASTRACK will begin tonight in Queens along the Queens Blvd corridor on the 
, 
, 
& 
so make sure to check the diversions for changes & alternate routes.
Follow @TransitBlogger on Twitter by clicking the button in the sidebar as I am using it more often. Also if you are into indie music make sure to follow @SurgeFM as well.
Have a safe & wonderful week!
xoxo Transit Blogger
You might enjoy reading these related entries:- Service Diversions 05-17-13
- Service Diversions 05-10-13
- Service Diversions 05-03-13
- Service Diversions 04-19-13
- Service Diversions 05-30-13
Suicide The Leading Cause Of Subway Deaths
In what comes as no surprise to me & I am sure many others, a report obtained by the New York Post shows that suicide is the leading cause of NYC Subway deaths. The subway which was done by the MTA shows that 51% of deaths between 2010 & 2012 on the subway were the result of suicide. Gary Buiso & Isabel Vincent of the New York Post have more:
Suicide by subway is the leading cause of straphanger deaths — representing 51 percent of all fatalities, an analysis of three years of MTA data shows.
And with 57 percent of all rail deaths this year — 16 of 28 — chalked up to suicide, 2013 remains on a grim pace.
From 2010 to 2012 there were a total of 153 deaths by subway trains — and 78 were believed to be suicides, according to data obtained by The Post through a Freedom of Information Act request.
In 2010, a staggering 69 percent of all subway deaths were suicides, or 35 out of 51 total fatalities.
The cases, detailed in incident reports by the MTA, are presented in a matter-of-fact language that belies the ghastly reality.
“[Victim] laid down on s/b express track when s/b train struck [victim] and cut him in half,” reads a Feb. 3, 2010, account about the 33rd Street station.
On Friday, two more people committed subway suicide, including a man who jumped in front of a C train at West 23rd Street and a man who positioned his neck on the elevated tracks at Seneca Avenue in Queens, decapitating himself. His severed head tumbled down to the street below, cops said.
Stations with the most suicides — two each — include Harlem’s 125th Street; 21st Street Queensbridge; 96th Street on the Upper West Side; and Union Turnpike.
The deadliest station — with one suicide and three accidental deaths from 2010 to 2012 — was Union Square. Stations along 14th Street west of Union Square had five deaths during that same span, data reveal.
Meanwhile, homicide by train is exceedingly rare — just two people died after being pushed on the tracks in the three-year span, both in 2012.
All other deaths were accidental, with straphangers being struck climbing on the tracks or falling to their doom in the path of an oncoming train.
Experts said subway suicide is generally a surefire way to end it all — which is what makes it so appealing to those on the brink.
“Believe it or not, when someone sets out to kill themselves they are worried that they will just get maimed, but when you jump in front of a train, that’s it, you die,” said psychiatrist Rami Kaminski.
But not always.
Over the three-year span, a total of 118 people tried to kill themselves — but about 34 percent, or 40 of them, failed, according to the MTA data.
Click here for the complete report.
As I stated at the beginning of this report, it comes as no surprise that suicide was the leading cause of NYC Subway deaths. The only thing that came as a bit of a surprise was the percentage was not higher. Our region has its share of depressed individuals & those serious about it know that getting hit by a train likely will do the trick.
Regardless of the percentage, the problem is clearly one that needs to be addressed as these actual & attempted suicides hurt loved ones of the victim along with the potential issues that will linger for the train operator & his loved ones. As to be expected, the MTA & Transport Workers Union can’t agree on what should be done to make it safer. Hopefully they can come up with an amicable & feasible solution soon.
xoxo Transit Blogger
You might enjoy reading these related entries:- Woman Saved At Manhattan Subway Station
- NYC Subway Delays Continue To Rise
- Man Killed By L Train In Brooklyn
- LIRR Is Apart Of Two Unrelated Suicides
- MTA Workers Protest Over Raises
Tragic Weekend On The Subway
This weekend was filled with tragedy on the NYC Subway as it featured 4 deaths & the potential for a 5th. The tragic events first started on Friday morning around 2:15 AM when a man was pinned to the platform by a Bronx-bound (northbound) 2 train at the 174th Street station while trying to cross the tracks.
A few hours later, a man jumped in front of a Manhattan-bound (northbound) C train the 23rd Street station in Chelsea. The 3rd death occurred in Queens when a suicidal man was decapitated by a Queens-bound (Middle Village) M train as it rumbled into the Seneca Avenue station.
The 4th death is the only victim to be identified as 22 year old Francisco Deigo Jr. known by his deejay name of Tech Trackz was killed by a 2 train at the Wakefield-241st Street station after trying to retrieve his iPhone which had fallen to the tracks. Sadly his death likely could have been avoided if he had shown some patience. More on this story courtesy of this report by Mark Morales & Thomas Tracy of the New York Daily News:
A Bronx deejay who busted out beats under the name “Tech Trackz” died on a stretch of city subway tracks Saturday morning as he tried to retrieve an iPhone he had dropped, officials said.
Police sources said Francisco Diego Jr., 22, was shocked and then hit by a No. 2 train at the Wakefield-241st St. station — the last stop on the line — just after 1 a.m.
Sources said Diego told a token booth clerk he had dropped his smart phone on the tracks. After the train entered the station he managed to get between two train cars and jumped onto the tracks. He was electrocuted when he touched the third rail, sources said.
Diego fell onto the tracks, where the train hit him as it rumbled out of the station to be serviced.
Click here to read the complete story.
Unfortunately this would not be the last we would hear about iPhone safety issues on the subway as David Narson could have been killed. He got into a fight with a man on the E train who tried & eventually succeeded in stealing his iPhone & wallet. A bit more courtesy of Eyewitness News:
David Narson is fine, but he is angry that his attacker could have cost him his life.
On Saturday night, Narson was rushed to the hospital after a fight that started on the E train, and ended up spilling out onto the platform when the train pulled into the station at 53rd and Lexington.
“He pushed me on the tracks, I pulled myself off – I feel lucky,” says Narson.
Click here for the complete report with video.
I never like to hear or read about these subway deaths especially when they could have been avoided. The obsession with material goods especially those socially pimped out like the iPhone result in horrible choices that not only hurt but have led to the death of people.
I myself have an iPhone but I am not going to risk my life for it as at the end of the day no matter how attached I am to it (and I am), I realize that it is still just a phone. Hopefully this tragic death resonates with fellow smartphone owners (although I doubt it will for some) so they can realize that material goods can be replaced while a life can not!
xoxo Transit Blogger
You might enjoy reading these related entries:- MTA Officer Commits Suicide In Brooklyn
- Man Killed By L Train In Brooklyn
- Man Pushed Onto Subway Tracks By Urinator
- Track Supervisor Death Could’ve Been Avoided
- Good Samaritan Saves MTA Employee
Service Diversions 05-30-13
Get an early start to your weekend planning as I have just updated the Service Diversions with the latest planned work for the upcoming weekend, next week & beyond in some cases.
Follow @TransitBlogger on Twitter by clicking the button in the sidebar as I am using it more often. Also if you are into indie music make sure to follow @SurgeFM as well.
Have a safe & wonderful weekend!
xoxo Transit Blogger
You might enjoy reading these related entries:- Service Diversions 09-13-13
- Service Diversions 05-24-13
- Service Diversions 11-14-13
- Service Diversions 11-08-13
- Service Diversions 10-31-13
A Train Service To The Rockaways Restored
The A Train returns to the Rockaways 7 months after Hurricane Sandy. (Photo courtesy of the MTA.)
Today marked an important day in the post Hurricane Sandy recovery as A train service was restored to thousands in the Rockaways. The damage left millions of dollars in damage & a loss of direct service for months. In the interim, residents had to get by with a mixture of shuttle buses & a shuttle train.
Here is more on the service restoration which occurred earlier today via the press release I received:
After seven months of longer trips aboard shuttle trains and buses, the 30,000 subway customers in the Rockaways are getting their train service back. Beginning at noon today, they will be able to “Take the A Train” off the peninsula, through Broad Channel and on to Howard Beach for the first time since Superstorm Sandy left the area devastated.
Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) representatives and local elected officials reopened the line with a ceremonial ride from Howard Beach to the Rockaways onboard a vintage IND subway train. There, they greeted customers and welcomed them onto a newly rebuilt subway line.
“The Department of Transportation is investing more than $10 billion throughout the tri-state region to repair damage caused by Hurricane Sandy and make the region’s transportation network stronger and more resilient than before,” said Peter Rogoff, Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration. “The residents of the Rockaways know first-hand what it means to be the victim of the single greatest transit disaster ever to hit our country and they know just as well as anyone the real cost of the storm. The investment that the FTA has made to restore A train service to the Rockaways will mean that some residents will no longer have to choose between spending twice as much time or twice as much money to get to work.”
“Restoring service to the Rockaways is a proud achievement for the MTA New York City Transit workers who did an incredible amount of work to rebuild a railroad from the ground up,” said MTA Interim Executive Director Thomas F. Prendergast. “The Rockaway Line has been in service since 1956, and the MTA is glad to once again provide a safe, reliable and efficient train trip for our customers. But the MTA’s post-Sandy work is far from over, and we still have plenty of work ahead of us.”
The MTA has performed more than $75 million worth of work to restore subway service to the Rockaways, and has spent an additional $9 million to operate replacement bus and subway shuttle service. Hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of additional infrastructure work remains to fully restore all elements of the Rockaway line to the condition it was in before Sandy struck. Funding was supplied by the Federal Transit Administration, which has allocated almost $3.8 billion to date to help the MTA recover from Sandy.
The MTA served Rockaways customers during months of construction by trucking a small fleet of subway cars to the Rockaways, where they served as the free H shuttle along a portion of the line. A free shuttle bus ran between the Far Rockaway and Howard Beach stations, and extra buses were assigned to other routes in the Rockaways. However, many customers experienced longer and far more crowded rides.
The 3.7-mile stretch of the A Line between the Howard Beach and Broad Channel stations is the most exposed area in the New York City subway network. For much of this distance, the line runs between Jamaica Bay and the Jamaica Wildlife Refuge. Both scenic and vulnerable, the low-lying line absorbed punishing blows from a combination of high tide and surging waters from the bay.
Sandy sent waters crashing over and under the tracks, twisting steel rails, destroying the electrical and signal infrastructure and washing out hundreds of feet of track support. Saltwater inundated everything that remained, leaving behind tons of wreckage and a monumental cleanup and repair job.
To rebuild from this catastrophic damage, construction contractors and transit employees worked virtually nonstop since early November, removing debris, filling in washouts, repairing track, and replacing signals and wiring in an effort to repair an historic level of damage.
The figures associated with the repair job are staggering, from the amount of material needed for the construction job to the tonnage of debris that had to be removed from the right-of-way:
Mobilized more than 45 pieces of heavy equipment for cleanup and reconstruction efforts
Located and delivered over 20,000 tons of new material including track ballast stone, Rip Rap stone and Jetty stone
Removed more than 3,000 tons of debris from the site
Installed 600 of steel sheeting at the major breach to restore the fresh water pond
Installed over 20,000 linear feet of new fencing
Delivered and poured more than 3,000 cubic yards of concrete to fill and repair the two major breaches, the largest of which was 270 feet across
Performed extensive track work
Built out shoulders on the east and west sides of the tracks
Replaced damaged and missing third rail protection boards and insulators
Tested signal, power, and communication cables and replaced damaged ones
Serviced damaged stop and switch machines
Repaired stations at Broad Channel and Beach 116th Street
Took delivery of 162 truckloads of steel sheeting
Installed approximately 5,300 linear feet of steel sheeting
Excavated 3,500 linear feet for signal conduit installation
Installed 2,800 linear feet of signal conduits
Excavated 11 negative return conduit locations
Installed two conduit runs for negative return electrical cable
Installed six utility poles at Hamilton Beach
Completed 5,400 linear feet of negative return rail on Broad Channel island
Completed 11,400 linear feet of negative return rail on beach side
Took delivery of 2,400 linear feet of cable tray
The MTA served Rockaways customers during months of construction by trucking a small fleet of subway cars to the Rockaways, where they served as the free H shuttle along a portion of the line. A free shuttle bus ran between the Far Rockaway and Howard Beach stations, and extra buses were assigned to other routes in the Rockaways. However, many customers experienced longer and far more crowded rides.
The Rockaway branch of the A Line was originally built by the Pennsylvania Railroad as part of what is now the Long Island Rail Road. When the New York City Board of Transportation looked to expand its Independent Subway System (IND), it struck a deal with the Pennsylvania Railroad on September 5, 1952 to pay $8.5 million for the Rockaway line as part of a major expansion into the underserved borough of Queens.
The job of extending the Eighth Avenue subway to the Rockaways was tough and complicated. The trestle and the two drawbridges between Howard Beach and the Rockaways needed to be totally rebuilt out of steel, and new steelwork for the elevated structure was erected to connect the old Lefferts Blvd. line to the LIRR Rockaway structure in Ozone Park.
The North Channel Bridge was converted into a fixed bridge, while the South Channel Bridge remained a swing bridge to allow marine traffic to pass through. All new tracks and signaling equipment were installed to match the IND’s existing systems.
A unique facet of the first Rockaway reconstruction came from New York City Parks Commissioner and political mover and shaker Robert Moses, who stipulated that the Board of Transportation accommodate a bird sanctuary as part of the rehabilitation. This was accomplished by dredging Jamaica Bay, creating a manmade island from landfilled sections of the bay. Work was completed and service began June 28, 1956.
This is believed to be the only instance where the addition of a new subway line also helped to create a wildlife preserve. And of course, the A Line is the only subway line in North America that runs through a National Park—once again.
This is a great day for the thousands who depend on this service. Kudos to the MTA for getting the service restored as quickly as possible.
xoxo Transit Blogger
You might enjoy reading these related entries:
