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Service Diversions 01-16-12

Posted by
on January 16th, 2012 at 5:01 am

I have just updated the Service Diversions by removing the weekend work that just wrapped up a minute ago.

A reminder that today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day so click on the following entries for service plan information:

Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)

Metro-North Railroad

NYC Transit

If I see or hear of anything interesting or important, I will tweet about it so follow @TransitBlogger which can easily be done by clicking the button in the sidebar.

The next service diversions entry update will be sometime on Thursday or Friday after I receive the official press release from the MTA with the scheduled work.

As always, stay safe & have a wonderful week.

P.S. If you or anyone you know is into independent music, check out Surge FM which is up & running.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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0

MTA Completes Initial FASTRACK

Posted by
on January 16th, 2012 at 12:38 am


MTA workers doing work as a part of the initial FASTRACK.

This past Friday morning, the MTA officially completed its initial run of the FASTRACK program. The program features complete shutdowns of line segments 24×7 for a period of time to perform much needed work. Work which would normally take a few months to complete due to service running is now able to be done much faster.

The agency released a press release following the end of FASTRACK which saw the Lexington Avenue lines shut down between 42nd St-Grand Central & Atlantic Ave:

For four consecutive weeknights hundreds of MTA workers labored through the late night and early morning hours cleaning, inspecting, repairing and replacing subway infrastructure on a nearly seven-mile segment of the normally busy Lexington Avenue Line.

Jobs that would usually take weeks or months to complete were accomplished in days because, for the first time, maintenance workers were allowed to perform their tasks without the interruption of passenger trains rolling through a massive work area that stretched from Grand Central-42nd Street to Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.

MTA New York City Transit’s new FASTRACK initiative is an entirely new way to perform subway maintenance in our system completely suspending train service over a segment of a subway line, giving workers uninterrupted access to tracks, signals, cables, lighting, third rail components and platform edges. During the four-night period, more than 300 vital tasks were completed – from rail replacement to roadbed cleaning to the scraping and painting of ceilings over tracks and platforms. Much of this work had not been performed in several years and some of it could only be done in the absence of trains over an extended period of time.

“It was clear from the first night that in terms of productivity and efficiency, FASTRACK is a major improvement in the way we perform subway maintenance and a perfect example of what can be accomplished when labor and management work as a team to improve the system,” said NYC Transit President Thomas F. Prendergast. “I consider this effort a success and it could not have come about without the hard work and dedication of the hundreds of Transit workers who worked on the tracks, tunnels, and in the stations.”

Three work trains supported nearly 70 work crews from several divisions within the Department of Subways. Work was performed in the stations along the line segment as well as the tunnels and even into the Joralemon Tube that connects Brooklyn to Manhattan.

In the planning for upwards of three months, the result was a seamless effort that saw maintenance workers specializing in different disciplines working to complete jobs and make improvements that customers would notice by the time service was resumed on the 4, 5 and 6 line for the next morning’s rush period. Workers cleaned and replaced lighting fixtures, scraped dry mud from the roadbed while also removing trash and debris, as well as inspected and performed preventative maintenance on components crucial to providing safe and reliable service. They also scraped peeling paint from station ceilings and painted station areas. Rails were replaced in several areas along with a heavily utilized track switch just north of the Brooklyn Bridge Station.

Work also included inspections of equipment along the tracks; scraping and bagging of debris; replacement of tie and rail fastener plates; scraping and painting rubbing board and columns within station limits; cleaning of stations (mobile wash); cleaning of drains; and routine maintenance and performance testing of signals. All work was wrapped up and service restored to customers by 5 a.m. each morning.

“A tremendous amount of coordination and effort is going into FASTRACK and we are already seeing the benefits,” said Carmen Bianco, Senior Vice President of the Department of Subways.
Platform Conductors and Traffic Checkers were on hand at key transit hubs including Grand Central – 42nd St, Atlantic Ave-Pacific St and 14th St – Union Square handing out printed information and directing riders to alternate lines. In addition to these efforts, the MTA’s website, www.mta.info, provided daily updates to customers on the previous night’s work. When FASTRACK is complete, and NYC Transit performs its assessment, NYC Transit will provide a full report to the MTA Board for review.

The next FASTRACK overnight closure will be on the Broadway/Seventh Avenue 1, 2, 3 line between 34th Street and Atlantic Avenue from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for four consecutive nights beginning Monday, February 13 and ending at 5 a.m. Friday, February 17.

Highlights of the work completed during Lexington Avenue Line FASTRACK:

• Track – removed 20,140 pounds of debris, scraped and cleaned a total of 19,770 feet of track, replaced 42 tie blocks, installed 1,005 plates, installed 1,615 friction pads, replaced 25 sections of rails, replaced track switch;

• Third Rail Operations – cleared 1,685 identified defects, scraped and cleaned 4,900 feet of track under and around the third rail;

• Signals – first of the month inspection performed on 311 locations, serviced 14 switch machines, tested 63 timer relays, cleared five electrical grounding conditions;

• Power – inspected 55 manholes for faults, installed 866 feet of new communication cable;

• Infrastructure – Four stations were sounded and tapped for loose concrete, cleaned drains at eight stations, grouted leaks at 10 locations;

• Elevators & Escalators – cleared 86 elevator and escalator defects, replaced 23 escalator steps at three stations;

• Electronics Maintenance Division – tested and inspected 167 emergency alarm/emergency telephones, inspected eight escalator fire suppression systems, inspected 12 platform edge CCTV’s and replaced monitors and cameras as needed;

• Maintenance of Way Engineering – wired and cut in five control line/key by locations;

• Station Environment – repaired lighting and installed new lighting at five stations, replaced 2,217 bulbs, replaced missing/damaged floor tiles at four stations, scraped 29,150 square feet, primed 12,650 square feet, and painted 17,650 square feet of platform and track ceilings, repaired broken steps at 15 stations, cleaned and sanitized 15 stations with mobile wash, baited and removed garbage from refuse rooms at 15 stations, replaced 43 platform edge signs at nine stations, replaced 2,172 bulbs in tunnels; painted stairway copings and railings at seven stations.

I must commend the MTA on an excellent job with FASTRACK which from all accounts was a huge success. I felt the agency did a fantastic job of getting the word out with a ton of advance notice in terms of reaching riders via all forms of media. They also did a great job in keeping riders updated regardless of what station or borough you were in. I heard announcements about it everywhere.

I took the time to ask riders throughout the week how they were coping with the loss of the Lexington Avenue lines along with how they thought the agency did with informing riders. Surprisingly I did not come across one complaint. This is a rarity for a riding public which usually is misinformed & faults the MTA even when it is not their fault.

As far as the amount of work done, it looks like they accomplished a great deal within a short period of time. Amazing what can be done without interruptions. We can only hope that the rest of the planned FASTRACK’s go as smoothly.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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MTA Contract With TWU Local 100 Expires

Posted by
on January 16th, 2012 at 12:12 am


A scene many would like to not see again, TWU Local 100 members on strike.

Just a few minutes ago, the contract between the MTA & TWU Local 100 expired. This comes as no surprise considering no one from either side or observers such as myself expected a deal to be reached before it did.

The two sides, which are constantly at war with each other, will continue to negotiate. Even with negotiations ongoing, Transport Workers Union Local 100 John Samuelsen continues to talk tough as he had this to say yesterday while on break from negotiations:

I’m going to go back into the hotel and I’m going to tell the MTA chairman and the governor they can take their set of demands and shove it. We’ll fight them until they relent and give us a fair contract.

The MTA released an official statement shortly after midnight:

Even though the MTA and TWU Local 100 have negotiated through the weekend, we have been unable to reach a settlement prior to the expiration of the contract. While we remain far apart, the MTA will continue to negotiate in good faith in the hope of reaching a settlement.

Pete Donohue of the New York Daily News takes a closer look into the negotiations:

The transit contract was expected to expire midnight Sunday without a deal — and the leader of 34,000 bus and subway workers had only harsh words for MTA brass and Gov. Cuomo.

John Samuelsen, president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, told an estimated 800 rallying workers — who had braved the cold and skipped the Giants-Packers game to be there — he was “reinvigorated” by their show of support.

The MTA demands include establishing a new class of part-time bus drivers, five unpaid vacation days and overtime after 40 hours — instead of after eight hours in a day. MTA officials also have said any wage increases must be paid for by work-rule changes that cut costs.

One source close to the negotiations said there appeared to be pressure coming from the Cuomo administration not to grant workers even a small pay increase. The Cuomo administration last year reached deals with the state’s two largest unions that froze pay rates for the first three years of five-year deals.

Click here for the complete report.

As I noted, it comes as no surprise that the two sides did not reach a new deal before the most recent contract expired. While the two sides will never see eye to eye on many things, it is promising that the union is not leaning towards striking as it did in 2005.

I do find it interesting that the MTA is willing to commit to install 400 bus driver safety partitions. In my opinion, that is something that should not have to even be mentioned in negotiations. The safety of their employees should come first before anything. Losing one bus driver would be too many much less the fact we have lost a few due to no safety measures being in place for them.

I will continue to follow these negotiations which for the sake of everybody will hopefully come to a quick & positive end for both sides.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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Service Diversions 01-13-12

Posted by
on January 13th, 2012 at 2:38 pm

I have just updated the Service Diversions with the latest planned work for this upcoming weekend, next week & beyond in some cases.

A reminder that this Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day so click on the following entries for service plan information:

Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)

Metro-North Railroad

NYC Transit

If I see or hear of anything interesting or important, I will tweet about it so follow @TransitBlogger which can easily be done by clicking the button in the sidebar.

The next service diversions entry update will be Monday at 5:01 AM when all of the weekend work is wrapped up.

As always, stay safe & have a wonderful weekend.

P.S. If you or anyone you know is into independent music, check out Surge FM which is up & running.

xoxo Transit Blogger

You might enjoy reading these related entries:
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0

NYCT Service Plan For MLK Jr Day

Posted by
on January 13th, 2012 at 2:29 pm

Here is the service plan info for MTA NYC Transit on Martin Luther King Jr Day:

New York City Subway and Staten Island Railway:

The New York City Subway and the Staten Island Railway will operate on a regular weekday schedule. There is no special Get Away service on the Staten Island Railway.

Buses in New York City:

All buses operated by MTA New York City Transit and the MTA Bus Company will operate on a regular weekday schedule with these exceptions.

• Nine limited-stop bus routes on Staten Island will not operate: S81, S84, S86, S90, S91, S92, S94, S96, and S98. Local service on these routes will continue to operate.

• There will be no limited-stop service on four bus routes in Queens (although local service will continue to run on these routes): Q6, Q21, Q25 and Q65.

• The S89 and S93, as well as all other local, express, limited-stop and Select Bus Service buses will run their normal weekday schedules.

All other local, express, limited-stop and Select Bus Service buses, as well as subways, will run the normal weekday routes during their normal weekday hours, with slightly longer wait times on some routes.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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