Increased Service For 12 Subway Lines
Hmm…. am I imagining that I am waiting lesser & lesser for a train to come? No, it is not your imagination straphangers as increased service will soon be coming to 12 lines. Here is more via the MTA press release:
MTA New York City Transit plans to increase scheduled service on 12 subway lines with the most significant changes coming to the 42 St S shuttle’s weeknight service. The addition of 31 round trips planned for the 12456AEJMNS lines on weekdays, as well as the addition of 3 round trips planned for the C line on Sundays, reflect the subway system’s surging ridership and anticipated increased demand as residential and commercial development continues to change New York City’s landscape. NYC Subways moved an average of nearly 5.6 million daily customers in 2014, and 2015 subway ridership is on track to exceed that record. Crew and schedule changes will be finalized in the coming months and the service changes will go into effect in June 2016.
The number of weeknight round trips on the 42 S shuttle will double to 24 between 9:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., bringing down the average time between trains to five minutes during that time period. The extra service accommodates customers who traverse the two busiest subway stations in the system, Times Sq-42 St and Grand Central-42 St-, which also serve as major transfer points for Metro-North and 13 subway lines.
Other major lines that will be increasing service include the Seventh Avenue 12 lines, with a total of five additional round trips during peak and evening hours; the Eighth Avenue ACE lines, with three additional round trips during midday and evening hours and three more round trips on Sunday mornings; the JMZ lines, with a total of three additional weekday round trips; and the system’s busiest route: the Lexington Avenue 456 lines, with seven additional weekday evening round trips.
These changes were proposed according to loading and policy guidelines as directed by the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. While the changes will allow NYC Transit to serve more customers while operating trains in a safe and reliable manner, the level of service that can be added is limited due to car and track capacity constraints during peak hours and the need to perform ongoing maintenance and capital construction work during off-peak hours.
“New York City is in the middle of a development renaissance, and the MTA is part of the driving force behind huge changes in parts of the city that residents now see as desirable to live in and businesses to build out,” said James L. Ferrara, Interim President of NYC Transit. “People want to live or work in places that are readily accessible by mass transit, and New York City Transit must take new real estate trends into account to help these areas thrive. However, our subway system is more than a century old and even where we are aided by new technology, we are still limited by the overall age and condition of the system and the maintenance that is needed to run trains safely. Making these service changes wherever we can lets us make the best use of existing resources as we expand to keep up with private sector development.”
The cost for the implementation of these changes is $5.8 million annually and has been included in the 2016 operating budget.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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