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The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

nytimes.com

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Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#91

Post by borne0 »

jhbadger wrote: post #87
borne0 wrote: post #35

The trains should only run on tracks that are completely enclosed (More control on the environment will realize better reliability, and as an aside nicer living space. Raised tracks are ugly.), Also they should run on rubber wheels like the Montreal metro has since 1966. Both metros should have barrier between platforms and tracks since they know where the doors will open. It's sad but a non-negligible cause of delay…

As someone who's lived in both Montreal and the Washington DC area (and used Metro for commuting in both), I have to say that a mixture of raised and buried tracks are really the only way to have a practical system if you want it to work beyond the dense downtown area. Many of the more open places in metropolitan Montreal like Lachine don't have any Metro stops due to the expense of digging tunnels to there. In contr…

Yes I totally agree with you, I'd love it if the metro was far more expansive than it currently is in Montreal. For me the solution is to expand the metro system to the west island, south shore, etc but forget about burying it and just put it above ground in a tube. Initially it sounds silly but the current rolling stock and tracks aren't up to the task of dealing with Montreal weather, but maintaining one system is (I think) more feasible than our current system (metro, trains, upcoming light rail, etc)

Every now and again I look at the 1960s photos of the implementation of the metro system and the main idea that I take away from it is that something of that scale is pretty much impossible today.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/archivesmontreal/sets/72157664...

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#92

Post by justherefortart »

oconnor663 wrote: post #55
mabbo wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a cascading failure issue. Toronto has the same problem, on a smaller scale. What I see here: Step 1: a train gets delayed for a minute somewhere on the line. A dozen common reasons exist- someone becomes ill, mechanical issue, debris on the tracks, etc. Step 2: Because it's rush hour, there's minimal buffer time between trains so the train behind it must also stop (and the one behind it, and the one behind it,…

The subway equivalent of gridlock :(

Traffic waves. Interesting topic. I just enjoy the surfing to work and let the waves take me gently along :-)

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#93

Post by justherefortart »

closeparen wrote: post #20
jorblumesea wrote: post #6

I'm confused as to why the US seems to fail or fall so far behind in infrastructure compared to other developed nations. It seems that we throw money at our problems but seemingly get nowhere. It's sad because there's many amazing things about this country, but we cannot do basic things like make trains run on time.

Plundering the funds meant for unsexy long-term projects to fund services well in excess of current tax revenue is extremely good politics. Liberals love sexy new infrastructure and services, conservatives love the relatively low taxes, no one really gives a shit how smoothly public transit will be working in 30 years. It's a reassuring signal that American democracy is working as intended: its results truly reflect…

Its results reflect our propaganda, marketing, ignorance, and shortsightedness.

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#94

Post by nl »

inteleng wrote: post #90
CydeWeys wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I purposely live within easy biking distance of the office for this reason, which I'll admit is a luxury that not everyone can afford. Fortunately tech pays well. Between my own bike and Citi Bike I can get everywhere I need to without relying on any form of mass transportation. Biking is frequently the fastest form of transportation, depending start/end point of the trip anyway. It certainly is for my daily commute.

Is this useful?

It certainly added evidence to my view that cycling is a useful form of transit in dense cities. It also added the element of people making deliberate choices in where to live based on transport methods.

On the other hand, you have a history of adding comments like this. Good luck with that.

Edit: I noticed you are editing your comment. When I replied it read "This comment, as nice as it may have sounded to you, doesn't contribute anything to the conversation - in fact, it amounts essentially to bragging."

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#96

Post by [deleted] »

inteleng wrote: post #90
CydeWeys wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I purposely live within easy biking distance of the office for this reason, which I'll admit is a luxury that not everyone can afford. Fortunately tech pays well. Between my own bike and Citi Bike I can get everywhere I need to without relying on any form of mass transportation. Biking is frequently the fastest form of transportation, depending start/end point of the trip anyway. It certainly is for my daily commute.

Is this useful?

[deleted]

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#97

Post by rayiner »

amaccuish wrote: post #60
Rapzid wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I just got back from Japan and ended up transiting four of the five busiest train stations in the world(we did not visit Yokohama). My takeaway; the US will "never" have great public transit. Other than bus issues in Kyoto due to the amount of tourists visiting shrines(205, 59, etc) it was.. eye opening. BARTs issues and costs are a joke. NYs reliability is a joke. We are not in the same league. Many countries…

Ye moving to Moscow it's been great how cheap the metro is here, and it's reliable and very rarely packed. London is good but the price of Moscow beats it. I know for the underground, all profit is reinvested, maybe that's the problem in America? Many contractors all wanting their share? At the end of the day you just have to accept that while a good public transport system looks like a big loss on paper, it brings s…

> I know for the underground, all profit is reinvested, maybe that's the problem in America? Many contractors all wanting their share? At the end of the day you just have to accept that while a good public transport system looks like a big loss on paper, it brings so many benefits.

Except the Underground more or less breaks even from fare revenue (Google "farebox recovery"). NYC's MTA does not, and is heavily subsidized by tax dollars.

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#98

Post by personlurking »

wgerard wrote: post #24

It's interesting seeing the ways people work around this, even for people who don't have hard start/end times (e.g. tech employees). I have one friend who uses Citi Bike to get to important meetings I think people who don't live in the city don't realize how (relatively) stressful it can be when the trains are late. Riding the train during peak hours is already a pretty stressful experience: The sardine analogy is ve…

The other day, I had to take the wrong train in the wrong direction, and switch to another wrong train in the right direction (which only operated this way on that day). It was so counterintuitive that I spent 2 hours or more trying to figure all this out, reading signs, asking station agents and listening to announcements.

Re: The Subway Is So Late, It’s Making New Yorkers Early

#99

Post by colanderman »

baud147258 wrote: post #16
mynegation wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

THe keyword here is “supposed”. I don’t have regular experience with NYC subway, but used to ride Toronto subway everyday, which is the subject to the similar problems. The trains do arrive every 3-5 minutes on weekdays, but then something happens (security incident on a train, unauthorized person on a track level, fires, signal problems, or - the most horrible - “personal injury on a track level”, the language for s…

Here in Paris, the rail & subway company instead of "personal injury on a track level", use "people accident". I'd say that most of the lines in Paris are the same.

Boston is even more vague – "medical emergency".
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