The MTA planning pilot program to test "audio ads" in subway starting this spring

A brief aside from our recent posts on the Ronkonkoma Branch, the MTA announced recently that this spring the MTA will begin playing 30 second audible ads at select subway and commuter rail stations. I personally do not like this idea one bit. On top of the fact that we already listen to enough advertisements in any given day and that we pay high transportation fares, having to listen to a very loud 30 second ad which the MTA says would be played at 75 decibels, equivalent to that of a vacuum cleaner can actually be distracting or even borderline dangerous.

Both subway and commuter rail stations are very high stimulation places, and with the digital age, people are already hooked to their phones opposed to paying attention to what's going on around them, and the last thing we need is another distraction from the train and safety announcements. Additionally, an ad playing at 75 decibels could make it difficult for people to hear others especially in a subway station underground which is already loud enough, which could pose safety risks in an event of an emergency. 

Also not to be forgotten is the old "boy who cried wolf" scenario. If they keep on pumping out useless ads out on the loudspeaker, eventually people will start to ignore them and in the event of a real emergency where they need to make announcements on the loudspeaker, or in the case of a service disruption, people will not be listening.

In conclusion, subway stations are a overstimulating enough. Between the never-ending service announcements, loud trains, and constant threat of crime, the last possible thing the MTA needs is more distractions from what people should be doing when in a subway system- paying attention.

The Ronkonkoma Conundrum

(Photo: Tri-State Rail NOW)

The Hamlet of Ronkonkoma, a place I live quite close to, probably seems like a very dense urban neighborhood, however, the truth is quite far from that. In fact, there’s barely more people in Ronkonkoma then there are that use that station. The truth is, the vast majority of people boarding at Ronkonkoma are actually not from Ronkonkoma itself, or even if it’s immediate surrounding communities but rather from places east, north, south, and even west of it.

In order for commuter rail to work as it’s supposed to, service should be proportional to population density, all the way out to the end of the line. At no point should there be a steep service drop-off (unless the population similarly drops off, which hasn’t and won’t happen on Long Island). For example, out on the North Fork, service may be relatively proportional out in Greenport, however, Riverhead for example has 30% of people living there while service sees an 85% reduction. Many of those who live in Riverhead, or other communities on the North Fork, “just drive to Ronkonkoma.”

The truth is these riders just fly past their local stations because the levels of service compared to what you can get at Ronkonkoma is just laughable. The lack of service on the East End is much worse considering there are very few alternatives besides taking Hampton Jitney which is double the price. Another example of this is the West Hempstead Branch. While it gets much, much better service than that of on the East End, it still sees slightly less service then that of the Far Rockaway, Long Beach, and Hempstead branches, all of which have communities of very similar population density. Therefore, ridership suffers and people look elsewhere for better service.

Not only do the desperate riders who live east of Ronkonkoma flock to Ronkonkoma for actual service, many riders that live closer to the Montauk and Port Jefferson branches, also find themselves driving to, and then parking at Ronkonkoma. While rush hour options on the Montauk and Port Jefferson branches are definitely much, much better than on the East End, they are still limited compared to what you can get on the Ronkonkoma Branch, therefore people drive there for the more frequent and direct service.

The truth is only an estimated 34% of Ronkonkoma ridership comes from the Ronkonkoma area itself. Roughly two thirds of riders who use this station are driving from a community elsewhere on Long Island that is probably served by a very different station. It’s possible to determine from the LIRR’s 2012-2014 Origin and Destination Survey where the MTA asked riders to provide their zip code:

• About only 34% of riders come from the local area, while another estimated 18% of riders drive south from communities along the Port Jefferson Branch.
• 17% backtrack of it’s riders backtrack east from Brentwood, Central Islip, and Islandia (with the latter being more understandable due to the location being closer to Ronkonkoma.)
• 15% of riders drive north from communities along the Montauk Branch in the towns of Brookhaven and Islip.
• 12% of riders drive from areas along the Main Line in eastern portions of the Town of Brookhaven (instead of using Medford or Yaphank stations which is understandable given the one rush-hour train provided)
• 3% of riders drive west from the North Fork (areas in town of Riverhead and Southold)
• 2% of riders drive up the island from the South Fork (areas in the towns of Southampton and East Hampton)

If this doesn’t get the point across about just how many people from all over the island use this station, then I don’t know what does. A majority of these people are from the diesel branches, which makes sense, and the rest are riders backtracking from Central Islip and Brentwood, which actually surprised me quite a bit.

Diesel branch refugees

Nearly half those who surveyed using Ronkonkoma actually lived closer to a station on Long Island that’s served in diesel territory. And while the one-seat ride to New York is appealing to many, and is probably the main incentive, it’s also probably somewhat in part due to the poor rush-hour service levels. Both the Montauk and Port Jefferson branches see some pretty poor gaps in service, especially during the height of the morning rush hour, both having 30 minute gaps during the busiest part of the rush. In addition, with the exception of the dual-modes, which are well trafficked, there is little direct service into Manhattan (where a majority of the diesel riders are headed), therefore a lot of people would rather just drive to Ronkonkoma for the more frequent, and in many cases faster service.

Backtrackers from Central Islip and Brentwood

One of the more surprising elements of the survey was the abundance of backtrackers from Brentwood and Central Islip. At first I found this quite surprising considering the fact that both Brentwood and Central Islip see a very wide majority of the service Ronkonkoma does, therefore, unlike in diesel territory where service is limited, there’s no service incentive to backtrack.

However, when you look more closely at the data, the answer starts to become more clear. A majority of these riders took trains following the immediate swarm during the rush hour, taking trains that left at 8:31a, 9:41a, 10:41a, and 11:41a. By then on a normal weekday the parking lots would have been full, and this might explain why these people would drive to Ronkonkoma to park in the parking garage, which likely would still have storage space. The other reason people would backtrack is in order to ensure a seat, during the height of the morning rush hour, prior to the ESA schedules, there were a number of express trains out of Ronkonkoma:

• Train 2013, (the 6:24a from Ronkonkoma) which ran nonstop to Hicksville, and then New York.
• Train 2015 (the 6:39a from Ronkonkoma) which ran right before the old train 2017 from CI and carried a lot of local passengers
• Train 2017 (the 7:04a from Ronkonkoma) which ran nonstop to Deer Park.
• Train 2019 (the 7:19a from Ronkonkoma) which stopped at Central Islip and Brentwood before running non-stop to New York. This was one of the most trafficked trains for these 3 stations, therefore, a ton of people would likely drive to Ronkonkoma to guarantee a seat.

Nowadays, now that all of those trains are gone with East Side Access (for the worse in my opinion), I expect less people backtrack given that all trains from Ronkonkoma stop at Brentwood and Central Islip. However, there are probably some that due, either for parking (later in the rush) or to guarantee a seat.

Should the LIRR ever put in the work to improve service on the diesel branches, specifically working to alleviate the service gaps during the height of the rush hour, something I’m doing in my timetable project, they can probably fix the parking issues at Ronkonkoma, along with Central Islip, Brentwood, and Deer Park, opening up more spots for those people and leading to less backtracking. Currently, the free lot at Ronkonkoma fills up by 7:30am, and the same can probably be said for CI, Brentwood, and Deer Park which likely fill up around the same time or earlier.

I also believe that a huge part of the problem lies during the off-peak period, specifically during the reverse-peak. On days with events in NYC or at UBS Arena, trains to and from New York consistently have all 8, 10, or even 12 cars packed to the absolute gills with standees. The severe overcrowding is largely in part due to poor or even nonexistent reverse-peak service levels on the diesel branches. In addition, the diesel lines don’t have UBS Arena stops on any trains therefore people once again “drive to Ronkonkoma” further overcrowding those trains. Even with 2, 3, or even 4 extras (in addition to the regularly scheduled trains) after the Islanders games at Elmont, I still have seen trains that are crushloaded.

All of this puts extraordinary stress on poor Ronkonkoma. While capacity has improved greatly since the Third Track and Mid-Suffolk Electric Yard, service has actually in a way decreased. If you look at schedules pre-pandemic, there were 17 trains on the branch, now there are still 17, which is a increase of a grand total of 0 trains. And if you look at when the service is provided, you’ll notice that there’s a increase in service during the 4-6am hour. And while this is great considering the amount of construction workers with early shifts that live on this branch, it means there’s actually a decrease for people who are commuting during the height of the morning rush hour. To put it into perspective, prior to ESA, there were 7 trains arriving into New York during the 8-9am period, nowadays, there are only 4.

A big part of my timetable project has been to both improve peak service on the Ronkonkoma Branch while also improvising diesel service. This combination will hopefully draw less people off this overcrowded line and on to diesel trains that can help handle the loads better. If your interested in taking a look at it, it will release tomorrow morning at 6:00am!

LIRR schedule changes start tomorrow morning

The LIRR is making it's normal spring schedule change, and they are adding a couple of stops to trains.

This isn't a big schedule change; and there are only a couple of small changes to be aware of on the timetable, mainly during the late evening:

• The 10:20pm train from Penn Station to Huntington will make an added stop at Floral Park
• The 6:48pm train from Long Beach to Penn Station will make an added stop at Rosedale.
• The 3:17pm train from Penn Station to Babylon will make an added stop at Baldwin.

And while these changes are at best underwhelming, considering all of the changes that could be made, I do appreciate the LIRR looking at the schedule to see what small changes they can make to improve service based off ridership patterns and I definitely feel that these small changes will benefit some. 

The largest subway car replacement order in MTA history: The 262s

R262 proposal (Photo: MTA)

The MTA just announced their ambitious plan to replace pretty much the entire A-division rail fleet (consisting of the numbered lines and 42 St shuttle) with the futuristic-looking R262 cars. The annoucement came at a press conference Thursday as they announced a RFP for proposals from manufacturers, with submissions due in September.

The base order is 1,140 subway cars, just enough to replace the R62 and R62A fleets (which run on the (1, 3, and 6 lines). Bidding will start on April 30th, 2026 and is expected to continue until 2028, when the contract is expected to be awarded.  The order will contain a mixture of regular "closed-end" R262s and open-gangway R262s (known as "R262OG"). There's also an option for an additional 1,250 cars to replace the R142 and R142A cars (which run on the 2, 4, and, 5 lines) as well, which, would in total, add up to 2,390 cars, effectively replacing the entire A-division mainline fleet, except for the (7) and 42 St shuttle, and it's currently unclear what will replace the shuttle's cars. The cars will come in 5 car sets.

The annoucement for the option order probably comes as a shock to many (including myself) what time we thought we had with the R142 and R142a cars (which are some of the most beloved cars in the system) has now become limited. Many have questioned why the R142/A's are being replaced so early, and the reason why is simply due to the cost. It would be ridiculously expensive to convert all the R142s and R142As to CBTC when brand new cars are coming, and when you think about it, at the speed it takes the MTA to do things, by the time the order for the R262s is ready, it'll already be time to begin replacing the R142/As anyway, so it makes much more sense to tag them on as well, as sad as it is for the R142/A fans.

I'd also like to point out that the R142 and R142A cars really aren't going anywhere anytime soon as the first option cars likely won't come until WELL into the late 2030s at the earliest, and full delivery won't finish until the early to mid 2040s, therefore we have very good time left with them. 

R262 proposal (Photo: MTA)

Once the delivery process begins, The MTA is expected to receive an impressive 30 new train cars every month, as part of the giant Capital Program secured by $68 billion in funds.

This order is monumental for New York. To sum up just how large the order is, if the MTA exercises all the options, then there will be enough cars to completely replace a 3rd of the subway's entire fleet, and to put it into perspective like Janno Lieber put it, "it's more cars than all the cars in Chicago Transit Authority and Boston MBTA combined." It's a huge order, one that will define how the subway looks for decades to come. But it's also not a bad thing; standardization makes everything easier, and having one car type is much easier for maintenance related purposes, however, should an issue arise with the cars, it becomes much more cumbersome to deal with that.

Officials said that the new subway cars will feature high quality electric couplers to support improved improved audio, listening devices, hearing aids, and digital signage. The cars are expected to begin rolling out in the early 2030s, with full delivery and deployment not finishing until mid-to-late 2030s. They will also feature modern signage and will be equipped with CBTC, allowing for full CBTC installation on the Seventh Avenue and Lexington Avenue Lines.

In conclusion, this order is the future of NYC transit. This giant proposal will completely change the the NYC subway system forever and will open the door to various improvements most notably being CBTC, something that will greatly improve service and reliability. What we are seeing now are the cars that will head the subway for the next 40 or so years. Once this order is laid to rest, the system won't look at anything like it does today. All remaining SMEEs will be retired, with only a small handful remaining in garbage and work duty, and the R142 and R142A cars will join them on a farm somewhere upstate with the all the other retired trains to frolic and play together for eternity.

LIRR adding service for St.Patrick's Day

In support of the St.Patrick's day parade, the LIRR will be running 4 additional trains into NYC.

These 4 additional trains will operate as it follows:

• 9:08am from Babylon, making all stops through Rockville Centre, Jamaica, and Grand Central (train 239)
• 9:54am from Babylon, making all stops through Rockville Centre, Jamaica, and Grand Central (train 243)
• 9:08am from Ronkonkoma making all stops through Hicksville, Mineola, Jamaica, and Grand Central (train 2039)
• 9:41am from Ronkonkoma making all stops through Hicksville, Mineola, Jamaica, and Grand Central

In an effort to signficantly reduce the number of incidents and keep trains as orderly as possible, the LIRR will be banning all alcoholic beverages on trains, platforms, and waiting areas from 5:00am Monday 3/17 to 5:00am Tuesday 3/18. MTA Police will enforce this! If you try, they will confiscate it.

Montauk St. Patrick's Day Parade Added Service:

The Annual Montauk St. Patrick's Day Parade will take place on Sunday, March 29th this year and will begin at 12:00 p.m. Quite a few people take the train out east for the parade, and since it's not yet summer, the LIRR will provide a additional train to provide for added capacity following the parade.

This train, titled #6003, will depart Montauk at 1:46pm and make all local stops to Babylon, and Jamaica.

What The Oyster Bay Branch Timetable Could Look Like

Of the three branches we've taken a look at, there hasn't been too much struggle. Other than the single-tracked portion of the Port Washington Branch, there really hasn’t been that much to worry about that we’ve covered so far. Today’s post will focus on the last off the LIRR’s “simple” branches, the Oyster Bay Branch. After this post, we’ll begin the transition into the thick of the LIRR’s operations, with the crazy Mainline and busy Montauk Branch! This is where things get interesting.

The Oyster Bay Branch serves as a decent bridge between the two. It’s service patterns are very simple, and it receives comparatively little ridership and attention for it’s comparatively low service. However, integrating Oyster Bay Branch trains into the busy Mainline and all of it’s traffic can be relatively challenging.

The Oyster Bay Branch, which begins in Mineola and slithers through some of the more sparsely-populated towns North Shore towns, ending in the beautiful enclave of Oyste Bay. The area it’s traverses isn’t nearly as dense as central & southern Long Island, but it does provide one of the only transportation links.

However, the one achilles heal of the Oyster Bay Branch is that it’s always suffered from being very slow. The MAS (Max Allowed Speed) on most of the branch is 60 mph, and the line is pretty straight as far as Roslyn, but once you travel east of that, it constantly curves this way and that, and with many curves come lots of curve-related speed restrictions. For most of the line past Roslyn, your chasing 30mph speed restrictions littered on the ridiculous curves for the remainder of the branch.

It may not seam that bad, but by adding slowly-accelerating dual-modes into the mix, and things can get pretty ugly as far as travel times go, and pair that with the infrequent service, many people will just drive to electrified stations (i.e Mineola if you live in Williston Park or Manhasset if you live farer up the branch.

There have been numerous talks about changing how this branch is ran. There have been some talks of electrification of the Oyster Bay Branch, other plans call for the railroad to get a bunch of DMUs and run them back and forth to/from Mineola, or introducing a “Transfer at Mineola”, however, I don’t think any of them are at all feasible. First off, I highly doubt the LIRR will electrify the Oyster Bay Branch anytime soon, which is for good reason. Second, while DMUs might allow for some faster acceleration and deceleration between station stops, purchasing DMUs won’t help with the curves, and therefore, there will still be speed restrictions, and when you do the math, chances are running trains with DMUs will only improve travel time by a couple of minutes, and all that saved time will vanish quickly once you make the passengers from the branch stand out on the platform at Mineola, this would be the same for the third.

With that in mind, let’s jump onto the sample timetable for the Oyster Bay Branch. It doesn’t involve DMUs (because, look, if they were interested in using them, they’d need to thick of procuring them now, which is something they obviously don’t have money for, and quite honestly, if that’s what their really interested in doing, it would probably be best to just skip the trouble and just abandon the branch altogether.)

Included in the linked PDF file below is the full sample weekday & weekend Port Washington Branch timetables. Peak, off-peak, reverse-peak, and special-event trains are all included. Note that this is a new and improved timetable design.

The timetables only show revenue trains, not equipment or deadhead moves. I have planned out to include the deadhead moves, equipment rotations, etc., as I was doing this project, and I have most of those moves handwritten down on paper, but I have yet to finalize them and insert them into the actual excel timetables. Nonetheless, I have tried whenever possible to minimize the amount of deadheading, since it’s essentially wasted crew and equipment hours, but in some cases, it was unavoidable to make the most out of the resources available.

Key Assumptions:

• The key infrastructure on the branch will remain similar to what it is today.

Service Guidelines:

• In the morning rush hour, I tried to keep trains spaced 40-50 minutes apart throughout most of the rush hour (very similar to how it is today). The branch has six trains over the course of the rush hour, the same amount as currently. The first train outta Oyster Bay in the morning will run similar today, except it will depart 4 minutes earlier at 4:52am. Service to the western terminals is decently spread-out, with 2 trains to Hunterspoint Av/Long Island City, and 2 trains to Penn Station. The first and third trains terminate in Jamaica in order to be able to quickly turn and represent eastbound runs. Train #509 will continue to run express, but instead of going to Hunterspoint Avenue will now swap terminals with #511, therefore going to Penn Station and providing a truly express run for these commuters.
• In the evening, 7 trains are provided up the branch (5 on Fridays). This provides a valid upgrade from the mere 5 that currently terminate there. The main addition is the brand new train 560, a new 5:09pm dual-mode departure from New York which would hope to relieve crowding on train 562, which is extremely crushloaded coming out of Jamaica, and also matches the two dual-modes that currently arrive into New York. I also managed to squeeze a 6:16pm departure out of Jamaica, reducing the gap between train 562 and the second dual-mode. 
• It’s important to note that East Williston will be utilized as more of an electric-terminal for several trains during rush hours, however, these trains will be included in the Mainline timetable.
• During off-peak and weekend times, service will be provided about every 90 minutes to and from Hunterspoint Av.
• Very little late night service is provided on The Oyster Bay Branch.

Link to Oyster Bay Branch Timetable

Threading Oyster Bay Branch trains onto the crazy Mainline during rush hours has provided to be quite a difficult task. It’s quite difficult to make time for Oyster Bay Branch trains to join the Mainline at Mineola. It was also difficult for me to come up with a reasonable plan for evening service to Oyster Bay, however I think I did a decent job in the end.

In the morning, all but one train operate through to a western terminal. The first train of the morning leaves 4 minutes earlier then it did under the current schedules at 4:52am. Recently, last September, train #511, had been switched from Hunterspoint Avenue to Penn Station, providing a second morning dual-mode on the branch for the first time ever. As you know, the train before is a 7:01am express-train that only makes a handful of stops along the closely packed branch, and I decided it made sense to send that to Penn Station instead, giving a true express run for those commuters as you don’t have to transfer anymore.

In the PM peak, I was able to squeeze a total of 7 trains up the branch, a great improvement over the current 5. I was able to fit an additional DM in from New York, departing at 5:09pm right before the aligning with the start of the bu rush hour. The second evening dual-mode leaves New York at 6:20pm and follows the same schedule as the current DM. I was able to 

During off-peak times, service is improved from bi-hourly to every 90 minutes. On weekends, the current schedule requires two sets to provide the two-hourly headways, so it wouldn’t require any additional equipment or crews to improve. In addition, most off-peak trains now run to/from

The first train up the branch in the early morning now departs at 12:14am, therefore giving one final train before the long overnight gap. Reverse-peak service is now maintained at much more consistent headways. By a quirk of scheduling and in order to squeeze the new dual mode in, train 569 will originate in Locust Valley (running from Oyster Bay following 558’s arrival).

I think I’ve covered pretty much everything to say about the Oyster Bay Branch. Going on from here, things will get much less simple as we say goodbye to solid blocks of time with local service and consistent stopping patterns, but we’ll see if we can shove a minimum of 50 trains down the Mainline and Babylon Branch in a period of just a couple hours soon! In the meantime, feel free to leave any comments, thoughts, corrections, suggestions, etc.

Extending the Flushing Line to Bayside

Vanshnookenraggen

The 7 train, a core subway line that connects Flushing-Main St, the true Chinatown of New York to 34 St-Hudson Yards in Midtown Manhattan has always been considered a superior line. It cuts through Queens like a steel blade and checks all the boxes as it runs frequently, has solid express service (for the most part, except for when the structure ages to be over 110 years old and needs to be replaced hindering full express service for 5 years!), and has relatively good transit connections in Manhattan. However, the line has always felt short. Clocking in at only 16 miles long, many feel as though the 7 train has more to offer. 

There have been various proposals over the years to extend the 7 to various different places, with some suggesting they should extend it to New Jersey, more specifically to Secaucus, to provide a direct subway link to New Jersey for the first time, others feel the line should be extended deeper into Manhattan to better serve the Chelsea neighborhood, however, one of the most captivating proposals for this line in the last decade has been rather to to extend the 7 past it’s eastern terminal of Flushing east to somewhere in Northeast Queens.

Northeast Queens has always been considered a transit desert; having very limited options for transportation. People who live there rely on infrequent and inefficient bus service, and for those that live close enough to the Port Washington Branch, expensive and infrequent train service.

Therefore, with that said, the proposal to extend the 7 eastward in it’s home borough should feel fitting. While currently crowded and constrainted in that respect, parituclary during the rush hour, with the proper set of investments, the  

And Although the MTA has more important priorities right now, this is definitely a project they could pursue more maybe 10-15 years down the line as its a project that, while likely very expensive, would benefit a TON of riders.

The Proposal

There have been a couple of proposals related to the extension of the (7) further into Northeast Queens with the less frequented proposal being to have a branch off the (7) train, most likely elevated, branching of somewhere near 111 St, turning south for a little bit before turning east, running along the Long Island Expressway and Kissena Blvd before terminating in Springfield Gardens. The other one is for a new line to be constructed, heading northeast out of Flushing-Main St, heading north towards College Point stopping at Northern Blvd before turning East towards Whitestone. Possible extensions could be made to one day extend the (7) to Bayside, which is what many people would like to see, and was originally planned to happen almost 100 years ago.

Planned 7 extension in 1935

I personally believe that this is the more likely of the two, as it would serve an area that is in desperate need of further transit development, and while both are in areas that can be considered “transit deserts” In theory, we could possibly get both extensions, possibly having an 11 train make the run northeast towards College Point and have the 7 train run along the LIE to Springfield Blvd. This is one of those projects that we will just have to see. 

Capacity Gains

Before I wrap up this post, I'd like to mention that another benefit of having the 7 terminate somewhere besides Main St would be the likely capacity gains. If you’ve ridden the 7 train during the rush hour then you’d know that Flushing is not a great terminal. Unlike many other good subway terminals, such as 34 St-Hudson Yards, it does not feature tail tracks, rather bumper blocks on the end of all 3 station tracks (further adding insult to the injury by slowing trains down). Therefore, Flushing struggles to keep up with the demand, which is quite a bit (running trains out of there roughly every 2 minutes for a good part of the rush hour). To prevent a complete meltdown of the line, the MTA has some 7 trains end in Mets-Willets Pt, allowing for some trains to avoid the congestion, however, that doesn’t prevent Flushing from being severely capacity limited. Extending the 7 eastward would hopefully allow for a proper terminal to be built, one that can handle the level of service needed on this very crowded line. This will also account for the growth that Queens will continue to see.

In conclusion, this is one of those subway extensions that I feel strongly about. Being a big proponent of the Flushing Line myself, I’ve seen how much an extension of the (7) further east could help NYC. It could bring much needed service to some of the largest transit deserts while also helping to improve capacity along one of the most conjested lines. I personally even know someone who lives in Bayside and would love to be able to take the subway in from there. but instead gets the bus to Flushing.