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Posted by
Terrapin Station
on Tue Jun 26 10:12:46 2007, in response to Re: Some Subways Found Packed Past Capacity, posted by Stephen Bauman on Tue Jun 26 09:57:45 2007.
edf40wrjww2msgDetail:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d Take a look at this:
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LINK
Subway crush
Trains at capacity; congestion fee no quick fix, MTA says
by patrick arden / metro new york
JUN 26, 2007
MIDTOWN. If you’re reading this standing up, you already know the subway is crowded.
Yet a bad situation is bound to grow worse, warned NYC Transit President Howard Roberts yesterday, as he painted a bleak picture of an overloaded subway system in crisis, with the nearest quick fixes at least “four or five years” away.
“This is scary,” Roberts told reporters after making a presentation to a Metropolitan Transportation Authority committee. During rush hours, he said, the busiest train lines — including the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and E — are running at or over capacity.
“Right now on a lot of these lines we’re several years and a big capital project away from being able to provide what I would consider to be adequate service,” he said. “We are constrained.”
Adding more cars to trains and extending station platforms could alleviate pressure. But that takes money the MTA doesn’t have, said Roberts, and one potential funding solution — congestion pricing — could exacerbate the problem in the short run, especially if diverted drivers choose to take trains on already overcrowded lines.
“There’s no room in the inn,” Roberts explained, before pointing out that other busy lines, such as the C and the 7, can still accommodate new riders. But that does mean the MTA would have to rely on buses to meet the increased demands caused by congestion pricing. “If all those cars don’t come in, there will be more room for the buses,” Roberts said.
The automated system known as communications-based train control (CBTC) is also key, he added. On a recent trial on the L, CBTC allowed 30 trains to run in one hour instead of the line’s current capacity of 21. At present, however, the L is running just “17 or 18” trains an hour, Roberts said, due to budgetary constraints.
CBTC, platform expansion and running more cars all require time and money. “If we’re going to do one project at a time,” Roberts said, “just take the number of lines and multiply it by four or five years. In my point of view, that’s not going to get you where you need to go.”
The cure?
Expansion projects provide a real solution, but even the Second Avenue Subway won’t completely cure crowding on the Lexington Avenue line, Roberts cautioned. Funding for the first leg of the Second Avenue Subway is also $1 billion short.
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