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| G Train: Present and Future (Opinion Piece) (1149519) | |||
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G Train: Present and Future (Opinion Piece) |
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Posted by Bill from Maspeth on Sun Apr 8 00:17:13 2012 I would like to see the G train continue to serve Church Ave. 24/7 once the viaduct work is finished. I truly believe NYCT when they say a decision has yet to be made regarding this issue, is telling the truth. Budgets rule and the F can handle the ridership between Church and Smith/9th. I'd hate to see G riders having take to F one stop to get the R, although they can change at Hoyt to the A/C (more combined TPH than the F) to Jay, for the R. I would say it's a 50-50 proposition to keep it or not.The employee facility @ Church is a multi faceted one in that track dept. and construction flaggers report there also, so actually these can number more than G crews. Also a master tower and relay room will be built there too for the new signals and switch machines as stop arms and switch motors will be converted from air to electric. So "wasting a new facility" is not an issue. The dispatchers office is just a hut with 4 walls with "furniture" that can be easily used elsewhere. Not only will it be necessary to redo the Church Ave. yard/relay tracks (delayed, plus a changeover from air to electric signals and switches) the actual switches and tracks are to be replaced. I'd hate to see all that new stuff never used! Sure all that stuff is new at Fourth Ave. too but it had to be done anyway due to the viaduct rebuild. The configuration is still only 1 relay position for the G @ 4th Ave. If you want to relay them there, you really need 2, then you don't need the switchmen. More about this in the next paragraph. Relay at Fourth Ave.: in the AM rush you'd need at least 3 switchmen, as in the past, to assist with relays. What do they do for the rest of the day? You don't have 3 switchmen at Church at any one time now, no more than 2 at one time 24/7 and sometimes only 1. Also in the past you had a tower operator at Bergen to make sure 2 back to back G's never got in there (first one being late) so as not to tie up the main line s/o Smith/9th waiting for his leader to leave the relay position. Today with the new signals there it's all automatic: when an F or a G gets to a certain point, that train comes into Bergen first, cutting out the other train. It's automatic, no tower operator since jobs were cut. Want to make sure this doesn't happen? Then you need to hire another tower operator to manually control that interlocking. If cut back, you would need less crews as you can get an extra trip out of existing crews as the line would be shortened by 5 stations. I figure 3 fewer trains would be needed. The dominant terminal and all put in's and lay-ups would now have to be at Court Sq. This means that JYD would have to supply the cars, no problem as R160's can be transfered from CIYD to JYD so you'll see more R68/68A's on the N/Q. If R46's return to the G, you'd see less of these or none on the F or 160's from JYD can come to the G. Bottom line: JYD would have more cars to maintain as they would pick up the G again. 2 negatives: they already have enough cars to maintain and CIYD maintains their cars better. This is getting too long, but I think I covered everything except......... ............the G schedule. Check out the G schedule on the MTA website, particularly outta Church. It could easily be the same, just adjusted to start at the time the relay leaves 4th Ave. for Queens bound riders. The headways for the AM rush are very inconsistent since the F runs more TPH, so some G's will have 1 F ahead of it, some will have 2. The G's with 2 F's ahead will have a longer time span between it and its' leader, leading to a more crowded train. Check out the G's leaving Church starting @ 6:06: + 9 for 6:15; + 6 for 6:21; +7 for 6:28; + 7 for 6:35; + 7 for 6:42; + 9 for 6:51; + 6 for 6:57; + 10 for 7:07; + 6 for 7:13; + 7 for 7:20; + 9 for 7:29; + 6 for 7:35; + 9 for 7:44; + 5 for 7:49; + 5 for 7:54; + 9 for 8:03........you get the idea. Now rush hour trains are supposed to be crowded, but with these headways one train will be jammed and late (7:07 and 7:44 for example) with their followers on their tail and empty. The G is also very light when schools are closed. Close to half the ridership is school kids, including college, and school personnel. This is why there is now 13 trains for the AM rush and 10 for the PM rush as the AM everybody is going, but on the PM it's more staggered. Finally, not matter if you run a 300' train or a 600' train, the north car will always be jammed as they want the L at Metropolitan and the factory workers need the the Norman Ave. end of Nassau Ave. station and the India St. end of Greenpoint Ave. station. Discussion? |
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