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Subway Delays Tonight
Image by JeffreyPutman via Flickr
UPDATED 8:12 p.m.: Just a quick update – This fire or smoke condition or whatever it is near 75th Ave. is actually impacting pretty much all of the trains heading to Forest Hills tonight. And from what I hear, the conductors are giving people on the trains virtually no information about what is causing the horrendous delays other than “train traffic ahead.” Meanwhile, what should be a 30 minute ride is turning into about an hour and a half for most of them.
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If you are waiting for someone to get home tonight, the MTA is reporting a “smoke condition” at 75th Avenue, affecting the F, M and R lines. So that might be the reason for the delays.
Just thought I’d put the word out, since God forbid any of the local “news” would cover such an insignificant thing as thousands of people being delayed due to a fire somewhere in the subway system.
Now, if there’s a car holding up traffic somewhere, that’s a whole other story.
While I’m on the topic, when are they going to get cell phone or at least internet service down there in those tunnels so we can communicate with our friends and loved one’s when there are delays like these?? Pathetic!
Queens Blvd. Construction Update
Remember that mysterious construction going on in the center medians of Queens Blvd.? Well, the explanation has been revealed in an article in the Queens Tribune, and it is kind of scary. Think of what could have happened if Stephen Melnick, president of the Queens Boulevard Restoration Group, hadn’t called everyone’s attention to what he noticed. Here is the article: Queens Blvd. Medians in Disrepair
Derailed – Part 2
Image via Wikipedia
This is so sad. How anyone can think we have our priorities right as a country with a situation like this is beyond me. When are people going to learn that what’s good for some of us, is good for all of us. We’re all in this together. Maybe those business owners whose employees have not been able to make it to work from this will finally realize that yes, you have to pay into the pool if you want our economy to keeping running. Trains relying on century-old equipment = trains that don’t run = businesses that don’t run. From The NY Times:
The electrical travel chaos on the Long Island Rail Road on Monday offered a frustrating reminder of the fragility of a rail network still dependent on antiquated equipment.
Embedded along the railroad tracks by Jamaica Station, and soaked by rain from the night before, two or more cables shorted out around 11 a.m., the authorities said, sending a pulse of electricity into a nearby train control tower and setting fire to the century-old equipment inside.
It seems improbable that a piece of ancient machinery, a contraption of levers and pulleys designed in 1913, would be critical to the successful operation of one of the nation’s largest commuter railroads.
But the machinery, which remained on fire for about an hour, controls the 155 track switches at a crucial choke point: Jamaica Station, which 10 of the railroad’s 11 branches must travel through to get in and out of New York City.
With no way to direct trains onto their proper routes, railroad workers scrambled onto the tracks, spikes and mallets in hand, to lock the switches into place manually so that trains could travel by, a practice known in railroad parlance as “block and spike.”
Derailed
What a transit nightmare! In case you were not aware, trains along New Jersey Transit’s Northeast Corridor line were also put out of commission this morning due to an electrical fire, further adding to the travel woes.
My thinking is it’s amazing these transit system breakdowns don’t happen more often. The same people who shoot down every attempt to find additional sources of sustainable funding for our transit system — remember congestion pricing? — are the first one’s you hear blaming our deteriorating public transit system on the MTA itself. 
Yes, I’m sure there is some mismanagement in the MTA. But isn’t there mismanagement to some extent in most organizations?
I’ve always thought the City should take over control of its subways. Why should outsiders have a say in our system? That is crazy. And this photo on the right, of our deteriorating Forest Hills station, is what you get as a result.
But really, you have to fund it to run it.
LIRR Service Suspended
In case you have been actually doing what you’re supposed to be doing today (working), and haven’t had a chance to check the news, this is shaping up to be a major headache for this evening’s rush. Try to arrange an alternative way home if you regularly take the LIRR. Luckily, we have the subway – let’s all pray that holds together for the rest of today.
MTA Speak
One of my favorites, “We apologize for the unavoidable delay.”
How in this universe can a delay be “unavoidable?” It’s simply not possible. Something, somewhere, somehow at sometime could have been done to avoid it.
George must be rolling over in his grave, or laughing I guess.
Happy Holidays To All My Readers
Around Town
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