Sunday, January 13, 2008

Slow ride for 7 train passengers

The No. 7 train is to Roosevelt Avenue in Queens what the A train is to Harlem: the rhythm of the place. On Saturday, the beat was off as thousands of subway riders in some of the most diverse neighborhoods in the city endured life on Roosevelt Avenue, at least temporarily, without the train that some call the “Immigrant Express.”

Track Work Disrupts Service on No. 7 Train in Queens

Service on the No. 7 train was suspended from 12:01 a.m. on Saturday to 5 a.m. on Monday for 10 stops through western Queens, the first of five weekend shutdowns that transit officials said were necessary to modernize the signal system and reconfigure track switches. The service suspension stretched from the Flushing-Main Street station to the Woodside-61st Street station.

As No. 7 is repaired, 95 minute commute to Midtown from Flushing for one man

Photo from NY Times

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Try singing this old tune
while you're waiting on line to board
an overcrowded shuttle bus to Woodside.

"I'd like to get ya....
on a slow boat to China....."

or a slow train to F-Liu-xhing....
eh C.M. Liu of the City Council's
Transportation Committee?

Great planning old boy.

I notice you didn't issue any major press releases
warning the riders of this pending catastrophe
far enough in advance.

That's OK....
now bustling vibrant Flushing's teaming population
can hustle their way to the city
in those gypsy vans that already clog the streets.

Anonymous said...

Forget about the freebie ride
that's being offered by the LIRR
from Main St. to Woodside.

I'm gonna spring for a city ticket
(only$3) from Auburndale
so I don't have to rub elbows
with the great unwashed
colorful, vibrant souls of Flushing!

Anonymous said...

The #7 line is often lauded as running through some the city's most diverse neighborhoods, from Irish to Indians to Columbians to Mexicans.

Dandy. But these neighborhoods must have extremely ineffective representation, since rare is the weekend when there is not some sort of disruption in service. This time, it's a _cessation_ of service.

The MTA, several years ago, replaced the tracks on the #7...only to discover that the roadbed was faulty. The tracks were duly ripped up, concrete poured, and the tracks then re-replaced--meaning a stretch of years when express service was unavailable.

Why can this work not be done overnights, inconveniencing a minimum of commuters?

It's likely no one pushed for that solution.

Forgotten-NY.com

Sunnysider said...

It seems like the weekend closure of 33, 40, 46, and 52 was planned at the very last minute. I worked from home on Friday and didn't see any notice that those Manhattan-bound stations were to be closed until Saturday. Questioned the MTA employee at the station about it, and he initially said the signs announcing this were up last week. I said I didn't see them, and when pressed further, he said the signs went up Friday morning. Less than 24 hours notice, nice going MTA! I also tried to get home from Brooklyn on Saturday night to discover that the G train stations were closed for much of the line. I have only been in NYC for 1.5 years, and the MTA has managed to close stations on both of those lines for at least two of the months. And despite all this practice, they still don't know how to manage station closures. Unacceptable!

Anonymous said...

I HATE it when people say unacceptable. Its just so cliche. I know this whole situation sucks with the 7 train and I'm not defending the MTA for what they did but saying Unacceptable, come on! Its overused. I've been on the receiving end of a few unacceptables in my time and its just makes me think the person delivering the line has no imagination and therefore, doesn't deserve help. Try something else like...PREPOSTEROUS, ABSURD, INCONCEIVEABLE or something like that.