https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/07/nyregion/new-yorks-subways-are-not-just-delayed-some-trains-dont-run-at-all.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Excerpt:
The nation’s most crowded subway line is jammed every morning with a crush of people waiting to board trains. Angry riders often have to let a train or two pass before they can wedge themselves inside.
It turns out that the route — the Lexington Avenue line in New York City — is regularly failing to meet its train schedule, especially during rush hour, leading to dozens of trains being canceled every day and reducing the system’s capacity by tens of thousands of riders, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
On the Lexington Avenue line, which carries the No. 4, 5 and 6 trains, just 77 of 90 scheduled trains routinely run through the busy Grand Central Station stop from 8 to 9 a.m. The rest, 14 percent of trains, are effectively canceled, at a time when the system needs them most.
Again in the evening, from 5 to 6 p.m., only 76 of 88 scheduled trains stop at the station, on average. Each canceled train accounts for roughly 1,000 passengers who could be accommodated if the system met its published schedule.
. . .
Officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority acknowledged that the schedules were not being met, and they blamed overcrowding for the shortfall. Trains are stuck in stations as passengers struggle to get on and off, subway officials say, leading to a cascade of delays along the line.
. . .
The shortfalls are not occasional or seasonal or exceptional. In the last two months, the number of times the Lexington Avenue line has reached its hourly weekday rush-hour scheduled train count is zero.
Officials say they are running as many trains as they can at peak hours, and the problem is capacity on an aging system. But the shortage stretches throughout the day, even when the system has fewer riders and runs trains less frequently.
When trains are delayed, workers continue to space trains at consistent intervals, instead of running trains more closely together, one after another, according to train data. Officials believe that is the best way to reduce the average time riders are stuck waiting on platforms. But, inevitably, that means fewer trains and reduced capacity.
Transit advocates say officials failed to adequately plan for a booming ridership and criticize the agency’s strategy of focusing on keeping trains evenly spaced rather than meeting its schedules.
Here’s how that focus leads to cancellations. On June 20, a Tuesday, at 7:55 a.m., subway officials reported delays on the No. 6 train. The data show only one southbound 6 train at Grand Central Station from 8:04 a.m. to 8:23 a.m. instead of the five scheduled. When service resumed, trains were still spaced fairly evenly at two- to four-minute intervals. The trains that were supposed to arrive during that time period were effectively canceled, and by 9 a.m., just 17 of 23 scheduled trains had made the trip.
. . .
The cancellations have contributed to an on-time rate for trains that has dropped steeply over the last decade to about 65 percent systemwide, from more than 90 percent. On the Lexington Avenue line — which carries about 1.6 million people each day, more than the number of daily riders on Washington’s and Chicago’s subways combined — the on-time rate is as low as 35 percent.
The authority’s chairman, Joseph J. Lhota, said his priority was reducing the intervals between trains, rather than meeting the posted schedules so riders are not kept waiting too long. The current schedules are largely based on lower ridership figures from 2012, Mr. Lhota said, before overcrowding delays skyrocketed, clogging the system.
The focus on train intervals over schedules has indeed kept wait-time performance from falling sharply, even as on-time-performance has plummeted. But even that metric has been trending downward since 2013.
In a recent interview, Mr. Lhota said the agency should adjust the published schedules to reflect current conditions, and offer the public improved performance metrics that tell riders how long they should expect to wait between trains.
“What I care about is being able to maintain a headway closer to target,” Mr. Lhota said, referring to an industry term describing the time between trains. “Obviously, to do that we’d have to put more trains through, and we could if we didn’t have the congestion problem.”
Excerpt:
The nation’s most crowded subway line is jammed every morning with a crush of people waiting to board trains. Angry riders often have to let a train or two pass before they can wedge themselves inside.
It turns out that the route — the Lexington Avenue line in New York City — is regularly failing to meet its train schedule, especially during rush hour, leading to dozens of trains being canceled every day and reducing the system’s capacity by tens of thousands of riders, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
On the Lexington Avenue line, which carries the No. 4, 5 and 6 trains, just 77 of 90 scheduled trains routinely run through the busy Grand Central Station stop from 8 to 9 a.m. The rest, 14 percent of trains, are effectively canceled, at a time when the system needs them most.
Again in the evening, from 5 to 6 p.m., only 76 of 88 scheduled trains stop at the station, on average. Each canceled train accounts for roughly 1,000 passengers who could be accommodated if the system met its published schedule.
. . .
Officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority acknowledged that the schedules were not being met, and they blamed overcrowding for the shortfall. Trains are stuck in stations as passengers struggle to get on and off, subway officials say, leading to a cascade of delays along the line.
. . .
The shortfalls are not occasional or seasonal or exceptional. In the last two months, the number of times the Lexington Avenue line has reached its hourly weekday rush-hour scheduled train count is zero.
Officials say they are running as many trains as they can at peak hours, and the problem is capacity on an aging system. But the shortage stretches throughout the day, even when the system has fewer riders and runs trains less frequently.
When trains are delayed, workers continue to space trains at consistent intervals, instead of running trains more closely together, one after another, according to train data. Officials believe that is the best way to reduce the average time riders are stuck waiting on platforms. But, inevitably, that means fewer trains and reduced capacity.
Transit advocates say officials failed to adequately plan for a booming ridership and criticize the agency’s strategy of focusing on keeping trains evenly spaced rather than meeting its schedules.
Here’s how that focus leads to cancellations. On June 20, a Tuesday, at 7:55 a.m., subway officials reported delays on the No. 6 train. The data show only one southbound 6 train at Grand Central Station from 8:04 a.m. to 8:23 a.m. instead of the five scheduled. When service resumed, trains were still spaced fairly evenly at two- to four-minute intervals. The trains that were supposed to arrive during that time period were effectively canceled, and by 9 a.m., just 17 of 23 scheduled trains had made the trip.
. . .
The cancellations have contributed to an on-time rate for trains that has dropped steeply over the last decade to about 65 percent systemwide, from more than 90 percent. On the Lexington Avenue line — which carries about 1.6 million people each day, more than the number of daily riders on Washington’s and Chicago’s subways combined — the on-time rate is as low as 35 percent.
The authority’s chairman, Joseph J. Lhota, said his priority was reducing the intervals between trains, rather than meeting the posted schedules so riders are not kept waiting too long. The current schedules are largely based on lower ridership figures from 2012, Mr. Lhota said, before overcrowding delays skyrocketed, clogging the system.
The focus on train intervals over schedules has indeed kept wait-time performance from falling sharply, even as on-time-performance has plummeted. But even that metric has been trending downward since 2013.
In a recent interview, Mr. Lhota said the agency should adjust the published schedules to reflect current conditions, and offer the public improved performance metrics that tell riders how long they should expect to wait between trains.
“What I care about is being able to maintain a headway closer to target,” Mr. Lhota said, referring to an industry term describing the time between trains. “Obviously, to do that we’d have to put more trains through, and we could if we didn’t have the congestion problem.”