Cleveland DC and Baltimore have to shut down there metros for weeks when they need a major repair but NYC can replace tracks while the system is moving. DC needs to contract with NYC for repairs. DC has grown post metro from 600,000 people in 1970 to a Metropoliton Area of 5 Million in 2010.
I don’t know how it’s done elsewhere, but the Chicago Transit Authority has found that a total shutdown often allows a total rebuild to be done in appreciably less time than depending on off-peak only shutdowns. Prime example is the rebuilding of the Dan Ryan line a few years ago. The rebuilding of the Green Line (Lake-Cottage Grove/Englewood) took longer because major structural rebuilding was required.
Well, what can we say? Along with their cops and firefighters, New York’s got the best transit people in the world.
Mind you, I mean no insult to any of the others by that statement.
Many lines on the NY subway have the advantage of having a set of local and express tracks, so if one set of tracks needs work, the other can be used during maintenance. For most other cities, they only have a two-track mainline running throughout their system, so service cannot be re-routed during maintenance.
NYC Subway does shut down when extensive repairs are needed. Because of the size of the subway system, a segment of a line is usually shutdown, rather than the entire line. Recent shutdowns have generally been for repair work for damages caused by Superstorm Sandy, e.g. the R between Manhatten and Brooklyn, shutdown for 14 months in 2013-14.
Recently, MTA announced the upcoming shutdown of the L line between Manhattan and Brooklyn to repair the Canarsie tunnels for possibly three years, and the shutdown of the M line in Queens for several months to repair elevated structures.
The MTA also has a program called FastTracks, where a segment of a line is shut down overnight for repairs. This has been ongoing for several years. The NYC Subway system operates 24/7, so these shutdowns do cause riders some inconvenience.
Seems the newer systems have a lot to learn from the NYC subway and the EL
On my last trip to Road America in 2013, the CTA line that runs between the lanes of I-94 on the Southside of Chicago was shut down for major maintenance. I believe it was shut down for several months.
Correct on the CTA. A bus service was substituted for the duration.
Connecting the complex of lines around DeKalb Avenue (three lines to Coney Island and one to Fort Hamilton) with Manhattan, one can use the north side of the Manhattan Bridge, the south side, or the Montague Street Tunnel. During bridge repairs, one pair of transit tracks on the bridge was shut down, then the other side, and after Sandy, the tunnel. These were all about half-year closings. There is enough reduncancy in the NY system so that what would be a massive shut-down in another city, requiring bus shuttles, can be handled keeping rail connections in New Yorik. There are other examples.
The “L” line shutdown may require some shuttle busses however.
With the exception of the North Shore Skokie line when it parreled the Red Line in the north there is not a a express track. However this does not prevent single bi directional tracking
Apoologies for not being more specific. By “L” line, I was not referring to the CTA, but New York’s old No. 16 14th Street Canarsie line. which is two tracks all the way, and where Sandy damage still requires repair in its tunnel under the East River. Passengers from Myrtle Avneue station and east to Canarsie will probably all still be handled by all-railrouting to Manhattan, via the existing J, Z, and M lines. And there may be 14th Street shuttle run only in Manhattan. But that still leaves a few stations without rail sevice that may need bus connections to existing services.
Regarding the CTA, portions of the route shared by Howard Street north-south and Evanston Express, and for a part, Ravenswood, do have four tracks and some major repair and maintenance is possible without complete shutdown. Part of the southern portion of Lake-Engnlewood/Jackson Park has three tracks. The other redundancy is N - S either via the Loop or via the State St. subway. But that is all.
Single-tracking on a rapid transit operation is not practical due to the frequency of trains. CTA operating rules do provide for single-track operation around a temporary blockage but it is manually controlled and requires an extra number of supervisory personnel for its implementation.
That is New York Vaules
YUP… NYCT has four track trunks in Manhattan, and even so it is also very fleixble, If something is closed, things can be re routed one line via another route.
Besides, the last time I looked, the also had LIONS in their subways.
ROAR
When I used to visit New York City in the 1990s, the entire express section of the Flushing Queens Boulevard Line was shut down for rebuilding for almost a decade. The E train was reintroduced as an express.
One of the lines over the Manhattan Bridge was shutdown for over a decade, too.
So, yes, NYC does shut down entire lines, though the Queens Boulevard Line was a four-track line with only two tracks out of service, the local is extremely slow, almost as slow as single-tracking on the Washington Metro.
The Manhattan Bridge rebuild project shut down and rerouted about a half dozen lines.
Well, part of it is that the NYC Subway has actually kept up with maintenence the last 20 years, unlike METRO…
A friend of mine from high school who wound up working in DC back in the 70’s told me the REAL reason they built the Metro was to get the crime off the streets and put it underground.
No, he didn’t like DC, AT ALL.
Me, I’ve always liked Washington, a great walking city with lots to see and do, but then, I don’t live there.
This all depends on WHAT work needs to be done. Working on power feeders or sighanls could very well shut the whole thing down. Tracks can be worked on in between trains, and if a rail is out it will tale less than a half an hour to fix it. Trains can be routed via diferent lines. If an 8th Avenue local track is out, trains can run express or they can run via 6th Avenue. (F) trains have been known to run via the (GG) line if something is amiss on 6th Avenue.
The Sandy Tunnels are a case apart, If you have to do that much work, you do have to close the tunnel and just do the work, maybe 18 month or more.
They did this with the Montague Tunnel, but only the (R) train was really affected by that, at night it could run over the bridge, in the day time, it could short turn at Whatehall in Manhattan, and southbound at come conveinent station in Brooklyn.
Throguh riders would likely switch to the IRT for stops in lower manhattan, passengers for Midtown would have already switched to one of the Bridge lines at DeKalb or at Atlantic.
Systems without geographic redundancy are freash out of luck.
ROAR
The NYCTA has released a very informative video about the repairs needed on the L Train Canarsie Tunnels and the service options.
I am routing the following suggested plan through a friend in the NYC area who has done consulting for the TA on several projects and supervised construction on several. I hope he likes my plan and forwards it with whatever changes he thinks desirable. Meqnwhile, all of you you can comment on what you think.
Proposed 14th Street – Canarsie L – Line Service during East River Tunnel Reconstruction
.1. Goals:
Preserve safe operations, Minimum disruption to normal commuting, minimum additional car-miles, investment in any improvements to be useful after return to normal service.
.2. Description of substitute services
E train diverted from World Trade Center Terminal and extended via Houston Street, “K” connector used by M Line, Williamsburg Bridge, Broadway Brooklyn Elevated local tracks, East New York Connector, to Canarsie. R. H. headway kept at present, about 5 minutes, Signal system Essex- East New York upgraded if necessary for 90- second headway, 100-second operational.
Tunnel Shuttle 1st Avenue – Beverly Avenue, one train, every 12 minutes, operator at each end for quick reversal at each terminal.
Truncated L Line, East New York/Broadway Junction – Beverly Avenue. Every 6 minutes, operators drop back one headway at Beverly Avenue to permit quick reversal.
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