If you’re ever annoyed by service changes because of “Track Repair”, never forget the hard work behind them that keeps our subway alive.caffeine314 t1_jb0iwly wrote
Did my undergrad and graduate work in northern California. Somehow, MUNI and BART both did their track work between 9pm and 6am and tried very hard to get the lines all back to normal by morning rush hour.
But aside from that, I don't really see improvement during weekday service from track work. Still sucks.
Those of us who are in our 50s lived through really bad NYC crime when we were teens. But the trains were so freaking reliable. Fast. Frequent. Reliable. Yeah, they were all graffitied up. Yeah, they weren't safe. But you chose one of the conductor's car, and it was always OK. Coming home from a night partying was awesome. Even in the dead of night, you'd wait maybe 20 minutes.
These days I can wait 20 minutes during rush hour!
sockalicious t1_jb0ohes wrote
> I don't really see improvement during weekday service from track work
Tracks wear out, you know? The improvement is that the trains are still running
Dump_Bucket_Supreme t1_jb0llfz wrote
yeah but bart and muni stop running at like 12am. not really comparable
ChunkofWhat t1_jb215iy wrote
Perhaps the tracks were more reliable in ye olden days because they were not so old back then. The NYC subway system still runs largely on technology from the 1930s. Much of the switch infrastructure still runs on vacuum tubes. Maintenance was heavily neglected in the late 20th century, ridership is way up, and repairs are challenging to schedule on one of the world's only 24 hour subway systems. Maybe if NYC of your time hadn't coasted on the investments of the early 20th century, your train wouldn't be so late.
F1yMo1o t1_jb2i5ey wrote
All systems follow the same path - boomers use great investments made by their forebears, don’t pay it forward, pull the carpet up and complain about the younger generation. The field doesn’t matter, it’s true everywhere. Subway infrastructure is not immune.
iv2892 t1_jb1vf6h wrote
Wait? Which lines you have to wait 20 minutes during rush hour ? Even on Saturday afternoons and evenings (not weekday rush hour) usually the most I have to wait is 10 min. And the few times I’ve used them during weekdays is 3-4 minutes. Granted, before the pandemic rush hour was probably every 2 minutes .
The lines I usually tend to take when I’m in nyc are 1,2,3 and A,C. And occasionally the E.
caffeine314 t1_jb391ad wrote
B and Q line. I'd say once or twice a week there are delays during the evening rush hour. Signal problems, track fires, police activity. About once every few months I need to take a cab home. When that happens, it's a signal problem on multiple lines and I guess the whole system is gummed up for a few hours.
poppenweiler t1_jb2g8q8 wrote
Seems like you don't venture very far.
JordanRulz t1_jb1b8sj wrote
you know how bad things have gotten when californian public transit can be positively compared in any way to public transit here
Luke90210 t1_jb1gsuy wrote
Thats not completely true. Parts of the BART system are now reaching end of life stages where the very concrete is wearing out. It wasn't designed to be used so heavily by so many. In contrast the NYC subway is designed and expected to move millions 24/7.
Jokershigh t1_jb1fp6o wrote
I don't think it runs 24/7 and I believe the systems are massively smaller
NoodleShak t1_jb2myd6 wrote
Former bay area resident, it does not run 24/7 and they have 50 stations to maintain whil we have over 400 I believe.
Really what I want to know is why the PATH system sucks, its like 10 stations? How do they have such shitty service times and delays.
Makeyoownmoney t1_jb2v6b6 wrote
I only know San Diego, the Coaster and the Blue and Orange lines. Plus the 235 bus. They were all great. Like 6.50 for a day pass - was $5. Vagrants like to hang out and pee off the bus station benches in the daylight.
caffeine314 t1_jb398w0 wrote
Granted, this was the 90s. I'd take MUNI from SFSU to my house in Sunset. Usually clean, pretty reliable. Pretty far from the San Francisco nonsense of downtown.
donttouchthirdrail t1_jb0qpn4 wrote
That is not at all what my mom described the trains like when she was growing up
caffeine314 t1_jb3a6bh wrote
Don't know what to tell you. Your mom and I are probably similar age. I graduated Edward R Murrow in 1987. Used to go to the village a lot. 8th street playhouse once a week for midnight showing of Rock Horror - that would be the 1 train to Christopher Street. I'd hang out at CBGBs a lot. That was the 6 to Bleecker. Home was 2/3 to Eastern Parkway. And then Murrow was D,M, and Qb.
I was always on the trains, but these were pretty much my go-to places. There were always shitty nights, of course, but by and large, the trains were a WHOLE lot more reliable back then.
donttouchthirdrail t1_jb3cvf6 wrote
Wow exactly the same age lol. Most of the stuff my mom would mention was doors opening in transit, lights going out, random stop and holds between stations and stuff like that. She said it was a hell of a lot less reliable.
She lived off the 123/BCK with my grandma and the DMQ with my grandad.
They did slow down the trains in the 90s after the union square crash in 91, and a lot of TOs go under the speed limit because a bunch of the two shot grade timers aren't calibrated well, but that was before I was born so I can't really comment on that.
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