Posted on 02/02/2005 1:33:13 PM PST by neverdem
At first, the estimate was grim, a subway rider's nightmare. It could take up to five years to get the A and C trains running normally after a fire in an underground signal relay room last month.
Then the forecast improved: transit officials said it would take only six to nine months to fix the disruptions.
Now the estimate has come down once more. The new prognosis for restoration of most service on the subway lines?
Today. Just nine days and 15 hours after the fire.
The president of New York City Transit, Lawrence G. Reuter, announced yesterday that C trains would begin running again at 5 a.m. and that the A train would run at nearly its regular frequency, after what he called a herculean effort by repair workers toiling nonstop in 12-hour shifts since Jan. 23, when a fire at the Chambers Street station in Lower Manhattan halted the C and crippled service on the A, the third-busiest line in the system.
Peak-hour service on the two lines will be at 70 percent of normal frequency on Manhattan-bound trains and 80 percent on Brooklyn-bound trains, Mr. Reuter said, and service at other times will be close to normal, except for partial shutdowns on occasional nights and weekends as repairs continue.
With the revival of C service between 168th Street in Manhattan and Euclid Avenue in Brooklyn, the V train, which had replaced the C in Brooklyn, will resume its normal route between Forest Hills, Queens, and the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The B train, which has run more frequently at peak hours to serve riders on the West Side, will return to its normal schedule.
The new timetable was only the latest episode in a bizarre chapter that began when the relay room, which transmitted vital information about train positions and movement, was gutted by a mysterious fire. On Monday, fire investigators said they had all but ended their investigation into the blaze, concluding only that the cause was "not ascertained."
Mr. Reuter's initial estimate that service on the two lines could be impaired for three to five years was met with bewilderment from riders, outrage from public officials, widespread attention from the news media and incredulity from historians, who noted that the entire first segment of the Independent Subway System, including the A and C lines, was built in seven years, from 1925 to 1932.
Mr. Reuter later apologized to the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, of which his agency is the largest component, for the incorrect estimate, and said that regular service could be restored in six to nine months.
Only on Monday night, Mr. Reuter said yesterday, did it become clear that C service could be restored far more quickly than expected. He added, however, that full or regular service would not return for at least three months and it could take several years to repair or replace the damaged equipment.
Borrowing relays from other areas of the subway system, officials said, signal engineers devised a "very basic, temporary automatic signaling" system that will permit trains to run with automatic signal protection.
That means workers will not have to clear every A and C train passing through the area around Chambers Street, as they have done since the fire.
"Some people might have called this a Rube Goldberg operation," Mr. Reuter said in describing the signaling system that will be in temporary use for at least several months. He later added, "The engineers are literally drawing it on backs of paper right now."
Mr. Reuter emphasized that he believed the trains using the temporary signaling configuration would be "just as safe as the rest of the system is now."
During peak hours, the time between trains will be about 5 minutes on the A line, instead of the usual 3 to 5 minutes, and 10 minutes on the C line, instead of the usual 7 minutes. In sum, 18 trains - 12 on the A line and 6 on the C - will operate in the peak Manhattan-bound direction during rush hours, down from the usual 26.
Several factors contributed to the speedy recovery, Mr. Reuter said. The most affected segment of the two lines in Lower Manhattan was closed last weekend and on several nights, giving workers time to assemble and connect new circuits and switches and run complex simulations of restored service.
In addition, the relative straightness of the tracks used by the two lines around Chambers Street, and the fact that the trains there do not regularly switch tracks, allowed for the kind of improvisational signaling system that has been created.
Finally, Mr. Reuter conceded, his initial estimates were made before workers had made a full assessment of what he called "extreme damage" to the relay room that left behind "80-year-old wires that have been burnt and damaged, many beyond use and repair."
Such damage required days of assessment to determine which cables, circuits and switches could be salvaged. "This is not like building a brand new rail car or a brand new signal system," Mr. Reuter said.
Even so, Mr. Reuter appeared contrite for having altered his public pronouncements so dramatically. In the future, "we'll be more cautious in our estimate," he said.
The handling of the fire's aftermath has been an embarrassment for Mr. Reuter, 54, who took over New York City Transit in 1996 after leading the metropolitan transit agencies in San Jose, Calif. and Washington.
A transit veteran said he was still surprised that Mr. Reuter had given such an extreme estimate for the duration of the disruptions. "That was off the top of somebody's head and was unrealistic," said Charles Kalkhof, who worked for the transit agency from 1950 to 1984, when he retired as general manager for rapid transit, overseeing the subways. "When you're in an emergency situation, there's no reason why you can't jury-rig temporary signaling."
Mr. Kalkhof, 78, emphasized that full repair of the signals would still take a long time. "After six to nine months, there will still be a lot of work to be done to make it a viable, permanent installation," he said. "It's never done overnight. It takes some engineering know-how and people that are aware of the safety implications."
Mr. Reuter expressed similar caution during a news conference at the agency's headquarters on Jay Street in downtown Brooklyn. "The job is nowhere near complete and there is still a tremendous amount of work to be completed before we can return to full service levels," he said.
Among the officials Mr. Reuter singled out for praise were Barbara Spencer, his top deputy; Michael A. Lombardi, the senior vice president for subways; Keith J. Hom, chief of operations planning; Jerome Martin, chief electrical officer, and Tracy Bowdwin, assistant chief signals officer.
Riders reacted with a mixture of relief and confusion.
"I am totally frustrated by all the jumpy changes," Caspar Stracke, 37, who normally uses the C train from his home in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, said as he stepped off an E train in Chelsea. "Ultimately, I'm happy to have a better way back to Manhattan. I was already imagining the hell of not having C service for such a long time."
Christopher Elcock, 39, who lives near the Rockaway Avenue station on the C line, expressed disbelief when he heard of the officials' latest prognosis. "They've done a good job at confusing riders," he said.
So it's not that the repair was a Herculean effort done in a fraction of the time needed, but that whoever estimated the repair time should be fired?
FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list.
I notice the A train is still out of service, though . . . that's the one affectionately called "the Mugga Mova" by Guardian Angels founder and current New York talk radio host Curtis Sliwa.
Nothing like good ole union labor...
nikos
It used to be, buy there's about one serious felony in the subways per day now, post Rudy. That stat hasn't been mentioned by Curtis because he's too fond of the notoriety he earned leading the GAs onto the subways years ago. He doesn't really admit that is was Jack Maple not Curtis Sliwa who turned the subways around crimewise. As for the talk show bit, while Curtis is entertaining he's so nutty he makes Ron Kuby sound reasonable. BTW, if the DUmmies at Air America had any brains they'd hire Kuby in a heart beat. But the Commie that Kuby is, he still recognizes that WABCs checks are bigger and they're honored at the bank.
The repair workers probably use the trains.
3 to 5 years is dismal..
Forget the nuttiness, forget the politics, and all that . . . Curtis Sliwa is one of THE BEST talk show hosts in the business. I say that as a serious talk radio listener who has a pretty good feel for that whole industry.
I took the A train down from Penn Station on Thursday at the rush hour. It was moving OK, but it was packed as full as a can of sardines, much fuller than usual.
We went by the underground control room next to Chambers Street station, and once again it was all lit up and full of hard hats working.
Sometimes I'm the only white guy on the car, but I've never had any problems.
They were just pullin' a Scotty the Enterprise Engineer move.
When I was living in NYC, I used to take the A from High Street(the last stop in Bklyn) to mid-town Manhattan. One morning as I entered the subway a black man announced to the packed car that "the ethnicity of this car has changed". His racist remark got no reaction from his fellow passengers, much to their credit.
Really? It hasn't been out of service except for a few hours after the fire. Service was cut down for about a week, but it wasn't totally out of service -- that was the C.
This is true. I remember taking the 3 uptown from Wall Street back in the early 90s and one evening (rush hour) near City Hall (probably the Park Place station), some deranged guy got on the packed car and started ranting about the Central Park jogger who was raped. Blamed it all on her and was screeching about "white bitches want it from the black man, but then scream rape to cover their desires." Right away, a few of the businessman types in the car surrounded me, so the lunatic couldn't get anywhere near me.
Other than that, I've never noticed any racial tensions in the subways.
High Street was my stop when I was a single guy living in Brooklyn-- a long time ago.
No, no, no, no, no, no!
Didn't you ever watch the original Star Trek and their movies? Remember Scotty? He always inflated his repair estimates. "How else would he look like a miracle worker?"
Seriously, you always want the worst case scenario as a first estimate. Everything from there is good news. the problem came in in the way the worst case scenario was communicated as THE estimate.
The interesting thing to me about this was that the original pessimistic estimate was coupled with discussion of the "much needed" modernization of the signaling system. I'd say that this rapid repair job kind of argues against that now. If a computerized signaling system had been involved in a serious fire like this one it would have been worse than the original worst case estimate, let alone anywhere near the actual repair time. That is unless they did a really good job of designing a distributed and redundent system.
But they'd probably base that on Windows. The day that happens is the day I swear never to ride the NY subway again.
Sheeeit. There shouldn't have been a minute of delay. Nine minutes, nine hours, nine months -- or nine years -- are entirely insane given the source of it all, which the Times has been scampering about trying to hide.
This article is bile.
(nycgal, I remember from several years ago that you were a fellow Concord Village denizen.)
Did you live in Concord Village?
I'm so glad I don't have to deal with the subways anymore but then I now have to deal with So Cal freeways:)
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