SUBWAY - Random Thoughts Topic

[GojiMet86]

9 hours ago, Theli11 said:

I just don't see how a College functions as a better name for a subway station. 149 St - Grand Concourse makes sense because the station is on.. 149 St and Grand Concourse. Hostos isn't a landmark, doesn't tell you where you are and it's not really an attraction or popular destination. It's not like City College or Columbia both of which are big campus' that are known in NYC. Hostos, in my opinion, isn't a college that warrants renaming a station after it. If it is, then where does the renaming/adding on names end? Chambers St - BMCC? DeKalb Av - LIU? Van Cortlandt Park - Manhattan College?  

......It has been used before.

The 1972 maps shows this:

"Van Cortlandt Park-Manhattan College-242 St-Broadway"

Burnside Avenue used to be Burnside Avenue-NYU, but then NYU sold it off to CUNY and that campus became Bronx Community College. Strangely, that campus was pretty far away from the actual station, further than all the other college stations. So even back then, distance could be somewhat flexible.

William Padron on SubChat is pointing out that 181st Street used to have Yeshiva University for a short while.

http://www.subchat.com/readflat.asp?Id=1605606&p=3

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?/img/maps/system_1972.jpg

 

Hostos is pretty well known in the Bronx and it's smack dab at the entrance of the station. Hunter College isn't a big campus, it's similar to Hostos, so size isn't an excuse.

I'd be fine adding universities and colleges to the names; the precedent is there. There were already 7 of them before Medgar Evers and a bunch are CUNYs.

Take 33rd Street on the Flushing line. They can add LaGuardia College to the name; it is a pretty well known college, and it would be a much better secondary name than Rawson Street, which is a useless decorative name with no relevancy for anyone except history cranks.

Edited July 10, 2022 by GojiMet86

[CenSin]

9 hours ago, GojiMet86 said:

......It has been used before.

The 1972 maps shows this:

"Van Cortlandt Park-Manhattan College-242 St-Broadway"

Burnside Avenue used to be Burnside Avenue-NYU, but then NYU sold it off to CUNY and that campus became Bronx Community College. Strangely, that campus was pretty far away from the actual station, further than all the other college stations. So even back then, distance could be somewhat flexible.

William Padron on SubChat is pointing out that 181st Street used to have Yeshiva University for a short while.

http://www.subchat.com/readflat.asp?Id=1605606&p=3

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?/img/maps/system_1972.jpg

 

Hostos is pretty well known in the Bronx and it's smack dab at the entrance of the station. Hunter College isn't a big campus, it's similar to Hostos, so size isn't an excuse.

I'd be fine adding universities and colleges to the names; the precedent is there. There were already 7 of them before Medgar Evers and a bunch are CUNYs.

Take 33rd Street on the Flushing line. They can add LaGuardia College to the name; it is a pretty well known college, and it would be a much better secondary name than Rawson Street, which is a useless decorative name with no relevancy for anyone except history cranks.

Any institution that’s affixed to a station name ought to earn it though.

For the CUNYs: Baruch’s 73% graduation rate is 1.5 times the national average. City College’s 60% graduation rate is just a few points above average. Hunter’s 56% is average. Medgar Evers is at 21%. City Tech is at 18%.

To compare with two of the best institutions whose names grace the subway stations: NYU has a graduation rate of 88%, and Columbia is still better at 96%.

[GojiMet86]

8 minutes ago, CenSin said:

Any institution that’s affixed to a station name ought to earn it though.

For the CUNYs: Baruch’s 73% graduation rate is 1.5 times the national average. City College’s 60% graduation rate is just a few points above average. Hunter’s 56% is average. Medgar Evers is at 21%. City Tech is at 18%.

To compare with two of the best institutions whose names grace the subway stations: NYU has a graduation rate of 88%, and Columbia is still better at 96%.

So is this an intellegence test now? Graduation rate should have nothing to do with it. These are points of interests, they serve as landmarks.

Yeshiva University has a graduation rate around 80%, Manhattan College and Baruch are at 70%. I don't see them on the map, yet they have higher rates than the Hunter or my own CCNY. Why are they not on the map?

Or what happens if Hunter or Brooklyn Colleges were to dip below 50%? I guess that should be grounds for removal than. Why would anyone want a so-so college on the map.......

[B35 via Church]

On 7/7/2022 at 9:11 PM, YankeesPwnMets said:

Lord knows the number of issues our city is dealing with yet the Assembly stays wasting their time renaming subway stations in honor of irrelevant colleges

Smaller/lesser-known colleges, maybe.... But to go as far as to say irrelevant is a bit much...

I don't necessarily see these station renamings happening "in honor of" them..... What I see going on with these station renamings is more akin to these sports franchises renaming these older stadiums after corporations....

My thing is, if they're going to go apeshit with these station renamings, it shouldn't be limited to just colleges..... Advertising by way of the subway (aimed at/for the general public) shouldn't be limited to just doing so for colleges.... That's what's going on with all this - Advertising; a microcosm of stimulating the growth of (what I like to call) 21st century NYC..... Some will refer to it as the "New, New York City".....

20 hours ago, Theli11 said:

I just don't see how a College functions as a better name for a subway station. 149 St - Grand Concourse makes sense because the station is on.. 149 St and Grand Concourse. Hostos isn't a landmark, doesn't tell you where you are and it's not really an attraction or popular destination. It's not like City College or Columbia both of which are big campus' that are known in NYC. Hostos, in my opinion, isn't a college that warrants renaming a station after it. If it is, then where does the renaming/adding on names end? Chambers St - BMCC? DeKalb Av - LIU? Van Cortlandt Park - Manhattan College?  

See above... It has less to do with "better" & more to do with *putting those colleges out there* (so to speak)....

You sardonically state those examples at the end there, but at this rate, I wouldn't doubt for a second that the first 2 out of those 3 will end up happening soon enough....

18 hours ago, Prospect said:

So, basically, any college that isn't well-known doesn't deserve addition in navigation within the subway system is what you said and mean. What you said actually contradicts your sentiment that including a college/university in a station name doesn't clearly define where you are by including that tidbit about City College and Columbia University... This move on the MTA's part, (with adding The Bronx Zoo to the list if they do) could possibly help stimulate some activity and change in The Bronx.

That is exactly what's going on here.... There's going to be a hell of an uphill to climb, but as with anything, you gotta start somewhere.....

10 hours ago, GojiMet86 said:

Take 33rd Street on the Flushing line. They can add LaGuardia College to the name; it is a pretty well known college, and it would be a much better secondary name than Rawson Street, which is a useless decorative name with no relevancy for anyone except history cranks.

Yes.... For the love of god, they need to drop those alternate names for those stations along the in question, like yesterday....

55 minutes ago, CenSin said:

Any institution that’s affixed to a station name ought to earn it though.

For the CUNYs: Baruch’s 73% graduation rate is 1.5 times the national average. City College’s 60% graduation rate is just a few points above average. Hunter’s 56% is average. Medgar Evers is at 21%. City Tech is at 18%.

To compare with two of the best institutions whose names grace the subway stations: NYU has a graduation rate of 88%, and Columbia is still better at 96%.

Because only the best of the best utilize the NYC subway.....

Merit has squat to do with advertising....

[bobtehpanda]

As a more practical reason: Columbia and NYU are institutions that do research and have conferences, and to some extent so do City College and Hunter College, so you have a fair amount of infrequent visitors who need to know where to go. Community colleges, less so.

(I don't really care, but hopefully New York can avoid some of the DC Metro sillyness around extremely long hyphenated station names like "U-St/African Amer Civil War Memorial/Cardozo")

If anything, I would suggest that hospitals are probably a more relevant renaming candidate than colleges, since those always have people visiting. Or even one-offs like "Woodhaven Blvd-Queens Center."

Edited July 10, 2022 by bobtehpanda

[Around the Horn]

Either colleges and universities are places of interest or they're not.

I'd argue that over the last 118 years we've already established the precedent that they are and if they're within reasonable walking distance, I don't see an issue (Naming both Franklin and President after Medgar Evers was a bit much though)

I'll also second the renaming after malls and hospitals especially Queens Center

Edited July 11, 2022 by Around the Horn

[Calvin]

At some times on the  line, the Franklin Av Shuttle has 2 cars. Although, whenever it's to or from Coney Island Yard, I wonder how come there's always a 4-car R68 or R68A attached to it? 

[trainfan22]

1 hour ago, Calvin said:

At some times on the  line, the Franklin Av Shuttle has 2 cars. Although, whenever it's to or from Coney Island Yard, I wonder how come there's always a 4-car R68 or R68A attached to it? 

Cause an 2 car R68 pair could gap out on the mainline, hence the 4 car R68 hooking up to the FS set to take it to CI yard.

Edited July 12, 2022 by trainfan22

[T to Dyre Avenue]

That’s what I thought. Now I know,

[BreeddekalbL]

Random thought to the idiots who railfan using drones, don't fly your drone in eyesight of a t/o to where he can see it over the roadbed 

[darkstar8983]

R160A-2 / R160B mixed set 9583-9587 / 9858-9862 was on the  this morning (the 8:07AM trip out of Astoria). Literally had to dock my bike and RUN up the stairs when I heard the *ding* that signals the train is about the depart before the train left

Edited July 13, 2022 by darkstar8983

[darkstar8983]

Also on a side note, according to nyctsubway on twitter when they announce service disruptions, looks like there were quite a few trains pulled from service on the  route today (I stopped checking after the fourth train was pulled today). If those trains can’t be repaired by tomorrow , it will be an interesting rush hour for riders along Broadway.

[R32 3838]

It's probably the R46s. I seen a picture of one of the light fixtures on the floor a few days ago.

[darkstar8983]

22 minutes ago, R32 3838 said:

It's probably the R46s. I seen a picture of one of the light fixtures on the floor a few days ago.

Oh I’m pretty sure they all were

[T to Dyre Avenue]

On 7/12/2022 at 2:20 AM, BreeddekalbL said:

Random thought to the idiots who railfan using drones, don't fly your drone in eyesight of a t/o to where he can see it over the roadbed 

First I ever heard of someone using a drone to railfan.

[darkstar8983]

6 hours ago, T to Dyre Avenue said:

First I ever heard of someone using a drone to railfan.

I thought these new generations of rail fans would just put their cameras on the front of the train or on the side, not actually fly drones around the train 

[Calvin]

A point out to the Express for weekends up to August 15th, Coney Island bound: When it reaches to 36 St, it goes non-stop on the Express track that's closest to the Manhattan bound  train from 8 Av up to 20th Av. It then switches to the other Express track closest to the Coney Island  train at Kings Highway up to 86 St. Passes through Coney Island Yard and arrives at Stillwell Av on its assigned track close to the . The track close to the  is the Shuttle train to Prospect Park. 

 

All Shuttle trains on the  are R68/A for today. 

[trainfan22]

R143 car 8111 is beat up as hell, one cut out door on each side of the car and a panel one end of the car is hanging down. R143s are a pretty good fleet IMO but the poor state of 8111 stood out lol. I'm sure ENY will fix it up once its due for inspection.

[R32 3838]

3 hours ago, trainfan22 said:

R143 car 8111 is beat up as hell, one cut out door on each side of the car and a panel one end of the car is hanging down. R143s are a pretty good fleet IMO but the poor state of 8111 stood out lol. I'm sure ENY will fix it up once its due for inspection.

They run on the non stop. I hope eventually they fix the CBTC compatibility issues by allowing other 8 car CBTC equipped trains to run on the so this way at least 40% of the R143 fleet can be for rush hour service. Use them like they did the R32s back in 2020.

Edited July 18, 2022 by R32 3838

[Lawrence St]

12 hours ago, trainfan22 said:

R143 car 8111 is beat up as hell, one cut out door on each side of the car and a panel one end of the car is hanging down. R143s are a pretty good fleet IMO but the poor state of 8111 stood out lol. I'm sure ENY will fix it up once its due for inspection.

You have to remember that 90% of those cars have lived on the  doing nothing but running back and forth 100 million times in a year carrying full capacity. Of course they’re going to show their age which is why it’s time for a mid-life overhaul.

[trainfan22]

1 hour ago, Lawrence St said:

You have to remember that 90% of those cars have lived on the  doing nothing but running back and forth 100 million times in a year carrying full capacity. Of course they’re going to show their age which is why it’s time for a mid-life overhaul.

MTA doesn't do mid life overhauls anymore, SMS every six years replaced that. Most of the R143 cars are fine that I been on... is my home line so I ride them a lot but this particular car stood out. 

[VIP]

On 7/18/2022 at 11:12 AM, trainfan22 said:

MTA doesn't do mid life overhauls anymore, SMS every six years replaced that. Most of the R143 cars are fine that I been on... is my home line so I ride them a lot but this particular car stood out. 

All them R143’s look like garbage. Inside and out. They look just like Brownsville and East New York. Very fitting. The ‘s cars look like trash too. Very dingy interiors mismatched door mats… very poor aesthetics especially compared to Jamaica’s R160’s. 

[darkstar8983]

1 hour ago, VIP said:

All them R143’s look like garbage. Inside and out. They look just like Brownsville and East New York. Very fitting. The ‘s cars look like trash too. Very dingy interiors mismatched door mats… very poor aesthetics especially compared to Jamaica’s R160’s. 

But remember that half of the Jamaica R160s we’re ex-Coney Island units, which were on average much cleaner than the Jamaica ones (even if they had lower MDBFs due to running all the time even weekends)

[Lawrence St]

Why is the  still running 4 car sets on the weekends? Shouldn't this practice be over with by now?

[trainfan22]

 

3 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

Why is the  still running 4 car sets on the weekends? Shouldn't this practice be over with by now?

Running full length trains on the weekends would require an C/R which would cost more money. Perhaps the TA thinks the 4 car trains are sufficient on the weekends.

 

 

From personal observation of those weekend trains, they aren't exactly bursting at the stems with riders despite the shortened trains.