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Borough Hall

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Chambers St

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Nevins St

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Wall St

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Photo Courtesy: NYC Transit/ Lenny Wiggins

Yesterday evening MTA New York City Transit's ambitious maintenance program — FASTRACK — continued on the Seventh Avenue line from 34 St-Penn Station to South Ferry and to Atlantic Av-Barclays Ctr, Brooklyn. The FASTRACK program entails the partial closure of a subway line to train service on four consecutive nights for seven continuous hours (10 p.m. to 5 a.m.). This round of FASTRACK on the lines runs each weeknight this week through 5 a.m. Friday, June 29. Because no trains are running along the line segment, workers can work on and near the tracks without having to stop work every few minutes while a train moves through the area. This is a safer and more efficient way to maintain and clean the massive New York City subway – a system that runs around the clock.

With no trains running along Seventh Avenue last night, more than 800 Transit employees were able to inspect and perform maintenance work on signals, switches and associated components. Workers were able to replace rails and cross ties and scrape track floors, thereby removing muck and debris. In subway stations, paintable areas not reachable during normal train operation were scraped, primed and painted. Maintenance crews also took the opportunity to clean lighting fixtures, change bulbs and repair platform edges while performing high-intensity station cleaning. These maintenance activities improve train performance and efficiency while also providing a pleasant station environment.

Major accomplishments from last night's maintenance effort include servicing one switch, 19 signals, removing 2,125 bags of debris (23,000 pounds) and installing four "speed" signs. Workers also installed six running rails (sections of track), 350 track tie plates, and 54 tie blocks. In addition, 1,350 feet of track drains were cleaned, 53 leaks were sealed, and 1,200 linear feet of "no clearance" signs were cleaned. Work crews corrected 356 third rail defects and scraped and cleaned 450 feet of track under and around the third rail.

For a visually-pleasing and safer station environment, 11,950 square feet of paintable surface was primed and painted, 37 square feet of tactile warning (ADA) tiles were replaced, 49 station drains were cleaned, and 1,400 square feet of rubbing board (edge of station platform parallel to the side of the train) was painted. Maintenance crews also cleaned, adjusted and optimized picture quality on three cameras and three monitors that are part of a Closed Circuit Television system. Sound-powered telephones were also inspected and tested at Clark Street, Wall Street and Fulton Street stations.

People moving equipment is also part of this maintenance blitz as subway maintenance workers performed preventative maintenance on escalators at Park Place, and Borough Hall stations and elevators at Chambers Street, and Clark Street stations.

How this impacts service?

Reliable service - service you can depend on to get you to where you need to go when you need to get there - requires regularly scheduled maintenance to critical components you never see. Pumps, signals, track, and power are just some of the vital system equipment we are focusing on so that we can continue providing our riders with train service that is safe and reliable.