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Photo Courtesy: NYC Transit/ Lenny Wiggins

The third night of MTA New York City Transit's ambitious maintenance effort —FASTRACK— took place late last night and early Thursday morning along the Seventh Avenue Line between 34 St-Penn Station and South Ferry and Atlantic Av-Barclays Ctr, Brooklyn. FasTrack entails the partial closure of a subway line to train service on four consecutive nights and for seven continuous hours (10 p.m. to 5 a.m.). This round of FASTRACK on the lines runs through 5:00 a.m. Friday, October 19. Partial-line closures to train service, allows maintenance crews to work on and/or near the tracks without having to stop work every few minutes to accommodate train movement. This is a safer work environment for employees and a more efficient way to maintain and clean New York City's extensive underground transportation system that normally runs around the clock.

With no trains running along Seventh Avenue, 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, surfaces not reachable during normal train operation were scraped, primed and painted. 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 better station environment.

Major achievements from last night's maintenance effort include improving the condition of the track by replacing seven sections of track, 152 track tie plates, and 23 tie blocks. To keep trains moving safely and efficiently, workers serviced 22 signals, corrected 696 third rail defects, and scraped and cleaned 5,450 linear feet of track under and around the third rail. Making repairs to the subway's physical infrastructure and controlling the flow of water in the subway was also a goal of the maintenance blitz. Crews cleaned 750 linear feet of track drain line, 560 linear feet of track trough (the space between the rails), and ten Emergency Exit locations. In addition, maintenance personnel removed 825 bags containing 19,200 pounds of scrap and debris, sealed 15 water leaks, made repairs to the benchwall, an extension of the station platform that is located in tunnels and used by maintenance workers for emergency egress, and performed pump room maintenance. A pump room houses equipment that removes water from the subway.

Customer and employee safety needs were addressed as maintenance crews replaced 168 station florescent tubes, 42 square feet of tactile warning (ADA) tiles and tunnel lights. Workers were able to do preventative maintenance on elevators and Closed Circuit Television components. CCTV equipment was cleaned and the picture optimized on three monitors and three cameras.

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.

 

Accomplishments:

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Wednesday, October 17, 2012