on the Broadway Line

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

MTA New York City Transit's far-reaching maintenance program—FASTRACK—continued its second night on the Broadway Line resulting in no trains at   stations in Manhattan. The more than seven-mile long line was closed from 10 p.m. until 5 a.m. suspending service in both directions under the Great White Way. This FASTRACK line segment shutdown continues for the next two nights through early Friday morning, February 1.

Suspending all train service on a subway corridor on four consecutive nights for seven continuous hours gives subway repair crews the opportunity to perform many jobs on or 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 nation's largest rail transportation system. 

The FASTRACK project environment, introduced in January 2012, experienced a significantly lower accident rate by participating employees. During FASTRACK, the Lost Time Accident (LTA) rate per 100 Employees was 1.38 versus a rate of 2.42 during all other operations.  An LTA is a job-related incident that results in the inability of an employee to perform their duties for at least one working day beyond the day of the incident.

With no trains running along the nearly-century old Broadway Line, an army of maintenance workers were able to inspect signals and switches, repair and replace track rails and cross ties, clean track floors, perform elevator and escalator repair work, repair water damage, clear drains, and clean stations. They were also able to clear the track-bed of debris and paint areas untouched in years because they are not reachable during normal train operation.  In addition, work crews were able to clean lighting fixtures, change bulbs, and repair platform edges.  We also performed high-intensity station cleaning providing a visible improvement to the station environment.

Significant accomplishments from last night's maintenance effort include servicing 11 signals and two switches, correcting 432 third rail defects, scraping and cleaning 1,400 linear feet of track under and around the third rail and completing the inspection of an interlocking, the arrangement of signals and switches that allow trains to cross from one track to another.  Track maintenance projects consisted of installing six sections of track, 26 track tie blocks, 295 track tie plates, 450 friction pads and cleaning 200 linear feet of track trough, the space between the rails.  Maintaining the subway's physical infrastructure and clearing the track of debris continued as workers repaired 12 leaks, installed 310 linear feet of handrail, cleaned 600 linear feet of track drain and repaired 60 square feet of benchwall, an extension of the station platform that is located in tunnels and used by maintenance personnel and for emergency egress.

In addition, work crews scraped 4,565 linear feet of track and removed 4,670 bags (5,200 pounds) of scrap and debris.  With a focus on customer and employee safety, workers replaced 398 tunnel lights, 170 station lights, ten platform edge signs, removed 10 way-finding directional signs, and cleaned 1000 linear feet of "no clearance signs" and installed an additional 50 linear feet of the same.   Maintenance crews also scraped 4,900 square feet of station platform surface, painted 2,700 square feet of paintable surface area replaced 15 square feel of tactile warning (ADA) tiles, and repaired 145 linear feet of rubbing board, the fiberglass extension of the platform edge, that is parallel to the side of the train. 

Closed Circuit Television systems equipment was also serviced as workers replace two defective cameras, one monitor, two monitor housing glasses, and optimized the picture from six cameras on four monitors that train conductors view to see the entire length of the platform.  In addition, workers completed inspections and testing of all public address system components and replaced two speakers at the 57 St-7 Av Station. 

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 the critical components you never see.  FASTRACK is having a positive impact on service reliability as train delays on subway lines that have undergone FASTRACK maintenance have dropped 4.4% and track fires have declined by 50 %.  FASTRACK is improving employee safety and service reliability.

Accomplishments:

Monday, January 28, 2013