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Last night was the beginning of the Eighth Avenue line’s second round of FASTRACK, MTA New York City Transit's ambitious maintenance program. FASTRACK involves 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.  With no trains running along the lines from 59 St-Columbus Circle to Jay St-MetroTech, Brooklyn line segment, maintenance workers worked on and near the tracks without the need to stop work every few minutes while a train moves through the area.  This is a safer work environment for employees and a more efficient way to maintain and clean New York City's enormous subway system that runs around the clock.

More than 800 Transit employees were able to inspect and perform maintenance work in stations, on tracks, signals, switches and associated components. Work crews were able to replace rails and cross ties and scrape track floors, resulting in the removal of dirt and debris. In subway stations, paintable areas not reachable during normal train operation were scraped, primed and painted. Workers also able 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 and inviting station environment.

Major accomplishments from last night’s maintenance effort include servicing six signals, nine switches, one third rail indicator location and generating 1,595 bags of debris of which 888 bags (5,900 pounds) was removed.   In addition, 1,885 linear feet of track was scraped, four running rails, 296 tie plates and 10 tie blocks were installed. The Vacuum train cleaned 15 drains, 165 square feet of leaks were sealed, 500 linear feet of handrail was installed and 440 square feet of benchwall was repaired.  Maintenance was also performed at three pump rooms and the annual inspection of fire lines resulted in 29 fire line valves being serviced.

In the subway stations environment, 800 square feet of paintable surface was scrapped, 4,150 was primed and 2,150 was painted.  Other areas of stations painting included 11 columns, stand pipes, four edges of rubbing board (edge of platform that is parallel to the side of the train) and 94 stairways received safety painting (edge of threads painted yellow to increase visibility).  Also, 14 platform edge signs, 613 light bulbs and 16 square feet of tactile warning (ADA) tiles were replaced and 320 linear feet of rubbing board was repaired.  

With customer safety in mind, ten cameras and twelve monitors on Closed Circuit Televisions were inspected with one monitor and camera and four monitor housing glasses replaced.  

How this impacts service?

Reliable service – where you can depend on getting to where you need to go when you need to get there – requires constant care and attention to critical components you never see. To improve safety and reliability, pumps, signals, track, and power are just some of the vital system equipment we are focusing on repairing and maintaining so that we can continue providing our riders with train service that is safe and reliable.