…otherwise known as The ‘E’ Train!!

Just as I was about to start this entry, QC Forum participant nycdude posted this form-letter response from the MTA:

07/22/2008 10:23 AM This is in response to your recent e-mail message to MTA New York City Transit regarding the cooling system on our subway cars.

We regret any unpleasant conditions you have encountered in the subway. Our subway cars are designed so that the air conditioning comes on automatically when the temperature of the car exceeds 71 degrees Fahrenheit, and the heat comes on when the temperature drops below 54 degrees Fahrenheit. Unfortunately, an air conditioning or heating unit may sometimes malfunction during the course of a train’s run. Our maintenance personnel will continue their routine inspection of all climate control systems to ensure that they are functioning properly.

In the future, should you have further transit-related concerns, we will need a car number or employee badge number so that we can investigate the problem and take the appropriate measures as warranted. You may contact Customer Services at (718) 330-3322, open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., weekdays, to report this information.

We take the concerns of our customers seriously and thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.

La Wanda C. Green
Associate Transit Customer Service Specialist II

Thank you, nycdude, for posting that.

Now, my questions for QC readers are:

1. Who among us is going to write down or memorize the car numbers of the E trains with broken a/c systems? I’m actually not being rhetorical. Let’s keep a log!
2. When I’m stuck in a hot car on the E train, I try to open at least two windows to get some air circulation. Invariably, someone will snap at me, saying, “You’re only making it worse!!!”

When subways cars didn’t have a/c (uh…my grandparents told me about it…), the ceiling fans were on and the windows were open. Even during the 1980s, when a/c was standard but usually broken (my parents told me about that…), people would gladly open car windows. That’s how you knew a car was hot when it pulled into the station.

So, dear readers, what do you think? Is a subway car with no a/c but a couple of open windows worse than a completely sealed car with no a/c, in the hopes you’re containing that one last pint of formerly cold air?

This is just a reminder that the Transportation Alternatives Queens Committee (TAQC)  will be holding its monthly meeting this evening at 6:30 PM at the Greater Astoria Historical Society, 35-20 Broadway, on the 4th floor of the Thomas M. Quinn & Sons Memorials and Funeral Home. Easy to get to from both the Steinway Street stop on the R, V lines and the Broadway stop on the N, W lines.

If you’re interested in bicycling around our great borough, and representin’ central Queens, this is the committe for you.

Thanks to comrade blogger, Forest Hills 72, for inquiring about the TA Queens Committee’s mission. Read the comments page to learn more about the inner workings and goals of the TAQC, and read my Forest Hills-Park Slope round-trip biking route.

There will be a packed agenda and lots to discuss, and lots of ways to get involved.  I also look forward to getting everyone’s opinion on a variety of topics. 

Transportation Alternatives Queens Committee advocates on behalf of cyclists, pedestrians, and mass transit users, in Queens.  They meet the 2nd Monday each month (unless otherwise noted) at the Greater Astoria Historical Society from 6:30p-8p.  All are welcome to join.

7

No scheduled weekend service changes.

E

No scheduled weekend service changes.

F

No scheduled weekend service changes.

R

No scheduled weekend service changes.

This information is being provided to you as part of MTA New York City Transit’s e-mail notification program.

One day, you’re the lead-off story, next day you’re yesterday’s news.

Last week we were coming home late in the evening and saw the newstand guys cleaning everything up, and we thought they were just going on vacation or something. Guess not.

The curious thing about it is that the newstand was left open and abandoned like so for at least 3 days.

The guys who ran the newstand always seemed to have a great rapport with their regulars every morning. They always seemed to have steady business during commuting hours, even with a supermarket, candy store and subway-based newstand within spitting distance. One of the more comforting phenomena of NYC is the ability of a newstand and a candy-and-newspaper store to co-exist and thrive right next to each other.

To the Queens Boulevard and 71st Road Newstand Guys: I wish you all the best! May you always have many customers, sell lots of candy, and sell winning lottery tickets wherever you are!

So Queens Crap had an alarmist update earlier this week about MS-13 graffiti on a construction site in Forest Hills. I didn’t really touch it because the people I hear going on and on about MS-13 tend to be apocalyptic loons like Michael “You Should Only Get AIDS and Die, You Pig” Savage, plus isn’t Central American gang graffiti on a construction site as likely to come from undocumented Central American day laborers as from the nearby high school? Anyway, I filed that away until my commute home today, when I saw this artistically tagged on an otherwise unmemorable poster at the 75th Avenue subway station:

Read the rest of this entry »

It didn’t get much attention, but the keen transit observers at SubChat have noticed that the G is kaput beyond Court Square once the MTA implements its fare-increase-related service “enhancements.” Of course, you weren’t taking the G anyway, so you don’t really care. Which is why it was cut, I suppose. I still think it was theoretically cool that you could take a single train from Forest Hills to Williamsburg, though like everybody else, I never actually did it.

You may have read about the constant, 24/7 noise stemming from LIRR track work on the forums — if you haven’t experienced it yourself. Passing trains are blaring their horns at all hours, disturbing the sleep and sanity of people who live near the tracks from Kew Gardens all the way to Woodside. But did you know there’s actually something you can do about it? The Train Noise Abatement Association wants you to join up and help stop the insanity. Ah, I know what you’re going to say: “High-minded civic organizations like that can’t do anything.” But this one actually quieted the noise in similar situations in Montauk and my old stomping grounds (if you can call hiding out in the high-school-newspaper office during lunch “stomping”) of Cedarhurst.

If you’ve had enough, e-mail Jack Mevorach at jack@mevorach.com and tell ‘im I sent you.

I’m back! Saint Martin was nice and all, but it’s no Queens. But seriously! It was a fabulous time, the Caribbean Sea (not the beach, the Caribbean Sea) being a few steps down from our two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath upgraded suite. If you plan on any tropical travel in the near or far future, I highly recommend the Grand Case Beach Club. Trust me on this.

I made one very big mistake: Booking the return flight into Newark. Those of us who live in Central Queens should never fly into Newark for any reason. The late-night car trip back from the airport ran a cool $100 including toll and a generous-but-not-insane tip. And that was the best deal I got after calling three different car services (for the record, the winner was Dial 7, formerly Tel Aviv but changed to attract anti-Semites, I guess).

I learned a few things sitting in the cushy leather back seat on the way home. You can learn them, too, after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

So yesterday’s subway service interruptions weren’t a Queens thing, obviously. Commuters were stranded throughout the city. But what about this morning, 24 hours later? How’s the system doing? Take it, MTA:

 and  trains are running local in both directions.

,  and   trains are running with extensive delays.

… And that’s it. Good to know that even when everybody suffers, we still suffer longer.

Some years back I lived in Los Angeles for about three months, January through March. There was some culture shock. One thing I always remember really flooring me was coming home after a moderate rainstorm to see the top story on the local evening news: HEAVY RAINS CRIPPLE AREA. The next morning in the venerable L.A. Times, the rain was the top story, plastered across the big broadsheet front page. In Los Angeles, life grinds to an abrupt halt when it rains.

And apparently, so it goes in Queens. When I went to sleep last night — late, around 1:30 — it wasn’t raining. A thunderstorm woke me up around 6:30. By the time I left my apartment for work at 8:20, the rain had already stopped — but so had subway service down the Queens Boulevard line. Is this now going to happen every time we get more than a drizzle? Recent experience would suggest that the answer is an unfortunate yes. Central Queens old-timers say it wasn’t always like this, but I suppose that’s what a decaying infrastructure gets you. Either way, it’s quite unacceptable, and I’m not going to be pleased next year when I pay $90 for an unlimited-ride MetroCard only to not be able to use it twice a month. Subway service interrputions are inevitable, but they should be extremely, extremely rare. Does this happen in London? Paris? Berlin?

However, there is a figurative silver lining to these literal clouds: Unlike last time, the MTA’s slightly more-competitent subsidiary, the Long Island Rail Road, came through. I ignored station announcements encouraging riders to take the Q60 bus (motto: Only 3 short hours to the Upper East Side!) and opted to head over to the LIRR station, where I found free trains running every five minutes. I was at Penn Station in 15. Of course, I had to walk from there because — well, I imagine you know the rest.