I had to be in Manhattan at 3:30 Saturday afternoon. Stupidly, I relied on the MTA to get me there. I thought I took the necessary precautions. Knowing how unreliable subway service at our station has been this year, Katie and I scoured the Newkirk Ave station for weekend service advisories late Friday night. No such signs were posted. There were signs about service changes that happened weeks ago, of course, but no new signs. So we figured trains were running normally.Then we got to the station Saturday at 2:30 and saw those last minute, hand-written signs taped onto the turnstiles. "No Manhattan trains at this station. Please take the Coney Island bound train to Kings Hwy for Manhattan service." Of course. How stupid of us to think that we could just show up at the station and hop on a train without any problems.
So we waited for a Coney Island bound Q train. Saw several Manhattan-bound trains pass us as we moved slowly to Kings Highway. And the worst part of it all? When we got to Kings Highway, a Manhattan-bound Q train took off without waiting for anybody from our train to get across the tracks. The lack of respect the MTA has for their paying customers is just embarrassing. After the bullshit they made us go through to get on a Manhattan-bound train, the least they could do is keep a train at Kings Highway an extra 2 minutes to let people on.
So exactly 33 minutes after arriving at the Newkirk Avenue station, we were on a Manhattan-bound Q train passing through Newkirk Ave. 33 minutes to get back where we started. And of course I was late to my 3:30 appointment.
What's so infuriating about all of this is that we did our part. We went out of our way to look for service advisories and the MTA let us down by waiting until the day the changes were taking place to announce them. Completely unacceptable.
14 comments:
same thing happened at the courtelyou stop. I work on Saturday mornings and always check to make sure there are no service advisories, but there are never any. I've showed up at the station on 3 occasions in the last 2 months to see the pink tape across the manhattan bound staircase.
The first time i took the train to Kings Highway, but the last 2, i've just bucked up and walked to Church Ave.
The MTA has really dropped the ball on the service announcements over the last few years. Also, this is week 5 of what was supposed to be 8 non-consecutive weekends of no Newkirk service (allegedly what the MTA told CB 14). Looking at the amount of work left to go, I seriously doubt the MTA will finish replacing the northbound support columns over 3 more weekends.
I can only guess at the fun we'll have when the Southbound side is closed, likely later this summer. I don't mind walking to Church St @ 10am, I will mind walking from there @ 1am after an evening out.
Methinks it's time for CB 14 to do something about this and for me to become a bit friendlier with the F Trains.
I recommend you sign up for MTA alerts. While the alerts sometimes fail to inform about certain changes I did receive an email on Thursday, May 28th with the subject Q Line Weekend Service Changes. It warned:
"Manhattan-bound Q trains skip Newkirk Av May 30 – Jun 1, 12:01 AM Sat to 5 AM Mon"
you can sign up here:
http://www.mymtaalerts.com
good luck
Emergency repairs/track work. Would you rather they let the trains run after discovering a hazard and perhaps have a train derailment? What do you want from a system that will get you anywhere in NYC for $2.00, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in relative safety, a modicum of cleanliness AND is over 100 years old!
Completely agree with anon 5:30 about signing up for the email alerts. I did this a while back, and you can choose the specific subway lines you're interested in so as not to be inundated with emails.
Every Thursday they send out a separate email for each subway line you subscribed to with details about upcoming weekend changes. If there's a cancellation or alteration in weekend service changes, they'll email you about it too. It really helps me plan my weekends.
I checked the mta site on Friday night and there was nothing posted re: weekend service changes.
I luckily took car service to the brooklyn flea and then took the train to Manhattan from there.
I'm not looking forward to the additional weekends of this.
Anonymous at 9:48... It's NOT the emergency repairs. Everyone understands those! This is PLANNED work at the Newkirk Station that requires the trains to run on the Express track (and skip Newkirk, Cortelyou and Beverley... an I suppose everything between Kings Highway and Newkirk?)
It's maddening not to be informed about PLANNED work.
I totally agree, walking to Church (if you know to) isn't that big of a deal Manhattan-bound, but the late-night return trip will be horrible. Not that late-night service isn't already crazy making.
The smart Car Services will have cars driving by Church looking for fares... I bet they'll be plenty (like me!)
You can always check the MTA website for service advisories before you travel. I've never had difficulties with it and never had an unpleasant surprise at the station.
hah.
May 31, 2009 9:48 PM = Paid MTA shill.
The MTA posts the service advisories on their site every Thursday evening for the upcoming weekend. Last weekend's press release came be found right here, and it definitely says that Manhattan-bound Q trains were skipping Newkirk.
I also had the same info on my weekly service advisories post at Second Ave. Sagas. The info is out there. There's plenty of problems for which the MTA should be blamed. This isn't one of them.
Sunday night I left the UES around 7:45pm. I took the 6 downtown to 59th street, went upstairs and tried to get on the F at 63rd. No luck. Those silly hand-written signs were up, just like the one pictured here.
So, I went back upstairs (they really should put the signs upstairs so you don't walk downstairs thinking there's hope) and walked back to the 6.
I got on the N, so I could then transfer to the Q at 42nd. That wasn't too bad because there was nothing wrong with the N. I got to 42nd, waited a bit, and got on the Q.
We got to Church and all of a sudden there's an announcement that they're going express to Kings Highway. WHAT?! Why? This has happened before, but I didn't see a sign and it seemed as though everyone else on the train was as surprised as I was.
But that wasn't even what got to me. After doing all of that, I got off at Kings Hwy and went to the uptown platform, only to find out (only after the train had left) that it's going express right back to Church! What was the point in going to Kings Hwy if I can't even get off at my stop (Cortelyou)?!
So, I got off at Church, and walked home. Thankfully, I had tried to take the uptown Q one weekend a few months ago and it wasn't stopping at my stop (shock) so I had to walk from Cortelyou to Church. If I hadn't done that, I probably would have gotten lost Sunday night since I never really needed to walk to Church for anything before.
I got home at 10pm.
Thanks, MTA!
I wouldn't recommend this to everyone but taking your bicycle to and from Church, is a quick ride and guarantees the train being there until the Church station breaks down too.
But will your bike be there?
5/31 9:48 here
Not a paid shill. Wish I was (paid) though because I am currently out of work. Just someone with common sense who can appreciate what the MTA does, even with its faults. Where else can we get what we get for $2.00? Other cities have transportation systems that are way cleaner and that run according to schedule but they are not as old and do not operate for as many hours or cover as much of the city as our system.
The tracks do have to be repaired and maintained. If someone out there knows how this can be done without service interuptions, please do us all a favor and let the MTA in on the secret.
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