Ready to roll on Second Ave
MTA’s chief engineer dishes the dirt on their new dig
by patrick arden and michael p. ventura / metro new york
APR 12, 2007
INTERVIEW. After fits and starts over the decades, the Second Avenue Subway project begins anew today. Metro spoke to Mysore Nagaraja, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s president of capital construction, about what riders can expect when they take the T.
Today brings yet another groundbreaking for the Second Avenue Subway. What makes this one different?
Before they started with the idea that they could build one section and somehow the funding would come to build the rest of it. This time we have most of the funding spoken for — $900 million still needs to be funded out of the $3.8 billion it will cost for the first phase. The momentum is there, and there’s a lot of public support. The elected officials support it, the federal government supports it, and the need is there. If you look at the mayor’s plan for the next 30 years, the city is going to grow. We have to improve and expand the transportation system.
What will be new and different about this line?
What we’re building today is a 21st century subway system. You’ll see much better-looking stations, with more amenities for our customers, more entrances. They will all be ADA-compliant. Climate control will be there. Information screens will tell passengers when the next train is coming in. The platforms will be wider — there will be more space and clear lines of sight. And we are building security requirements into the stations.
Is that where the platform doors come in?
We’re still looking at that. In the current design, we don’t have the platform-edge doors — doors that open when the car door opens. But we are now starting a study, because the stations contract is going to be let sometime next year. The first contract we’re letting right now is the tunnel contract. We’re looking at the feasibility of putting in those doors, and hopefully within two months, we will make a decision.
What are the advantages of the doors?
Safety and security, No. 1. And you can provide a much quieter atmosphere for the customer. Track fires can be eliminated, almost, because people can’t throw anything into the trackway. Safety-wise, customers being pushed into the trackway, which has happened here many times, will not happen.
The disadvantages are, if you do it there, people will expect you to do it everywhere. Then you have to make money decisions. Do you ever want to cut [maintenance] to put in these doors? And we have a very flexible railroad system — you can move trains from one line to another much more easily than in Washington or any other new system. They have independent lines, whereas here, if there is a problem on the A line, you can send the trains on the F line. Even where we’re building on Second Avenue, at 63rd Street we’re joining the Q line. But with that flexibility, we have 60-foot cars, we have 75-foot cars, and once you design the platform doors, you are fixing the location of where the train doors open. So now you’ll need a fleet dedicated to this line. We’re looking at trying to build some flexibility into the door design.
Originally, the line was to run from the Bronx to Lower Manhattan and then into Brooklyn. Is that still being talked about?
We have not done any [Environmental Impact Statement] for going to the Bronx or into Brooklyn. The EIS and engineering has been done only for 125th Street down to the Wall Street area. We are dividing that into four phases. We are building phase one now [from 96th to 63rd streets]. Phase two will go up to 125th Street. Phase three will go down to Houston Street. Phase four will end at Hanover Square. Our plan is, assuming the money keeps coming, it will be at least 2025 before all these are done.
Will the line have communications-based train control?
CBTC unfortunately will not be there, but it can be adapted later on. If we were going to build a full-length Second Avenue, which is called the T line, then it could have CBTC because it’s one line, just like the Canarsie line and the Flushing line. But we are joining this with the Q line. To make it CBTC, you’d have to make the whole Q line CBTC. Otherwise, to have CBTC for just four stations and then to not have it doesn’t make sense.
What are CBTC’s benefits?
Right now, the signal system we have is “fixed block” — you have a traffic light, and once a train gets between two lights that is called a fixed block. Once a train gets through a green light, the light becomes red, so the train behind cannot come into that zone until this train moves on to the next zone. With CBTC you have the communications equipment, or computer, in each train. They can communicate with each other and with the command center, and they can maintain a safe distance. You can keep moving the block. Theoretically, you can run more trains through because you don’t have to wait for the light to turn green. We are sending 22 trains an hour now; you may be able to send 28 trains.
Platform doors and CBTC work together very well. When the train comes in, the train door opens, the platform door opens. The train is programmed to stop for 45 seconds, 60 seconds, depending on the crowding, and then the doors close and the train moves on. What happens now, on crowded platforms, people hold up the trains, especially on Lexington Avenue. When we were planning Second Avenue in 2000, the question came up: Why don’t you do CBTC on Lexington, increase capacity and relieve overcrowding, so you don’t need Second Avenue? We looked at it, but the dwell time in the stations, planned for 45 or 60 seconds, was in reality one-and-a-half, two minutes. The trains could move faster in the tunnel, but they’d have to stop more often for longer periods. All the trains would be held up. That is why, to take full advantage of CBTC, we have to make sure the platform capacity is such that it can be cleared quickly, so you don’t waste too much time in the station. The newer subway systems, where they are building CBTC, they are also building platform doors. They go hand in hand, but we have to start someplace.
Looks like something is about to happen. I'm not sure why they're willing to give it the letter T though. Sounds too Boston to me. K works fine I suppose.
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lupitachica, on Mar 21 2006, 11:14 AM, said:
