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Photo Courtesy: NYC Transit/ Lenny Wiggins

The third night of MTA New York City Transit's ambitious maintenance effort — FASTRACK — took place late last night and early Thursday morning along the Seventh Avenue Line between 34 St-Penn Station and South Ferry and Atlantic Av-Barclays Ctr, Brooklyn. FASTRACK entails the partial closure of a subway line to train service on four consecutive nights and for seven continuous hours (10 p.m. to 5 a.m.). This round of FASTRACK on the lines runs through 5:00 a.m. Friday, June 29. Because no trains are running along a designated area of a subway line, maintenance crews can work on and near the tracks without having to stop work every few minutes while a train moves through the area. This is safer environment for employees and a more efficient way to maintain and clean New York City's massive underground transportation system that runs around the clock.

With no trains running along Seventh Avenue Wednesday night into Thursday morning, more than 800 Transit employees were able to inspect and perform maintenance work on signals, switches and associated components. Workers were able to replace rails and cross ties and scrape track floors, thereby removing muck and debris. In subway stations, paintable areas not reachable during normal train operation were scraped, primed and painted. Crews also took the opportunity 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 an pleasant station environment.

Major accomplishments from last night's maintenance effort include servicing one switch, 22 signals, removing 1,345 bags of debris (7,000 pounds) and repairing 35 linear feet of benchwall (an extension of the station platform that is located in tunnels and used by maintenance personnel and for emergency egress). Workers also repaired 35 linear feet of sewer line in the track invert (floor), sealed 48 leaks, performed maintenance at two water pumping facilities and 300 linear feet of track was serviced by the vacuum train. To allow for a smoother and quieter ride, six running rails, 113 track tie plates and 48 track tie blocks were installed.

With customer safety, security and convenience in mind and a more aesthetically-pleasing station environment, 1,100 square feet of paintable surface areas was scraped and 9,100 square feet was primed and painted and 27 square feet of tactile warning (ADA) tiles were replaced. Maintenance crews also replaced two station lights, painted 54 columns, 350 linear feet of beams, four stairway K-A rails (street level railings, usually green, at station entrances/exits) and four stairway copings (the concrete base, usually black, of K-A rails).

Workers were able to do preventative maintenance on 12 cameras and four monitors that are part of Closed Circuit Television systems and clean, adjust, and optimize picture quality on three additional cameras and three additional monitors. Fire alarm systems were inspected at Rector Street and Park Place stations monitors.

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 critical components you never see. Pumps, signals, track, and power are just some of the vital system equipment we are focusing on so that we can continue providing our riders with train service that is safe and reliable.