on the Nostrand Avenue

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

MTA New York City Transit's ambitious maintenance program—FASTRACK—continued its second night on the Nostrand Avenue line in Brooklyn between Franklin Av and Flatbush Av-Brooklyn College. The three-mile long line was shut down from 10 p.m. until 5 a.m. suspending service in both directions. This FASTRACK line segment shutdown continues for the next two weeknights through early Friday morning, January 25.

Suspending all train service on a subway corridor on four consecutive nights for seven continuous hours gives subway repair crews the opportunity to perform many jobs on or near the tracks without having to stop work every few minutes while a train moves through the area. This is a safer and more efficient way to maintain and clean the nation's largest rail transportation system. 

The FASTRACK project environment, debuting last year, experienced a significantly lower accident rate by participating employees. During FASTRACK, the Lost Time Accident (LTA) rate per 100 Employees was 1.38 versus a rate of 2.42 during all other operations.  An LTA is a job-related incident that results in the inability of an employee to perform their duties for at least one working day beyond the day of the incident.

With no trains running along the 92-year old Nostrand Avenue Line, hundreds of maintenance workers were able to inspect signals and switches, repair and replace track rails and cross ties, clean track floors, perform elevator and escalator repair work, repair water damage, clear drains, and clean stations. They were also able to clear the track-bed of debris and paint areas untouched in years because they are not reachable during normal train operation.  In addition, work crews were able to clean lighting fixtures, change bulbs, and repair platform edges.  We also performed high-intensity station cleaning providing a visible improvement to the station environment.

Noteworthy accomplishments from last night's maintenance initiative include servicing 11 signals and three switches, correcting 172 third rail defects, and scraping and cleaning 495 linear feet of track under and around the third rail.  Track maintenance projects consisted of installing seven sections of track, seven track tie blocks, and 38 track tie plates.  Maintaining the subway's physical infrastructure and clearing the track of debris continued as workers installed 175 linear feet of handrail, cleaned 400 linear feet of track drain and 800 linear feet of “no clearance signs” and repairing 20 square feet of benchwall, an extension of the station platform that is located in tunnels and used by maintenance personnel and for emergency egress. 

In addition, work crews scraped 6,925 linear feet of track and removed 3,050 bags (3,500 pounds) of scrap and debris.  Customer and employee safety issues were addressed as workers replaced 334 tunnel lights, six platform edge signs and repaired 110 linear feet of rubbing board, the fiberglass extension of the platform edge that is parallel to the side of the train and the platform edge and water line at the Beverly Rd Station.

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 the critical components you never see.  FASTRACK is having a positive impact on service reliability as train delays on subway lines that have undergone FASTRACK maintenance have dropped 4.4% and track fires have declined by 50 %. FASTRACK is improving employee safety and service reliability.

Accomplishments:

Monday, January 21, 2013