a Success On the 
Lexington Avenue Line
This week our FASTRACK maintenance program came to the East Side of Manhattan with an army of subway maintenance workers descending into tunnels and stations on the 
Lexington Avenue Line to replace and repair components ranging from light bulbs to damaged stairways.
Beginning Monday, March 25, hundreds of workers were deployed along the more than four-mile long Lexington Avenue Line as train service was suspended on the local tracks from Grand Central-42 St to 125 St. for four consecutive nights. Repair crews took full advantage of the seven-hour work window between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. The section of the Lexington Avenue Line between 45 St and 100 St is on two levels. Local trains are on the upper level and express trains are on the lower level. The separation of local and express tracks gave maintenance crews a train-free work environment and was less disruptive to customers’ regular travel patterns.
Joseph Leader, Vice President and Chief Maintenance Officer for the Department of Subways said, “Our FASTRACK program is a proven winner. We are able to perform inspections, preventative maintenance, and repair and cleaning tasks in a less disruptive and safer work environment for employees. An end result of this maintenance blitz is a subway system that is safer, cleaner and more reliable.”
Highlights of the work completed during Lexington Avenue Line FASTRACK:
- Track – Generated 8,564 bags of debris, removed 50,300 pounds of scrap and debris, scraped and cleaned 11,241 linear feet of track, replaced 46 tie blocks, installed 687 plates, 38 running rails, 25 friction pads. Generated 9,350 pounds of scrap debris.
- Third Rail Operations - cleared 350 identified defects, scraped and cleaned 5,040 feet of track under and around the third rail.
- Signals – Serviced 62 signals, and supported Track Department on rail and switch jobs.
- Infrastructure – Repaired/replaced 265 linear feet of handrail, cleaned 4,845 linear feet of track drain, repaired 41 square feet of bench wall, performed maintenance at one pump room and sealed 100 leaks.
- EMD - Optimized pictures on nine Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) monitors and 15 CCTV cameras.
- Station Environment – Replaced 36 platform signs, 122 tunnel light bulbs, 36 blue (emergency) tunnel light bulbs, 1,443 station light bulbs, repaired/replaced 57 square feet of floor tile, scraped 7,150 square feet of paintable station surface area, and primed and painted 8,550 square feet.
Introduced in January 2012, the FASTRACK program targets subway lines in segments and has been highly successful in significantly reducing the time for maintenance tasks while improving the level of safety for repair crews, who no longer have to share tracks with trains moving through the work area. In addition to addressing critical maintenance, workers also have the chance to do such jobs as high-intensity station cleaning and station painting, chores that are impossible to do with customers waiting for trains.
The next FASTRACK will take place in Lower Manhattan beginning Monday, April 1, as MTA New York City Transit brings this repair and maintenance blitz to the Nassau Street Line. The J Line will be shut down from 10 p.m. until 5 a.m., for four consecutive weeknights from Monday, April 1 to early Friday morning, April 5. There will be no train service between the Broad St station and the Delancey St-Essex St station.
Be sure to check this website for complete details; posters and brochures will also be available at affected stations.
Accomplishments:
Monday, March 25, 2013
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