on the Grand Concourse

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

MTA New York City Transit's ambitious maintenance initiative—FASTRACK—continued its second night along the lines in the Bronx between 161 St-Yankee Stadium and 205 St.   This is the first time FASTRACK has taken place on a line segment outside of Manhattan's Central Business District and Downtown Brooklyn.  The five-mile long Grand Concourse 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 18.

Suspending all train service on a subway corridor on four consecutive nights for seven continuous hours, gives maintenance workers the opportunity to perform numerous tasks 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 repair and clean North America's largest rail transportation system—a system that runs 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

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 maintenance 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 almost eight-decades old Grand Concourse 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.

Significant achievements from last night's maintenance effort include servicing 26 signals, six train operator route select buttons, installing 12 LED (Light-Emitting Diode) train holding lights, eight sections of track, 29 friction pads and 292 track tie plates.  Maintenance crews also corrected 683 third rail defects and scraped and cleaned 2,810 feet of track under and around the third rail.  Making repairs to the subway's physical infrastructure and clearing the track of debris was also critical as crews cleaned 550 linear feet of “no clearance signs,” corrected 10 leaks and cleaned 300 linear feet of track trough, the space between the rails.  Work crews also removed 4,100 bags (21,000 pounds) of scrap and debris and replaced 277 tunnel lights, eight platform edge signs, and four conductor indication boards.

With an objective of making the station environment safer for customers and employees while enhancing its appearance, workers replaced 10 square feet of tactile warning (ADA) tiles and repaired three square feet of benchwall (an extension of the station platform that is located in tunnels and used by maintenance personnel and for emergency egress) and 115 linear feet of rubbing board, the fiberglass extension of the platform edge that is parallel to the side of the train.  In addition, 2,100 square feet of paintable surface was scrapped, 3,200 square feet was primed and 10,400 feet square feet and 16 station columns was painted.  Closed Circuit Television systems received attention as the picture was optimized on three monitors from three cameras at the 174-175 Sts Station, and maintenance was performed on three cameras and three monitors at the 167 St Station and 170 St Station, respectively.  The Public Address Customer Information Screen (PACIS) system at Bedford Pk Blvd Station was also serviced.

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 14, 2013