The four days this week the MTA has brought FasTracks to my little branch of the A train between 207th Street and 168th Street. The service advisory was ripped with confusion. It says (FASTRACK_mapA) to either take the 1 train or the M4 bus from 168th Street to 190th Street along Fort Washington Avenue (the top of the hill where I live). It also mentioned nothing about the elevators at 181st Street and 190th Street remaining open as neighborhood short-cuts which is a handy way to climb up the hill after getting off the 1 train. I ended up e-mailing the MTA on Thursday and got a response “the M4 bus route will be operating overnight service from 168th Street to 190th Street street and the 181st Street and 190th Street stations will be closed to customer service during this service change.” Tonight was the first opportunity I had to be ‘FasTracked.’ On my way downtown I got on the staffed elevator (with a friendly operator) who I asked if he would be open overnight, he said, “Oh were open all the time” (I don’t think he knew about FasTracks), he told me to confirm at the token booth. I heard the A train coming and didn’t stop just making the train so I didn’t confirm things with the token booth.
I was coming home from Brooklyn and specifically the Transit Museum. I attended a lecture at the transit museum on entitled Vignelli Subway Map: A Story of Birth, Death and Rebirth” that was scheduled to be with “MTA’s Director of Marketing & Communications Mark Heavey will moderate a conversation with Yoshi Waterhouse and Beatriz Cifuentes of Vignelli Associates and Peter Lloyd, co-author of the new book, Vignelli: Transit Maps” Massimo Vignelli himself was on the panel discussing in addition to his associates which made the evening much more interesting. It was a very interesting talk about the Vignelli and modern subway map and how the MTA is trying to incorporate the new map (with the Weekender among other things into the new world of digital media).
Afterwards I had dinner with a friend and headed home from Borough Hall. Knowing that I would be FasTracked I decided to take the 2/3 to A. At Borough Hall I needed to buy a MetroCard (I keep buying new ones right now as a way to stockpile with new $1 fee) and got a card I nearly thought was fake (and the first time a card without a conventional front has popped out of a MVM for me) with a nice picture of the main waiting room of GCT on the front and information about the Centennial on the back. It’s a card with the new $1 fee I think I’ll be using for awhile filling up Unlimited rides on to tell it apart). The disgusting part of the transaction was standing next to a homeless man who was smoking next to the MVMs in this unstaffed entrance. I went downstairs and since smoking on the subway is something I really can’t stand. I noticed a cop sitting in their little pre-tunnel booth on the 4 platform and told her that a man was smoking in the mezzanine. She left her booth and climbed the staircase I assume catching him. I then walked over to the 2/3 platform and waited 6 minutes (if the countdown clock is correct) for the next 3 train. Borough Hall, with two separate sets IRT of platforms and the Manhattan-bound 2/3 and 4/5 platfoms also transfer walkways is still figuring out the best displays for countdown clocks. One of them on the Manhattan-bound 2/3 platform (closest to the staircase down to the New Lots Avenue-bound platform) was displaying the next trains on all of platforms, others just the Uptown Platform. Its something I don’t know the best solution to. I heard the FasTracks display and announce “Because of maintenance there is A train service between 168th Street and 207th Street as an alternative take the 1 train.”
I had an uneventful, relatively empty 3 train ride reading the Lloyds book that I purchased at the lecture and it seemed (from the signals) I had just missed a 1 train at 96 Street. I waited 6 minutes (according to the countdown clocks) for a relatively crowded 1 train (I need to remember the trick of transferring at 72 Street to get an easier seat) and I couldn’t sit down to keep reading for a stop until 103rd.
At 168th Street I got off and was surprised to notice that the 1 platform was virtually empty (assumed it would be crowded with passengers transferring from terminating A trains). I noticed two of the four elevators were out of order with repairmen looking at them (signs saying they would be back in service 2-28-12. I assume just for overnight maintenance, poor timing with all the transferring passengers). I got up to the upper landing and found a stream of people heading towards me, a terminating A train had clearly just arrived. An employee was standing by the 1 station’s exit was screaming “No Uptown A trains.” I asked her about the M4 (I didn’t see any signs but this exit is closest to the stop and she pointed to the IND mezzanine). At the main exit (to the 168th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue) are also no signs indicating this is the place for the M4 bus although the transfer passageway is covered with signs pointing towards the 1 train. I asked an employee who pointed towards the street (and also saw a neighbor).
At the curb were also no signs for the M4 and an articulated M100 was loading many more passengers than on a normal evening at this stop. It even sat for a while. There was another employee standing there. I asked him “Is the M4 stopping here?” His response “It’s not the M4, just a regular Shuttle Bus up Fort Washington Avenue. All the signs are wrong.” I then saw an Orien VII, its destination signs for A Train to 190th Street rounding Broadway and pulling in behind the Artic. It waited for it to leave and pulled into the stop. About a dozen people hopped on (not your usual shuttle bus crowds with the M100 and people assuming the only option is the 1 train, there was one time years ago during this GO when I had gotten off the 1 train late at night for the shuttle bus and it left just for me. I had my own personal ride home). Someone immediately pulled the cord (were we making regular M4 stops on Fort Washington?) as we went up Broadway to 170th Street and over the block to Fort Washington Avenue. The first stop on the bus was 177 Street (for the main entrance to 175th Street, although there is a closer bus stop to the southern namesake entrance) we then made all local M4 stops — beneath the bus station, at 181 Street and then at 183 Street where I got off to head home. I took a slight detour to the elevator subway entrance (the sign still lit), about 4 MTA trucks were parked outside and employee confirmed that the elevators are closed opening again at 5am tomorrow.
Overall the MTA miss-communicated this FasTracks badly. It should have printed the signs with ‘Shuttle Bus’ (as the buses were advertised on a different route from the M4), not M4 bus. They also need to inform us residents the status of the elevators at 168th Street and 181st Street (normally open during track work on every instance I can remember, reopening on Thursday after Superstorm Sandy and stayed open during the transit strike) during track work. I realize the elevators are a subway anomaly (191 Street on the 1 is the only other place where this applies) but it does change my commute. If there open I walk down the hill from 181 Street on the 1 to 184 Street and go through the subway station. Closed I walk up the hill of 181 Street.