Fewer people are riding the trains, but at least they’re going faster. According to the MTA, train speeds have recently increased at nearly 300 locations throughout the subway system due to ongoing work during the COVID-19 pandemic to fix and replace faulty signals.
It’s the work of a team at the MTA that’s been fixing and replacing faulty signals that slow trains down.
The effort stems from a problem that former Transit President Andy Byford identified early in his tenure: why were the trains always running behind schedule?
After speaking with workers, he quickly learned that the century-old signals were damaged, causing trains to put on their emergency brakes, even if they weren’t speeding through a signal. This was causing conductors to drive extra slowly to avoid setting them off, resulting in both delayed trains and possible reprimands for tripping signals.
Listen to Stephen Nessen's report on WNYC:
The work Byford’s signal repair team began saw big payoffs just as he was leaving, with customer wait times dramatically reduced. In February 2020, just before the pandemic hit, the MTA reached a five-year record, with 84% of trains arriving on time overall, and riders taking 1.7 billion subway rides in 2019.
Despite concerns that Byford’s efforts would be halted when he departed, taking his “signals guru” with him, the work has continued.
On Tuesday, the MTA announced it has increased speeds at 270 locations throughout the subway system, and digitized 900 signals, making them more reliable than the older mechanical ones.
Customers may feel the difference on the E, F, M, and R lines, where speeds have increased from 35 to 50 miles per hour in some parts. Other specific spots include the northbound curve entering the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall station, where speeds have increased from six to 15 miles per hour.
"But make no mistake, this is not the end. We will continue to inspect the system so that as new speed-related challenges emerge, we are prepared to address them promptly,” Interim New York City Transit President Sarah Feinberg said in a statement. “We can't return to an era when these things weren't being effectively monitored – that's not fair to our customers or our train operators, who need to be confident they can travel at the maximum safe speeds possible when moving our millions of customers.”
If all signals worked properly, the MTA estimates each train line could run more than five minutes faster from end-to-end.
The MTA’s $51.5 billion capital plan, which Byford also helped craft, was halted during the pandemic, but thanks to more than $8 billion in federal relief, the MTA said it would begin to “unthaw” the planning. This would include more signal modernization, although the MTA wouldn’t specify which line would become fully digital next.
