It's been a long week fraught with anxiety and panic, but all is well now: the city has survived the first week of the MTA's new "FASTRACK" subway work plan. The MTA is certainly very happy with themselves: "Jobs that would usually take weeks or months to complete were accomplished in days because, for the first time, maintenance workers were allowed to perform their tasks without the interruption of passenger trains rolling through a massive work area that stretched from Grand Central-42nd Street to Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn." But this is only the beginning.
For four nights this past week, the 4, 5 and 6 lines were shut down so the MTA could perform and complete "more than 300 vital tasks...from rail replacement to roadbed cleaning to the scraping and painting of ceilings over tracks and platforms." They note that much of that work had not been performed in several years, which doesn't exactly fill us with pride. Nevertheless, NYC Transit President Thomas F. Prendergast says the program works: “I consider this effort a success and it could not have come about without the hard work and dedication of the hundreds of Transit workers who worked on the tracks, tunnels, and in the stations.”
But this "success" has only emboldened the MTA to continue with their plans—next up is the Broadway/Seventh Avenue 1, 2, 3 line between 34th Street and Atlantic Avenue. That line will be worked on from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for four consecutive nights beginning Monday, February 13 (and ending at 5 a.m. Friday, February 17). If you really need to get where you're going, there's always the Station Rat Sherpas.
