NYT event listing for Children's Museum, Nov 2003

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Lexington Avenue Stdrway nroug^fut Improvements The MTA, as a result of its study of Lower Manhattan access options and in the course of its continual program to modernize and upgrade the subway system, will be developing ways to maximize sendee on the existing Lexington Avenue Line. Among the ideas that are on the table for incrementally increasing the throughput capacity and reliability of the sendee are:

• Stationing conductors on the platforms of heavily-used stations to expedite the boarding and discharging of passengers, • Modernizing and upgrading certain elements of the signal system and devices such as the "gap-fillers" at 14th Street which today cause short delays to every train on the line, • Accelerating the deployment on the Lexington Avenue Express of new R143 cars, whose doors and vestibules are designed to discharge and board passengers slightly more quickly than the older cars, and • Stationing medical assist personnel at key stations to enable them to treat passengers who become iU on the platform, thereby keeping the trains moving. Real-time Passenger Information Systems When the current MTA capital project is completed, which includes the creation of a centralized control facility for the Lexington Avenue and Seventh Avenue Lines, a wealth of real-time infor­ mation on the status and performance of the system will be available for dissemination to passen­ gers. A goal for the future of the subways is to provide better information to riders for use in making decisions about how to get to their destination. The portion of the Lexington Avenue subway between Grand Central and Lower Manhattan should be used as an early prototype for developing and implementing new information systems that would post the arrival times and destinations of the next several trains, inform passengers of delays or problems on the line before they enter the system, and possibly offer suggestions as to alternate routes. Understanding which lines are experiencing delays will allow riders to make better choices in getting to their destina­ tion. Information displays could be placed within both the Metro-North and subway areas of the Grand Central complex, and at the Lower Manhattan stations of the Lexington Avenue Line. Specifically, a major passenger information center could be created within the high-ceilinged space of the new Fulton Transit Center, which adjoins the uptown Lexington Avenue Line plat­ form. The information displays also could show real-time information about the commuter rail­ roads. Capital costs would be modest relative to those associated with major construction proj­ ects and elements of these systems could begin to come on-line within a 2-3 year period.

SecondAventie Sid^ay Improvements to the Lexington Avenue subway are important in improving the commute to Lower Manhattan, yet these changes are inadequate to truly address the severe capacity burdens

74 Lower Manhattan Transportation Strategies

NYC-WTC_000143283