Jo24Sam wrote: ↑Thu Feb 09, 2023 7:58 pm
-Really no connections are listed. If a train skips Forest Hills for example, it should list the train I need to take from there eastbound to then change at Jamaica like the older schedules.
I agree, but I think the issue is that timed connections are only in place for diesel trains.
Jo24Sam wrote: ↑Thu Feb 09, 2023 7:58 pm
-Locust Manor, Laurelton and Rosedale stops more often just made Long Beach trips longer.
I think that's an attempt to generate ridership from the Queens stations, given that CityTicket is now available off-peak (and from what the governor mentioned a couple of weeks ago, will eventually be available on peak trains as well). A similar logic for the Huntington-Penn Station trains stopping at Queens Village & Hollis.
Jo24Sam wrote: ↑Thu Feb 09, 2023 7:58 pm
-Hopefully express service bypassing Jamaica comes back soon.
Hopefully it never returns. Nothing should be skipping such a major station, especially given the greater emphasis on transferring in this new system.
lpetrich wrote: ↑Thu Feb 09, 2023 7:55 pm
Of the branches that go to the two Manhattan stations, all but one alternate between Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal. That one is the Long Beach branch, which alternates on weekdays and goes only to GCT on weekends except in the middle of the night.
Of the stations between Manhattan and Jamaica,
- Babylon: Forest Hills, (Woodside) - alternating
- Hempstead: Kew Gardens, (Woodside) - alternating
- Port Jefferson: Kew Gardens, Woodside - alternating
- Ronkonkoma, Far Rockaway: Woodside
- Long Beach: Woodside, Forest Hills - alternating
Though with middle-of-night exceptions.
I checked the city-terminal schedules, and only one stop at any of these stations seems to be the case for all the branches. More trains stopped at Woodside than at the other two.
In the old schedules, however, every train that stopped at Forest Hills also stopped at Kew Gardens and vice versa, and most trains stopped at Woodside. There were a few trains that stopped at FH and KG but not WS, however.
I think they made a big deal about that in the draft schedules, that trains would only be stopping at one of those stations between Jamaica and Manhattan. The problem is that limits flexibility, since all of those trains need to run on the local track. I think they would've been better off having trains from Long Beach, Hempstead and Far Rockaway make those stops, and have most trains on the Main Line and Babylon Branch run express (with some trains stopping add Woodside as the schedule permits).
geico wrote: ↑Fri Feb 10, 2023 9:43 am
Did you see the PM Rush from NY to KO? Its Penn, GCT, GCT, GCT, Penn, WHY? 30 mins between Penn trains. and one of the GCT trains dies in Brentwood. No one is going to change in Brentwood. Whats the train going to do there?/ GO to Ronkonkoma empty... Why?
That's unfortunately an issue with a lot of the branches...you have a bunch of trains in a row to GCT and then a bunch of trains in a row to Penn, so the waits are long to the opposite terminal if your train is caught in the gap.
Personally, I think the Port Jefferson shuttles should've all been extended to Hicksville at a minimum to connect with the Ronkonkoma express trains. They should've run the Oyster Bay trains to Hunterspoint Avenue, and the Montauk trains should've been a mix of hourly Babylon - Mastic/Shirley shuttles, with bihourly Montauk - Jamaica trains (eliminating the need for separately SFCC service). Diesel territory is unfortunately still the forgotten stepchild of the railroad.