The F train station at Carroll Street
"Friday's commute was another trial in patience at the Carroll Street subway station as the "F" train was grossly delayed. What I am curious about and what makes it worse is the fact that there is a token clerk in the booth and speakers in the Carroll Gardens subway station however, commuters were standing around talking to each other wondering what is going on while waiting for an "F" train to come. With no resolve, many took the "G" train, at least they were moving. It is too much to ask the token clerk to use the speakers in the subway station to announce whatever the problem the Culver line is having? Or better yet, get off his 'duff' and walk the platform and inform commuters what the problem is. Is this where our $2.50 is going? What good is having speakers in subway stations if they are not used? If they don't work - fix-it! after all, subway fares are going up to $2.75. For what?? FORGETABOUTIT....the "F" line sucks!"
Couldn't agree more. Apparently there were quite a few delays on the F this past week. How was your commute these past few days?
I, myself, took the train into Manhattan yesterday afternoon and had some serious problems swiping my metro card. So did some of the people behind me. One card reader would not work at all and the other only worked after repeated swiping. For a second, I thought I would have to jump over the turnstile like the folks over at the Bergen Street station last week.
Oh my god. It's the subway. Get on the G and change at Hoyt-Schermerhorn. Or take it to the L if you're going to Union Square. Or to Court Square and change for the 7 if you're going to midtown. We all do this all of the time.
ReplyDeleteBetter that a public employee should leave a protected space to wade through an angry mob to tell them "I don't know when the next train is coming since Cuomo underfunds the transit system and only select lines have that technology installed"?
When did we become a borough of such whiny wimps?
Hahha. Yes. I suppose Aanastasia is part of the whiny whimps. Us Carroll Gardeners are also part of the subway demographic that can afford and buy monthly cards while the City's poor find it easier to buy a card here and there to get to their minimum wage jobs, based on a NYT article I read. Sadly, any delays are not relayed in real time to the stations. It happens all the time.
ReplyDeleteMy card never works at Clinton Washington and I have to buy a slngle ride everytime! If we really need to whine at the MTA, with that 2.75 fare surely they can
make the G a regular length. Sick of running and missing it by 2 feet. Everytime. Wha wha.
As far as I'm aware, Carroll Street doesn't have a P.A. system. In the 40 years I've been taking the F train daily to work, I have never, ever heard an announcement of any kind at any time. Never. And don't even think that the token clerk might know what's going on. They just aren't kept informed of delays or incidents along the F line, and they rarely get a satisfactory explanation when they make the effort to find out--if asked. I've always felt that for such a heavily used station, especially in the past 15-20 years as our commuter population has grown by leaps and bounds, Carroll Street has been seriously under-served in terms of information to commuters and prompt repairs to turnstiles. I do know that there were reports of significant signal problems at 18th Avenue for a good part of the day that were emailed to my phone. If you want to know what's going on, go to mta.info and sign up for transit alerts to your mobile devices. I've used this service for years, and while it's not perfect all the time, it can be helpful in navigating your commutes. It also helps to check out alternate routes to the city when the F train doesn't come, whether it's taking the G to Hoyt-Schermerhorn and catching the A train to Manhattan or, if necessary, walking downtown to Jay Street Metrotech for the A and C trains or the 2-3-4-5 trains at Boro Hall. There's always a way to get around.
ReplyDeleteI've heard the public address system at Carroll, though it speaks volumes that it would be unclear if that was true. The MTA obviously knows exactly when there are delays, so If they can't be bothered to keep the line workers informed, or the line workers haven't been pressed to keep us informed that is a serious systemic problem.
ReplyDeleteIf you have 300 people waiting 30 minutes for a train because they haven't been given enough information to compensate, that is 150 wasted hours- almost a week!(or a month of working hours if you want to think about it that way)
And just wait till there are a few more thousands of people living at that Lightstone project and they too want to get onto the F-train to get to their jobs that their affordable housing are based on.
ReplyDeleteNow who is behind all this in-credible city planning? Just as we are reminded that Carroll stop doesn't have a loud speaker, this is a reminder that Brooklyn has never gotten the level of services and infrastructure that is built into Manhattan. It will be impossible to plop down tens of thousands of affordable housing units into Brooklyn neighborhoods without substantial disturbance of everything, or substantial tax-payer investments.
And new tax funds don't come from any of the new development projects for more than a quarter of a century or longer with current tax incentive programs.
Maybe the MTA will tick off locals a bit more so that they will wake up to all that is going to be imposed on them if they don't speak out for communities that work.
The F train is a mess during rush hour. I take it at 7:30AM so it's usually OK but after 8AM forget it. It's anyone's guess if it's delayed or running right. Same thing with the evening commute. If you get it before 4:45 it's fine but after that it's packed and delayed. I've had issues swiping my card though the turnstiles at President St lately. Two of them usually won't work. As someone mentioned, it's only going to get worse when the Lightstone project starts renting. Expect the F to look more like the L.
ReplyDeleteEveryone realizes that the Lightstone project (and any other project that brings additional riders) will eventually bring BETTER service, right?
ReplyDeleteNYCT basis train frequencies on line capacities, surrounding population densities and ridership. According to the MTA website, ridership at Carroll Street actually went DOWN from 2012-2013, so anyone who believes that there is some sort of capacity crunch at our little stop is just whining for the sake of whining, or more likely, because they can't grasp a collective viewpoint.
It would be interesting to know if ridership at Carroll Street has gone down DURING rush hour. I don't think most people care about off hours -- we're talking rush hour here. If letting two trains go by because of overcrowding is not a capacity crunch, then I don't know what is.
ReplyDeleteHaha, oh Anonymous 9:18AM. It's cute that you think that's how it will play out. And tax cuts create revenues too right? I like how you had to cherry pick one year while if you look at the data over the last 6 years, it shows ridership has been steadily increasing. But you knew that right? You don't pick a tiny portion of data to forecast a projection. You look at the long term trend. Did they tell you that in statistics class? It was 10,000+ people in 2008, and 2013 was 12,000+. Seems to me that more people are at that station in 2013 than in 2008 despite a small down tick last year. So with about 700 new units being added it stands to reason, there's going to be an increase in ridership at Carroll St in the future. And of course Bergen St is also seeing an increase in ridership every year and that is also the F train and yet, nope, they haven't increased the frequency of F trains in the last few years.
ReplyDelete"The L train is great now that twice as many people are riding it" said no on ever.
Anonymous 2:26PM it's sad how you think the sky is falling.
ReplyDelete