Photo Courtesy of MTA/Marc Hermann
The Subway Action Plan is a $836 million program to stabilize and improve subwayperformance.
By Forum Staff
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority this week touted initiatives that are contributing to the latest progress on the $836 million Subway Action Plan to stabilize and improve subwayperformance.
The massive program is well underway and full completion is being accelerated, according to MTA New York City Transit.
Work done under the SAP includes:
• As part of the Water Management Initiative, outside contractors have sealed more than 4,000 leaks to prevent water ingress that causes power and signal problems, deterioration of track and other equipment resulting in unplanned service changes, delays and track fires.
• Contractors and NYC Transit employees have cleaned drains along all 418 underground track miles at least once and cleaned all subwaytracks between stations. This work prevents water from running along the track and causing electrical shorts and track component failures.
• Cleared more than 40,000 street grates to prevent ingress of litter and leaves that build up on the track, causing fires and clogging drains.
• Installed Continuous Welded Rail across the system, replacing jointed rail, which is more prone to rail defects that delay trains.
• Repaired almost 20,000 minor track defects that if not repaired can cause delays.
• Using contractors and NYC Transit employees to repair or rebuild more than 1,700 signal components, drastically reducing the backlog of issues that can disrupt service.
• Rebuilt and modernized more than 200 signal stops to be moisture proof and avoid service interruption.
• Conducted a comprehensive inspection of door components across all fleets.
• Made maintenance practices more efficient so cars can be put back into service more quickly.
• Repaired door control units on over 1,000 cars in our oldest fleets to improve reliability of this component that causes 40 percent of all car breakdowns.
The initiatives have contributed to subway performance gains. New stats released by the MTA show that subway service in December marked the fourth month in a row of sustained improvement, with the best on-time performance in four years.
“When we launched the Subway Action Plan in the summer of 2017, it was bold in its design,” said MTA Acting Chairman Fernando Ferrer. “With the SAP fully funded, we are accelerating the plan’s completion and are seeing the results. Our customers and the city are already benefiting from these programs, and we look forward to building upon this progress as the plan continues.”
The MTA also announced a new SAP car and station heavy duty cleaning initiative. Launched in December, work on the initiative is getting underway this month, according to the agency. The SAP allocated approximately $200 million to the overall car and station program. This element involves numerous contractors to perform a one-time blitz targeting 100 priority stations and up to 3,000 cars for intensive cleaning and refurbishment. An additional goal of the program is to give NYC Transit and its permanent workforce insight into new techniques, processes and materials that may enhance NYC Transit’s operations.
