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MTA increases speed limits for some subway lines – Metro US

MTA increases speed limits for some subway lines

new york city subway
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Has your commute felt any quicker lately? New York City subway trains have been speeding up, according to the MTA.

The MTA has increased speed limits at 24 New York City subway stations in an effort to move straphangers through the system more swiftly.

Subway speeds have more than doubled at some spots, like City Hall station. Last week, workers bolted a new speed sign into place there, ramping up the R line from 6 miles per hour to 15 miles per hour.

Other parts of the R line in Brooklyn have increased from 15 to 30 miles per hour. On the 1 line north of Penn Station, officials have removed the speed limit entirely, allowing trains to run as fast as they can, compared to the previous limit of 18 miles per hour.

That 6 mile per hour speed is a system-wide low, according to the MTA. Officials have been working to accelerate train speed limits under NYC Transit’s Save Safe Seconds campaign.

These 24 subway stations to see faster speeds are just part of that effort. Since the summer of 2018, a safety committee approved speed limit increases at 68 locations, so the MTA has 44 more to go.

Officials plan to increase some New York City subway line speeds, like on the C between Kingston Ave. and Utica Ave. and the E/F on the north end of Grand Av-Newtown, up to 45 miles per hour.

New York City subway speeds and delays

NYC Transit has also identified about 320 inaccurate timer signals, out of about 2,000 throughout the system, and has so far recalibrated 59 of them.

Timer signals, or speed regulating signals, trip a train’s emergency brakes when it goes faster than the allowed speed limit.

This safety measure has been helpful at preventing accidents, according to the MTA, but have also caused subway delays. Faulty signals can cause  New York City subway trains to slow down by forcing them to stop and go slower, even when the trains are already traveling at or under the allowed speed.

new york city subway speeds | nyc subway delays
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“I have directed my team to identify and resolve every root cause of delay; in doing so, we can then implement the right fix, often for little or no cost,” said NYC Transit President Andy Byford in a statement.

The SPEED Unit, which tests the accuracy of these timer signals and also if areas of the system can handle higher subway speeds, will continue, he added, to examine “hundreds of miles of track to find areas where we can safely increase speeds.”