In baseball, it’s three strikes and you’re out. But with MTA track work schedules, the rules are either flexible or unknown. And less predictable than a butterfly.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
From a distant vantage point in Rome, I got this email from our renowned Metropolitan Transit Authority:
Last month we informed you that our critical state of good repair track work would begin May 1, 2023, and proceed in three consecutive phases through October 2023.
In order to provide the most robust alternative service possible while this work takes place, we are coordinating closely with a concurrent project to upgrade the signal system along the Queens Boulevard Line to Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) and are reevaluating the start date and overall schedule of the direct fixation track work. As we revise the track work schedule, we must also coordinate with several other projects along the Queens Boulevard Line and other subway lines.
Therefore, at this time we do not have a final revised schedule for the 63rd Street line track work. However, we can share that it will not start before July 1, 2023, and due to other scheduling factors, the start may be pushed to 2024.
The Renowned MTA
What?
It made me wonder if RIOC‘s outstanding Communications AVP Akeem Jamal picked up some side work for the transportation mega mess.
So, after consulting an oracle in the Roman Forum, I reached this conclusion: The MTA is as badly afflicted with EADD as our Shelton J. Haynes Blackwell House-based brain trust.
The Track Work Debacle Explained
Caution: the likelihood of the MTA following logically through on this projection is small. Expect updates. At the current rate, maybe a lot of them.
Unlike the current announcement, the MTA cut loose with its so-called “track fixation” project after it began with a full weekend shutdown in February. Community outrage backed by elected officials’ support sunk that baby like a barnacle hacked off a tugboat.
A new, less painful plan was advanced, one that averted all full shutdowns but, because RIOC and the MTA jointly vaporized, failed to provide any backups for stranded Roosevelt Islanders.
But lo and behold, that one’s a goner too. That’s strike three by my count, but sadly, it doesn’t mean they are out.
Looking ahead
In a word salad only the writer’s mom could love, the MTA scrambles together a bowl full of connections that resolves down to: “Therefore, at this time we do not have a final revised schedule for the 63rd Street line track work. However, we can share that it will not start before July 1, 2023, and due to other scheduling factors, the start may be pushed to 2024.“
In other words, the MTA can’t untie its shoelaces.
But on the lighter side… RIOC last week suggested that “RIOC and the MTA will be issuing a response to the public’s inquiries soon.”
It was funny because the MTA, which has such low regard for RIOC that it wouldn’t waste enough energy to spit in Roosevelt Island’s direction, envisioning a joint communique forced a fantasy land of hilarious abstraction.
[…] The Lastest (But Not the last): The MTA Swings and Misses Again on the Cursed 63rd Street Track Work Project […]