3 ms·

On the Q train in Brooklyn, in the beginning, the distance between stations is very puzzling. There is what appears to be a block distance between Sheepshead Ba

• jrockway 7y ago
  I think that's just how the system was designed. The local stations feed express stations, and the express trains are what you ride to minimize travel time. I think it all broke down when the city took over, didn't have any money, and cut the frequency of trains. You stopped being able to rely on a timed transfer, and so you often find yourself stuck on a local train because stopping every 5 seconds is still better than waiting 20 minutes for the express train. The official policy of the MTA that I read a couple years ago is for trains to always try to make the timed transfer outside of rush hour. But my experience is that they stopped doing this when people started writing newspaper articles about on-time performance. Better to have an empty train arrive at the terminal on time than for it to be a minute late because it waited for the express. The customers got exactly what they asked for ;)