Subway Speed Limits Nixed In Effort To Move Trains Faster

NEW YORK — Some subway trains can now run at full throttle. New York City Transit has eliminated some speed limits in the system as part of an effort to help trains move faster, the agency announced Monday.

NYC Transit took up an effort last year to cut travel times by safely raising speed limits and fixing faulty signals that automatically slow trains down. Since last summer, a safety committee has approved speed limit increases for 68 locations throughout the subway system, 24 of which have been implemented, the agency said.

Limits have been removed altogether in eight spots, such as south of Times Square on the uptown R/W line, and are due to be axed in three others, according to NYC Transit. That means trains can run at their maximum speed in those places, MTA spokesman Shams Tarek said.

NYC Transit has more than doubled allowable top speeds in some places in addition to eliminating speed limits. For instance, the limit at the City Hall R station has risen to 15 MPH from a systemwide low of 6 MPH, the agency said.

NYC Transit's SPEED Unit has also set out to inspect some 2,000 so-called timer signals, which trigger trains' brakes if they're traveling faster than is allowed, the agency said.

The effort has uncovered 320 faulty signals, which can slow trains down unnecessarily, and 59 of them have been recalibrated, NYC Transit said. In December the agency said it had found just about 267 faulty signals and fixed about 30.

"The SPEED Unit continues to examine hundreds of miles of track to find areas where we can safely increase speeds," NYC Transit President Andy Byford said in a statement. "Their work is absolutely essential and demonstrates that New York City Transit employees are fully committed to making tangible changes that will improve service for our customers."

The speed adjustments and signal fixes are part of Byford's "Save Safe Seconds" campaign aiming to improve travel times with operational improvements.

NYC Transit gave an update on the efforts after unveiling figures indicating some improvement in the beleaguered subway system.

The number of weekday trains delayed fell to 45,418 in December from 61,441 in the same month last year, marking the fourth straight month in which NYC Transit hit its target for delay reductions, the agency said Sunday.

And weekday on-time performance rose to 72.6 percent last month, the best rate in more than four years, according to NYC Transit.

Here is where speed limits have been removed so far. Changes that affect both directions and those that affect local and express lines count as two locations.

• 1 line between 215th Street and 207th Street, both directions
• 1 line north of Penn Station, southbound
• R/W line south of Times Square, northbound
• 2/3 line between Bergen Street and Grand Army Plaza, southbound
• 2/3/4/5 lines at the south end of the Atlantic Avenue platform, southbound
• 4/5 line south of Franklin Avenue in Brooklyn, northbound

(Lead image: Photo by Maria Cormack-Pitts/Patch)