For weeks now , the MTA has been trumpet the coming back of the W train . Signs posted throughout the subway system portray its riposte like it ’s some star - stud Broadway musical revival . Today , it ’s back . After a six - year hiatus , the sure-enough yellow - line power train is rumbling again from the Astoria - Ditmars check in Queens down to Whitehall St in Lower Manhattan .
If you did n’t miss it , or did n’t even acknowledge it was gone , there ’s a good reason for that .
Prior to its retirement in 2010 , the W was the worst - rat train in the entire urban center . “ It ’s important to think of that the service was somewhat risky , ” says Jaqi Cohen , campaign coordinator for the Straphangers Campaign . The transit - rider advocacy mathematical group each year ranks the metropolis ’s various tube descent base on MTA performance data .
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For three years in row , in fact , the W fared the poorest of all 21 subway lines , twice tying other equally bad trains and once taking the deed outright in 2008 . To chop-chop sum up the W ’s less - than - finer points : The W offered the least amount of daytime service and never ran at night . When it was in service , the W showed up with below - norm regularity . W trains also break down more ofttimes and were pestiferous than mediocre – which is say a lot !
On the positive side , you were more likely to find a seat on the W ( probably because everyone else get an earlier Q , N , or R train lead in the same direction ) .
Ample seating was no route to salvation , however . With the MTA facing a $ 1.2 billion budget shortage back in 2009 , some track in subway serve were inevitable , and the W was an easy fair game . The"bastard stepchild " of the yellow linemade its last ride on June 25 , 2010 .
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So why all the hype about bring back a subpar and at long last superfluous inspection and repair like the W ?
The wanton answer has to do with the general country of the subway organisation itself , which , as any New Yorker will tell you , is an overcrowded and inveterate delay mass . Subway ridership has only increased since the W ’s demise six years ago – an uptick of almost 200 million additional trips each year , according to MTA figure . “ Everybody has experienced get on a string and have their face shove into somebody ’s armpit just to get to work , ” says Cohen . “ So , in that sense , any gain in avail is a full thing . ”
But the biggest perk about the revived W really is n’t about the watt at all . It ’s about a dissimilar subway telephone line – specifically , the hugely anticipated and long delinquent Second Ave subway , which MTA shoot for to partially open on Dec 30th . The new underground line , which has been in the preparation stages apparently eternally , is mean as the biggest solution yet to the overcrowding problem … once it ’s finally completed anyway .
Here ’s how it all fit together : With the W back up and be given , MTA will be able to discontinue Q gear Robert William Service to Queens and finally reroute that train to Manhattan ’s Upper East Side . There , it will run along the first section of the new Second Ave communication channel , with stop at 72nd , 86th , and 96th Streets .
Within this greater dodge , transportation system advocates see the W ’s rejoinder as a pregnant step toward the Second Ave line at long last bump . “ It ’s a right to vote of confidence that the Second Ave underground will be opening presently , ” say Cohen .
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