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If it's Friday, it means weekend subway service diversions (prepare to sit this weekend out, Williamsburg). The Daily News reports that 18 of the 19 lines that have weekend service have work being done on them (only the M is immune to the woes) and the MTA says the track work is being done before the rush of holiday-time visitors. The MTA's Paul Fleuranges said, "We understand the resulting diversions make traveling difficult, but the alternative - a crumbling infrastructure - is one we don't entertain or envision allowing to happen." No, we don't like crumbling anything in the subways. This reminds of the recent NY Times article that empathized with riders' weekend services problems, making rides much longer. So, Gothamist asks two things: 1) Let us know about how your weekend service was - try to give us estimates of how much longer your trip took (or if your trip had to be scrapped); 2) Math fiends - help us devise a formula to estimate waiting time - parabolic functions are welcome.
You can find out about the MTA's weekend service disruptions here. The MTA also offers emails about weekend service (part of their pilot program), as do the Straphangers (the Straphangers email comes more often and seems more user-friendly).
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The service changes on the Q line have been particularly hellish, since traveling from Manhattan to Brooklyn PRACTICALLY ANY DAY AFTER MIDNIGHT will have you running up and down stairs at Atlantic Ave./Pacific St., either to catch a shuttle bus or a train on another platform.
Overall, I would say this adds an average 20 more minutes to my evening commute. Therefore the iPod must be fully charged before facing the vagaries of subway travel.
The absolute worst wait occurred a ew Fridays ago at the Union Square station for a Brooklyn-bound Q at around 1:00 am. A rapidly growing crowd on the platform waited for precisely 45 minutes before we were told there was not Q service to Brooklyn. At that point, dozens raced up the stairs to the 4 or 5 platform. I made it home (Sheepshead Bay Rd. stop) at around 4:00, though it felt more like days had passed.
Now I am sort of glad I am sick this weekend and staying home.
You should remember, a lot of the subway infrastructure is old, some of it a century old, and has suffered oodles of differed maintenance since then. Plus, the system runs 24/7, unlike most systems, so the TA can't do maintenance when the line is shut down for the night as is done elsewhere. Also, it is much better doing it now than having this closer to the holidays when more people are riding weekends.