new york city subway system redesign

New York City Subway System Redesign

cORNELL uNIVERSITY


Prepared for: Solution design for New York City subway system redesign

Liankun Ji, Ge Gao ,Chenxi Wen, Menghan Xu

11/11/2014

This report provides a detailed solution for New York City subway redesign. This report analyzed several essential problems existing in New York City subway system by analyzing the traffic volume, customers demand, and customers’ feedback to come up with this solution. We also examine the feasibility of our solution in this report on cost and benefits table, city development and environmental impact.


Table of ContentsList of Visuals............................................................................................................................................... ii

Introduction.................................................................................................................................................1

Proposed Transportation Solution...............................................................................................................2

Project description of the new subway line.................................................................................................6

General description.................................................................................................................................6

Basic elements in system.........................................................................................................................7

Bridge reconstruction..........................................................................................................................7

Stations and Railways Construction.....................................................................................................9

Capacity of system.................................................................................................................................10

Basic capital (infrastructure, vehicles) cost information........................................................................12

Benefits of adding the new subway line................................................................................................13

Decreasing the congestion................................................................................................................13

Decrease the inconvenient of service termination at weekends.......................................................15

Cross-Platform Interchange Technology....................................................................................................18

Poly-Cross-Platform Interchange Station in Hong Kong.........................................................................18

Using Timetables to Improve Coordination...........................................................................................19

Safety Issues..............................................................................................................................................21

Previous Safety Incidents.......................................................................................................................21

The Tokyo subway Sarin Attack.........................................................................................................21

7 July 2005 London Bombings...........................................................................................................21

2010 Moscow Metro Bombings.........................................................................................................21

Complete contingency plans.................................................................................................................22

Explosion proof compartment...............................................................................................................22

Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................23

References.................................................................................................................................................24

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List of VisualsFigure 1 Proposed subway line construction(New York City subway system, MTA.info, 2014)

Figure 2 Cross-platform interchange technology(Cross-platform interchange technology, Hong Kong subway system intro, 2008)

Figure 3 The former and current track configurations at the Queensboro Plaza cross-platform transfer station(New York subway interchange stations, MTA.info, 2009)

Figure 4 NYCS Manhattan Bridge North Side Tracks(Multi-functional bridge operation conditions, MTA.info, 2007)

Figure 5 Design and construction plans for new subway line(MTA Subway Map, MTA.info, 2007)

Figure 6 Annual Passenger Ridership(MTA Annual Passenger Ridership, MTA.info, 2013)

Figure 7 Annual Passenger Ridership increasing rate(MTA Annual Passenger Ridership, MTA.info, 2013)

Figure 8 Capital Assets distribution in different components of subway system(MTA Independent Auditor’s Review Report, 2013)

Figure 9 Track Performance of New York City(Metropolitan Transportation Authority, 2013)

Figure 10 Overcrowded Lines in New York City(Metropolitan Transportation Authority, 2013)

Figure 11 The Operation of Line 7 at weekends(MTA Subway Map, MTA.info, 2007)

Figure 12 Queensboro Plaza station

Table 1 New York City Subway Ridership from 2007 to 2013(The MTA Network—Public Transportation for the New York Region, MTA.info, 2013)

Table 2 New York City Subway Ridership from 2007 to 2013(Subway and Bus ridership, MTA.info, 2013)

Table 3 Detailed capital cost for new subway line, 2014

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Introduction

Nowadays, numerous traffic problems existed in New York City. As the economic wheel of the

world center never stop turning, fundamental problems like public transportation issues has been

nearly forgotten by the New York City government.

New York Subway System is one of the most significant components of the New York City

public transportation system. There are over one million people alighting and boarding every

day. And this number boosts to 1.5 million during weekends and vacations. With such a high

demand on the subway system, the problems naturally came. Considering New York Subway

System has already existed for over one hundred years, the current facilities are not efficient and

safe enough. Also, based on the research on Metropolitan Transportation Authority Public

Report, the increasing number of subway passengers have already surpass the service level of

current New York Subway System. Every day, there are delays and congestions existing in

numerous subway stations in New York City. In peak hours, such as commuting peak in

weekdays, weekends and legal vacations, some of the subway line even cannot occupy all the

passengers in one service period.

Another problem waiting to be solved is the difficulty for subway line transition. Currently

passengers in New York City always complain about the extremely long time they have to wait

in order to transfer from one subway line to another. Also, it is very difficult to transfer from

subway to other public transportation, like rapid transit, bus, and city shuttle. Since subway

stations are somehow in a comparatively long distance to other public transportation stations, it

always takes more time during transit. Considering different public transportation methods have

different time schedule, passengers sometimes need to wait for a full time gap between two

vehicles.

Overall, the service of New York City Subway System is still adequate. However, it is also

essential to solve the problems stated above. We expect an 8% increase in number of passengers

in the next ten years. If the current metro system does not improve by then, normal operations of

transportation in the city will not be guaranteed.

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Proposed Transportation Solution

Our solution for the New York subway system is to build a new subway line in New York City.

The new service line will decrease the traffic pressures of the New York Subway system and

provide more opportunities for customers to use different subway lines for their daily life.

The major reason for our group to carry on this project is the current deficiency for New York

Subway System. Based on our research on the entire subway operation situation in New York

City, we noticed numerous significant problems.

First of all, the current demand in the subway system is way beyond the current service level.

Based on the data from Metropolitan Transportation Authority, over 47% of passengers are

under normal services of current subway system. Second, the connection between different

subway lines is inefficient. Passengers always need to wait for a long time to make the transition

between different trains. Secondly, the transition between subway lines and bus shuttles is not

the most convenient, especially for daily commuters. Not only did they find it difficult to suit the

timetable between bus and subway but they cannot cover the long journey between subway

station and bus station.

Third, the current subway service is not efficiently coordinated. From the research of our group

on the subway transit connection between different counties, we figure out that some of the

subway transit stop their services without any notices, which cause people staying in Queens

County and can only take taxies or other transit methods to reach Manhattan or other counties.

Lastly, the New York Metro has significant safety issues. We all know New York Subway

System has a grand history of over 200 years. With many old facilities staying in service for

centuries, it is hard to maintain the same safety standards. Based on our research of the New

York Subway System accidents report, thousands of people died each year at New York subway

stations because of safety issues.

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As a result, our design tries to address all of the critical issues mentioned above. After analyzing

current situation and potential alternatives, our group came up with three realistic solutions that

correspond to the problems we discovered.

First of all, one of the most important design issues is to build a new subway line to connect

Bronx County and Queens County.

Figure 1 Proposed subway line construction

From this figure, the blue line stated the new subway line our group wants to construct. It will

connect the passengers from Queens County to Bronx County. Basically, this line will connect

the Line 7 and Line 6. It is planned to connect the Origin of Line No. 7, all the way go through

Brook-Westone Bridge, and reach the third station of Line No. 6, which is the Middle Road

station. Based on our data support from Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the annually

service of New York Subway System is increasing in an enormous speed. From the table I have

below.

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Year Average Weekday

Average Saturday

Average Sunday

Average Weekend

Annual Total Percentage Increasing in

weekday

Percentage Increasing in

weekend

2007 5,042,263 2,917,270 2,211,502 5,128,772 1,562,515,065

2008 5,225,675 2,979,391 2,310,944 5,290,334 1,623,881,369 0.03637 0.0315

2009 5,086,833 2,928,247 2,283,601 5,211,848 1,579,866,600 -0.02656 -0.0148

2010 5,156,913 3,031,289 2,335,077 5,366,366 1,604,198,017 0.01377 0.02964

2011 5,284,295 3,082,463 2,414,587 5,497,050 1,640,434,672 0.02470 0.02435

2012 5,380,184 3,172,627 2,490,736 5,663,363 1,654,582,265 0.01814 0.03025

2013 5,465,034 3,243,495 2,563,022 5,806,517 1,707,555,714 0.01577 0.02527

Table 1 New York City Subway Ridership from 2007 to 2013

It is clear that the passenger demand is increasing at an average rate of 1.37% on weekdays and

2.10% on weekends. Also, over 70% of passengers will take journey in Manhattan, which in turn

caused very heavy congestion in this region. Our new design solution is going to distribute more

passengers to choose their journey in the new subway line which directly connect Bronx and

Queens, so that the traffic pressure in Manhattan will decrease.

Second solution of our team is to focus on the subway line transition. Based on our research on

New York City Subway System transition situation, we figured out some problems. On the

Origin and Destination Estimation in New York City with Automated Fare System Data, over

90% of passengers are using MetroCard to serve themselves for taking subway lines. Based on

the data from this Journal, over 20% of the passengers have an average of 24 minutes gap

between the transitions between different subway lines. (Origin and Destination Estimation in

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New York City with Automated Fare System Data 2013) This data will draw enough attention

on the current transition problems existing in New York City Subway System. Our solution will

focus on a more developed subway line transition method applied in Hong Kong and London

Stratford station subway system. The detailed design process is shown below.

Figure 2 Cross-platform interchange technology

It is obvious that each line in a certain subway station will have two identical service lines with

opposing directions. To ensure the convenience, each is arranged in a rational way for passengers

to alight and board. Unlike the original design, the new design method will ensure passengers to

transfer from one line to another just in a short period of time.

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Project description of the new subway lineCreating a new subway line is not easy. Since the most important issue is the congestion caused

by passengers delaying in Manhattan County, the current situation of passengers’ demands in

Manhattan, Queens and Bronx have to be taken into consideration carefully enough. Also, the

infrastructure of this new subway line should be clearly stated. It should have a reasonable

capacity to face the current demand without exceeding the government’s budget. The cost for

maintaining the new subway system is also crucial. This will give us a more detailed analysis on

the marginal benefits of this plan.

General descriptionManhattan is one of the most prosperous regions in the entire world. Not only did large number

of people resident in this place, but also a large amount of people go to Manhattan for work from

other places, such as New Jersey, Brooklyn, Queens and so forth. Based on the surveying data in

MTA in 2010, the total number of residents in Manhattan is 1,626,159. This is a very reasonable

number for a commercial area. However, the population density in this region is 27,345.9/km^2,

which is astoundingly high. From the generally survey of the current situation, the total

population in Bronx county is 1,418,733, and the population density is 12,598/km^2. The total

population in Queens County is comparatively larger. The population is 2,296175 and the

population density is 8,237/km^2. (MTA.info, 2013) From this sharp comparison between the

passengers’ density in different regions, two important issues are revealed. First, compared with

the passengers demand in other counties, the current demand in Manhattan is way higher.

Second, the current public transportation system is not adequate enough to satisfy the current

demand situation.

Figure 3 The former and current track configurations at the Queensboro Plaza cross-platform transfer station

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Another important fact is the congestion caused by interchange. There are currently overall 49

transfer stations in New York City, and 22 of them are in Manhattan, which engage 20 of the 24

subway lines of New York subway system. The severity will be more obvious if we concentrate

on the current passengers’ delay time in these transfer stations.

Basic elements in system

Bridge reconstruction

The basic elements for the new subway system are very straightforward. As a new subway line,

the most important element for this project is the bridge. The huge bridge connects Bronx and

Queen is called Bronx Whitestone Bridge. Based on the MTA.info, This is a very modern and

elegant bridge which served as the gateway to the fair’s “World of Tomorrow”. (MTA.info,

2012) It is original built for recreation and casual transportation function. In this project, the new

subway line needs to utilize this bridge.

A good example will be Manhattan Bridge, which is one of the most important subway line used

bridge in NYC subway system.(MTA.info, 2011) Based on the transportation condition report,

there are five out of twenty subway lines utilize Manhattan Bridge for their daily operation. It is

a very essential connection between Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Figure 4 NYCS Manhattan Bridge North Side Tracks

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Table 2 Current service situation for Manhattan Bridge

The infrastructure for subway path construction is not very expensive. According to the

Manhattan Bridge Historic Overview, the reconstruction for Manhattan Bridge took plan

between 1988 and 2004, which is an intensive and widespread construction project. (Manhattan

Bridge Historic Overview, 2007) The first contract is a 40$ million reconstruction project which

focusing on the side spans. This will give more space for the subway lines to establish in the

lower part of the bridge. Then the second phase, which cost about $350 million, is to reconstruct

the major part by stiffening the main span, add new expansion joints and reconstruct the upper

roadways. By constructing new frames couple and stiffening the trusses, the subway line can be

easily paved in the lower part of the bridge. In 2004, B, D and Q lines began their full service on

Manhattan Bridge. In October 2007, the rest of the two lines, N and Q, start their service across

Manhattan Bridge as well.

Compared to the construction cost, the operation revenues are more intriguing. The report stated

that the New York Government took only 7 years to compensate the reconstruction cost for

Manhattan Bridge. Considering the increasing number of passengers in the recent 10 years and

price change on public transportation, it is very reasonable to think that similar project will also

receive very good results on the Bronx Whitestone Bridge. The infrastructure on bridge will not

be a problem.

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Stations and Railways Construction

Second important issues will be subway rails and stations. The figure below shows the design

and construction plan for this new subway line. The black dots represent ordinary stations, blue

dots represent interchange stations and yellow highlight is the Bronx Whitestone Bridge, which

is the bridge for the operation. The stations are designed based on the population density and

passengers demand in Bronx and Queens Counties. The interchange stations are mostly the

initial departure and terminal stations of other major subway lines. For example, the new subway

line connects Route 2, 5 and 6 in Bronx and Route 7 in Queens. This design will ensure that most

of the passengers can choose their alternative way to their destination. The infrastructure cost for

build new stations and rails can be noticed by the budget for other new subway lines. There are

11 ordinary stations and 4 interchange stations in total.

On Building for the Future, a new subway line is planning to be constructed in recent years

connecting Manhattan and Queens. When completed, East Side Access will serve approximately

162,000 customers a day. The budget for this project is $10.178 billion. Revenue service is

forecast for December 2022. The budget will mostly put on infrastructure construction, which

including the stations, rails, bridge reconstruction and additional service system. These aspects

are exactly what the new subway line in this project considered in the future as well.

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Figure 5 Design and construction plans for new subway lineBlack dot: ordinary stations

Blue dot: interchange stationsYellow highlight area: Operation Bridge

Capacity of systemWhile nearly 85 percent of the nation's workers need automobiles to get to their jobs, four of

every five rush-hour commuters to New York City's central business districts avoid traffic

congestion by taking public transportation to New York City. Even in this situation, the annual

passengers are still increasing in a booming velocity. This situation forces us to ensure the new

subway line to have a adequate capacity to face the demand.

The Bronx and Queens Counties have an increasing number of passengers seeking public

transportation. Based on the survey from MTA Network, the current operation budget of public

transportation is $10.1 billion in 2014. The annual ridership is 2,394,391,531. And the average

weekly commuting rate is 7,660,605. However, the current subway system is way under the

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demand. From the operation data in MTA Network, there are only 24 subway lines existing in

New York City, and most of them cover little service in other counties. The routes and mileage

are also way under the demand values.

Based on MTA annual passenger ridership report, the annual passenger ridership increasing is

shown in the following graphs.

Figure 6 Annual Passenger Ridership

Figure 7 Annual Passenger Ridership increasing rate

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By noticing the current passenger ridership situation and increasing rate, the new subway line

will create a comparatively large capacity than the annually demand in order to ensure the

normal operation.

Basic capital (infrastructure, vehicles) cost informationIn the criteria above, the revenue and cost issues have been already discussed in several

situations. The annual cost for the entire public transportation system in New York City is $13.6

billion. Also, based on the Independent Auditor’s Review Report by MTA in 2014, the New

York transportation department provides a financial report about the consolidated interim

statements of net position from June 30, 2014 to December 31, 2013. (New York State

Government, 2013) Based on the financial report, the total assets and deferred outflows of

resources in June 30, 2014 is $69,319 million. There is an obvious increase on this number, since

the total assets is $63,094 on June 2012 million and $65,924 on December 2013. The basic

capital cost is shown in the following figure.

Figure 8 Capital Assets distribution in different components of subway system

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From this pie chart, the land use has zero percentage in the entire cost since the original system

has not expanded for years. Most of the cost came from construction work-in-progress, buildings

and structures, passenger cars and locomotives as well as infrastructure. Based on these facts, our

team came up with a table contain the essential cost for the basic elements of the new subway

line.

Table 3 Detailed capital cost for new subway line

Benefits of adding the new subway line

Decreasing the congestion

In an unusually candid effort at self-examination for a habitually insular agency, New York City

Transit presented what could be called an index of straphanger frustration. It made an analysis of

each subway line that shows at a glance how often trains run late, how crowded they are and

whether more trains could be added to ease the problems.

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Figure 8 Track Performance of New York City

From their analysis, we could see that the Line 4, 5, 6 E and L are apparently overcrowded. All

of those lines are using up their full capacities or even exceeding their full capacities. And four

of the over-capacity lines are related to the connection of Bronx to Manhattan or the connection

of Queens to Manhattan. The bold red lines show the 5 overcrowded lines.

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Figure 9 Overcrowded Lines in New York City

The new subway line which connects the Bronx and Queens directly will exempt the

inconvenient of transferring in Manhattan for the passengers who want to come from the Bronx

to the Queens or the other way around and thence relieve the congestion situation in Manhattan.

Decrease the inconvenient of service termination at weekends

According the current operation of subway system of New York City, there is only one line

connecting the Flushing and the Manhattan. And the only line which is line 7 Flushing Local

only partly operates during the weekend which is very inconvenient for the local passengers.

During the weekends, the line 7 Flushing Local only operates between Flushing Main Street and

Queensboro Plaza (showed as the black points in the Figure 10), while there are no train services

between the Queensboro Plaza and Time Square 42 Street (showed as the white points in the

Figure 10).

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Figure 10 The Operation of Line 7 at weekends

The passengers who want to go to the upper-town Manhattan or the Bronx have to either transfer

to Line N,Q,R or to buses services which is very inconvenient. Besides, the Queensboro Plaza

station is always overwhelmed by all kinds of the transfer passengers which dramatically

decrease the comfort of the passengers. The following photo shows the crowded transfer

situation in Queensboro Plaza station.

Figure 11 Queensboro Plaza station.

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The new subway which connects the Bronx and the Queens (showed as figure 3 which connects

the Line 6 and Line 7) will significantly decrease the influence of temporary service termination

during the weekend. The passengers from Flushing or even more general from the Queens will

be able to go to the Bronx directly. And even for the passengers who want to go to the

Manhattan, they also will gain another choice by taking the new subway line to Bronx first and

then transferring to line 6 to get Manhattan. Therefore, the new subway line will greatly share the

pressure of line 7 and provide much more convenience for the passengers.

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Cross-Platform Interchange Technology

There are two common layout arrangements for a cross-platform interchange station. As

discussed in the introduction, a system can have the configuration of an island platform, where a

single platform exists in between the two directions of travel. In addition, as shown in the

diagram above, a side platform where two opposing tracks exist between two platforms also

construct a cross-platform interchange station. A common two-direction cross-platform

interchange configuration consists of two selected directions of two different lines sharing an

island platform, and the respective return directions of both lines sharing a different island

platform in the same station complex. The benefit of this design is that passengers do not need to

use stairs to another platform level for transfer, thus increasing the efficiency of transit.

Poly-Cross-Platform Interchange Station in Hong KongWith two or more continuous cross-platform interchange stations serving two different lines, a

more complicated but commuter-convenient interchange system has been introduced to Hong

Kong MTR. As shown in the diagram above, the connection between Tseung Kwan O Line

(purple) and Kwun Tong Line (green) within the stations of Yau Tong and Tiu Keng Leng has

adopted the poly-cross-platform technology.

Each of the two stations has an island platform between two tracks and an additional island

platform with the two returning tracks. At Yau Tong station for instance, passengers can easily

make the switch from #4 to #1 right across, in order to get on a different subway line. This

structure goes on to the next station, Tiu Keng Long, and therefore this is more complicated

compared to a single interchange station.

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Currently, many subway stations in New York City have the cross-platform configuration

already. However, we can focus on building continuous cross-platform interchange stations

where the traffic is extremely heavy, or there is a frequent need to change between subway lines.

The stairless infrastructure will greatly reduce the current transit time, 24 minutes per passenger

on average. Most of the transit time is spent walking between platforms in order to transfer to

another line. Having two stations in a row where passengers can transfer to another line will

divide the traffic into two adjacent stations, and make the connecting experience at each faster.

In addition, single cross-platform stations should be used as much as possible while constructing

our new subway line connecting the Bronx and Queens boroughs.

Using Timetables to Improve Coordination

Cross-platform infrastructure only offers the benefits of easy changing of trains independently

from the waiting time for the second train. This is the basic infrastructure approach of cross-

platform stations, without taking timetables into account. Though waiting time is small at

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subway stations where there are many passengers, an uncoordinated approach could waste the

advantages of stairless cross-platform interchanges in railway networks with less dense train

traffic. This tradeoff is very relevant to the new subway line we are constructing. The line

connects Queens and Bronx boroughs, and therefore we expect less traffic than lines in areas

with more traffic, such as Manhattan.

The solution to this potential threat that might diminish efficiency is to utilize timetables. To

clarify, a public transport timetable is a document setting out information on service times in

order to assist passengers with planning a trip. Arrival and departure times at specified locations

will be listed in the timetable. Coordination of timetables can shorten scheduled changing time at

least from one to the other train, or still better, bi-directionally between both trains at the same

time. This concept is widely used in Dutch, German, and Swiss railway networks. The most

advanced, however, are coordinated cross-platform interchanges where interconnected trains

wait for each other to secure scheduled interchanges, even if there are modest delays. In practice,

most railways coordinating cross-platform interchanges define a certain waiting time window for

each guaranteed interchange. Some railway operators will briefly delay train departure signals to

allow imminently arriving passengers time to interchange. For instance, the Vienna metro signals

train drivers to wait briefly, by operating a special white light signal triggered by the approach of

an interchange train on another track.

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Safety Issues

Public transportation systems can easily become the target of terrorists. Subway, airports, train

stations, etc., all these places have been attacked according to historical records. Further, the

terrorism targeted at transportation can seriously affect people’s daily life and the whole society

since public transportation systems always have dense streams of people. Subway, as one of the

most important public transportation systems, carries tens of thousands of people daily among all

the major cities. Therefore, it is always the target of a terrorist attack. Here are some records of

subway terrorist attacks that have terrible affect.

Previous Safety Incidents

The Tokyo subway Sarin Attack

The Tokyo subway Sarin Attack was perpetrated by members of the religious movement Aum

Shinrikyo and happened on March 20, 1995 in Tokyo, Japan. During the five coordinated

attacks, the terrorists released sarin on several lines of the Tokyo subway, and the attacks killed

13 people, seriously injured 50 people and caused temporary vision problems for nearly 1,000

people. This was the most deadly attack happened in Japan after World War II.

7 July 2005 London Bombings

On July 7th 2005, four British Islamist men detonated three bombs in quick succession aboard

London Underground trains in the morning. And later, a fourth explosed on a double-decker bus

around Tavistock Square. In this attack, records showing 52 civilians were killed and more than

700 were injured. It is the worst terrorist incident in United Kingdom's since the 1988 Lockerbie

bombing. Also, it is the first ever suicide attack in UK.

2010 Moscow Metro Bombings

The Moscow Metro bombings were suicide bombings carried out by two Islamic women during

the morning rush hour of March 29, 2010. The bombings happened at two stations of the

Moscow Metro (Lubyanka and Park Kultury), and there was roughly 40 minutes interval

between. At least 40 people were killed, and over 100 injured. A lot of people complained that

the government did not stop the subway system directly resulted in the second explosion.

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From the historic events, we can see that subway system can be easily attacked, and usually

caused a large amount of deaths. New York City, as one of the biggest cities in the world, has a

huge and modern system. Right now, it has 421 stations in operation, contains 232 miles of

routes, and carries over 1.7 billion people per year. If this system is attacked by terrorists, the

consequence can be tremendous. Especially after 911, Americans know that terrorism is not far

away from them. As a result, preventing the subway system from being attacked is an important

thing that the government needs to ensure. Here are some suggestions.

Complete contingency plans

Contingency plans are very important. Have a complete contingency plans or not can directly

decide the number of death and the severity of the accident. The 2010 Moscow Metro bombings

can be a bad example. The first explosion happened at 7.56 a.m., which killed over 20 people.

However, the government did not stop the subway immediately. What’s worse, the major TV

channels did not report the disaster, causing a lot of citizens kept using the subway system

without any warning. After 42 minutes, the second explosion happened, killing over 10 people. If

the city had a complete contingency plans and stopped the subway right after the first explosion,

the second explosion would not occurred, which could save a lot of people’s lives. Therefore,

having several complete contingency to deal with different conditions are necessary.

Explosion proof compartment

The explosion proof compartment is designed and developed by the SecureMetro programme,

which is funded by the European Union. Using special materials and designs, the compartment

can significantly reduce the power of the impact wave caused by the explosion. In addition,

when the compartment is damaged by explosion, it will create less wreckage. If this well

designed compartment can be usually in the New York City subway system, it will save a lot of

lives once a terrorist attack occur, as well as reducing the possibility of subway attack. The

photos below give us a basic idea of how the compartment looks like.

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Conclusion

The current situation of New York subway system requires a lot of improvement in this region.

The project team basically focused on three most essential topics: construction of a new subway

line, cross-platform technology and safety improvements. Have evaluated most of the details of

the potential solutions, the project team think it is very practical to launch these solutions to New

York City. The new subway line will release considerable amount of passengers during

commuting peak hours and weekends. It will also provide more choices for passengers in Queens

and Bronx for their daily traveling. Furthermore, the annual revenue will sufficiently compensate

the construction cost in two years without surpassing the budget plan for New York City

government. Cross-platform interchange technology will be a strong addition for the new project.

By changing the platform style from traditional parallel to poly-cross-platform, it will cost very

little time for passengers to make transfer in interchange stations. In addition, the subway

schedule will be adjusted again to relieve the time gap between two different subway lines as

much as possible. This will also decrease the congestion in interchange stations. The safety

improvement will ensure passengers to have a safe and comfortable trip. By adding new

explosion proof technology, update the safety check and produce more safety announcements,

the government will surely produce a better place for passengers.

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References

1. Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York City Transportation details report

http://web.mta.info/nyct/facts/ride.rship/#intro_s

2. Origin and Destination Estimation in New York City with Automated Fare System Data

http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=m16827875p078248&size=largest

3. The MTA Network—Public Transportation for the New York Region, MTA.info, 2012

http://web.mta.info/mta/network.htm

4. Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, MTA.info, 2013http://web.mta.info/bandt/html/bronxw.html

5. Independent Auditor’s Review Report by Metropolitan Transportation Authority, MTA.info, 2013

http://web.mta.info/mta/budget/pdf/2014Q2_financial.pdf

6. Manhattan Bridge Historic Overview, New York City history review, 2008http://www.nycroads.com/crossings/manhattan/

7. Annual Passenger Ridership Report, MTA.info, 2007http://web.mta.info/business/

8. Building for future, MTA.info, 2013http://web.mta.info/capital/esa_alt.html

9. The New York Times, Some Subways Found Packed Past Capacity, 2007http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/nyregion/26mta.html?em&ex=1183003200&en= b2aad75c595fb4a6& ei=5087%0A

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new york city subway system redesign

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