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The NYC Subway will start running faster next week

Trains on the 2, 3, 4 and 5 lines are speeding up

Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner
NYC Subway
Photograph: Shutterstock
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You may have to pick up the pace to run and catch your train next week—several subway routes are going to be running faster!

In new MTA timetables, first obtained by the New York Daily News, quicker end-to-end run times show that certain subway routes will be increasing their speed. So far, the 2, 3, 4, 5 lines are all expected to move quicker starting in July, which will save time for an estimated 900,000-weekday commuters.

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The speed limit on train lines is constrained by several factors including the crowds and time it takes to board and exit on each platform, and adhering to train schedules. 

"We're able to reduce the trips on those lines by about 10 minutes or so. Doesn't sound like a lot, but if you accumulate it over a day, it's quite a lot of time," NYC Transit President Rich Davey told NBC New York

Ideally, with roughly 10 minutes shaved off the 2, 3, 4, 5 routes, schedules will be more accurate and you'll be hearing fewer announcements of "delays due to train traffic ahead." With fewer weekday riders on the MTA, the time each train spends in the station should also ideally be shortened. 

Not only that but the MTA's bus system may be the next to undergo a boost—the MTA's "Speed Team" is looking at several routes to see where we can save a New York minute.

"Buses have to go faster if there is truly going to be mass transit," MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said on FOX 5’s Good Day New York, pointing to successful speed-ups in Staten Island and The Bronx. "We are redesigning in Queens, we're going to redesign in Brooklyn, and we're doing it in collaboration with the community." 

For a city that's always in a hurry, that sounds like good news. 

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