MTA will continue its efforts to increase speeds on busy subway lines

Building off of Save Safe Seconds Campaign, an effort spearheaded by NYCT president Andy Byford to speed up subway trains, the MTA will soon announce efforts to increase speeds on several busy train lines, the New York Daily News reports.

The new Speed and Safety Task Force, established in late July, will fix century-old timer signals, made to activate a train’s emergency brakes and originally put in place to keep trains from exceeding speed restrictions.

The portions of subway lines being targeted include the 2, 3, 4, and 5 lines between Nevins Street and Utica Avenue; the A and C trains between Lafayette Avenue and Liberty Avenue stations; and the B, D, N, and Q lines traveling over the Manhattan Bridge, sources tell the Daily News.

The Save Safe Seconds Campaign, which began last fall, has already gotten results; the campaign has been implemented at 124 locations across the system, MTA officials announced a month ago.

Also last month, the transportation authority said that more than 80 percent of trains arrived on time in June—the best on-time performance since 2013.

“We’re laser focused on making our trains safely run faster, so that our customers spend less time in transit and more time with friends, family, or at work,” MTA managing director Ronnie Hakim said at a Speed and Safety Task Force meeting last week, according to the Daily News.

“We are upgrading old infrastructure, and making sure that we are squeezing every drop of performance out of our system.”