The Dirty Little Secret About Shuttle Train Service . . .

. . . is that it’s the most uninspiring form of subway transportation. So of course it only deserves a “C”:

Commuters on the three-stop Franklin Ave. Shuttle gave it a C grade for the second year in a row, according to the Transit Authority’s second annual Rider Report Card survey.

Riders’ biggest gripes: long delays and unreasonable waiting times.

“At night, the wait time is about 20 minutes at like 2 o’clock in the morning,” said Sara Shae, 22, of Prospect Heights, who relies on the shuttle to travel from the Park Place station to Manhattan.

“I don’t mind waiting, but I do mind feeling unsafe waiting by myself,” Shae said.

“After 20 minutes, I’ll get on, and [the train will] just sit there for another 10 minutes, waiting to fill up.”

See Also: “A Gentleman’s C”.

Location Scout: Franklin Avenue Shuttle.

When You Put It That Way, It’s Nearly Impossible Not To Get Excited For Opening Day!

Amid the fan-friendly touches, new and improved sightlines and new excellent concessions, sad truths remain:

Sitting in their seats, few fans will see the chop shops in Willets Point, the cars roaring past on the Van Wyck Expressway, the subway yards to the south or the U-Haul sign. They will still get a crystal-clear view of the planes on their final approach to La Guardia Airport. Some things never change.

Location Scout: Citi Field.

The New Civil Service Title Is “Button Pusher”

Things you enjoy reading on a morning when it is revealed that the MTA budget is in even worse shape than once thought include the debut of the Robo L Train and the transit authority’s novel new system for making sure train conductors are actually at work:

Robo train finally shed its training wheels and took to the rails.

. . .

Communications Based Train Control will enable NYC Transit to run trains closer together, more frequently, and safer than the current antiquated signal system allows, said Associate Project Manager Anthony Candarini.

“It is more efficient. It makes the trains faster and safer because the computer sensors can see things that the motormen can’t,” said Candarini.

. . .

The train began its historic run at the Eight Avenue and 14th Street station at 12:22. The train picked up speed and navigated the turns without losing speed.

“The future has arrived and it feels weird,” said Natasha Fletcher, 22, a student from Canarsie as she enjoyed the smooth ride.

. . .

The MTA had wanted to remove conductors from trains in automatic mode but had to back off because the move violated the transit workers’ contract.

The motormen working the Brooklyn-Manhattan line remained on board, pushing down on a button every fifteen seconds to ensure that they are alert in the event that any problems arise.

Son Of Leonard

You know you need to get off the island when the subways start talking to you:

Just when the train is starting, as if the cars were screeching, “There’s a place.”

. . .

Once heard, it is unmistakable: an echo of “Somewhere” that rises from the ceaseless tide of shrieks and moans in the subways.

A revival of “West Side Story” begins previews next week, but this little piece of it has been playing nonstop beneath Broadway since 2000, when new cars began rolling with an innovative propulsion system. Most of them are on the 2, 4 and 5 lines, and fresh audiences arrive daily.

. . .

The sound is a fluke. Newer trains run on alternating current, but the third rail delivers direct current; inverters chop it into frequencies that can be used by the alternating current motors, said Jeff Hakner, a professor of electrical engineering at Cooper Union. The frequencies excite the steel, he said, which — in the case of the R142 subway cars — responds by singing “Somewhere.” Inverters on other trains run at different frequencies and thus are not gifted with such a recognizable song.

The playwright Tony Kushner told New York magazine last year that it was his favorite New York noise. Riders often ask transit officials about it, and readers still write to the City section of The Times to report their discovery.

It Starts In A Hole

Maybe you were wondering how the City will pay for the $2.1 billion 7 train extension to an undeveloped part of Manhattan. So are they:

Now that there are a handful of giant holes under Chelsea for the line, and soon to be two drills that are making tunnels, the likelihood that the project will actually come to fruition is increasing substantially (though no one has agreed to pay for cost overruns yet). But with the economy in shambles, the question becomes how quickly — or slowly — development will sprout up on the far West Side.

This is more than just an academic question. To fund the $2.1 billion budgeted for the extension, the city sold bonds that are to be repaid with the extra taxes expected from all the new development on the West Side. If development takes years to begin — or never happens — the city would need to use money out of its budget to pay the $100 million or so annually in debt service, adding to an already high debt burden.

At the announcement today, the mayor delivered what sounded like a slight plea to developers to get building again.

“If anybody’s a developer out there, and if you want to know a good time to start, I can’t think of a better time,” he said. “People are ready to take the jobs, you can buy concrete and steel a lot cheaper than you could have before, and you’ll have these buildings ready when our economy comes roaring back and people are going to need space.”