Which Lexington Avenue Line (4)(5)(6) would you say has the most riders:

1) Overall
2) By Borough (4)(5) The Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn; (6) The Bronx, Manhattan
3) Weekdays and Weekends?

Manhattan: 6

Bronx: 4

Brooklyn: 4

Overall, I'd say it's very close between the 4 and the 6. I'm sure there's statistics to back this up, though. The 5 doesn't serve highly populated areas as the other two lines do.

Not to mention the (5) runs with the (2) in the Bronx and Brooklyn whereas the (6) and (4) run by themselves in the Bronx.

Stats posted at Parkchester say the (6) has a decent edge over the (4). Remember there are fewer (4)'s run than combined (6)<6>. Now as far as which is more packed, the uptown (4) at 149-GC is the most packed a single train can get at any station. People waiting for a train there around the edges of rush hour and midday at times has to wait 2 or 3 trains before they can even squeeze onto one, or walk all the way to last couple cars.

Agree with you on this one, HANDS DOWN! I see so many people transfer from the (2)/(5) to the uptown (4) for Intra-Bronx travel at that station. The (4) is a pretty popular route for schools (whether it be high schools like Bronx Science or Clinton, or colleges like Lehman and Bronx CC), high-density residential areas, courthouses, social services, and shopping strips. The (2) and (5) has plenty of residential areas and shopping strips, like 3rd Av and Southern Blvd, but Fordham Road will always be the king of the Bronx. Not to mention the (D) is pretty infrequent and the stations on Grand Concourse are in bad condition, especially 205th Street.

Dont forget Hostos CC is right upstairs, and the situation is only compounded when there are Yankee games, as no provisions are made for extra trains running just before the game, only after.

The B/D need to provide better service, even if the D runs express in the bronx during rush hour, its infrequent and pm express service end at 6:30, no wonder the 4 lures so many riders, it provides frequent service, better looking stations, I guess you can say "newer cars" but this is just a small factor.

Hopefully the Jerome Line gets the <4> express permanantely.

Anyway between the 4 and 6 its pretty close. Excluding the transfer stations on an every weekdays the toal amount of ridership on an average weekay along the local stops is a whopping 253,455 riders. Now this is A LOT. Its no wonder the 6 is packed, im assuming the 6 is just as packed as the 4/5 right?

Coming from the west side, there are two (three during the rush) lines coming across, the D, 2 and B. The 2 will always bring more people into the Bx being that it connects to more trains while in Manhattan than the D, and it stops directly at TS and Penn. The 4 is the only train coming up from the east side at the moment, the 5 going a different way at this point. Thats why everyone is on the 4, it has nothing to do with the stations or even now service frequency (it was cut back when the 5 started going to Flat during the day).

<4> express trains is not really the issue here. All of those stations are fairly heavy (some more than others) and can't really be skipped unless the trains are late. The main issue is that there are too many people and too few trains. More B and D trains can help somewhat but they are not really useful trains for many people, and do nothing to deal with the crush-loading at 149-GC. For example, both the B and D miss the nightlife scene on the upper east side, GC, and are farther away from the schools mentioned earlier in the thread. Also, the 4 is closer to everyone on the west side of Jerome, and only those on the east side of the street looking for west side service will take the Concourse line.

Before the 5 went to Flat, the expanded service package had 5 min headway midday on the 4. It effectively dealt with the midday overcrowding at 149-GC. It dropped back to 8 mins now that the 5 accompanies it to Brooklyn, and while it evens out service in Manhattan and improves delays a bit, finding your way onto a uptown 4 at 149-GC is difficult.

The ideal setup is to bring back that 5-min headway they had before the 5's went to Flat, while continuing the aforementioned line extension. Back then I'm not saying you could get a seat on a (4) at 149th, but at least you could get into the train. But that might clog things up a bit more in Brooklyn during the day.

The 6 carries more people (more stops in Manhattan that matter), but the 6 runs more trains, in fact twice as many as the (4) middays.

Yes, the (5) is the least busiest green line, and as a Nostrand Avenue-ite, Midday service to Brooklyn is a Godsend. I don't think the cutting of (4) service was justified. I got on Utica Avenue at 10 A.M. one morning and the (4) was already SRO! I didn't that happened outside Rush Hour. I don't want to imagine Jerome Avenue... my sister took the (6) to her high school and she had the occasional horror story... But I guess we'll never get 8-minute (5) service and 5-minute (4) service...

What was the MTA thinking cutting back the 4 to 8 min headways? Everyone knows that the 4 is more crowded than the 5 in the Bronx.

Its about Midtown to lower Manhattan and about OTP, my friend. I worked the 4 for an entire week and it was always bunching up after midday as the schoolkids started to pile on the train again.

What of this project by Prendergrast to update the signals to permit more TPH's?