Archive for July, 2007
Jul
10
Absolut-ly hoping for the Second Ave. subway
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An ad campaign dreaming of the future… (Photo courtesy of Yorkville Blog)
Via the Yorkville Blog comes a special sighting of the Second Ave. subway on ads for Absolut Vodka of all places. But, hey, I’ll take it.
The ad is part of Absolute’s new “In an Absolut World” ad campaign. Much like Virgin’s latest You Rule campaign, these ads seem targeted to specific neighborhoods. The photos snapped by Yorkville Blogger show up at 2nd Ave. and 86th St., the future spot of a stop on the Second Ave. subway.
They present a nice glimpse of the future (or the past as it should have been). But just how accurate are these ads? The answer at which this subway-obsessed blogger is “not very.”
For starters, look at the turquoise T, and then look at the one to the left of this paragraph. Notice something? That’s right; the Second Ave. subway bullet is turquoise with white lettering and not turquoise with black lettering as Absolut shows us. Only the N, Q, R and W trains have black lettering.
Next, take a gander up at this site’s header image. Notice the turquoise and yellow strips running along Second Ave. Well, that’s because the Q will make all the same stops as the T. In fact, as I noted in March, the Q train extension will constitute Phase 1 of the construction. The T won’t exist until the entire line is finished.
Finally, look at that old, tiny station entrance in the Absolut ad. The real Second Ave. subway entrances may look quite ostentatious according to the preliminary designs.
But for all the flaws, it’s a fun ad campaign. The Second Ave. subway has entered the collective consciousness of our city’s advertisers. Can the real line be all that far away?
For more pictures of the ads, check out Yorkville Blog’s post.
Jul
10
L stands for Lots of Shuttle Buses
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Shuttle buses: A two-word phrase that is the bane of every subway rider’s existence. When you’re riding along in a nice air conditioned train during the dog days of summer nothing brings more dread to a straphanger than an announcement proclaiming an out-of-service train with the option to transfer to over-packed shuttle buses. For free!
Well, L train riders to “East Williamsburg” and beyond, get ready for some fun in the city. Because when the MTA parties, they party hearty with no service past Lorimer St. and shuttle buses for the masses. amNew York has more:
Shuttles will replace the L from Lorimer to Broadway Junction for the next four weekends, until Aug. 6, according to transit advisories. The changes are due to rehabilitation of the Lorimer station and elevator repairs, according to New York City Transit spokesman James Anyansi.
As weekend crowds poured from the subway at Metropolitan and Union avenues during the steamy afternoon Sunday, workers wearing orange T-shirts and clutching bull horns handed them free transfer tickets and directed them to the bus stop.
On Saturday night, I took the L from Union Square to 1st Ave. At the time, the expensive electronic notification system wasn’t working, and in fact, it was still down this morning. Even worse, the train’s conductor told no one about the shuttle buses. The only sign of a service change came through the electronic route maps; only stations from 8th Ave. to Lorimer St. were lit up. As passengers realized the shuttle buses awaiting them, an audible sigh rolled through the train.
As bad as this is, the MTA has somehow, someway, managed to replace eight-train cars with enough shuttle buses to ferry passengers to the appropriate destinations. While some buses are packed to the gils with people, others sit for a few minutes, half empty. It’s the same philosophy as moving to the rear; if you’re willing to walk (or wait), you can ride in more comfort.
Meanwhile, the kicker in this article came as a good jab the G train. Wrote Magdalene Perez, “One rider said the service was good compared to the G train, where riders sometimes wait an hour without knowing trains had been suspended.”
So there you go, MTA. L train service that terminates two stops into Brooklyn and leads to shuttle bus service is better than the G train. Keep up the good work
Jul
08
Times profiles F Express plan
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Keeping momentum. That’s always the key to a successful public awareness campaign, and right now, that’s what Gary Reilly and the rest of us pushing for F express service are trying to do.
After delivering the petition to the MTA and receiving a favorable response from the Authority’s board, Reilly has tirelessly worked to keep this plan in the news. We have to keep applying pressure to the MTA to see this wish become a reality. This week, Reilly’s efforts ended up in a neighborhood spotlight on Carroll Gardens in The City section of the Sunday Times. Jake Mooney profiled Reilly:
Mr. Reilly said his petition comes at the perfect time, with the population of several neighborhoods swelling along the F line and the city seeking improvements in mass transit to accompany the mayor’s “congestion pricing” proposal to reduce traffic. The unused tracks, Mr. Reilly said, represent an untapped resource. “It would cost billions of dollars to build those express tracks today,” he said, “and they’re sitting there doing nothing.”
But there are good reasons for that inactivity, said Deirdre Parker, a spokeswoman for the transportation authority. Restoration of F service is being held up for at least four years by work to repair facilities near the Bergen Street subway station that were damaged in a 1999 fire, and by work on the Culver Viaduct, the railroad bridge over the Gowanus Canal.
Mr. de Blasio, however, would like to see the authority restore express service while those projects are going on, or at least set a clear timeline for restoration. “Is there no other way but to wait for everything to be done?” he said. “If it was more of a priority, could they find a way to work around it?”
Therein lies the part we must stress. As Gary has repeatedly pointed out, those express would cost billions of dollars to build, and yet they sit empty and unused. The MTA has, at its disposal, express tracks it could use to ferry thousands of straphangers to and from Brooklyn. But they remain empty.
While I understand the argument about the fire and the Culver Viaduct work, I have seen F trains run express this spring as crews work on the local tracks. There doesn’t seem to be much wrong with the signals at Bergen St.
The petition now has nearly 3000 signatures. If you haven’t signed on to it yet, do so now. And let’s keep pressuring the MTA to bring this plan to fruition. We want express and local service along the Culver Line in Brooklyn. It’s time.
Jul
06
The MTA saved a store just for me
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Good supermarkets are a rare find in New York City. Everyone knows where the gross Gristedes and crappy Key Foods are. But those quality supermarkets with low prices and varied selections are diamonds in the rough.
While Food Emporium hardly qualifies as a gourmet supermarket, two of these established were recently spared the wrecking ball on the Upper East Side. The MTA announced they were modifying some of the proposed plans for station entraces along Second Ave. to accommodate community requests to spare the supermarkets. The Sun has more:
Because of the high cost of acquiring the grocer’s retail space, as well as vocal community opposition to the plans, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has unveiled a redesigned station entrance so that it does not have to acquire any space along Second Avenue between 85th and 86th Streets that has been occupied by Food Emporium for almost a decade…
The redesigned station entrance , unveiled to a crowd of relieved Upper East Side residents a few weeks ago, would stand in front of the store instead of replacing it. The new station entrance includes two glass-paneled doors that would open onto a widened sidewalk in front of the store to accommodate foot traffic, officials said.
Another Food Emporium at 63rd Street and Third Avenue, which was to be converted into an escalator and ventilation facility for the subway line, has also been repositioned, a move that saves the supermarket as well as significant dollars for the MTA, a spokesman, Jeremy Soffin, said.
The MTA’s project Website notes the change. It also highlights how the Authority has recently purchased a building with both a Chase bank and a Duane Reade. This building may soon house a subway-related structure, saving the neighborhood from at least one Chase and one Duane Reade.
Meanwhile, David Liston, chair of Community Board 8, was thankful that the MTA opted to go the sensible route in sparing the supermarkets. “It was the source of tremendous relief for our neighborhood,” he said. “There’s no shortage here of high-end stores, but in terms of your basic supermarket with relatively affordable prices, we have very few.”
Jul
05
MTA paint jobs paralyzed by institutional indecision
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Chipped and peeling paint jobs are a routine sight in the subways. (Courtesy of flickr user tash in ny)
Sometimes, the ridiculous stories just write themselves. This is one of those times because the MTA can’t get it together to use extra cash they have floating around to paint stations that need to be painted. Yes, you read that right.
So the MTA, when the sale of Stuyvesant Town went through, earned a whopping $52 million off of the sale’s mortgage. With this money in tow, the Authority developed a five-year program during which they would paint 200 stations in need of painting. That was seven months ago.
Today, the Daily News reported that the MTA just can’t figure out how to get this program off the ground. Pete Donohue had more:
The MTA last year adopted a budget and multiyear fiscal plan calling for dozens of stations to be painted each year for a decade until every hub is refurbished with a fresh coat. Seven months later, NYC Transit hasn’t decided how to proceed with the station painting program. It’s unclear who will do the work, which stations will be among the first to get a paint job and which would be among the last to be brushed, NYC Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges said.
“It will go forward, but I don’t know when or what the plan is,” Fleuranges said.
That’s right. It’s taken the MTA seven months (and counting) just to figure out how to proceed with the simplest of plans. MTA board member Andrew Albert summed up my feelings pretty nicely. “They haven’t started?” he asked incredulously. “It shouldn’t take a year to decide what stations to do. There’s little doubt you can find 35 stations a year that badly need a paint job.”
Among the options I came up with were flipping a coin, pulling station names out of a hat or playing that whole “tell me where to stop” game with someone’s finger and the subway map. Someone — anyone — pick a station and start there.
The 149th St.-Grand Concourse station could really use a paint job and so could some of the Bay Ridge stations on the R line. I could name 10 stations without thinking that would benefit from a fresh coat of paint. So come on, MTA. It can’t be that hard, right?
Jul
05
Brooklyn service would give meaning to neglected V train
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For the last few weeks, Brooklyn residents have been pushing hard for express service on the F tracks in the city’s most populous borough. Thanks to the efforts of Gary Reilly, the MTA board has expressed support for the plan, and last week’s press conference was a resounding success.
Part of the plan calls for redeeming the V line. For now, the V train, running for just 17 hours Monday-Friday, is a lonely train. Running local from Forest Hills, the train terminates at the Second Ave. station as the F travels onward to Coney Island. As an added benefit to V train riders, since this train doesn’t go anywhere in Queens or Manhattan that other trains don’t, it allows for either a neglected ride or a spacious ride, depending upon your viewpoint.
Earlier this week, the Daily News noted that, in an age in which NYC pols are decrying over-crowded trains, the empty V trains provide welcome relief to straphangers looking for some space. In a 300-word article that three reporters wrote (!), the News noted:
It’s the V train, an unloved but uncrowded route launched in 2001 that is only half full even at rush hour – making it the least crowded of the subway’s 22 lines, NYC Transit statistics show…”You’re not like a sardine,” said Tom Nguyen, 34, who noted he almost always gets to sit back and relax on the V. “Of all the Queens lines, I think the V is the best.”
Not everyone agrees. Critics predicted no one would ride the local V when it was created in December 2001 to relieve overcrowding on the express E and F trains along Queens Blvd. Transit officials tried hard to popularize the route; it didn’t work. “I think it’s worthless,” commuter Victoria Carlucci said. “The stops are not helpful stops.”
So for every rider like Nguyen, there are others who cannot stand the V line. It, for some unknown reason, symbolizes the problems with the MTA: It’s a rush hour-only line that charts familiar territory. Who needs another one of those, right? In fact, over on the subway message board Subchat, invective against the V train exploded when this article hit the Internet on Monday.
And that is where our F train petition comes into play. With the F train petition, the F would run express during the times the V runs from Jay St./Borough Hall out to Church Ave. (or possibly Kings Highway). The V would no longer be a lonely train; instead, it would ferry thousands of commuters through Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Kensington and Borough Park. While those riding in Queens would probably still enjoy their empty and spacious train cars, people riding in Brooklyn would finally have more room than they do on the F with its cattle-car-like conditions.
So once again, we all can see how our F express plan would help make use of an under-utilized subway line in New York City. It’s time to make this plan reality.
Jul
03
Copa, in the path of the 7, shuts its doors
Posted by: | CommentsWith apologies to Barry Manilow
Her name is Seven, she was a subway
With purple bullets in her front and a line right to Times Square
She would meander and carry Mets fans
And while she tried to head somewhere, the line just ended at Times Square
But then came the M.T.A. Going west became a chore.
They were bold and they had some money
Past 10th Ave. and more.
But there was the Copa, Copacabana
Not quite the hottest spot west of Tenth Aven-yah
At the Copa, Copacabana
Gentrification was not quite in fashion
At the Copa….it had to go.
His name was Sander, he was the new guy.
He said these plans are still on hold til the money is in gold
But then the contracts they were awarded,
But 11th was how far would roll the train car.
And said old Kalikow, your club has got to go.
There was a club and a single rail yard
And then June was through.
So there went the Copa, Copacabana
No longer a hot spot on Eleventh Aven-yah.
No more Copa, Copacapana.
The outer-most boroughs might soon be in fashion
With the Copa…it shut its doors.
Jul
02
Watching the empty G train rumble by
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Yesterday, I ventured out to Coney Island from Park Slope. To a subway expert, this trip can be a bit of a dilemma. Do I take the Q from 7th Ave. on the north side of the Slope? The F from 7th Ave. on the south side? Or maybe finagle a ride on the D or N?
I opted for the F. It’s a bit quicker than the Q, and as an added bonus, the F train I rode on didn’t have the front window all blocked up as the newer cars do. So I got to stand at the window at stare as the scenery approached. I saw many of the switches that should be used for express service on the F line.
But while that plan and the petition gain political and MTA support, I wanted to revisit something from November. As I waited on the platform at 7th Ave. yesterday, not one, not two but three G trains went by. They were heading to the turnaround at Church Ave., and they were all empty.
Now, these trains didn’t go by in express tracks with no platform access. Instead, they zipped past a crowd of people at 7th Ave. and another crowd at Church Ave. These trains turn around just past Church Ave. and then skip those two same stops before going back into service at Smith-9th Sts.
My question then is this: Why can’t these trains stop at 7th Ave. and Church Ave., picking up and discharging passengers? The platforms are in perfectly fine conditions, and the tracks are too, as evidenced by the passing trains.
Furthermore, in November, the MTA’s budget for FY07 revealed plans to extend the G train service to Church Ave. While this service extension may be temporary, there is no reason for these empty trains to bypass stations they should be serving.
Brooklyn needs and deserves adequate subway service. Right now, those of us in New York’s most populous borough are getting subpar subway while witnessing trains running routes that, with a two-minute adjustment, could better serve us all. Open those doors, G train. Let us in.
Jul
01
MTA’s Website a casualty of the power outage
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When the South Bronx and East Side went dark last Wednesday, hundreds of thousands of commuters panicked. With rush hour nearly upon the traveling masses, subway service failed on some of the city’s most popular lines. But even worse, the MTA’s Web site went dark.
As would-be straphangers sought information during the blackout’s first few minutes, many tried to navigate to MTA.info, the MTA’s recently revamped and usually reliable Web site. But instead, most surfers — including me — were rebuffed. The site was down. Instead, computer users turned to Gothamist, The Times’ Cityroom blog and, of course, Second Ave. Sagas.
Bloggers worked as they are wont to do on Wednesday. Gathering reports from news sources and MTA officials, the sites worked fast to keep their readers updated on the state of mass transit. During the hourlong power failure, the bloggers went to work while the MTA’s site went down. While a few of my readers e-mailed me about this outage and have expressed concerns about the MTA’s site in the past, The New York Times dug a bit deeper into the outage. William Neuman wrote:
When the power went out in a broad swath of the Upper East Side and the Bronx on Wednesday, a record number of commuters turned to the Internet to learn if their subway lines or commuter trains were running. But the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Web site provided no help. The site became inaccessible shortly after the electricity went out at 3:41 p.m. and was down for about an hour, a little longer than the 49-minute power failure.
“Because the incident occurred right before people were getting ready to leave the office, we had a huge surge of traffic at one time, unlike anything we’d had before,” Jeremy Soffin, a spokesman for the transportation authority, said yesterday…
Mr. Soffin said that technicians had determined that the firewalls that protect the authority’s computers were not able to handle the record Web traffic, making it impossible for users to access the site. He said that the authority had been planning to install new firewall technology and that it would be in place within two months.
Now, as a frequent subway rider and active subway blogger, I love the MTA’s site. The revamped newsroom with its RSS-supported Press Release section is a great resource. These schedules, I learned this past weekend, are actually somewhat accurate, and the service advisores are invaluable.
But if the site for the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the nation’s biggest and most popular public transportation system, can’t keep its Web site up and running during a huge spike in traffic, it’s in trouble. Much like most MTA projects, the installation of a new firewall is going to take about two to four times as long as it should.
So as we head into a summer where blackout concerns are rampant in the city, we may yet face another power outage that brings down the MTA’s site. While the Authority is the ultimate word on the status of the subways, for now, you’re safer with bloggers. If the power goes, you’re better off with Gothamist, Cityroom or me than you are with the MTA. And as good as it feels to pat myself on the head, that is definitely not a good state of affairs.
