Archive for November, 2007
Nov
19
Feds approve $1.3 billion for SAS
Posted by: | CommentsSadly, the SAS right there doesn’t refer to a large government subsidy for this blog but rather the funds needed to complete Phase I of the long-awaited Second Avenue Subway. I’ll have more on this story and the future of the Second Ave. Subway later on today. [The New York Times]
Nov
18
On fare hikes and public forums
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As I stood in the lobby of NYU’s Kimmel Center on Saturday morning at 10:05 a.m., five minutes after the scheduled start of the MTA’s Public Engagement Workshop on Fares and Tolls, I couldn’t help but to chuckle. Like so many of the MTA’s trains, the start of the conference was delayed. According to one of the conference staff members, there was a “security issue with the university.” Maybe someone saw something and said something.
No matter what, by the time we made up to the tenth floor, police officers were there patting us down. I guess 200 dedicated transit geeks and public advocates concerned enough with the fare hike process to get up pretty early on a Saturday morning represented a threat. Whether we were a security threat or a threat to the hegemony of the MTA’s fare hike process, well, I’ll leave that one up to you to decide.
Once the conference kicked off, thirty minutes late, it was still beset with problems. The lighting in the room made it nearly impossible to see the PowerPoint presentation projections until someone realized the ceiling-to-floor curtains needed closing, and there weren’t enough copies of the presentation materials for everyone in attendance.
But after these initial hiccups, the event ran smoothly and could even be considered a success. The MTA showed they were willing to make a show of listening, and the public displayed a willingness to talk. “We will listen closely to the conclusions and suggestions you put out,” MTA CEO and Executive Director Elliot “Lee” Sander said during his introductory presentation on the current state of the MTA’s finances.
Throughout the morning, MTA officials spoke, and then, the participants responded. The officials spoke on the fare hike proposals, the capital campaign programs and the future of public transportation in New York City. After each 15-30 minute presentation, participants in groups of about 4-8 answered a few questions and discussed what we had just heard. The independent moderators took notes and collected our answer sheets.
Supposedly, these answers will all be presented to the MTA board members. I have to wonder, though, if the MTA board members can’t be bothered with attending the fare hike hearings, will they really want to sift through over 800 answer sheets from the participants? Probably not.
In the end, the meetings seemed to strike a positive chord with those in attendance. While The Daily News, in an article in which I was quoted, claims that the participants panned the fare hike, their blurring of the editorial/news boundary with their Halt the Hike campaign is on full display here. In that article, I am quoted discussing the sequestering of MTA employees and officials. They sat at their own tables while the rest of us talked with the moderators who weren’t too well-versed in topics relating to transit.
But otherwise, contrary to what the News reported, most of the attendees understood that, by tying its revenue streams so closely to volatile property taxes, the MTA could really use that fare hike. We all just want the Authority to look elsewhere as well.
As I’ve reflected on these morning’s events, I am torn between believing that the MTA is truly searching for answers from the public or that the MTA is simply putting a front on a fare hike that is all but inevitable. Lee Sander clearly talked as though the fare hike is a reality, and even the discussions about the MTA’s future focused more around the nebulous idea of a green MTA rather than on concrete ways in which the MTA can improve and expand its service.
Over the next few days, I’ll discuss a few other things I noticed at the hearing. But for now, I’ll leave you with this: While some MTA board members have expressed opposition to the fare hike, the fare hikes are going to happen, public input or no public input, and these fare hikes will probably be tied more closely to the rate of inflation.
I hope the MTA continues to host workshops. There are a lot of people out there with great ideas about the future of public transportation in New York City, and the city will benefit immensely from this exchange of ideas.
Photo by Benjamin Kabak (Second Ave. Sagas)
Nov
17
MIA MTA member shows up at public forum
Posted by: | CommentsSusan Metzger, one of the three MTA board members who missed the fare hike hearings, showed up for Saturday’s Public Engagement Workshop. That’s awfully nice of her. I guess she can keep her spot on the board. More about the workshop later.
Nov
16
Weekend service alerts not affecting travel to MTA workshop
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See how I worked in that reference in the headline to the MTA’s Public Engagement Workshop? Clever, huh?
Well, here’s the story. Tomorrow, Saturday, November 17, at 10 a.m., the MTA along with the Empire State Transportation Alliance are holding a more inclusive public forum at NYU. This is an interactive workshop designed to include more views from the public on the current state of the MTA.
Aaron Donovan, the new deputy press secretary at the MTA, talked with me about the forum of the this workshop. In an e-mail, he said:
At this workshop we expect to make three presentations: the first will be a financial overview given by MTA Executive Director and CEO Elliot G. “Lee” Sander, the second will be a presentation about the two fare options we have proposed, and the third will be a description of what our next capital program might look like and should include a poll of what people think the MTA of the future should look like. After each presentation there will be an interactive session. People will be seated at tables and each table will have an outside, non-MTA facilitator to foster a conversation that will seek participants’ thoughts, feelings and reactions to each presentation.
Basically, the MTA will give its position and listen as others chime in. I’m particularly intrigued by the discussions about the MTA’s next capital program and the poll about the future. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section of this post about those two topics, and it’s not too late to register.
Donovan says the MTA is also looking forward to those segments of the workshop. “We hope to get a better sense of what peoples preferencese are and their visions are for the MTA today and tomorrow,” he said.
A presentation about this forum as well as the results of the fare hearings will be presented to the MTA board members because they don’t like to attend these things themselves. I’ll have my own write-up here as well.
Meanwhile, today the B got a C-minus and the MTA announced its plans to ease up on traffic during the holiday season. And now your service alerts.
Nov
16
Wouldn’t it B nice to do better than a C-minus?
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Well, sad to say, but that one B-minus grade was an aberration. The B train, the peak-hour conterpart to the Q in Brooklyn and the D in Manhattan, received its Rider Report Card today. As with many other trains, the results were less than stellar. The B took home a C-minus.
The B is a fairly popular train, and as part of my morning commute, it’s near and dear to my heart. One of the competitors during Yankee Stadium’s Great City Subway Race, the B runs local from Bedford Park Boulevard in the Bronx along the IND Concourse Line. In Manhattan, the train runs local along the 8th Ave. line to Columbus Circle and then express along the 6th Ave. line across the Manhattan Bridge. In Brooklyn, the B runs as an express along the BMT Brighton Line terminating at Brighton Beach. The B runs during the week and from 6 a.m. to about 9:30 p.m.
Snaking through three boroughs, the trains fill up in the morning, and the riders are not amused. The top ten problems, if you will:
- Minimal delays during trips
- Reasonable wait times for trains
- Adequate room on board at rush hour
- Courtesy and helpfulness of station personnel
- Station announcements that are informative
- Cleanliness of subway cars
- Comfortable temperature in subway cars
- Working elevators and escalators in stations
- Station announcements that are easy to hear
- Train announcements that are easy to hear
In all honesty, I’m a bit surprised by these results. Most notable are the train announcements in the 10 spot. I find the train announcement on the B train all but unintelligible. It’s impossible to hear or discern what the conductors are saying. This may be a problem stemming from the use of the 40-year-old R40 trains on the B line.
Otherwise, the top three spots as voted on by 2,630 B train passengers are right on. The trains often back up before the Manhattan Bridge and again before Columbus Circle. It’s often faster to walk from 7th Ave. and 53rd St. to Columbus Circle than to wait for the train traffic to clear up. Wait times are a hardly-stellar six minutes at rush hour, and until Rockefeller Center, space is scarce inside these cars.
For the MTA, this marks another poor grade in a long line of them, and again, the MTA is stuck. I’d love to see more service on the B train, but the shared tracks with the Q, D and C make that a near impossibility. It will be tough to upgrade the B.
As always, full grades after the jump.
Nov
16
MTA, DOT aim to ease holiday travel
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No one who lives in New York really loves the holiday time around here. Sure, the idea of holiday spirit is nice, and the family gatherings that mark Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s are generally fun and painless. But the tourists. They’re worse than the pigeons.
But that’s the price we pay in New York. With all of the great things the city has to offer come outsiders in their oversized SUVs clogging up our roads every holiday season. Traveling around New York from Thanksgiving to New Year’s is nearly impossible, and this year, the Department of Transportation and the MTA have unleashed a plan to combat crushing holiday congestion. The details, couresty of Metro’s Patrick Arden:
To make room for crowds attending the Thanksgiving Day Parade, NYC Transit will increase service on the 1 and the 42nd Street Shuttle. Trains will also be added to the E, F, Q, 1, 3, 4 and 6 lines on weekends between Dec. 8 and 23. Weekend subway construction will also be cut back.
Now through Jan. 2, non-emergency construction work on streets and sidewalks will be restricted to between midnight and 6 a.m. at 179 locations across the five boroughs. “You’ll find that more than half of current construction work will be curtailed,” said Michael Primeggia, deputy commissioner at the city’s Department of Transportation.
While the information from the MTA is limited right now, this is fantastic news for would-be straphangers. I have to imagine that these holiday travel plans will include regular express service on the West Side IRT lines following Thanksgiving. More trains and better service means we all win. So the tourists can stick to the roads. Those of us in the know can head underground.
As an added bonus — or a torturously brief sneak peak, depending on your point of view — New York City Transit President Howard Roberts dropped in some good news for railfans: Vintage subway cars and buses will run on some lines during December Sundays. I’ll of course have the details when the MTA releases the specifics of this plan, but you can bet that avid subway hunters will turn out in droves for glimpses at these old cars.
Better service and nostalgia train cars: Think of it as a holiday present from the MTA to New Yorkers.
Those love ornaments up there can be yours from the Transit Museum store.
Nov
15
Port Authority announces toll increase
Posted by: | CommentsThe Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, operators of the Hudson River crossings and the PATH trains, has announced a plan to increase fares and tolls. PATH train fares will go up $.30 to $.50, and tolls will climb to $8. PANYNJ also plans to eliminate E-ZPass discounts during peak travel hours. [New York Times]
Nov
15
Three MTA officials too busy for fare hike meetings
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Earlier today, I wrote about the low attendance among MTA board members at the fare hike hearings. The problem, it seems, is worse than I thought.
According to a report in The Daily News, three MTA board members – Andrew Saul, Donald Cecil and Susan Metzger (showed above in that order) – skipped every single fare hike hearing. Nancy Shevell showed to only one hearing after her tryst with Paul McCartney became public knowledge.
“Membership on the MTA board is a privilege, not a right, with awesome responsibilities,” State Assemblyman Rory Lancman (D-Queens) said to reporter Pete Donohue. “Members who can’t drag themselves to even one fare hike hearing to face the riding public not only shouldn’t be allowed to vote for a fare hike, they shouldn’t be on the board at all.”
This story is part of The Daily News’ ongoing Halt the Hike, a blending of editorial content and news reporting. While one could question the journalistic ethics behind such a blurring of the traditional lines of objectivity in news reporting, The Daily News is spot on in this case, and their companion editorial nails the issue:
Why should they care about the cost of transportation? MTA board members get lifetime free MetroCards, lifetime free Metro-North and LIRR train passes and lifetime free E-ZPass accounts. For themselves and for their spouses or paramours.
Let the cry go up from the streets: Revoke their privileges! And kick them off the board!
Since they obviously have no interest in the riders and no interest in the scores of lawmakers who are urging the MTA to delay the fare hike, these three do not belong on the panel. Board Chairman Dale Hemmerdinger should ask for their resignations and for replacement members before any vote on the hikes.
If the MTA board members aren’t going to at least pretend that they’re listening to the public, they have no business serving on the board. And that’s all there is to say.
Nov
15
In NYC, officials skip the fare hike hearings, but in DC, no riders show up
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So the MTA’s fare hike hearings are suffering from something of a PR backlash. As I noted on Monday, MTA board members — those very same board members who don’t ride the subways but have to vote for the fare hike next month — haven’t bothered to show up to the hearings. That’s certainly the way to win over a very skeptical public.
In fact, the non-attendance has gotten so out of hand that one legislator is proposing stripping absentee board members of their votes. Rory Lancman, a Democratic Assembly representative from Queens, has written a bill that would bar board members from voting on the fare hike if they haven’t attended at least 50 percent of the hearings. Lancman, an avid opponent of the congestion fee, raises a valid point, but right now, it’s too little too late.
Meanwhile, down in the our Nation’s Capital, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is going through its very own fare hike motions. The WMATA, despite double-digit ridership growth over the last five years, claims they need a fare hike in order to maintain their current levels of service. In fact, as I noted in August, the WMATA is already threatening to cut DC’s already-pathetic late-night subway service if they don’t get the fare hike. Aw, how cute. They’re resorting to the same threats as the MTA. They want to be just like us.
In fact, they’ve even gone so far as to schedule a series of meetings in Virginia, Maryland and the District so that riders can give feedback on the fare hike proposals. Now, while our fare hike hearings suffer from a noted lack of officials, DC’s hearings have another problem: Only four people showed up to the first one yesterday.
As Lena H. Sun in the Washington Post reported, this poor turnout was probably related to the location chosen for the fare hike. The WMATA picked a conference center in Reston, VA, a DC suburb that is Metro-accessible. The conference center, however, is not at all accessible. Here’s how the WMATA’s Website recommends you get there:
By Metrorail: Orange Line to the West Falls Church station, transfer to the Fairfax Connector Bus 505 or 950 to the Reston Town Center Transit Station where a free shuttle bus will leave at 6 and 6:30 p.m. to the public hearing. Fairfax Connector will provide free shuttle bus service from the public hearing to the Reston Town Center Transit Station.
Got that? Take the train to a bus to a free shuttle bus to a public hearing. I don’t think the WMATA has set up enough hoops through which it expects the public to leap. For her part, WMATA board member Catherine Hudgins said it was “possible” that the location may have contributed to the poor turnout. Ya think?
So as New York and the MTA go through a few growing pains on the long and torturous path to a seemingly-inevitable fare hike, at least the MTA has picked places that are rider-friendly. No one shows up to listen to the complaints, but in New York, the people are out in force. In Washington, where the WMATA is involved, it’s a whole different beast all together.
Nov
14
Hell hath no fury like a Staten Islander scorned
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I warned ‘em but to no avail. Yesterday, the MTA board members — or at least those who decided to show up — had to face a room full of pissed off Staten Islanders, and based on reports in the Staten Island Advance and on NY1, it was not a pretty scene.
At the last of the fare hike hearings before this weekend’s big Public Engagement Workshop, the touring fare hike circus journeyed to that hard-to-reach Staten Island to discuss transit options with a bunch of disgruntled Staten Island residents. As NY1′s Amanda Farinacci relates, things started out bad and only got worse.
To highlight the transit problems facing Staten Island, State Senator Diane Savino leveled an indictment of the MTA’s designated start time for the hearing. “There is a hearing held here at 6 p.m., and if they lived in any other borough, the vast majority of people would be able to get here,” she said. “But most Staten Islanders are still on their way home.”
Maura Yates, of Staten Island’s hometown newspaper, had more of the gruesome details:
The officials about to vote on a proposed fare and toll hike probably haven’t experienced the hell of standing up for hours on a stifling express bus with no bathroom, day in and day out. So several furious Staten Islanders who took the microphone during the public hearing that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority conducted last night at the Petrides Educational Complex in Sunnyside challenged them to do just that.
And at least two MTA officials said they’d be willing to make the trip. “I know the pain, I feel it,” said Todt Hill resident Frank Powers, who is Staten Island’s representative on the board. He said he experiences the traffic firsthand driving home from MTA headquarters in Midtown. “It’s not a question that none of us know it,” he said. “We do know it.”
He said, he’d be willing to board an express bus “at 57th Street at 5 o’clock, if that’s what it takes.” Hilary Ring, the MTA’s director of government affairs, said he would come, too.
I’m not sure that’s what it takes, Frank. For one day, you, one of three privileged MTA board members who openly admitted to shunning public transit during rush hour commuets, will experience the joys of a two-hour bus ride from home to work. And then you’ll go back to your car. I’m sure that’ll convince Powers to vote against the fare hike.
Meanwhile, Staten Islanders annoyed at constant Verrazano Bridge construction and few other transit options for escaping the Island even challenged the MTA on their bathroom breaks. Yates relates the tale of one Joseph Mizrahi who noted that one of the board members had left for a bathroom break one hour into the hearing. “Think of the people who don’t have that luxury” while trapped on buses for two hours or more each afternoon, he said. “Who are you to judge fare increases on something you can’t even relate to?”
With the end of this bitter hearing, the only public forum standing between the MTA board and the fare hike vote is Saturday’s workshop. This is it, folks. If we want to further drive home the point that no one wants the fare hike, show up to this hearing. But be prepared to present alternatives. How can the MTA fund its debt service and expansion plans without a fare hike? If we can’t answer these questions, we’ll have to face the reality of a fare hike, and the MTA will have to face a very bitter ridership.
