Comments on: Thompson: Transit’s station maintenance program not up to par

By: Thompson: Transit data releases lacking :: Second Ave. Sagas | A New York City Subway Blog

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:01:44 +0000

[...] hopeful William Thompson released a spate of audits critical of the MTA. I examined his report on station maintenance yesterday, and today, we’ll delve into Thompson’s views on New York City [...]

By: rhywun

rhywun — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:56:32 +0000

At my station (Bay Ridge Avenue), the stairs were recently “renovated” with misshapen concrete steps. I assumed it was some sort of “base” for real steps… but this was over a year ago. One must step carefully on these things.

I too was wondering if it’s really a lack of money or just a lack of direction. At some point you have to say, look you’ve got enough money, just build a proper stairway already.

By: kvnbklyn

kvnbklyn — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:37:36 +0000

This all sounds great, but one big issue being overlooked is that the poor state of many stations is due to the bad design decisions and shoddy workmanship of the renovations of the past two decades. Using a thinset mortar bed and thin tile in areas exposed to rain, heavy foot traffic and train vibrations is a recipe for disaster. The type of work they do would maybe be appropriate for a residential bathroom, not a heavily used piece of transport infrastructure. In fact, the staircase you show in the photo above was renovated in the 1990s along with the rest of the station.

I see this every day at the Bergen station on the F where fairly new wall tile is falling off the walls because the MTA never addressed the water infiltration problems that caused the original tile to degrade in the first place. And the new tile was installed directly over the original glazed tile. Mortar won’t adhere too well to a glazed, non-porous surface. They were supposed to rough up the surface of the original tile first before installing the new, but somehow that never happened and the supervisors at the MTA never caught it (or chose to look the other way). Now they’re doing the exact same thing at Jay Street.

I’m all for spending more money on the subway, but I think someone needs to seriously look at what we’re getting for the money we’re already spending on station renovations. And why the renovated stations are deteriorating at a rapid rate.

By: Benjamin Kabak

Benjamin Kabak — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:41:17 +0000

It seems to me to be a process problem more than a scarcity problem. The MTA has the employees and resources to fix structural deficiencies such as unsafe staircases and loose cables. There appears to be a lack of oversight in reporting and following up on these trouble-calls.

By: DMIJohn

DMIJohn — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:33:39 +0000

To what extent does this reflect a scarcity of resources?

By: Streetsblog New York City » Today’s Headlines

Streetsblog New York City » Today’s Headlines — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:58:17 +0000

[...] Thompson Report Faults NYC Transit for Lagging on Station Repairs (AMNY, 2nd Ave Sagas) [...]