Monthly Archives

December 2009

Second Ave. Sagas top ten of 2009

by Benjamin Kabak December 31, 2009

written by Benjamin Kabak on December 31, 2009

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year, but what a year it’s been. As 2009 draws to a close, I want to take a minute to reflect on the site. I’ve had more far more visitors this year than I did last, and many of you have stopped to leave a comment. From fare hikes to service cuts to progress along Second Ave., we’ve covered it all this year.

So as the year ends, I’d like to repeat my final post from 2008. Last year, I looked at the ten most popular posts from the previous year, and right now, I’m going to do the same. Although budget talks and funding solutions dominating the conversation, the most popular posts usually are a surprise.

1. The graffiti debate: Glorifying art or vandalism?
Two decades ago, the subways were covered in graffiti, and then the City and MTA decided to attack the art. Now, the subway is clean, but those graffiti artists feel slighted. As galleries begin to reminisce on the era of graffiti, we examined whether we should classify graffiti as misunderstood art or vandalism. The debate still goes on today.

2. Yankee Stadium Metro-North stop ready to go
As the Yankees went on their World Series run, the MTA opened a new Metro-North stop a few blocks away from the team’s new home. Jorge Posada, David Cone and Brian Cashman were on hand to lead reporters through the ribbon-cutting ceremony. The station was a success in its first season.

3. Wearing the Vignelli subway map
Something Vignelli seems to make the Top Ten every year, and the 2009 entry is a post I wrote about a dress for sale that featured the Vignelli map. The item is now unavailable, but it cost $249 at the time. Any subway buff worth their stripes would now own this one. I have yet to see anyone wear it though.

4. Foreshadowing a Second Ave. demise
As the MTA’s fiscal crisis robbed the agency of its operating budget, I wondered if the eventual lack of investment in transit would lead to the end of the Second Ave. subway work as well. For now, Phase I construction seems safe, but anything beyond that is a crap shoot.

5. Mythbusting the MTA fare hike
Friend-of-SAS and On Transport writer Chris O’Leary guest posted his FAQ about the fare hike. As the MTA has descended into fiscal chaos, misinformation about the authority reigns supreme, and few news agencies are willing to set the record straight. His post is as relevant today as it was in March.

6. Inside the Bleecker/Broadway-Lafayette Construction
In November 2011, Transit will finish up the project designed to connect the uptown 6 platform to the rest of the Bleecker St./Broadway-Lafayette station. In the meantime, I explore the ongoing work and what it means for commuters who use the 6 and the B/D/F/V stop in the area.

7. When it was a train: the H
Every now and then, some train’s rollsign is set to the wrong line, and New Yorkers wonder what that relic of another era was. We’ve seen a 13 train on the 1 line, and for the this post, we explored what the H — the old designation for the Rockaway Shuttle — was doing on an A train.

8. At 7 extension groundbreaking, Bloomberg slams SAS
As the MTA began to prepare for the TBM drops at the 7 line extension, Mayor Bloomberg took the time to criticize the Second Ave. Subway. He claimed that the new, badly needed line on the Upper East Side was destroying business but declined to mention why investing $2.1 billion into the 7 line expansion was a good idea.

9. Nostalgia Train to run December Sundays
Everyone loves the Nostalgia Train, and it ran this year in Sundays in December. Transit continued this festive holiday tradition despite a mid-month snow storm that shelved the old vintage cars for a weekend.

10. To save money, MTA may axe student MetroCards
We first heard of the MTA’s plan to save $170 million through student MetroCard cuts a few weeks ago. Although students are protesting the cuts and politicians do not look favorably upon them, no one has offered up a reason why the MTA should foot the bill for student transit costs.

* * *

And that’s the year that was in Second Ave. Sagas. I’ll be back tomorrow with the weekend service advisories. Remember: Transit running extra service after the ball drops tonight, but trains run on a Sunday schedule on New Years day. Have a safe and happy New Year.

December 31, 2009 3 comments

Buses

Transit breaks up the B61

by Benjamin Kabak December 30, 2009

written by Benjamin Kabak on December 30, 2009

On Sunday, the western parts of Brooklyn will celebrate 2010 by getting a new bus route. Technically, it’s the break up of the old B61 into the B61 and B62, and while some travelers will have to make a new transfer, others will find a slow and crowded route faster and less packed.

“After careful study, we are dividing one long, cumbersome route into two shorter routes which will be easier to supervise and more manageable to operate,” Transit President Thomas Prendergast said in a statement this afternoon. “We made this decision in response to concerns from customers and community organizations who have long complained about this route’s lack of reliability. Both of the new services are projected to be more reliable than the single route they are replacing.”

The change, originally announced in July, will see the 9.7-mile route linking Red Hook to Queens Plaza split in Downtown Brooklyn. The B61 will run from Ikea to Smith and Livingston Sts. in Downtown Brooklyn while the B62 will run from Boerum Place and Livingston St. to Queens Plaza via the Williamsburge Bridge Plaza Bus Terminal. Transit says the new route will allow a dispatcher to better monitor the popular route.

“We recognize that there are rapidly growing new residential areas along the Williamsburg waterfront,” added Prendergast. “The B62 will also provide convenient bus and subway connections for these customers to the Williamsburg Bridge Plaza transit hub which is served by six bus routes and the Marcy Avenue subway station.”

The B61 in its current incarnation serves approximately 18,500 riders on weekdays, 10,800 on Saturdays and 7400 on Sundays. The new routing should help the bus avoid the heavy congestion in Downtown Brooklyn that often slows the bus to a crawl.

December 30, 2009 6 comments

View from Underground

2009: The year the money vanished

by Benjamin Kabak December 30, 2009

written by Benjamin Kabak on December 30, 2009

For tomorrow, the final day of the year, I’ll present my personal Top Ten stories of 2009 as I did last year on New Year’s Eve. Today, let’s review the year that was in transit news.

For the MTA, 2009 was a struggle. The year started with fears of service cuts and fare hikes and, after a brief reprieve that wasn’t as substantial as promised, service cuts are back on the table. January started with the MTA’s attempting to come to grips with its fiscal crisis. The agency set March 25th as its drop-dead date for a bailout, and the Authority and TWU announced they would go to arbitration. As the agency struggled with its own economic reality, the opening for the new South Ferry station was delayed due to an engineering issue. The MTA received some good to end the month as the beleaguered Fulton St. Hub earned a stimulus-inspired reprieve.

In February, the MTA announced that ridership was at a 59-year high, but Bridge & Tunnel revenues were plummeting. The Tunnel Boring Machine began its work along 11th Ave. where the 7 line will soon run. Transit fixed a 70-year-old typo, and the month ended with news that the MTA’s deficit could reach $2 billion. Cuts were nearly inevitable.

March was a rough month for the MTA. First, Washington, DC, announced full underground cell coverage by 2012 while the MTA’s pilot program for the city is seemingly dead. Meanwhile, Albany continued to throw charges of two sets of books at the MTA. We first heard of the Gang of Four as the plan to institute bridge tolls on the East River Bridges began to die a slow death. The MTA Board approved its Doomsday budget by month’s end, and the Second Ave. Subway officially lost its third track.

For rolling stock buffs, April began with word of the R160 making its F train debut, and the MTA announced a May opening date for the new Yankee Stadium Metro-North stop. As Senate talks of a bailout plan began to breakdown, the MTA announced a summer rollout for the planned service cuts. I again wondered whether or not station agents actually did anything as Doomsday inched closer and closer. Along Second Ave., the new MTA timeline showed a mid 2016 debut for the project’s Phase I.

May brought a tentative agreement on the MTA’s funding package. It was an imperfect solution and one that cost then-CEO and Executive Director Elliot Sander his job. The Second Ave. Subway earned $79 million in stimulus funds, and we discussed the MTA’s pension problems. We also saw a 13 train on the 1 line.

In June, the fare went up as Richard Ravitch warned of a bleak 2010 for the MTA. Transit announced 4 express service in the Bronx, and the R40 slants made their final runs. The MTA sold the naming rights to the Atlantic Ave./Pacific St. station and sweetened Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards deal. Transit announced lower-than-expected ridership and fare revenue figures for 2009.

The summer saw a reprieve from the bad news. We explored funding transit through market-rate parking spots or a 36-percent fare hike. As the subways were accused of being very noisy, we went in depth on the Bleecker St./Broadway/Lafayette St. reconstruction efforts. Jay Walder earned an MTA appointment and pledged a fully-funded capital plan. The Feds and the MTA debated whether or not the SAS Phase I would open in 2017 or 2018, and the G train was extended to Church Avenue for the duration of the Culver Viaduct rehab.

August saw some good news. The MTA, despite immediate operations budget problems, unveiled a $28 billion capital plan to cover the next five years of transit expansion. On the heels of this announcement, we examined why transit matters in New York City. Bus arrival boards made a 34th St. debut. The MTA lost its TWU arbitration case and promised to appeal. Meanwhile, Transit dealt with the fallout from a major accident as the ceiling at 181st St. along the 1 line collapsed. For two weeks, Northern Manhattan commuters faced headaches and crowded trains.

September started with the Walder confirmation hearings and ended with TWU protests. In between, Jay Walder announced plans for a new fare payment system by 2014, and the Comptroller’s Office released a report critical of Transit’s station maintenance efforts. We explored sending the Second Ave. Subway on a spur through Alphabet City, and the MTA eliminated its station agent program.

Technology took center stage in October as the MTA announced plans for an A Division rollout of the train arrival boards set for a 2011 completion date. Carolyn Maloney graded the Second Ave. Subway, and NY1 axed Bobby Cuza’s transit beat. The F line was on the wrong end of a critical internal review, and we bemoaned the lack of Second Ave. express service.

Early November saw more personnel upheaval as Howard Roberts left Transit. A few days later, Tom Prendergast was named the new Transit head. The East Side Select Bus Service plans were nearly firmed up, and someone was murdered on a crowded D train early on Saturday morning. The initial 2010 budget featured no service hikes or fare cuts, but that utopian view would last just a few weeks. The Cortlandt St. stop on the BMT Broadway line reopened on Thanksgiving Eve.

Oh, December, what pain you have brought. Although we spent the early days of the month looking at the lack of megaprojects, the last few weeks have been all budget woes all the time. First, the state cut $140 million in appropriations for the MTA. Then, the state revealed a $200 million payroll tax shortfall. All of a sudden, Doomsday service cuts — but no fare hikes — were back on the table. Then, the MTA lost its arbitration appeal and unveiled a plan to cut free subway travel for students. We saw a plethora of solutions but no real answers for the MTA as the agency approved the service cuts two weeks ago.

And so that’s that for the year that was in transit. It has been a seemingly cyclical year. The agency has moved ahead along Second Ave. and 11th Ave. as its capital plans to expand the system are firmly in place. Yet, the operations budget has been attacked and trimmed so that it can barely support an adequate 24-hour transit system. Hopefully, as the political debate over student MetroCards and other service cuts heats up into 2010, we’ll have a better year upon which we can reflect 365 days from now.

December 30, 2009 7 comments

Buses Service Cuts

A transit system may sleep in a city that never does

by Benjamin Kabak December 29, 2009

written by Benjamin Kabak on December 29, 2009

New York isn’t the city that never sleeps because John Kander and Fred Ebb once proclaimed it to be in a song. Rather, the New York is the city that never sleeps because it’s transit system never sleeps. It might require more patience, but anyone interested in traveling from Inwood to the Rockaways can take the same one-swipe, one-seat ride at 3 a.m. as they can at 3 p.m. That is the beauty of a city with a nightlife as vibrant as New York’s and with an economy dependent upon 24-hour transit service.

Michael Grynbaum of The Times published a piece this afternoon on just that theme. He examines the planned late-night bus service cuts and finds a few hard-working New Yorkers who will be very inconvenienced by the dwindling off-hours service options. One woman works as a projectionist at the AMC Lincoln Center movie theater and must get home at 2 a.m. to the Upper East Side. In July, the MTA will cut three of the four buses that run through Central Park, and Elaine Beverly will find her options severely limited.

Grynbaum offers more details on the impending cuts:

And while not all of the cuts will be devastating, they will reshape the rhythms of nocturnal New York, when buses and subways are already scarce and routines forged over many years can be tough to shed. Transit officials studied ridership patterns and considered the proximity of other public transportation options when deciding which bus lines to reduce or erase…

Ms. Beverly will lose both the M96 and the M104, which runs along the backbone of the Upper West Side. One alternative, the M10 along Central Park West, will also vanish, even during the daylight hours, and late-night Upper East Side bus service will be trimmed, if not eliminated…

The M86 crosstown bus, with 8.8 million annual riders, is the most popular of the five Central Park routes; it will continue to run at all hours. But the M79, with 5.9 million riders — and the only bus that reaches East End Avenue — will not run after 1 a.m., nor will the M66. (The M72 crosstown route already stops service at midnight.)

The deaths of these lines will lead to problems for those who work at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell and Mount Sinai hospitals and longer commutes for every off-hours worker. “There are a lot of residents in the hospital who have shifts that end late at night,” Patrisha Woolard, a second-year resident at Mount Sinai, told The Times. “That would be horrible.”

The real statement though on the service cuts came from a bus driver. Vincent Wright drives the only bus that runs the M96 route late at night, and he understands how bus cuts will impact the heart of the city. “This is a 24-hour city, and you can’t have a 24-hour city without a 24-hour system,” he said. “The taxi business is probably going to love this; they’ll throw a big party if all the cuts happen.”

Some cabs may benefit, but many workers needing transit at 2:30 a.m. cannot afford expensive cabs. They need their one-swipe rides to places far from subway lines. They need their bus routes. They need their transit options, and soon the MTA may take it all away. The city that never sleeps may need to find a new way around town.

December 29, 2009 32 comments

MTA

NYCLU wins case to open Transit Adjudication hearings

by Benjamin Kabak December 29, 2009

written by Benjamin Kabak on December 29, 2009

As more late-night straphangers face tickets for not really violating the rules, the MTA will now have to open up the challenges to these summonses to the public. The New York Civil Liberties Union yesterday secured in a victory in federal court in its challenge to the MTA’s long-private Transit Adjudication Bureau. Facing a mandatory federal injunction, the MTA will now have to open its adjudication hearings to the public.

For much of the last thirty years, the MTA has handled enforcement of its rules through the New York Police Department. The NYPD officers who make up the Transit Bureau are tasked with enforcing the MTA’s Rules of Conduct. The penalty for violating a rule is a summons, and those who plead guilty to their summonses get their day in front of the TAB.

The historical problem with the TAB has been its closed nature. Today, after the federal ruling, MTA officials defended the practice of allowing those charged with a violation to determine the public nature of the hearing. “The hearings were never quote-unquote closed; people were just given the right to privacy,” Paul J. Fleuranges, Transit spokesperson, said. “We’ve let the respondent decide whether or not they want to allow anybody inside the hearing with them.”

The problem though with this policy is that it has led to a lack of transparency and precedent. Those charged with a Rules violation have little idea how to defend themselves and what evidence is admissible in a hearing. That changed yesterday as District Judge Richard Sullivan noted how these hearings are simply trials in sheep’s clothing. “In light of these undisputed facts, the Court finds that TAB Hearings ‘walk, talk, and squawk’ like a trial,” he wrote in his decision (PDF), “and as such, the same ‘logic’ that would favor the right of access in the context of a formally styled criminal or civil proceeding applies in equal force in the context of a TAB Hearing, however labeled.”

What then does this mean for the public? In a statement on its website, the NYCLU explains:

Each year, the New York City Transit Adjudication Bureau (TAB) holds more than 20,000 hearings to determine the guilt or innocence of alleged violators of the New York City Transit Authority’s rules of conduct. The hearings are closed to the public unless an accused person consents to an observer’s presence. The NYCLU argued that this practice shrouds the hearings in secrecy, depriving the public of information about the fairness of the hearing process and accused transit riders of an understanding of the adjudication process, and concealing important public information concerning police activity in the public transit system…

“This ruling unlocks the doors that hid from public view tens of thousands of hearings each year,” said Christopher Dunn, NYCLU associate legal director and lead counsel in the case. “Moving forward, the NYCLU will monitor these hearings so we can make sure they are conducted fairly and so we track NYPD enforcement activity in the transit system.”

According to the NYCLU, this probably won’t be the last we hear of this TAB hearings. The NYPD, they say, has issued “up to 171,000 citations annually” for Rules violations, and the TAB upholds more than 83 percent of the challenges to these citations. Furthermore, the NYCLU says that 88 percent of those subjected to police steps over the last five years are black of Latino. Justice underground seems to operate on its own terms.

Right now, then, the MTA’s TAB hearings will become open affairs with everyone’s sins on display. Supposedly, the TAB hearings are fair and afford respondents the same rights a trial. Thorough Google searches question that claim. Meanwhile, the NYCLU will keep a close eye on these cases, and as the cops ramp up enforcement of minor offenses, more riders should turn to these newly-opened TAB hearings to clear their good names.

Disclosure: A few NYU Law students helped the NYCLU argue this case, and I am an NYU Law student as well. I do not, however, know the students who argued the case or had anything to do with it.

December 29, 2009 5 comments

MetroCard

Decade Retrospective: Subway fare increases

by Benjamin Kabak December 28, 2009

written by Benjamin Kabak on December 28, 2009

Over at amNew York today, Heather Haddon takes a look back at the decade that was in subway news. She hits on all the big stories from the debut of the V line in 2001 to the major ongoing construction projects along Second Ave. and the 7 line to the 9/11 impact on the subways to the transit strike and the MTA’s economic woes. Her number one story is of course the numerous fare hikes we’ve lived through this decade.

She writes:

The MTA’s mountain of debt finally caught up with it this decade. As new funding fell through in 2000 and revenue declined in the later part of the 2000’s, the agency turned to straphangers to bear part of the burden with four fare hikes, including back-to-back increases in 2008 and 2009. “The system is always starved for money. That’s not the right way to run a transit system,” said MTA board member Andrew Albert.

NYC Transit riders now pick up the tab for 43 percent of operating expenses, the second highest rate in the nation. Fares will increase again in 2011 and 2013.

The recent fare hikes are fresh in our minds, and as the MTA struggles to close a gap, the specter of future hikes loom. Even without the upcoming 2011 hike, the fares could become the latest casualty in the MTA’s fiscal crisis. But just how far have they come since January 1, 2000 when the decade dawned? Take a look:

Dates	Base	Discount	30-Day	14-Day	7-Day	1-Day
1/1/00-5/3/03	$1.50	10% min. $15	$63.00	NA	$17.00	$4.00
5/3/03-2/21/05	$2.00	20% min. $10	$70.00	NA	$17.00	$4.00
2/22/05-3/1/08	$2.00	20% min. $10	$76.00	NA	$24.00	$7.00
3/2/08-6/27/09	$2.00	15% min. $7	$81.00	$47.00	$25.00	$7.50
6/28/09-??	$2.25	15% min. $8	$89.00	$51.50	$27.00	$8.25

What is notable about these fare increases is how the Unlimited Ride cards have far outstripped inflation. The 30-Day Unlimited card cost $63 in 2000; that’s the equivalent of $79 today. The $4 Fun Pass, a good deal in 2000 but nearly useless today, would cost just $5 now if the fares were adjusted only for inflation. Even the base fare — $1.50 in 2000 — would be just $1.88 if the MTA adjusted fares to count for inflation.

In the end, we know that the MTA has few choices when it comes to raising revenue. The authority can cut services or they can raise the fares. For the last ten years, the agency has avoided service cuts while boosting fares by around 40-55 percent. With the current service cuts threatening to slice and dice our transit network, we may be telling a different tale in ten years. Personally, I’d take the fare hikes over service cuts in any decade.

December 28, 2009 15 comments

MTA Absurdity

When the cops know only some of the rules

by Benjamin Kabak December 28, 2009

written by Benjamin Kabak on December 28, 2009

The cops who patrol the subways have been busy these days — or should I say these nights? They haven’t been busy stopping quality-of-life crimes that happen during the crowded rush hour commutes. Rather, they have been busy ticketing passengers late at night for not actually violating MTA regulations and subway rules.

The Post’s Tom Namako and Kirsten Fleming have highlighted the NYPD’s recent late-night ticketing blitz focusing on straphangers who take up more than one seat. It’s an outrageous tale, but it doesn’t fully connect the dots. The cops are giving out tickets for offenses that just aren’t offensive.

The two reporters tracked down two recent victims of the NYPD’s ticketing efforts. Josh Stevens, a student at FIT who was ticketed on back-to-back nights in November, says on the first night, he was stretched out on two seats and on the second, took up two seats when he crossed his legs. The NYPD officer who issued the summons said the increased enforcement was due to a quota.

“After the second time, I asked the officer, ‘Really, what’s going on? Why is this happening?’ ” Stevens said to Namako and Fleming. “And he told me, ‘Recently we’ve been told to write tickets instead of give warnings for this type of thing.’ He said they need to hit quotas.”

Andres Azamora was summonsed for having his legs splayed out in front of him — at 2:30 a.m. on an empty train. “There was no one else in the subway with me,” he said. “They just want to make money.”

Writes Namako and Felming, “MTA rules — which are enforced by the NYPD’s Transit division — say a passenger may not ‘occupy more than one seat’ or ‘place his or her foot on a seat.'” That’s not all these rules say. In fact, while this story makes the NYPD look petty, the real problem though is how the NYPD is blatantly flouting the MTA’s own Rules and Regulations.

Section 1050.7 of the MTA’s Rules of Conduct concern disorderly conduct, and section j involves passengers and the seats to which they are entitled. A passenger shall not “(1) occupy more than one seat on a station, platform or conveyance when to do so would interfere or tend to interfere with the operation of the Authority’s transit system or the comfort of other passengers;” and may not “(2) place his or her foot on a seat on a station, platform or conveyance.”

As the rule makes clear, a foot on a seat is an automatic offense, but passengers may occupy more than one seat if they are not interfering with the comfort of other passengers and the operations of the subway. If Alzamora and Stevens are telling the truth, the cops are ignoring the rules. They’re writing tickets for actions that aren’t violations.

So far this year, police have issued 784 summonses, and that number far surpasses 2008’s 760. Even though the NYPD’s Transit division isn’t run by the MTA, the authority will look guilty by association and will have to deal with another blow to its beleaguered public image. It’s time to reign in this irresponsible behavior. Cops should know the rules, and anyone who receives a ticket for stretching on an empty train at 2:30 a.m. should fight that ticket as hard as they can.

Why are NYPD officers targeting late-night victimless offenses when mid-day harassment and groping incidents go ignored if not to meet a quota? Plenty of people interfere with passenger comfort and space by spreading out when the trains are full. Late-night enforcement though catches people who aren’t violating the MTA’s regulations. If only the police were this vigilant during the day, the ride would be nicer for all.

December 28, 2009 28 comments

Service Advisories

Sunday service on Christmas and the weekend changes

by Benjamin Kabak December 25, 2009

written by Benjamin Kabak on December 25, 2009

It’s Christmas time in the city, and the Big Apple will slow down for a day. Today — Friday — sees the trains run on a Sunday schedule. The rest of the weekend is pretty light. With so many tourists in town and workers at home for the holidays, the MTA isn’t running too many diversions this weekend. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Remember: These weekend service changes come to me from the MTA and are subject to change without notice. Check signs in your local station and listen for on-board announcements for up-to-the minute changes.

From 6:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, December 27, there are no 5 trains running between 149th Street-Grand Concourse and East 180th Street due to rail repairs between 149th Street and Jackson Avenue. Customers should use the 2 train for service to affected stations.

From 4:00 a.m. Saturday, December 26 to 10:00 p.m. Sunday, December 27, Manhattan-bound 7 trains skip 111th, 103rd, 90th, and 82nd Streets due to track panel installation.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, December 26 to 5:00 a.m. Monday, December 28, uptown-bound A trains skip 135th, 155th and 163rd Streets due to a track chip-out at 163rd Street.

From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday December 26 and Sunday, December 27, uptown-bound C trains skip 135th, 155th and 163rd Streets due to a track chip-out at 163rd Street.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, December 26 to 5:00 a.m. Monday, December 28, uptown-bound D trains run local from 125th Street to 145th Street due to a track chip-out at 163rd Street (the D replaces the C at 135th Street.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, December 26 to 5:00 a.m. Monday, December 28, uptown-bound D trains run local from 59th Street-Columbus Circle to 125th Street due to track work at 110th Street.

From 12:01 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Sunday, December 27, Brooklyn-bound F trains skip 23rd and 14th Streets due to track cleaning.

From 12:01 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Saturday, December 26 and Sunday, December 27, uptown-bound Q trains run local from Canal Street to 34th Street-Herald Square due to track work prep at 14th Street-Union Square.

December 25, 2009 6 comments

MTA Technology

Transit debuts countdown clocks along the 6 line

by Benjamin Kabak December 24, 2009

written by Benjamin Kabak on December 24, 2009

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Electronic timers at E. 143rd St. tell straphangers when the next 6 train will arrive. (Photo courtesy of New York City Transit)

Around the world, subway systems these days come with countdown timers that tell impatient passengers when the next trains will come. One line in New York — the L — has enjoyed this luxury for the last few years, and early this fall, the MTA announced plans to introduce countdown clocks to the IRT lines by mid-2011. Currently, the signs are in place, but the agency is at work updating signaling technology to allow for properly function clocks.

This week, Transit took a big step forward with this project as the Public Address Customer Information Screen (PA/CIS) signs went live in five stations in the Bronx along the 6 line. Riders at the Brook Ave., Cypress Ave., E.143rd St.-St. Mary’s St., E. 149th St. and Longwood Ave. stations will now enjoy these signs both on the platforms and at station entrances in front of the fare gates. This latter location marks an improvement over the implementation on the L line where passengers must arrive down on the platforms in order to find out when the next train is due to arrive.

“Based on information provided by the subway’s electronic monitoring system, these signs are extremely flexible and customer friendly,” NYC Transit President Thomas F. Prendergast said in a statement. “Our customers have long been accustomed to having to guess when the next train will arrive and, of course, we are well aware of the complaints about poor quality public address systems in the subway. With this system we are taking a quantum leap forward in customer communications and the information we are offering.”

For a system that has struggled to bring new technologies that enhance the ridership experiences online, these signs are a bit step in the right direction. Prendergast has recently spoke of speeding up the technology process at Transit, and although he is riding the coattails of efforts in place long before he arrived at Transit, getting the PA/CIS system up and running would be a great step indeed.

December 24, 2009 19 comments

Asides New York City Transit

Prendergast pledges cleaner stations

by Benjamin Kabak December 24, 2009

written by Benjamin Kabak on December 24, 2009

Every day, I ride the B from 7th Ave. in Brooklyn into Manhattan. Generally, I need the back of the train, and for the last few days, I’ve walked past a rotting apple core perched atop a utility box at the back of the station. The nearest garbage can is the equivalent of a city block and a half away, and the tail end of the station often fills up with discarded water bottles, coffee cups and candy wrappers. It is your typical New York City subway platform.

As veteran subway riders know, New York’s system is not known for its cleanliness. In DC, cops ticket those who eat on the Metro, and the London Tubes shut down each night so that workers can give the system a thorough scrubbing. Here, though, a dearth of garbage cans, 105 years of grime and too few cleaning crews have left the system a mess. If new Transit president Thomas Prendergast can have his way, the subways may look a little cleaner soon. At a forum last week, Prendergast spoke about his desires to clean up the subway system. He wants to consolidate cleaning oversight and improve upon the reach of the MTA’s station overhaul campaign.

Of course, cleanliness starts with the riders. If people continue to discard their trash on the platforms and not in garbage cans, the stations will never be that clean. Maybe we need some DC-style, heavy-handed anti-littering programs. It would, after all, make the trains nice for all of us.

December 24, 2009 10 comments

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