Archive for January, 2010
Jan
06
Another day, another know-nothing politician: Peter Vallone, Jr.
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City Council member Peter Vallone, Jr. (D) carries with him a familial legacy of New York politics. His grandfather was a judge in the Queens County Civil Court, and his father was the city’s first City Council speaker and a long-time representative from Astoria. When Senior stepped down in 2001, Junior took up the Vallone City Council seat mantle.
Yesterday, Peter Vallone, Jr. joined the long line of New York politicians who proved they know little to nothing about how the MTA works and how the city’s relationship with the transit agency is structured. For Vallone, ignorance of transit issues is nothing new. He opposed congestion pricing despite representing a transit-dependent district. In Astoria, according to a report from NYU’s Furman Center, 67 percent of all residents rely on public transit, and the 2000 Census found that just 53.2 percent of those who live in Vallone’s district don’t even own cars.
So what does Vallone have to say about the MTA? Lots! And none of it makes much sense. Daniel Edward Rosen of the Daily News had the report:
Vallone assembled a rally outside the Ditmars Blvd. station to slam the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for its proposed cuts, deemed necessary to plug a $400 million budget shortfall. “A lot of people think that the city officials have control over this, but we don’t,” said Vallone (D-Astoria). “What I can do is speak out for my district, and that’s what I will continue to do.”
Protesters held up signs that read “Save Our Subways” while Vallone chided the MTA for granting an 11.3% raise to its workers over three years. “You can’t give raises and then cut services. It’s Business 101, and they failed it,” said Vallone.
Chris O’Leary at On Transport has the comprehensive takedown. First, O’Leary notes that “Vallone failed Labor Relations 101.” As we know, the MTA and TWU went to binding arbitration over the new labor contract, and when the arbitration panel sided with the TWU, the MTA appealed. Ultimately, the agency lost the appeal, but Vallone is content to ignore that reality.
In truth, the MTA would rather not pay the raises and doing so will impact the bottom line over the next three years. But it is simply incorrect to say that the agency is giving out raises. Going to arbitration was a foolish move, but the MTA is legally obligated to follow the arbitration award now that it’s been judicially affirmed.
But the real problem with Vallone’s comments come in his ludicrous claim that city officials “don’t” “have control over this.” O’Leary highlights and disputes this claim by a City Council member: “Vallone seems to miss the fact that the city controls a portion of the funding provided to the MTA. Coincidentally, the city’s $159 million tithe for transit operations has been virtually unchanged since the mid-90s. If the services provided to the MTA are so important to his district, why isn’t Vallone suggesting that the city step up their funding of the MTA? That’s certainly within his control.”
Earlier this week, I took to task Assembly rep Aileen Gunther for her spurious claims about MTA financing and East River Bridge Tolls. Today, I will point my finger at Peter Vallone, Jr. as the next in a long line of politicians distorting or simply ignorant of the truth to make a populist anti-MTA point. It’s far easier to blame someone else for systemic funding problems than it is to find the political will and fiscal capital to improve the system.
Jan
06
A terminal opens in Brooklyn, over two years late
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The new LIRR terminal at Flatbush and Atlantic Aves. is now open for business. (Photo courtesy of New York City Transit)
In 2004, the glaringly suburban and sterile Atlantic Terminal Mall complex opened as the first part of Bruce Ratner’s plan to take over a little corner of Brooklyn that doesn’t really want him there. Yesterday, after $108 million and over 30 months past due, the LIRR’s new Atlantic Terminal Pavilion finally opened.
The new building, designed by John di Domenico, is one of soaring ceiling and natural light that replaces construction tunnels and, before that, a rundown terminal. Sitting atop 10 subway lines and a busy LIRR hub, the new three-story structure is indeed a welcome improvement. According to the LIRR, the building was made of limestone, granite and glass, and its soaring atrium “allows natural light to reach the below ground LIRR concourse and subway station.” The building also features a new ticket office, public bathrooms and a new waiting area.
Efforts to rebuild and replace the Atlantic Terminal have a rather tortured history. The original station, built in 1907, was torn down in 1988, and the area has been in a state of flux since then. (For views of the old terminal, click here and here. John di Demonico’s design was chosen 13 years ago and construction began, with a price tag of $82 million, in 2002.
A.G. Sulzberger of The Times had more:
The completion of the $108 million update to the transportation hub — which has been called “Brooklyn’s Grand Central Terminal” for its approximately 25,500 Long Island Rail Road passengers and 31,650 subway riders each day — coincides with major redevelopment efforts in the neighborhood, including a new mall directly above the station and a proposed $1 billion basketball arena just blocks away.
Jay H. Walder, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, described the improved Atlantic Terminal as “a place, simply put, that you’d want to take a subway from or to.”
The semicircular outside walls and ceiling of the three-story pavilion are paneled with glass, allowing light to flood through the half-moon shaped atrium — replete with an artistic interpretation of a craggy bluff — and down a granite staircase to the remodeled limestone-clad platform level below. The architect, John di Domenico, said the design remained essentially unchanged in the thirteen years since it was chosen.
While many — from commuters passing through to Borough President Marty Markowitz — praised the new structure, others are dismayed with the anti-terrorist designs seemingly thrown in with little regard for the building. The Brooklyn Paper slames the coffin-like bollards that mar the sidewalk in front of the pavilion’s entrances. Gersh Kuntzman calls the building, airy on the inside, a “bunker” outside, and other architects agree.
“Obviously, the original design did not consider a terrorist attack,” Hayes Slade said. “In fact, the entryway presents a particularly open face to the street, which is aimed at transparency and access. Our society is at an odd transitional moment regarding how we deal with considerations of potential terrorism versus safety, mobility, openness.”
After the jump, a video tour of the Atlantic Terminal Pavilion, via the LIRR’s YouTube account. Read More→
Jan
06
Amidst turmoil, MTA CFO Dellaverson calls it a career
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Gary Dellaverson, then-director of labor relations for the MTA, speaks to reporters during a press conference in New York, Sunday, Dec. 18, 2005. (AP Photo/Ed Betz)
As the MTA struggles to close an operating deficit of approximately $300 million and reformulated its recently rejected five-year capital plan, the agency will be doing so without its long-term CFO. After 19 years at the MTA and the last three as the agency’s chief financial officer, Gary Dellaverson has retired.
At first blush, the timing of this announcements — noted today in a bond buyer’s trade — would raise an eyebrow or two. The MTA is under fire on all fronts for its financial woes. New Yorkers are irate over threatened cuts to student MetroCard programs, late-night bus routes and off-peak services, and the agency must overcome a shortfall in the revenue projected by the state and collected from the payroll tax. Meanwhile, the Governor has just vetoed the agency’s five-year $28.8 billion capital spending plan due to a funding gap of nearly $10 billion. The money just isn’t there.
Yet, Dellaverson’s departure, definitely ill-timed, was a long time coming. The 56-year-old MTA vet had planned to step down from his post in September, but incoming MTA CEO and Chairman Jay Walder asked him to assist his transition with the understanding that Dellaverson would retire at the end of the year. For now, David Moretti, an executive vice president at MTA Bridges & Tunnel, will assume the job on an interim basis.
As Dellaverson departs, he leaves a very tortured legacy though that is no fault of his. After the MTA enjoyed years of healthy financial outlooks and surplus budgets, Dellaverson became CFO in 2007 after serving as the lead point man for the agency’s labor relations. Since 2007, though, it has been one disaster after another. First, the economy and the real estate taxes upon which the MTA so heavily depends went south. Then, after much wrangling, Albany passed a funding package but did not deliver the money promised to the MTA. Thus, the agency is left with a yawning deficit and a hazy financial outlook.
For his part, Dellaverson did his best to bring accountability and transparency to the MTA’s finances. Living in the legacy of the false charges of two sets of books levied at the MTA, Dellaverson was more than willing to open the books at MTA Board meetings and went in depth in his financial presentations. Those available here on the MTA’s website are a testament to an agency committed to better fiscal transparency.
In the end, though, he leaves the MTA at an uncertain time. Walder has promised to overhaul the agency, and cost overruns plague many of the authority’s big-ticket projects. Meanwhile, the dueling deficits in both the capital and operating budgets remain to be filled. For now, Moretti has his work cut out for him, and whoever is the next CFO may be inheriting a fraught position on a sinking ship.
Jan
05
MTA Board short six as state forgets to renew legislation
Posted by: | CommentsChalk another one up to the ineptitude on display in Albany. The state legislature has forgotten to renew legislation that calls for six non-voting rider and union representatives on the MTA Board. As Pete Donohue reports today, the Board lost these six key members when the legislature expired at the end of 2009, and those in the Senate have shown no signs of renewing it. Those now off the board include NYC Transit Riders Council rep Andrew Albert, an outspoken rider advocate and one of the better transit experts on the board. James Blair (Metro-North riders), Norman Brown (Metro-North union), Ira Greenberg (LIRR riders), Vincent Tessitore, Jr. (United Transportation union) and Ed Watt (TWU) lost their seats as well.
“It really hurts the riders and the workers,” Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign said to The Chief-Leader. “Here was a direct pipeline to the big cheeses about what riders and workers were thinking, and that is going to be lost for what I hope will be a very brief period.”
As with most of Albany’s recent transit policies, for the state to allow these key appointments to expire at a time of fiscal crisis for the MTA is simply irresponsible. To make matters worse, four State Senators earlier this year sponsored S4480, a bill to extend the the term until 2012. The bill was committed to the Rules Committee in July and has languished there ever since. It’s just your typical Albany support for the MTA.
Jan
05
Who will succeed Liu as Council Transportation Committee head?
Posted by: | CommentsFor the last eight years, Comptroller John Liu had served in the City Council as a bumbling fool the head of the Transportation Committee. Tasked with city oversight of the MTA, the Transportation Committee could, in the right hands, be a vehicle for positive change, and as Cap’n Transit explored in depth yesterday, transit advocates should rally around a pro-transit candidate. The Cap’n ran down the list of potential contenders and noted that friend-of-cars James Vacca (D. Bronx) — a leading supporter of that five-minute parking grace period bill — seems to be the leading favorite for the seat. Vacca comes from a car-heavy district and has shown little love for mass transit. The Cap’n notes that Dan Garodnick is also interested in the spot and would be a better, transit-friendly choice.
This morning, Bob Kapstatter reported that the “powers that be” are pushing for Vacca to assume the head of the transportation committee. An appointment would give Vacca a launching point for a higher office while boosting the power of the Bronx delegations. That is not, however, a good reason to give away an important chair at a vital time in the city’s transit history. Time is of the essence, and the best way to avoid a Vacca-inspired committee is by telling Christine Quinn to appoint someone else.
Jan
05
The sounds of anything but silence
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In 2005, iPod ads were everyone in the subway. Today, bleeding headphones have become ubiquitous. (Photo by flickr user t_a_i_s)
I found myself on Monday evening awaiting a downtown 4 train on the IRT platform at Union Square. As the downtown 6 pulled out and an express idled on the uptown tracks, it was loud. The automated PA voice kept warning me to stand back from the moving platform; the downtown trains screeched around the sharp curve into the station; and the heated system on the idling uptown express hummed.
It is little wonder then that the noisiest spot in New York City is at a subway station. According to a recent study by Hear the World, the noisiest spot in the city with trains roaring by is the B/D/F/V stop at 42nd St./Bryant Park. The noise levels reach 93 decibels at the subway system’s 18th busiest stop.
According to hearing experts, that level of screech is enough to cause permanent hearing damage, and Craig Kasper, a Columbia doctor who works with Hear the World, urged people to be mindful of the noise. “Once you reach anything over 85 decibels, you are really at risk,” he said. “If you hear a loud noise, just put fingers in your ears.”
Outside of Bryant Park, subways in general were the fourth most noisiest part of New York City, behind the West Side Highway and the bus lanes on 42nd St. east of Fifth Ave. A typical subway ride exposes a straphanger to 80 decibels of sound. Although the new R160s are designed to reduce noise levels both as trains ride the rails and as they brake, there’s only so much engineering can accomplish, and sounds are aplenty underground.
Interestingly, this survey seems to reduce the noise levels found this summer when one group warned of 100+ decibel exposure at some subway stations. Those built around curves are the loudest as trains make more noises braking through twisted sections of track. If only we could go back in time to fix those errors of original engineering over 100 years ago.
Noise on the subways, meanwhile, is not a new phenomenon. As Bill Bahng Boyer, one of my guest columnists over the summer, explained in August, New Yorkers have been complaining about the noise since October 29, 1904, one day after the IRT opened for business. What is a new problem however is headphone bleed. Have you tried to take a relatively silent ride lately? It’s impossible.
Once upon a time, boom boxes were the scourge of New York City subway riders. Those with their noises in magazines would dread the arrival of a gang of youths with a loud radio on for all to hear. It was the ultimate in obtrusive noise pollution, and eventually the combination of a crackdown and the onset of personal audio devices saw boom boxes become a relic of another era.
Today, though, we are subjected to subpar headphone earbuds. Brought about by the iPod revolution, nearly everyone is now satisfied with tinny headphones that leak sound all over the place. Some riders listen at volumes that are death to the ears, and nothing is worse than hearing the strains of something from 15 away in a a half-empty subway cars. Others simply don’t know how bad their headphones are. One day, I imagine, New York City may see an increase in the number of people suffering hearing damage, and the iPod earbuds will be to blame.
For now, we should be mindful of the noise. Obviously, the subways are noisy, and those sounds can impact our life. We tend to tune out the sounds of metal-on-metal, the sounds of air conditioner drones, the screech of brakes. But it’s there, hurting our ears decibel after decibel.
Jan
04
Assembly rep re-writes history to bash MTA
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Let me take a minute to introduce you to Aileen Gunther. Ms. Gunther, pictured at right, is the Democratic Assembly representative from the 98th District. She represents parts of Orange and Sullivan Counties, and based on her biography sounds neither clueless nor stupid.
Gunther has served in the Assembly since a special election delivered her to Albany in 2003. She has amassed a generally left-of-center voting record. She has won reelection every time she was up for it and is probably well-respected in her district — or at least as well-respected as any no-name Assembly representative can be. How then can she be so utterly clueless and in fact reckless when it comes to taking about transit policy in New York City?
In a piece over the holidays in the Times Herald-Record, Gunther opined on the MTA’s financial picture. She wrote:
Jay Walder, the MTA chief, who has been blaming the Legislature for the MTA’s problems, has an excessive — and baseless — $350,000 salary. In addition, the MTA failed to put tolls on the New York City bridges, which would have generated vital revenue for the state. It is that kind of frivolous spending and financial mismanagement that has put the MTA in this awful predicament — not the Legislature.
Where to begin? Where to begin?
We’ll start with the claim — the laughable, ludicrous, downright stupid claim — that the MTA itself “failed to put tolls” on the city’s bridges. Perhaps Ms. Gunther missed the brouhaha last spring, but it is up to her august legislative body and her colleagues across the hall in the State Senate to approve bridge tolls for New York City. Lest we forget, five State Senators quashed the toll plan in March and proposed the current funding plans a week later. The MTA would gladly have accepted tolls but couldn’t because of Albany and not some “financial mismanagement” as Ms. Gunther would have you believe.
Now, what about Gunther’s claims of Jay Walder’s “excessive” and “baseless” salary? Well, Walder was a top executive in London and is now in charge of thousands of MTA workers. He’s earning a salary barely comparable to other transit executives who oversee smaller authorities, and as Chris O’Leary at On Transport pointed out, he is in line for a pay reduction due to the budget crisis.
In the end, this piece by Gunther is an irresponsible hack job. She’s not representing anyone to the best of her ability and is displaying an utter lack of knowledge about recent transit problems in the area. Yet, her piece goes unanswered by the MTA for days and festers in its ignorance online. As O’Leary asked at his site, where is the MTA’s P.R. department to combat these spurious articles? Where are the editors of The Times Herald-Record?
Jan
04
Transit begins bus partition trial program
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New plexiglass partitions will protect Bus Operators from out-of-control passengers. (Photo courtesy of New York City Transit)
When a New York City Transit bus driver was murdered by an irate passenger in Dec. 2008, the MTA promised a bus partition pilot program aimed at keeping drivers safer. Late last week, that pilot program debuted in Bus 5052 along the B46, the same route that played host to Edwin Thomas’ murder.
The partition is a step up in the world of bus driver safety but it is not without its problems. The divider is made of a piece of plexiglass one inch thick and with non-glare coating, and it nearly isolates the driver from his riders. It does not, however, fully enclose the driver. There is an opening at the top and side so that the driver can access the fare box.
“It’s difficult to come up with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to this simply because our Bus Operators aren’t one size,” Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges said. “Each has to position the wheel, seat, mirrors to their preference, and the same is true for something like a partition. They all have to be comfortable with the environment the partition creates as they drive. Our overriding goal here is to provide both a safe and comfortable environment for our Bus Operators.”
Right now, Transit plans to order 100 partitions for one model of the RTS buses similar to those in use along the B46, and according to the Daily News, that is so far the only model approved by the union. Transit and the TWU are working to develop partitions for other bus models as well.
It’s tough to speak out against bus partitions. After all, bus operators in 2008 reported over 235 assaults, and Thomas’ murder, the first of a bus driver since 1981, certainly highlighted the extremes of driver safety. Because cops do not often patrol buses, drivers are often left to fend for themselves. As long as the operators can still assist disabled riders and can still interact with passengers when they have to, Transit and the union should do all they can to ensure driver safety.
Jan
04
A transit wishlist for the new year
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As I wrapped up the Year That Was in Transit for 2009 late last week, the sheer amount of bad news stuck out the most. From January to December, from Transit to Capital Construction, from operating costs to project timelines, the MTA faced more bad news in a year than some agencies face in a decade.
We saw budgets shrivel and die. We saw service cuts threatened, a bad financial package approved, fares go up and more service cuts arrive on our laps as a New Year/holiday present. We saw the timeline for the Second Ave. Subway get delayed by two years (or more), and we saw the opening of the new South Ferry station delayed for months because of a one-inch engineering error. Despite peak ridership figures and great crime and safety numbers, 2009 was not a banner year for the MTA and mass transit in New York City.
As we arrive on the first business day of the New Year, then, I offer up a wishlist of sorts for transit in New York City for 2010. Some of these items will be easier to realize than others, but if all come to fruition, the beleaguered transportation network will be better off for it.
1. A true source of dedicated funding
Right now, this lead item is a no-brainer. The MTA has its financial back to the wall because the piecemeal funding package — one relying on taxi surcharges, payroll taxes and car registration fees — simply didn’t work, and it didn’t work for very obvious reasons. It didn’t work because payroll taxes are too heavily dependent on the economy. It didn’t work because fees and surcharges don’t drive people to transit. It didn’t work because, tautologically, it left the MTA $100-$200 million short of the money it was expected to deliver.
For 2010, the city and state have two choices: Either the MTA will cut services — including the Student MetroCards for which the MTA should not foot the bill — or the government can find a dedicated revenue source. And just what should that revenue source be? I believe it should be either congestion pricing or East River Bridge Tolls. These proposals will generate a set level of revenue for the MTA while also encouraging transit use among those who do not need to drive. It is a far more equitable way to fund the agency than the payroll tax is and also provides an environmental boost to a heavily polluted region.
Also on the table for 2010 will be a handful of far less likely proposals. The state could reenact the commuter tax. The city could restore its pre-Giuliani Era subsidies to the MTA. The agency could raise fares through the roof. Tolls or congestion pricing remain the better, if not the best, solution.
2. A better, more cohesive advocacy and public relations campaign by those who care
As I’ve written on more than one occasion, transit advocacy in the city is disjointed. The Straphangers Campaign advocates for riders while a few other smaller groups are pushing for region-wide transit solutions. No one is actively lobbying for transit funding, and no one is in front of the cameras pushing support for transit as the economic driver of the New York Metropolitan region.
For 2010, those of us who care about transit should work together to get out a better message. That message should focus on support for the MTA, and it should not focus around old wives’ tales about two sets of books or John Liu’s inability to understand basic economics. We should not allow State Senators to claim that few of their constituents take the train by choice when, in reality, the vast majority of those constituents don’t even own cars. We must stand up for transit funding, for transit expansion and for transit solutions. Right now, seven million New Yorkers ride the trains every day, and no group is really doing the job here.
3. Rapid technological innovation and adaptation
When Jay Walder assumed control of the MTA, he spoke at length about the need to bring technological innovation to the MTA. While train arrival boards will be activated along the A Division in early 2011 and the MetroCard may be replaced within a few years, Walder can push now for better and faster technological innovation. He can start by overhauling the MTA’s website so that it is suitable for 2010 and not 1999. The MTA is currently the largest agency without open data, and Walder could improve access for developers and the like by a simple stroke of the pen.
4. A solution to the chilly labor relations
As 2009 drew to a close, the new TWU leadership had no love lost for the MTA. The agency had just lost its appeal of the raises awarded via arbitration, and the union leadership was not happy about the legal battle. Over the next few years, the MTA’s pension and salary obligations to its workers will continue to rise as its financial picture worsens. To work through these fiscal problems, the MTA and TWU will have to set aside their differences and agree to at least talk. I don’t expect the TWU to set aside hard-fought raises or hard-earned pensions, but the MTA is in real danger of defaulting on its payments in a few years. Union leadership has to recognize this reality just as the MTA must work to avoid alienating its workers.
5. A fully-funded five-year capital plan
On a day when few were around to notice, Gov. David Paterson’s representative to the state’s Capital Review Board vetoed the MTA’s 2010-2014 capital plan. Due to a $28.8 billion funding hole, the CRB could not approve the new plan, and the MTA is left with just emergency rollover funds as work continues on the Second Ave. Subway and the East Side Access project. (The 7 Line funding from the City is safe.)
Early this year, the MTA must redraw its capital plan and present a proposal without a 35 percent funding hole in it to the CRB. To continue to meet service demands, the MTA must keep expanding and maintaining its current system, and to do that, it needs a capital plan in place. The Second Ave. Subway must night die; the state of good repair plans cannot die.
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In the end, this list is but a start for transit in 2010. With money tight across the board, it will be a rough ride for all, but in the end, we can’t simply give up on the MTA. The system might need some fixing, but it’s far too important to New York for it die the slow and painful death that we’re currently witnessing today.
Jan
01
Ushering in 2010 with some service changes
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Updated 3:15 p.m. (Saturday): Please note that Transit has canceled the work on the 7 line. The service changes below reflect that update.
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With the holiday season over and the New Year in the rear view window, the MTA has started to ramp up the work again. This weekend sees a full slate of service advisories with travel to and from Brooklyn on the IRT lines the hardest hit. The 2 and 3 aren’t running in between Chambers St. and Atlantic Ave., and even though the 4 and 5 are making stops in Brooklyn, the trains are running local one way only. Welcome to 2010.
Anyway, you know the drill. All the changes are below. Don’t forget to check out our map from Subway Weekender that shows just how the subway changes impact travel. Download this week’s version right here or by clicking on the image below. 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. The specific alerts follow.
From 11 p.m. Friday, January 1 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 4, 2 trains run local between 34th Street-Penn Station and South Ferry due to a track dig out at 50th Street, a cable pull at Nevins Street and track maintenance near Chambers Street and Park Place. Note: Late night, trains run local between 96th Street and South Ferry.
From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m., Saturday, January 2, Sunday, January 3 and Monday, January 4, Shuttle trains run between Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues due to a cable pull at Nevins Street and track maintenance near Chambers Street and Park Place. Note: Atlantic Avenue-bound shuttle trains skip Eastern Parkway, Grand Army Plaza, and Bergen Street.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 4, the 2 train runs between 241st Street and Chambers Street, then is rerouted to the 1 line to South Ferry due to a cable pull at Nevins Street and track maintenance near Chambers Street and Park Place. For service between Manhattan and Brooklyn, customers should take the 2 to the South Ferry 1 station; and use the free out-of-system transfer to the 4 or 5 at Bowling Green. Note: Days, 5 trains make all stops to Flatbush Avenue. Late nights, shuttle trains run between Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues.
From 11 p.m. Friday, January 1 to 7 a.m. Saturday, January 2; from 11 p.m. Saturday, January 2 to 8 a.m. Sunday, January 3 and from 11 p.m. Sunday, January 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 4, 3 trains run local between 96th Street and Times Square-42nd Street due to a track dig out at 50th Street. Note: 3 Trains are extended to/from 14th Street all weekend.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 4, there are no 3 trains between 14th Street and New Lots Avenue due to a cable pull at Nevins Street and track maintenance near Chambers Street and Park Place. For service between Manhattan and Brooklyn, customers should transfer between the 3 and the 2 at 14th Street, take the 2 to the South Ferry 1 station and use the free out-of-system transfer to the 4 at Bowling Green, making all stops to New Lots Avenue.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 4, Manhattan-bound 4 trains skip Eastern Parkway, Grand Army Plaza and Bergen Street due to a cable pull at Nevins Street and track maintenance near Chambers Street and Park Place.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 4, 4 trains are extended to/and from New Lots Avenue to replace the 3 in Brooklyn due to a cable pull at Nevins Street and track maintenance near Chambers Street and Park Place.
From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, January 2 and Sunday, January 3, Manhattan-bound 5 trains skip Eastern Parkway, Grand Army Plaza and Bergen Street due to a cable pull at Nevins Street and track maintenance near Chambers Street and Park Place.
From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, January 2 and Sunday, January 3, 5 trains are extended to/from and from Flatbush Avenue to replace the 2 in Brooklyn due to a cable pull at Nevins Street and track maintenance near Chambers Street and Park Place.
From 4:00 a.m. Saturday, January 2 to 10:00 p.m. Sunday, January 3, Manhattan-bound 7 trains skip 111th, 103rd, 90th, and 82nd Streets due to track panel installation.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, January 1 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 4, free shuttle buses replace A trains between Jay Street and Utica Avenue due to Jay Street station rehabilitation and construction of an underground connector.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 4, Brooklyn-bound A trains run local from 168th Street to Jay Street and from Utica Avenue to Euclid Avenue due to Jay Street station rehabilitation and construction of an underground connector.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 4, Manhattan-bound A trains run local from Euclid Avenue to Utica Avenue and from Jay Street to 125th Street, then express to 168th Street, where trains resume normal A service due to Jay Street station rehabilitation, construction of an underground connector and a concrete pour at 163rd Street.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 4, there are no C trains running due to Jay Street station rehabilitation and construction of an underground connector. Customers should take the A instead. Note: A trains run local with exceptions. Free shuttle buses replace A trains between Jay Street and Utica Avenue.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 2 to 5:00 a.m. Monday, January 4, uptown D trains run local from 125th Street to 145th Street due to a concrete pour at 163rd Street (the D replaces the C at 135th Street.)
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 2 to 5:00 a.m. Monday, January 4, uptown D trains run local from 59th Street-Columbus Circle to 125th Street due to track work at 110th Street.
From 12:15 a.m. Saturday, January 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 4, there are no G trains between Forest Hills-71st Avenue and Court Square due to track maintenance. Customer should take the E or R instead.
From 1:15 a.m. to 5 a.m. Saturday, January 2, J trains run in two sections due to track cleaning:
- Between Jamaica Center and Essex Street and
- Between Essex Street and Chambers Street
From 12:15 a.m. Saturday, January 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 4, Brooklyn-bound N trains run on the R from Canal Street to DeKalb Avenue due to track maintenance.
From 11 p.m. Friday, January 1 to 7 a.m. Saturday, January 2, from 11 p.m. Saturday, January 2 to 8 a.m. Sunday, January 3 and from 11 p.m. Sunday, January 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 4, uptown Q trains run local from Canal Street to 34th Street-Herald Square due to track work prep at 14th Street-Union Square.
From 12:15 a.m. Saturday, January 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 4, Brooklyn-bound Q trains run on the R from Canal Street to DeKalb Avenue due to due to track maintenance.
From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday, January 3, 36th Street-bound R shuttle trains run local in Brooklyn from 59th Street to 36th Street due to track cleaning. (The northbound R shuttle trains usually skip 53rd and 45th Street stations.)
