Archive for April, 2010
Apr
22
The MTA takes us inside the launch box
Posted by: | CommentsLast night, the cutterhead for the Second Ave. Subway tunnel boring machine arrived on site, and thanks to Ben Heckscher from The Launch Box, I was able to post a series of photos from the big moment. Just a few minutes ago, the MTA posted its official release on the symbolic arrival of the cutterhead, published the video, above, to its YouTube page and posted the images — many of which I’ve embedded in this post — to its Facebook page.
“The arrival this week of the TBM at Second Avenue is a clear indicator that the MTA is delivering on a major expansion project that will have a dramatic impact on Manhattan’s East Side easing overcrowding within our transit system and serving as an economic driver for the region as a whole,” MTA Capital Construction President Dr. Michael Horodniceanu said via the release.
When fully assembled, the TBM will 450 feet long, and the cutterhead will feature 44 rotation disks designed to cut through the Manhattan Schist. In May, the TBM will make its first of two trips through the rock, and when the boring is completed, two 7700 foot-long tunnels will be ready for further work.
In its release this afternoon, the MTA offered up some vital information about the Second Ave. Subway. When Phase I is completed, it will serve at least 213,000 riders per day who currently use other subway lines, buses taxis or private cars to get around down. Transit believes it will decrease crowding on the Lexington Ave. subways by as much as 13 percent or 23,500 fewer passengers per weekday. Those who live along the far East side will see travel times reduced by up to 10 minutes. The western-most of the two SAS tubes, says the MTA, will be the first mined by the TBM.
As this shot shows, the cutterhead is truly immense. It measures 22 feet across and is painted yellow in honor of the fact that these new tunnels will extend the Q train northward from 57th St. And now we wait the 6.5 years until the first phase of the Second Ave. Subway is ready for revenue service.
All images courtesy of the MTA. For more, check out this gallery.
Apr
22
Transit to host SI North Shore rail planning open house
Posted by: | CommentsThe borough of Staten Island and the MTA, as I reported last October, are interested in reactivating the North Shore Rail line in order to bring more transit capacity to the underserved island. To further this project, New York City Transit is hosting a planning alternatives open house this evening. According to a press release from the agency, the Alternatives Analysis Study process begins with the identification of a list of alternatives that will then be narrowed through a series of detailed cost, impact and ridership analyses. This phase is expected to last 12-14 months, and the MTA will then issue a report recommending the locally-preferred alternatives for further development.
The open house tonight runs from 7:15 to 9 p.m. at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center and will allow the public to comment on the various alternatives as well as the goals and objectives of the project. The alternatives, says Transit, include “heavy rail, such as the SIR; light rail, such as Hudson-Bergen Light Rail; and Bus Rapid Transit service, among others.” At some point, as the economy approves and demand dictates, Transit will improve its Staten Island offerings, and this planning meeting is a positive first step.
Apr
22
Metro-North’s bar car heading the way of the Dodo
Posted by: | CommentsOnce upon a time, commuter rail lines offered a “bar car” for weary commuters heading home after a long day at work. As seen these days in Mad Men, the bar car would fill up with those who just wanted a beer before returning to their suburban enclaves. Although Amtrak has kept their cafes in order, over the last few decades, Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road have slowly eliminated the bar cars from their trains. Instead, passengers brown-bag it at Penn Station or Grand Central, and the extra space provides for more seating on crowded trains.
Currently, the final routes that still have a bar car run on Metro-North into Connecticut, but those might be on their last legs. As Michael Grynbaum related earlier this week, when Metro-North introduces the M8s this year, the bar car will probably not be included. Due to monetary concerns, transit officials aren’t sure if these relics will be included in the new train sets. “A decision was made early on that more seats on the trains was our top priority and that bar cars — as popular as they are — could wait,” Judd Everhart, a Connecticut DOT spokesman said. “It was about that simple.”
While bar car nostalgia enthusiasts are dismayed by the news, most passengers Grynbaum spoke with didn’t seem to mind. They’d prefer the extra sitting anyway. Meanwhile, the bar cars turned a profit of $1.5 million last year, but I have to believe more seats would easily cover that deficit if the MTA and Connecticut’s DOT are to do away with them on the new M8s. The beer in the terminals will, after all, continue to flow as smoothly as ever.
Apr
22
SAS Update: The TBM cutterhead arrives
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Work crews prep the TBM cutterhead. (All photos via Ben Heckscher/The Launch Box)
Throughout the week, various parts of the tunnel boring machine that will soon start to dig out the Second Ave. Subway tunnel from 96th St. to 63rd St. have arrived at Second Ave. Last night, at approximately 9:30 p.m., the centerpiece arrived as the cutterhead, the part of the machine that will do the heavy lifting arrived.
For the project, this arrival was largely a symbolic one. After all, digging out the tunnels is relatively easy and inexpensive. Building out the stations and the infrastructure that supports the subway are the two expensive and time-consuming aspects of the project. Still, for a subway route with a such a long and tortured history, just the arrival of the TBM cutterhead is enough for a celebration.
A few weeks ago, I profiled the TBM the MTA will use underneath Second Ave. This particular machine is a 30-year-old veteran that most recently dug out the Fall River CSO in Massachusetts. It last churned beneath the streets of New York when it burrowed its way through the 63rd St. tunnel and has been reconditioned to be “like new.”
I couldn’t make it up to the Upper East Side last night for the drop, but Ben Heckscher from The Launch Box was on hand for the big moment. He published a comprehensive photo timeline with commentary. He notes that, as you can see in the photo at right, the cutterhead is missing the cutter disks. Those will be installed in the launch box. The cutterhead too has been painted yellow and marked with giant black Qs to demarcate how the TBM will be extending the Q train north from 57th St. underneath Second Ave. Despite the upcoming service changes, the MTA still intends for the Q to service Phases I and II of the Second Ave. Subway.
By 10 p.m., the cutterhead had been dropped below street level, and the crowds with their cameras dispersed for the night. The ceremony was over, and the hard work — assembling the TBM and starting the digging — will beg in earnest. One day, our subway line will arrive.
* * *
In other Second Ave. Subway news, the MTA this week released its latest quarterly update on the project. The full report — available as a PDF by clicking on the image at right — covers the last quarter of 2009, and as expected, the MTA still believes the Second Ave. Subway will be in revenue service by December 2016.
The most interesting slide from the report is the timeline on page 16. While some of the execution dates for the contracts have been pushed back, the authority doesn’t believe these delays will impact the overall completion of the project. In general, construction on the actual station structures at 96th, 86th and 72nd Sts. won’t commence until late 2011 at the earliest, and utility relocation and demolition continues apace.
The 63rd St. station, however, is due for more immediate upgrades. According to the MTA’s timeline, the design process wrapped up last week, and work on the station will begin this December. This will include the destruction of a temporary wall that seals off the now-unused tunnel that will one day provide a stop for the northbound Q trains and a transfer to the F. The unused portions of this station are visible on this track map.
Service on the Second Ave. Subway may still be over five years away, but it’s seemingly going to happen this time around. Can the fourth time be the charm?
Apr
21
Cutterhead Support arrives at the SAS launch box
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As the Second Ave. Subway tunnel boring machine is slowly being assembled in the project’s launch box, today’s photo — again courtesy of Ben Heckscher and The Launch Box — is of the Cutterhead Support. This piece will go in between the Main Beam and the Cutterhead. It arrived on site last night after crossing the George Washington Bridge at 8 p.m. and was lowered underground shortly before 11:30 p.m. According to my sources, the Cutterhead itself will be arriving tonight at around the same time, and although the weather isn’t the greatest, I’m sure the shutterbugs will be lining up for a chance to capture the moment on film.
For more from the delivery of the support piece, be sure to check out The Launch Box. I’ve embedded another great shot after the jump. Read More→
Apr
21
The MTA’s own green dividend
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As New York settles in to celebrate Earth Week, the buzzword of the week is, of course, “green,” and New York City’s transit options are taking center stage. We heard yesterday how the fact that New Yorkers drive much less than other Americans makes the citymore livable, environmentally friendly and economical and has lead to over $19 billion in auto-related savings. (The full report — called New York City’s Green Dividend — is available here as a PDF.) Today, the MTA gets in on the act.
According the MTA in conjunction with the Climate Registry and the American Public Transportation Authority, the city’s network of subways, buses and commuter rails helps New Yorkers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17.4 million metric tons. “We now know how much carbon MTA operations emit each day,” Ernest Tollerson, the authority’s director of policy and media relations, said. “But more importantly, we also know how much carbon is prevented from entering the atmosphere when 8.5 million people per day choose to ride the train or the bus instead of drive their cars.”
Based upon a report issued by the Climate Registry and methodology developed by the American Public Transportation Association, the MTA used a three-part test to evaluate the its carbon savings. The non-profit collaboration of states, provinces and territories takes into account, according to the MTA’s release “1) car trips avoided each time someone leaves his or her car at home and chooses to ride a train or bus; 2) congestion relief and therefore increased fuel efficiency of those cars that remain on the road; and 3) public transportation’s role in fostering compact land-use patterns that encourage walking and bicycling for some trips and shorter trips overall.”
Based upon these calculations, the MTA allows New Yorkers to avoid 8.24 units of carbon emissions for every unit the MTA emits via its operations. The numbers say New Yorkers avoid emitting 19.8 million metric tons of Carbon a year, and the MTA knows, via a study from the Climate Registry, it released 2.4 million metric tons of carbon annually for a net savings of 17.4 million metric tons.
“This is proof positive that New Yorkers are avoiding the release of a very large volume of greenhouse gas emissions by riding the region’s trains and buses,” APTA’s President William Millar said. “It demonstrates how important public transportation is in combating climate change and reducing carbon emissions. Clearly, it is one more important reason for everyone to support the expansion of public transportation services throughout the country.”
The MTA used these findings to argue for a share of carbon revenues in an emissions cap-and-trade system, — a goal of the authority since 2008 — and this report goes hand-in-hand with the city’s Green Dividend release. Without a vibrant and comprehensive public transit system, New York City would be a pollution-choked parking lot with congestion and unbreathable air (or, as I like to call it, Los Angeles). With the MTA, the city is greener, cheaper and less congested than nearly any other urban area in the country. If only Albany would recognize this reality.
Above: Emissions diagram courtesy of the MTA.
Apr
21
SAS eminent domain may torpedo an UES Fairway
Posted by: | CommentsBad things happen when the government gets between Manhattanites and their gourmet grocery stores, and the MTA is about to see, first hand, what happens during those battles. Last night, during a hearing on the MTA’s request to use eminent domain to take some properties it needs for Second Ave. Subway infrastructure, the news came out that a planned Fairway for 86th St. may be in jeopardy. According to Gabriela Resto-Montero of the news site DNAinfo, the MTA has requested some property that would “cut into a loading zone at the 240 East 86th Street location,” a spot Fairway has been eying for an Upper East Side store.
As Resto-Montero recounts, the MTA has proposed taking some of Fairway’s planned loading space and allocating it to other Second Ave. businesses that have suffered a loss in curbside access due to subway construction. Fairway, on the other hand, has requested an expanded loading zone and an exemption to delivery hours to compensate for their losses. “They don’t want to get into a situation where they can’t operate properly,” Richard Levin, the grocery store’s lawyer, said of Fairway last night. The grocery chain’s planned UES expansion may yet be another business casualty of the ongoing Second Ave. Subway construction.
Apr
21
A guerrilla art attack targeting subway etiquette
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Riding the subway is the most social of personal actions in the city. We try to pretend that millions of other people aren’t doing the same thing every day, and yet, packed subway cars and station platforms teeming with other straphangers are a testament to the fact that, while we want to spend our commutes alone, we simply cannot underground.
With so many other people around to provide a social check on behavior, I’m often astounded at how flat-out rude other subway riders are. People hog seats, block doors, stand in front of turnstiles and don’t give way to fast walkers on staircases. Those with iPods play music at volumes loud enough to hear from 20 feet away. Others use video game consoles without lowering the volume. Some people use the subways as their personal garbage cans. It can be tiring.
Over the last few months, I’ve tackled subway ethics and the way we ride on more than one occasion. In addition to my story about a father’s attempts to kick his daughter’s discarded chicken fingers and fries under her seat, I’ve looked at those who abuse emergency exits, those who do not give up seats to the aged, infirm or pregnant, those who grope others. The subways are fraught with people too unaware of their surroundings to be courteous toward their fellow passengers.
Yesterday, a guerrilla artist started to take matters into his own hands. Jayshells printed 40 silk screen editions of 10 mock service advisories and labeled them as products of the Metropolitan Etiquette Authority. He will spend the week hanging them in subway cars and stations through the city as reminders of how we should behave underground. Animal New York caught up with the artist and has a slideshow of each of the posters. He spoke about the creative process:
I surveyed 100 people on their top pet-peeves (not service related) while riding the Subway. I narrowed the results down to the top ten most occurring issues and rewrote them as a sort of list of rules. I designed posters in the style of the Service Changes posters we see everyday and silkscreened about 40 of each (400 total) and am currently putting them up on trains throughout the city, throughout this week. I encourage people to look out for them, and to take them before the MTA does.
New York Magazine’s Daily Intel blog also had a chat with Jayshells, real name Jason Shellowitz, who spoke about the illegal nature of his act. “I like to think that the positive nature of the messages will keep me out of trouble,” he said. “Also, I am using removable two-way tape, so they are not permanent, and leave no residue or marks behind.”
Vandalism is vandalism is vandalism, and I’d have to guess that Transit won’t be too thrilled to see these signs pop up. I think, however, that Shellowitz is on to something. The MTA has tried to push PSAs for illegal or blatantly boorish behavior. They urge riders to report sexual untoward actions and ask people to give up seats. But their anti-littering PSAs are laden with ten-cent words and phrases such as “trash receptacles.” There’s a disconnect between the message and its medium. Shellowitz takes the familiar service advisory signs and repackages them into a simple plea for positive and polite interactions amongst straphangers.
Whether his guerrilla act/exhortations will get the message across remains to be seen, but at least it makes people think for a second or two about how they act on the subway. “I’m not sure how much of a difference these will make,” he said to New York Magazine, “but so far, people seem to be enjoying them.”
Photos of the faux-Service Advisories by Jason Shellowitz via Animal New York.
Apr
20
The TBM Main Beam arrives at Second Ave.
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Last night, at approximately 9 p.m., the Main Beam of the tunnel boring machine arrived at the Second Ave. Subway launch box. Ben Heckscher from The Launch Box was on hand to snap some photos. He captured the above shot at 10:33 p.m as the beam — the part of the TBM that sits behind the cutterhead — was lowered underground. Rumor has it that the cutterhead itself will be arriving later this week, and I’ll try to get some pictures of it. For more photos and information about last night’s Main Beam drop, check out the latest from The Launch Box.
To accommodate delivery and installation of the TBM, Second Ave. will be largely closed to traffic. Up to three lanes will be shuttered at various times over night between now and the end of the month, and for more on those closures, check out Dan Rivoli’s coverage in Our Town.
Apr
20
Paving New York and putting up a parking lot
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Without the subway, traffic, seen here along Houston St., would be crippling to New York City. (Photo by flickr user vauvau)
One of my more prominent themes here on Second Ave. Sagas over the last few years has focused around the role the New York City subways play in driving the city’s — and the region’s — economy. Although cars are the focus of politicians hellbent on keeping bridges unnecessarily free and congestion pricing away from the streets of Manhattan, without a subway system that takes seven million New Yorkers to and from work, school and play every day, the city would simply cease to function on the scale that it does today.
Those of us who fight for better transportation solutions and more public transit investment are well aware of the importance of the subway system, but for reasons relating to interest group politics, wealth and access, our representatives prioritize auto drivers to the detriment of the rest of us. Maybe a new report issued by the city can start to turn that tide.
The study is called New York City’s Green Dividend, and the Daily News offers up a short preview. The report, writes Pete Donohue, “says there would be 4.5 million more cars on the road if New Yorkers racked up the same average mileage as residents of other big metropolitan areas. Parking that many cars would require a lot about the size of Manhattan.”
He continues:
The city-commissioned study argues that improved transit and pedestrian-friendly changes to the city’s landscape benefit not just the environment but the economy. The findings
- The average number of miles driven per person daily in New York City is 9, while the average per person in other large metropolitan areas is 25 miles a day.
- Residents of the five boroughs save $19 billion a year because they buy fewer cars and avoid many auto-related expenses such as gasoline and car insurance…
- Nearly 57% of New York City workers commute by mass transit; 32% drive or take cabs; 10% walk, and 1.2% take their bicycles or use some other mode.
As previous studies have shown, the numbers of those commuting into the Manhattan Central Business District by mass transit are even greater, and auto trips plummet accordingly. As presented by Donohue, the study doesn’t appear to quantify how New Yorkers ride to school, but when it’s officially released, I’ll try to update these figures.
I’m not surprised by these findings at all. Without a cheap, reliable and relatively efficient subway system, people wouldn’t be able to live in Flatbush and work in Midtown. They wouldn’t be able to go from the north Bronx to Lower Manhattan for the cost of a subway swipe. On the other hand, a worse transit system — say one crippled by service cuts — would lead to more cars, more pollution, more time spent in traffic, more frustrating attempts at finding parking spots that just don’t exist. The city cannot afford that future.
Although I began this post hoping that politicians who control the purse strings would respond positively to this survey, the truth is that they probably won’t. New York’s elected representatives seem blind to the fact that public transit plays such a vital role in the region. Only when transit fails will they be forced to act. In the meantime, we’ll continue to argue that more investment transit and not more giveaways to drivers is the way to economic health and growth in New York City.
