Archive for August, 2010
Aug
17
Assembly rep Colton denies MTA funds, then bashes it
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Fourteen years ago, the 47th District in Brooklyn elected William Colton, a Democrat, to to serve as its Assembly representative. His district includes Bensonhurst, Gravesend, Bath Beach, Dyker Heights and Midwood, transit-heavy areas that depend on numerous subway lines and bus routes to connect it with the rest of New York City.
Colton’s district is a minority in New York City in that more than 50 percent of his constituents are car owners. According to stale numbers, 46.1 percent of households in District 47 do not own cars while 53.9 percent do. However, only 3.2 percent of drivers head into Manhattan’s Central Business District from Colton’s area while 31.2 percent of workers take transit to that CBD. Still, Assembly representative Colton can join the long and growing list of Albany representatives who are happy to bash the MTA with one hand while taking the agency’s money away with the other.
Colton’s comments come to us from the Brooklyn Eagle in what appears to be a press release. The Assembly rep is upset about the elimination of numerous station agents. “The MTA has been going down a dangerous path of reducing front-line personnel to a minimum,” Colton said. “Leaving booths in portions of major stations closed inconveniences people from all walks of life, including the elderly, disabled and other persons needing assistance. Closing these booths, some of which are the only booths serving a station entrance, is a disgrace.”
He continued with a typical rant about the MTA’s service becoming akin to that offered in the 1970s when track fires, massive delays and rampant problems were the norm. With new rolling stock and an investment into the physical plant of the subways, no comparison less apt. “It’s time to look at reorganizing the MTA into an agency which is focused on improving transit and increasing service, not raising fares and cutting service. If we fail to change course, we risk our subway degrading into a crime-ridden, unreliable service such as existed in the 1970s.”
The MTA is doing everything Colton accuses it of doing, but for someone who has shown no willingness to support transit, his moralizing rubs me the wrong. Colton, who claims that the MTA is “failing to meet the public need for safe and reliable public transit,” has been nothing but bad for transit. In 2008, despite the make-up of his district, he didn’t support congestion pricing and couched his opposition in populist terms. At the time, he said that the city’s “real goal of the proposal is to provide a new revenue source from the middle class and working poor.” Never mind the fact that middle and working class residents simply do not own cars or, if they do, do not drive into Manhattan’s CBD during the congestion pricing hours. Never mind the fact that these residents would stand to benefit from investments in transit.
His finest moment came when he levied this claim, using what I would call reverse logic to take apart congestion pricing:
In fact passage of this plan will almost guarantee a large fare increase because whatever monies which are given to the MTA will not be used to pay for public transit improvements but instead will be used to collateralize borrowing which will result in higher future interest payments which public transit users will need to repay with higher fares. Therefore it will not encourage people to use cars since use of mass transit will be almost as expensive. The congestion fee will impact on those with low and middle incomes and will have little impact on the wealthy who will simply use it as a business deduction.
Colton did not stop in 2008 or start bashing the MTA yesterday. Earlier this year, he called for the authority to inform community boards of changes to station staffing levels and has, as Cap’n Transit noted, called for eliminating waste and corruption. He also voted for removing $143 million in earmarked money from the MTA’s coffers late last year.
The problem with Colton’s position is the noise. The MTA should be more willing to talk about the safety impact of cutting station agents. MTA leadership has engaged in an extensive effort to cut waste at all levels. But the MTA can’t fund station agents without money, and Colton is just one of many who has worked to undercut the MTA’s funding streams. He hasn’t approved measures — such as congestion pricing — that the majority of New Yorkers support, and he voted to take away earmarked dollars. His left hand is criticizing the MTA for actions of his right, and that cannot stand.
Aug
16
Double-decker trains, bar car changes in Metro-North plans
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Changes to the bar car layout have commuters up in arms. Click the image to enlarge.
Don’t mess with Metro-North rider’ bar car. That’s the message they’re trying to send to the commuter railroad as it gears up for a new rolling stock purchase. It might be a message that fails on deaf ears though as the agency is planning to introduce a newly designed bar car as well as double-decker trains on some of its more popular routes.
The seven new bar cars will be put in place along the New Haven Line and are part of a $226-million, 300-car order of new rolling stock. The design, though, has raised some eyebrows among the bar car regulars as Andrew Grossman reports in the Wall Street Journal:
They’re worried, though, about the proposed design. It includes three rows of seats, four banquette-style tables and three round tables in the middle of the car. That will leave far less standing space than on the current set of cars. “We want to stand around and talk, and not be sitting in tiny little groups of four,” said Terri Cronin, the vice chair of the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council, which has been surveying passengers about the new designs…
Bar cars—or cafe cars in the language of the railroad—are one of the few parts of the railroad that actually make money. They generated over $500,000 in profits last year. “It’s like a big group party,” Ms. Cronin said. “You end up talking to all these people you never would have talked to if you were sitting in all these little social pods everywhere.” Ms. Cronin and other passengers say they don’t want to get stuck in small groups at tables. They’d rather mingle. Ms. Cronin said that’s how she’s met business contacts and made good friends in the bar car.
Officials from Metro-North and the Connecticut Department of Transportation, which pays for the cars, say they’ve shown the designs to focus groups, where some riders had complaints similar to Ms. Cronin’s. But the railroad is trying to squeeze as many seats as it can out of the bar cars, since the new passenger cars each have nine fewer seats than the ones they’re replacing. “It’s an ongoing balancing act,” said Judd Everhart, a spokesman for the Connecticut transportation agency. “We’re trying to maximize seating wherever we can, while at the same time providing the convenience of the cafe cars.”
The new bar cars won’t hit the rails until 2012 at the earliest, so Ms. Cronin and her drinking buddies have a few more years of socializing before the small groups take over their hallowed drinking grounds. The beer will always be cold.
Meanwhile, in an effort to combat overcrowding on the Harlem and Hudson Lines, Metro-North is looking into double-decker train cars, Michael Grynbaum of The Times reported today. The two-level cars, he says, cost the same as the standard ones and can fit 33 percent more passengers. These cars, which would enter service in 2015, would be designed to fit the clearance at Grand Central.
Metro-North says these two lines are “nearing capacity” out of Grand Central Terminal, and a bi-level car would allow for expansion without increasing train frequency. The city’s other commuter rail lines — the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit — have been running double-decker cars since 1998 and 2005 respectively, and commuters love them for the space and the upper-level views. “Customers love them for a number of reasons,” New Jersey Transit spokesman Dan Stessel said to Grynbaum. “They are quieter, and you have more leg room. It’s been overwhelmingly positive.”
Aug
16
Where the cell signals leak in
Posted by: | CommentsAs the MTA has once again renewed its vow to bring cell service and wifi underground, many have wondered if constant connectivity is truly good or if the yammering masses will slowly drive us all insane. I’ve long been of the belief that cell access on platforms only won’t lead to louder waits. The subway system isn’t a quiet and peaceful arena today, and the vast above-ground portions have long had cell service. Riders along the elevated routes haven’t become boorish on their phones.
Today, Heather Haddon and Katherine Lieb unveil the secrets of underground cell service and highlight those stations that already have cell access either from street-level grates or from nearby landmarks. Nearly four dozen of the 277 underground stations have service at some point or another. The list, available on amNew York’s website, includes 30 IRT stations, many of which aren’t very far below ground, and a handful of the oldest BMT stops along the R. Only a few IND stops have service because they were built relatively deep underground. Nevins St. in Brooklyn has long been my favorite transfer point between the East and West Side IRT lines because of its stellar cell service.
Aug
16
The way New Yorkers want to ride
Posted by: | CommentsFor the last few weekends and into September, service along the various IRT routes will not run as normal. From midnight on Saturdays until 5 a.m. on Mondays, 2 trains will not run into the Bronx, terminating instead at 137th St./City College, and 3 trains won’t run at all. To replace the 3, 4 trains will run local in Brooklyn. For two popular subway lines, this work is creating a lot of headaches.
In The Post on Saturday, Tom Namako wrote about this so-called “weekend chaos” and got some excellent straphanger-on-the-street quotes. While most of the IRT riders are resigned to their long, slow shuttle bus fates, one person’s attitude in particular struck my as indicative of the way New Yorkers relate to the subway system and necessary work. The emphasis below is mine.
“I live in Bed-Stuy, and I take care of my elderly parents in The Bronx, and I go to church in The Bronx,” Ernestine Ortiz said to Namako. “The shuttle buses are all right, but the train is way more convenient — when it’s running. It just gets you where you need to go faster. Can’t they find another time to work on it — like just late at night?”
I’m sure Ms. Ortiz is a very friendly woman, and it sounds as though she’s a very devoted daughter. No one, of course, likes to see their weekend routines interrupted, but her approach is one we all share. It goes a little something like this: I know the MTA has to do subway work; I know this work has to take place over regular hours; but please only do subway work when it doesn’t inconvenience me.
Nothing bothers New Yorkers quite like a commute interrupted. I know that my trip from Park Slope to City Hall should take around 20 minutes, and when a train is delayed at, say, Bowling Green because of a sick passenger down the line, we get irritated. “Why is this happening on my commute? Why doesn’t the sick passenger simply not board the train in the first place? Why am I the one who has to suffer because of the MTA’s need to do work?”
This attitude reveals the inherent problems with a 24-hour subway system and the way New Yorkers rely on it. We don’t want service changes when we want to travel because we need to travel at set times. We have to get to work; we have to get to our families; we have to get from Brooklyn to the Bronx in less than two hours. That’s where the subways come in. The great system underneath our city streets transports people relatively quickly through a dense urban environment that cannot support cars for every resident. For a low price, I can get from Point A in Bed-Stuy to Point B in the Bronx without worrying about gas, insurance, parking.
Of course, people dislike the MTA because it often seems as though fates underground conspire against us. If we travel anywhere during the weekend, our trips are delayed because of work. Late-night construction isn’t the answer, as Ms. Ortiz would like, because the Transit crews need a more concentrated period of time during which to work. Plus, the service changes will always interrupt someone’s travel. It could be me or it could be you. To Ms. Ortiz, it might seem as though the changes hurt her, but to someone else, a different set of changes will be equally as bothersome.
So work will go, and the city’s love/hate relationship with the subway system will go on. We want it to run reliably; we need it to run reliably; we know what level of investment must go into it to run reliably. But when push comes to shove, please make sure the service changes impact someone else’s commute.
Aug
13
Weekend service advisories
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s an August weekend, and as the city empties out, subway work ramps up. The below advisories come to me from New York City Transit and are subject to change without notice. Read the signs in your local station and listen to on-board announcements as well. Subway Weekender has the map.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 16, downtown 1 and 2 trains run express from 14th Street to Chambers Street due to a track chip out at Franklin Street.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, August 13 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 16, there are no 2 trains between Manhattan and the Bronx due to switch renewal at the 142nd Street junction north of 135th Street. 2 trains run between Flatbush Avenue-Brooklyn College and 96th Street, and then are rerouted to the 1 line to 137th Street. Free shuttle buses replace the 2 between 96th Street and 149th Street-Grand Concourse. 5 trains replace the 2 between 149th Street-Grand Concourse and 241st Street. Note: After leaving 96th Street, uptown 2 trains stop at 103rd Street then run express to 137th Street.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, August 13 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 16, there are no 3 trains running due to switch renewal at the 142nd Street junction north of 135th Street. 4 trains replace the 3 between New Lots Avenue and Nevins Street all weekend. 2 trains replace the 3 between Nevins Street and 96th Street. Free shuttle buses replace 3 trains between 96th Street and 148th Street.
From 4 a.m. Saturday, August 14 to 10 p.m. Sunday, August 15, Manhattan-bound 4 trains run express from Mosholu Parkway to Burnside Avenue due to track panel renewal north of Kingsbridge Road.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 16, downtown 4 trains run local from 125th Street to Brooklyn Bridge due to switch renewal at the 142nd Street junction north of 135th Street.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 16, uptown 4 trains run express from Brooklyn Bridge to14th Street-Union Square, then local to 125th Street due to a track chip out at Brooklyn Bridge.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 16, 4 trains run local between Atlantic Avenue and Utica Avenue and are extended to and from New Lots Avenue to replace the suspended 3 due to the switch renewal at the 142nd Street junction.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 16, there are no 5 trains between Bowling Green and 42nd Street-Grand Central due to a track chip out at Brooklyn Bridge. Customers should take the 4 instead. Note: 5 trains run between the 241st Street 2 station and 42nd Street (days) or 149th Street-Grand Concourse (overnights). 5 shuttle trains run between Dyre Avenue and East 180th Street all weekend.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 16, 6 train service is extended to/from Bowling Green due to a track chip out at Brooklyn Bridge.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 16, uptown 6 trains run express from Brooklyn Bridge to 14th Street-Union Square due to a track chip out at Brooklyn Bridge.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 16, Manhattan-bound 6 trains run express from Parkchester to Hunts Point Avenue due to station rehabilitation and structural repair at Whitlock Avenue, Morrison Avenue-Soundview and Parkchester. Note: At all times until September 2010, the Manhattan-bound 6 platform at Parkchester is closed for rehabilitation. Manhattan-bound 6 trains stopping at Parkchester will use the Pelham Bay Park-bound platform.
From 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, August 14, Manhattan-bound 7 run express from Mets-Willets Point to 74th Street-Broadway due to painting of the elevated structure.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 16, A trains bypass Broadway-Nassau St. in both directions due to work on the Fulton Street Transit Center.
From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, August 14 and Sunday, August 15, C trains bypass Broadway-Nassau St. in both directions due to work on the Fulton Street Transit Center.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, August 13 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 16, Manhattan-bound E trains run local from Forest Hills-71st Avenue to Roosevelt Avenue due to a track chip out south of Elmhurst Avenue.
From 12:30 a.m. Saturday, August 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 16, Jamaica Center-bound E trains run local from Roosevelt Avenue to Forest Hills-71st Avenue due to a track chip out south of Elmhurst Avenue.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, August 13 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 16, Manhattan-bound F trains run local from Forest Hills-71st Avenue to Roosevelt Avenue due to a track chip out south of Elmhurst Avenue.
From 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, August 14, Coney Island-bound F trains run express from 18th Avenue to Kings Highway due to signal work south of Ditmas Avenue.
From 12:30 a.m. Saturday, August 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 16, 179th Street-bound F trains run local from Roosevelt Avenue to Forest Hills-71st Avenue due to a track chip out south of Elmhurst Avenue.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 16, Coney Island-bound N trains run express from Pacific Street to 59th Street in Brooklyn this weekend due to station work at 86th Street (the local track is out of service between 36th Street and 95th Street.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, August 13 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 16, there are no R trains in Brooklyn between 95th Street and 36th Street due to station work at 86th Street. For service between 95th Street and 59th Street, customers may use the free shuttle bus. For service between 59th Street and 36th Street, customers should take the N instead. Note: Coney Island-bound N trains skip 45th Street and 53rd Street. Manhattan-bound N trains run local from 59th to 36th Streets.
Aug
13
Video of the Day: MetroCard commercials
Posted by: | CommentsAs the MTA prepares to read the MetroCard its final rites, the Transit Museum has made available online a series of old TV spots promoting the blue and gold cards. Imagine the novelty of transferring for free between buses and subways. It was, they said, the “beginning of a whole new transit system.”
Aug
13
Judge denies TWU’s commuter van injunction request
Posted by: | CommentsA New York State Supreme Court judge denied the TWU’s request for an injunction against the city’s new commuter van program. Designed to replace bus routes lost to the service cuts with private operators, the commuter van program came under fire from the TWU who claimed it violated state law and was an unsafe alternative to bus operations. Justice Anil C. Singh disagreed, and now the Taxi & Limousine Commission will move full speed ahead. The TWU will run one of these van routes, and The Daily News has more on the one operator-per-line approach the TLC will soon establish for this pilot program.
Aug
13
Out of the service cuts rises the successful orange M
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When the MTA instituted its service cuts in late June, one change was long overdue. Instead of having the litte used V train terminate at 2nd Ave. in Manhattan, New York City Transit rearranged subway service so that the 6th Ave./Queens Boulevard Local route made use of the old Chrystie St. Cut, crossed the Williamsburg Bridge and terminated at Middle Village, the northern end of the BMT Myrtle Ave. line. Designed to alleviate overcrowding on the L and provide a one-seat ride to Midtown from areas of Brooklyn and Queens with high population growth, the rerouting has been a success.
Earlier this week, NY1′s newest transit beat reporter John Mancini hit the Orange M line to chat with riders about the service changes, and most believed it was a change for the better. “I live in Ridgewood, Queens, I work here in Greenwich Village. And basically now for the first time I have a one-seat ride to work. It’s taken probably 10 to 15 minutes off of my commute. I used to have to take the M to the F, which you could never get on at rush hour. So I’d have to take it down to Chambers Street and get on the 6. It took forever,” Christopher Crowe told Mancini.
The piece is a short one from Mancini, and in it, he talks to a few happy riders and a few others wary of the changes wrought by better transit service. “People who can’t afford to pay these rents will have to be moving out of the area. I mean because you are going to bring more of a crowd that can afford to pay this, and then the poor people that are here can’t afford to pay what they are paying now,” Ariel Lopez of Bushwick said.
In two quotes from two strangers on a train, Mancini captured both the essence of the service change and a problem with the MTA’s approach to service demand. When the V became the M, the Lower East Side and Alphabet City lost a train. No longer does every 6th Ave. local stop at 2nd Ave., the station closest to thousands of people who live on the far East Side. Those folks in a growing area were without one of their trains, and the neighborhood lost some of its bus service as well.
Across the Williamsburg Bridge, however, New Yorkers found reasons to cheer the service cuts. Although some Middle Village residents who work in Lower Manhattan or near Foley Square have a schleppy two-seat ride, those bound for Chelsea or Midtown no longer have to transfer or brave the crowds along the L train. The M has gone from a much-maligned shuttle to a useful train, and this was a service change that should have been made years ago. Unfortunately, the MTA is not in a position to adjust service to meet demand as fast as we’d like.
On the other hand, increased transit service comes with a cost. Neighborhoods are suddenly more accessible and more desirable for renters. Bushwick residents will see their rents creep up, and we can see in Brooklyn and Queens along the Myrtle Ave. line a harbinger of things to come for Second Ave. With more transit service, properties become more valuable, and thus, landlords can charge more. It’s an efficient market economy at work even if it penalizes those who were looking for a deal.
The Orange M will never please everyone, and at some point, if the MTA can introduce F express service in southern Brooklyn, the new routing will come under some form of scrutiny. For now, though, the new route is earning praise, and amidst a bad year for transit in New York City, this useful change is as welcome as any service cut can be.
Aug
12
TLC begins fining bus lane-blocking cabbies
Posted by: | CommentsWhile New York City is still awaiting authority to dole out tickets to drivers caught blocking bus lanes, the Taxi & Limousine Commission in conjunction with the MTA has mailed out the first round of summonses for those cabbies who are caught in the bus lanes. According to Heather Haddon of amNew York, the commission mailed out 30 tickets last week with another 120 more to come.
Fines are $150, and cabbies are, of course, not happy with it. “I wish there were other ways for the city to find money other than consistently targeting drivers who work for a living,” David Pollock, the man behind Taxi Insider, said. But Pollock has it wrong. It’s so much about finding money by harassing cab drivers as it is ensuring that buses have the right of way they deserve. To avoid the $150 ticket, cab drivers must simply stay out of the bus lanes, and the buses will be able to operate at optimal speeds. Anything else is just plain selfish.
Aug
12
Searching for more alluring subway retailers
Posted by: | CommentsThe MTA takes in approximately $70 million a year in rent from stores that take out space in subterranean complexes, but most of these shops are nothing more than an after-thought. Some are designed to entice tourists searching for novelties, and others offer up little bit more than drab clothing, obscure CDs or lukewarm sodas. Few, if any, would be considered high end, and the MTA could be sitting on some untapped real estate resources.
Now, faced with the need to generate more revenue, the MTA is looking to attract what Heather Haddon called high-end retail stores to take out space in the subway. One — called Grast — opened recently at 42nd St. and 8th, and the authority’s real estate folks are looking for more. “It’s a new approach,” agency spokesman Kevin Ortiz said. “We’re looking to attract a new wave of edgy and stylish vendors that put some thought into their store’s design.”
Just imagine that: the subway system as a shopping destination.
