Archive for November, 2010
Nov
23
Adding an IRT express stop: The story of 59th St.
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A 1958 subway map shows local service only at 59th St. and Lexington Ave.
When IRT and BRT officials signed their half of the Dual Contracts in 1913, the area around midtown east was not the commercial hub it is today. While Bloomingdale’s attracted its fair share of shoppers, the Queensboro Bridge had opened only four years earlier, and the area was just beginning to grow. For reasons of both anticipated demand and engineering, the IRT plans up Lexington Ave. included only a local stop at 59th St.
Almost from the start, subway planners came to rue that decision and worked to rectify the omission. In 1914, Alfred Craven, the chief engineer of the Public Service Commission, issued a studied on the IRT’s two 59th St. stations. In the plan, he endorsed converting 59th St. at Columbus Circle into an express stop — a plan that never came to fruition — but “report[ed] adversely upon the application to convert the 59th Street Station of the Lexington Avenue line into an express station.”
Beyond that brief mention in a one-paragraph Wall Street Journal article, details of Craven’s decision are lacking. As far as I can surmise, the chief engineer couldn’t sign off on the IRT’s wishes because the work required to construct a station along the express tracks deep underneath both the local tracks and the BMT 60th St. tunnel would have been either too challenging or too expensive at the time. After all, the express level at 59th St., 73 feet below Lexington Ave., is among the deepest IRT stations in the system, and planning for a station after the fact would have been cost-prohibitive in 1914.
The local-only station opened in 1918, As the decades wore on, the need for an express stop somewhere between 86th St. and 42nd St. became acute. The platforms at Grand Central/42nd Street were dangerously overcrowded with IRT passengers switching from local to express trains, and with more passengers entering the IRT via a transfer with the BMT at 59th and Lexington Ave., the Bloomingdale’s stop seemed to be the ideal choice for a new station. By the mid-1950s, it was after all the fourth busiest IRT stop, behind only Grand Central, Fulton St. and Union Square.
In 1954, it seemed as though Midtown East would finally get its IRT express service. A front-page article in The Times screamed out the news, perhaps too optimistically: “East 59th Street I. R. T. Station To Be Express Stop in 2 Years.” At the same time that the Transit Authority requested money to turn Columbus Circle into an express stop, they did the same for the Lexington Ave. station due to “the rapid development of the East Side of midtown.” For $5 million, the TA planned to build the express platform below the BMT level. Escalators were to help usher passengers into the bowels of the subway system.
An illustration shows the cross-section of the 59th Street subway complex at Lexington Ave. (Via The Times)
The money wouldn’t come through for another five years. In 1959, the TA again voted for an express stop at 59th Street. This time, the project carried with a $6 million price tag and a mid-1963 completion date. The agency planned to cart out 17,000 cubic yards of dirt and construct two 14-foot-wide platforms that would span 525 feet — or the length of a ten-car train. “New high-speed escalators” would connect the express platforms with the BMT mezzanine and the IRT local level above.
To accommodate the work, the East Side riders suffered through years of service delays. From 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. every night from March 1, 1960 until mid-November 1962, the TA ran only local service along Lexington Ave. The project though was well worth it to TA planners. They believed it would reduce crowding at Grand Central; allow for more convenient transfers between the BMT and IRT express lines; and ease crowding on the 42nd St. shuttle and complaints over the long walk from the IRT by providing a more convenient trip to Times Square.
“Providing this rapidly growing section of the city with subway express service is only one of the benefits,” TA chair Charles Patterson said in 1959. “It will greatly reduce crowding at Grand Central. It will take a good deal of the load from the Grand Central-Times Square shuttle. For many it will eliminate the bother of transferring. For others it will make the transferring easier and faster.”
On November 15, 1962, at 11:40 a.m., a southbound express train ushered in this new station. The project cost a total of $6.5 million — or slightly over $47 million in today’s dollars — and took around three months less than anticipated. As part of the celebration, the first train through the station was a new red bird designed to mark the TA’s $100 million modernization and platform-lengthening campaign along the IRT lines.
Today, we take for granted the express service patterns and often assume how it is today is how it always was. As this express stop opened nearly 50 years ago, it’s certainly easy to forget a time when only local trains served what is now, with nearly 19 million annual passengers, the 9th busiest stop in the system. So as we look back at a time without express service, ponder where else in the system an express station would do wonders for transit. As history has balanced out the subway map, express and local service patterns have emerged to meet demand — unless of course it’s the other way around.
Nov
22
Photo of the Day: The Hogwarts Express at Union Square
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The Daily News tracked down some creative sign editing from Harry Potter aficionados. (Photo via the Daily News)
Via Lauren Johnston of the Daily News comes this amusing edit of a subway sign. A few mischievous Harry Potter fans decided to slap a new sticker onto one of the subway entrances at Union Square. The bullet proclaims a stop for the 9 3/4 train — a number near and dear to Potter fans for it is the track at London’s Kings Cross Station from which the Hogwarts Express departs.
The new sticker, notes Johnston, is “slapped in the slot that featured a “W” until June when that line went out of service. The design mirrors the style of standard Metropolitan Transportation Authority signage and at first glance could pass for a relic from the days of the defunct No. 9 line.”
The agency said it had nothing to do with this rogue train marking and reminded people that the fine for defacing an MTA sign is $75. “We are not part of any sort of Potter campaign, but I’ve seen things like that before,” Transit spokesman Kevin Ortiz said to the News.
The sticker was last seen on the south side of 14th St. just around the corner from the Regal Union Square 14. Well played, I say. Well played.
Nov
22
Defending the 34th St. Transitway
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Project opponents believe the 34th St. Transitway will blight the area. (Image via NYC DOT)
Since early 2008, New York City has been working its way toward implementing a true Transitway along 34th St. The city’s plan would include all of the trappings of Select Bus Service — dedicated and physically separated lanes, pre-board fare payment, etc. — and an elimination of two-way traffic along the thoroughfare. This heaven for pedestrians and transit would provide for higher-speed connections to, from east to west, the 6, N, R, Q, B, D, F, M, 1, 2, 3, A, C and E trains as well as a stop at Penn Station. Who could argue against it?
Well, as the Stop the 34th Street Transit website makes abundantly clear, the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association thinks these upgrades are the devil incarnate. Powered by people who are mostly irate over the fact that taxis won’t be able to drop them off directly in front of their apartments, these wealthy residents have couched their opposition to the Transitway in faux-populist terms. They claim that a “wall of buses” that operate at “rapid” speeds will “create safety issues for young children.” They claim the Transitway will “clog small streets with traffic.” They claim noise and air pollution levels will increase. They ignore the reality that pedestrians will find 34th St. far friendlier with the Transitway than without.
My favorite argument is one of blight. Saying that they’d prefer elevated train lines because they “had the courtesy of being above street level,” the Transitway opponents claim that the bus lane improvements “risk re-creating the old els’ blight, depressing home values and the viability of local businesses.” Even though the NYC DOC is aware of the more legitimate concerns, Murray Hill will not be easily swayed.
It’s easy to mock these folks not brave enough to put their names on their critiques for their windshield/NIMBYism perspectives, but as Streetsblog notes, those who support this project have to take these opponents seriously. CB4 on the West Side supports the project while CB 6 on the East Side isn’t a fan. Thus, proponents of better bus transit need to convince CB 5 that this is a worthwhile project, and at 6 p.m. today at the YMCA on 14th St., that vital community board is hosting an open house.
With this Transitway, bus speeds will increase by 20-35 percent depending upon the time of day, and the city is prepared to ensure adequate curbside access. Traffic will be calmed, and the area will become more accessible. Streetsblog’s Ben Fried sums up the benefits:
Passengers on 34th Street currently travel at an average 4.5 mph in regular curbside bus lanes. The transitway project can set a major precedent, establishing the city’s first physically separated bus lanes and speeding up the tens of thousands of daily bus trips on 34th Street. New curb extensions, pedestrian medians, and, potentially, public plazas would transform the corridor and transfer large swaths of space from traffic to people.
So if you have a chance tonight, go to the YMCA at 125 West 14th Street at 6 p.m. and make your voices heard. After all, in the area around the proposed Transitway, 86 percent of workers commute by transit or their own two feet and 82 percent do not even own cars. We don’t want to see a vocal minority stop a vital transit project, and their spurious claims should not carry the day.
Nov
22
MetroCard: A problem of proprietary technology
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MetroCard error messages seem to be an increasingly common phenomenon. (Photo by flickr user Triborough)
One day in the not-so-distant future, the MetroCard will die an ignoble death. Instead of an extraneous piece of plastic with a sensitive magnetic stripe, New Yorkers will wave their smart chip-enabled credit cards at a reader to pass through a swipeless entry point. It will speed of the city’s buses and eliminate the need for those annoying tics and error messages so prevalent at subway entrances.
For now, though, the MetroCard, outdated for years and clunky in its uniqueness, lives on. In his subway column today, Daily News writer Pete Donohue looks at the state MetroCard Vending Machines and finds maintenance and service lacking. As the system and technology grows older, it is, unsurprisingly, breaking down more frequently. He writes:
Transit workers have been called to repair the machines 234,170 times this year through September – approximately 870 times a day, Metropolitan Transportation Authority data show. This year, each defect went uncorrected on average 6.18 hours, up from 5.08 hours two years ago…
There are 1,648 MetroCard machines. Even with a defect, a machine regularly will still work to some degree. It might not accept dollar bills but will process a debit or credit card. It might sell MetroCards but not single-ride tickets…
You can thank those shifty-looking guys standing by the turnstiles for some of your MetroCard woes. The aptly named “swipers” swipe people through turnstiles for less than the $2.25 fare. They jam different machine components, like the bill-handling unit, to increase demand for their services. Still, even these ubiquitous scammers aren’t prolific enough to cause an average 26,000 repairs a month. Only 30% of repairs are attributed to tampering, the data show.
The machines are relatively old, and definitely cranky. They were installed about a decade ago and never replaced. They are at the edge of their “useful life,” an MTA spokesman said.
Donohue notes that Transit employees 124 workers who can service these machines. Based on these numbers, each worker must make approximately seven service calls per day to machines that could be anywhere in the system. Keeping the MVMs operating at top shape then is a Sisyphean task.
Meanwhile, as the MVMs break down, I’ve noticed an increasing number of error messages on the turnstiles themselves. “Please Swipe Again” has never been so abundant. Perhaps that’s because of the decreasing number of MTA station agents turnstile cleaners who are around to remove build-up from the magnetic card readers. Perhaps these error messages are due to the “useful life” of the technology. Most likely, the problems are a combination of the two.
Ultimately, the end-of-life problems that we’re seeing with the MetroCard technology is indicative of the issues with proprietary technology. Back in 2000, the Village Voice ran an exposé on Cubic and its multi-million-dollar relationship with the MTA, and the alt weekly highlighted the Closed Loop problem. Many of the problems mentioned in the article have since been addressed, but the MTA is still working with a clunky technology designed in the early 1990s that hasn’t achieved widespread adoption outside of the city. It will inevitably break down, and if the failure happens before the MTA’s next-generation fare technology is in place, it will be both costly and disastrous to maintain this aging infrastructure.
Those in charge at the MTA are well aware of this problem. In my conversations with the MTA officials, I’ve heard about the need to bring the contactless fare payment system online sooner rather than later. Still, we’re a few years away from that reality, and the MetroCard machines and card readers must last until then. Frequent breakdowns will just become a fact of life as the technology nears its 20th anniversary.
Nov
22
Building a subway to Staten Island with ARC dollars
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Schematics of a 1912 plan to connect Staten Island with the BMT via a subway tunnel under the Narrows. Click to enlarge.
While New York City’s rail plans for Staten Island include just a modest proposal to reactivate the North Shore rail line and Mayor Bloomberg wants to spend the federal government’s $3 billion left over from the ARC Tunnel on a 7 line extension to Secaucus, one Staten Island politician would prefer to see the city deliver on a long-promised subway line to the island. State Senator Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn) said this weekend that instead of pursuing a subway extension to New Jersey that “flies in the face of practicality and fairness,” the city should connect Staten Island to the rest of New York’s extensive subway system.
“If the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) wants to truly move people out of their cars and onto rail, extending a subway to the Island is the way to do it,” Savino said in an interview with SILive.com’s Judy Randall. “The MTA should complete a 1912 plan that would have rail and freight access from the terminus of Victory Boulevard to Brooklyn, along 67th Street, and then utilize the R train route along Fourth Avenue. The projected cost of the plan is $3 billion, the same as the extension of the 7 line under the Hudson River.”
The long-planned extension of the R train under Narrows wasn’t the only idea Savino put forward. “If a bi-state alternative is necessary in order to access federal funds, the city could extend the Hudson Bergen Light Rail from its present terminus at 8th Street in Bayonne over the Bayonne Bridge, making a ‘northwest passage’ to Manhattan via the PATH trains in Jersey City and Hoboken,” she said. “Keep in mind that 12,000 Islanders work in Hudson or Bergen County and 100,000 Islanders work in Manhattan every weekday.”
By my count, this is now the fourth public claim New York officials have staked to the ARC tunnel money. U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has called for the money to go toward MTA capital projects, and a group of House representatives echoed that call on Friday. Mayor Bloomberg of course is working on his 7 line program, and Savino wants to bring it home for Staten Island. Is her plan feasible?
In August, I explored the long and tortured history of a subway to Staten Island, and even then, I omitted the early years. Since the dawn of the 20th century, city planners had promised a subway to Staten Island from via the Narrows. Articles from 1901 and 1903 mention those plans, albeit in skeptical tones.
In 1919, the most ambitious expansion plans involved a tunnel under the Narrows as well as another to Lower Manhattan through the New York harbor. Had that Staten Island subway been realized, it would have traveled under Kill Van Kull and through New Jersey or via a direct line past Ellis and Bedlow Islands under the shallow part of the bay. Both routes would have connected to the IRT just north of South Ferry.
Today, the only feasible — and I use that word loosely — approach would seem to be via the Narrows to the BMT Fourth Ave. line. It’s five miles from South Ferry to the northern tip of Staten Island but just one mile under the Narrows. The line would branch off at around 59th St. where a short tunnel stub exists, but the trains would make the long, slow slog to Lower Manhattan via the 4th Ave. local and Montague St. tunnel. Such a trip would arguably be slower than taking the ferry, and without significant subway development in Staten Island, it wouldn’t provide comprehensive service at that end either.
Ultimately, it seems as though Savino’s subway plan is a wise one on paper that flies in the face of practicality. It would, however, make far more sense to Hudson Bergen Light Rail because it would draw riders from an underserved part of Staten Island. Only then with ARC money could dreams of better transit from Staten Island be realized a century in the making.
“In 1898, when the boroughs voted to consolidate,” Savino said this weekend, “Staten Island voted overwhelmingly to become part of New York City on the basis of two promises, a municipal ferry and subway service. After seven years we got ferry service, but 112 years later we are still waiting on the subway. Staten Island is part of New York City, with over half a million people. It is past time we have similar transportation alternatives that other boroughs have.”
Nov
21
Looking in-house for a bus tracking system
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Will the MTA be able to develop a bus-tracking system internally?
One of the MTA’s fanciest new tech toys that would, if rolled out systemwide, greatly improve the bus system is BusTime tracking program unveiled in October. Using technology developed by Clever Devices, the MTA can present real-time bus location information along the M16 and M34 routes, and the authority hopes to bring this to the rest of the city.
There is a hitch though as there often is. Clever Devices’ technology is very expensive — prohibitively so for a system as vast as New York’s, and according to a recent post on the MTA Developer Resources’ Google Groups, the authority is looking for an in-house solution. The MTA’s Bus Customer Information Systems team is searching for a Technical Analyst (pdf) and a Senior Business Analyst (pdf) who will help evaluate a pilot and scale it for full-fleet deployment.
The project description provides a glimpse into the authority’s thinking:
We are using modular components, Open Standards, Open Data, and (when appropriate) Open Source Software to lower costs and bring benefits to our passengers as quickly as possible. Real-time bus information will be made available to passengers over the web, mobile devices, and text messages, as well as applications developed by developers using open data feeds.
We are playing the overall role of a systems engineer and integrator, allowing us to buy different components of the system from different vendors (e.g. on-bus hardware separately from the central data/web server) and connect them using open standard interfaces. This approach depends heavily on a small but highly-skilled team of analysts and engineers to understand the requirements of our large and complex real- world bus operation, architect the overall system, and work with multiple vendors to ensure the system is delivered as designed.
While subway countdown clocks make travel more pleasant and less stressful, bus timers can revolutionize a bus system. If riders know exactly where the bus is and how long it will take to arrive at a certain stop, potential riders will be far more likely to wait for the bus and can time their trips appropriately. It removes the mystery and frustrating waits — currently one of the bus system’s biggest problems — from the ride, and it can make the bus a convenient part of travel instead of a trip that happens only if the bus is in sight. I’ll be watching this effort closely as the MTA tries to bring a badly-needed technology to its vast bus fleet .
Nov
20
Falsified reports plague signal inspection measures
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Signals at Ditmars Boulevard await an incoming train. (Photo by flickr user zin1966)
Thousands of subway signal inspection safety reports have been falsified over the last few years due to pressure from management, a report by the MTA Inspector General revealed on Friday. According to Barry Kluger’s ongoing investigation, inspections that should have been completed within 30 days were delayed for days or even weeks, and the safety of the subway’s complex signal system could have been compromised.
Due to the importance of his findings, Kluger has shared his initial report with Transit before releasing it to the public, and MTA officials have taken swift action. “Instead of waiting for results to come in and issue a report, we’ve been working with NYC Transit and supplying them with some of the results on an ongoing basis,” Kluger said in a statement. “They’ve moved quickly to try and get their arms around this and have been making a number of changes.”
Heather Haddon of The Post has more:
NYC Transit supervisors falsified thousands of vital signal inspections across the subway system for years, leaving straphangers at risk for deadly collisions like the one that killed nine people in Washington, DC, The Post learned.
Across every line, a cabal of managers in the signal department forced maintainers to fib on the inspections by threatening them with punishments like loss of overtime, according to a sweeping six-month investigation by the inspector general of the MTA, which oversees NYC Transit. At least one high-level chief, Tracy Bowdwin — the MTA’s highest-earning Signal Department supervisor at $165,000 a year — was demoted last week in the fallout, and managers are still being questioned, transit sources said.
The dangerous practice was a response to ramped-up pressure from the MTA to meet federal standards that call for railway switches and signals to be inspected monthly, sources said. “Instead of five signals to inspect [in a shift], they would give you 15. There’s no way 15 could be done, but they would say you had to do it,” one signal maintainer said. “It’s like you think your car is fine after going to the mechanic, but they never looked at it.”
According to Haddon’s report, “workers who didn’t comply lost overtime privileges or got sent to the dirtiest, most leak-infested tunnels.” That’s revenge at its worst for practices that could land some Transit workers in legal trouble.
For its part, Transit spokespeople ensured reporters that the signals that were the subject of Kluger’s report have been reinspected and that the system is safe. “We also took swift action to ensure that none of these deficiencies undermined the signal system’s safe operation or its underlying components,” NYC Transit Spokesman Charles Seaton said. “The signal system is safe.”
Nov
19
Get more Second Ave. Sagas and weekend changes
Posted by: | CommentsThe last few weeks have been busy ones for transit in the area, and as the fare hikes loom, the news promises to come fast and furious. In addition to finding out all of the latest on site, you can find more Second Ave. Sagas across the Internet. Be sure to follow me on Twitter for tidbits traveling around the city and become a fan — or like — Second Ave. Sagas on Facebook.
Additionally, I’ve added a few features to the site. I’m now updating on Saturdays and Sundays, usually with just one post per day, and the weekend service advisories will always been available in the main column and on the weekend service advisories page. Bookmark that for easy access.
Meanwhile, it’s Friday night, and you know what that means. The weekend work will slow down after this weekend when Thanksgiving and the holiday season descends on New York. For now, we have another weekend of work. These come to me via New York City Transit and are subject to change without notice. Check the signs in your local station and listen to on-board announcements for the latest. Subway Weekender has the map.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, November 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 22, 1 service is suspended between 242nd Street and 168th Street due to rehab work between 242nd Street and Dyckman Street stations. The A train, free shuttle buses and the M3 bus provide alternate service. Free shuttle buses operate:
- On Broadway between 242nd Street and 215th Street stations, then connecting to the 207th Street A station.
- On St. Nicholas Avenue between 191st and 168th Street stations.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 22, uptown 1 and 2 trains skip 50th, 59th, and 66th Streets due to track work south of 66th Street. Customers traveling to these stations may take the 1 or 2 trains to 72nd Street and transfer to a downtown 1.
From 4 a.m. Saturday, November 20 to 11 p.m. Sunday, November 21, Flushing-bound 7 trains skip 82nd, 90th, 103rd, and 111th Streets due to switch renewal work at 111th Street. Customers traveling to these stations may take a Flushing-bound 7 to Junction Blvd. or Willets Point and transfer to a Manhattan-bound 7.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 22, Manhattan-bound A trains run on the F line from Jay Street to West 4th Street, then local to 59th Street-Columbus Circle due to work on platform edges, tiles and stairs at Broadway-Nassau St. Manhattan-bound A trains skip High, Broadway-Nassau, Chambers, Canal and Spring Streets. Customers traveling to these stations may take the A to West 4th Street and transfer to a downtown A.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 22, A trains bypass Broadway-Nassau St. due to work on the Fulton Street Transit Center.
From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, November 20 and Sunday, November 21, there are no C trains between Manhattan and Brooklyn due to preparation work on the Culver Viaduct. C trains are rerouted to the E line between Canal Street and World Trade Center station, the last stop. (When we do work on the Viaduct, we usually suspend the C because operating the F on the A, C line in Brooklyn would causes delays if all three lines are operating together. However, suspending the C would cause the A to make all local stops in Manhattan and Brooklyn which would increase travel time. Instead, we are rerouting the C to the WTC station to accommodate E customers. The A will run normally in Manhattan and Brooklyn and the F will run local in Brooklyn on the A,C line to Euclid Avenue.)
From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, November 20 and Sunday, November 21, C trains bypass Broadway-Nassau Street due to work on the Fulton Street Transit Center.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 22 in Manhattan, D trains run local between 34th Street and West 4th Street due to work on the 5th Avenue Interlocking Signal System. In Brooklyn, D trains run local on the R line between 36th Street and DeKalb Avenue due to preparation work on the Culver Viaduct.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 22, Coney Island-bound D trains run on the N line from 36th Street to Coney Island/Stillwell Avenue due to structural repair and station rehabs from 71st Street to Bay 50th Street and ADA work at Bay Parkway. There will be no Coney Island-bound D trains at 9th Avenue, Ft. Hamilton Parkway, 50th, 55th, 71st, 79th Streets, 18th and 20th Avenues, Bay Parkway, 25th Avenue and Bay 50th Street stations. To reach these stations, customers may take the D or N to New Utrecht Avenue/62nd Street or Coney Island/Stillwell Avenue and transfer to a Manhattan-bound D.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 22, E trains run on the F line between Roosevelt Avenue and 34th Street-6th Avenue due to work on the 5th Avenue Interlocking Signal System. The platforms at 5th Avenue, Lexington Avenue-53rd Street and 23rd Street-Ely Avenue stations are closed. Customers may take the R, 6 or free shuttle buses. Shuttle buses connect Court Square (G)/23rd Street-Ely Avenue (E), the Queens Plaza (R), and the 21st Street-Queensbridge (F) stations.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, November 19, to 5 a.m. Monday, November 22, free shuttle buses replace F trains between Jay Street and Church Avenue due to preparation work on the Culver Viaduct. F trains run in two sections:
- Between 179th Street and Jay Street, then rerouted on the C to Euclid Avenue and
- Between Church Avenue and Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, November 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 22, G trains operate between Court Square and Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. Customers may take the A or F at Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. to Jay Street and transfer to a free shuttle bus making all F, G stops to Church Avenue. These changes are due to work on a temporary platform, signal work and preparation work on the Culver Viaduct.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, November 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 22, free shuttle buses replace M service due to platform edge rehabilitation between Metropolitan Avenue and Myrtle Avenue-Broadway.
From 12:30 a.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday, November 21, free shuttle buses replace N trains between Ditmars Blvd. and Queensboro Plaza due to work on the elevated structure.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 22, Brooklyn-bound N trains are rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge from Canal Street to DeKalb Avenue due to grouting and track work at Cortlandt Street. There is no N service at City Hall, Rector, Whitehall, Court, and Lawrence Streets. Customers may use the 4 train at nearby stations instead.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 22, Manhattan-bound N trains run on the D line from Coney Island/Stillwell Avenue to 36th Street due to track panel installation between Kings Highway and north of Bay Parkway. There are no Manhattan-bound N trains at 86th Street, Avenue U, Kings Highway, Bay Parkway, 20th Avenue, 18th Avenue, Ft. Hamilton Parkway and 8th Avenue stations.
From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, November 20 and Sunday, November 21, Brooklyn-bound R trains are rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge from Canal Street to DeKalb Avenue due to grouting and track work at Cortlandt Street. There is no N service at City Hall, Rector, Whitehall, Court, and Lawrence Streets. Customers may use the 4 train at nearby stations instead.
Nov
19
New York House delegation asks for ARC money
Posted by: | CommentsWhile it sounds as though the $3 billion in federal money that was to go to the ARC Tunnel is slowly slipping away from the northeast, a group of New York House representatives have written to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood formally requesting the money be transferred to New York. The lawmakers — Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler, Peter King, Gregory Meeks, José Serrano, Paul Tonko, Bill Owens, Nita Lowey, Edolphus Towns, and Steve Israel — have asked for federal support for the Second Ave. Subway, the East Side Access project, Moynihan Station and high-speed rail initiatives.
The money, they say, should remain in the northeast, and since New York City leads the nation in transit riders, it is only natural for the funds to boost federally-qualifying projects. “In a region with strong patterns of mass transit use, coupled with a serious lack of capacity, the taxpayers of this nation can rest assured that federal transportation dollars redirected to projects in our area will be put to good use,” the letter says.
As the fallout from Gov. Chris Christie’s decision to cancel the ARC project has continued, the city has jockeyed for the funds. Recently, Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed to extend the 7 line from 11th Ave. and 34th St. under the Hudson River to Secaucus, New Jersey. He had hoped to secure federal funding for this project, but sources said that LaHood was considering redistributing the money to other eligible New Starts projects. This letter then might just be a last-gaps effort to keep this money in the area.
“We believe,” it says, “that it makes sense to keep the New Jersey transportation funds in this region to help address our area’s severe and growing transportation needs. We have great projects underway that can make effective use of the funding.”
After the jump, read the full text of the letter. Read More→
Nov
19
A broken escalator and a credibility gap
Posted by: | CommentsIn the Daily News today, Erin Durkin has a fairly routine story on an escalator outage at the High St. subway stop. One of the escalators at the deep-cavern station has been out since September 9, and despite MTA pledges to fix it in a timely fashion, the authority has already missed three repair dates. Many older riders struggle to mount the 60 stairs, and Brooklyn politicians are disappointed. “A broken escalator is frustrating, but missed deadlines and broken promises make a bad problem a whole lot worse,” State Senator Daniel Squadron said.
The MTA has long had a touch-and-go relationship with its escalators. Sometimes, the private developers responsible for maintaining the escalators don’t pick up their end of the deal; at other times, Transit’s own crews underestimate the amount of time it takes to complete the job. It doesn’t matter what the excuse is, but this problem gets at the MTA’s credibility gap. No matter how much effort the authority puts toward internal restructuring and cost-cutting, no matter how many improvements they make, until they can show to the public that seemingly minor repairs — such as a broken escalator — can be made in an efficiently and timely fashion, New Yorkers will never believe the authority can do all it says it can do in the transit realm.
One teacher who lives in Brooklyn Heights put it best. “We don’t believe them anymore,” Helen Pearlstein said. “They say the end of October, then they said the beginning of November, then they said the 15th. Residents here are just so frustrated.”
