Archive for March, 2011
Mar
31
NY’s highest court declines to hear MTA’s wage hike appeal
Posted by: | CommentsThe New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, has declined to hear the MTA’s appeal of arbitration-awarded raise for its unionized workers, The Daily News reported this afternoon. This decision effectively ends the MTA’s long-standing attempts to convince the state judiciary to overturn the binding arbitration award, and it will result in a three percent wage increase for TWU members retroactive to mid-January. “This is a huge victory for transit workers,” TWU Local 100 leader John Samuelsen said to The News. “This finally ends an unnecessary ordeal the MTA put its own employees through after an arbitration award gave us the raise.”
The legal battles the MTA has fought over this raise have been well documented on this site. I’ve always believed the MTA had a duty to pursue an initial attempt to getting a judge to reconsider the arbitration award, but with this final appeal, the authority had little chance of success. Fiscal hardship is not a viable grounds for overturning an arbitration award, and the MTA has expended considerable resources on this case. Either way, it’s over now.
Mar
31
Straphangers: 83% of announcements accurate, audible
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My morning commute from Brooklyn to law school always involves the B train, and it more often than not involves some combination of an inaudible public address system and deafening feedback at some too-early hour of the morning. Of course, those problems aren’t solely unique to the B train. In fact, in-car PA systems throughout the subway range from too loud to inaudible, and even the new pre-recorded announcements seem to have volume control issues. But the Straphangers have anointed a champion in the Bad PA System category, and my B train has won.
In a study released yesterday and conducted in 2010, the Straphangers Campaign found that 83 percent of “basic subway announcements” and clear and accurate. The 5, 6 and dearly departed W train took home the top honors all with a surprising 100 percent accuracy rate, but along the B, only 55 percent of announcements were clear and accurate. Somehow, I’m not surprised.
While I am cynical of my own daily subway line, the Straphangers were pleased with the results. “Transit gets good marks for subway car announcements of basic information,” Cate Contino, the Straphangers Campaign coordinator who oversaw the survey, said.
Yet, for all of the success of the announcements, the MTA seems to falter when it comes to those announcements that aren’t made. The Straphangers found that in 60 percent of delays or disruptions, the announcement never came or was “inaudible, garbled or incorrect.” That figure has grown by five percent since 2009. “A failure to make delay announcement means more stress and confusion for riders,” Jason Chin-Fatt, a Straphangers field organizer, said.
According to the Straphangers’ findings, in 22 percent of delays, the conductor failed to make an announcement. Another 27 percent featured incorrect announcements including those termed “meaningless” by the campaign. Those included the pre-recorded “we have a red signal ahead of us” and those lacking information or filled with MTA jargon. Being told that “We are being held by the train’s dispatcher; we should be moving shortly” does few people real favors. Impatience grows supreme.
The Straphangers say their findings were based on 6000 observations of in-car announcements made by 51 volunteers from January to June of 2010. The MTA doesn’t tally its own figures, but my general feeling is that these results aren’t far from the mark.
Ultimately, these announcements return to a theme that I’ve focused on frequently. It’s all about customer service. To make sure the customer is informed, happy and patient, the MTA should be as detailed as possible but should contain key information. We don’t care that there’s a red signal in front of us; we care that the train isn’t moving and want to know when our journey will resume. If, for an example, an F has to run along the D line to Coney Island, we want to know what that means for future stops.
By and large, I find announcements much clearer and easier to understand on the new cars. The PA systems are crisper, and the FIND displays, if accurate, offer up a nice complement to the station stops. Still, informing riders that they are delayed when we know that already seems pointless. It’s a balancing act.
What the Straphangers Campaign failed to analyze though are the overall quality of the PA systems. On more than one occasion, I’ve sat through ear-splitting feedback on the B train. The high-pitched piercing sound is far more annoying than being told for the umpteenth time there is “train traffic ahead of us.” When that’s fixed, I’ll be happy.
For the full table of announcement quality, check out this pdf.
Mar
30
Once more unto the Second Ave. rabbit hole
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The MTA hosted no ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday nor did local politicians make the trek underground to mark the occasion, but this past week was a big one for the Second Ave. Subway. Adi, the tunnel boring machine that had recently finished digging out the west tunnel, got to work on the east tunnel, the MTA has announced.
Since June 2010, Adi had been hard at work digging out 7162 linear feet for the western tunnel. It mined from 92nd St. underneath 2nd Ave. to 65th Street. Crews will have to blast out the final three blocks to connect the eventually downtown track with the preexisting tunnel underneath 63rd St.
The eastern tunnel, though, will connect through to the unused half of the F train’s 63rd St./Lexington Ave. stop. The second tunnel will be 7800 feet long, and the authority described the route: “On its journey, the second tunnel will make a tight, westerly curve into the existing 63rd Street Station. Once completed, the tunnel will receive the concrete lining which provides the permanent tunnel structure.”
The MTA again reiterated that the Second Ave. Subway remains on track for a December 2016 revenue service date, but as we know, the authority’s construction timelines tend to be somewhat flexible near the end. No matter the eventual wrap date for Phase 1, it seems as though economics, politics and a tunnel boring machine will push the Second Ave. Subway off the pages of the city’s history books and onto the subway map before too many years are up. Too much work has happened for the line to fail now.
Mar
30
Photo of the Day: The Pelham-bound Swatch Train
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For the next eight weeks, East Side riders can catch the Swatch-wrapped 6 train. (Photo courtesy of New York City Transit)
Take a look at this 6 train. It’s the latest and greatest from the MTA’s advertising department. For the next eight weeks, as part of the authority’s attempts to draw in more advertising revenue, this 6 train will be fully wrapped in Swatch ads. On the heels of last year’s Target campaign, this is the second such fully-wrapped train.
“The MTA earns more than $100 million per year from sales of advertising space, mostly through traditional print media, but we continue to map out new ways to maximize the value of our physical assets,” MTA Chairman Jay Walder said in a statement. “One way we are doing that is by creating more dynamic advertising opportunities.”
To draw in more money, the MTA is also looking into 3D images and in-tunnel advertising. All of this advertising is a balm for hurt minds indeed.
Mar
29
The son of the return of Poetry in Motion
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Poetry has been noticeably absent from the subway of late.
For nearly two decades, placards of poetry greeted observant straphangers in various subway cars across New York City. While these bright spots of art and literature amidst the drabness of subway advertising proved popular, “Poetry in Motion” met its demise in 2008, and a similar program called “Train of Thought” replaced it. When the MTA rebranded its house ads, “Train of Thought” was axed, and New York’s literati were saddened.
Have hope though because the MTA may be searching for ways to restore poetry to the subway. Michael Grynbaum broke the news yesterday. The authority, he says, “has entered preliminary talks to revive Poetry in Motion.” He writes:
The transportation authority is discussing the matter with the Poetry Society of America, which helped coordinate the original “Poetry in Motion” campaign from its inception in 1992. The series, modeled on a similar program on the London Underground, brought Yeats and Browning into the unusual locale of a gritty subway train, peppering the usual Dr. Zizmor ads with classics of literary verse.
“Walder really loves the poetry; I wouldn’t be surprised to see it come back,” said an official at the transportation authority who is familiar with the plans, referring to the authority’s chairman, Jay H. Walder. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about discussions that were intended to be private.
The Poetry Society is said to be seeking a financial sponsor for the campaign, which would be a prerequisite. Officers at the society declined to comment.
If the poetry makes the subways seem friendlier, I’m all for it. Spotting a verse or two in the trains always brought a smile to my face. Even if the verses aren’t quite as out there as some, the return of “Poetry in Motion” would be welcome indeed.
Mar
29
Coming even sooner: Wireless undergound
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The MTA’s never-ending plans to bring wi-fi and cell phone service underground may soon be coming to a head. According to a PC Magazine report, the first stations to enjoy — or suffer through — cell signals may be outfitted before the year is out. Of course, international cities and even those a few hundred miles south will have long surpassed New York’s drive for not-so-cutting edge technology, but progress is progress nonetheless.
Sara Yin of the tech mag had a few scant details to report:
AT&T and T-Mobile customers will be the first to receive wireless Internet at select Manhattan subway stations as part of a pilot program launching late this year, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) said.
Kevin Ortiz, a spokesman for the MTA, said contractor Transit Wireless will launch a pilot program “in the backend of this year” providing wireless connectivity at the five subway stations along the 14th Street corridor. These include: 14th and Broadway, 14th and Sixth Avenue, 14th and Eighth Avenue, 14th and Third Avenue, and 14th and First Avenue.
“We’ll give them an additional four years after that to outfit the rest of the system, assuming all goes well with the pilot,” Ortiz added.
For those who have watched this story progress since late 2007, this his hardly breaking news. Those stations — actually six because PC Magazine omitted the 23rd St. stop — have long been on the initial list of those slated for the cell service pilot. What is promising however is the MTA’s insistence that Transit Wireless will have to “outfit the rest of the system” before 2015 is over. Part of me wants to say that I’ll believe it when I see it, but right now, the countdown clocks are more of a reality than I ever expected them to be.
As this project moves forward, the debate will of course center around personal space and overall quiet vs. the cacophony of cell conversations. In Brooklyn, a few stops from my local station, the B and Q trains head aboveground, and cell phones are the norm. Usually, the conversations are quiet and respectful, but as I learned two weeks ago while waiting at Queensboro Plaza, those around you can have obnoxiously loud conversations at an elevated subway stop. For millions of New Yorkers who never venture to the open-air areas of the system, cell service underground will be a new experience.
Of course, as New York lumbers forward with what will optimistically be an eight-year plan to bring cell service underground, London expects that its Tube customers will be “checking their emails” by 2012. In a release published last week, Transport for London announced that it is soliciting bids from telecom providers who would wire the system’s 120 systems for wireless access in advance of next year’s Summer Olympics. Their system is older than ours and deeper, and yet, I’d imagine they’ll have cellular access underground before we do. Need I say more?
Mar
28
Quick Hits: Trash trains, TWU negotiations, LI Bus
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve been pretty busy lately with less time than I’d like to devote to the site. I haven’t had much time to do much long-form reporting over the last few wees, but there are still a series of newsworthy happenings. Let’s run them down.
Profiling the train that collects the trash
After much hand-wringing over the cleanliness of eating on the subway, Pete Donohue took a ride on the garbage collection train for his Daily News column this week. Deep in Brooklyn, Donohue hopped the Southern, one of eight garbage trains currently in use and rode one of the 9:30 p.m.-to-5 a.m. shifts. Transit crews, he reports, pick up 90 tons of garbage per day, and perhaps that’s why rodents are so numerous underground.
Rife: Keeping an eye on the looming labor negotiations
Up in the Hudson Valley, Judy Rife of the Times Herald-Record has her eye on the looming negotiations between the MTA and the TWU. MTA CEO Jay Walder has vowed to maintain a “net zero” increase in the cost of labor spending as the union contracts come due, and Rife wants to hold Walder to his promise. “There can’t be any increase in the value of the contract, but raises are still possible if they’re counter-balanced by other savings,” MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said to her. This is clearly a story I’ll be following this year.
Inside the Long Island Bus battle
In the Our Towns section in The Times today, Peter Applebome profiles the LI Bus debate. The fight between Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and the MTA is well-trodden territory for SAS readers, but essentially, the county wants the MTA to foot the operations costs for Long Island Bus despite agreeing to fund the bill itself. The MTA has proposed cutting more than half of the bus routes, and Mangano keeps making noises about privatization despite extreme skepticism.
Politicians and activists are watching this fight to see how it’s resolved. “Simply put, County Executive Mangano is dreaming,” Kate Slevin, head of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, said last week. “Let me make this clear — no other system in the country does what Mangano wants to do. Most county governments with private systems provide much more in the way of government funding, not less.”
Mar
28
On taking up more space on buses and trains
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These subway seats were clearly designed for people skinnier than most New Yorkers. (Photo by flickr user dysolution)
Whenever I find myself on a 1980s-era subway car, I always marvel at the width of the bucket seats. I’m the right size for my height, and I’m in good shape, if I do say so myself. But no matter what, I can’t squeeze myself into the confines of a bucket seat. A part of me — my arm, my jacket, my hip — will spill out over the edge of my designated seat, and someone will either be unable to sit next to me or find themselves uncomfortably squished.
This drama repeats itself millions of times throughout the city on a daily basis. Folks larger than I am find a space with three bucket seats capable of seating just one, and those annoying two-seaters on the R68s end up with one person and half a seat remaining. In the winter, when bulky layers and bigger coats add to our heft, the situation worsens. And forget buses. Those don’t have enough leg room or customer space for even the Kate Mosses among us.
For certain modes of transportation, space determinations are made at the governmental level. The MTA decides how crowded, in terms of pure numbers, a subway car can be before it is deemed to be full. Right now, those load guidelines dictate that a train car is full when every seat is taken and 25 percent of the passengers are standing. But just how much space should one person take up?
Right now, for safety standards, the Federal Transit Administration establishes space guidelines for buses, and as The Times recently reported, those could change soon. Michael Cooper reported last week:
Bus riders are currently estimated to weigh a mere 150 pounds when federal regulators test new buses. But that is about to change, if the Federal Transit Administration gets its way: the agency issued a proposal this month to increase the assumed average weight of bus passengers to 175 pounds so that its tests will “better reflect the actual loads that buses are already carrying in service today.”
Exactly why the estimated weight of travelers should differ slightly depending on whether they go by land, sea or air — calling to mind those scales in planetariums which show that Earthlings weigh less on Mercury, but more on Jupiter — is one of those mysteries that are sometimes puzzled over by close readers of The Federal Register. But the trend line here is as clear as the nation’s widening waistlines: Americans are getting heavier, and federal safety regulators must take that into account.
Federal officials said that they believe the current 150-pound standard for bus passengers comes from a national health survey dating to the “Mad Men” era…The transit agency is proposing another change for its bus tests: it wants to assume standing straphangers take up 1.75 square feet of floor space, up from the current 1.5 square feet “to acknowledge the expanding girth of the average passenger.”
Even the 175-pound figure is a bit generous. As Cooper notes, “the mean average weight is now 194.7 pounds for men and 164.7 pounds for women.” Most of us would be cramped on a bus in which the assumed average weight is only a handful of pounds more than my own.
Also laughable are the current standards. According to the feds, they’ve been in place since the early 1970s and are based on numbers from the early 1960s. No wonder everyone seems cramped.
On the subways, under the purview of the MTA, the obvious solution involves bench seating, and the new rolling stock certainly incorporates that idea. What we lose in seating space due to those who take up more than their fair share, we gain in comfort. Buses, though, have a long way to go, and while allocating 1.75 square feet of floor space to a bus rider instead of the current 1.5 square-foot standard would improve conditions, the bucket seats remain uncomfortable for everyone.
Mar
26
Weekend work impacting 11 subway lines
Posted by: | CommentsI didn’t have a chance to post these last night, but you know the drill. These come to me via Transit and are subject to change without notice. Check signs at your local station and listen to on-board announcements for the latest and greatest. Subway Weekender has the map.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 26 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 28, Bronx-bound 2 trains skip Bronx Park East, Pelham Parkway, Allerton and Burke Avenues due to track circuit work at Bronx Park East.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 26 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 28, 4 trains run local between 125th Street and Brooklyn Bridge in both directions due to track work at Grand Central-42nd Street and rail replacement north of Brooklyn Bridge.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, March 25 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 28, 5 service is suspended between Dyre Avenue and 149 Street-Grand Concourse due to work on track signals north of East 180th Street. Customers should take the 2 between East 180th Street and 149th Street-Grand Concourse. Free shuttle buses are available between East 180th Street and Dyre Avenue.
From 6 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Saturday, March 26 and from 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Sunday, March 27, 5 trains:
- Run every 20 minutes between 149th Street-Grand Concourse and Bowling Green.
- Run local between 125th Street and Brooklyn Bridge in both directions.
These changes are due to track work at Grand Central-42nd Street and rail work north of Brooklyn Bridge.
From 3:30 a.m. Saturday, March 26 to 10 p.m. Sunday, March 27, free shuttle buses replace 7 trains between Main Street and Willets Point due to switch renewal work south of Mets-Willets Point. Customers may transfer between the 7 and free shuttle bus at Mets-Willets Point.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 26 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 28, Brooklyn-bound A trains run local from 59th Street-Columbus Circle to West 4th Street, then reroute to the F line to Jay Street-MetroTech skipping the Spring, Canal, Chambers, Fulton and High Sts. stations. This is due to work on the Fulton Street Transit Center and track circuit work south of High Street.
From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, March 26 and Sunday, March 27, Brooklyn-bound C trains run on the F line from West 4th Street to Jay Street-MetroTech skipping the Spring, Canal, Chambers, Fulton and High Sts. stations. This is due to work on the Fulton Street Transit Center and track circuit work south of High Street.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 26 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 28, Manhattan-bound D trains run on the N line from Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue to 36th Street due to structural repair and station rehabilitations. There are no Manhattan-bound D trains at Bay 50th, 25th Avenue, Bay Parkway, 20th and 18th Avs., 79th , 71st, 55th, and 50th Streets, Ft. Hamilton Parkway and 9th Avenue.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 26 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 28, Brooklyn-bound F trains skip 23rd and 14th Streets due to substation rehabilitation and platform edge replacement at 34th Street.
From 3:30 a.m. Saturday, March 26 to 10 p.m. Sunday, March 27, J service is suspended between Jamaica Center and Crescent Street due to track work at 111th Street. Customers should take the E to Jamaica-Van Wyck. Free shuttle buses are available between Jamaica-Van Wyck E station and Crescent Street.
From 5:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, March 26 and Sunday, March 27, free shuttle buses replace L trains between Broadway Junction and Rockaway Parkway due to electrical work.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 26 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 28, during the daytime hours (6:30 a.m. to midnight), service is suspended between 57th Street-7th Avenue and Times Square-42nd Street. During the overnight hours (midnight to 6:30) service is suspended between 57th Street-7th Avenue and Atlantic Avenue. Customers should take the N instead. Q trains run every 30 minutes between Atlantic Avenue and Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue.
From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, March 26 and Sunday, March 27, R trains are rerouted to the F line between Queens and Manhattan. Trains will make R stops between Forest Hills-71st Avenue and 36th Street, then make F stops between 21st Street-Queensbridge and Lexington Avenue-63rd Street, then resume service on the R line at 57th Street-7th Avenue. For service to and from Queens Plaza, Lexington Avenue-59th Street and 5th Avenue-59th Street, customers may use the E, F, 4, or 6 instead.
Mar
25
Assembly sort of sticking up for MTA millions
Posted by: | CommentsYesterday afternoon, Streetsblog reporter Noah Kazis alerted to the world to a potentially crippling raid on transit funding from the good folks in Albany. As part of the looming budget discussions, the legislature could remove an additional $170 million from the MTA’s budget. Around $70 million of that would come from the partial repeal of the payroll tax, and the other $100 million would come in the form of discretionary spending. Combined with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to cut $100 million, the MTA could be staring down the wrong end of a $270 million budget hole.
Today, Jim Brennan, chair of the Assembly’s Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, vowed to protect the MTA’s budget. Noah Kazis reports:
According to Brennan’s legislative director, Lorrie Smith, the Assembly remains opposed to having its money be used for the MTA, but will find another source for that $100 million. “The MTA is not going to lose that money,” she said. “Mr. Brennan’s main goal here is to protect the MTA’s budget.” It is not clear, however, what the alternative source for that $100 million will be.
Smith also told us that the payroll tax exemption was not going to make it into any final budget. “The payroll tax, as I understand it, is off the table,” said Smith, “because the Assembly is adamantly opposed to it.” According to the leaked memo we reported on yesterday, the Cuomo administration is also opposed to cutting back the payroll tax in this budget.
Finally, Smith revealed that a third transit issue is keeping the transportation section of the budget from being completed: Long Island Bus, which recently cut more than half of its lines. “This is an issue that is being decided some place above us,” said Smith, who knew only that negotiations were ongoing.
Better late than never, I guess, but I’m not going to hold my breath quite yet. The state has a huge budget gap, and transit funding has always been the first to go in times of crises.
