Archive for May, 2011
May
31
Policy Idea of the Day: Privatizing the Northeast Corridor
Posted by: | CommentsAs Amtrak moves forward with plans to bring high-speed rail to the Northeast Corridor, House Transportation Committee Chair John Mica would prefer to see someone other than the federal government oversee the nation’s most profitable rail line. As the Associated Press reported last week, Mica has called for the privatization of the Northeast Corridor. “I believe that we have great potential in the Northeast corridor,” Mica said. “The only thing standing in the way is Amtrak or the federal government or Congress.”
Essentially, Mica wants the government to sell its only profitable rail line while Amtrak itself would prefer to see private investment help fund the high-speed rail network. At a time when many believe the federal government should focus its high-speed rail resources solely on the Northeast Corridor, Mica’s announcement is a peculiar one. For now, at least, the Northeast Corridor helps offset the losses the federal government suffers by supporting the rest of Amtrak’s national rail network. Severing it isn’t an economically sound policy proposal.
In the House, Mica and John Duncan say they have enough votes to pass the plan, but the Senate wouldn’t usher this move through. New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg warned that ticket prices, already high, would immediately increase under a privatized plan, but those are the least of our worries. Yonah Freemark believes that privatization would spell the end of the competition currently fueling the Northeast Corridor’s profitability while Alon Levy says that FRA regulations are to blame for any inefficiencies in Amtrak’s operations.
May
31
Lawsuit of the Day: On the G train…
Posted by: | CommentsToday’s injured passenger lawsuit is brought to you by the letter G. Meet Jonathan Lynn. Last August, he attempted to board a G train at Classon Ave. only to find that the doors were shutting. He made that mad dash down the platform, stuck his arm into an open door and found himself being dragged by the train. After suffering a series of horrific injuries, including multiple arm fractures, he is suing the MTA and the train’s operators.
In the Daily News article, Lynn at first claims the train’s operator waved him along, but he later seems to contradict that statement. “I didn’t think it was real. [I thought] the door’s going to open, he’s going to stop, he’s going to hear me,” Lynn said. “I bounced off one of the pillars, hit my head and that’s the extent of my memory.”
If it sounds fishy to you, it certainly does to me. I’m guessing Lynn tried to board a train right as it was closing, the conductor failed to see him in time and the driver started the train. As a poll attached to The Daily News article shows, already people are overreacting to an injury that is likely partially the fault of the victim as well. People will rabble for more safety precautions; politicians will wring their hands; and the case will settle. The lesson here: Just wait for the next train. It’s never that far away.
May
31
The not-so-lofty goals of tomorrow’s transportation
Posted by: | CommentsAs we survey the New York City transportation landscape, nothing very big is happening. The MTA has its so-called megaprojects churning as the Second Ave. Subway, 7 line extension and East Side Access Project all inch toward completion dates later this decade, but there is nothing in the works that will reshape or revolutionize transit in the area. Instead, we have clogged roads in desperate need of repair, traffic that needs mitigating and a subway system that needs significant investment.
Meanwhile, the Transportation of the Future is on the minds of a few folks lately, and the topics are less than exciting. In a multi-story package last week, The Wall Street Journal delved into Tomorrow’s Transportation and determined that monorails and, uh, buses are the future of transportation. Pardon me if neither of those modalities make me jump for joy. The price tags may be more alluring that deep-bore subway construction; the offerings may be greener than massive road expansion plans; but somewhere along the way, we forgot to think big.
The Journal’s article about buses focuses on tried-and-true BRT with pre-board fare payment, dedicated lanes and the works. It’s not really about the sub-par BRT imitation New York is laying down because our transit policy folks are brow-beaten by a bunch of NIMBYs. It is full of the typical over-the-top love of bus lanes as the article calls BRT a “modern transit system that combines the flexibility of buses with the speed, comfort and reliability of rail.”
The article reads as something out of the Walter Hook Manual for BRT, and a recent release from the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy sounds familiar themes. BRT, says the release, “combines the flexibility of buses with the speed and priority of light rail, but at a fraction of the cost of rail.”
There is no denying that bus rapid transit is the popular modality these days. “BRT projects can be put in place quickly, and integrate well with other transportation modes, from subways to cycling and walking, while fitting today’s often constrained budgets,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat, said. “Now more than ever it is important to find creative solutions to provide affordable transportation options that meet the needs of our communities and residents and keep our economy moving forward.”
And yet, BRT can’t approximate rail. For a BRT lane to deliver the capacity a subway can — and particularly in New York — the operator would have to run something on the order of 40 buses an hour. BRT may be cheaper than building out a subway line or light rail, but you get what you pay for. As Yonah Freemark noted, there’s nothing wrong with that.
In dispensing with the Rail vs. BRT fight, Freemark noted that the two modalities should not be pitted against each other. Rather, they should be used in concert to form a better overall transit network experience. He writes:
The real divisions between bus and rail are political: For those who would fight for improved transit systems in their cities, the truth is that rail projects do certainly have more appeal among members of the public. Thus a billion-dollar rail project may be easier to stomach for a taxpaying and voting member of the citizenry than a quarter-billion BRT line. While the former is qualitatively different than what most car drivers are used to, the latter mode is too easily lumped in with the city bus, which car users have already paid to avoid.
Better transit can come in many forms, but in a country in which the vast majority of people have no contact with public transportation this side of Disney World, making the argument for investments in more buses is difficult, to say the least. BRT is just not sexy until you’ve experienced it. Which is why the considerable success of BRT in South America has not convinced many U.S. cities to abandon their ambitions for more rail.
Articles like those in the Journal and the Globe and Mail, despite their positive assessments of the potential for BRT, nonetheless reinforce the sense that BRT is inferior to rail by putting the two in contrast to one another, rather than focusing on the relative benefits of each. By continuously describing BRT as an economical way to get something like light rail, all that comes across is that it’s cheap.
What do we do then in an area in which our politicians aren’t willing to do anything for any form of transportation? City officials haven’t stood up for their modified Select Bus Service — or BRT Lite — plans, and rail expansion is a non-starter because of the price tags. The status quo can’t keep up with demand under or above ground. So let’s just throw everything out and start building monorails instead. If it works in China and Mumbai, it can work here, right?
May
27
Memorial Day weekend service changes
Posted by: | CommentsI’m off for the long weekend. Enjoy.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, May 27 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 30, there are no 1 trains between 14th Street and South Ferry due to Port Authority work at the WTC site. 2, 3 trains and free shuttle buses provide alternate service. 1 trains operate express between 34th Street and 14th Street. 2 and 3 trains run local in both directions between Chambers and 96th Streets. Free shuttle buses replace 1 trains between Chambers Street and South Ferry. Overnight notes: 3 trains run express between 148th and 42nd Streets. 1 trains run local between 168th and 14th Streets.
From 4 a.m. Saturday, May 28 to 10 p.m. Monday, May 30, Bronx-bound 2 trains skip Jackson Avenue, Prospect Avenue, Intervale Avenue, Simpson Street, Freeman Street, 174th Street and East Tremont Avenue due to track panel installation at Freeman Street and 174th Street.
From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m., Saturday, May 28, Sunday, May 29, and Monday, May 30 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday, May 31, downtown 4 trains skip 33rd, 28th, 23rd Streets, Astor Place, Bleecker, Spring and Canal Streets due to gap filler replacement at 14th Street-Union Square. Customers traveling to these stations may take the 4 to 14th Street-Union Square or Brooklyn Bridge and transfer to an uptown 4.
From 5:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Saturday, May 28, from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Sunday, May 29 and Monday, May 30, Bronx-bound 5 trains skip Jackson Avenue, Prospect Avenue, Intervale Avenue, Simpson Street, Freeman Street, 174th Street and East Tremont Avenue due to track panel installation at Freeman Street and 174th Street. Note: During this time, trains run every 20 minutes between Dyre Avenue and Bowling Green.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 28 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, May 31, downtown 6 trains skip 33rd, 28th, 23rd Streets, Astor Place, Bleecker, Spring and Canal Streets due to gap filler replacement at 14th Street-Union Square. Customers traveling to these stations may take the 6 to 14th Street-Union Square and transfer to an uptown 6.
From 12:30 a.m. to 7 a.m. Sunday, May 29, Flushing-bound trains stop at the Manhattan-bound platforms at Hunters Point Avenue and Vernon Blvd.-Jackson Avenue due to track and signal inspection in the under river tunnel.
During the overnight hours, from 11 p.m. Friday, May 27 to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, May 28, from 11 p.m. Saturday, May 28 to 6:30 a.m. Sunday, May 29, and from 11 p.m. Sunday, May 29 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 30, uptown A trains skip 72nd, 81st, 86th, 96th, 103rd, 110th, and 116th Streets due track work south of 110th Street.
From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, May 28 and Sunday, May 29, uptown C trains skip 72nd, 81st, 86th, 96th, 103rd, 110th and 116th Streets due to track work south of 110th Street.
During the overnight hours, from 11:30 p.m. Friday, May 27 to 5 a.m. Saturday, May 28, from 11:30 p.m. Saturday, May 28 to 6 a.m. Sunday, May 29, and from 11:30 p.m. Sunday, May 29 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 30, Manhattan-bound E trains skip 65th Street, Northern Blvd., 46th Street, Steinway Street and 36th Street due to track work north of 36th Street.
From 11 p.m. Friday, May 27 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, May 31, Queens-bound F trains skip 14th Street and 23rd Street due to platform edge and track work at 34th Street. Customers traveling to these stations may take the F to West 4th Street and transfer to a downtown F.
From 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday, May 29, Queens-bound F trains skip Avenue U due to rubbing board and platform edge repair.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, May 27 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 30, free shuttle buses replace L trains between Lorimer Street and Broadway Junction due to yard fence work and track work at Myrtle Avenue and Halsey Avenue.
From 4 a.m. Saturday, May 28 to 10 p.m. Monday, May 30, Brooklyn-bound N trains skip 30th Avenue, Broadway, 36th Avenue and 39th Avenue due to structure painting.
From 6:30 a.m. Saturday, May 28 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, May 31, N trains run local in Brooklyn between DeKalb Avenue and 59th Street in both directions due to structure painting.
From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m., Saturday, May 28, Manhattan-bound Q trains run on the R line from DeKalb Avenue to Canal Street due to rail repairs. Trains stop at Jay Street-MetroTech, Court, Whitehall, Rector and Cortlandt Streets and City Hall.
From 5 a.m. to 6 a.m., Sunday, May 29, Brooklyn-bound R trains skip 65th Street, Northern Blvd, 46th Street, Steinway Street and 36th Street due to track work north of 36th Street. Customers traveling to these stations may take the E or R to Queens Plaza and transfer to a Forest Hills/71st Avenue-bound E or R.
May
27
Photo of the Day: Court Square to open on June 3
Posted by: | CommentsThe never-ending Court Square saga appears to be coming to an end. A SAS tipster sent in the following photo yesterday, and it features good news for Queens commuters who have been dying for the new station complex to open.
So there you have it. Incontrovertible photo proof that after years of wrangling between the MTA and Citi, the station complex and its new entrance will finally open, countless months late. It’s about time, eh?
May
27
MTA upgrading parts at over 200 stations
Posted by: | CommentsAs the MTA has ramped up its push for capital funding, the state of its stations has come under the microscope. The Straphangers Campaign is hosting a photo contest featuring pictures that show decay (and beauty) while stations themselves are infested with mold. Now, says MTA head Jay Walder, the authority will aggressively try to address these problems.
As part of the much-heralded component-based repair system, the MTA is currently attempting to fix up parts of 53 stations throughout the city, and as The Daily News reported yesterday, the authority hopes to add 173 more stations to that list before the next 12 months are up. “There are structural conditions in many of our stations that we shouldn’t be satisfied with,” Walder said to Pete Donohue. “I think we’re addressing them. The level of station activity that is taking place and will be taking place in the coming months, frankly, is unprecedented in our system.”
Per The News, most of these fixes will focus around cosmetic upgrades and physical improvements such as “replacing canopies, stairwells and platform edges.” The repairs won’t include full station overhauls, and many of the system’s dingiest stations won’t see the rehabs they desperately need any time soon. Putting lipstick on a pig is a good first step, but it shouldn’t be the last in an effort to improve the appearance of our rapidly aging subway infrastructure.
May
27
On the causes of the decline in bus ridership
Posted by: | CommentsWhen the MTA cut service last year, they made subway travel slightly less convenient. Waits were a minute or two longer as trains were somewhat more crowded, but by and large, other than those who took the M to lower Manhattan or relied upon it along 4th Ave. in Brooklyn, the subway cuts went largely unnoticed. In fact, ridership has continued to climb despite the service reductions.
The bus cuts, on the other hand, produced some rather dramatic results. Take a look below at the chart showing bus ridership since March 2009. This is not a trend which we should be applauding.
On the most basic level, the cause of this slowdown in bus ridership can be traced to the service cuts. The MTA eliminated numerous high-cost routes that, despite low ridership levels, served a good number of people in the aggregate, and it cut back other service on nights and weekends. If there are fewer buses, there will be fewer bus riders. That’s just a basic lesson in transit economics.
Yet, on a more advanced level, the MTA says more is at work here. That bus ridership declined by 13.2 percent while subway ridership increased by 12.6 percent can’t just be explained by the service cuts, and in the Wall Street Journal this week, Andrew Grossman tried to find out just what’s going on here. The authority is blaming everything from the economy and socioeconomic makeup of bus riders to increased surface congestion. “We don’t know exactly why, but we’re seeing a decline in the inner portions of the boroughs,” MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said to The Journal. “One thing that is contributing to that is traffic congestion. The buses just are not traveling at optimal speeds. Other than that, we can’t really pinpoint why ridership is declining on portions of these routes.”
Grossman pinpoints a number of other potential causes:
Some of the decline is by design. When the MTA eliminated dozens of bus routes last summer to save money, it focused on places where buses ran along subway lines. The B39, for example, used to run over the Williamsburg Bridge—right next to the J, M and Z trains. The authority also reduced the frequency of certain bus routes. At the same time, subways have gotten some high-profile improvements, such as digital clocks that tell straphangers when the next train is coming…
Another factor: Buses are breaking down more often. MTA data show the average distance a bus travels before it needs repair has been decreasing as the bus fleet ages…Then there’s a city economy in which some neighborhoods are thriving while others struggle. That’s one of the causes MTA Chairman Jay Walder pointed to when asked about the decline Wednesday. “Some of it may also have to do with the ways in which the economic recovery is taking hold and the ridership in different parts of the city,” he said.
Neighborhood farthest from subway routes have some of the city’s worst joblessness, according to data compiled by the James Parrott of the Fiscal Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning think tank. In places such as Flatlands and East Flatbush in southern Brooklyn, which have subway lines only at their edges, the unemployment rate was around 13% in the third quarter of 2010, Mr. Parrott said. People without jobs have fewer reasons to travel. Meanwhile, they have to pay more for trips they do take since the fare went up at the end of 2010.
Meanwhile, it doesn’t sound as though the situation is going to improve any time soon. With the onslaught of 328 new articulated buses, the MTA will scale back bus service even further in the coming years. It might just be the perfect storm of economic factors, service cuts and unreliable service. Maybe the buses will gain in popularity when the MTA’s BusTime tracking program has spread throughout the city. But maybe, if the authority doesn’t support bus service, ridership will continue to bleed away from an important piece of the surface transportation puzzle.
May
26
Walder: Panhandling numbers down, not eliminated
Posted by: | CommentsWhen Mayor Bloomberg two weeks ago announced that there aren’t very many panhandlers left in the subway, he drew the ire of, well, most straphangers and homeless advocates across New York. Panhandling, as anyone who rides the subway knows, is alive and well underground. Beggars, musicians, kids selling candy: you name it, and it’s there. Yesterday, though, MTA head Jay Walder tried to clarify Bloomberg’s comments, and his point is a valid one.
While speaking with reporters after yesterday’s MTA Board, Walder addressed panhandling. He noted that “panhandlers are certainly something that you do see in the system” but allowed for a decrease in numbers lately. “When you compare the situations that you see in the subway today with the situations that some of us will remember from a number of years ago, I think the conditions in the subway today are very, very different,” he said. “I think the N.Y.P.D. has done an excellent job at being able to control and try to deal with this. I would not say that it has been eliminated; I think that is certainly not the case. But I don’t think equally that you can compare what we see today to what you might have seen 30 years ago on the subway.”
It’s tough to deny that panhandling and the presence of homeless people in the subway is has decreased lately, but it’s certainly a problem. Homeless people living in stations create unsafe conditions, and panhandlers of varying degree are a near-daily sight in the subway. As the system is open, cheap and warm, those without reliable shelters will continue to seek safety and change underground. Until the city provides better options, panhandling will be a fact of life underground no matter what the mayor says.
May
26
Put an end to transit raid, says bipartisan coalition
Posted by: | CommentsAfter countless raids and misappropriations of supposedly dedicated MTA funds, a coalition of MTA workers, business leaders, transit activists and state politicians have started to push for a transit funding lockbox. Spearheaded by State Senator Martin Golden and Assembly Member James Brennan and with the support of Transportation Alternatives, the Straphangers Campaign and the TWU, among others, the bipartisan effort could provide another piece in the MTA funding puzzle, and it is a solution long necessary to protect transit funding in New York.
“Albany must keep its promises. Taxes created to fund the MTA should be spent on the MTA. Albany has to stop raiding funds legally dedicated to transit, the environment, roads and bridges,” John Kaehny of Reinvent Albany, whose group has long called for a transit lockbox, said. “Creating a tax for a special purpose and then spending it on something else, is bad policy and bad government. It undermines public faith in government, and fuels cynicism.”
The measure, announced last week by Golden and Brennan, has garnered little press lately, but Allan Rosen brought it to my attention in his latest COMMUTE column on Sheepshead Bites. The bill currently has been referred to committee in Albany, but with some loud and powerful voices behind it, it could move quickly.
“This legislation is for those who ride the buses and trains in New York City and have been asked to pay more for less service,” Golden said in a statement. “The management of our transit system cannot be built around a misguided policy of increases and reductions. It doesn’t make sense that while the quality of the commute of thousands has deteriorated; it’s costing more for them to travel.”
Brennan, the Democrat, echoed his Republican colleague’s sentiments: “The transit system needs every dollar of dedicated tax revenue to pay for mass transit, not diverted to provide budget relief for the State’s deficits. Further sweeps by the State for the MTA’s dedicated funds will be a disaster for mass transit, and this legislation will provide needed protection.”
The bill, which is available in full here, is a simple one. “Diversion of funds dedicated to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and any of its subsidiaries to the general fund of the state is prohibited,” it says. The bill continues:
The director shall be prohibited from diverting revenues derived from taxes and fees paid by the public into a fund created by law for the expressed purposed of funding the MTA or any of its subsidiaries into the general fund of the state or into any other fund maintained for the support of another governmental purpose. No diversion of funds can occur contrary to this section by an administrative act of the director or any other person in the Executive Branch but can occur only upon a statute enacted into law authorizing a diversion that would otherwise be prohibited by this section.
In other words, the legislature can still divert funds, but if it does so, it must adhere to a series of stringent reporting requirements. Any diversion must include the following:
- The amount of the diversion from dedicated mass transit funds.
- The amount diverted from each fund.
- The amount diverted expressed as both monthly transit passes and EZ-Pass toll crossings.
- The cumulative amount of diversion from dedicated mass transit funds during the proceeding five years.
- The date or dates when the diversion is to occur.
- A detailed estimate of the impact of diversion from dedicated mass transit funds will have on the level of mass transit service, maintenance and security.
Essentially, if anyone in Albany is going to divert MTA funds away from transit, they have to be willing to lay out exactly what it means to the millions who rely on the subways, buses and MTA crossings every single day.
Golden, not a supporter of either the Ravitch plan or congestion pricing, has taken on an important role in New York City transit policy. He sits on the Capital Program Review Board, and despite his tenuous relationship with last decades’ funding measures, he has been vocal in calling for an end to these transit raids. With the right allies — including transit workers — this measure could gain momentum.
“The diversion last year of funding for public transportation resulted in the largest service reductions in New York City history,” John Samuelsen, head of the TWU, said. “Pinched funds this year will lead to additional service cutbacks, more dangerous stations and platforms, increased breakdowns of the rolling stock, and a needless decrease in quality-of-life throughout the transit system. The Lockbox legislation is a rational and necessary approach to protect this vitally essential public service, and to speed the economic recovery not only for the City but for the entire region.”
May
25
Living above the other construction zone
Posted by: | CommentsWhile we’ve heard a lot about the folks on the Upper East Side who are living amidst subway construction, stories of those impacted by the 7 line work are few and far better. In its “NY1 For You” report this week, though, the local news station highlighted a couple who have been dealing with the noise since they moved in May. The story though is hardly a sympathetic one.
Renters Anjanette Clisura and Dominic Sinesio moved from California in the beginning of May into the new MiMA building on 42nd Street, but not before asking about the huge construction site right outside their window. “They said that the MTA was doing the 7 line extension but don’t worry everything stops at 6 o’clock,” Clisura said. It didn’t take long for these renters to realize that wasn’t the case. “I’ve hardly slept for 16 nights,” Clisura said.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s construction company has a 24-hour work permit which was issued in November. NY1 contacted the MTA and a spokesman told us the need for overnight work should gradually subside and end at some point in the fall…[A spokeswoman] told us that their realtors only represent to residents the hours of construction they control. She says they can’t speak to adjacent projects.
So essentially, a couple moved into an apartment above a long-term construction site, were reportedly lied to by their rental agent and now are finding that subway work is indeed disruptive. I certainly am sympathetic toward the plight of those who have been living amidst organized (or disorganized) chaos along Second Ave., but people who move into construction areas without adequately preparing themselves for the experience aren’t the types of sob stories over which I shed too many tears.
