Archive for August, 2011
Aug
25
MTA: Irene could lead to ‘full or partial shut down’
Posted by: | CommentsAs New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has declared a state of emergency in advance of the approaching storm, the MTA has issued a new statement on its own preparedness for Hurricane Irene:
The MTA is actively preparing for the impact of Hurricane Irene, coordinating with the Governor’s Office, Mayor’s Office and regional OEMs consistent with our Hurricane Plan. We are making arrangements to bring in extra personnel over the weekend, preparing our facilities and infrastructure by clearing drains, securing work sites against possible high winds, checking and fueling equipment, stocking supplies, and establishing plans to move equipment and supplies away from low-lying areas as needed. Because of the severity of the wind and rain associated with a hurricane, there may be partial or full shut down of our services to ensure the safety of our customers and employees.
We are also prepared to implement evacuation plans if the Mayor and Governor decide that is necessary. We urge our customers to check mta.info frequently and to consider the impacts of this storm when making travel plans through the weekend.
Today’s statement is similar to yesterday’s, but the authority now says they could put a partial or full shut down in place to protect both customers and employees. Certain areas of the subway system in Manhattan and Queens are prone to flooding, and the authority will be closely monitoring those locations as well.
If this storm hits, your best bet is clearly to avoid the transit system. I can’t imagine travel will be at all smooth. Stay home. Be safe.
Aug
25
On switches and train letters for Second Avenue
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I took the Q back from Manhattan to Brooklyn in the middle of the afternoon yesterday. Because it was an off-peak train and the MTA is doing some work north of 57th St., the Q train turned around at 57th St. I boarded a train on the downtown express tracks, and what happened next was something sort of silly.
After 57th St., the Q these days stops at 49th St. to make up for the lost W train. I had thought it made that stop only if it were running into and from Astoria, but apparently, I was wrong. After 57th St., we switched from the downtown express tracks to the downtown local track in order to stop at 47th St. We proceeded along the local track from 49th to Times Square, and after Times Square, we switched back to the express tracks before 34th St. to continue downtown.
Furthermore, before leaving 57th St., we had to wait for an N train to clear in front of us, and we moved in front of an R train, thus holding up another full train at 57th St. At each switch, the train crawled, and by the time we left 34th St., we had probably lost a minute or so of travel time. It struck me as operations planning at its worst when the Q just could have skipped 49th St. while avoiding two switches and creating delays.
In the grand scheme of the MTA, this is a Little Thing. It’s impact on people individually is rather negligible, but it’s an inefficiency. Eventually it might matter.
Now, frequently when I talk about the Second Ave. Subway, readers want to know how the MTA will re-route the BMT Broadway Line. The current plans, developed before we lost the W train, called for the Q to run north from 57th St. to 63rd and Lexington and then up Second Ave. Today, we no longer have the W train, and it’s unclear what the MTA will do. They can’t cut service to Astoria, but they’ll need to run trains to the Upper East Side. It’s a decision that’s at least five years away, but it’s a popular topic nonetheless.
In my opinion, because of the switch, the train that runs up Second Ave. should be an express. The express tracks run north of 57th St. directly to the 63rd and Lexington line, and there’s no reason to slow down anyone’s trip because of the need to switch. The MTA will have to revive some sort of local service to Astoria by then as well. The ideal routing then would include a Q train from Brooklyn to 96th and Second via the Broadway express, the N from Brooklyn to Astoria also via the express, another local — call it the W — to Astoria via the Broadway local and the current R train service.
This is, of course, planning very far ahead, but in the interim, the MTA should eliminate the double switch the off-peak Q makes in the span of three station stops. It’s just unnecessary.
Aug
25
C train flunks in latest Straphangers rankings
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Every year at around this time, the Straphangers Campaign releases another set of its report cards, and every year, I begrudgingly cover them. I understand what the Straphangers are trying to do with the report cards; they’re trying to condense a lot of information about our subway system into an easy-to-understand presentation. But they’re also so kitschy. Do we need a report released in August of 2011 to tell us that our subway trains in mid-2010 were crowded, dirty and often did not arrive as scheduled?
This year, the best thing to arrive out of the Straphangers’ report was the headline on Andrew Grossman’s Wall Street Journal piece: “MTA Has 99 Problems, But J/Z Ain’t One.” The J/Z trains, you see, took top honors in the Straphangers’ poll. Tell that to the folks who have to ride those trains every day.
Anyway, here’s the story in a nutshell: The J/Z ranked top with a MetroCard rating of $1.45 while the 2 and C came in last with a rating of just $0.90. For the C, it’s the third year in a row at the bottom of the list, and that’s largely due to the fact that it has been, until recently, home of the oldest rolling stock in the system. The cars break down more frequently; the announcement are less audible; and the line is generally dirtier.
The report itself covers the first half of 2010, and it’s almost a case of shutting the barn door after the horse escapes. As Straphangers attorney Gene Russianoff said, “Its probably is too early to measure the full impacts of the 2010 cuts, but according to official transit statistics, there were fewer subway car breakdowns in the last half of 2010, while subway car cleanliness and announcements declined slightly in the year. What’s clear is that many riders on the top rated lines are getting much better service than those taking lines that are at the bottom of the barrel.”
In the report, which is available here, the Straphangers discuss their methodology. Basically, they rate across five categories: breakdowns, cleanliness, chance of getting a seat, amount of scheduled service and regularity of service. Unfortunately, by focusing on line-by-line variables, the report misses the forest for the trees. For instance, if I’m going from Brooklyn to Manhattan via the West Side IRT, I don’t care if, say, the 2 has service scheduled only every ten minutes as long as the 2 and 3 combined have five-minute headways.
This year’s version of the report found that few things had changed underground. In the short term, they rarely do. The subway car breakdown rate improved to 170,217 miles, up from 148,002 miles. Car cleanliness stayed the same, and intelligible announcements declined from 91 percent to 87 percent.
My biggest issue with the Straphangers’ report is the ultimate way it quantifies the subway system. By using a so-called MetroCard system that evaluates a bunch of variables, scales them and assigns a dollar value to them based off of a system where a $2.25 ride would require top scores in every category, the Straphangers are basically saying that the subway isn’t worth the swipe. That’s a dangerous thing to say in an era in which the MTA enjoys nearly no political support and the transit system is hanging on by the skin of its teeth.
The Straphangers nearly admit as much. As they say on their website, “Some riders may find this scale too generous, believing that performance levels should be far better than they are now. Other riders, who value transit service over other ways to travel in New York City, may believe the subways and buses to be a bargain.” Interpret that as you will.
For its part, the MTA sort of brushed off the study. The authority has been releasing this information in a more up-to-date form on its performance metrics dashboard, and its riders know how service lags. “Each month, New York City Transit reports on a wide range of performance indicators that are always available for riders at mta.info,” Transit said in a statement. “We always appreciate and consider the Straphangers Campaign’s fun and unique take on subway and bus service.”
Now if only someone would present a serious proposal that would help fix the inherent problems with both the MTA and its service offerings.
Aug
24
MTA statement on preparedness for Hurricane Irene
Posted by: | CommentsAs The Weather Channel lays out right here in painstaking detail, a major hurricane is currently on course to hit the northeast this weekend. Hurricane Irene has the potential to be among the strongest storms to hit the area in decades, and concerns over a storm surge are rising. As with any major rainstorm, the subways are indeed vulnerable, and the MTA is currently working on plans concerning flood-prone areas of the transit system.
This afternoon, I checked in with the authority, and they issued the following statement in advance of the storm: “The MTA is working closely with the Governor’s Office, the Mayor’s Office, State, City and County OEMs to track the storm and begin coordinated preparations. Internally, we are making arrangements to bring in extra personnel over the weekend, preparing our facilities and infrastructure by clearing drains, securing work sites against possible high winds, checking and fueling equipment, stocking supplies, and establishing plans to move equipment and supplies away from low-lying areas as needed.”
Right now, a few days out, the storm is something the MTA appears to be taking seriously. After getting blindsided by a snow storm in December and impacted by rain a week or two ago, the threat of serious weather has Transit on alert. I’ll provide any updates that come my way as the week progresses (and, on an unrelated note, I’ll have a post up about the Straphangers’ latest report this evening).
Aug
24
Northeast Corridor gains $745M in Florida’s rejected HSR dollars
Posted by: | CommentsWhen Florida decided to eschew $2 billion in federal funds for high-speed rail, many in the northeast wanted to claim that money. After all, to some, it made more sense to focus the money in one profitable location instead of spreading small grants all over. The federal government seems to be on board with that idea as well as earlier this week, the US DOT awarded $745 million to the northeast for its high-speed rail plans.
Of those dollars, nearly $450 million will go toward electrical systems and track upgrades between Trenton and New York City which will allow for operating speeds of 160 mph and top speeds of 186. The remaining $294 million will go toward the Harold Interlocking project which according to DOT will “alleviate major delays for trains coming in and out of Manhattan with new routes that allow Amtrak trains to bypass the busiest passenger rail junction in the nation.”
Work on both projects will start next year. “These grants are a win for our economy and a win for commuters all along the Northeast Corridor,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said. “We are creating new construction jobs, ordering American-made supplies and improving transportation opportunities across a region where 50 million Americans live and work.” Now about the rest of the $125 billion it’s going to take to bring true high-speed rail to Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor…
Aug
24
On burdening the future with decisions today
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Someone once thought it was a good idea to build a bridge across the widest part of the Hudson River.
Over the past few years as New York and New Jersey have engaged in infrastructure expansion project, planners on both sides of the Hudson River have had to make some key decisions, and in nearly every instance, the decision has been to trim back and cut. The future is going to pay for this dearly.
The obvious example of course concerns the ARC Tunnel. Claiming concerns over cost overruns and, later, project design, Gov. Chris Christie pulled the plug on a project that had been funded and planned. Instead of redesigning it to save money or reengineering it on the New York side to improve it, the New Jersey executive cut it without proposing an alternative. The future is left with nothing, but that’s only the most egregious example.
In New York City, the MTA’s major subway expansion project has seen something fall off from the original plans. The 7 line has lost a key station at 41st St. and 10th Avenue while the Second Ave. Subway, being built in phases, has gone from four tracks to three to two. As I joked on April Fools, they might as well just cut it down to one.
Now, why is this important? After all, we need these projects to open sooner rather than later, and if the choice is between a smaller version of the project and nothing at all, I’d take the smaller version ten times out of ten. Costs aren’t going down any time soon, and it’s too much of a hassle to get a major initiative off the drawing board.
What we forget today when we cut though is the future. Planning decisions we make in the here and now have ramifications practically forever. Take, for instance, this NPR story about the location of the Tappan Zee Bridge. As David Kestenbaum noted, the Tappan Zee Bridge is in a terrible location. It’s amidst a 15-mile stretch of the river that is the Hudson at its widest. Four miles south and 15 miles north, the Hudson tapers off significantly, and the decision to build a bridge there seems foolish. Kestenbaum explains why:
I started digging through newspaper clippings from the 1940s and 1950s. It turns out, the bridge was part of a much larger project: The New York State Thruway, one of the first modern highway systems. The clippings also reveal something suspicious. There was an alternate proposal for a bridge at a narrower spot nearby. The proposal was put forward by top engineers at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. But that proposal was killed by New York governor Thomas E. Dewey. The New York Thruway was his baby; in a 1954 speech he proclaimed that it would be “the world’s greatest highway.”
…If the bridge had been built just a bit south of its current location — that is, if it had been built across a narrower stretch of the river — it would have been in the territory that belonged to the Port Authority.
As a result, the Port Authority — not the State of New York — would have gotten the revenue from tolls on the bridge. And Dewey needed that toll revenue to fund the rest of the Thruway. So Dewey was stuck with a three-mile-long bridge.
As Kestenbaum notes, now that the bridge has aged and degraded, someone is going to have to spend a few billion dollars to repair it. We can’t now correct the mistakes of the past either because “it’s too late now: Highways and towns have grown up based on the bridge’s current location.” The replacement bridge will cost a lot, and eventually, it too will be pared down. Already, the transit options are being threatened with elimination.
And so as the city looks to build and expand, we must remember that what happens today matters. It matters in the short term because we have to pay for it, but it also matters in the long term because eventually someone else will have to pay even more to fix or replace it. Repairing the Tappan Zee Bridge would seem less onerous had it been moved one way or another in the 1950s, but leaders too concerned with photo ops and ribbon-cutting ceremonies never want to take into account someone else’s future.
Aug
23
MTA: ‘No impact’ to service from earthquake
Posted by: | CommentsUpdated (4:45 p.m.): At approximately 1:51 p.m., a earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale struck near Richmond, Virginia, and the shocks were felt up and down the east coast. Currently, however, the MTA says everything is fine with their network. A Transit spokesman told me there is “no impact on service” from the quake, and the MTA just posted a similar statement to Twitter. “There are no impacts to subway, bus or LIRR or Metro-North service as a result of the earthquake,” they said. While JFK and Newark airports have been shut down, PATH reports that its trains are operating normally as well.
Later in the afternoon, the MTA issued another statement: “Operating personnel conducting preliminary inspections and have not observed any immediate indications of earthquake damage to the MTA network.” It sounds as though everything will be A-OK for the evening rush. I’ll update this post if anything further develops.
Aug
23
Second Ave. money-making sagas
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My fridge, complete with a T train, in all of its glory.
It will be a long, long time before the robin’s egg blue T train makes it way down Second Ave. In fact, the T isn’t set to begin service until Phase 3 extends the subway route to Houston St., and the Q will run north of 57th St. when Phase 1 is completed. That’s not, however, stopping the MTA from cashing in.
Last August, I wrote about the T train-themed merchandise for sale at the Transit Museum gift shop, and this week, Christine Haughney reports that the Second Ave. Subway stuff is selling like hot cakes.
According to the Transit Museum, out of 23 subway lines, the T is the 10th best seller. Of course, the famous A train, immortalized by Billy Strayhorn, is the top seller, but T teddy bears, mouse pads and t-shirts beat out such popular routes as the 2, B and D trains. Some designers, though, as Haughney reports, aren’t impressed:
the authority has alienated some designers more comfortable decorating the beige and taupe living rooms of the Upper East Side. Ms. Hilton said that she rarely had clients request blue or teal. One client, a 10-year-old girl, has asked that her bedroom be decorated in baby blue and her bathroom in turquoise. “In my world, it’s not a popular color,” she said. “But kids are asking for these colors.”
It happens that teal has been identified by the fashion world as color of the year. “It has a very upscale connotation,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, which surveys fashion designers each year and determines the latest color. “People with more discriminating tastes tend to choose that as a favorite color.”
John Barman, a prominent designer on the Upper East Side, echoed Ms. Hilton’s concerns about having a turquoise train line in beige territory. He hopes the city never pairs the turquoise T line with its orange lines, because that would produce a garish Howard Johnson effect. “It’s more of a Florida color,” he said delicately.
Amusingly — or sadly — enough, the MTA is cashing in on the T train when there’s no guarantee we’ll even see the T train. Optimistically, Phase 3 of the Second Ave. Subway won’t be around until at least 2030, and right now, the dollars for more than just Phase 1 aren’t there. But get your T train shirts while you still can. It might just be a collector’s item.
While the MTA is realizing dollars from a dream, others are making real money carting out Second Ave. dirt and debris. WNYC’s Ilya Maritz followed the rubble from underneath Second Ave. to various locations around the city. Some of the rock has gone to St. Peter’s College which is using it to build a dorm while much of is going toward creating the Ferry Point Golf Course in the Bronx as well. Ultimately, SAS construction has produced around 5000 tons of debris per day, but contracts have sold only around 1000-2000 tons daily for approximately $11 per ton. All in all, it’s not a bad day’s work.
Aug
23
Port Authority approves reduced fare, toll hikes
Posted by: | CommentsAfter facing a public uproar and faux-outrage from the New York and New Jersey governors, the Port Authority on Friday announced a reduced series of fare and toll hikes for its river crossings and PATH trains. The new plan, which is contingent on the requirement of a comprehensive review of the agency’s capital plan and operations to ensure accountability, will help fund a $25.1 billion capital plan over the next four years, and it will see PATH fares increase by 25 cents a year over those four years.
This new version of the budget ostensibly takes into account “toll and fare payers’ economic realities,” and it represents spending cuts over the previous version as well. Instead of a $33 billion capital plan for 10 years, this new one covers the same time span but for $6 billion less. These cuts came amidst public pressure from Governors Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie that many thought was less than sincere. Clearly, these governors were aware of the fare and toll hike plan but were able to curry voter points by proclaiming public outrage.
Still, the Port Authority responded and agreed to limit the increases to $4.50 over the next five years. “Because of the leadership of our Governors, I believe we have reached the right balance by prioritizing our infrastructure needs while heeding the concerns of our toll and fare payers. We also now have the direction to ensure that our future finances and operations are prudently managed and efficient,” PA Chairman David Samson said. “By our action, today we demonstrate we are getting back to our original mission and continuing our more than 90 year tradition of being the economic engine and transportation infrastructure leader of New York and New Jersey.”
The new fare and toll increases, then, look a little something like this:
- Tolls on cars using E-ZPass will increase $1.50 in September 2011 and then 75 cents in December each year from 2012-2015 for a total increase of $4.50 over five years, down from the proposed $6 increase over four years.
- Cars paying with cash will have the same increase, but will be subject to an additional $2 penalty (rounded up to the nearest whole dollar).
- Tolls on trucks using E-ZPass will pay an additional $2 per axle in September 2011, and then an additional $2 per axle in December of each year from 2012 -2015.
- Tolls on trucks paying cash will have the same increase but will be subject to an additional $3 per axle cash penalty.
- Fares on the PATH train will increase 25 cents per year for the next four years.
It is currently unclear what the full structure of the PATH increases will be. After four years, the base fare will be $2.75, but the costs for the discounted unlimited ride cards are unknown. In the original plan, the 30-day card jumped from $54 to $89. Riders were of course outraged, but this plan seems to ensure that the PA can continue to grow while providing for over 100,000 jobs in the area.
According to the PA’s report, over 60 percent or nearly $15 billion will be spent over the next four years, and projects funded include work on the George Washington Bridge, the Lincoln Tunnel Helix rehab, the Bayonne Bridge roadway, PATH car, signal and station modernization and airport runway modernizations. These are, of course, some badly needed projects.
“I can tell you what the effect would be if they didn’t raise the tolls,” Mayor Micheal Bloomberg said. “The bridges eventually would fall down. We wouldn’t be able to make the commute better and let business go back and forth under the river and over the river. If you want services you have to pay for them.”
And therein lies the rub. If you want services — and better ones at that — ultimately, you have to pay for them.
Aug
22
A short rant on LaGuardia Airport
Posted by: | CommentsI arrived home from my trip to Minneapolis this afternoon and had the unfortunate occurrence of landing at LaGuardia. After spending a decent amount of money in the Twin Cities, I didn’t feel like forking over $40 for a cab ride back to Park Slope, and so I attempted to take the M60 and the subway. A whopping two hours after I collected my luggage, I walked through my front door. It would have taken only another hour and a half to walk.
The first part of my trip involved a lengthy wait. I missed an M60 while waiting for my luggage and had to wait another 15 minutes for the bus. So while the schedule says they run every 7-9 minutes, this one showed up 15 minutes later. The driver apologized after we left LaGuardia and claimed the bus that should have arrived in between had “broken down or something.”
Meanwhile, the bus was utterly packed, and it reeked of stale urine. The luggage rack filled up quickly after the Delta terminal, and as we slowly crawled through Astoria, I reflected on the absurdity of the situation. It took nearly 40 minutes for me to get from LaGuardia to 125th St. and Lexington via a bus, and I still had to take a lengthy subway ride. Somehow, LaGuardia, which sees nearly 24 million passengers a year, is barely transit accessible.
Now, flyers of course have their shortcuts. Many take cabs to the nearest subway stop and hop on there. Others simply book out of JFK. But with a highway right next to it, LaGuardia should be transit-accessible. Whether it’s a true bus rapid transit route to the airport, an extension of the AirTrain or the N or something as easy as pre-board fare payment, the city and the MTA should make an effort to make it easier to get there. Next time, I might just walk.
