Archive for September, 2011
Sep
14
Port Jervis’ future, revisited again
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Twisted rails and eroded track beds mark the Port Jervis line. Photo by Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Hilary Ring.
It’s been over two weeks since Hurricane Irene stormed through the New York area, and the MTA is still in the process of assessing the future of the Port Jervis line. Even with the MTA’s so-called emergency powers activated in order to avoid a lengthy procurement process, the line will be out of service for a few months as engineers levy a cost estimate and then begin repairs. The storm has brought renewed attention to a little-used lifeline into the city, and many are wondering what should be done with it.
Earlier this week, Jim O’Grady at both WNYC and Transportation Nation examined the Port Jervis line. The two articles are basically identical copies of each other but with different headlines. One asks if the MTA should bother fixing it, and the other notes that the authority is going to “spend millions” repairing the line. Whatever the price tag, it’s going to be a lot of dough for 2300 riders per day.
O’Grady raises a point I briefly mentioned in my most recent examination of the Port Jervis line’s future: Based on the MTA’s initial estimates, the cost to repair the Port Jervis line will be far steeper than the money the agency saved when it cut 37 bus lines, and the Port Jervis ridership is “just a small portion of the thousands of riders who used to take” those buses. If only it were that simple.
By providing service into Orange County, the MTA can earn subsidies from those counties. While few riders travel along the Port Jervis line into New York, it is included in the payroll tax calculations. Relatively little money comes from the largely rural county, but the subsidies allow the MTA to operate this far-flung service at relatively little additional cost. Sinking millions to repair the line alters the equation.
Yet, for those 2300 who live in Orange County and commute to New York, many cannot afford to take the drive every day. “It’s the only means of transport for these people,” Gene Russianoff said to O’Grady as he debated the pros and cons of repairing the line.
Still, the MTA’s interim offerings haven’t been too popular. The authority is currently conducting a $500,000 study on the 14 miles of washed-out track, and by the end of September, they will know how much repairs will cost. In the meantime, they have unveiled extensive bus routing. MTA Bus has sent 40 vehicles to Orange County to provide service to nearby stations. “In the two weeks since flooding crippled 14 miles of the Port Jervis Line, Metro-North has worked to provide buses to transport the 2,300 people who depend on the railroad each weekday. They will be taken to nearby stations in New Jersey and across the Hudson River in a complex and evolving plan to provide alternative public transportation,” Metro-North Railroad President Howard Permut said. “It is the most extensive and complex busing program ever implemented by the railroad.”
Unfortunately, though, only around 1250 people a day are using these buses, according to WNYC, and politicians are complaining anyway. “We have balked about paying the MTA tax, that percentage, for the last few years, and now, when we need them the most, they can’t provide any of my constituency with an appropriate service,” Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, who clearly doesn’t the impact understand weather-related disasters, said. “I think it’s outrageous. People are in tears. How can you do that? Even from Harriman down. There are people that are paying this tax, and now, all of a sudden, it’s not us getting the service again. It’s like we’re the orphan children.”
Ultimately, the MTA isn’t going to cut bait on the Port Jervis line, and it wasn’t discussed behind closed doors. FEMA dollars will likely cover some of the costs of repairs as well. But better planning, some higher speed options and a drive to encourage transit-oriented development along the lonely line could improve commutes for everyone while making the Port Jervis line more popular. Finding an opportunity in a hurricane could be a good move; giving up likely isn’t.
Sep
13
With Brighton work over, B express returns
Posted by: | CommentsWith the station rehab work along the Brighton Line wrapped up, Brooklyn B and Q train riders are in for a treat. For the first time in three years, B express service will return to the trench on October 3. The sign from Transit says it all.
Sep
13
On Election Day, a voter’s guide to transportation
Posted by: | CommentsFew New Yorkers may realize it, but today is an election day. From the relatively high-profile House race to replace former Rep. Anthony Weiner to a trio of Assembly districts in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, voters are being asked to head to the polls for some special elections. While transportation isn’t a major issue in any of these campaigns, it is always on the minds of New Yorkers, and to that end, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign has published a voters guide to transportation.
In the House race, New York City transit isn’t a major issue. David Weprin has opposed congestion pricing, and his GOP opponent Bob Turner repeated the tired talking about about the “job-killing” MTA-supporting payroll tax. The race in Brooklyn’s 54th Assembly district hasn’t touched upon transit while Jane Deacy in Queens also railed against the “job-killing” payroll tax. She has no other solutions for MTA funding, but neither does Democrat Phil Goldfeder. In Manhattan, GOP candidate Paul Niehaus also received the talking points memo about the “job killing” payroll tax while Dan Quart wants to “restructure the MTA to ensure dedicated funding streams so our subways, buses and roads do not fall into disrepair.” So there you have it; now get out there and vote.
Sep
13
‘Ooooh that smell. Can’t you smell that smell?’
Posted by: | CommentsIf any frequently complaint about the New York City subways holds water, it is the one about the smells. Throughout the city, the subways often smell really bad, and it has become a part of the city’s collective identity. Maybe it shouldn’t be though.
My recent tale of olfactory woe in the subway came last week when I traveled down to the West Village to meet a friend of mine for dinner. I exited the West 4th St. station via the staircase on the downtown-bound platform. That exit is a lonely one. It features a pair of iron maiden turnstiles, no personnel presence even in the good times and a dark staircase that leads to Waverly Place. Back in 2007, the sign at the entrance told straphangers that the F, F and orange Q trains stopped there. It is a lonely, sad station.
Last week, it also had the distinction of smelling strongly like human excrement. As I passed through the turnstile, a strong odor slammed me in the face, and I and my fellow passengers hurried to find some fresh air. With standing water, discarded coffee cups and weeks’ old newspaper littering the floor, it was tough to say when that station had been cleaned. It wasn’t particularly recent.
Were this an isolated incident, I would probably be willing to overlook it, but it’s not. Throughout the city, various stations — some more isolated that others — carry strange smells. Dirty water snakes along tracks, sewage drips down station walls, garbage piles up and odors emanate. Try waiting for a train at the 2nd Ave. stop along the F for more than a few minutes; it’s not a fun experience.
A few years ago, when the MTA had money to clean stations, it wasn’t any better. Gawker published a now-defunct map of subway smells, and straphangers from all over pinpointed the various locations that smelled bad. Maybe it’s the sheer number of homeless people who live in the system; maybe its the groundwater that seeps through shoddily engineered or 80-year-old walls; maybe it’s the blatant disregard for cleanliness that riders have. It’s probably a combination of everything, and as the MTA faces a situation in which discretionary funds are scarce, cleanliness will suffer.
Smells, particularly those in exits and staircases and fare control areas, set the stage for the rest of the system. If someone entering the system encounters the odor of human waste, they will have little incentive to take good care of their portion of the subway. They won’t think twice about adding to the smell or littering. It’s a vicious vicious cycle.
Of course, it all comes back to money: The MTA doesn’t have enough money to inspect and clean the entrances even at stations as popular and centrally located as West 4th. How can they hope to reach little used stations tucked away in the far corners of the five boroughs? Nassau Ave. on the G train smelled nearly as bad this past Saturday.
So we suffer the smells. We plug our noises; we stop breathing; we hurry out of stations. What choice do we have? It’s the price we pay and another sign of a system sliding into disrepair.
Sep
12
Tales from a fare-jumping high school student
Posted by: | CommentsPete Donohue’s weekly column made its appearance in the Daily News today, and it is a thought-provoking one, to say the least. In it, Donohue follows a 17-year-old student who attends high school in Park Slope but lives in a neighborhood far away both physically and socioeconomically, and the main thrust of the column focuses on Alicia’s fare-jumping.
Although Alicia has a Student MetroCard, she says she still jumps the turnstiles as often as possible in order to save up her student rides for non-school-related activities. She told Donohue that she uses the rides to travel elsewhere — to the movies, to visit friends — and she doesn’t worry about a potential summons. “Why would I?” she said. “I know when to hop and where to hop. I know where the police are going to be and when they’re going to be there.”
The 17-year-old has a very them-vs.-us approach to her illegal activities (and her abuse of the Student MetroCard as well). “The cops, the MTA, they’re all going to get paid whether I pay or not, whether I hop or don’t hop. I could put the money I save aside into a college fund or something,” she said. The article, though, is about more than just this one girl’s experiences; it’s about socioeconomic class in New York, attitudes toward transit and the role of the much maligned and underfunded Student MetroCard program. It’s worth a read and some deeper thoughts as well.
Sep
12
If you see something, sue someone
Posted by: | CommentsWith the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks dominating the news lately, various anti-terrorism efforts have made headline. The MTA, of course, has burned their “See something, say something” campaign into our collective consciousness over the past few years, and they’ve licensed it to transit and security agences around the world. Now and then, though, groups use it or a derivative slogan without permission, and the authority doesn’t like that.
As The Post detailed last week, the MTA moved to trademark the slogan in 2007 and is now challenging a t-shirt retailers’ attempt and an online security firm’s effort to do the same. Over the years, the MTA has gone after numerous copycats — including a few universities — who haven’t requested permission. Allen Kay, head of the Korey Kay & Partners agency, is steamed when others steal his work too. “I don’t think they have a right to it,” he said. “I live for original ideas. It galls me anytime someone does something derivative — or outright steals. I think that’s despicable.”
Sep
12
A fare technology lesson from the Bay Area
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Despite Jay Walder’s looming departure from the MTA in six weeks, the MTA is still moving ahead with a variety of technological innovations. Staten Island will soon have real-time tracking throughout its entire bus system, and the MetroCard replacement project will slog forward toward a mid-decade completion date. While that project has more uncertainty surrounding it in the face of Walder’s departure, the authority appears committed to finding a newer fare payment system than the MetroCard.
New York isn’t alone in that regard. Across the world, cities and transit agencies of all stripes are moving forward with various plans to unify fare payment sometimes. Some are looking at charge card-based technology as the MTA is and others are examining tried-and-true smart card-based solutions run by the usual private players in the fare media field. Not every effort is going smoothly.
Recently, San Francisco unveiled the Clipper card, a payment system designed to unify the Bay Area’s seven different transit agencies. As Scott James of The Bay Citizen detailed for The Times, the new system is suffering through some growing pains. As James details, San Francisco commuters have taken to Twitter and other social media outlets to voice their complaints over the new service, and while BART, Caltrain and SF MUNI downplay the problems, they are indeed out there.
James writes:
Clipper, named for the high-speed 19th-century ships that revolutionized sea travel, is hitting a few head winds, including system failures and overcharging customers. The service began in June 2010 — the first one-card-serves-all solution for the region’s fragmented transit system — simplifying access and payment to regional trains, buses, subway lines, streetcars and ferries, all with varying fare systems.
In some ways it has been remarkably successful…But it has proved difficult to eliminate all the glitches. And some expected improvements, like increasing Muni efficiency, have failed to materialize. Clipper was built and is operated by Cubic, a San Diego military contractor and transportation company. To date, the system has cost $140 million, with another $17.6 million expected in the 2011-12 fiscal year…
Although Cubic officials declined to be interviewed, e-mail sent by the company said there were 38,000 calls to its customer service hot line in August. “The fact that 99.7 percent of transactions did not require interaction with Cubic customer service representatives suggests a successful system,” Matt Newsome, a Cubic vice president, said in a statement.
But that math obscures the truth: transactions (500,000 daily, 14 million monthly) do not equal passengers. Each leg of a journey counts as a transaction. A weekday round-trip BART to Muni transfer, for example, counts as four transactions a day (two BART transactions, two Muni transactions), 84 a month. Officials said it was too difficult to determine how many passengers regularly used the card, but it is clear that far more than 0.3 percent of passengers are complaining.
Cubic, no stranger to unfavorable press, has always been a major player in the fare payment field, and theirs is is a name familiar to us on the East Coast. They have supplied the MTA with its MetroCard system, and the ever-increasing maintenance costs, I am told, is one of the drivers behind the push for an open fare payment system. That they are encountering problems or “growing pains” in San Francisco is not much of a surprise.
Now, the MTA is in a situation where they can get something right. They can see how other transit agencies adopt to this new technology, and they can see which companies provide good service and which do not. They could compile some best practices as they identify potential MetroCard replacements, and they can usher in a technology that is both forward-looking and flexible. It’s a tall order for an agency that has struggled to adopt an old system to new technologies, but the other outcome — more pain from closed systems — seems less desirable all the time. Just ask San Francisco.
Sep
11
When the subways ran again
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Sep
09
Service changes impacting eight subway lines
Posted by: | CommentsWith the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks upon us, the MTA has a few special service changes for Sunday only. As the ceremony at the World Trade Center site is schedule from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., the R train will bypass Cortlandt St. in both directions from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. that day. Furthermore all subway staircases on Church Street at Park Place, Barclay Street and Vesey Street will be closed as well.
On to the weekend changes. Feel free to use the comments in this thread to discuss anything.
From 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, September 10, 3 trains operate in two sections due to conduit installation (for new fiber optic cable) between Nostrand Avenue and Sutter Avenue-Rutland Road:
- Between 148th Street and Utica Avenue and
- Between Utica Avenue and New Lots Avenue (service begins at 12:01 a.m. Saturday and operates every 24 minutes
From 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, September 10, Brooklyn-bound 3 trains skip Bergen Street, Grand Army Plaza, Eastern Parkway, Nostrand Avenue and Kingston Avenue due to conduit installation (for new fiber optic cable) between Nostrand Avenue and Sutter Avenue-Rutland Road.
From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, September 10, Brooklyn-bound 4 trains skip Bergen Street, Grand Army Plaza, Eastern Parkway, Nostrand Avenue and Kingston Avenue due to conduit installation (for new fiber optic cable) between Nostrand Avenue and Sutter Avenue-Rutland Road.
From 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, September 10, there are no 4 trains between Atlantic Avenue and Utica Avenue due to conduit installation (for new fiber optic cable) between Nostrand Avenue and Sutter Avenue-Rutland Road. Customers may take the 2 or 3 instead.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 12, Manhattan-bound D trains run on the N line from Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue to 36th Street (Brooklyn) due to structural repair and station rehabilitation from 71st Street to Bay 50th Street and ADA work at Bay Parkway. Note: At all times until Friday, October 28, the southbound D is bypassing 71st Street due to stair reconstruction. So, there is no D service at 71st Street this weekend.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 12, Brooklyn-bound F trains run on the M line from Roosevelt Avenue to 47th-50th Sts due to station reconstruction at Lexington Avenue-63rd Street.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 12, there are no L trains between 8th Avenue and Broadway Junction due to CBTC track and signal work between Bedford Avenue and 3rd Avenue. The M train, M14 and free shuttle buses provide alternate service. M train service is extended to 57th Street-6th Avenue. The M14 bus replaces L service between 1st and 8th Avenues. Free shuttle buses operate:
- Between Broadway Junction and Myrtle-Wyckoff Avs.
- Between Myrtle-Wyckoff Avs and Lorimer Street-Metropolitan Ave G station
- Between Lorimer Street-Metropolitan Ave G station and the Marcy Avenue J, M station
From 6 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, September 10 and from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday, September 11, M service is extended to 57th Street-6th Avenue F station due to CBTC track and signal work between Bedford Avenue and 3rd Avenue on the L line.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 12, Coney Island-bound N trains run on the D line from 36th Street (Brooklyn) to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue due to track panel installation on the Sea Beach Line between 59th Street and 86th Street.
From 4 a.m. Saturday, September 10 to 10 p.m. Sunday, September 11, southbound N trains run express from Astoria Boulevard to Queensboro Plaza, skipping 30th Avenue, Broadway, 36th Avenue and 39th Avenue due to track panel installation between Astoria Boulevard and 36th Avenue.
From 10 p.m. Friday, September 9 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 12, there are no Q trains between Prospect Park and Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue due to track and signal work, removal of temporary platform and bridge and Brighton line overcoat painting. – Sounds like we’re geting awfully close to the restoration of express service on the Brighton line.
From 10 p.m. Friday, September 9 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 12, uptown Q trains run local from Canal Street to 34th Street-Herald Square due to platform edge rehabilitation at 34th Street.
Sep
09
ARC dollars officially moved to NJ’s Transportation Trust Fund
Posted by: | CommentsIt was but a mere formality, but the New Jersey Turnpike Authority voted this Wednesday to redirect $1.25 billion originally slated for the ARC Tunnel to the state’s ailing Transportation Trust Fund. Instead of support rail expansion, the money will now go toward a turnpike widening project, various road maintenance plans and, if any is left over, New Jersey Transit’s capital plan.
As Mike Frassinelli from The Star-Ledger noted, “The move allows Gov. Chris Christie to boost the state’s Transportation Trust Fund that pays for road and bridge repairs and transit services, while at the same time keeping his pledge not to raise the state’s comparatively low gas tax.”
While the move had been announced by Christie some months ago, the state’s pro-rail contingent were none too pleased. “This toll revenue was supposed to be used to build a desperately needed trans-Hudson tunnel for New Jersey commuters,” Sen. Frank Lautenberg said in a statement. “Using this money as a slush fund for other transportation projects is a disservice to New Jersey residents facing congestion on our roads and seeking access to more jobs and more trains in and out of New York.” The trans-Hudson future — whether it be the Gateway Tunnel or an extension of the 7 to Secaucus — remains to be seen.
