Archive for Staten Island
Sep
10
MTA working to capture more SIR revenue
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As the MTA stares down the barrel of a financial crisis, the agency has, rightfully, adopted a new motto: no fare left behind. As tangible talk of a fare hike swirls, New York City Transit has already beefed up its fare-enforcement efforts, and now the authority is putting Staten Island on notice.
The Staten Island Railway is one of the quirkier aspects of the MTA’s transit network. It runs for 13 miles from the Staten Island Ferry terminal at St. George south to Tottenville. The railway features a daily ridership of around 17,000. And very few of them pay a fare.
The SIR, you see, only has fare-collection points at the ferry terminal and the Staten Island Yankees’ ballpark stop a few blocks away. Otherwise, the ride is free, and many riders enter and exit at Tompkinsville, a half-mile walk away from the ferry terminal.
But those halcyon days will soon be over. As CityRoom reported late last week, the MTA is set to introduce turnstiles at Tompkinsville too. Gone are the free rides. Jake Mooney has the details:
The Tompkinsville station is being renovated to install turnstiles, which means that come next summer, riders will have to pay to get off the train there, too. The closest free stop to the ferry would then be Stapleton, a little over a mile away, and whether people will get off and walk from there is an open question…
John G. Gaul, the chief officer of the railway, provided some background in an interview on Thursday about the decision to add fares at Tompkinsville — a decision that was not greeted too warmly this week.
First, Mr. Gaul said, the shift was motivated, “in large measure, but not totally,” by the desire to get $2 apiece from some of those people who are now getting off the train to avoid paying. That, he said, would yield about $661,000 more in annual revenue — about a 10 percent increase over the line’s current revenue.
Gaul goes on to explain how MetroCards rendered the SIR’s manual, on-board fare collection efforts moot. With the technological advances of the MTA, apparently, they could no longer collect tokens from the riders. Supervision dropped; crime rose; and now the MTA is, eleven years after introducing MetroCards, taking the time to address this problem.
The efforts at Tompkinsville — some HEETs and closed-circuit security cameras — are something of a test run for the rest of the Staten Island Railway. If it succeeds in capturing more revenue, the MTA may expand the pilot program down the line. The only catch is that these renovations are going to cost $6.8 million and result in just, as Mooney reported, an additional $661,000 a year. It’ll take a while for the revenue to pay for the renovations, let alone standard operating costs.
Of course, the riders are begrudgingly accepting of the MTA’s efforts to collect the proper fare, but some of them plan to walk the mile from Stapleton to the ferry. While I admire the exercise and effort at which people will go to avoid the fare, at some point, the $2 — or less with a pay-per-ride discount or Unlimited MetroCard — seems like less of an effort. People will do anything for a buck or two in New York City.
May
20
Come on, ride the Staten Island train
Posted by: | CommentsJust in case you missed it when the Daily News ran an easy-to-understand graphic showing that ridership on the Staten Island Railway was up 12.8 percent this year, amNew York’s got your back. New York’s free daily profiled the SIR yesterday, focusing on the exploding ridership and the quirks of the free train line. While the line could still support an increase in capacity of another 25 percent, hardly anyone pays the $2 fare that the MTA collects only at the St. George Ferry Terminal stop. In fact, many riders opt for a seven-minute walk to avoid that fare as well. I have to wonder if perhaps, with ridership on the climb, the MTA should consider trying to capture fares in Staten Island. Every dollar helps. [amNew York]
Nov
14
Hell hath no fury like a Staten Islander scorned
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I warned ‘em but to no avail. Yesterday, the MTA board members — or at least those who decided to show up — had to face a room full of pissed off Staten Islanders, and based on reports in the Staten Island Advance and on NY1, it was not a pretty scene.
At the last of the fare hike hearings before this weekend’s big Public Engagement Workshop, the touring fare hike circus journeyed to that hard-to-reach Staten Island to discuss transit options with a bunch of disgruntled Staten Island residents. As NY1′s Amanda Farinacci relates, things started out bad and only got worse.
To highlight the transit problems facing Staten Island, State Senator Diane Savino leveled an indictment of the MTA’s designated start time for the hearing. “There is a hearing held here at 6 p.m., and if they lived in any other borough, the vast majority of people would be able to get here,” she said. “But most Staten Islanders are still on their way home.”
Maura Yates, of Staten Island’s hometown newspaper, had more of the gruesome details:
The officials about to vote on a proposed fare and toll hike probably haven’t experienced the hell of standing up for hours on a stifling express bus with no bathroom, day in and day out. So several furious Staten Islanders who took the microphone during the public hearing that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority conducted last night at the Petrides Educational Complex in Sunnyside challenged them to do just that.
And at least two MTA officials said they’d be willing to make the trip. “I know the pain, I feel it,” said Todt Hill resident Frank Powers, who is Staten Island’s representative on the board. He said he experiences the traffic firsthand driving home from MTA headquarters in Midtown. “It’s not a question that none of us know it,” he said. “We do know it.”
He said, he’d be willing to board an express bus “at 57th Street at 5 o’clock, if that’s what it takes.” Hilary Ring, the MTA’s director of government affairs, said he would come, too.
I’m not sure that’s what it takes, Frank. For one day, you, one of three privileged MTA board members who openly admitted to shunning public transit during rush hour commuets, will experience the joys of a two-hour bus ride from home to work. And then you’ll go back to your car. I’m sure that’ll convince Powers to vote against the fare hike.
Meanwhile, Staten Islanders annoyed at constant Verrazano Bridge construction and few other transit options for escaping the Island even challenged the MTA on their bathroom breaks. Yates relates the tale of one Joseph Mizrahi who noted that one of the board members had left for a bathroom break one hour into the hearing. “Think of the people who don’t have that luxury” while trapped on buses for two hours or more each afternoon, he said. “Who are you to judge fare increases on something you can’t even relate to?”
With the end of this bitter hearing, the only public forum standing between the MTA board and the fare hike vote is Saturday’s workshop. This is it, folks. If we want to further drive home the point that no one wants the fare hike, show up to this hearing. But be prepared to present alternatives. How can the MTA fund its debt service and expansion plans without a fare hike? If we can’t answer these questions, we’ll have to face the reality of a fare hike, and the MTA will have to face a very bitter ridership.
Nov
13
A subway tunnel to Staten Island, 80 years in the making
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The only New York City Transit rail line on which I’ve never ridden. (Photo by Chris Slaight / NYCSubway.org)
Yesterday’s discussion of Staten Island got me thinking more about the city’s forgotten borough. Did you know, for instance, that Staten Island nearly seceded from New York City in the early 1990s?
But civil politics are neither here nor there. We here to discuss the subway, and so we shall look at what one City Council member from Brooklyn is proposing: a subway tunnel from Brooklyn to Staten Island.
Say what? The MTA is already working on a rather lengthy tunnel down Second Ave. and a planned expansion westward of the 7 line. No way can they find the resources to build another massive project. Well, Lew Fidler thinks that for the environmental sake of the city, we should consider his plan. The Brooklyn Paper reports:
Here’s an idea whose time has come — again: How about a subway to Staten Island?…
In addition to a transit tunnel, Fidler supported a cross-Harbor freight tunnel and burying the BQE to open up the Sunset Park waterfront to parkland and economic development — both dreams of transit wonks. To pay for it, Fidler would levy a one-third-of-one-percent tax on all employer payrolls in the tri-state region.
“Congestion is a regional problem and requires a regional solution,” he told The Brooklyn Paper. “In order to get off Staten Island, residents have to use one fossil-fueled vehicle or another — car or bus. It’s ridiculous that the fastest-growing borough has no access to the rest of the city.”
In reality, Fidler’s proposal is a red herring, designed to stir up opposition to the congestion fee plan. But his statement, as far-fetched as it may be, brings us back to an era before anyone under the age of 75 was alive and kicking.
Back in the early decades of the Twentieth Century during post-Great War boom times for the City, the operators of the subway — the BRT company — wanted to build a rapid transit tunnel from Brooklyn to Staten Island. I’ll delve into the back story soon; the history told through articles in The New York Times is fascinating to any student of history of the New York City subways. But the short version is here.
The BRT started building the tunnel but entered bankruptcy in the mid-1920s. The city bailed out the subways but wanted no part in the tunnel construction to the then-isolated and very rural Staten Island. The tunnel — extended about 150 feet out in the harbor — has laid dormant under Owl’s Head Park ever since.
This tunnel surely would be a boon to Staten Island. But it’s not happening now, and it probably won’t happen ever. But we can all dream even our motives, like Fidler’s, are less than pure.
Nov
12
Beware the wrath of the neglected Staten Island
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Ask any Staten Islander how the rest of New York City views the oft-forgotten borough, and more often than not, the answer is last and least. The MTA, according to residents of the Island, is no exception.
One week after the traveling fare hike hearing circus hit the road and made its way through the City’s four other boroughs, Staten Island is getting its day in the sun on Tuesday. And despite recent announcements of expanded service along the Staten Island Railroad, the Island’s residents are not happy, to say the least.
Over the weekend, The Daily News noted that Staten Island residents are more than annoyed with the MTA. Because of ongoing construction on the Verrazano Bridge, residents are dealing with constant traffic and extra-long commutes. As it is, Staten Island has no underground connection to the rest of New York City, and residents are feeling more neglected than usual. People who live in New Jersey and Long Island get home sooner is a popular and not inaccurate refrain among Staten Islanders.
While Pete Donohue’s piece in The News scratched the surface of the Staten Island problem, two recent editorials in the Staten Island Advance show the underlying animosity between Staten Island residents and the MTA. The first dealt with the expanded SIR service. In it, the Advance notes that MTA CEO and Executive Director Elliot Sander is the first MTA head to show any interest in Staten Island in a long time. The second is more critical:
Maybe it’s just coincidence that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority scheduled Staten Island last in its series of required public hearings on the proposed fare and toll increases. You probably won’t persuade many Staten Island commuters of that, however. They’re used to this borough’s transportation needs being at the bottom of the MTA’s list of priorities.
The first five hearings took place last week around the city and the region. The hearing here will take place Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. at the Michael J. Petrides Educational Complex, Building C. Maybe it’s a coincidence, too, that the hearing is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. That’s a time of the evening when home is still an hour or more away for many commuters who live here.
The early start time leads to the suspicion that the MTA really doesn’t want to hear what Staten Islanders think about the fare and toll hikes. As a matter of fact, if the past is any indication, a handful of second-tier MTA officials will show up at the hearing, listen with barely concealed boredom to riders’ complaints about fares and service, then leave promptly at a pre-designated time before everyone’s had a chance to be heard.
Yikes. Talk about a vendetta.
For Staten Islanders, though, this is a legitimate problem. The only road connecting their island to the rest of the city is a bridge to Bay Ridge. Otherwise, a railway and ferry provide access to Manhattan, but commute times can be painfully long.
Over on Subchat, a few good contributors are engaged in a long dialogue concerning the subway and Staten Island. One contributor suggested looking into extending the 1 train or the Second Ave. Subway to Staten Island, but that’s a multi-billion-dollar project that wouldn’t see the light of day for decades. In the meantime, express bus service may be the Island’s last good hope.
No matter the solution, when the fare hike hearing arrives on Tuesday, the MTA will face some bitter Staten Island residents. Bitter over the fare hike, bitter over the poor transportation options, bitter over ongoing bridge construction, these New Yorkers may just put up the strongest fight yet against the MTA’s fare hike proposal. That is, if the transit officials don’t talk everyone to sleep in the first 45 minutes of the meeting.
Nov
09
At least the Staten Island Railway isn’t delayed this weekend
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Poor Staten Island. The forgotten bastard borough of New York City — as its residents would prefer it to be — we often forget that Staten Island has its very own railway. In fact, the SIR doesn’t have a board on the Facebook Subway Status app while the Roosevelt Island Tram does.
It’s an odd little system, running from the ferry terminal to the southern tip of the island, and you only have to pay at the ferry terminal. But, hey, people use it, and the big news out of Staten Island this week is that the MTA is expanding express service during the morning and evening rush hours.
Basically, the MTA is expanding rush hour service by an hour and twenty minutes and five trains in the evening and by 45 minutes and three additional trains in the morning. The MTA is able to provide these service upgrades because they invested $100 million into a signal-modernization plan completed in mid-2005. Maybe all of those service alerts — which you can view after the jump — will actually pay off in the long run. Either way, it’s a disaster out there. I picked a good week to get out of the city.
I’m sure there was a new Rider Report Card released this week, but I’m out of town today. I wrote this post on Thursday night and will cover the report card on Monday. Keep reading for the service alerts.
May
23
Staten Island, good governing groups annoyed at Yankee Stadium Metro-North deal
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This new stop sure is creating an uproar in certain parts of the city. (Courtesy of the MTA)
Staten Island, the lone borough in which this New York City native has only traveled through and never to, is mad at the city and the MTA. Two councilmen from this oft-neglected borough feel the $91 million spent on the Yankee Stadium Metro-North stop would be better spent in their own backyard.
Councilmen Vincent Ignizio and James Oddo, two Republican representatives from our red borough (the only one with a majority of Republican representatives), announced that Staten Island sure could use $91 million to beef up its wimpy public transportation network. The Staten Island Advance had more:
If Ignizio and Oddo had their way, they would use it to speed the long-awaited third bus depot in Charleston, or add express buses, or pay for bus service over the Bayonne Bridge. “I see the benefit of this project for those who ride Metro-North; however, we’ve been promised a third bus depot for decades, and seeing the way the MTA can expedite projects according to when the ballpark is set to open, they should expedite our projects, so people can get to work,” said Ignizio.
After decades of pushed-back plans, the Charleston depot is slated to open in 2009, and MTA officials have already broached the possibility of a fourth depot. But, “to see (the Yankee Stadium station) get done and fast-tracked, compared to the bus depot, which is constantly being delayed, is frustrating,” said Oddo. “This is essentially a luxury, and we’re crying for a necessity.”
In the article, Oddo and Ignizio question the MTA’s ignoring Staten Island’s transportation needs. “Isn’t it more important that a Wall Street worker from New Springville make it home every night in under an hour and a half?” they wrote in a letter to outgoing MTA Chair Peter Kalikow (who, at this point, could probably care less).
Now, I’m sure Staten Island could use the transportation help. Their one rapid transit line – the Staten Island Railway – is kind of a disaster. Since riders who board only at the ferry stop have to pay, the Railway attracts a high number of undesirable elements and has the lowest farebox recovery rate of any MTA agency.
I’m sure the Bayonee Bus service would be nice, but the MTA doesn’t pay for service into New Jersey. That is squarely in the realm of New Jersey Transit or Port Authority. While I like to see viable public transportation options through the city, I am definitely not in favor of the MTA’s footing the bill for Bayonne Bridge service.
In other Metro-North/Yankee Stadium news, Neil deMause, that tireless opponent of public funding for very wealthy sports clubs, chimed in with his take on the $91 million outlay for this stadium. Nothing new there from deMause, but his post serves as an excellent clearing house for Yankee Stadium-related articles.
