Second Ave. Sagas

Mar

Weekend work impacting 14 subway lines

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (2) ·

Happy Friday. The map is here.

From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m., Saturday, March 24 and Sunday, March 25 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m., Monday, March 26, uptown 4 trains run express from Brooklyn Bridge to 14th Street-Union Square, then local to 125th Street due to work on the Broadway/Lafayette-to-Bleecker Street connection.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 24 to 5 a.m. Monday March 26, downtown 4 trains run local from 125th Street to Brooklyn Bridge due to signal enhancement.

From 6 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Saturday, March 24 and from 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Sunday, March 25, uptown 5 trains run local from 14th Street-Union Square to 125th Street and 5 trains run every 20 minutes between Bowling Green and Dyre Avenue due to track plate replacement at Brooklyn Bridge. In addition, downtown 5 trains run local from 125th Street to Brooklyn Bridge due to signal enhancement.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 26, uptown 6 trains run express from Brooklyn Bridge to 14th Street-Union Square due to work on the Broadway/Lafayette-to-Bleecker Street connection. In addition, 6 service is extended to Bowling Green due to track plate replacement at Brooklyn Bridge.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 26, there are no 7 trains between Times Square-42nd Street and Queensboro Plaza due to track panel installation and CBTC work south of Queensboro Plaza, ADA work at Court Square and station renewal at Hunters Point Avenue. Customers should take the N, R, E or F between Manhattan and Queens. Free shuttle buses operate between Vernon Blvd-Jackson Avenue and Queensboro Plaza. In Manhattan, the 42nd Street shuttle (S) operates overnight. (Repeats next weekend — March 31-Apr 2.)

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 26, 207th Street-bound A trains run via the F line from Jay Street-MetroTech to West 4th Street, then local to 59th Street-Columbus Circle due to electrical and substation work at Jay Street-MetroTech.

From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m., Saturday, March 24, Queens-bound A trains skip Ralph Avenue and Rockaway Avenue due to removal and replacement of corroded steel beams south of Ralph Avenue.

From 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, March 24 and Sunday, March 25, 168th Street-bound C trains run via the F line from Jay Street-MetroTech to West 4th Street due to electrical and substation work at Jay Street-MetroTech.

From 11 p.m. Friday, March 23 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 26, Manhattan-bound D trains skip 182nd-183rd Sts due to track bed repairs.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 24 to Monday, March 26, Jamaica-bound E trains run express from Roosevelt Avenue to Forest Hills-71st Avenue due to track maintenance.

From 11 p.m. Friday, March 23 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 26, Brooklyn-bound F trains run via the M line after 36th Street in Queens to 47th-50th Sts in Manhattan due to SAS work at Lexington Avenue-63rd Street station.

From 4 a.m. Saturday, March 24 to 10 p.m., Sunday, March 25, Jamaica Center-bound J trains skip Kosciuszko Street, Gates Avenue, Halsey Street and Chauncey Street due to track panel installation at Halsey Street and Gates Avenue.

From 12:01a.m. to 6:30 a.m., Saturday, March 24 and Sunday, March 25 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m., Monday, March 26, Manhattan-bound N trains run via the Manhattan Bridge from DeKalb Avenue to Canal Street due to station painting at City Hall.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 26, Coney Island-bound N trains run via the D line from 36th Street to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue due to track panel installation south of 59th Street.

From 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday, March 24 and from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, March 25, Q service is extended to Ditmars Blvd. due to work on the 7 line.

From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, March 24 and Sunday, March 25, Manhattan-bound R trains run via the Manhattan Bridge from DeKalb Avenue to Canal Street due to station painting at City Hall.

From 6:30 a.m. to 12 midnight, Saturday, March 24 and Sunday, March 25, Forest Hills-71st Street-bound R trains run express from Roosevelt Avenue to 71st Avenue due to track maintenance.

(42nd Street Shuttle)
From 12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m., Saturday, March 24, Sunday, March 25 and Monday, March 26, the 42nd Street shuttle operates all night, every 10 minutes, due to the 7 line suspension between Queens and Manhattan.

Categories : Service Advisories

Comments (2)

Link: ‘The Tao of the C Train’ · McSweeney’s has a fun piece for a Friday afternoon: Kendra Eash presents The Tao of the C Train. It is her ode to the subway replete with this gem: “There is no person who is not clean who has not sat in your seat. No matter which seat you choose, it is unclean. When everyone is unclean, cleanliness ceases to exist.” It ends with an existential question: “Who can continue to calmly ride, when train traffic is ahead?” [McSweeney's] · (0)

Samuelsen: Add platform staffers to dangerous stations · During yesterday’s discussion on subway stations we love to hate, a few readers mentioned narrow platforms as a major concern. At rush hour, some stations simply cannot handle the crowds, and lately, the MTA has dealt with a spate of accidents, some fatal, at 72nd St. and Broadway, an express stop home of a very narrow platform. John Samuelsen has a solution.

The TWU boss, in an letter to Joe Lhota which The Daily News obtained, calls upon the MTA to bring more employees to oversee platforms at crowded or dangerous stations. The authority has reduced these so-called station conductors from 100 to 40 over the past five years, and they could restore some order. “The platform is so narrow that if a person slips or trips there is a good chance they will be hit by an approaching train or fall onto the tracks,” he wrote.

Samuelsen might be onto something, but I wonder if he would accept my proposal: Bring aboard more station conductors by changing the job responsibilities of station agents to include platform duty during peak hours. This way, the MTA wouldn’t have to spend money it doesn’t have on staffing levels while at the same time, the authority would be developing a more productive work force. It would be a win for the MTA, a win for passengers and a win for the union as well. · (21)

Mar

Lappin: SBS good, over-enforcement bad

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (26) ·

A November report showed how popular the M15 Select Bus Service had become.

City Council Member Jessica Lappin and her East Side constituents like what they see out of the Select Bus Service along First and Second Ave., but they all wish the MTA and NYPD weren’t so heavy handed with fine enforcement. In her second annual report card for the city’s latest efforts at speeding up buses, Lappin gave the service a solid B, up for a B- last year, but she urged the MTA to better fix its fare payment machines and ease up on enforcement in the meantime.

“More East Siders are onboard with Select Bus Service, and want to see it expanded to other locations,” Lappin said. “But the MTA still needs to do a better job with fixing broken ticket machines and other inconveniences.”

Lappin’s report card breaks down the service into four categories based on responses from her constituents. Overall, 98.3 percent of the 1155 respondents who took the survey said they have used the Select Bus Service. This number may be skewed a bit as a transportation survey will attract those who use transportation, but these are the folks who are most attuned to the good and bad of it all.

By and large, Upper East Siders seemed content with the speed of service. Most wait times are between five and ten minutes, and nearly 70 percent of respondents said speeds were good or excellent. Lappin rated speed an A, and while fare payment was problematic, according to MTA studies, the time saved by eliminating the painfully slow MetroCard dip is the driving factor there.

The biggest issue arose with ease of use of those fare payment machines though. While 55 percent of respondents rated the pre-board machines as good or excellent, nearly 45 thought them to be fair or poor. The Council Member offered up her take: “Council Member Lappin’s office frequently receives complaints about broken Select Bus Service ticket machines. When the machines are broken or out of paper, it is impossible to buy a ticket. Without a ticket, riders risk being issued a $100 summons. Constituents have also complained that ticket machines are dangerously close to the street.”

Hand in hand with this concern are complaints over enforcement. Twenty respondents were ticketed when SBS payment machines failed to produce receipts, and riders complained that buses were stopped during fare inspections, thus defeating the purpose of a faster commute. One East Sider’s tale highlights these concerns. “Last September I received a $100 summons even though the SBS ticket machine wasn’t working,” Jodi Penchina said. “When I called the MTA & Transit Adjudication Bureau to explain what happened, they made it impossible to get answers. It wasn’t just the ticket machine that was broken—the entire SBS fare collection system is broken and it needs to be fixed.”

DNA Info offered up more tales of fare-payment woes and the subsequent summonses that so plague the new system. We’ve heard these complaints for years, but the stakeholders in the Select Bus Service system have yet to respond to them. Machines are repaired often enough, and enforcement is often overzealous. It’s what works though to keep the buses moving.

So Lappin gives the buses a better grade in 2012 than she did in 2011. It’s an incremental step up, but as Select Bus Service becomes more pervasive, and the MTA and NYC DOT more adept at respond to complaints, those marks should only rise. If they don’t, something has gone wrong.

Categories : Buses, Manhattan

Comments (26)

Mar

Video: The sounds of the subway

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (2) ·

This one comes to from Tim Sessler (by way of Gothamist). Sessler is a DC-based freelance video editor, and he explains his video, “Shot within a couple hours on a sunny Saturday afternoon, ‘Bending Sounds’ is a test/experiment to capture the inspirational sounds and visuals of the NYC subway.” It’s a little bit haunting, a little bit creepy and a little bit romantic. Give it a watch with some headphones on for the full aural experience.

Categories : View from Underground

Comments (2)

Business owners, residents bemoan Smith-9th Sts. delay · As I mentioned briefly on Friday, the MTA does not anticipate reopening the Smith/9th Sts. station stop until the fall. Originally slated to open this month, the 78-year-old station has been the host of “especially challenging conditions,” according to a Transit spokesman, and its reopening will have to wait. Business owners and residents who are effectively cut out of from their subway stop are not happy, The Daily News reported today, and I don’t blame them.

“I really might have to close my whole business down because of this,” Abdul Zaokari, the owner of the deli that sits beneath the viaduct, said. “I’ve asked MTA to give me a break since I pay them for my rent, but they don’t listen. And even worse, they don’t realize how many customers used to come here in the morning, for lunch and even for a quick dinner. I’ve lost 80 percent of those customers. I really don’t know how my business can survive until November when they say the subway will be finished.”

Other shop owners say the crowds that used to accompany the F and G trains at the closet station to parts of Carroll Gardens and Red Hook are completely gone and won’t return for six to eight months. Now, I want the Viaduct to last another 75 years, but at a certain point, it’s understandable when people get upset. It is routine practice for the MTA to say a rehabilitation project will cost a certain amount and go on for a fixed period of time. In the end, the project usually costs more and takes longer than the MTA first promises, and people dependent upon the subway for travel and its crowds for a livelihood are the losers.

Had Zaokari known the full extent of the outage last year, he could have better prepared for it. Instead he has to weather another six unanticipated months of this storm while Red Hook residents will have to hike to the nearest open stop or continue to rely on one of Brooklyn’s least reliable bus routes. The wait continues. · (9)

Mar

Subway stations we love and the ones we hate

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (70) ·

The J and Z's Chamber Street stop is one that many vote as their least favorite in the system. (Photo by flickr user ciamabue)

A few weeks ago, my work offices moved from the Grand Central area to Times Square, and my morning commute shifted as well. Instead of exiting the East Side IRT through the southern bowels of the ugly 42nd St. stop, the end of my morning commute involves a walk over the platforms that connect the Shuttle at Times Square — the original IRT 42nd St. stop — to the West Side line. The Track 4 platform continues to the north, and a small area of the original platform remains unused.

Despite the hustle and bustle of that Times Square station, seemingly at all hours of the day and night, it’s one of my favorite in the system for its history and complexities. It’s a labyrinth of passageways that stretch from 44th St. and 8th Ave. to 40th and Broadway. It connects the IND, the BMT and the IRT lines at the center of the city, and it features a great vantage point for watching the West Side IRT trains stream past the shuttle platform and into and out of its station.

For every Times Square, though, there’s a Chambers St. underneath 1 Centre St. For every well-maintained and recently-renovated station, there’s an equally dingy one that needs more than just a little TLC. Unfortunately, decades of deferred maintenance means those in need of attention far outnumber those that look passably well maintained.

In my neck of the woods, for instance, Grand Army Plaza is the only station in good shape. The two 7th Ave. stations — one at 9th St. and one at Flatbush — need work, and the Union St. stop at 4th Ave. just is. It’s not in awful shape, but it’s not particularly nice. That’s the public perception of our vast and vital subway system.

Last week, I posed a random question to my Twitter followers: “What’s your least favorite subway stop?” The answers were creative. Let’s look at a sampling.

@SecondAveSagas Bowery should’ve been condemned on sanitary reasons over 30 years ago. It’s perpetually disgusting.

— skormos (@skormos) March 13, 2012

@SecondAveSagas Canal Street on the J/Z. Dirty, creepy, narrow, and difficult to get to from the other Canal platforms.

— Chaim Dauermann (@notclam) March 13, 2012

@SecondAveSagas Herald Square. It’s always a zoo, poorly designed and filthy.

— Will Davidian (@willDavidian) March 13, 2012

@SecondAveSagas Court St on the R. Deep underground, narrow platform, rickety elevator, feels dank and a little dangerous.

— Phil Catelinet (@PhilCatelinet) March 13, 2012

@SecondAveSagas west 4th street in the summer, excruciatingly hot and smelly

— Dumb Yankees Cat (@leokitty) March 13, 2012

I posted the same question on Facebook and received a similarly varied response. Of course, a few stations stick out. The West 4th St. stop is generally in terrible shape, and the lower level platforms are indeed hot and smelly during the summer. Canal St., despite a recent renovation, shows the wear and tear of constant use and abuse. The Chambers St. and Bowery stations along the BMT Nassau Line are creepy and decaying. The unused set of tracks at Canal St. and the Bowery add to the seediness of it all.

These stations are the public faces of the subway system. It’s what daily straphangers live with and walk through every day during their commutes, and it’s how tourists come to view the New York City subway system. It’s a seemingly impossible task, with money tight and time working against it, to keep the system looking clean, but so much of it is in bad shape. Without the political support, it won’t get better, and we’ll be left with only a glimpse of the history and progress at crown-jewel stations while the rest of the system suffers.

While in this post, I’ve highlighted a few responses to my query, I’d love to hear more. Feel free to chime in with your least favorite subway station (or your favorite, for that matter). We all have our various reasons for liking and hating some of those 468 stops out there.

Categories : View from Underground

Comments (70)

Metro-North set to expand Quiet Calmmute program · Quiet Calmmute, Metro-North’s punny quiet commute program, is coming soon to a peak-hour train near you. Beginning April 2, all inbound AM and outbound PM peak trains on the Hudson, Harlem & New Haven Lines will feature one quiet car. For AM rains inbound to Grand Central, the last car will be a designated quiet car, and for PM trains outbound from Manhattan, the first car will be the serene one. For those violating the rules, conductors will pass out polite “reminder” cars.

According to Metro-North’s own surveys, a whopping 83 percent of passengers said they support the quiet cars. “Quiet cars are a hit,” Metro-North President Howard Permut said to LoHud.com. “With very few exceptions, people have quickly adapted to the new etiquette.”

While the quiet car is a concept that won’t see the light of day in the subway, I am particularly enamored with one aspect of the program. Among the things commuters in the quiet cars must do are: (1) disabling the sound features on electronic devices; and (2) using headphones at a volume that cannot be heard by fellow passengers. These are basic concepts in mass transit etiquette that are, more frequently than not, forgotten by the straphanging public in the subways. · (9)

Mar

Lisberg, City & State editor, named chief MTA spokesman

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (0) ·

On Friday, Jeremy Soffin served his final day as Director of Media Relations for the MTA, and today, MTA Chairman Joe Lhota named Adam Lisberg as the new Director of External Communications. Lisberg, currently the editor of City & State and once the City Hall bureau chief of The Daily News’, will head up press office while setting the “communications agenda” for the MTA. He will serve as Lhota’s chief spokesperson as well.

“Adam is an award-winning journalist who is joining us at an exciting time as we attempt to change both the operation and the image of the MTA. His talents and experience will be instrumental in shaping our message as we move forward,” Lhota said in a statement.

Lisberg, a current Brooklynite with Chicago roots, has covered mass transit and the MTA for a good portion of his career. After all, state and city politics and our massive transit agency are often intertwined, not always for the better. With, as Politicker NY notes, a salary of $150,000 coming his way, Lisberg is saying all the right things.

“I’m excited to join an agency that plays such a crucial role in the New York City region, and to help the MTA deliver its message to the millions of people it serves across a wide range of media,” he said. “Mass transit is the lifeblood of New York City and the surrounding counties. As the MTA tackles enormous construction projects at a time of financial strain, I’m looking forward to helping the agency explain its challenges and its achievements to the millions of people who rely on it.”

Lisberg’s immediate challenge is to overcome both a skeptical public and media prone to superficial transit coverage as he shapes and reshapes the MTA’s image. He should also serve as a set of ears for the agency with his pulse to the ground. It can’t just be about telling about change; it must be about showing a response as well.

“The MTA has a good story to tell and I see my role there as telling it,” he said to Capital New York. “I know that I’m now going to be representing the views of an organization as opposed to purely being a critic from the outside, but I’m doing it for a cause and an organization I believe in, which makes it a lot easier.”

Lisberg begins in his role on March 30, and I’m sure you’ll see his name often on these pages. In the meantime, get acquainted with him via his Twitter account.

Categories : MTA

Comments (0)

Mar

To petition or to ride, that is the G train question

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (36) ·

Will the G train extension remain once the Culver Viaduct rehab is completed?

A few weeks ago, when the MTA opened up the northern staircase at 4th Ave. and 9th St., a few Brooklynites grew concerned over the state of the Culver Viaduct rehab. With over a year still left on the work — and the reopening of Smith/9th Sts. delayed until the fall — these folks grew concerned that the MTA would take away the very useful five-stop G train extension that’s been in place since 2009. Keep it, they rightfully argued.

Now, I know the value of this extension quite well. I live a short walk away from the 7th Ave. stop at 9th St. in Brooklyn, and ever since the G train has been extended through my station, trips to Williamsburg, Greenpoint and beyond have been much, much quicker. I don’t have to wait interminably for an F train only to have to wait interminably a few stops later for a G train. A one-seat ride, especially late at night, makes all the difference, and the crowded G train as it snakes through Brownstone Brooklyn is a testament to the success of this extension.

That the viaduct work won’t wrap until 2013 and that the G train extension has been successful, though, will not stop New Yorkers for getting all up in a tizzy. Since it appeared as though the end of the work was at least in sight if not actually around the corner, local leaders found a transit issue they could exploit. That, at least, is my pessimistic take on the issue.

The Straphangers along with Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz joined together to form the 5 Stop Fan Club, an advocacy group with a mission to convince the MTA to keep the G train extension alive. They started a petition drive, garnered front-page coverage in New York’s free dailies and earned a few brief TV and public radio spots. It’s a pro-transit campaign getting mainstream press coverage!

The comments came fast and furious. “Ending this service will have a profound effect on the community and the mom and pop stores along these five stops,” de Blasio said. “I encourage every New Yorker who wants to see the G train service preserved to join the 5 Stop Fan Club and let your voices be heard.” A Carroll Gardens resident echoed this concern. “The extension is a minor inconvenience for them to keep open, but it’s a major convenience for the public, especially on the weekends when service is slower,” George Luis Cordero said to The Daily News.

Something about this petition drive rubbed me the wrong way though. When I expressed my doubts via Twitter, Cate Contino of the Straphangers parried with me. I think the politicians signed on are just looking to garner constituent favor and that the G train extension will be saved if lower-case-s straphangers actually use it. The Straphangers, rightfully so, seek to raise awareness of a useful subway extension that will cost the MTA the operating budget equivalent of 3-4 extra train sets.

Yet, the MTA never said ti would axe the G train extension. At the start of the Culver rehab, the authority said the extension would be temporary with an evaluation to be conducted at the end of the work. That’s the line they’re still pushing today. As I’ve said, if the ridership warrants it, the G train extension to Church Ave. will become permanent, and so far, ridership appears to warrant it.

So here’s my proposal: Sign the petition; raise awareness about it. But in the end, as the folks petition over the M8 back in 2010 showed, if the ridership isn’t there, no amount of petitioning can save a doomed transit route once the MTA puts it under the cutting knife. So ride, ride, ride, and the G train won’t be going anywhere.

Categories : Brooklyn

Comments (36)

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Weekend work impacting 14 subway lines

Lappin: SBS good, over-enforcement bad

Video: The sounds of the subway

Subway stations we love and the ones we hate

Lisberg, City & State editor, named chief MTA spokesman

To petition or to ride, that is the G train question

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