Second Ave. Sagas

Aug

Remembering a fire at Chambers St.

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (14) ·

A 2005 fire at Chambers St. relay room threatened to derail service on the 8th Ave. line for years. (Photo by flickr user Remon Rijper)

As the Long Island Rail Road struggles to overcome a fire that has knocked out much of its service, the fragile state of the city’s transit infrastructure has again come under the microscope. The signal tower that burned on Monday dated from 1913 and was scheduled to modernized next year, and while it’s amazing to think that 100-year-old technology can still run the nation’s busiest commuter rail, that the system hasn’t been updated since Woodrow Wilson’s first term as president is a sad commentary on transit investment.

This isn’t the first time in recent that part of the MTA’s signal technology has been taken out by the fire. The last high-profile incendiary incident came in January 2005 when a homeless man at Chambers St. searching for warmth amidst a snowstorm started a fire that destroyed a key relay room for the 8th Ave. IND. Initial reports featured tales of a subway system in chaos. C service was suspended as the V ran to Euclid Ave., and the A train had to run local and at slow speeds while drivers relied on the subway equivalent of manual transmission.

Reports from Transit were just as dire. “This is a very significant problem, and it’s going to go on for quite a while,” Lawrence G. Reuter, the president of New York City Transit, said. He said that would cost millions of dollars to restore the signal system and that service along the A and C lines would be slowed for three to five years. Could damage to 70-year-old technology really cause such inconvenience?

The impact was immediate. Transit had to cut rush hour service from 26 trains in each direction to just eight in the aftermath of the fire, and the 600,000 commuters who relied upon the A and C trains were struggling to find faster ways around town. But then a funny thing happened on the way to the signal modernization project: The MTA’s timeframe for restored service grew shorter and shorter.

Just a few days after the fire brought dire predictions of five-year service outages, Reuter had to admit that he vastly overstated the importance of the burned relay room, and less than two weeks later, full service along 8th Ave. had nearly been restored. Reuter changed his story after the fire and claimed he meant to say that the signal repairs would take 3-5 years, Service, he maintained, would always be restored quickly. “I must have misspoke or didn’t clarify myself very well on that, he said. “I am sorry.” In fact, repair work on the burnt-out signal room did not commence for over a year after the fire.

But in the aftermath of the incident, the TA’s overall point remained: It would take a very long time to modernize the subway’s signals. At a City Council hearing a few days after the fire, then-Senior Vice President for Subways Michael A. Lombardi said it would take 45 years and hundreds of millions of dollars to bring the system up to date. While City Council members at the time called it “inadequate,” “inefficient and irresponsible,” no developments over the last five years have changed that outlook. The $88 million project to restore and modernize signal service at Chambers St. wrapped this May, five years and three months after the 2005 fire, but the rest of the system remains without a timeframe for these badly-needed upgrades.

Meanwhile, as Long Island-based commuters struggle to get into the city today, we see the importance of keeping technology up to date. Currently signal systems have built-in redundancies and better fireproofing technology, traits absent from those towers built in 1913. Without investment, the infrastructure ages to the point where one fire at the wrong point in the system can knock out an entire rail network, and that’s a problem for New York.

Categories : Subway History

Comments (14)

Aug

LIRR plans reduced service for Tuesday

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (18) ·

A graphic from The New York Times highlights the importance of the Hall Tower to LIRR operations east of Jamaica.

As the Long Island Rail Road continues to recover from the fire that knocked out the Hall Tower signal just east of Jamaica, the agency announced a reduced schedule throughout the day on Tuesday. The LIRR will run at 75 percent capacity in bound to New York City and 60 percent capacity outbound. This could be the reality on the ground for days to come as crews must check over 200 wires for possible damage.

For now, all service along the Port Washington Branch will continue to operate normally. The LIRR’s plans for the other lines during peak and off-peak hours are as follows, and for the why of it, check out how The Times explains it today:

It seems improbable that a piece of ancient machinery, a contraption of levers and pulleys designed in 1913, would be critical to the successful operation of one of the nation’s largest commuter railroads.

But the machinery, which remained on fire for about an hour, controls the 155 track switches at a crucial choke point: Jamaica Station, which 10 of the railroad’s 11 branches must travel through to get in and out of New York City.

With no way to direct trains onto their proper routes, railroad workers scrambled onto the tracks, spikes and mallets in hand, to lock the switches into place manually so that trains could travel by, a practice known in railroad parlance as “block and spike.”

Tuesday AM Rush

Thirty-three westbound AM rush hour trains — or 25 percent of the normal capacity — will be canceled. The complete list of canceled trains can be found here. As a result of the cancellations, the MTA expects residual delays from added station stops. Says the Rail Road, “Customers will be able to exit or board trains at Jamaica Station, however trains making scheduled stops at Jamaica will not be held for scheduled connections to Penn Station, Atlantic Terminal, Hunterspoint Avenue, and Long Island City.” LIRR personnel will be on hand to provide directions, and Manhattan-bound customers may be better off transferring to the E, J or Z trains at Jamaica.

There will be no train service between West Hempstead and Valley Stream with buses available at Valley Stream. Westbound trains will not run from St. Albans, and again, shuttle buses will provide service.

Eastbound reverse-peak service from Atlantic Terminal and Penn Station will operate at regularly scheduled times but with anticipated delays en route. There will be no eastbound train service from Jamaica to Locust Manor, Laurelton and Rosedale. The MTA will run buses instead.

Tuesday PM Rush

The LIRR’s plan for Tuesday evening is similar to Monday’s. Approximately 60 percent of the 120 regularly-scheduled trains that leave Manhattan will run, and the agency expects canceled trains, delays and no connections at Jamaica Station.

In addition to the Port Washington service, evening rush service from Penn Station will include dedicated trains making local stops to Huntington/Port Jefferson, Ronkonkoma/Greenport, Long Beach, Babylon and Montauk, but police will be engaging in serious crowd-control measures at Penn Station. MTA officers will carefully regulate the number of people entering the LIRR section of the terminal, allowing customers in as trains become available. Crowding is also a concern at Jamaica.

LIRR is will be offering Hempstead and Far Rockaway-bound trains only from Atlantic Terminal in downtown Brooklyn. There will be no Hempstead and Far Rockaway service from Penn Station.

LIRR customers were also advised of service changes if heading for the following destinations:

Oyster Bay: Travel to Mineola for connections to all Oyster Bay branch stops.
West Hempstead: Travel to Valley Stream where buses will be available to take them onto to their home stations.
Patchogue, Speonk and Montauk: Customers can connect to those trains at Babylon.

I will continue to update with more information throughout the day.

Categories : LIRR

Comments (18)

Aug

Partial LIRR service restored for evening rush

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (4) ·

After an earlier incident knocked out 10 of the LIRR’s 11 train routes, the MTA announced this evening that partial service has been restored on all routes. The authority says that “very limited service” through Jamaica has been restored but that trains do not have the ability to switch from one track to another east of that station. There are no regularly scheduled transfer at Jamaica tonight, and the MTA advises of us of the following service changes:

Far Rockaway and Hempstead Branch customers must catch their train from Atlantic Terminal, Brooklyn.
Customers for all other branches please depart from Penn Station.
Montauk Branch customers, please take a Babylon Branch train and change at Babylon.
Oyster Bay Branch customers, please change at Mineola.
Port Jefferson Branch customers, please change at Hicksville or Huntington.
West Hempstead Branch customers, please change at Valley Stream for bus service.

Currently, New York City Transit and MTA Bus routes are honoring LIRR fare tickets, and the MTA does not know how the switch fire will impact rush hour tomorrow morning. City Room has more on the cause and impact of the fire on the switching technology:

The fire occurred around 11 a.m. on Monday after an electrical surge in two or more cables embedded in the tracks near Jamaica Station, officials said. The surge fed into a crucial control tower just east of the station, known as the Hall Tower, and sparked a fire in the ancient equipment that controls the station’s track switches.

That equipment, which was designed in 1913 and requires individual workers to use levers and pulleys to move switches, is scheduled to be replaced this fall with a modern, computerized system.

To restore some service, track workers used mallets and spikes to physically lock the switches into place so that trains could move through the station.

It sounds as though Long Island-bound commuters should just prepare for a leisurely trip home tonight and try to remain as calm as possible throughout this ordeal.

Categories : LIRR

Comments (4)

Aug

All LIRR service but Port Washington suspended

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (4) ·

Due to a fire at a switching tower east of Jamaica Station, all Long Island Rail Road service except for trains running on the Port Washington line is currently suspended. Service has been suspended since shortly after 11 a.m. this morning, and LIRR officials are not sure when trains will head east. “We are not going to be able to operate all of our trains in the evening rush hour,” Sam Zambuto, an LIRR spokesman, said to City Room.

Michael Grynbaum and Andy Newman have more:

The railroad is currently unable to control the switches that allow trains to change tracks just east of Jamaica Station, a juncture point for 10 of the railroad’s 11 branches. The problem means that trains headed to and from New York City cannot pass that point.

The railroad has suspended nearly all its trains until the problem can be resolved, but trains on the Port Washington branch, the one route that does not pass through Jamaica Station, are continuing to operate on their tracks through northeastern Queens to Nassau County.

The fire, believed to be electrical, began in the switching tower around 11:10 a.m. and was under control by noon with no injuries, said a Fire Department spokesman, Steve Ritea. “It was fairly contained, not a lot of damage,” Mr. Ritea said. But the flame apparently did enough to throw the railroad’s switching system out of commission.

According to LIRR officials, as many as 240,000 travelers may be impacted during rush hour, and the agency will announce the alternate travel plans later this afternoon. MTA watchers, however, are not optimistic that tonight’s rush hour will be a smooth one. “You’re talking a major disaster here,” William Henderson of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Council to the MTA, said to The Times. “You are going to have a lot of people who are looking for ways to get home tonight.”

Henderson noted that the Jamaica Station, which could be reached via the E, J or Z trains, is not designed to handle the large crowds that may descend upon it later this evening. Additionally, the MTA does not yet know if service will be able to run east of Jamaica tonight. I’ll update this post as more information becomes available, and the MTA’s website will have the latest real-time travel information as well.

Categories : LIRR

Comments (4)

Aug

New Flyer wins $216 million CNG bus contract

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (26) ·

The New Flyer buses will be styled on model C40LFR.

New Flyer Industries, a Winnipeg-based bused manufacturer, announced today the MTA has awarded New Flyer of America a contract for up to 475 new buses. The $216 million order includes 135 40-foot compressed natural gas heavy-duty buses similar to the model C40LFR shown above with an option for an addition 340 more CNG buses.

“We are elated to have been selected for this procurement,” Paul Soubry, the company’s president and CEO, said. “New Flyer is pleased that our commitment to building a superior product and holistic support methodology is being rewarded. We see this as a testament to the high quality of New Flyer buses, not only the 190 CNG buses currently in service in New York City, but also the many New Flyer CNG buses currently in service with transit agencies in 65 cities in the United States.”

The new buses will be for the New York City Transit and MTA Bus Company fleets. Two pilots will be delivered in the second quarter of 2011 and the rest will arrive on city streets in late 2011 and early 2012. New Flyer has delivered more than 3500 CNG buses since the first ones hit the streets of San Diego in 1994.

These aren’t the first New Flyer buses to hit the city either. The MTA currently runs 823 New Flyer vehicles, including 630 60-foot diesel buses, three 45-foot diesel buses and 190 40-foot CNG buses. “New Flyer is proud of the ongoing partnership between New Flyer and the MTA,” Paul Smith, the company’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, said. “We have worked hard to build and maintain this relationship and we find it fitting that the largest transit bus manufacturer can develop and enjoy such a strong and long-standing relationship with the largest transit system in North America.”

Categories : Buses

Comments (26)

Aug

Amidst fare hikes and cuts, finding other ways to travel

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (8) ·

Before the service cuts went into effect, subway ridership had been on the rise.

Riding the subways in New York City is oftentimes not a pleasant experience. Straphangers wait (for too long) on station platforms that are too hot and too crowded for trains that are too stuffed with fellow commuters. As the MTA had to cut services in June and must raise fares again in January just to maintain service as its current level, some former straphangers are finding other ways to travel.

In amNew York today, Sheila Anne Feeney highlights three travelers who have given up on the subways and, in the grand fashion of The Times Styles Section, tries to turn those three commuters into a trend. These three, she says, are representative of an “underground movement” whose members are looking for stress-free, environmentally friendly and cost-efficient ways of getting to and from work. She writes:

“Being outside and being in control of the destiny in your commute gives you a better outlook on the whole day,” said Michael Auerbach, 26 [of Upper Green Side], who bikes 10 miles from his Greenpoint home to his job on the Upper East Side. He appreciates saving $4.50 a day almost as much as he loves compressing his three-train, 50-minute commute into an invigorating half-hour.

Tracking a boost in walking is elusive, but there was a 221 percent rise in bicycle commuters between 2000 and 2009, to 15,495, with Brooklyn leading, according to the NYC Commuter Cycling Indicator.

New Yorkers resort to a step schlep or pedal push for a variety of reasons: Fare hikes, for example, “always give a bump to bike commuting,” said Noah Budnick, deputy director of Transportation Alternatives. Many people, too, said they resent being held hostage in increasingly crowded trains and buses.

Another attorney Feeney found walks three miles each way to and from her office, stopping at a nearby gym to shower. I’d have to believe these commuters may find their alternate commutes less invigorating as temperatures drop over the winter. Still, that some people are fed up with the service and conditions underground is a timeless tale in the annals of New York’s subway history.

New Yorkers, though, shouldn’t be worried about the walkers and the bikers. For as long as I can remember, my dad, who works a little over two miles from my parents’ apartment, walked when the weather was warm — but not too warm. He enjoys the 40-minute jaunt to the office and did so when subway fares consisted of tokens and a ride cost $1.25. As long as the city encourages biking and sidewalks exist, people will always bike or walk over shorter distances.

The people we should worry about though are the ones who eschew transit for cars. They’re the ones who think their rides are too long, who no longer have direct and convenient bus service to work or a nearby subway stop, who can’t stand how packed the trains are even four or five stops away from a terminal. The riders who switch to cars for the perceived convenience of it and to escape the grind of the subway will contribute to the congestion that cripples our area both economically and environmentally, and a future with more cars on the road is what we must try to avoid.

The MTA is, of course, stuck. As it has done so four times in the past seven years and will again be doing come January 1, the MTA is raising the rates on its fares just to keep service levels constant. To avoid a fare hike in 2009, the authority had to slash service across the board, and as wait times become longer and trains both more crowded and less frequent, the ridership levels will dip. Even an increase of just a handful of cars on the road can prove very costly, and the MTA — that main driver of transit in New York City — is in no position to staunch its economic bleeding.

Those commuters who leave the subway system for bikes contribute to no problems. It’s the people who live far away and can’t tolerate the subways that represent the real underground movement of disgruntled commuters, and the carrots to lure them back to transit are nowhere to be found.

Categories : Fare Hikes, Service Cuts

Comments (8)

Aug

Weekend service advisories

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (0) ·

The following are this weekend’s service changes. They come to me via New York City Transit and are subject to change without notice. Listen to announcements on board, and pay attention to signs in your local station. As always, Subway Weekender has the map.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, downtown 1 and 2 trains run express from 14th Street to Chambers Street due to work to replace the roadbed at Franklin Street.

From 11:30 p.m. Friday, August 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, there are no 2 trains between Manhattan and the Bronx due to switch renewal at the 142nd Street junction north of 135th Street. 2 trains run between Flatbush Avenue-Brooklyn College and 96th Street, and then are rerouted to the 1 line to 137th Street. Free shuttle buses replace the 2 between 96th Street and 149th Street-Grand Concourse. 5 trains replace the 2 between 149th Street-Grand Concourse and 241st Street. Note: After leaving 96th Street, uptown 2 trains stop at 103rd Street then run express to 137th Street.

From 11:30 p.m. Friday, August 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, there are no 3 trains running due to switch renewal at the 142nd Street junction north of 135th Street. 4 trains replace the 3 between New Lots Avenue and Nevins Street all weekend. 2 trains replace the 3 between Nevins Street and 96th Street. Free shuttle buses replace 3 trains between 96th Street and 148th Street.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, downtown 4 trains run local from 125th Street to Brooklyn Bridge due to the Broadway-Lafayette Street-to-Bleecker Street transfer construction.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, uptown 4 trains run express from Brooklyn Bridge to 14th Street-Union Square, then local to 125th Street due to the Broadway-Lafayette Street-to-Bleecker Street transfer construction.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, 4 trains run local between Atlantic Avenue and Utica Avenue and are extended to and from New Lots Avenue to replace the suspended 3 due to switch renewal at the 142nd Street junction.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, there are no 5 trains between Bowling Green and 42nd Street-Grand Central due to switch renewal at the 142nd Street junction. Customers should take the 4 instead. Note: 5 trains run between the 241st Street 2 station and 42nd Street (days) or 149th Street-Grand Concourse (overnights). 5 shuttle trains run between Dyre Avenue and East 180th Street all weekend.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, 6 train service is extended to/from Bowling Green due to the Broadway-Lafayette Street-to-Bleecker Street transfer construction.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, uptown 6 trains run express from Brooklyn Bridge to 14th Street-Union Square due to a the Broadway-Lafayette Street-to-Bleecker Street transfer construction.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, Manhattan-bound 6 trains run express from Parkchester to Hunts Point Avenue due to station rehabilitation and structural repair at Whitlock Avenue, Morrison Avenue-Soundview and Parkchester. Note: At all times until September 2010, the Manhattan-bound 6 platform at Parkchester is closed for rehabilitation. Manhattan-bound 6 trains stopping at Parkchester will use the Pelham Bay Park-bound platform.

From 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday, August 21 and Sunday, August 22, Manhattan-bound 7 trains run express from Mets-Willets Point to 74th Street-Broadway due to painting of the elevated structure.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, Manhattan-bound D trains run on the N line from Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue to 36th Street due to structural repair and station rehabilitations from Bay 50th Street to 71st Street and ADA work at Bay Parkway.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, D trains run local between 34th Street-Herald Square and West 4th Street due to 5th Avenue Interlocking Signal System.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, Manhattan-bound D trains run express from 36th Street to Pacific Street, then skips DeKalb Avenue due to a concrete pour at DeKalb Avenue.

From 12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m. Saturday, August 21 and Sunday, August 22, Jamaica Center-bound E trains skip Briarwood-Van Wyck Blvd. due to rail repairs north of Kew Gardens-Union Turnpike.

From 11:30 p.m. Friday, August 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, Manhattan-bound E trains run local from Forest Hills-71st Avenue to Roosevelt Avenue due to a track chip out south of Elmhurst Avenue.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, Jamaica Center-bound E trains run local from Roosevelt Avenue to Forest Hills-71st Avenue due to a track chip out south of Elmhurst Avenue.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, E trains are rerouted on the F line in Manhattan and Queens. There is no E service between 34th Street and World Trade Center. E trains run on the F line between Roosevelt Avenue and 34th Street-6th Avenue due to work on the 5th Avenue Interlocking Signal System.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, the platforms at 5th Avenue, Lexington Avenue-53rd Street and 23rd Street-Ely Avenue stations are closed due to work on the 5th Avenue Interlocking Signal System. Customers should take the R or 6 instead. Note: Free shuttle buses connect Court Square/23rd Street-Ely Avenue, 21st Street-Queensbridge, and Queens Plaza stations.

From 11:30 p.m. Friday, August 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, Manhattan-bound F trains run local from Forest Hills-71st Avenue to Roosevelt Avenue due to a track chip out south of Elmhurst Avenue.

From 12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m. Saturday, August 21 and Sunday, August 22, 179th Street-bound F trains skip Briarwood-Van Wyck Blvd. and Sutphin Blvd. due to rail repairs north of Kew Gardens-Union Turnpike.

From 12:30 p.m. Saturday, August 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, 179th Street-bound F trains run local from Roosevelt Avenue to Forest Hills-71st Avenue due to a track chip out south of Elmhurst Avenue.

From 10:30 p.m. Friday, August 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, free shuttle buses replace trains between Court Square and Bedford-Nostrand Avenues due to a track chip out north of Metropolitan Avenue.

From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, August 22, L trains run in two sections due to signal maintenance and testing:

Between 8th Avenue and Broadway Junction and
Between Broadway Junction and Rockaway Parkway (every 24 minutes)

From 11:30 p.m. Friday, August 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, there are no M trains running due to platform edge rehabilitation. Customers should use the free shuttle buses instead.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, Coney Island-bound N trains are rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge from Canal Street to DeKalb Avenue due to grouting and track work at Cortlandt Street.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, August 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, Manhattan-bound Q trains run on the R line from DeKalb Avenue to Canal Street due to a concrete pour at DeKalb Avenue.

From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, August 21 and Sunday, August 22, and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, August 23, there is no R shuttle service in Brooklyn between 59th Street and 36th Street due to a concrete pour at DeKalb Avenue. Customers should take the N instead.

From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, August 21 and Sunday, August 22, Brooklyn-bound R trains are rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge from Canal Street to DeKalb Avenue due to grouting and track work at Cortlandt Street.

Categories : Service Advisories

Comments (0)

Aug

Transit opens new Ridgewood Intermodal Terminal

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (9) ·

New York City Transit officials and city politicians gathered this morning in Queens to celebrate the opening of the new Ridgewood Intermodal Terminal. Located at the Myrtle/Wyckoff L/M subway stop, the new terminal is designed to simplify a complex system of bus stops while facilitating a transfer between these buses and the popular subway lines they feed.

“This facility creates a much improved transfer point, making it easier for our customers to transfer between our bus and subway services,” NYC Transit President Thomas F. Prendergast said. “Additionally, our operating personnel will find it easier to pick up and discharge passengers on a street dedicated to bus boarding and unloading.”

The project cost $4 million with most of that provided by Assembly rep Catherine T. Nolan via the Capital Reserve Fund along with a $485,000 contribution of federal funds secured by House representative Nydia Velazquez. For the most part, the upgrades are aesthetic. Riders will benefit from new sidewalk canopies suspended from the elevated train lines that carry the M along Palmetto Street, and new benches and lighting mark the Terminal as well.

Transit operations too are simplified. No longer will the Q55, Q58, B13, B26, B52, and B54 buses stop at random spots throughout the area. Instead, Palmetto Street will be shut to all traffic except for buses and deliveries will serve as the centralized bus boarding area. “The residents of Ridgewood deserve reliable and effective transportation,” Velazquez said. “Establishing a new bus terminal and improving the station will not just enhance commuter service; it will also help rejuvenate the community by bringing more visitors to our city.”

Categories : Queens

Comments (9)

Aug

When it was a train: the Culver shuttle

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (19) ·

The 1964 subway map shows the Culver shuttle's connecting the 4th Avenue lines with the 6th Avenue lines well north of Coney Island.

Over on Subchat this morning, Newkirk Images posted a photo of the now-abandoned lower level of the 9th Ave. station in Brooklyn. Sitting in the center of the photo is a two-car train that has largely been lost to the history of the New York City subway system. That trainset is the Culver Shuttle.

The Culver Shuttle, as Joseph Brennan details at his Abandoned Stations site, had its origins in the late 19th Century steam-powered railroads that would take vacationing New Yorkers to the seaside resorts at Coney Island. With various elevated lines providing access throughout Brooklyn, the immediate history of the shuttle, says, Brennan is “fairly complex.” He writes:

Up to 1931, 5 Ave El trains provided all the service, and 9 Ave must have been busy with Culver passengers changing to the West End subway trains for a faster ride and access to many more places. The wooden el trains were slow and ran no farther than the end of the Brooklyn Bridge at Park Row, Manhattan.

When the Nassau St loop in lower Manhattan finally opened in 1931, the BMT began operating a mixture of subway and el services to the Culver line. Subway service ran Monday to Saturday, to Kings Highway in rush hours and summer Saturdays, and to Coney Island midday and other Saturdays. El service went to Coney Island rush hours, nights, summer Saturdays, and all Sundays, and otherwise ended at 9 Ave station. Is that clear? The BMT didn’t have enough subway cars for full service, so at rush hours and summers, the el had to pick up the service to the end of the line, so the subway trains could shortline. 9 Ave lower level saw its peak train service in these years, with both el and subway trains, and el trains reversing in the middle track during some hours…

The Transit Authority fulfilled a longstanding Board of Transportation plan in October 1954 when the IND subway was connected to the Culver line at Ditmas Ave station and took over all service to Culver stations beyond that point. BMT Culver service from a single track terminal at Ditmas Ave continued as before on weekdays, but nights and weekends it was a shuttle to 36 St. Ridership dropped, and in May 1959, it was made a shuttle full time, between Ditmas Ave and 9 Ave only.

As the subway system decayed throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, the Culver Shuttle keep chugging along. It ran the BMT standard subway cars up through the early 1970s, and Brennan notes how the way Transit didn’t maintain this little-used station echoed the collapse of the system as a well. “The dark, deteriorating lower level at 9 Ave, and the partly dismantled elevated line gave it a mood of decay,” he writes. “There was just one track, the center at 9 Ave and the west side on the el, and one train operated all the service. The end was obviously in sight, but it somehow hung on until 1975.”

That year — 1975 — saw the demise of the Culver Shuttle amidst the now-familiar refrain of budgetary problems. Only 1000 people a day used the shuttle, and most of those were making the round trip to and from work. The MTA estimated it would cost $1 million it didn’t have to rehabilitate the elevated structure, and the shuttle, which once ran into Manhattan via the 4th Ave. line and Nassau St. loop, would be shuttered instead, with residents offered a free bus transfer as a replacement service.

The abandoned 9th Ave. platform as seen in 2002. Photo via NYC Subway.

These days, not much remains to remind New Yorkers of the Culver Shuttle. A sealed staircase leads to an abandoned platform, and the platform itself is in terrible shape. The rails too are but a memory as they were demolished in 1984. The rights of way between 9th Ave. and Ditmas Ave. have generally long since been sold to private developers, and houses in Brooklyn now mark the tracks of the old Culver Shuttle. Today, only stub tracks remain, a remnant of this rich history of rail travel in Brooklyn.

Categories : Subway History

Comments (19)

Aug

Transit-related developments irk the Empire State Building

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (34) ·

With Penn West, not shown, and 15 Penn Plaza, center, the Empire State Building could be getting some unwanted skyline company soon.

Earlier this spring, as part of its plan for 15 Penn Plaza, Vornado Reality revealed plans to reopen the Gimbels Passageway between 6th and 7th Avenues underneath 33rd St. Although the company’s development proposal failed a Community Board vote and is still awaiting an anchor tenant, the City Planning Commission approved the building, and as Speaker Christine Quinn is a friend to developers, a City Council vote next week is all but assured. But if a group of people banding together to protect the Empire State Building’s place amidst the New York skyline has its way, 15 Penn Plaza may not get so high off the ground.

The problem is one of height and proximity. Vornado’s new high-rise, located just two blocks west of the iconic Empire State Building, would top off at 1216 feet. The art deco building at 350 Fifth Ave. rises to just 1250 feet before the radio spire and lightning rod reach to just over 1453 feet. The new building, fear landmark preservationists, will radically alter the way the Empire State Building is perceived.

“The Empire State Building is the internationally recognized icon on the skyline of New York City,” Anthony Malkin, one of the owners of the Empire State Building, said. “We are its custodians, and must protect its place. Would a tower be allowed next to the Eiffel Tower or Big Ben’s clock tower? Just as the world will never tolerate a drilling rig next to The Statue of Liberty, why should governmental bonuses and waivers be granted to allow a structure as tall and bulky at 15 Penn Plaza to be built 900 feet away from New York City’s iconic landmark and beacon?”

The various renderings — many of which are collected at The Architect’s Newspaper Blog — range from dire to reasonable. Take a look, for example, at the view from New Jersey or the way 15 Penn Plaza looms to the west of the Empire State Building if seen from the east:

The Observer’s Eliot Brown has more on Malkin’s crusade:

He first came to be involved with 15 Penn Plaza when Vornado began shepherding the plans for the tower through the city’s seven-month-long public-approval process, which concludes with the vote by the City Council this month. The size of the tower caught him off-guard, he said. He began to round up consultants and push for changes, including at the City Planning Commission, given that such a building so close by would significantly change the skyline. “We’re not talking about preventing tall buildings in New York,” Mr. Malkin said. “The question here is this tall building here in New York, being approximately 800, 900 feet away from the Empire State Building, crowding the distinctive skyline of the city.”

He is no fan of the design—he likened it to “an undersea ICBM”—and sees a decision on the tower as a historic one, saying it is “akin to the loss of Penn Station.”

As for what’s driving Mr. Malkin, it seems to be a transparent self-interest. He views himself as a guardian of his building’s place in the skyline, and, as such, he is protective of anything that might encroach on that. If there are financial motivations-and Mr. Malkin says there are not-they are not obvious (although he has raised concerns that the new skyscraper would interfere with his building’s radio tower). The Vornado tower and the Empire State Building would compete for two different types of tenants; namely, those willing to pay high rents for modern space at the Vornado tower (banks and the like), and those who can’t. Tenants at the Empire State Building include the FDIC and nonprofits like Human Rights Watch, for instance.

Malkin isn’t alone in his fight. Peg Breen of the New York Landmarks Conservancy expressed her surprise at the size of the proposed 15 Penn Plaza as well. “It’s hard to understand how City Planning could say that 15 Penn Plaza would have no impact on the Empire State Building when they already lowered a proposed 53rd Street building for that very reason,” she said. “We would urge the Council to look at the discretionary waivers and bonuses this proposal has received.”

As this battle brews, though, and the fate of the proposed development atop the Gimbels Passageway awaits City Council action (and the inevitable lawsuits), the altered skyline could come into play at 8th Ave. as well. As Jeremy Smerd from Crain’s New York York Business reported yesterday, the city, state and Vornado are haggling over the potential sale of 1 million square feet of air rights above the Moynihan Station. With the initial contracts for Moynihan’s Phase 1 approved on Monday, the air rights are the next big issue that must be sorted out.

Interestingly, an air rights deal could lead to a quick development at 33th St. and 8th Ave. If Vornado works out a deal, Penn West, a 67-story, 693-foot-tall tower above the new depot, could begin to rise soon. It’s going to get awfully crowded along the 33rd St. corridor soon, and the iconic Empire State Building may soon have some tall transit-related company indeed.

Categories : Moynihan Station

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