Mar
28

Work continues while service upgrades don’t

By · Comments (2) ·

This was not the best week for the MTA:

On with the service advisories:


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 29 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 31, there are no 2 trains between Atlantic Avenue and Chambers Street. Uptown 2 trains replace the 5 from Bowling Green to 149th Street and uptown 5 trains replace the 2 from Chambers Street to 149th Street. These changes are due to several projects, including station rehab at Chambers Street and tunnel lighting in the Clark Street tunnel and Wall Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 29 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 31, there are no 3 trains running. The M7, M102 and free shuttle buses replace the 3 between 148th Street and 135th Street. The 4 trains will make all 3 stops between Atlantic Avenue and New Lots Avenue. These changes are due to third rail work at 145th Street.


From 4 a.m. Saturday, March 29 to 10 p.m. Sunday, March 30, Bronx-bound 4 trains skip 161st, 167th, 170th Streets, Mt. Eden Avenue and 176th Street due to track panel installation at 161st and 167th Streets.


From 4 a.m. Saturday, March 29 to 10 p.m. Sunday, March 30, Flushing-bound 7 trains run express from Queensboro Plaza to Flushing-Main Street due to track and switch work at 74th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 29 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 31, there is no C train service between 168th Street and 145th Street; customers should take the A instead. Customers should note, however, that the Queens-bound A and Brooklyn-bound C trains run express from Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. to Utica Avenue and uptown AC trains skip Spring, 23rd and 50th Streets. These changes are due to several projects including roadbed replacement at 175th Street, tunnel lighting work between 168th and 207th Sts., hydraulics work between Hoyt-Schermerhorn and Utica Avenue and at West 4th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 29 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 31, free shuttle buses replace A trains between 168th Street and 207th Street. Customers may transfer between the Broadway or Ft. Washington Avenue shuttle buses and the A train at 168th Street due to roadbed replacement at 175th Street and structural and tunnel lighting work between 168th and 207th Sts.

From 11 p.m. Friday, March 28 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 31, free shuttle buses replace A trains between Far Rockaway and Beach 90th Street due to track tie replacement work from Beach 67th Street to Far Rockaway.


From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, March 30, Manhattan-bound D trains run on the N line from Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue to 36th Street (Brooklyn) due to fiber optic cable installation between 9th Avenue and 36th Street. The last stop for some Coney Island-bound N trains is Kings Highway.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 29 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 31, Queens-bound E trains run express during the midnight hours from Roosevelt Avenue to Forest Hills-71st Avenue due to electrical conduit installation.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 29 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 31, Queens-bound E trains skip Spring and 23rd Street due to hydraulics work at West 4th Street.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 29 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 31, Manhattan-bound F trains run on the V line from Roosevelt Avenue to 47th-50th Streets due to work in the 63rd Street tunnel.


From 8:30 p.m. Friday, March 28 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 31, there are no G trains between Forest Hills-71st Avenue and Court Square due to electrical conduit installation. Customers should take the E or R instead.

From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, March 29 and Sunday, March 30, Queens-bound J trains skip Hewes Street, Lorimer Street and Flushing Avenue due to tie and rail replacement.


From 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, March 29 and Sunday, March 30, Q trains run in two sections due to track maintenance work:
- Between 57th Street-7th Avenue (Manhattan) and Brighton Beach and
- Between Brighton Beach and Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, March 29 to 5 a.m. Monday, March 31, Forest Hills-bound R trains run express from Roosevelt Avenue to Forest Hills due to electrical conduit installation.

Categories : Service Advisories
Comments (2)
Mar
28

New Grand Theft Auto cuts down our subways

By · Comments (9) ·

gta4map.jpg

This is not the world’s most efficient subway system.

In a few short weeks, on April 29, one of the year’s most anticipated video games hits the shelves. That game, as many New Yorkers know, is the latest installment in one of the most polarizing and controversial video games of all time: Grand Theft Auto.

While a discussion of a video game may seem out of place on Second Ave. Sagas, this time around, Grand Theft Auto has a New York tie-in. GTA IV takes place in Liberty City, a fictionalized and stylized version of New York City and the surrounding environs. When Rockstar Games revealed this location last year, New York politicians were expectedly up in arms about it. No politician likes the glorified violence these GTA games bring to video consoles across the country.

For the subway buffs among us, seeing one of the most graphically-advanced and obsessively-detailed video games set in New York was something of a pop culture dream come true. Sure, GTA: San Andreas featured the Los Angeles subway, but who rides that? With Liberty City, GTA has a chance to show us what the video game’s graphics rendering capabilities really are. Could it handle a 722-mile, 468-station subway system with 22 lines and various underground, at-grade and aboveground subway tracks?

gta4map3.jpgWell, based on leaked maps obtained by the video game blog Kotaku from a Webshots user, the answer seems to be a disappointing no. Liberty City’s Transport Authority’s subway system pales in comparison to one run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority we currently enjoy. The maps — one is above and one is at right (click it to enlarge it) — show a small subway system with few lines and few stops that bear little relation to New York’s iconic subway map.

When the game hits, I bet Liberty City’s subways will look awfully similar to New York City’s subways but for another era. If the idea is that Liberty City is a crime-filled town where everyone’s jockeying for now power, they’re not going to be doing that while riding antiseptic R160s around town. Instead, we’ll be catapulted back to the late 1970s and early 1980s when the dirty, dingy subway were crime-filled and covered in graffiti.

With these maps a disappointing sneak peak at the game, it’s been a rough week for the New York City subways in our popular culture. With the announcement that James Gandolfini will be in the remake of The Taking of Pelham 123, the subways are seemingly getting a short shrift lately. The remake of Pelham sounds like it’s taking itself too seriously while the subway maps from GTA4 seem to suggest that Rockstar isn’t taking our subways seriously enough. Alas, what’s a subway fan to do?

Categories : Subway Maps, Subway Movies
Comments (9)
  • Gandolfini joins cast of Pelham remake · James Gandolfini, the Sopranos mob boss, is moving across the river to play the role of the beleaguered mayor in the upcoming Tony Scott remake of The Taking of Pelham 123. In the original, Lee Wallace can’t handle the pressures of leading the city through yet another crisis. Who knows how Gandolfini, a regular tough guy, will handle the role? One thing is for sure though; the Denzel Washington-John Travolta remake will have none of the charm or creativity of the snapshop of 1970s New York so embodied by Joseph Sargent’s original film. [Variety] · (2)
Mar
27

Three weeks later, Sander’s words ring hollow

By · Comments (1) ·

It is a sad thing to sit here yearning for the days of early March. With the future of New York City’s subways laid out to us by MTA CEO and Executive Director Elliot Sander, we were so full of hope and optimism. We were even discussing that famous circumferential subway line as though it would actually become a reality before 2050.

Now, we sit here, crushed by the MTA’s decisions to postpone the promised service upgrades and downgrade their target goal for on-time train performance. While the finger-pointing can go on, these feelings of despair and pessimism can be traced to four sentences in Sander’s State of the MTA address:

I have reviewed our 2008 revenues to date, which are in line with our budget projections. As a result, I will recommend to the Board that we move ahead with the service enhancements included in the financial plan.

That means $30 million dollars in new service this year. Our customers will benefit from increased service on 11 subway lines, extended and new bus routes, additional commuter rail trains and cars on LIRR and Metro-North, and improved customer communications.

On March 3, the MTA had the money. By March 24, the funds were gone, a victim of…something. On the record, MTA officials say that February and March tax revenues came in at levels lower than expected. But if February’s revenues were lower, why did Sander state unequivocally on March 3 that the MTA would begin institute service upgrades this year?

While the Bear Stearns collapse has shaken our economy, the MTA is on the verge of a $1-billion deal with Tishman Speyer for the Hudson Yards rights. They may get their congestion pricing revenue too. All signs are pointing, then, to a credibility gap. The MTA needs more accountability in its book-keeping.

Enter Christine Quinn. The New York City Council Speaker spoke out today in favor of congestion pricing. Said Quinn:

“It speaks to what we have heard from the City Council before, to real challenges in the way the MTA keeps its book or does not keep its books…To me this is a strong reason why we need congestion pricing. It’s a reason why we need a separate, sustainable revenue stream targeted at mass transit expansion in the city of New York. We need that money to go somewhere separate where the MTA’s board is not the final and only authority over it…Where there’s city representation.”

As congestion pricing comes up for a vote, I am beginning to think that city officials are finally going to start implementing closer oversight of the MTA’s finances. For the second time in as many fare hikes, what the MTA is saying and what the MTA is doing don’t match. In 2003, the MTA said they needed the hike to stay fiscally solvent when Alan Hevesi later discovered that the MTA had money to spend. This time around, the MTA promised us service upgrades that now are suspended indefinitely.

If the City Council thinks congestion pricing is the way to bring transparency to the MTA’s financial records, then it’s time to get on board. The MTA is a public benefits corporation, and it’s time to reclaim the benefits the agency should deliver to the public.

Categories : MTA Economics
Comments (1)
Mar
26

Straphangers: Half of all subway cars clean

By · Comments (4) ·

The subways, the Straphangers Campaign would like you to know, are not that clean. While the number shows improvement, only 50 percent of all subway cars are clean, according to the advocacy group’s 2007 Subway Smutz survey. The MTA, meanwhile, counters that 87 percent of all subway cars are clean. Who do you believe?

To assess the cleanliness of subway cars, Straphangers trained 45 people to survey 100 subway cars on each of the 22 subway lines. They used a similar scale to the one employed internally by the MTA, but as the MTA notes, the Straphangers perform their surveys during the a.m. and p.m. rush hours as well as evenings, overnights and weekends while the MTA conducts its surveys between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. The MTA would have us believe that subway cars are a lot messier during those overnight and weekend time periods.

According to the Straphangers’ findings, the L and 7, the two pilot lines for the line manager program were the cleanest, clocking in with cleanliness levels of 88 percent and 78 percent, respectively. The E and the Q with 29 percent of their cars rated as clean tied for last. A full table complete with comparisons between now and the most recent survey from 2005 is available on the Straphangers’ website.

The campaign used the survey results to urge the MTA to implement the following procedures:

  • Devote more resources to cleaning subway cars, as they are now applying to station and track cleaning.
  • Produce more detailed and timely information on cleanliness. The MTA does not publish the results of its cleanliness ratings by line, even though it maintains such information internally.
  • Post the results of its surveys where riders can see them.

In defense of their rolling stock, the MTA noted the discrepancies between the Straphangers’ numbers and their internal surveys. Using New York City Transit’s Passenger Environment Survey, the MTA noted a few key differences:

As examples of contradictions in survey results, the E train continues to be the Straphangers’ worst performing line (29%), while the L train is their best performing line (88%). In contrast, the M train is the worst performing PES line (70%) while the 3 train is the best performing line (97%). Although the Straphangers use the same standards as PES, the overall results demonstrate that these indicators are not comparable, given that the PES result was 87% versus 50% for the Straphangers.

The agency also promoted the seemingly positive effects of the line manager program. “We are pleased to note that the Straphangers Campaign has recognized our efforts along the 7 and L, the two lines that have been the focus of a shift in management philosophy that places a high priority on the customer concerns of cleanliness by making certain that cars are cleaned at both terminals,” the agency’s press release said.

In my view, subway cars are, by and large, dingy but clean enough. The 3 train and the E I find to be the dirtiest, but otherwise, for the most part, I can’t complain. Outside of shutting down the system entirely, and cleaning everything at once, the MTA has managed to keep its train cars relatively clean. The stations are another matter entirely.

Categories : Straphangers Campaign
Comments (4)
  • Mind the credibility gap · While a lot of New Yorkers poke fun at the MTA for their bumbling managerial style, the ramifications from Monday’s worst day ever extend far beyond a few folks and their keyboards. As Will at onNYTurf notes, the MTA is suffering from a credibility gap, and this gap has the potential to impact the MTA for decades to come. “Their credibility problem,” Will writes, “has the potential to really get in the way of making serious and important changes to how transportation is managed in NYC. Correcting this problem is serious challenge for advocates.” So check out onNYTurf’s statement; it’s a very important message for a city very reliant on a shaky public transit agency. [onNYTurf] · (1)
Mar
25

The MTA’s worst Monday ever

By · Comments (13) ·

As far as Mondays go, the MTA’s this week will be one the agency soon wishes to forget.

The real bad news, of course, came yesterday afternoon when the agency announced that the service upgrades promised to the public following the fare hike will be shelved for now. Due to a revenue gap of over $20 million, the MTA is not prepared to extend service on the G, B and W lines as well as the IRT lines starting in June. While the agency says that, if their finances improve, they could implement these service improvements in the next three months, the odds of that happening are low.

On the service, acknowledging this reality so soon after the fare hike is a terrible public relations move by the MTA. As Kevin pointed out on this site, this announcement hits the MTA at its weakest point. The agency, long viewed with skepticism by New Yorkers, has lost any shred of credibility when it needs it the most. Now, the public will not believe that the MTA ever planned to deliver the promised service upgrades. The authority simply used those upgrades to sell the public on a fare hike. And forget congestion pricing; if the MTA can’t make on good on simple service improvements, how are they ever expected to secure the revenue from the congestion pricing plan and ensure that it too goes to service upgrades that will probably never arrive?

Meanwhile, the suspension of the service upgrades was but one piece of bad news for the MTA. A new Quinnipiac poll about congestion pricing revealed a deep-rooted public skepticism toward the agency. On the surface, the poll seems to bring good news to the MTA. After all, two-thirds of all New Yorkers support congestion pricing if the money goes toward transit.

But beware the cloud behind this silver lining. Fifty percent of poll respondents say it is “not too likely” or “not likely at all” the the money would actual go to transit. Respondents don’t feel that politicians would actually deliver on their promises to send congestion pricing revenue to the MTA, and in light of today’s announcement, the other half probably now feel that the MTA would use that money to cover operating expenses and revenue shortfalls rather than investing in proper service increases.

Finally, slipped into an amNew York story about the service changes came the even more bad news: The MTA is anticipating fewer on-time trains in 2008 by nearly five percent. According to Marlene Naanes, “The agency lowered the goal for on-time trains to 92 percent in 2008, down from the 97-percent level that’s been in place for the past two years. Transit officials did not say Monday why they lowered the goal, but said that reasons for delays include more track work on the line and customers holding doors.”

So let me guess this straight: On the same day we find out we’re paying more for the same service, we actually find out that we’re paying more for less on-time service. Yikes. As the ghosts of the oft-delayed trains from the 1970s fill our heads, the MTA can look forward to Tuesday simply because it’s not Monday. The news can’t get any worse today, right?

Photo of the old MTA logo by flickr user joelogon.

Categories : MTA Absurdity
Comments (13)
Mar
24

Breaking: Planned service upgrades shelved, for now

By · Comments (8) ·

Who had March 24th in the “We’re going to delay service upgrades after the fare hike” pool? After talking up service additions across the board, the MTA is unsurprisingly postponing the planned upgrades due to lower-than-expected real estate tax revenues and a generally shaky economy.

William Neuman, writing on City Room, has more of the bad news:

Subway and bus riders are about to feel the impact of the slowing real estate market and Wall Street turbulence. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has postponed a $30 million package of service improvements that it had promised to riders as a way to sweeten the pill of a fare increase, which went into effect at the beginning of this month…

Officials had previously warned that the beefed-up service would only be approved if the authority produced healthy financial results in the first three months of the year.

But the authority revealed today that the money it receives from taxes on real estate transactions had fallen significantly in February and March.

Gary J. Dellaverson, the chief financial officer of the authority, called the economic outlook “gloomy” and used words like “frightening” and “dramatic” to describe the fall in real estate-related revenues.

The agency has taken in $21 million less than forecast, and officials are concerned that Wall Street layoffs could depress ridership and fare revenue. In my opinion, the latter is a bit of a red herring because even if a few firms layoff a few hundred employees, millions of other people are still riding the subways each day.

MTA skeptics won’t be surprised by this latest development. To them, it’s business as usual with the MTA, and so far, the agency hasn’t said when the upgrades — which were supposed to include more G service and later hours for B and W trains as well as more trains along the 1, 4 and 6 lines — will be enacted, if ever. Considering the state of the economy, we could be in a for a long wait.

Meanwhile, this news is bound to fuel the fires of the congestion pricing opponents. If the MTA can’t even make good on its fare hike service promises, will they really be able to take the revenues from congestion pricing to provide the service we need? This news cast a pall over what had been a pretty good year for the MTA. It is a sad day for New York City subway riders indeed.

New York City Transit token photo by flickr user photoshoparama.

Categories : Fare Hikes
Comments (8)
Page 404 of 462« First...402403404405406...Last »

The Author

Name: Benjamin Kabak
E-mail: Contact Me

Upcoming Events
November 19 at 7 p.m.: The First 100 Days with Letitia James and James Parroted, hosted by the Manhattan Young Democrats at The Liberty. (RSVP)
November 20 at 6:30 p.m.: Problem Solvers with Randy Gregory on 100 Ways To Improve The Subway, hosted by The Transit Museum. (Tickets)

RSS? Yes, Please: SAS' RSS Feed
SAS In Your Inbox: Subscribe to SAS by E-mail

Technical Manager: Jay Gordon



Instagram



Disclaimer: Subway Map © Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Used with permission. MTA is not associated with nor does it endorse this website or its content.

Add to Google Add to My Yahoo!

Categories

Archives

Meta

New York Blogs

NYC News Sites

Public Transit

Subway Maps