With all these newfangled, high-falutin’ R160s hitting the tracks, the MTA has a glut of old subway cars. So of course, some of the mid-Atlantic states are getting some new artificial subway reefs. We’ve seen the photos before; now read the articles (Baltimore Sun, MD Coast Dispatch). The trains are set to drop into the ocean today at 11 a.m. Now, sardines can literally cram into our old subway cars.
Getting a better return on the Stewart Airport connection
Every few months, the plan for a one-seat Metro-North ride from Manhattan to the Stewart International Airport in Newburgh rears its ugly head. At the end of last week, the MTA, at the behest of Senator Chuck Schumer, committed $2.7 million to study a possible Stewart Airport rail link. The Port Authority will contribute the same amount to the study.
While some commenters here in August noted that the Port Authority, operators of the airport, would be paying for the rail connection, that the MTA is now doling out money just to study the issue is a bad sign. Meanwhile, in my opinion, the region’s transportation agencies and the state’s political leaders are approaching the airport and its potential passengers through the wrong lens.
The Poughkeepsie Journal reported on the upcoming jointly-funded $5.4-million study:
Schumer said funding has been slow in coming but that the MTA’s allocation of the remaining $2.7 million needed to jump-start the study avoids the need to wait for a federal appropriation from the 2009 fiscal year. Instead of waiting until 2009, he said, the study can begin in the next few months…
“This is the moment when talk turns to action,” Schumer told a group gathered at the airport. He estimated the alternative study and the following environmental impact study would be done by late 2010. “It means the project can begin this summer,” Schumer said. “It’s also going to help us bring more air service.”
Peter Cannito, president of Metro-North railroad, said the study is broader than just rail access to Stewart Airport. He said the study, called the West of Hudson Regional Transit Access Study, will include upgrades to the Port Jervis line that runs through Orange and Rockland Counties to reduce the travel time into New York City.
This study will also include looking at all means of getting to and from Stewart, including ferries and buses to Beacon’s Metro-North station.
I’m all in favor of extending commuter rail service into parts of the state that don’t have it but only if the areas could really use it. I’m not at all in favor of spending billions of dollars to build a one-seat ride to Stewart Airport at the expense of other, more vital projects that would have a more immediate impact on the Metropolitan Area.
As I wrote in September, the idea of a one-seat ride from Manhattan to Stewart is simply misguided. “It right now takes an hour and a half on Metro-North/NJ Transit to reach the Salisbury Mills stop from Penn Station,” I wrote. “Considering that it would take another train ride to get to the airport and airlines are asking people to get there 90 minutes earlier, travelers would have to begin their journeys up to four hours before their scheduled departure time.”
But that’s not to say that an expansion of service at Stewart would not be useful. Rather, the Port Authority should figure out how to make Stewart transit-accessible so that it siphons Westchester and Northern New Jersey travelers away from the city’s three major airports. If the Port Authority can beef up Stewart service so that travelers north and west of the city avoid the endless commutes to JFK, LaGuardia or Newark Liberty Airports, Schumer could realize his goals of cutting down air traffic congestion from those three airports while providing travelers with a viable alternate airport.
In the end, the $2.7 million are relatively small beans for the MTA. But what if the study recommends a Metro-North line to the airport. While I’m sure the Port Authority and state will elect to bear some of the costs, as we’ve seen with the 7 line extension, “some” never equates to “all,” and the MTA is bound to be at least partially on the hook for a project that simply isn’t worth it.
Despite reports last week that the Tishman Speyer deal for the Hudson Yards rights was dying a painful death, Mayor Bloomberg, working to secure his legacy, thinks otherwise. As The Times reported on Saturday, Bloomberg is working hard to pressure Tishman Speyer and the MTA to pave over their problems. While Bloomberg claims some sort of altruistic desire to see the potential of the empty area realized, one of his quotes is very telling: “It’s going to get done. And the No. 7 line is going to get done. And it will be so far along before I leave office that nobody is going to be able to stop it.”
Gas prices, mass transit ridership up nationwide
Gas prices have been on the climb in America for years, but investment in mass transit has lagged far behind acceptable levels. Most major cities in the country have only nascent systems, and while new light rail and other mass transit networks are starting to spring up around America, it’s all been a bit too little way too late for a nation long dependent on cars.
Now, though, with gas prices hitting record highs and showing no signs of ever coming back down, the people once behind their wheels are starting to notice that benefits of mass transit. As Clifford Krauss reported in The Times over the weekend, mass transit ridership nationwide has reached new highs, and experts predict this growth to continue. Now if only the folks holding the purse strings would pay attention to these trends too.
Writes Krauss:
Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus lines where seats were once easy to come by. Parking lots at many bus and light rail stations are suddenly overflowing, with commuters in some towns risking a ticket or tow by parking on nearby grassy areas and in vacant lots.
“In almost every transit system I talk to, we’re seeing very high rates of growth the last few months,” said William W. Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association.
“It’s very clear that a significant portion of the increase in transit use is directly caused by people who are looking for alternatives to paying $3.50 a gallon for gas.”
Some cities with long-established public transit systems, like New York and Boston, have seen increases in ridership of 5 percent or more so far this year. But the biggest surges — of 10 to 15 percent or more over last year — are occurring in many metropolitan areas in the South and West where the driving culture is strongest and bus and rail lines are more limited.
In the article, Krauss draws a very telling quote out of Joseph Giulietti, the executive director of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, operators of the Tri-Rail system. “Nobody believed that people would actually give up their cars to ride public transportation,” he said. “But in the last year, and last several months in particular, we have seen exactly that.”
With attitudes like that from the people in charge of these transit authorities, is it any surprise then that our elected officials have been loathe to invest in adequate public transportation networks? Had these networks been in place long ago, people would have gladly left their cars for fast and stress-free commutes.
As ridership increases, though, these nationwide transit authorities — as we’ve seen first-hand in New York — don’t often see the increase in revenue one would expect. While fare box collection totals go up, the same factors that drive people out of their cars — high gas prices, poor economies — are impacting the rail agencies as well. Cities that rely on sales taxes — or real estate taxes — to fund their transit networks are finding their coffers relatively empty, and the high cost of fuel and power is a drain to even the most popular of transit networks.
Over at Brooklyn Streets, Carroll Gardens, Gary Reilly throws out a suggestion that public officials should heed: “The Federal gas tax needs to be increased, and the funds must be dedicated to building a world class transit infrastructure. We are decades behind Europe and Japan in our high speed rail infrastructure. It’s time to show some leadership again.”
I couldn’t agree more. Oil prices aren’t going to go down; the cost of gas won’t magically decrease. It’s time for this nation to invest in public transportation. A token gesture here and there won’t do it, and it’s not a stretch to say that the future economic health of our nation depends on it.
Photo of high gas prices by flickr user xxtukyo.
Pay your fare even if weekend service is a drag
If the circumstances are right, it’s always tempting to jump the turnstiles underground. No one’s around; it’s late at night; and the turnstiles are giving back one of those annoying “Just Used” messages on a card that wasn’t used.
That, at least, is what my friend Sam thought when he and his buddy tried to navigate their way into the subway this week. He found out the hard way — much like Andy Van Slyke did in the fall — that police officers assigned to the MTA beats are pretty serious about catching fare jumpers. Sam and his friend each got $60 tickets and a New York City subway fare education.
Sam tells his tale o’ woe below, video style. Weekend service changes follow.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 12, uptown 1and 2 trains skip 79th and 86th Streets due to station rehabilitation at 96th Street.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 12, 1 trains will skip 28th, 23rd, and 18th Streets in both directions due to work at Cortlandt Street.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 12, there are no 1 trains between 14th Street and South Ferry due to work at Cortlandt Street. Customers should take the 23 to travel between 14th Street and Chambers Street. Free shuttle buses are available between Chambers Street and South Ferry.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 12, 2 and 3 trains run local between 96th Street and Chambers Street due to work at Cortlandt Street.
From 4 a.m. Saturday, May 10 to 10 p.m. Sunday, May 11, Bronx-bound 4 trains skip 161st, 167th, 170th Streets, Mt. Eden Avenue, and 176th Street due to track panel installation between 149th Street-Grand Concourse and Burnside Avenue.
From 11 p.m. Friday, May 9 to 10 p.m. Sunday, May 11, downtown 4 and 6 trains run express from 125th Street to Grand Central due to a track dig-out at 86th and 96th Street stations.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 12, Manhattan-bound A and C trains run on the F line from Jay Street to West 4th Street due to Chambers Street signal modernization.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 12, downtown A and C trains skip 50th, 23rd, and Spring Streets due to station rehabilitation at 59th Street-Columbus Circle.
From 4 a.m. Saturday, May 10 to 10 p.m. Sunday, May 11, Coney Island-bound D trains run on the N line from 36th Street to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue due to conduit and cable work. The last stop for some Coney Island-bound N trains will be Kings Highway.
From 12:01 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, May 10, Manhattan-bound E, F and R trains run express from Union Turnpike to Roosevelt Avenue due to track cable work between 75th Avenue and Roosevelt Avenue.
From 8:30 a.m. Friday, May 9 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 12, there are no G trains between Forest Hills-71st Avenue and Court Square due to a track chip-out north of Queens Plaza. Customers should take the E or R trains instead.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 12 (and the following weekend May 17-19), downtown N trains skip 28th, 23rd, 8th, and Prince Streets due to rail repair south of 34th Street-Herald Square.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 12, Manhattan-bound NR trains are rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge from DeKalb Avenue to Canal Street due to subway tunnel lighting between Whitehall and DeKalb Avenue.
An abandoned platform underneath the Waldorf-Astoria
Underneath the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, just a few steps from the busy Metro-North tracks at Grand Central Terminal, lies Track 61, a relic of another era. This track, now abandoned, had long been a mystery. Commuters can catch only glimpses of it, and it’s off-limits to all but the most senior MTA officials.
In 2007, Trainjotting offered up a few tidbits about Track 61, and yesterday, Matt Lauer on the Today Show went underground with a Metro-North spokesman to publicize of the track. The story is fascinating; it was built to accommodate FDR during his presidency when he tried to keep the extent of his disability brought about my polio under wraps. Watch the story, complete with a great look underground and word that maybe the platform isn’t as abandoned as we speak, right here.
Update: Loyal reader Francis Morrone points us to the Abandoned Stations entry on Track 61. It clears up the history and misconceptions surrounding the track’s origins. The track itself pre-dates FDR’s presidency.
Tishman Speyer deal for Hudson Yards collapsing
Well, this latest Hudson Yards development is not very good news for the MTA.
In a turn of events that one could call shocking or not shocking at all, the $1 billion deal between the MTA and Tishman Speyer for the rights to the Hudson Yards has fallen apart. The word first broke via a press release issued by MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin:
Late this afternoon, negotiations between the MTA and Tishman Speyer over the development of the Rail Yards on Manhattan’s Far West Side reached an impasse. The cause of the impasse was Tishman Speyer’s attempt to change a central deal term in an effort to postpone the closing on the Eastern Yard until the Western Yard was satisfactorily re-zoned. This demand changed the economics of the proposed deals and the certainty of payments to the MTA. The MTA remains committed to developing these unique and very valuable parcels of land.
For those who have been following progress on the negotiations, this collapse came just short of a month after the two sides missed a deadline for a conditional agreement. Now, while a Tishman Speyer deal remains a faint possibility, it’s back to the drawing board for an MTA facing the prospects of a significantly lower dollar amount for the rights to the Hudson Yards space.
Charles Bagli of The Times has all the details. From the prospect of Tishman Speyer, this deal was fraught with problems from the get-go. The real estate and development company could not find any tenants for their five planned office buildings, and they were not sure of the fate of the cost overruns of the 7 line extension, a frequent topic here at Second Ave. Sagas
Meanwhile, this deal could spell more fiscal problems for the financially-troubled MTA. Bagli reports:
But if the authority reopened negotiations with another bidder, it would almost certainly mean that it would get less money for the rights to the property, real estate executives said.
Developers who a year ago would have gleefully bid any price for a building or a project are now delaying or abandoning projects in New York and elsewhere as the economy has slowed and many lenders have balked at financing real estate projects in the wake of the credit crisis.
At the same time, the sudden setback in the development of the railyards is a very public embarrassment for everyone involved, including the developer, whose reputation may be at risk; the authority, which was counting on the money for its capital budget; and the Bloomberg administration, which had made the transformation of the once-industrial West Side a centerpiece of its two-term mayoralty.
On one hand — the very obvious hand — this collapse is bad news for the MTA. They will lose out on another $10 million a year, and the fate of the Hudson Yards is once hazy. They’re in the middle of constructing a 7 line extension to, literally, nowhere without a stop in the one area that’s actually populated and needs a subway stop at 41st St. and 10th Ave. The Bloomberg Administration is bound to put pressure on both parties to work out a deal since part of Mayor Bloomberg’s legacy rests on it, but it won’t be that easy.
On the other hand, some good could emerge from this impasse. First, the MTA should be pressure on the Bloomberg Administration to guarantee all funding for the 7 line extension. That should include any cost overruns and a fully functional station at 41st St. and 10th Ave. Building a shell now will only lead to higher costs in the future.
Next — and this won’t happen — the MTA should consider whether or not the 7 line extension is worth it now if the land rights are up for grabs again. The MTA could use the money being spent on that extension on Second Ave. or even on routine maintenance. While I know the city is funding the part currently under construction, having a subway line go nowhere will help no one.
Beware the bedbug-infested subway benches
The butterflies are fleeing the bed bugs. (Photo by flickr user NewYork808)
While we’re know that the new subway fares aren’t deterring riders, the higher cost of a MetroCard swipe hasn’t stopped bedbugs from hanging out in the subways either.
According to a typical sensationalistic piece in the New York Post, bedbugs are taking over benches in the subways. Run for the hills!
Patrick Gallahue, John Mazor and Sylvia Harvey — how did it take three people to write a 143-word article? — write:
At a recent Department of Housing, Preservation and Development forum on the subject, a city bedbug educator admitted to seeing the pests on benches in subway stations – in one case, catching a ride on an unsuspecting straphanger’s caboose at Brooklyn’s Hoyt-Schermerhorn station, according to people at the meeting.
The official, identified as Edward Brownbear, also reported seeing the bugs on wooden benches at the Union Square and Fordham Road stations in Manhattan and The Bronx, respectively.
Sharis Lugo, 20, of Brooklyn leaped off a bench at the Union Square station when she heard the news, saying, “Ewww! That’s nasty . . . They’ve got to take these benches out of here!”
The bedbug news first broke a few days ago in this post on the bedbug meeting on Miss Heather’s New York Shitty blog, and now that the reputable Post and Yours Truly are picking up on the story, it’s bound to keep spreading.
Stainless steel benches would be so much more hygienic for so many reasons. Maybe this disturbing and disgusting news will be just what the MTA needs to get the ball rolling on replacement benches.
With bus consolidation, MTA inches toward bureaucratic overhaul
The MTA runs three different regional bus companies. NYC Transit Bus offers service in the five boroughs; Long Island Bus does exactly what you would expect; and MTA Bus runs the express bus routes formerly controlled by NY DOT and run by private companies. Up until this week, these three bus companies were run independent of each other with little intra-agency coordination. No wonder the MTA is a mess of bureaucracy.
Within the next 60 to 90 days, according to an MTA press release issued on Wednesday, the transportation authority will begin to overhaul and streamline their bus operations. Internally, this move is part of the MTA’s efforts at cutting down on its cumbersome bureaurcracy while at the same time improving service through cooperation and coordination.
The MTA’s release has more:
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) today announced plans to begin integrating the operations of its three bus companies to create the more seamless and efficient Regional Bus Operations. New York City Transit Bus, MTA Bus and Long Island Bus will each maintain its individual identity and funding, while a managerial restructuring will increase accountability and ensure consistency in serving the entire MTA region.
“By streamlining the management of our bus companies we will eliminate redundancies, improve efficiency and service, and save money,” said Elliot G. Sander, MTA Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer. “This initiative builds on the early success of our subway general manager program, and we will continue to identify and implement ways to become more efficient and improve service for our customers. Unifying bus operations is also a big first step toward creating a truly regional transportation network and is a critical part of our institutional transformation agenda.”
Over the next few months, the MTA will focus on internal restructuring. The agency plans to, among other measures, implement an integrated bus command center that provides a single point of contact for emergencies. These measures will also help the agency prioritize many internal needs — such as emergency shuttle buses — as well.
While a bureaucratic restructuring is all well and good for those of us interesting in the behind-the-scenes minutiae of the MTA, these changes will also affect services levels for the better. According to the MTA, they agency will be able to better coordinate regional bus service. Resources will be centralized; schedules will be available in one place on the Internet, for example. And more importantly, this consolidation should allow for better and more comprehensive bus service throughout the region.
Now if only the city would really take the bull by the horns and implement a dedicated Bus Rapid Transit system. That will be the day to truly celebrate the city’s bus service.
We now join in progress ‘As the Escalator Climbs’
The soap opera of NYC Transit’s out-of-service escalator epidemic took another step forward this week. On Monday, I noted the recent spate of stories about the sorry state of many subway escalators. A few hours later, the Straphangers called upon NYC Transit to issue a public accounting of all its escalators, privately owned and maintained or not. Gene Russianoff, head of the Straphangers Campaign, hopes that a public list could help put pressure on delinquent operators who won’t fix their escalators. [AMNY Subway Tracker Blog]