Updated 9:24 p.m.: This morning, the Daily News reported on an initiative put forward by New York City Transit President Thomas Prendergast that would see some high-traffic stations get some badly-needed renovations. According to Prendergast, eight stations — including Yankee Stadium and Third Ave./149th St. in the Bronx, Union Square and Times Square in Manhattan, Atlantic Ave./Pacific St. and Crown Heights-Utica Ave. in Brooklyn and Flushing-Main St. and Roosevelt Ave./74th St. in Queens — will get blitzed by teams of carpenters, masons, ironworkers and painters in an effort to spruce up stations that had been renovated within the last decade.
Prendergast decided to pursue these eight stations both as a display of the MTA’s new component-based approach toward station maintenance and because these high-traffic hubs were falling apart, just a decade or less after their last makeovers. The stations will then receive more frequent maintenance inspections. “We let conditions slip,” he said.
More specifically, Prendergast’s crack team of repairman are part of Transit’s new dedicated Station Maintenance teams. According to Transit, these teams will target previously rehabilitated stations in an effort to repair defects, and then the stations will enter the new Station Maintenance Program that will help preserve investments and avoid future disrepair. Transit chosen these station in this pilot because they include the four heaviest used stations in each borough.
This new project goes hand in hand with the new Target Component Program I mentioned above. This program will focus on station renewal rather than full-scale rehab. It is, according to Transit, a “less holistic approach” aimed at focusing on components in 150 stations that need repair. It’s a wider effort but one that won’t see all stations returned to a State of Good Repair.
This evening, CBS covered the story, and their video report featured a brief snippet from yours truly. Unfortunately, I can’t embed the video, but you can view it on CBS’ website. In a nutshell, I like the component-based maintenance plan. It is, after all, far more realistic than the seemingly unattainable State of Good Repair. But I wonder if the money used on the Station Maintenance program would be better spent on stations in far worse shape than these. I know Transit wants to keep its crown jewels looking shiny, but there are some very decrepit stations both within and without of the borough of Manhattan.
Anyway, check out the video. I always enjoy being a talking head for the local newscasts.
12 comments
I echo your sentiments exactly. I don’t know about too many of the stations on the list, but I think they picked the busiest ones rather than the most dilapidated ones. Times Square and Union Square are among the nicest. At Atlantic Avenue, looking at the parts I’m familiar with: the IRT is in relatively great shape, the platform for the M/N/Q/R is acceptable, and the underpass beneath the LIRR is fine (granted, it doesn’t match the brand new terminal above, but it’s good). Meanwhile, we all know how bad the Chambers St. J/M/Z is, and the 14th St West-side IRT could use some TLC as well.
I think this is mostly a PR move by the MTA. Keeping the heavily trafficked stations looking pretty would help encourage more transit use by providing a more pleasant experience to riders.
Also, this will demonstrate to the public what may be possible if the MTA were too be fully funded. Imagine if all 421 stations looked as nice as the Times Square and Union Square stations. Aesthetics can be a very psychology influential tool and where better to use it than the stations most riders will see?
It seems that SO much work was done on Times Square, that it’s almost impoosible to believe that it needs a touch-up this soon.
Maybe they can put a door knob on one of the doors at the Prospect Park Station on the Q line. I think the door has been held open with a rope since before the Union Square Station was rebuilt. Easy, Cheap but no media attention.
The only thing union square needs is vibration dampening on the IRT platform to keep the squealing down. Everyone on the platform has their fingers stuck in their ears!
Now that I read the article (I apologize, before I had only seen the video), I see where Pendergast is going. He wants to stick to a proper maintenance schedule on the newly renovated stations, so those big-ticket jobs don’t go to waste so quickly. Essentially changing the oil every 3,000 miles to keep a new car running like new.
But the article makes some “profound” statements, including:
Here’s a idea — put more than two garbage cans on a platform! If I were in charge, I’d be so confident that it will work, that I’d skip the pilot and go full-steam ahead with it. Sometimes, the simplest of tasks are made increasingly complex with these neverending “pilot programs”.
One of the cleanest cities in North America is Toronto — and it has garbage cans EVERYWHERE. Of course it costs more to empty all of those trash cans and so we’re likely not to see anytime soon because of that. Americans seem especially bad at routine maintenance.
“the underpass beneath the LIRR is fine”
now that the LIRR (or whoever) has fixed the message boards so i know which track which train is on! (not subway related but i had to vent.)
You’re right there — it would be nice if there was a single board or monitor down there that told you what trains were on ALL tracks, rather than the two you happened to be standing by. Knowing the official LIRR time would be nice too. I’ve had to run back and forth across the length of that passageway because I wasn’t sure if I missed my train or not.
It’s somewhat laughable that, above the signs you mention, the track is identified by a tiny white stick-on label. Obviously something that wasn’t considered when the signs were installed. But that’s an LIRR responsibility and has little to do with NYC Transit.
[…] night, as I promoted my appearance on a CBS 2 story about the MTA, I wrote about the MTA’s new approach to station renovations. Instead of picking only a limited number of stations for State of Good Repair overhauls, the […]
The only problem is: Will Transit make sure that this “crack team” of professionals will be experienced and honest enough to do the repairs? I don’t think anyone wants to hear about escalators that were fixed just a short time ago being broken again (ie Herald Sq) or leaking tiles in a new station…
How much did CBS cut from your actual interview length? 🙂