The above video was shot yesterday morning near the Howard Beach station on the currently shuttered A line. The night before, over 400 passengers found themselves snow-bound on a freezing, powerless train, and workers had to face the daunting task of clearing the tracks of snow. There’s something utterly peaceful in the white powder that blankets the train tracks, but in the second video below, that peace is shattered as Transit’s snow removing slowly makes it way toward the Rockaways. It might be fun for snowballs and snow angels, but as New York learned this week, that blizzard can be a powerful force of nature.
December 2010
A mid-morning service update
I wish I had better news to report this morning, but it appears as though most subway service is still delayed or suspended. The MTA has a full list of changes on their website, but the authority did say that service along Dyre Ave. on the 5, the A to the Rockaways and service along the C, D, F and G have all been restored. The Q from Queens to Coney Island and the N south of Whitehall remain out of service.
The real problem, as NY1 reports this morning, involves the buses. Because the Sanitation Department has not, for whatever reason, plowed many of the streets in the Outer Boroughs, bus service remains impossible. In a comment on the Sheepshead Bites website, Brian Hedden of BK Southie and Allan Rosen point fingers at Sanitation while Jay Walder been forthcoming with the admission that the MTA’s inability to get buses running two days later is unacceptable. I’ll update this post as I can today with more information.
Scenes from the Snow: Day 2
It’s been a rough 24 hours for the MTA. Faced with what one spokesman called the worst weather-related service impact “in recent memory,” the authority spent Monday trying to get its system up and running again. Bus sat stranded in the snow-bound streets of New York while commuter rail lines and above-ground subway routes were felled by the snow.
As Tuesday dawns and temperatures remain near the freezing mark, the MTA assures its riders that crews are working to free the subways and buses that power the city. “Our real priority now is digging everything out and getting everything in place for service,” MTA CEO and Chairman Jay Walder said during a press conference. “It will be a tough day. We will have limited service.”
Like much of the city, the MTA was knocked out by the sheer force of the snow. The storm dumped nearly 20 inches of snow on New York in short order, and workers found themselves unable to reach areas buried after the blizzard. Stations — such as Carroll Street along the Culver Line — remained largely inaccessible, and as snow drifted through air grates, even some underground stops saw accumulations of up to a few inches.
In a statement sent out late on Monday night, the MTA promised better service on Tuesday, but it won’t be perfect. Bus service will slowly return to something resembling normal while subway service, with some notable exceptions, will be on or close to schedule. The authority offered up more: “MTA crews are continuing round-the-clock work to restore service throughout the system as soon as possible in a manner that is safe for our customers, employees and equipment after the blizzard that dumped almost two feet of snow throughout the MTA’s service territory. Nonetheless, impacts on service will continue into tomorrow, and MTA customers should look to MTA.info before they leave for the latest specific information, and should allow extra travel time.”
As far as the subways go, the MTA had the follow to say: “The New York City Subway is operating with outages affecting a number of lines that are elevated or in open cuts, particularly in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and the Rockaways in Queens. New York City Transit expects to restore service to all portions of the subway system for tomorrow morning’s rush hour except for the Q train, the A line between Euclid Av. and the Rockaways, the N line in Brooklyn, and the L line from Myrtle Av. to Canarsie. Customers should go to MTA.info for the latest service updates.”
It’s unclear when the Brighton line, the elevated A sections, the Sea Beach line and the L will reopen. Right now, crews are trying to remove snow drifts that blanket the tracks, and the trenched subway lines make removal very difficult. As long as no one else has to spend all night trapped on an A train, most New Yorkers will find travel through Manhattan sluggish but acceptable on Tuesday.
This snow storm, the region’s first of the winter, was a bad one. Hopefully, it’s not a harbinger of things to come. Our generally reliable transit network just couldn’t stomach the snow this time around, and the system should resurface later this week just in time for a fare hike. Mother Nature seems to have a funny sense of humor that way.
Second Ave. Sagas goes to the movies
As I’m out of New York for a few days this week, I’m not going to be around to cover all of the breaking subway news. I did, however, want to make sure that some fresh content finds its way to the site, and I’ll be running a few of my archived pieces. We’ll start off with a gem from December 27, 2007, three years ago today. December is, after all, always a great time for movies.
Over the long holiday weekend, I took a trip to the movies to catch I Am Legend, the latest in New York City destruction. While Will Smith, the only surviving human on the island of Manhattan, shuns what I imagine to be a deserted subway in exchange for his product-placed Ford cars, I couldn’t help but imagine the subway in an empty Manhattan. Devoid of people, there would be seats for anyone left alive. Who would drive the trains remain to be seen, and it would probably make sense to seal the subway tunnels to avoid a zombie apocalypse.
But I digress. Hollywood has always loved the New York City subways. Film makers have preyed on tales of crime-filled subway rides, glorified life in the tunnels and found new and creative ways to hijack trains. What follows are a few of my favorite subway movies.
Any discussion about the subway movies must begin with the Joseph Sargent classic The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. Preying on the fears of New Yorkers during the city’s economic and social problems in the 1970s, the movie, based on a bestselling book, features a hijacking of a subway. Led by Robert Shaw, a group of men who clearly influenced Quentin Taratnino’s Reservoir Dogs take a subway car hostage and threaten death if they don’t get one million dollars. It’s up to an excellent Walter Malthau to rescue the hostages and catch the criminals.
The movie, notable for its wit and irreverent take on New York City circa 1975, the movie was filmed on location in the subway system and garnered a mention in a Beastie Boys song. The MTA allowed Sargent to film in the then-abandoned Court Street station and tunnels between what is now the Transit Museum and the Hoyt/Schermerhorn stop. The movie was remade poorly in 1998 and again in 1999. See the Mathau/Robert Shaw version and skip the over-the-top Denzel Washington/John Travolta version. The new one has twice the action and none of the fun of the original.
On the other side of subway crime thrillers is Money Train, a 1995 movie with Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson and Jennifer Lopez. Harrelson, a disgruntled former employee of the the Transit Authority, conspires to rob the money train. While filming took place in Los Angeles, filmmakers modified an old R22 car that was eventually donated to New York City Transit. The film was criticized after its release when teenagers perpetrated copy-cat crimes in firebombing token booths. Authorities, however, did not believe that the crimes were related to the movie. The money trains have since been retired.
Moving back in time, we come across The Incident, Martin Sheen’s movie debut. For this one, the New York Transit Authority denied permission outright to film in the subways, and it’s easy to see why. Two kids board a train late at night and begin to psychologically terrorize the passengers. Filmed in black and white, it’s a snapshot into another era when the subways were considered dangerous, and this movie, more than any others, has set the tone for the Hollywood portrayal of the New York City subways as a dark, lonely and dangerous place.
Finally, we come to The French Connection. This William Friedkin classic stars a young Gene Hackman trying to break up a France-based narcotics ring as they smuggle drugs into New York. Hackman must drive through and around traffic underneath the elevated train line as he chases his French suspect who has hijacked a train in Brooklyn. You can watch the famous train chase scene right here on YouTube, but it’s worth it to watch the entire flick.
Of course, there are always other seminal moments of film history in the subways. Patrick Swayze meets a subway ghost in Ghost, and On The Town features Miss Turnstile, a relic lost to history. But these four featured here are great starting points, and three of them — all but The Incident — are out on DVD. While you may not have to take the train to work this week, catch a train in the movies instead.
The Straphangers Campaign, enshrined
Since 1979, the Straphangers Campaign has been the leading voice in the fight for better transit policy in New York City, and while I don’t always agree with their messages and focus, it would be foolish to deny that Gene Russianoff is a highly influential figure in the current field of transit advocates. To honor the work the Straphangers have done over the years and make sure their efforts retain their rightful place in the public history of the city, the New York Public Library has archived the entire Straphangers record.
A whopping 58 boxes of material that span 29.5 linear feet are now available at the NYPL for researchers to scour and the public to inspect. The archive, the Campaign said in a statement, includes 31 years of the following: correspondence with public officials, funders and other transit activists; memos; press releases; published “State of the Subways” and other reports; public hearing transcripts; notes; clippings; flyers, posters and banners; electronic records; an audio recording; and photographs. It’s quite the trove of information.
“The Straphangers Campaign is thrilled to be part of the historical record and very grateful to the New York Public Library for doing such an excellent job with several decades of records,” Russianoff said in a statement. The records will be housed at the Manuscripts and Archives Division and require an advanced appointment for access.
A Monday most foul
As Monday morning dawns in New York City, travel around and into the city is nearly impossible. Every subway line but the 7 is suffering through delayed or suspended service, and the MTA’s website is straining under the pressure of millions of straphangers trying to find some info. LIRR service has been completely suspended, and most Metro-North trains aren’t running either. Here’s what the Authority had to say:
Due to the extreme nature of the ongoing blizzard, including high winds and major snow drifts, the MTA is urging its customers to stay home this morning if at all possible. There are major suspensions across our transportation network that may continue through the morning rush hour, including a full suspension of service on the Long Island Rail Road, suspension of Metro-North Railroad’s New Haven Line, and suspension of several of the lettered subway lines.
The MTA has asked folks to check out MTA.info for updates, and the authority has urged people to stay home except for “urgent” travel. As the authority’s website is currently facing an extremely high volume of visitors, I can’t access the individual outages, but it’s safe to assume most outdoor lines are shuttered. I’ll update this post as I hear more.
With Monday rush on tap, scenes from the snow
It’s always an adventure in New York City when snow descends upon the area, and after a rough winter in early 2010, the city was ready for the torrential snow that fell throughout the day on Sunday. I had plans to spend a few days early this week in Philadelphia, and my girlfriend and I opted to leave on Sunday morning instead of Monday to beat the storm. A few hours after we arrived in the City of Brotherly Love, New Jersey Transit canceled its bus service, and train schedules through Penn Station will out of whack.
But Monday dawns a new work week. Although many are on vacation during the week after Christmas and before New Years, many industries aren’t shut down, and that includes New York City Transit. Numerous above-ground routes will see reduced or canceled service, and Transit is doing what it can to get everything up and running for the morning rush. Per their statement on Sunday night, trains will operate on a “normal weekday schedule” for the morning commute, but as of this writing, nearly all elevated train service has been suspended.
As the snow falls and ice builds, the MTA dispatches its fleet of train cars designed to handle inclement weather. These include a snow thrower that can toss the flakes 200 feet and remove 3000 tons of snow per hour, a jet blower used to keep yards clear, de-icer cars that literally grease the rails and a so-called ballast regulator that levels the snow away from the tracks. Somehow, five million people will make their ways to the subway tomorrow and the rails must be clear.
Meanwhile, as the snow falls, I’m struck by how it can change a city in the blink of an eye. In Philadelphia tonight, you would never know the city is home to over 1.5 million people. As early as 4 p.m. today, the streets were utterly devoid of people. A few brave souls scampered to the movie theaters to catch an evening flick, but the urban tundra was sparsely populated. We ventured out to dinner at a restaurant close enough to a stop on SEPTA’s Market-Frankford Line. The trains were running with no problems, and a few people had braved the weather. But this city, getting far less snow and no gale-force winds, was sleeping through the storm.
I’ve always loved the snow while it’s coming down. New York is never as quiet and serene as it is during a snow storm. The subways, as the screenshot at right shows, aren’t holding up well, but cars are barely making tracks on the street right now. In 1996 after the blizzard, we walked along Broadway as skiers and not taxis zoomed past us. It’s too windy for those types of shenanigans tonight, and by the time the city wakes up tomorrow, the great melt will turn the pristine snow into grey slush. It’s a fleeting calm.
Nothing can remain that quiet in New York forever, and the show must go on. I’ll be in and out during the day on Monday attempting to make the most of it in Philadelphia as the cultural institutions down here slow to a crawl. Check out the MTA’s weather updates for the latest service advisories, and if you don’t have to go anywhere during the day, just admire and appreciate the snow. It lasts for only so long.
Texting bus drivers and weekend service changes
After months of back-and-forth over this one, the MTA is planning on implementing a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to texting and driving, the Daily News reported yesterday. In the past, drivers were simply suspended for texting and driving, but after Jeremy Philhower struck and killed a pedestrian on the first day back on the job after such a suspension, the authority decided to take action.
“Customers who board our buses expect a safe and professional ride,” Darryl Irick, Transit’s acting vice president of buses, said. “As a public transportation agency, we are responsible for protecting our passengers, operating safely around other motorists and safeguarding pedestrians.”
Of course, TWU officials said they would challenge this safety measure. John Samuelsen, who never met a regulation he liked, called the new measure a “blanket policy that calls for Draconian disciplinary action against drivers based on some manager’s testimony.” The Daily News’ editorial pages called it a long overdue policy, and it’s tough to disagree with their assessment. This should be yet another petty fight between labor and management over a seemingly common-sense passenger and pedestrian safety initiative.
Meanwhile, since just about everyone is spending today and tomorrow away from the Internet and with their families, I’m going to take it easy. This will be my last post until Sunday. Enjoy the time off, and if you’re celebrating, have a merry Christmas.
Below are the weekend’s service advisories. Today — Christmas Eve — trains will operate on a Saturday schedule, and there are a handful of other weekend changes that could impact travel. These come to me via New York City Transit. Check the signs in your local station and listen to on-board announcements. Subway Weekender has the map.
From 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, December 26, uptown 6 trains skip Castle Hill Avenue, Zerega Avenue, Westchester Square, Middletown Road and Buhre Avenue due to rail repairs near Westchester Square.
From 12:01 a.m. Sunday, December 26 to 5 a.m. Monday, December 27, D trains run on the R line between DeKalb Avenue and 36th Street, Brooklyn due to switch renewal north of Pacific Street.
From 12:01 a.m. Sunday, December 26 to 5 a.m. Monday, December 27, Manhattan-bound N trains run on the D line from Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue to 36th Street, Brooklyn due to track panel installation north of Kings Highway to north of Bay Parkway. There are no Manhattan-bound N trains at 86th Street, Avenue U, Kings Highway, Bay Parkway, 20th Avenue, 18th Avenue, Ft. Hamilton Parkway and 8th Avenue stations. Traveling to these stations, customers may take the N to 62nd or 36th Streets and transfer to a Coney Island-bound N.
From 12:01 a.m. Sunday, December 26 to 5 a.m. Monday, December 27, Coney Island-bound N trains run on the R line from DeKalb Avenue to 59th Street, Brooklyn and Manhattan-bound N trains run on the R line from 36th Street, Brooklyn to DeKalb Avenue due to switch renewal north of Pacific Street.
Video of the Day: Rapid Transit (1949)
ARC Fallout: Remodeling Penn Station
On the west side of the Hudson River, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and the Feds are still fighting over the $271 million New Jersey owes for canceling the ARC Tunnel, but here on the east side, the MTA is eying grander plans for Penn Station. As Andrew Grossman in the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, now that the LIRR isn’t required to make accommodations for ARC construction, the rail road wants to invest in improving Penn Station. “It’s a facility that’s showing its age,” LIRR President Helena Williams said. “It’s cluttered visually, functionally.”
According to Grossman, the LIRR has a list of improvements it wants to make. Some are easier to implement than others while some would require long-term disruptions. They include “better signage, improved passenger flow, higher ceilings and natural light.” Signage has, as I wrote in March, long been a challenge for the MTA.
For now, because improvements to Penn Station require New Jersey Transit and LIRR to be, as Grossman put it, “on the same page as Amtrak, the station’s owner,” change might be slow in coming. Amtrak is focusing on getting the Moynihan Station project off the ground, and Republicans in Congress are eying the national rail network’s funding with a raised eye brow or two. Still, a redesigned and re-signed Penn Station would go a long way toward improving passenger flow at this busy commuter hub.