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AsidesSecond Avenue Subway

What You Get For….$258 Million

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 21, 2013

As the Second Ave. Subway ambles ever onward to a late-2016 revenue service date, updates these days have become few and far between. Sandhogs are hard at work far below the city’s surface, but the headline-grabbing stuff — tunnel-boring machine breakthroughs, street-level explosions — aren’t nearly as frequent any longer. Life just goes on.

Recently, the MTA provided us a photo update of construction progress, and we can see a subway taking shape. As these images remind us of the scope of the project, every now and then, reality intervenes in the form of a price tag. Late last week, the MTA announced a contract award of $258 million for “station finishes, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, ancillary buildings and entrances” for only the 72nd Street state.

We’ve reached a point in the lifespan of sticker shock where I’m not even surprised such a contract cost so much. With the Bleecker St. renovations clocking in at over $125 million, perhaps a $258 million finishes contract is downright cheap. Still, until we as a city and the MTA as an organization gets a better handle on costs, subway construction will be slow and frustrating.

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New Jersey Transit

NJ Transit rolling stock Sandy damage to top $450 million

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 21, 2013

For New York City and the MTA, the post-Sandy recovery has come in fits and starts. Transit managed to protect its expensive rolling stock from any storm- or flooding-related damage, but the tunnel infrastructure suffered billions of dollars in damage. The subway connection to the Rockaways and the 1 train’s South Ferry terminal remain temporarily out of service for the long haul.

For Transit officials, Sandy and the storm surge provided an opportunity to conduct a real-life test of contingency plans the agency had developed over the past half a decade. Since a strong summer rainstorm swamped the system a few years ago and since Irene’s near-miss in 2011, MTA staffers had worked to put together a plan that would provide as much protection as possible. Even though the agency got service back up and running within days of the storm, it could do only so much to protect some of the immovable infrastructure from damage. Tunnels were flooded; signals destroyed; but as I said, the rolling stock remained safe and dry.

Across the river, New Jersey Transit had no such luck. There, officials erroneously modeled storm surges, failed to heed internal warnings and suffered significant operational damage. To make matters worse, everyone involved in planning for the storm is still employed.

As more time has passed, we have come to learn that New Jersey Transit’s damage was even worse than first believed. A recent article in The Record from Bergen County reveals that damage to rolling stock alone could top $450 million, and to make matters worse, the agency has had trouble tracking down spare parts. Karen Rouse had the report:

NJ Transit said [last week] that more rail cars and locomotives — 342 — were damaged by superstorm Sandy than originally thought and that the cost of the storm to the agency has risen to $450 million. Originally, 323 pieces of equipment were reported as damaged and the costs of the storm was thought to be $400 million.

But even as the agency revised upwards its damage and cost estimates, officials could not say where the equipment would be placed if a similar storm were to occur in the near future. “NJ Transit does not speak in hypotheticals,” spokesman John Durso said, adding that the agency is “exploring both short term and long term solutions for safe harbor storage for storms on par with – or exceeding that of Super Storm Sandy.”

…Now, the race to repair the equipment is being hampered by difficulty NJ Transit is facing in finding spare parts, Weinstein said. “The major challenge right now is the repair of the multi-levels [rail cars],” said [Executive Director Jim] Weinstein. He said NJ Transit and Bombardier, a Canadian company that manufactures much of the rail equipment, will be meeting Thursday.

“We’re in the process now of fixing what we believe the price per car will be to fix it,” Weinstein said. He said there are 77 multi-levels that need to be repaired, as well as large diesel and dual-mode locomotives. “The challenge is parts. All of our replacement parts for all of those were destroyed when the maintenance facility flooded.”

You’ll have to pardon my repeated incredulity over the scope of this story, but as more information emerges in fits and starts from the Garden State, no one emerges looking as though they had a clue. New Jersey Transit keps its rolling stock and the replacement parts in the same low-lying flood plane that luckily — or unluckily — enough hadn’t flooded but was clearly vulnerable. They still haven’t identified a price per car for the repairs and seem to have no clear-cut contingency plan in place for the next big storm.

Some of these short-comings will clearly be resolved in the coming weeks and months, but to me, this shows a clear inattention to transit and a lack of understanding of the importance of New Jersey Transit in the region’s economy. Nearly 1 million riders rely on NJ Transit each weekday, but these folks are seemingly an afterthought in the eyes of planners tasked with protecting the system. Somehow, everyone in charge on the day Sandy swept through the area is still in charge today, and that should not stand.

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AsidesMetroCard

A mea culpa: Universal MetroCards can be used on PATH, AirTrain

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 20, 2013

After my conversations with the MTA over the past few days and my initial assessment on the universal MetroCard, I received word today from a Transit spokesperson that in fact the new MetroCard offering is more universal than I had originally understood it to be. I was wrong with the information in my post last night, and I need to offer up a correction. Specifically, the new programming does indeed allow usage of time and value concurrently but only under certain circumstances.

According to Transit spokesperson Kevin Ortiz, the card works as follows: If a customer buys a 30-day pass and adds $15 to that card, the unlimited pass will be activated on first swipe, and for all subway and local bus use, the money cannot be accessed until time runs out. In other words, a straphanger can’t swipe in on time and then hand the pass back to a friend for a swipe that deducts money.

There is, however, flexibility that makes the card far more useful than I originally thought. If a customer uses the card at a location where the 30-day pass is not accepted, the money can be accessed. In other words, if a MetroCard user has a card with time and money and wants to use an express bus, PATH or the AirTrain, the monetary value of the fare will be deducted from the card as long as their is enough value on the card. So my initial understanding of the card, gleaned through conversations with MTA officials, was incorrect, and the universal card will indeed be more useful than just as a storage device.

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MetroCard

Debuting a universal MetroCard that falls short

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 19, 2013

Scenes from a brochure. (Photo via Second Ave. Sagas on Instagram)

Update (1:20 p.m.): I’ve left the original post below in tact, but some of the key information regarding the universality of the new time-and-money MetroCards is wrong. For the corrected update on PATH and AirTrain functionality, please see this correction.

* * *

When the MTA’s new fares arrive in March 3, a sneaky little surcharge will arrive with them. After years of talking about it, the MTA is finally implementing a $1 fee on all new MetroCards purchased via the system’s ubiquitous vending machines. As with many things in life, though, there’s almost an upside to this fee: The MTA will be implementing universal MetroCards that can carry both time and money. Sadly, though, the cards fall short of their promise.

Let’s start first with the good news: Beginning today, MetroCards can now hold any combination of unlimited rides and a dollar value. If you want a card with 30 days and $30 on it, now you can fulfill your MetroCard dreams. The vending machines, as the above photo collage shows, will offer up the existential choice of adding more time or adding more value to your MetroCard.

In a brochure released touting the changes, the MTA mentions the $1 surcharge as the driving force behind this change. “By refilling and reusing your current MetroCard, you will avoid this additional fee” of the surcharge, the agency says. The fee will not apply to reduced-fare MetroCards, transit benefit organization customers who get their MetroCards from employers or benefit providers, new cards purchased at out-of-system vendors, EasyPayXpress customers and those buying combination railroad/MetroCard tickets. It is designed to cut down on the $10 million the MTA spends annually on MetroCards currently.

So what’s the bad news? Well, these cards are basically just storage. There’s absolutely no flexibility in the way time and money are used, and a MetroCard holder with both time and money on his or her card must use up all of the time before the money becomes accessible. For instance, let’s say I buy a 30-day card and add $15 to the card. The first swipe on this card will start the 30-day counter, and only after the 30 days and only if there is no time refill on this card will I be able to access the $15.

Regular riders of the transit system’s legs that take cash only may be wondering about the value of such cards. Express bus riders, for instance, cannot combine an unlimited ride card and a cash card. But more importantly, these new “universal” cards don’t cut down on the need for two cards for PATH riders or those relying on the AirTrain. I can’t use a card with time and money to first get to Howard Beach and then swipe in at the AirTrain. I still have to use two separate cards for these two transactions, and the same applies to MetroCard users on PATH. It’s a shockingly inefficient limitation on a twenty-year-old piece of technology.

When I first got word of the universal MetroCard, I had high hopes for the program, but unless changes are made to the programming, it’s a rather disappointing debut. Without the flexibility of using money in money-only machines while time remains on the card, the universal MetroCard is simply good for storage. I guess I’ll have one less card to carry around in my wallet, but that’s just a consolation prize.

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MetroCard

Art from a MetroCard: Scenes from Single Fare 3

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 19, 2013

A fuzzier MetroCard designed and made by Lisa Scruggs. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

Everyday, millions of New Yorkers carry with them an oft-overlooked piece of plastic. The MetroCard symbolizes so much about the city and its subway riders, but we usually just take it for granted. Sometimes, it works; sometimes, it doesn’t; sometimes, it expires.

One day in the unknown future, the MTA will replace the MetroCard with something else. What that something else will be is still up for debate. It will likely be a sturdier piece of plastic, and something we don’t discard by the millions every day, week or month. For now, though, the MetroCard endures, a stubborn reminder of the MTA’s tenuous relationship with modern technology.

For a group of artists, though, the MetroCard is a blank slate. It can be deconstructed and recomposed. It can serve as a small blank canvas for city scenes, abstract art or anything really, and for the next few days, thousands of these MetroCards are on display at a gallery in Tribeca. Called Single Fare 3, the exhibit at the RH Gallery includes paintings, sculptures, drawings, photography and even video. Some pieces are easily recognizable as a MetroCard while others transfer these 2×3 inch canvasses into something else entirely.

I’ve stopped by the exhibit twice over the last few days and have walked away with purchases of two of the cards. For everyone else with even just a little bit of time on their hands, check it out. The show runs through February 22 at the RH Gallery, 137 Duane St. The gallery is open from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. through the end fo the exhibit. Some of my favorite MetroCards, captured in photos, are in the slideshow below. Others are available via my Instagram account.

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TWU

Riders still pay as MTA, TWU square off

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 19, 2013

When the TWU’s contract expired on Monday, January 16, 2012, it seemed as though the MTA and its largest union would figure out a way to resolve the situation amicably. After all, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had appointed Joe Lhota to head up the MTA with an eye toward the contract negotiations, and both state and union officials were optimistic of a short stand-off.

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men. Here we are, 13 months later, with no end in sight. Joe Lhota didn’t move the ball too far, and the TWU rejected one of his more generous proposals last fall. Now, the former MTA head is involved in a campaign for the Republican mayoral candidacy, and the MTA has had no full-time Chairman/CEO for 50 days and counting. If Gov. Cuomo even knows there’s an absence to fill, I’d be a bit surprised.

Today, we learn from The Post that the two sides haven’t talked in three months. To make matters worse, the two sides can’t agree on why they haven’t spoken since November. Jennifer Fermino reports:

The 35,000-member strong Transport Workers Union Local 100 — which has been without a contract for over a year — claims the MTA has refused to negotiate since ex-chairman Joseph Lhota quit to run for mayor. “We have informed the MTA that we are fully prepared to continue bargaining,” the TWU said in a contract update to its members.” They responded that they won’t be ready to come back to the table until after Gov. Cuomo appoints, and the State Senate confirms, a new chair of the agency.”

It’s unclear when that will be. Cuomo has not named a successor to Lhota. But MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz called the TWU’s claims “pure fiction.” An agency official blamed said the TWU refused to schedule time to come to the table. The MTA has continued contract talks with other workers unions, the official said.

According to Fermino, the TWU had previously rejected an offer that would have guaranteed a four-percent raise spread out over five years but with other givebacks as well. A Metro-North union had rejected a similar contract, and in the full statement available on the union’s website, TWU officials claim rejecting such an offer strengthens their position. I’m not so sure it’s as cut and dry as that, but I know one thing: Riders are going to suffer.

As the union makes abundantly clear in its statement, it will not accept “big work-rule givebacks and huge out of pocket increases in the cost of medical benefits.” Additionally, as the union made clear, its recent focus on subway platform safety is a not-so-veiled attempt at promoting its own ends rather than true concern with public safety. In both cases — through higher wages and greater pension obligations or through slower, less effective and more costly train service — the public loses.

It’s hard to say what’s going to happen over the next few months. Andrew Cuomo will eventually appoint someone to head up the MTA, and that someone will eventually have to address the TWU’s contract. But even the best-case scenario probably means a late March or early April confirmation date for the next MTA CEO. Meanwhile, the concerns of the riders, as always, are being ignored, if not pushed aside entirely, and transit offerings will suffer because of it.

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Service Advisories

Weekend work impacting 12 subway lines

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 15, 2013

Before I get to the service advisories, let me share with you a story about why New Yorkers grow so frustrated with the MTA. Tonight, I was heading back to Brooklyn from near Chambers St., and a quick glance at Subway Time showed me that I had around 12 minutes to go before my next 2 train. That’s fine. I expect a long enough wait late on a Friday night there.

It wasn’t though late enough for anything to be in front of us. The 4 wasn’t yet running local in Brooklyn, and I knew how long it had been between trains because that information is now available in the one device I carry around with me in my pocket. So we left Nevins St. and then crawled to a stop before Atlantic Ave. I could have walked between those two stations faster, but the automated announcement proclaimed “train traffic ahead of us.” Everyone on that train knew there was no train traffic ahead of us, and yet there we were being told that. Why not just tell the truth about the delay? Why treat customers like cattle?

Anyway, that’s my mini-rant for the weekend. Onto the service advisories. Note that many of these run through 5 a.m. on Tuesday and that trains will operate on a Saturday schedule on the Presidents Day holiday this Monday.


From 3:45 a.m. Saturday, February 16 to 9 p.m. Sunday, February 17, uptown 1 trains skip 225th Street, 231st Street and 238th Street due to track panel installation north of 231st Street.


From 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Saturday, February 16 and Sunday, February 17, the last stop for some uptown 1 trains is 137th Street due to track panel installation north of 231st Street in the Bronx.


From 11:45 p.m. Friday, February 15 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, February 19, uptown 4 trains skip 138th Street-Grand Concourse due to station rehabilitation at 149th Street-Grand Concourse.

(Overnights)
From 11:45 p.m. Friday, February 15 to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, February 16,
From 11:45 p.m. Saturday, February 16 to 6:30 a.m. Sunday, February 17,
From 11:45 p.m. Sunday, February 17 to 6:30 a.m. Monday, February 18, and
From 11:45 p.m. Monday, February 18 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, February 19:
Downtown 4 trains run express from 125th Street to Grand Central-42nd Street due to rack tie block work near 96th Street and 103rd Street.


From 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday, February 16 to Monday, February 18, there are no 5 trains between East 180th Street and Bowling Green due to station rehabilitation at 149th Street-Grand Concourse.


From 11:45 p.m. Friday, February 15 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, February 19, downtown 6 trains run express from 125th Street to Grand Central-42nd Street due to track tie block work near 96th Street and 103rd Street.


From 11:45 p.m. Friday, February 15 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, February 19 (and the next five weekends), there is no 7 train service between Times Square-42nd Street and Queensboro Plaza due to Flushing Line CBTC. Customers may take the E, N, Q and S (42nd Street shuttle) and free shuttle buses as alternatives.

  • Use the E, N or Q* between Manhattan and Queens
  • Free shuttle buses operate between Vernon Blvd-Jackson Avenue and Queensboro Plaza
  • In Manhattan, the 42nd Street S Shuttle operates overnight

*Q service is extended to Ditmars Blvd. (See Q entry for hours of operation.)

(Overnights)
From 11:45 p.m. Friday, February 15 to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, February 16,
From 11:45 p.m. Saturday, February 16 to 6:30 a.m. Sunday, February 17,
From 11:45 p.m. Sunday, February 17 to 6:30 a.m. Monday, February 18, and
From 11:45 p.m. Monday, February 18 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, February 19:
Uptown A trains run express from Canal Street to 145th Street due to ADA work at 59th Street-Columbus Circle.


From 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday, February 16, Sunday, February 17 and Monday, February 18, uptown C trains run express from Canal Street to 145th Street due to ADA work at 59th Street-Columbus Circle.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, February 16 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 18, Manhattan-bound E trains run local from Roosevelt Avenue to Queens Plaza due to track tie block and plate renewal south of Roosevelt Avenue.


From 11:45 p.m. Friday, February 15 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, February 19, Coney Island-bound F trains are rerouted via the M line after 36th Street, Queens to 47th-50th Sts due to station work at Lexington Avenue-63rd Street for SAS project.


From 11:45 p.m. Friday, February 15 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 18, Jamaica-bound F trains run express from Church Avenue to Jay Street-MetroTech due to work on the Culver Viaduct Reconstruction and the Church Avenue Interlocking.


From 5:45 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, February 16 and Sunday, February 17, Jamaica-bound F trains run express from Avenue X to 18th Avenue due to rail and platform edge survey south of Ditmas Avenue.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, February 16 5 a.m. Monday, February 18, Manhattan-bound F trains run local from Roosevelt Avenue to 21-st Street-Queensbridge due to track tie block and plate renewal south of Roosevelt Avenue.


From 11:45 p.m. Friday, February 15 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 18, there are no G trains between Church Avenue and Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts due to work on the Culver Viaduct Reconstruction and the Church Avenue Interlocking. Customers should take the F instead.

  • For F service, customers may take the A or C between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. and Jay Street-MetroTech.
  • G service operates in two sections:
    1. 1. Between Court Square and Bedford-Nostrand Aves and
    2. 2. Between Bedford-Nostrand Aves and Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. (every 20 minutes).


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, February 16 to 5 a.m., Monday, February 18, downtown Q trains run local from 34th Street-Herald Square to Canal Street due to electrical work at 14th Street-Union Square.


From 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday, February 16, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, February 17 and from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday, February 18, Q trains are extended to Ditmars Blvd. in order to augment service between Manhattan and Queens.

(42nd Street Shuttle) (Overnights)
From 12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m. Saturday, February 16, Sunday, February 17, Monday, February 18, and Tuesday, February 19, 42nd Street S shuttle operates overnight due to weekend work on the 7 line.

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AsidesNew Jersey Transit

Great moments in New Jersey Transit: Super Bowl XLVII

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 15, 2013

Come next February, New Jersey Transit will be in charge of taking tens of thousands of Super Bowl-bound riders to and from the Meadowlands, and to that end, someone decided to go on a scouting trip to New Orleans a few weeks ago. It was, unsurprisingly, a trip not without controversy. As The Record reported today, three New Jersey Transit officials managed to spend $14,000 on a four-night trip, including nearly $8000 on lodging and over $5000 for airfare. I realize Super Bowl week in the Big Easy is expensive, but that is one hefty bill for taxpayers to stomach.

To make matters worse, one of the men on the trip was Joseph Meade III, the superintendent of the Hoboken rail yards who was one of the people in charge during New Jersey Transit’s disastrous non-response to Superstorm Sandy. Meade has come under fire from New Jersey politicians for his role in the storm planning, and this latest development won’t make matters better.

Now, on the one hand, it is important for New Jersey Transit officials to prepare for next year’s Super Bowl and the related festivities, but on the other hand, a $14,000 four-night trip seems particularly egregious. It’s worth noting, as well, that everyone involved in NJ Transit operations during Sandy is still employed by the agency. What a mess.

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7 Line Extension

Bloomberg: 7 extension will run during term ‘if I have to push it myself’

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 15, 2013

This photo shows the latest progress of construction on the extension of the 7 subway line as of December 6, 2012. This is a view of the future mezzanine of the new station at 34th Street and Eleventh Avenue in west Midtown Manhattan. Photo: Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Patrick Cashin.

With just 319 days remaining in the final year of Michael Bloomberg’s third term, the rush is on for the mayor to see his pet projects through. An effort to rezone Midtown East and a ban on toxic, carcinogenic styrofoam containers will be among his final pushes, but the mayor also has his eye on the Far West Side.

In comments this morning, Bloomberg spoke about the looming final 10 and a half months, and it’s clear that he wants to take a ride on the new 7 line extension while still in office.

Considering the MTA’s projected timeline, Bloomberg better get those pushing muscles ready. The 7 line extension, once projected for revenue service by December of 2013, is not expected to be in revenue service until mid-2014. Perhaps, as a symbolic gesture for the outgoing mayor, the MTA will be in a position to run a photo-op train from Times Square to 34th St. and 11th Ave., but I’m not holding my breath.

One may be wondering why the mayor cares so much about the 7 line extension when his record on rail-related transit issues has been spotty at best. The 7 line is a tortured part of his legacy, and he wants to point to the new subway line as an accomplishment of his years in office. Fully funded by the city, the 7 was an integral part of the mayor’s failed efforts to bring a stadium and the 2012 Olympics to the Far West Side. Even once the Olympics bid faltered, the mayor pushed forward with the 7 line as a driver of Manhattan’s last undeveloped frontier.

The project, of course, has not been without controversy. Due to rising costs, a second planned station at 41st St. and 10th Ave. that would have served a rapidly growing area with few current transit options was shelved, and only the barest of provisioning was put in place to ensure a build-out if money ever materializes. If the mayor is going to be so keen to embrace the subway extension, we shouldn’t be so quick to excuse him the project’s flaws.

The 7 line extension won’t be, as I once called it, the subway to nowhere. It’s going to spur growth in an area that will soon be filled with mixed-use buildings and office space. Yet, the extension represents missed opportunities as much as it represents growth, and the last missed opportunity will likely be Mayor Bloomberg’s chance to ride the first 11th Ave.-bound train while he’s still in office.

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View from Underground

Photo: Remnants of payphone past

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 14, 2013

A few weeks, I found myself in the Borough Hall subway stop with a good seven minutes to spare when my eyes hit upon these stickers above the payphones. Now, subway payphones themselves are relics of another age when we had to carry around quarters and didn’t have easy access to a phone in our pockets. These days, the subway’s payphones are a dying breed. Those that remain barely function, and those that do work aren’t exactly paragons of cleanliness.

This sticker though offers us a glimpse into the past — many levels of the past in fact. There’s a New York Telephone logo with the reminder of NYNEX (and their catchy jingle); there’s Bell Atlantic peeking through; and there’s Verizon, the current carrier if the phone works at all. The sticker has survived many layers of anti-trust law as well as many decades in the subway. But there it is for anyone to see.

For more subway-themed and transit-related photos, check out Second Ave. Sagas’ Instagram account. Many of these images pop up on my Facebook page as well.

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