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Benjamin Kabak

For ‘minor’ holidays, slightly less subway service

by Benjamin Kabak October 10, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on October 10, 2011

When I rode to work this morning, I found a seat waiting for me on my 3 train out of Grand Army Plaza and another on the 5 that greeted me at Nevins St. On a typical Monday morning, finding seats on both of those trains is a rarity, but today is not a typical Monday. Rather, it is Columbus Day, a loosely celebrated federal holiday during which some, but not all, New Yorkers have off. I noticed the subways were noticeably emptier this morning and so too did the MTA.

Starting today, the authority has launched a pilot program that will see service reduced on the numbered IRT lines during minor holidays. Instead of operating trains on a weekend schedule as the TA does for Independence Day, Memorial Day and the like, Transit will instead run trains at around 75 percent of normal on Martin Luther King Day, Good Friday, Columbus Day, the Friday after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, the three weekdays following Christmas and New Year’s Eve if it falls on a weekday. Demand, says the authority, is usually 60 percent of normal during those so-called minor holidays.

As far as the nitty gritty goes, peak hour wait times will increase by at most 1-2 minutes while off-peak wait times might be a bit longer, and the initial A Division-only pilot will save the authority $200,000. Transit anticipates “significant additional savings on an annual basis” when and if the program expands to include B Division lettered trains as well.

Reaction to the new plan has been decidedly mixed, as The Post reported today. “If it ends up reducing service and causing problems for people, you really have to question whether it’s worth it. For some of these minor holidays, I’m not sure how much of a decrease there really is,” William Henderson of the MTA’s Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee said, citing the day after Thanksgiving as a popular day for the subways.”

On the other hand, though, the MTA says that “reduction in service is smaller than the reduction in ridership” on this minor weekday holidays, and anecdotally, the subways are often emptier during these holidays than they are on a typical weekday. So I pose this to you: Death by 1000 cuts or a service adjustment that makes sense considering the circumstances?

October 10, 2011 12 comments

Manhattan

At 69th Street, a new entrance and NIMBYs

by Benjamin Kabak October 10, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on October 10, 2011

According to Upper East Side residents, only criminals and marauders would use the proposed subway entrance at 69th Street and Lexington Ave.

There ain’t no NIMBY like an Upper East Side NIMBY, and an Upper East Side NIMBY don’t stop.

Let’s take a trip to 68th St. on the 6 train. There, we will find one very crowded subway station and one very loud and particularly arrogant group of NIMBYs ready to face down the MTA. It’s not a very pleasant stop during most of the hours of the day. Last year. It was the 30th busiest station last year as over 10 million people entered the station, and with hospitals, Hunter College, Central Park and a densely populated residential neighborhood surrounding the station, it is a very popular destination for exits too (although those numbers are not available). For years, people who use that station have cried out for better exits and a handicapped-accessible station, and the MTA is ready to oblige.

Last week, at a Community Board 8 meeting, the MTA along with a joint venture between Urbahn and Dewberry presented plans to make the 68th St. station ADA-accessible. These plans include, of course, the installation of elevators at 68th St. and a slew of other changes that will make the station a more pleasant one to enter and exit. The authority plans to widen the staircases leading up to the street at 68th St. and will add entrances to the back of the platform at 69th St. as well. At a station famous for its exit time — some riders say it can take around five minutes during peak hours to leave — these changes would make it better for everyone.

Plans for 68th Street include wider stairways, elevators and some back entrances on 69th Street.

But wait! As this is the Upper East Side, home of the people who want better subway access as long as it’s not going to disrupt their precious isolated existence, a group of folks on 69th St. say a subway station entrance will ruin their block. They don’t, as some residents at the meeting said, want increased foot traffic on a street on the Upper East Side in the middle of Manhattan. “It would ruin the fabric of the neighborhood,” Nancy Friedman, who lives on East 69th St. (with a roaring fireplace), told a reporter after the meeting. “It’s the most beautiful block in the city.”

DNA Info’s Amy Zimmer had a bit more from the meeting:

Particularly on the west side of the street, the entrance wasn’t needed, [Friedman] said, because “people to the west don’t take the subway. Not to be elitist, but they don’t.”

The MTA’s plans spurred one man from the ritzy block to accuse the transit agency of using the ADA requirements as a “charade.” Board members bristled at the accusation, with the committee’s co-chair calling the comment “offensive to disabled people.”

In support of the MTA’s plans, CB 8 member A. Scott Falk…told the residents at the meeting, “New York City is not a gated community. The whole idea of putting an entrance on 69th Street is going to open you up to marauding down the street seems a bit reactionary.”

But CB 8 member Teri Slater took umbrage at those remarks. “This is not an elitist argument,” said Slater, who believes that there is simply more crime concentrated around subway entrances. She didn’t think there was a “mandate” for the new entrances on East 69th Street and thought the MTA should redesign the plaza on East 68th Street in front of Hunter College to increase the size of the entrance instead. “There’s a fundamental disconnect between the MTA and the neighborhoods of the Upper East Side,” she said.

So here we have Upper East Side residents from East 69th Street between Lexington Ave. and Park Ave. bemoaning one subway entrance at the rear of the train because “people to the west don’t take the subway.” They think ADA accessibility is a “charade” and insist that “this is not an elitist argument.” And these people apparently

Now Teri Slater, for one, isn’t new to this fight. She’s been in the news for decades fighting ostensibly for Upper East Side preservation. Elizabeth Ashby, a preservationist who founded the group with Teri Slater, gave the first toast. “We’re here to protect the Upper East Side from bad ideas,” she said to The Times in 2004. “We want you to be part of our army.” Bad ideas, apparently, include anything which may draw attention to her block whether it be good or bad.

Now, the Upper East Siders claim that because their buildings are landmarked, so too must their street corner. It’s hard for me to find any compelling grounds though for giving heed to their argument (which one observer termed 28 Days Later rage rather than good old NIMBYism). They don’t want a subway entrance on their corner because they think only criminals are subway riders, and they don’t want to introduce unsavory elements to the Upper East Side. That is an insult to everyone else. It’s a slap in the face to subway riders and the handicapped. It is, truth be told, an elitist argument, and it’s why urban planning policy is stuck in a rut in New York City.

October 10, 2011 61 comments

Service Advisories

Weekend work impacting service on 16 lines

by Benjamin Kabak October 7, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on October 7, 2011

I’m a bit swamped at the old day job today, and I didn’t get back from last night’s crushing Yankee defeat until late. So I’m going to be light on content today. I’ll be back on Monday with a full slate of posts, and I have a few good ones — including a diatribe against Upper East Side NIMBYs, for a change — lined up. If you’re fasting for the holiday tonight and tomorrow, have an easy fast.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 8 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 10, there is no 1 train service between 242nd Street and 168th Street due to Dyckman Street station and structural rehabilitation, platform edge and canopy work at stations between 215th and 242nd Sts. and switch renewal north of 238th Street.

For 181st and 191st Sts., take the 1 to 168th Street and transfer to the M3 or free shuttle bus on St. Nicholas Avenue.
For Dyckman and 207th Sts., take the 1 to 168th Street and transfer to the A.
For stations between 215th and 242nd Sts., take the 1 to 168th Street, transfer to the uptown A to 207th Street and take the free shuttle bus operating along Broadway.
Special shuttle bus available between the 207th Street A station and Kraft Field (Columbia University) on Saturday, October 8 from 11:15 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 8 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 10, free shuttle buses replace 2 trains between Franklin Avenue and Flatbush Avenue due to circuit breaker repair south of President Street. Note: 2 trains operate between 241st Street and the Utica Avenue 3, 4 station.

(Overnights)
From 12:01 a.m. to 6:20 a.m., Saturday, October 8 and Sunday, October 9, and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, October 10, downtown 4 trains operate express from 14th Street-Union Square to Brooklyn Bridge due to work on the Broadway/Lafayette-to-Bleecker Street transfer connection.

From 1 a.m. Saturday, October 8 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 10, 4 trains skip Fulton Street in both directions due to work on the Fulton Street Transit Center. For alternate service, take the 2, 3, A, C or J shuttle instead. Note: J shuttle trains operate between Fulton Street and Chambers Street-Brooklyn Bridge.

From 5:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Saturday, October 8 and from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Sunday, October 9, 5 trains run every 20 minutes between Bowling Green and Dyre Avenue due to work on the Broadway/Lafayette-to-Bleecker Street transfer connection. In addition, 5 trains skip Fulton Street in both directions due to work on the Fulton Street Transit Center. For alternate service, take the 2, 3, A, C or J shuttle instead. Note: J shuttle trains operate between Fulton Street and Chambers Street-Brooklyn Bridge.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 8 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 10, downtown 6 trains run express from 14th Street-Union Square to Brooklyn Bridge due to work on the Broadway/Lafayette-to-Bleecker Street transfer connection.

From 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, October 8 and Sunday, October 9, downtown 6 trains skip Morrison Avenue-Soundview and Whitlock Avenue due to rail work at Elder Avenue.

From 11:30 p.m. Friday, October 7 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 10, there is no 7 train service between Times Square-42nd Street and Queensboro Plaza due to cable and electrical work between Grand Central-42nd Street and Hunters Point Avenue.

Customers should use the E, F, N or Q between Manhattan and Queens.
Free shuttle buses operate between Vernon Boulevard-Jackson Avenue and Queensboro Plaza.
Q service is extended to and from Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard.
In Manhattan, 42nd Street shuttle operates all weekend.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 8 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 10, Queensboro Plaza-bound 7 trains run express from 74th Street to Queensboro Plaza due to track panel installation south of 33rd Street-Rawson Street.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 8 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 10, shuttle trains and buses replace A and S trains between Howard Beach and Far Rockaway due to rebuilding of existing piers and bearings on the South Channel Bridge and replacement of drain pipes between South Channel Bridge and Hammels Wye.

Rockaway Park Shuttle (S) operates between Far Rockaway and Rockaway Park.
Free shuttle buses operate: between Howard Beach and Far Rockaway, non-stop and between Howard Beach and Rockaway Park, making one stop at Broad Channel.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 8 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 10, Manhattan-bound D trains run on the N line from Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue to 36th Street due to structural repair and station rehabilitation from 71st Street to Bay 50th Street and ADA work at Bay Parkway. Note: At all times until Friday, October 28, the southbound D is bypassing 71st Street due to stair reconstruction. So, there is no D service at 71st Street this weekend.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 8 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 10, there is no E train service between World Trade Center and West 4th Street due to track work south of Canal Street. E trains terminate and originate at 2nd Avenue (F) station. Customers should take the A or C instead.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 8 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 10, Brooklyn-bound F trains run on the M line from Roosevelt Avenue to 47th -50th Streets due to reconstruction work on the Lexington Avenue-63rd Street station.

From 1 a.m. Saturday, October 8 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 10, J shuttle trains will operate between Fulton Street and Chambers Street-Brooklyn Bridge due to work at the Fulton Street Transit Center. Note: There is no 4 or 5 train service at Fulton Street this weekend.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 8 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 10, there are no L trains between Broadway Junction and 8th Avenue due to CBTC track and signal work between Bedford Avenue and 3rd Avenue. The M train is extended to 57th Street (F) station. The M14 bus replaces train service between 1st and 8th Avenues. Free shuttle buses operate in three sections:

Between Broadway Junction and Myrtle-Wyckoff Avs.
Between Myrtle-Wyckoff Avs and Lorimer Street-Metropolitan Avenue (G)
Between the Lorimer Street-Metropolitan Avenue (G) and the Marcy Avenue (J, M).

Manhattan-bound L customers should transfer to the A or J train at Broadway Junction or the M at Myrtle-Wyckoff Avs.

From 6 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, October 8, and from 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. Sunday, October 9, M service is extended to and from 57th Street (F) station.

From 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, October 8 and from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday, October 9, Q service is extended to and from Astoria-Ditmars Blvd. due to work on the 7 line.

From 6 a.m. Saturday, October 8 to 6 p.m. Sunday, October 9, Brooklyn-bound Q trains skip Avenue U and Neck Road due to overcoat painting of Brighton Line bridges.

42nd Street Shuttle)
Throughout the weekend, the 42nd Street (S) shuttle operates overnight due to provide cross-town service during the 7 line suspension.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 8 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 10, there are no trains between Broad Channel and Beach 90th Street. Shuttle trains operate between Rockaway Park and Far Rockaway. Free shuttle buses operate between Rockaway Park and Broad Channel. (See A entry for shuttle bus information.)

October 7, 2011 0 comment

MTA Technology Queens

Flushing line CBTC work to begin this weekend

by Benjamin Kabak October 6, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on October 6, 2011

Communications-based train control is coming to the 7 train. For years, Transit has talked up this technology improvement, and this weekend, installation begins. Per the press release:

MTA New York City Transit announces that this coming weekend will be the first of five planned service suspensions on the 7 line between Queensboro Plaza and Times Square this fall. There will be no 7 subway service between Times Square and Queensboro Plaza from 11:30 p.m. Fridays through 5 a.m. Mondays during the weekends of October 7-10, October 28-31, November 4-6, November 11-14 and November 18-21, affecting an estimated 280,000 customers each weekend. The E, F, N, Q, S and free shuttle buses will provide alternate service.

This fall, as we continue our maintenance efforts in the Steinway tunnel, we begin installation of a new signal system known as CBTC – Communications Based Train Control. This automated train control system ensures the safe operation of trains using wireless data communication that will allow for more frequent service and the use of countdown clocks in the future. Fiber optic and computer equipment will be installed on the tracks along the entire line. This work requires service changes in October and November and will continue for several years. We realize this will be an inconvenience, but the work is necessary to modernize and improve the reliability of the 7 line.

Eventually, when all is said and done, CBTC will allow the MTA to run more trains on 7 line — a necessity as the route will soon be a mile and one stop longer — than they currently can. “Several years” of service changes to accommodate this week sounds pretty painful though. Is that the cost of progress or indicative of the slow pace at which the MTA works?

October 6, 2011 32 comments

Asides PANYNJ

Article of the Day: On the destruction of Pei’s Terminal 6

by Benjamin Kabak October 6, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on October 6, 2011

As JFK Airport looks to expand to meet its ever-increasing demand, history has a way of getting in the way. Jet Blue constructed its new Terminal 5 behind Eero Saarinen’s TWA Flight Center, and plans to use the landmarked building have been in limbo for the past few years. Now that Jet Blue is expanded again, it has its sights set on I.M. Pei’s understated Terminal 6 building next door.

Today, at City Room, David Dunlap reports that the Port Authority will be tearing down Terminal 6 as Jet Blue builds out Terminal 5. The “crisp island of aesthetic tranquility” will be no more. In the piece, Dunlap speaks with Henry Cobb, an architect who worked with Pei on the original design, and Cobb is sad to see the terminal go. “This is not pure greed,” he said. “This is the myopic view of engineers. They just can’t figure out how to reuse it and they don’t put enough value on it to figure out how to reuse it.”

It is the last line of Dunlap’s piece that truly resonates. “Serenity, generosity, clarity, spaciousness, simplicity and dignity” — all used to describe the terminal — “aren’t words that describe jet travel today.” Monstrosity replaces subtlety, and history is bulldozed away. We’ve seen it as the Archer Ave. stations replaced an elevated train, and we’ll see it again and again and again. That’s how New York City grows.

October 6, 2011 18 comments

MTA Economics

Supporting a station rehab and paying for it too

by Benjamin Kabak October 6, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on October 6, 2011

The MTA and New York City’s property owners have a complicated relationship under the current transit financing scheme. Developers and property owners rely upon the MTA’s services to increase the desirability and, of course, the value of said property while the MTA relies upon real estate transfer taxes to help fund their operating budget. When it comes to capital investment, though, property owners owe nothing to the MTA but stand to benefit.

Earlier on Wednesday, while catching up on some transit news, I came across an intriguing article that brings this divide to light. It’s a short piece in Columbia Daily Spectator about a proposed renovation to the 168th Street station. This Washington Heights stop, a key transfer point between the Eighth Avenue IND and the IRT local 1 train, also serves the Columbia University Medical Center, and the station complex is looking a little unloved. While not on the level of, say, Chambers St. on the BMT Nassau St. line, 168th St. features your typically dingy conditions and cracked platforms. It needs some work.

Soon though the MTA will begin a partial rehab for this station. The authority will be replacing the brick arches with Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer and will shore up some columns while repairing beams. This station, after all, is one with structural concerns with the ceiling.

According to The Spectator then, Columbia officials are pleased. In fact, the school’s board has long requested the MTA gussy up the station so visitors are not turned off by the grime. The way the article is presented though speaks volumes of how Columbia, which is currently building a massive complex in Manhattanville, wants to be involved. Luke Barnes writes:

University Trustees don’t like the look of the 168th Street subway station—and the MTA plans to do something about it.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is planning a renovation of the No. 1 train station that services New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center. Although still in the planning stage, the project is slated to begin in December and wrap up before the end of 2014, according to a MTA representative. “It’s probably the worst looking subway station I’m aware of in the city and it is a Columbia-related station,” professor Ronald Breslow, the chair of the campus planning committee, said at a University Senate plenary meeting last week. He added that the subway station came up at a recent meeting of the Board of Trustees, and several said that they were concerned…

Columbia officials said they agree that the station needs a renovation, but there are currently not any plans for the University to work with the MTA on its planned renovations. “For many of our students, patients, faculty and visitors, the subway station is the first thing they see when coming to CUMC,” said Ross Frommer, associate dean for Government and Community Affairs in a statement to Spectator. “As the largest destination for subway riders in this part of the city, we would work with the MTA in any way that we can to make improvements to the station.”

So a wealthy institution wants its subway stop to look nicer, but they also want someone else to do the work. If they contribute anything to the project, it will be to cover the costs of signage promoting Columbia. Otherwise, they are content to pressure the MTA to do something while they sit back and complain.

Now, I don’t think the MTA should be in the business of asking for handouts. It would be an absurd commentary on the state of transit funding if the MTA had to go, hat in hand, to private property owners in order to fund capital expansion. But if Columbia wants to see a station rehab that badly, they should be willing to do something about it. After all, they’re going to benefit materially from the MTA’s efforts. Why shouldn’t they be expected to contribute to it as well?

Now and then over the years, I’ve written about “adopt-a-station” plans as a way to draw resources to subway station cleanliness efforts, and I wonder if a similar program would work with the capital program. Why didn’t developers around 41st and 10th Ave. who would benefit tremendously from a subway station there figure out a way to contribute the effort? Why isn’t Columbia required pony up the bucks to help clean up a station they claim is “the first thing” visitors see? Subway improvements and system growth, after all, don’t just happen.

* * *
Updated (10:00 a.m.): From what I’ve heard from sources at Columbia, the issue at 168th St. is perhaps not as clear cut as The Spectator made it out to be. There are those on university committees who believe the institution should consider picking up some of the tab, as they did with station rehab projects at 116th, 110th and 103rd Streets in the past.

October 6, 2011 34 comments

View from Underground

MTA vowing to do something about the rats this time for real

by Benjamin Kabak October 5, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on October 5, 2011

The MTA will soon launch a pilot program to target rat infestation. (Photo by flickr user Ludovic Burtron)

Rats and subways go together like rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dong, and lately, this become some major breaking New York City news. There are fewer cleaners! Rats like garbage! Rats are everwhere! Sound the alarms; ring the bells. Now, the MTA is vowing to do something more than just hang up rat poison caution signs once every few years.

As New York 1 reports today, the authority is going to engage in a Refuse Room Rodent Control Pilot Project . That’s right; when it comes to something even as basic as exterminating rats, the MTA must conduct a pilot program. According to reporter Tina Redwine, the MTA will be “working to move trash off platforms more quickly, and within six months it will tighten up conditions at 25 stations by installing door sweeps, cleaning garbage rooms, plugging up holes and exterminating.” That sounds like something they could tomorrow if they wanted to.

Anyway, it’s comforting — I guess — to see the authority taking rat control somewhat seriously. For now, though, targeting barely 5 percent of the system’s stations seems like trying to put out a five-alarm fire with a shot glass full of water, and I’m sure these remedial efforts will be successful for a few months until the rats adapt as they always do. What follows is the list of stations. Is one of yours a lucky one?

135 St. — northbound B, C lines
157 St. — northbound 1 line
116 St. — northbound 1 line
14 St. — northbound and southbound F lines
23 St. — northbound F line
Lexington Ave. — northbound E line
Bowling Green — northbound 4, 5 lines
Jamaica Center Parsons/Archer — E line
Brooklyn Bridge /City Hall at Foley Square — northbound and southbound 4, 5, 6 lines
West 4th Street — southbound A, C, E lines
Grand Central Terminal Main Refuse Room — 4, 5, 6, shuttle lines
34th St. — northbound and southbound Q, R lines
34th St. — northbound and southbound F lines
Canal St. — northbound and southbound Q, R lines
7th Ave. — Queens and Manhattan-bound E lines
149 St. — northbound and southbound 4, 5 lines
167 St. — northbound D line
Fordham Road — mezzanine D line
7 Ave — southbound B, Q lines
86 St — northbound and southbound C lines
Nostrand Ave — northbound and southbound 2, 3 lines
Bergen St — northbound and southbound 2, 3 lines
Rockaway Ave — northbound and southbound A, C lines
Ralph Ave — northbound and southbound A, C lines
Nostrand Ave — northbound and southbound A, C lines

October 5, 2011 20 comments

Asides MTA Economics TWU

TWU: MTA debt a Wall Street problem

by Benjamin Kabak October 5, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on October 5, 2011

Over the past few weeks, as the MTA has unveiled its budget projections for the next few years while grappling with ways to fill a hole in its capital budget, debt has become us. State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli issued a report again warning of the MTA’s debt bomb, and transit advocates have been sounding the alarm with more rigor. This week, the Transport Workers Union Local 100 joined the chorus.

The TWU, which has lend its support to the Occupy Wall Street protests — more on that over the next few days — issued a statement on the MTA’s ledger, and Channel 13’s Metro Focus blog highlighted it yesterday. “The New York City Transit Authority has been in debt to Wall Street for 50 years with no hope of repayment,” Kevin Harrington, acting vice president of Local 100, said. “Wall Street has hurt the transit system with their usurious loans, and a good portion of the Transit Authority’s budget is paying back the interest on these loans without even attacking the principal.”

As Alice Brennan and Alexander Hotz report, the MTA has paid off hundreds of millions in fees. A large group of underwriters have earned close to $40 million dollars by guaranteeing the MTA’s debt, and investment banks have earned substantial fees as well. As long as the state refuses to investment in subway and commuter rail infrastructure improvements and expansion efforts in the New York City area, though, the MTA is left with only Wall Street as a source of money. Yet again, as the TWU notes, the riders are the ones who come out behind.

October 5, 2011 41 comments

Subway Maps

Quietly, a new old look for the subway map

by Benjamin Kabak October 5, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on October 5, 2011

When the MTA cut service last June, they took the opportunity to refresh the subway map as well. The changes were, by and large, cosmetic. The giant bus callouts were cut down in number and size while the colors were changed to better highlight the the subway lines. Yet, with parks turning light brown and a shadow tracking the route lines, the changes were not met with great acclaim.

Recently, though, the MTA has rolled back some of the changes to the old map. Without much fanfare, the latest iteration of the map returns the parks to their green color. While the route lines still feature that shadow and station names run off at odd angles, the colors are looking a little more vibrant and lifelike.

I got wind of the changes earlier in September and saw the excerpt you see above. I asked the authority if they had a comment on the redesign. This is their statement:

We reprint the map several times a year, and we are continuously trying to make it easier to use. In June 2010 we issued a fairly significant redesign aimed at reducing clutter. Most of the changes we made as part of that redesign were successful and remain in place for the September edition of the map. One exception to that is the background land color.

In response to feedback we received after the 2010 redesign, we’ve returned the background land color to the more traditional beige. (For those with a detailed interest in graphic design, the underlying land color in the new map is a slightly screened back Pantone 468. The green-shaded land color had been a Pantone 614 with extra black added.) The colors of water and parks have also been adjusted slightly in concert with the new background land color. Also to continue to build on earlier clutter reduction, we’ve removed some streets and cemeteries that were not directly served by the subway.

The September 2011 map is posted online in jpg and pdf formats, and is being distributed to station agents for individual distribution to customers. The maps posted in stations and trains are updated less frequently, and will not receive this version of the map.

Meanwhile, I have also seen a full-fledged PDF with the following in the upper right corner. I can’t share the whole thing, but take a peek here:

All I know about this map is that it is apparently based upon a few old ideas. Back in the mid-1990s when Manhattan Bridge service changes caused radically different peak and off-peak service patterns, the MTA printed a few maps that had featured both service offerings. In April of this year, one blogger offered up his own version of the night map. “It’s the MTA’s,” he said, “if they want it.”

The MTA would not confirm to me that this night map could become a reality. Oftentimes, the authority produces internal documents for testing that do not see the public light of day. Some projects — like the Weekender map – are launched; others are left as good ideas on the cutting room floor. Perhaps this is one of them. Still, it strikes me as a useful representation of the subway system late at night when some trains do not run and others run truncated routes. At least someone’s thinking about.

October 5, 2011 30 comments

Asides MTA

When 117 phone numbers become one

by Benjamin Kabak October 4, 2011

written by Benjamin Kabak on October 4, 2011

For years, one of the most obvious signs of bureaucratic issues with the MTA concerned its public phone numbers. The authority had, at its high point, 117 different phone numbers depending upon which service callers needed, and no one really knew which number to call. As part of its effort at cutting down these severe inefficiencies, the MTA has consolidated to one, state-run number. Those who need information from the MTA can now just call 5-1-1.

The 511 service, the authority said in a press release, will provide a portal to an interactive voice response system that will connect calls to customer service and travel information for all MTA agencies. Services include all rail and transit schedules; trip planning; lost and found; MetroCard, rail ticket, or Bridges and Tunnels tolls; and Mail & Ride. Furthermore, as 5-1-1 is a state service, this move costs the MTA no additional dollars. “This is a great example of how we are working to make it easier for our customers to get information and interact with the MTA at the same time that we reduce the MTA’s administrative costs,” MTA Managing Director Diana Jones Ritter said. “Customers now have a single phone number for all transportation-related questions, instead of a long and sometimes confusing list of agencies and departments.”

The MTA noted that 5-1-1 has been available as a transportation resource for a while, but the offerings have been refined. Call transfer paths will “better direct customers’ inquiries to the appropriate departments,” and functions such as Lost & Found, MetroCard Balance Protection and general comments and concerns are now available at one phone number. Ads promoting the new service will soon appear in buses, subways and rail cars throughout the area.

October 4, 2011 4 comments

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