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ARC TunnelAsides

Going, going, (almost) gone: NJ could shift ARC money to TTF

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 21, 2010

As New Jersey conducts its review of the now-frozen $8.5-billion ARC Tunnel project, more details about the state’s plan for the $3 billion it has committed to the project are coming to light. As Max Pizarro of Politicker NJ reported yesterday, the state is considering taking its $3 billion contribution to this rail project and redistributing it to the nearly-depleted state Transportation Trust Fund. “There have been those discussions” about shifting the funds, NJ Transit Executive Director James Weinstein said after facing questioning by local New Jersey officials, “but no decisions.”

For rail proponents, a move such as this one would represent a huge blow to the access to the region’s core. “Taking money from Arc Tunnel to replenish the Transportation Trust Fund is a short term gimmick and would hurt the region’s mobility for generations to come,” TSTC’s Zoe Baldwin said. Furthermore, although the TTF is in charge of maintaining and upgrading New Jersey’s rail infrastructure, the vast majority of funds go toward road maintenance and construction instead, and the fund is nearly empty because Gov. Chris Christie (and many before him) have refused to raise New Jersey’s gas taxes. At 10.5 cents per gallon, the gas is the third-lowest in the country and hasn’t been increased since the years of President George H. W. Bush.

State officials are calling upon Christie and his administration to continue the project, but the New Jersey Governor is wavering. He said, obviously enough, that the project would get the green light if the feds were willing to cover more costs, but Washington is already paying $5.5 billion to the project. Local politicians just want to see the investment realized. “We need to find the money for this project,” Ed Potosnak, a Democratic congressional nominee, said. “For every $1 in New Jersey taxpayer funds, we can leverage $2 of federal and Port Authority funds. I will make sure our dollars come back to our communities. Two plus two does not equal four; it actually equals a lot more.”

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MTA

MTA fires highlight benefits of redundancies

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 21, 2010

Despite a raging fire yesterday afternoon, Metro-North restored full service by the evening rush hour. (Photo via WTNH)

Say what you will about the MTA’s management structure. Carl Paladino, for one, called it “corrupt and bloated” while touring Manhattan island. Yet, the authority’s constituent parts certainly know how to keep their trains running.

For three hours yesterday afternoon, Metro-North’s only point of access for trains into and out of Manhattan and the popular Grand Central Terminal was a fiery inferno. A transformer explosion set fire to the wooden pier until the 138th St. Lift Bridge across the Harlem River, and for nearly four hours from 11:45 a.m. to around 3:30 p.m., the bridge burned. Officials feared damage to the structure, but Metro-North ran regular rush hour service to and from the city.

For governing officials, this Metro-North fire raised the fears of another great infrastructure collapse. Just a little under a month ago, a fire near Jamaica, Queens knocked out service on nearly every Long Island Rail Road line, and it took the MTA nearly a week to restore full service. A few years ago, in 2005, a fire in a Chambers St. signal room raised fears that service on the 8th Ave. IND would be slowed for years. Service was back up to speed within weeks.

In discussing the aftermath of the 138th St. Lift fire, Andrew Siff as NBC New York asks if the MTA has an infrastructure problem. “When you don’t do as much maintenance,” Bill Henderson, head of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, said to Siff, “things start to happen, and that’s what we’re concerned about.”

Another long-time critic of the MTA, New York City’s Comptroller John Liu, voiced similar concerns. “The MTA has a difficult job,” he said. “The system is over a hundred years old, more investment needs to take place with regard to keeping the infrastructure up to date.”

Of course, with funds stretched, the MTA can’t pour millions into infrastructure upgrades as often as it would like, but it benefits in other ways from the care of its forefathers and smart planning today. Particularly with regards to the subway, the MTA’s current systems have built-in redundancies that allow operations at high capacity levels even in the event of an emergency. Not all of its signal systems for the 8th Ave. line, for instance, were arrayed in the storage closet that caught fire in 2005. When the Twin Towers collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001, the ability to switch trains from various local tracks to the express lines allowed Transit to run trains to nearly every part of the city.

For Long Islanders, the fire in August exacerbated the problems with a poorly designed system. Because nearly every train out of Penn Station bound for points east has to route through Jamaica, one fire could knock out the system. But for Metro-North, the same does not hold true. Had the fire destroyed part of the 138th St. Lift, the MTA could have used the new Yankee Stadium stop as a terminal. Although doing so would strain capacity on the Manhattan-bound 4, B and D trains, the new station was designed to serve as a de facto terminal in case of an emergency in Manhattan. Redundancies, in other words, are necessary to keep a system moving.

Unfortunately, as money grows scarce and costs rise, redundancies are among the first to be eliminated. As the MTA builds part of the Second Ave. subway, plans have shrunk the new line for four tracks to three to two, and the Second Ave. Subway would be one of the few parts of the system in which no bypass or express option would be available in the event of stalled train or more serious emergency. These redundancies aren’t a luxury; they’re a necessity that helps the MTA meet the demands millions of people place on its 24-hour transit network daily.

The MTA may have a problem with aging infrastructure, but that problem could be worse in 30 years when we realize we haven’t spent wisely on new infrastructure. The older parts of the system just might age better.

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AsidesTransit Labor

MTAIG report slams approach to labor negotiations

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 20, 2010

A new Inspector General report slams former Transit officials for the way they handled the most recent round of labor negotiations between the MTA and the TWU. The report, available here as a PDF, says that two separate incidents — one concerning health care contributions and another concerning arbitration compensation — cost the MTA a few million dollars and showed a lack of cooperation between MTA officials and its governing Board.

The 28-page report details the history of the 2009 labor negotiations and subsequent arbitration and proceedings and determines that Howard Roberts, then president of New York City Transit, did not consult with those who were more experienced in labor negotiations and cost the MTA $3 million in healthcare contributions. While he did not break any laws, Roberts “was not fully informed” and made his decisions in “self-imposed isolation, without the experience and knowledge of those individuals personally involved in the negotiation.” This action, said MTA IG Barry Kluger, is in line with the MTA’s “silo mentality” that isolates individual agencies.

The second half of the report details the MTA’s compensation agreement with John Zuccotti, the chief arbitrator in the labor dispute. At the request of current MTA CEO and Chair Jay Walder, Kluger examined Zuccotti’s deal with the MTA and found that it wasn’t memorialized in writing and did not contain the proper rates. Zuccotti has since agreed to waive his fee entirely, but the report is quite damning of former and current MTA officials’ callous disregard for the bottom line.

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AsidesMetro-North

Metro-North service restored out of and into Grand Central

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 20, 2010

Update (3:53 p.m.): The MTA has announced that Metro-North service into and out of Grand Central Terminal has been restored following a fire across the 138th St. Lift bridge. Right now, off-peak service is running on two of the four tracks across the bridge as officials continue to assess the damage, and trains are subject to delays and cancellations throughout the evening rush. While northbound commuters can now leave Manhattan via Grand Central again, commuters are advised to leave plenty of time for their evening commutes.

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Metro-North

Fire suspends all Metro-North service to GCT

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 20, 2010

MNR trains currently running out of Yankee Stadium stop

An aerial shot of the fire on the bridge spanning the Harlem River at 138th St. (Photo via WTNH)

(Update 2:16 p.m.): All Metro-North service to and from Grand Central is currently suspended due to a fire on the pier underneath the 138th St. Lift Bridge that spans the Harlem River. Although the fire has been nearly extinguished, MTA officials say service across the bridge will not run “any time soon.” Instead, Metro-North service will run north from Yankee Stadium, and southbound service, operating hourly, will terminate at the stadium stop.

Nearly 250,000 commuters will find their commutes significantly slowed tonight. For service out of the city, Metro-North officials are urging commuters to take the 4, B or D trains to Yankee Stadium from which the Hudson, Harlem and New Haven lines will all operate. For access to Grand Central and points south, Harlem and New Haven line customers should board the 2 or 5 at Woodlawn while Hudson line customers can catch the 4, B or D at Yankee Stadium or the 1 at Marble Hill-225th Street.

“All northbound Metro-North service this afternoon and probably this evening will be staged out of Metro-North’s new Yankees – E 153rd Street station,” Metro-North said this afternoon in a statement. “Customers should take the #4 or D subway to 161st Street and walk west to the new MNR station. Transit is cross-honoring MNR tickets and passes for southbound travel. Northbound customers will have to buy a MetroCard.”

The fire started at approximately 11:45 a.m. when a transformer on the bridge exploded, the city’s Office of Emergency Management said. A train passing over the span was able to pass through unharmed. Officials say that the bridge has suffered heat damage to the concrete underpinnings, the track tracks and electrical equipment. The MTA does not know when Metro-North service to and from Grand Central will be restored.

New York firefighters and Coast Guard boats work to extinguish the fire across the 138th St. bridge. (Photo via FDNY)

I’ll continue to update this post as more information becomes available.

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MTA Politics

The microcosm of Nassau County

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 20, 2010

Nassau County has not invested in its own bus system. (Graph via TSTC)

For nearly 40 years, the MTA has seemingly begrudgingly operated the Nassau County bus system. In a compromise borne out of transportation and fiscal necessity, the MTA agreed to take over the county’s bus system in 1973 when the various private operators were on the verge of bankruptcy. In exchange for $14 million from the county and feds along with a promise from Nassau County to cover the new bus routes’ operating deficits, the Metropolitan Suburban Bus Authority would assume control of the buses. It hasn’t been an easy marriage.

Over the years, Nassau County and the MTA have disagreed over, well, everything. At various times, the MTA has overbilled Nassau County for services while Nassau County has scaled back its contributions to the Long Island Bus budget. As recently as 2000, state officials called for a complete takeover of the Nassau County bus system by the MTA in order for the county to avoid $20 million in operating contributions to its own bus system, and in 2003, the MTA and Nassau County came to a last-minute agreement to avoid bus cuts.

Yet again, a conflict between Nassau County and the MTA is boiling over, and officials on both sides of the table are digging in for a great game of chicken. The problem is simple: The Long Island bus routes cost $133.1 million to run, and Nassau County contributes just $9 million of that total. The state picks up nearly $45 million, and the MTA must foot the bill for the difference. It is, said Newsday, a “sweetheart subsidy” for an agency that can ill afford to pay.

So, as they do every few years, the MTA is threatening to cut Long Island Bus service until Nassau County ponies up, and no one likes that. As I reported a few weeks ago, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano issued a call for Jay Walder’s resignation, and Nassau County has begun to accept bids for a privatized bus system. Apparently, the lessons of the 1960s are lost upon the current generations of leaders.

This drama has continued to advance over the last few weeks. As the Tri-State Transportation Campaign reported on Friday, the new Nassau County budget is well over $2 billion, and it contains no more than the same $9.1 million for the bus system. The MTA, much to the transit organization’s chagrin, refuses to budge. TSTC offered up a common-sense solution:

A logical compromise would be for Nassau County to increase its contribution over time in return for continued MTA support. Instead, the county has offered red herrings like calling for a privatized bus system, suing the MTA over the payroll tax, and the call for Walder’s head. The Newsday editorial board called this a “cheap shot” and an attempt to “distract attention from the challenges of coming up with a 2011 budget,” which would ostensibly be where the County would propose how it would fund LI Bus with or without the MTA’s subsidy.

With a structural deficit of $286 million, Nassau County has claimed poverty, perhaps rightfully so. But if Suffolk and Westchester Counties can find a way to fund buses in these tough economic times, so can Nassau. It’s not as if Nassau County isn’t willing to spend money on transportation. Even with its deficit, the County recently decided to appropriate $3 million to widen and repair Jackson Avenue in Syosset.

If this sounds like a familiar drama, that’s because it’s nearly identical to the Student MetroCard debate. There, the state and city promised to fund student transit on an equal footing with the MTA and never upheld their ends of the bargain. Today, we’re back at an equilibrium point where the state and city still contribute far less than they should. I’d imagine a similar compromise will be reached in Nassau County when the county officials find a few more million for the MTA.

This whole drama though is just a microcosm for the way the state treats transit. No one wants to fund the various agencies tasked with running our subways and buses, and politicians would rather snipe than make tough funding choices. While some groups have proposed making MTA Board spots open to public election as a way to increase public accountability, the politicians who control the purse strings would be no more or less responsive to public needs than they are today, and as this transit drama plays out on Long Island, a county may lose its bus service.

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Service Advisories

The debut of the new service advisory posters

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 18, 2010

A little over a week ago, I wrote about Transit’s efforts at rebranding their weekend service advisory signs. Yesterday, the agency unveiled the new signs. The images above and below come from some of the brochures that explain the thinking behind the new signs. Click either image to enlarge.

When the signs were first unveiled, New York City Transit President Thomas Prendergast explained the thinking behind the designs. “We are out there on nights and weekends performing the vital work necessary to keep the New York City subway operating safely and efficiently,” he said. “Performing that work, however, is no excuse for forcing our customers to hunt for service information. With these new designs, we are giving riders the information they need in a format they will understand.”

Meanwhile, I have the full slate of weekend service advisories below. This come to me from New York City Transit and are subject to change without notice. Check the (new) signs in your nearest station and listen to on-board announcements. Subway Weekender is off on his honeymoon this week so I don’t have a map for you. Thank you also to all who came out to the Gelf Magazine event last night. It was great meeting so many readers.

— For more on this service change, please check out this post.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, September 17 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 20, 1 service is suspended due to rehab work at 215th and 242nd Street stations, signal cable replacement north of 96th Street and Port Authority work at the WTC site. The 2, 3 and A trains, free shuttle buses and the M3 bus provide alternate service. 2 and 3 trains run local and replace 1 service between 96th Street and Chambers Street. (Note: Downtown 2 and 3 trains skip 86th and 79th Streets.) Free shuttle buses run in four sections:

  • On Broadway between 242nd Street and 215th Street stations, then connecting to the 207th Street A station.
  • On St. Nicholas Avenue between 191st and 168th Street stations.
  • On Broadway between 168th and 96th Streets (express and local service).
  • In Lower Manhattan between Chambers Street and South Ferry.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 18 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 20, uptown 2 and 3 trains run local from Chambers Street to 96th Street. Downtown 2 and 3 trains run express from 96th to 72nd Streets, then local to Chambers Street. These changes are due to rehab work at 215th and 242nd Street stations, signal cable replacement north of 96th Street and Port Authority work at the WTC site.


From 3:30 a.m. Saturday, September 18 to 10 p.m. Sunday, September 19, free shuttle buses replace 6 trains between Pelham Bay Park, Parkchester and St. Lawrence Avenue stations due to station rehabilitation at Parkchester. (Manhattan-bound shuttle buses leaving Parkchester make a connecting stop at St. Lawrence Avenue station.)


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 18 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 20, downtown A trains skip 50th, 23rd, and Spring Streets due to a track chip-out at 42nd Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 18 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 20, A trains skip Broadway-Nassau/Fulton Street in both directions due to work on the Fulton Street Transit Center.


From 10:30 p.m. Friday, September 17 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 20, free shuttle buses replace A trains between Far Rockaway and Beach 98th Street due to station rehabilitations. A trains replace the S (Rockaway Shuttle) between Broad Channel and Rockaway Park.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, September 18 and Sunday, September 19, C trains skip Broadway-Nassau/Fulton Street in both directions due to work on the Fulton Street Transit Center.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, September 18 and Sunday, September 19, downtown C trains skip 50th, 23rd, and Spring Streets due to a track chip-out at 42nd Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 18 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 20, Coney Island-bound D trains run on the N line from 36th Street to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue due to structural repair and station rehabs from 71st Street to Bay 50th Street and ADA work at Bay Parkway.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 18 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 20, 205th Street-bound D trains skip 170th and 174th-175th Sts. due to track work north of 167th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 18 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 20, downtown E trains skip 23rd and Spring Streets due to a track chip-out at 42nd Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 18 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 20, Brooklyn-bound N trains are rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge from Canal Street to DeKalb Avenue due to grouting and track work at Cortlandt Street.


From 11 p.m. Friday, September 17 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 20, uptown Q trains run local from Canal Street to 34th Street-Herald Square due to a track dig-out between 23rd and 34th Streets.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 18 to midnight Sunday, September 19, Coney Island-bound Q trains skip Avenue J due to structural steel repair work on the platform.


From 11 p.m. Friday, September 17 to 9 a.m. Saturday, September 18, from 9 p.m. Saturday, September 18 to 9 a.m. Sunday, September 19, and from 9 p.m. Sunday, September 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 20, Coney Island-bound Q trains run local from 34th Street-Herald Square to Canal Street due to a track dig-out between 23rd Street and 34th Street.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, September 18 and Sunday, September 19, Brooklyn-bound R trains are rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge from Canal Street to DeKalb Avenue due to grouting and track work at Cortlandt Street. (Trains skip City Hall, Rector Street, Whitehall, and Lawrence Street stations. Customers may use nearby 4 stations.)

(Rockaway Park Shuttle)
From 11 p.m. Friday, September 17 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 20, A trains replace the S between Broad Channel and Rockaway Park due to station rehabs.

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Service Advisories

Two weekends without 1 trains

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 17, 2010

For the next two weekends, 1 train riders will be without service from 11:30 p.m. on Friday evening until 5 a.m. on Monday morning. In order to accommodate work on a series of projects — the Dyckman St. rehab, track panel installation at 215th St., signal cable replacement north of 96th St. and work on the box at the World Trade Center site — the entire line must be shuttered.

While shuttle bus service will be in place, Transit is urging riders to take the 2 and 3, which will be running local, the A train or the M103 bus. The shuttle buses will run in four sections, making stops along the 1 line. One bus will run from 242nd St. to 215th St. with a connection to the A at 207th St.; another will run on St. Nicholas Ave. from 191st St. to 168th St.; the third will run between 168th St. and 96th Sts. with both express and local service; and a fourth will run from Chambers St. to South Ferry in Lower Manhattan.

The service advisory poster, which you can click to enlarge, is below. Obviously, leave extra time to travel if you need the 1 line this weekend.

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AsidesFare Hikes

At hearings, few comment on hike proposals

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 17, 2010

Over the last few weeks, I’ve written extensively about the MTA’s competing fare hike proposals and the need for a rigorous discussion on the alternatives during the fare hike hearings. Unfortunately, the hearings have offered anything but that. As Tom Namako notes in a brief piece in The Post, riders are turning the fare hike hearings into a circus. Instead of talking about the desire for a capped card or the love of unlimited options, speakers have chosen “instead to rail about recent service cuts, layoffs and other sore topics.” I’ll be at the Brooklyn hearing next week, but I can’t say I’m too surprised that most people have chosen to ignore the purpose of the fare hikes. As the city’s politicians take the time to bash the MTA on unrelated matters, so too do the people, and that’s just disappointing.

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AsidesMTA

Praising the MTA’s first responders

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 17, 2010

We often forget the scope of the rescue work in which the city engaged in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. While the day itself will forever be memorialized, the weeks after the Towers fell saw thousands of people sacrifice their time, energy and health to participate in the rescue mission. Allan Rosen, writing at Sheepshead Bites, discusses the ceremony and praises the MTA and its employees who went above and beyond during the trying weeks after the attacks. He writes: “From the MTA employees who guided people to safety to the heavy lifters searching for survivors and later for bodies, to the bus drivers shuttling rescue workers and victims’ families, each did their part exceedingly well. As one of the speakers put it, there was no one giving orders, and if you paid these people a million dollars, they could have not worked any harder.”

Rosen attended a small ceremony earlier this week for those at the MTA who put themselves in the line of duty on the day of and the days after the attacks. He talks about the people who were driving trains south of Manhattan when the planes struck and urges us all to remember how “in times of crisis, the agency excels.” As the ninth anniversary of the attacks passed last Saturday, it is well worth a minute or two to salute those who did their all to help cope with the aftermath and keep casualties as low as possible.

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