Home Author
Author

Benjamin Kabak

MTA Politics

The proper audience for Student MetroCard protests

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 27, 2010

After an initial hiccup in which some student activists seemed to point fingers at the MTA for threatening to cut the Student MetroCards, the message has been on target lately. As I’ve repeated said, the MTA shouldn’t be expected to suffer financial losses to provide students with free transit. As they do throughout the state, the school districts and the city and the state should reimburse the MTA for the costs of student transit.

While politicians haven’t always recognized this reality, recently, a few groups of students have. On the one hand, the Working Families Party, not always known for its rational approach to transit investment, has worked with students and the City Council to deliver a petition to the mayor calling for increased city contributions to student transit. So far, 31 members of the council — but not Speaker Christine Quinn or Transportation Committee head James Vacca — have signed the petition, and that constitutes a council majority. Will the mayor respond?

Meanwhile, other groups have been lobbying Albany and New York’s representatives in Washington in the search for funding for student transit. Streetsfilms recently featured these lobbying efforts, and the video tells the tale of students who would be unable to attend the schools of their choosing without transit subsidies. The video is embedded below, and it will be a real failure of government if the money doesn’t materialize and these Student MetroCard cuts have to be approved by the MTA later this summer.

1 comment
1 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
7 Line ExtensionHudson Yards

As Related deal nears, REBNY pushes for federal assistance for 7 line

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 27, 2010

With the city and the MTA at an impasse over the fate of the 7 line station at 41st St. and 10th Ave., real estate lobbyists and politicians are making a last-ditch effort to secure a federal grant for the badly-needed station. As Michael Howard Saul of The Wall Street Journal detailed today, officials from the Real Estate Board of New York and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn are going to meet with Vice President Joe Biden in the hopes of convincing the rail-friendly veep to find some of the $500 million the city needs to build this station.

“I don’t expect we will be leaving the White House with a check in our hands,” Steve Spinola, president of REBNY, said. “But it would be nice if we can identify a structure to move forward that will, in effect, make sure this station actually gets built.”

As we know quite well, the city is ponying up the $2 billion it costs to send the 7 line from its current terminus along 41st St. between 7th and 8th Aves. to 34th St. and 11th Ave. Original plans called for a station at 41st St. and 10th Ave. that would service the crowded Hell’s Kitchen area, but when costs spiked, the city scraped plans for even a shell station. It took REBNY nearly two years to grow interested in this project, but now the real estate board — which announced its support for this second station in February — calls the no-build plan a “terrible, terrible mistake.”

Meanwhile, the city and REBNY are at odds over the project’s timing. Saul has more:

Mr. Spinola said a report commissioned by the board suggests supporters have roughly a year to secure funding before it’s too late. But the city believes the time frame is closer to two weeks.

The administration plans to move forward with the next set of contracts on the project, and turning back to build a second station after these contracts are issued, would result in tens of millions of wasted dollars, an official said. “We’re open to talking about what happens if someone finds additional funding, but we’re certainly not going to hold up the project hoping that happens,” said Andrew Brent, a spokesman for the mayor. “A 10th Avenue station would be nice, but the MTA and state budget problems are well-known, and the city is in no position to step in to pay for that, too.”

If federal funds can be secured, Mr. Spinola said, officials in the Bloomberg administration told him there’s a “strong desire to find another $250 million” in city funds.

Somehow, someway, the $250 million should materialize. In the grand scheme of development in New York City, that’s not a significant amount of money, and both the MTA and the city are making an expensive and nearly uncorrectable mistake by not building this station at 41st St. and 10th Ave. Hopefully, smarter heads will prevail.

I also want to note that REBNY has dropped the ball on this one. The city killed the station in August of 2008, and the powerful real estate board sat on its hands for nearly 18 months. Now, time is of the essence, and it’s unclear if the money will come through. Had the lobbying begun when the station was shelved, the funding would have been easier to secure and could have been in place already.

A Related deal — but no payment — nears

Meanwhile, as REBNY races against the clock, Related and the MTA seem ready to announce a deal for the Hudson Yards development rights. The new deal seems to have a catch though. Michael Grynbaum reports:

Under a deal unveiled Monday, Related would commit to the project with a $21.7 million down payment. But the company would not have to close on the project — and therefore start paying the 99-year lease — until after the city’s real estate market improves…

Under the plan, Related would commit to a 99-year lease on the 26-acre railyards for $1 billion, the original price. But three specific measures of the real estate market, including average prices for Manhattan co-op and condo sales, must be met before the company would be forced to close on its contract; in the earlier plan, Related would have had to close within 150 days of signing…

After signing the contract, Related will still have to post another $21.7 million in the following 12 months. But the new plan allows the developer to post a promissory note in lieu of cash.

The MTA praised the restructured deal because it maintains the price tag negotiated during better times. Yet, I still fear that Related isn’t actually going to build much for a while. The area will benefit from the station at 34th St. and 11th Ave. eventually, and the city should be encouraged to build out transit to underserved areas. But for now, this is still a very expensive project at a time when funds are tight, and the fate of the station that could have an immediate impact on the surrounding area is very much in doubt. Still, misguided subway expansion is better than none at all, and one day, the MTA will get its $1 billion.

31 comments
1 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
MTA Economics

MTA questions state accounting after more hazy tax projections

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 27, 2010

The MTA has a very difficult relationship with New York State and its elected representatives. On the one hand, the MTA is an authority established to operate outside of the realm of politics in order to better run the city’s transit network. On the other, the MTA is heavily dependent upon the state for both operating and capital aid, and the state has political control and oversight of the public authority. When the two sides clash — as they often have lately — MTA officials must tiptoe around sensitive issues while asserting their needs for better political and economic support.

Yesterday, this conflict started to come to a head as the MTA revealed that state payroll and real estate tax estimates are again looking to be off by approximately $72 million. Michael Grynbaum has the details:

On Monday, the authority said that those revenues were coming in even worse: $41.5 million below even the most pessimistic projection.

Transit officials said that the numbers were fluctuating from day to day, and so they did not want to make hard-and-fast revisions to their budget numbers yet.

Unfortunately, they seemed at a loss to explain the trends. “We don’t know,” said Robert Foran, the authority’s newly appointed chief financial officer, when asked why the numbers were so low. “It’s a brand-new tax,” he added. “We’re looking into it.”

This isn’t the first time this year that state accounting officials have delivered bad financial news to the MTA. In January, state tax revenues were believed to be $104 million less than expected. This time, the MTA is starting to question the state’s ability to calculate tax projections, and authority officials say they are going to take matters into their own hands.

Robert Foran, the MTA’s new CFO, said his office would begin to conduct its own tax projections. “There’s been some talk that we shouldn’t just take numbers from the state and blindly accept them,” he said today. “We should vet them. But would we rely solely on our own projections? I don’t know either.”

For the MTA today, this promise of a check on the state power is bittersweet. The MTA should be conducting its own projections going forward, but the MTA should also be able to rely on the state to provide an accurate accounting of potential revenues. The state, according to Andrew Grossman of The Wall Street Journal, claimed that “the economic downturn has made estimating tax receipts harder.” That’s some excuse.

If these numbers wind up being accurate, the MTA will be out $41.5 million in payroll tax revenues and $30.5 million in real estate tax revenues. The authority’s budget gap will just to $450 million, and the looming threat of a big fare increase will remain despite the MTA’s promise to avoid a fare hike at any cost.

In other MTA financial news, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli — who yesterday announced an impending election year forensic audit of the MTA — issued a report last week straight from the desk of Captain Obvious. If the MTA does not find a way to close what was on Friday a $378 million budget gap, the agency may have to raise fares beyond the allotted 7.5 percent next year. No kidding.

DiNapoli found that MTA spending far outpaced both revenue and inflation and that debt service payments are largely to blame for the increased spending. He urged the MTA to be mindful of the need to keep public transit relatively cheap and reliable in New York City. “The MTA has to squeeze out every penny of wasteful spending,” DiNapoli said. “Mass transit has to be affordable for working New Yorkers. The MTA should focus on eliminating waste rather than cutting services and raising fares. My office has found administrative redundancies and outside contracts where savings can be achieved. Chairman Walder has made some progress, but so much more needs to be done.”

And so the MTA is left, once again, in the untenable position of having to bite the hand that feeds it. The fiscal morass is growing deeper each day, and the state, already dysfunctional, is making matters worse. Who will bend? What will break?

10 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
AsidesSecond Avenue Subway

UESers blame rat infestation on Second Ave. Subway

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 26, 2010

When the MTA started work at Second Ave., I had figured the rat infestation articles would come. Yet, in the three years since the groundbreaking for Phase I of the current SAS projects, rats have been noticeably missing from the picture, until, that is, today. As part of their new New York City-focused metro coverage, the Wall Street Journal reports on an increase in the number of rats on the Upper East Side. “It looks like the street’s moving,” Walter Johnson, a 35-year UES resident, said to Andrew Grossman. “It’s just wild. You can’t imagine how infested this place became.”

Recently, UES residents have taken their complaints to the MTA, but the authority and its contractors say an abandoned building on Second Ave. and not the subway construction is the root of the rat problem. There are, says the MTA, no rat problems within the work zone, and the contractors have, according to Grossman, a ” rodent-control program in place that includes bait and traps within the construction zone.” Public health experts dispute the connection between construction and rats in the first place. “The public has the perception that if there’s construction, there’s going to be rats,” Bobby Corrigan, a city consultant, said. “There’s never any scientific evidence to show those two things are correlated.”

Still, even with the MTA implementing rodent-control measures and a likely cause of the infestation pinpointed, Upper East Siders prefer to blame the Second Ave. Subway for their quality-of-life problems. It’s become a familiar trope and one that is bound to last until the first Q train rolls up Second Ave., if not beyond. As Tara Reddi said, ignoring all evidence to the contrary, “We are, until 2018, in a living hell.”

17 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Subway Security

A security breach or plain old fare-beating theft?

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 26, 2010

There’s no need for a key to unlock this door. (Photo by flickr user rlboston)

Over the weekend, Pete Donohue of the Daily News wrote about a creative form of fare-beating. Donohue found that every emergency exit door can be unlocked by using the same key, and he discovered that some Transit workers have sold copies of those keys for $27. It’s a pretty outrageous abuse of power, and as one might imagine, the MTA and NYPD are on the case.

Donohue has more:

The Daily News tried out the key at 15 stations across the city, including Yankee Stadium on the B line in the Bronx, Junction Blvd. on the No. 7 in Queens and 68 St. on the Lexington Ave. line. It worked every time…

Cops confiscated 33 gate keys from perps arrested last year for illegally selling trips or other offenses, according to NYPD spokesman Detective William Winning. So far this year, police have arrested 15 suspects with subway gate keys, Winning said.

But the low-level thieves, knowing arrests and brief jail stints are inevitable, plan ahead by stashing away extra keys and starting up their scam all over again. “They all have copies on standby so if they get locked up, when they come back out on the street, they’re still able to make money,” said the Brooklyn man who had a copy. “It’s their bread and butter.”

On Sunday, the News followed up by asking the person-on-the-street and a few outraged politicians their thoughts on the development. Lo, and behold, the story became about terrorism and security breaches. “This could be a major security problem if these keys get into the wrong hands,” James Vacca, head of the City Council’s transportation committee, said.

Councilman Peter Vallone seemed willing to do away with due process over this issue. “This is a serious security breach,” he said. “We know terrorists are planning to attack our subways, and the MTA and NYPD better find these magical morons quickly, and then make them disappear for a year in jail.”

Others blamed those with the audacity to sell the key. “It’s not safe at all,” Mary Ettienne, a Brooklyn resident, said to the News. “They don’t know what kind of people that are buying the key. They’re putting people’s lives in danger.”

But is this theft of fare really a terrorism security issue? It’s possible but exceedingly unlikely that some petty crooks who work for the MTA could wind up selling a key to a terrorist, but it’s far more likely for a terrorist to simply swipe into the system without violating yet another law or raising eyebrows with an illegal transaction to acquire a key. Vallone may be appealing to populist fears over a subway attack, but his comments are divorced from reality. Why would a terrorist go through the trouble of buying a key when the subways are porous as they already are?

The more alarming news here is that Transit employees are selling the keys. Barry Kluger, the MTA’s Inspector General, plans to investigate, and when he finds those responsible, they should — and will — be fired immediately. That’s the bigger story here.

11 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
New York City Transit

Ahead of service cuts, Transit releases ’09 data

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 26, 2010

Stations along the J/M/Z, G and L trains saw ridership growth during 2009. (Source: The New York Times’ Interactive Ridership Maps)

As New Yorkers travel around the city, swiping MetroCards at one end of our trip and passing through a turnstile at another, New York City Transit collects piles and piles of data. Every turnstile has a counter that clicks upward with an entrance and another one that tracks exits, and every year, the agency releases the ridership totals for individual stations to the public. For those of us who love the transit minutiae found in the data, the release is akin to Christmas in April.

Over the weekend, Transit put the 2009 ridership information available online in this table, and I spent a bit of time last night looking for trends. So too, it seems, did Michael Grynbaum of The Times, and his article spots the same trends I found. Overall, ridership for 2009 was down from 2008. Transit reported 1,579,866,600 total subway riders in 2009 with a weekday average of 5,086,833, a Saturday average of 2,928,247 and a Sunday average of 2,283,601. In 2008, total ridership topped 1.625 million with averages of 5.229 million during the week and 2.98 million and 2.312 million on Saturday and Sunday respectively.

On a more micro level, as expected, the bad economy — and subsequent decline in tourism and jobs— had a negative impact on ridership. Total figures for stations in midtown and the Financial District were down from 2008, and those areas heavily favored by tourists such as the 42nd St. corridor and Herald Square saw traffic decline by five to ten percent.

Yet, other areas, as Grynbaum notes, saw an increase in riders. For example, the BMT Nassau St. stop at the Bowery saw annual ridership increase by over 12 percent as more than 1 million people headed to the once-maligned J, M and Z trains. Overall, as a Times infographic shows, nearly every station along the J/M/Z in Queens and Brooklyn saw increases in ridership.

In fact, as Transit gears up for its June service cuts, I believe those lines will see an even greater increase in ridership this year. With the M train slated to run from Middle Village to Forest Hills via the Chrystie St. Cut and Sixth Avenue, those who live in Bushwick will now have a one-seat ride to jobs in Midtown. Even with longer waits, the trains should see more riders this year.

Some, though, aren’t as optimistic as I. With cuts looming, Andrew Albert, head of the New York City Transit Riders Council, fears that the overall decline in ridership will continue. “It remains to be seen whether people stay,” he said to Grynbaum. “If they have interminable waits or have to change lines, maybe they’ll leave the system altogether.”

Stadium Attendance and Ridership

As Grynbaum notes in his article, ridership through both Mets-Willets Point (the former Shea Stadium stop) and 161st Street-Yankee Stadium declined in 2009. Willets Point saw traffic dip to 1,862,720 from 2,036,355, a decline of 8.5 percent while even with an additional eight postseason games, traffic at Yankee Stadium declined 1.9 percent from 8,576,546 to 8,410,256. The reason, though, is not because the Mets struggled.

Rather, ridership was down because capacity at these two new stadiums was significantly lower than at what Citi Field and new Yankee Stadium replaced. The current Stadium in the Bronx can fit, on its best day, just over 52,000 — a number that includes standing room and one the team never attained last year — while the old park could fit 57,545, a ten percent difference. Citi Field can fit 45,000 while Shea packed in over 57,000, a difference of over 20 percent. In that light, then, the declining ridership numbers are actually lower than expected.

The Top Ten, Compared

I’ll leave you to muse over the differences in the top ten stations from year to year. Interestingly, 86th St. on the Lexington Ave. IRT entered the top ten as traffic at the Citigroup stop at 53rd St. fell by nearly ten percent to 11th in 2009.

2009   2008  
Station Ridership Station Ridership
Times Square 58,099,313 Times Square 60,880,668
Grand Central 42,002,971 Grand Central 44,600,738
34 St-Herald Sq 36,945,680 34 St-Herald Sq 39,040,943
Union Square 34,245,245 Union Square 35,545,653
34 St-Penn St. (1/2/3) 27,196,195 34 St-Penn St. (1/2/3) 28,343,889
34 St-Penn St. (A/C/E) 24,182,097 34 St-Penn St. (A/C/E) 26,013,432
Columbus Circle 20,418,815 Columbus Circle 20,858,197
59th St./Lexington Ave. 18,924,005 53rd St./Lexington Ave. 20,475,053
86th St. (4/5/6) 18,891,890 59th St./Lexington Ave. 20,053,574
Fulton St. 18,845,513 Fulton St. 19,813,040

19 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
ManhattanService Advisories

A new 34th St. (and the weekend service changes)

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 23, 2010

The latest DOT plans for the 34th St. Select Bus Service call for physically separated lanes. (Click to enlarge. Courtesy of NYC DOT)

The Bloomberg Administration, reports The Times, is moving forward with a radical redesign of 34th St. that focuses on buses and pedestrians at the expense of cars. Non-bus traffic will be barred from the block between 5th and 6th Aves. and will be one way only in the direction of the respective rivers east and west of the shuttered block. Bus traffic will be two ways, and buses will run in dedicated bus lanes physically separated from the auto lanes. Pedestrian plazas and walkways will be greatly expanded.

DOT is going to act quickly on implementing this $30-million project. The city is currently conducting an environmental and design review with final changes ready for the fall of 2011. The street will be ready for its overhaul by the end of 2012.

I’ve covered these plans before (March 2, 2010 and April 17, 2008, and it’s great to see the city moving forward with it. Streetsblog belives it to be a more democratic use of space. The busy thoroughfare does not enjoy crosstown subways and stands to benefit greatly from these plans.

* * *
Meanwhile, the weekend is here, and that means only one thing: service changes. Travel to and from Brooklyn on the IRT lines are disrupted for the next few days due to work in Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. Leave extra travel time if you rely on those routes. As always, these come to me via Transit and are subject to change without notice. Listen for announcements and check the signs in your local station. Subway Weekender has the map.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, 2 trains run between Wakefield-241st Street and Chambers Street, then are rerouted to the 1 line to South Ferry due to a chip out at Borough Hall, dig outs at Wall and Fulton Streets and a cable pull south of Nevins Street. For service between Manhattan and Brooklyn, customers should take the 2 to South Ferry station and use the free out-of-system transfer to the 5 at Bowling Green. Note: During the daytime hours, 5 trains make 2 stops to Flatbush Avenue. During the late night hours, all Manhattan-bound trains skip Eastern Parkway, Grand Army Plaza and Bergen Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, 2 trains run local between 96th Street and South Ferry due to concrete pours at 50th and 79th Streets and reconstruction work on the track bridge underpass at 96th Street. Note: From 11 p.m. to midnight Friday, April 23, 2 trains run local between 96th Street and Chambers Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, there are no 3 trains between 14th Street and New Lots Avenue due to a chip out at Borough Hall, dig outs at Wall and Fulton Streets and a cable pull south of Nevins Street. For service between Manhattan and Brooklyn, customers should transfer between the 3 and 2 at 14th Street, take the 2 to the South Ferry station, then use the free out-of-system transfer to the 4 at Bowling Green making 3 stops to New Lots Avenue.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, 3 trains run local between 96th Street and Times Square, then express to 14th Street due to concrete pours at 50th and 79th Streets and reconstruction work on the track bridge underpass at 96th Street. Note: From 11 p.m. to midnight Friday, April 23, 3 trains run local between 96th Street and Chambers Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, 4 train service is extended to/from New Lots Avenue to replace the 3 in Brooklyn due to a chip out at Borough Hall, dig outs at Wall and Fulton Streets and a cable pull south of Nevins Street. Note: Manhattan-bound trains skip Eastern Parkway, Grand Army Plaza and Bergen Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, during the daytime hours, 5 train service is extended to/from Flatbush Avenue to replace the 2 in Brooklyn. During the late night hours, shuttle trains run between Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush Avenue due to a chip out at Borough Hall, a dig out at Wall and Fulton Streets and a cable pull south of Nevins Street. Note: All Manhattan-bound trains skip Eastern Parkway, Grand Army Plaza and Bergen Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, the last stop for some 6 trains is 3rd Avenue-138th Street due to station rehabilitation and structural repair at Whitlock Avenue, Morrison-Sound View Aves., and Parkchester.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, Pelham Bay Park-bound 6 trains run express from Hunts Point Avenue to Parkchester due to track panel installation between Morrison-Sound View Avenues and St. Lawrence Avenue.


At all times until September 2010, the Whitlock Avenue and Morrison-Sound View Avenue stations are closed for rehabilitation. Customers should use the Elder Avenue 6 station or the Simpson Street 25 station instead. The Bx4 bus provides alternate connecting service between stations.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, Brooklyn-bound A trains run local from 59th Street to West 4th Street, then are rerouted on the F line to Jay Street due to the Chambers Street Signal Modernization project.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, A trains run local between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. and Euclid Avenue due to the Chambers Street Signal Modernization project.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, there are no C trains between Canal Street and Euclid Avenue due to the Chambers Street Signal Modernization project. Customers should take the A instead.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, Coney Island-bound D trains run on the N line from 36th Street to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue due to structural repair and station rehabilitations, track panel installation at 20th Avenue and fence replacement between Bay 50th Street and Stillwell Avenue.


From 11 p.m. Friday, April 23 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, Manhattan-bound D trains skip 174th-175th Sts. and 170th Street due to a track chip out north of 170th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, D trains run local between 34th Street-Herald Square and West 4th Street due to the 5th Avenue Interlocking Signal System Modernization.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, E trains run local between Forest Hills-71st Avenue and Roosevelt Avenue due to a substation rehabilitation north of Roosevelt Avenue.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, E trains are rerouted on the F in Manhattan and Queens: 1.) No E service between 34th Street and World Trade Center. 2.) After leaving 5th Avenue, Manhattan-bound E trains run on the F line from 47th -50th Sts. to 34th Street-6th Avenue. 3.) Jamaica-bound E trains run on the F line from 34th Street-6th Avenue to 21st Street-Queensbridge; trains resume service on the E line to Jamaica Center. These changes are due to the 5th Avenue Interlocking Signal System Modernization.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, the Jamaica-bound platforms at 5th Avenue, Lexington Avenue-53rd Street and 23rd Street-Ely Avenue are closed due to the 5th Avenue Interlocking Signal System Modernization. Customers should take the 6FR or shuttle bus instead. Note: Free shuttle buses connect Court Square/23rd Street-Ely Avenue, Queens Plaza, and 21st Street-Queensbridge stations.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, Manhattan-bound F trains run on the A line from Jay Street to West 4th Street due to work on tunnel lighting.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 24 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, F trains run local between Forest Hills-71st Avenue and Roosevelt Avenue due to a substation rehabilitation north of Roosevelt Avenue.


From 3:30 a.m. Saturday, April 24 to 10 p.m. Sunday, April 25, there are no J trains between Crescent Street and Jamaica Center due to track panel installation north of Woodhaven Boulevard.
E trains and free shuttle buses provide alternate service.


From 11 p.m. Friday, April 23 to 7 a.m. Saturday, April 24, from 11 p.m. Saturday, April 24 to 8 a.m. Sunday, April 25, and from 11 p.m. Sunday, April 25 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, uptown Q trains run local from Times Square-42nd Street to 57th Street-7th Avenue due to a track dig out at Times Square.


From 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 24 and Sunday, April 25, Q trains run in two sections due to rail repairs:

  • Between 57th Street-7th Avenue and Brighton Beach and
  • Between Brighton Beach and Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue.


From 10:30 p.m. Friday, April 23 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 26, shuttle buses replace the Rockaway Park Shuttle S train between Rockaway Park and Beach 67th Street due to station rehabilitations at Beach 36th and Beach 60th Streets.

15 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Capital Program 2010-2014

A five-year capital plan, reevaluated and resubmitted

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 23, 2010

When last we saw the MTA’s 2010-2014 five-year capital plan, it had just been rejected by the state’s Capital Review Board with the lone and costly nay vote coming from Gov. David Paterson’s representative on the board. Today, authority CEO and Chairman Jay Walder reissued a revised draft of the five-year plan that has trimmed $1.8 billion from the initial requests and does not ask Albany for any additional funding right now.

“We are overhauling every aspect of our business here at the MTA, and we’ve taken the same approach with the Capital Program,” Walder said in a statement. “The revised program reduces costs, generates operating savings and takes an entirely new approach to our critical investments. The economic crisis dictates that we use every dollar wisely, but it also demands that we move forward as soon as possible to stimulate the economy with the funding available right now.”

By and large, the big-ticket items and overall goals of this next five-year plan remain as they were this past fall. The MTA will still explore a Smart Card fare-payment system with a six-month pilot between the MTA, New Jersey Transit and the Port Authority set for this summer. (After all, as Walder said today, why should the MTA stick with the MetroCard, a 1980s technology, when most people don’t rely on anything from the 1980s at home or work any longer?) The agency will continue to refine and promote its component-based repair program while discarding with its unattainable state-of-good-repair approach. And, of course, the capital plan still has a funding gap that approaches nearly $10 billion.

The authority, however, isn’t worried about the funding gap. The first two years of the capital plan are appropriated through last May’s Albany funding package, and Walder stressed that he will be more than willing to work with the city and state to find the money for the plan as the economy recovers.

The revised plan, Walder explained to reporters this afternoon, has taken a four-pronged approach. First, the MTA has set forth a few money-saving provisions based around the idea of One MTA. To shore up capital investments, the authority is looking to see how it can share resources across subagencies. For example, a new repair plant at Harmon will service both Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road locomotives at significant cost savings for the MTA. “Are we making the best use of our physical plant?” Walder said the MTA asked while developing the revised plan.

Second, Walder explained how he won’t approve a capital expense that isn’t designed to reduce operating costs. If, for example, a $120 million facility is proposed to replace a 100-year-old structure but doesn’t reduce the MTA’s overall costs, it won’t get the OK. On the other hand, a new Smart Card system should improve operating efficiency. “There is no reason,” Walder said, “why the financial return should be separated from the service returns.”

Third, Walder talked about how the MTA analyzed its capital plan to insure targeted investments. In non-industry speak, this basically meant promoting the component-based plan. As Walder has toured the station and spoken with riders, he’s come to understand that straphangers were prefer to see incremental immediate upgrades that fix a glaringly obvious problem with their stations than renovations that won’t arrive for two or three decades. If a station is leaking, if it needs paint, the MTA can address those problems today and make the ride nicer for everyone. “The idea that we’ll ever get there,” he said of the elusive state of good repair, “is a bit of an illusion.”

Finally, Walder said, the last approach involved embracing the maxim that “the best is the enemy of good.” Instead of planning for state-of-the-art countdown clocks long the B Division by 2025 as the original timeline dictated, Walder said the authority will look to for in-house solutions that are good enough and can be online sooner. “We must accept the concept of getting the technology out there that provides value to people,” he said. He wants innovation in a time frame that “makes sense.”

In the end, much of the plan remains the same (and you can find the Executive Summary of the revised proposal right here as a PDF). The authority will continue to work on the East Side Access project and Phase I of the Second Ave. Subway. It will continue to work toward ADA compliance, and it will explore designs for LIRR extensions. It will order more rolling stock and build out its bus rapid transit plans. But the authority knows it must convince the state the capital investment is vital to the future of the MTA, the city and the state.

The new plan goes to the MTA Board on Wednesday for a vote, and a final draft will then be sent to the CPRB. The MTA says it will create 20,000 jobs for the state and generate $37 billion in economic activity. Hopefully, this time, the governor will approve, and investment in the system can continue.

8 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
AsidesMTA PoliticsPANYNJ

Senate declines to approve Hemmerdinger for PANYNJ post

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 23, 2010

After Dale Hemmerdinger was ousted from his role as the MTA Chair as part of last summer’s funding package, he resurfaced in November when, in a fit of cronyism, Gov. David Paterson nominated him to join the Port Authority board. Well, apparently, that nomination isn’t going too smoothly. As Eliot Brown of The Observer reported earlier this week, the State Senate has so far passed on the Hemmerdinger nod because the transportation committee hasn’t given its approval yet. And why the hold-up? State legislatures still believe that Hemmerdinger, despite meeting with anyone who asked, was not, in the words of Andrew Lanza (Rep. – S.I.) “forthcoming with information about the policies of the MTA or responding to the riders or elected officials.” What a bunch of buffoons.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
New York City Transit

From Transit, a new attempt at cleanliness

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 23, 2010

Garbage Cans

At Nevins St., low-hanging rafters are often used as makeshift trash cans. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

As a route down Second Ave. has remained the city’s seemingly unattainable subway line expansion project for over eight decades, so too has subway cleanliness been considered an illusion. The New York City subways — open 24 hours and covering hundreds of stations in five boroughs — are just dirty and always will be no matter how many times MTA officials say they want to change that state of underground being.

Well, no, really, for real, this time it’s going to happen. At least, that’s what Transit’s senior vice president for subways told the New York City Transit Riders Council yesterday afternoon. Heather Haddon has the report:

“We’ve got to ensure that those stations are getting cleaned,” Carmen Bianco, NYC Transit’s senior vice president for subways, told the New York City Transit Riders Council. “We are going to maintain them at a higher level going forward.”

As amNewYork previously reported, transit has increasingly left cleaning shifts unfilled to save on overtime when workers callout. Dozens of shifts for day-to-day cleaning and deeper scrub downs have been skipped at major hubs like Herald Square, Times Square and 14th Street, transit documents show. “I’ve noticed lately the stations I’m in are noticeably trashier,” Sharon King Hoge, a riders council member.

Bianco said he recently happened upon a station that wasn’t cleaned for 18 hours on the weekend after shifts were missed. “We’re talking about the bottles, the paper … That’s not a standard I want to live to,” Bianco said. “We’ve got to be able to cover that job.”

As an approach to station cleanliness, Bianco, as Michael Grynbaum noted earlier this week, will help oversee a reshuffling of personnel assigned to clean stations. With the line manager program nearly on the way out, cleaners will be under the purview of one division in charge of station appearances. “Daily cleaning will be the responsibility of almost 1,000 station cleaners who were previously assigned to the operating groups,” NYC Transit head Tom Prendergast wrote in a memo.

Still, haven’t we heard it all before? In 2008, then-Transit President Howard Roberts pledged to clean the stations before he ran into budget cuts that saw numerous cleaning shifts unfilled. The stations, anecdotally, remain as messy as they ever are.

If Transit is serious about keeping stations cleaner, I see three distinct approaches ranging from the easy to the extreme.

  1. Change the messaging — Currently, Transit announcements tell people to put their trash in the “trash receptacles” and urge people to “can it for a green planet.” While the sentiments are positive ones, those messages go well beyond the problem. Receptacle is an unnecessary 10-cent word, and an appeal to environmentalism doesn’t jibe with cleanliness. Just tell people, in no uncertain terms, that trash should go in the trash cans. The simpler, the better when it comes to messaging.

  2. More in-station trash cans — I realize adding more trash cans to train stations will result in more work for an already over-taxed cleaning staff, but this move would go a long way toward making stations more pleasant. I ride the B train from 7th Ave. in Brooklyn every morning. That station features an entrance toward the front of the train with trash cans at the bottom of the stairs and a very long platform with no other garbage cans. By the time I get to the back of the train, I’ve passed numerous discarded coffee cups and newspapers lying on the ground. When the nearest trash can is the equivalent of a city block away, it’s no wonder people start to litter.

  3. Enforce litter laws or ban food entirely from the subway — It’s an extreme proposal to a quality-of-life problem, but it has worked elsewhere. The D.C. Metro earned some bad publicity when a young girl was ticketed for eating on an escalator, but the draconian enforcement efforts go the point across. D.C. trains and stations are far cleaner than ours in New York, and although the stations are routinely cleaned as the system shuts down at night, during the rush hours, the platforms just aren’t nearly as messy as ours.

Until boorish subway riding culture changes, trash will always be a problem in New York City. The MTA can’t shut down the system to clean it, and so we’re left with millions of people at all hours of the day leaving garbage behind. A concerted effort may make marginal in-roads in keeping platforms litter-free, but only the most drastic of behavioral attacks will lead to real changes.

24 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Newer Posts
Older Posts