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MTA Technology

Countdown clock rollout continues in the Bronx

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 1, 2010

The countdown clock rollout along the MTA’s A Division stations continued this past weekend as two more stops along the 6 line in the Bronx are now enjoying the real-time train arrival message screens. Buhre Ave. and Middletown Road, two lightly used stations along the IRT Pelham Line saw their PA/CIS systems activated on Friday.

With PA/CIS at these two stations now online, Transit has activated screens at seven of the 152 stations set to enjoy the new technology by the end of the first quarter of 2011. At numerous other stations throughout the system, the screens sit wrapped but unused as Transit continues to install the underlying software and accompanying communication systems. Officials at Transit say that PA/CIS will be activated at other stations not necessarily in the Bronx or along the 6 line as soon as everything is in place.

The new iteration of the countdown clocks features automated in-system announcements as well as screens in the fare control areas so that straphangers know how long they will have to wait before swiping in. Each screen features the next two trains to arrive and can be used to display and announce information related to service delays and emergency situations. For now, Transit has activated these clocks only at low-ridership stations, and Buhre Ave. and Middletown Road — the 367th and 405th most popular of the system’s 422 stops — fit that bill. I’m looking forward to seeing these debut at some of the more higher trafficked stations throughout the city.

Anyway, the photos come to me via New York City Transit, and the one below shows the clock at Middletown Road in the fare control area. As this system slowly comes online, New Yorkers can finally enjoy transit technology that others throughout the world have experienced for over a decade.

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MTA Economics

Searching for a perpetual funding source

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 1, 2010

Over the weekend, as part of their campaign to convince the MTA to use stimulus dollars as a quick fix for most of its budget gap, James Vacca, Christine Quinn and Gene Russianoff penned a Daily News op-ed putting forth their plan. By now, we know the argument: It is legally permissible for the MTA to use 10 percent of its stimulus dollars for operating costs. That contribution of around $120 million plus the $50 million in operating expenses reserved for pay-as-you-go capital needs would be enough to take the service cuts off the table while the city and state should work out a funding plan for the Student MetroCard program.

On the surface, their proposal doesn’t sound like a bad one, but I’ve had my reservations. Without exhausting the other options first, I don’t support taking money that should be used for capital resources or the PAYGO fund to cover operating deficits. Furthermore, having spent some time examining Transit’s service cuts proposals, I believe many of these cuts should stay as is. It simply doesn’t make sense for the MTA to run bus services that cost $12-$25 per passenger and service just 1100 riders per week as Staten Island’s S60 bus does.

In the end — at the 11th hour when no better solution is on the table — I would be willing to support this so-called Russianoff Plan, but for now, I want to see New York try to find that better solution. Today at The Transport Politic, Yonah Freemark tackles a similar subject. He explores how transit riders are no longer surprised by Doomsday cuts and questions the way American municipalities fund transit operations. He writes:

If there is no obvious way to avoid these reductions now, governments at all levels of the federal system should learn from this recession in order to prepare for the next one. In most other countries, despite economic downturns similar to the one being experienced by the United States, transit services have not been cut back at all. One explanation, of course, is a more stable source of revenues than the sales tax relied upon by most American transit systems to fund system operations and capital programs. Similarly, other countries have stronger social support networks, ensuring that when they experience recessions, they’re less likely to see tax revenues drop to a degree seen in the U.S. Finally, most other developed countries don’t immediately turn to inefficient, ineffective tax cuts to solve economic problems.

In other words, the declining state of American transit operations today is more a reflection of a general lack of political will to maintain public service stability. If it is disappointing to watch agencies reduce services dramatically now, it is downright depressing to note that nothing is being done to ensure that a similar situation won’t occur again.

Early last year when the MTA was facing another budget crisis, Freemark explored the state of MTA financing. Two aspects of our transit agency — very high payroll costs and an over-reliance on taxes that fluctuate with the economy — left the MTA high and dry. Paris, for example, relied upon some robust payroll taxes and heavy local subsidies along with a reduced payroll to avoid these economic problems while maintaining control of its fixed costs. New York now has that payroll tax, but it’s such a small part of the MTA’s overall budget that it can’t act as a countervailing measure to a bad real estate and sales economy.

Right now, the MTA’s funding problems are those of a lack of political will. Albany and City Hall have left the MTA with fewer subsidies than ever before, and payroll obligations are starting to spiral out of control. Before the MTA moves stimulus funds to cover operating deficits — a move that may bring the MTA to break-even this year but will leave them with the same problems next — the major players must try to contain these costs and find a more stable annual revenue source. The city and the MTA can’t keep playing this same economic game year in and year out.

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7 Line Extension

At Hudson Yards, a two-month extension for Related

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 1, 2010

As the Tunnel Boring Machines continue their march from 34th St. and 11th Ave. to Times Square, the MTA and Related are still hashing out their $1 billion deal for the development rights to the land above the Hudson Railyards. The deal, originally set to be signed in January with its first payment this month, has been given an additional 60 days, according to a report in The Observer, and as the real estate markets continue to struggle, the future of this deal is still not set in stone.

According to Eliot Brown, the MTA and Related have agreed to extend the deadline to sign the contract from January 31 to March 31, and he says that the real estate executives “have recently been expressing confidence that they indeed expect to sign the contract once the documents are ready.” Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs, one of Related’s funding partners, has dropped out of the deal, but Related says that will not impact their ability to pay the money owed to the MTA.

Brown has more:

A bit more info about the contract with the M.T.A. is in a memo from the agency, obtained by The Observer, sent late Friday to the M.T.A.’s board. The memo says that Related has until March 31 to sign the contract, when it will have to plunk down $21.75 million and trigger another $21.75 million in payments over the following year. (The whole deal is valued at a $1 billion transaction for the MTA in today’s dollars; the entire 12 million-square-foot mega-development, if built out fully, would run an estimated $15 billion.)

Should Related, led by Stephen Ross, indeed sign the contract by March, it would then obligate itself to close on the deal once the economy improves to the point where it hits a set of quantifiable triggers that include commercial vacancy rates, according to multiple people familiar with the deal. Thus the true test of whether or not the deal for the rail yards will happen is at that point—when Related must close on the deal and commit to the full 99-year lease (and the $1 billion in payments) or back out.

THE PROCESS HAS become considerably more drawn out and far more uncertain than imagined at the economy’s peak, when the M.T.A. was first soliciting bids for the site. The M.T.A. had planned for the $1 billion to start rolling in, and budgeted accordingly in its capital plan. Now Related must find major tenants willing to leap over to the far West Side and be anchors for a new giant complex of hotels, retail and office towers. And the development must have a certain critical mass of tenants to get going: the platforms alone for the two 13-acre rail yards are estimated to cost up to $1 billion, meaning a promised set of occupants is needed to get financing.

For the agency, this delay is obviously a fiscal inconvenience. It has been nearly two years since Tishman Speyer originally agreed to buy the land, and the MTA could see another $1 billion deal disappear at a time when they most need the money.

Meanwhile, the 7 line extension continues onward. The subway extension will be built, and at the rate Related is going, it will open well before the bulk of the Hudson Yards development takes place. At least those who eventually build there will have a subway line. Whether the extension is still the best use of city spending on transportation expansion remains an open question.

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Subway Maps

Mapping the Dharma Initiative express

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on January 31, 2010

For those of us who are obsessed with LOST, Tuesday night’s Season 6 premiere has been a long time coming. And so in a week dominated here by discussions of subway maps, I present to you the LOST subway map. Called the Dharma Rapid Transit system by creator John Cabrera, the map is a great representation of that all has happened on the island over the previous five seasons. John explains the origins of the map here on his site. Click the image above to enlarge; you’ll have to see the full-sized image for all of the detail. For the Losties among us, this one’s a keeper.

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Service Advisories

A busy weekend work slate

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on January 29, 2010

I’m not going to mince words: This weekend’s slate of service advisories is a tough one. Again, nearly every train route is altered. As always, these come to me from the MTA and are subject to change. Pay attention to announcements and read the signs. Subway Weekender is back up and running, and you can find the map right here.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 30 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, downtown 12 trains skip 86th, 79th, 66th, 59th and 50th Streets due to switch renewal north of 72nd Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 30 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, Manhattan-bound 2 trains skip Burke Avenue, Allerton Avenue, Pelham Parkway, and Bronx Park East due to track work leading into East 180th Street Yard.


From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, January 30 and Sunday, January 31 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, 3 train service is extended to/from 34th Street-Penn Station due to switch renewal north of 72nd Street.


From 1 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, January 31, downtown 4 trains run local from 125th Street to Grand Central-42nd Street due to a cable pull.


From 6:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, January 31, downtown 5 trains run local from 125th Street to Grand Central-42nd Street due to a cable pull.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, January 29, to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, there are no 5 trains between Dyre Avenue and 149th Street-Grand Concourse due to track work leading into East 180th Street Yard. Free shuttle buses replace 5 trains between Dyre Avenue and East 180th Street. 2 trains replace the 5 between East 180th Street and 149th Street-Grand Concourse.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 30 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, Manhattan-bound 6 trains run express from Parkchester to Hunts Point Avenue due to asbestos abatement for station rehabilitation at Whitlock Avenue, Elder Avenue, Morrison-Sound View Avenues, St. Lawrence Avenue, and Parkchester.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, January 29 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, there are no 7 trains between Times Square-42nd Street and Queensboro Plaza due to track panel installation on the Davis Street curve. The NQ and free shuttle buses provide alternate service. Note: 42nd Street Shuttle runs overnight. Q trains are extended to/from Ditmars Blvd.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 30 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, uptown A trains run express from Canal to 125th Streets due to Chambers Street Signal Modernization and conduit installation for public address systems north of 59th Street.


Manhattan-bound A platforms at Beach 25th and Beach 67th Streets are scheduled to close for rehabilitation at 12:01 a.m. Monday, February 1 for approximately four months.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, January 30 and Sunday, January 31, uptown C trains run express from Canal to 125th Streets due to Chambers Street Signal Modernization and conduit installation for public address systems north of 59th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 30 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, uptown D trains run local from West 4th Street to 34th Street-Herald Square due to a substation rehabilitation north of 14th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Saturday, January 30, downtown D trains skip 167th, 161st, and 155th Streets due to track cleaning.


From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday, January 31, downtown D trains skip 174th-175th and 170th Streets due to track cleaning.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 30 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, E trains are rerouted on the F between West 4th Street and 2nd Avenue due to Chambers Street Signal Modernization. For service to Spring Street, Canal Street, and World Trade Center/Chambers Street, customers should take the A or C. Note: Uptown A and C trains skip Spring Street.


From 10:30 p.m. Friday, January 29 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1 (and also next weekend), there are no G trains running. For service between Forest Hills-71st Avenue and Queens Plaza, customers should take the R during the day and the E during the late night hours. Free shuttle buses run between Queens Plaza and Jay Street. For service to Church Avenue, customers should transfer between the shuttle bus and F trains at Jay Street. This is due to a switch replacement at Bedford-Nostrand Avenues, asbestos removal at Greenpoint Avenue, fan plant work at Jackson Avenue and track maintenance work at various locations.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 30 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, N trains are rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge between DeKalb Avenue and Canal Street due to Lawrence Street Station Rehabilitation and Construction of Underground Connector to Jay Street.


From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Saturday, January 30, N trains skip 49th Street due to track cleaning.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 30 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, uptown Q trains run local from Canal Street to 34th Street-Herald Square due to a track chip-out at 14th Street-Union Square.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 30 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 1, Q train service is extended to/from Astoria-Ditmars Blvd due to track panel installation on the Davis Street curve.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, January 30 and Sunday, January 31, R trains are rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge between DeKalb Avenue and Canal Street due to Lawrence Street Station Rehabilitation and construction of underground connector to Jay Street.

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East Side Access Project

Inside the East Side Access project

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on January 29, 2010

Fifteen stories below street level, this space will hold one day hold four platforms and eight tracks 15 for the LIRR at Grand Central Terminal. (All photos courtesy of the MTA.)

As part of its increased presence on social media sites, the MTA has been sharing more information and more pictures of their ongoing projects with the public. Last night, via their MTA Insider Twitter account, the authority released some shots of the work in progress at the Grand Central end of the East Side Access project. For transit construction enthusiasts, these photos offer a glimpse of some good old fashioned digging. I’ve posted a few below, and the entire album is available on the MTA’s Facebook page. The Journal-News has profiled the ongoing work as well.

Once the location of Metro-North’s Madison Ave. train yard, this space will become a passenger concourse for the LIRR.

These workers, according to Metro, spend their days deep within the rocks below the city. The Manhattan schist proves a sturdy rock, and the Sandhogs say they are often joined in their work by hordes of rats.

Another view of the platform cavern.

This tunnel will, by 2016, be lined with tracks that will bring LIRR trains into Grand Central Terminal.

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MTA EconomicsService Cuts

The dangerous allure of a quick stimulus fix

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on January 29, 2010

Over the last few weeks, as the MTA’s funding woes have risen to the surface, a debate over the use of stimulus funds to cover the budget deficit has emerged. On the one side are the City Council and Gene Russianoff’s Straphangers Campaign who support using stimulus funds to cover the gap. On the other are, for example, the Regional Plan Association and I believe it to be a bad idea. Today, we see exactly why it’s a dangerous plan to put forward.

On its surface, Gene Russianoff’s idea almost makes sense. The MTA is legally allowed to take 10 percent of its stimulus dollars to cover operating costs. Of course, the capital fund too is stretched to its limit, and future investment in the system even in the face of temporary operating shortfalls is a key component to the long-term health of New York City. If the Russianoff Plan is enacted, the MTA would be robbing its future self to cover numerous services that deserve to be reexamined anyway.

One of my counterarguments to the Russianoff plan is the way it provides only a quick fix. The MTA has an institutional funding problem in that the city and state are shirking their responsibilities to the organization, and a one-off stimulus fix does nothing to address those problems. An economic crisis should be the time for New York to establish a better approach toward funding transit.

I’ve also argued that politicians will embrace the stimulus funding plan because it allows them to disregard further their duties toward the MTA. Why bother trying to solve a problem when they can just plug a hole for one year? Not surprisingly, that — with a twist — is exactly what some upstate politicians are trying to do. As the Poughkeepsie Journal reported earlier this week, five U.S. House representatives have asked Gov. David Paterson to reduce the MTA’s payroll tax and use stimulus funds to cover this year’s gap.

I won’t mince words here: This is a terrible idea. It would take another $110 million away from the MTA at a time when the authority is already running deficits of around $300-$400 million. It would leave the MTA with less guaranteed money after 2010. At Mobilizing the Region, Steven Higashide says it best: “This would blow a hole in future MTA budgets, since it would replace yearly tax revenues with one-year stimulus funds.”

Higashide’s Tri-State Transportation Campaign is one of the co-signers of the Russianoff Plan, but it is a plan that puts more faith in our politicians than they seem to deserve. The use of stimulus funds to hide this year’s budget gap is a dangerous move to make, and our politicians are slowly starting to show us why.

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Subway Maps

Purpose & Design: A look at subway maps

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on January 29, 2010

Baseball fans who go to enough games grow family with the old concessionaire’s adage. You can’t tell the players without a scorecard, the saying goes. Similarly, a subway rider generally can’t navigate the the subway system without a map. Someone going from Point A to Point B needs to know the best way to get there, but how?

Yesterday afternoon, in a discussion on the recent history of New York City’s subway, a discussion broke out on the best way to present a subway system. Should the map be purely schematic and assume that people know the above-ground geometry? Should the map integrate the subway system on a near-accurate geographical representation of the city it services? As New Yorkers used to the geographically integrated subway system, we view those schematic maps suspiciously.

Up above is a thumbnail of our familiar New York City map. Click it to enlarge. As it stands right now, this map has a lot of information on it, and most of it is unnecessary. Boxes about bus connections — with no further information — ring the map, and lines emerge from major subway stops. Staten Island has been moved to abut Manhattan and Brooklyn, and the box in the lower right corner attempts to explain which trains run when. Rush hour, weekdays, evenings, weekends, late nights: read the key and then find your line. It’s almost a game.

Meanwhile, this map also incorporates almost the geography of New York City. Some major through streets are marked, and some — but not all — parks show up on it. As The Local noted a few months ago, Fort Greene Park is nowhere to be found, but the smaller Washington Square Park is front and center near the W 4th St. stop. For those not familiar with New York City, our subway map simply doesn’t help above ground even as it tries to. It makes distances look shorter than they are and omits some landmarks while including others. It’s an approximation of the city at best.

Moving out of the city, we arrive in London to find an entirely different concept of the subway map. The current Tube map, an evolution of a design by Harry Beck, is a diagrammatic map of the Underground. It bears little resemblance to the actual geography of the city and instead presents the system as a series of zones with subway lines running in straight lines or at 45-degree angles. Sparse and simple, it has become a widely recognized symbol of London.

This map helps those who know where they’re going and few others. It gives no indication about distances between stations or about what might be around each station. It’s sometimes better to get off at an early station to reach a destination with a name similar to the next stop, but only those in the know would actually know that. It might look good; it might lend itself to easy imitation; and it might make navigating the subway system itself simple. But it provides no integration into the city.

Since Beck’s design arrived in London, derivatives have become the norm. Take, for example, a look at D.C.’s Metro map or Paris’ schematic. Angles, zones and sparse geographical markers rule the day while New York stands alone as a beacon of graphics design slowly, evolutionarily gone wrong.

So what’s the best map? Maybe New York’s old map — the one that used to show just the subways with a nod toward geography but an understanding that it wasn’t perfect — was the way to go. Vignelli’s map almost fits the bill, but navigating the subway system with it can be a Herculean task. Maybe we’re still just waiting for the right subway map, one that incorporates geography and complicated and convoluted subway systems into an easy-to-use map. Consider it the Holy Grail of subway mapmaking.

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AsidesPANYNJ

In New York, ARC tunnel could face eminent domain delay

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on January 28, 2010

As the Port Authority has begun its preparations for construction of an $8.7 billion commuter rail tunnel under the Hudson, its need for property has arisen to the forefront. In a report prepared for New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie, an advising committee has warned that the start of construction on the New York side could be delayed by up to six months if issues relating to eminent domain takings are not resolved. Patrick McGeehan goes in depth into the issue today in The Times, but in a nutshell, some local business owners are questioning the need for a second train terminal so close to Penn Station. Still, the Port Authority says it is following proper procedure, and with the recent eminent domain holding concerning the Atlantic Yards plans, a legal challenge here would be highly unlikely to survive. [The New York Times]

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AsidesSubway Maps

On the history of subway maps

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on January 28, 2010

Over the last year, I’ve compiled an extensive collection of historical New York City subway maps dating back to the late 1940s. It’s fascinating to see how the subway map has evolved along with the geographical representations of the city. In my opinion, today’s map is far too cluttered to be absolutely usable, and the pinnacle of subway representation in New York with an eye toward both geography and ease of map use would involve a combination of the Vignelli map and the 1979 Michael Hertz Association version reworking. Once I have some spare time and access to a good flat-bed scanner, I’ll be writing a series of posts on the subway map over time.

Today in amNew York, Heather Haddon examined the history behind the evolution of our current subway map. She traces the move from the Vignelli map to the Hertz version and explains how the MTA’s color-coded system, still in place today, came to be. The current version is an outgrowth of Hertz’s 1979 rendering, and last year, it celebrated its 30th anniversary. “It’s an absolute work of art and very clear,” Peter Lloyd, a U.K. author writing a history of the subway map, said. It’s clarity might be lacking today, but the old maps are definitely works of art.

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