Home Author
Author

Benjamin Kabak

AsidesView from Underground

Improving your commute

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 15, 2009

As part of a new series this month, WNYC’s Brian Lehrer is taking a look at how New Yorkers commute. Lehrer along with Robert Buzz Paaswell, Director of the University Transportation Research Center at City College, will help listeners redesign their commutes. The series kicked off yesterday with a question: “Does your commute shape the city, or does the city shape your commute? What one thing have you done or would you do to redesign your commute?”

The comments on WNYC’s site are quite fascinating as New Yorkers have a wide array of commutes and views on their commutes. I’ll look closer at what people are saying and offer my take over the next few days. In the meantime, feel free to chime in. How would you improve or redesign your daily commute in this city of interborough and intraborough commuters?

12 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
MTA Economics

DiNapoli: MTA spending frivolously on service contracts

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 15, 2009

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli issued a report yesterday exposing billions of dollars of MTA waste over the last four years. DiNapoli’s office examined the MTA’s spending on personal and service contracts and discovered numerous inefficiencies and redundancies in the process that has cost the agency approximately $2.9 billion in unnecessary spending.

“The MTA has raised fares and received more tax dollars to cover its deficits and debt,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “At the same time, the MTA expanded its use of personal service contracts without a thorough evaluation of the need or cost-effectiveness of those contracts. Now more than ever, every dime counts, and the MTA needs to manage public resources more carefully. Consultant contracts should only be used when absolutely necessary, and there has to be documented justification of that need.”

According to the state audit, these contracts now consume nearly 15 percent of the MTA’s operating budget, and expenditures have increased from $315 million in 2006 to $881 million last year. Oftentimes, the MTA could not prove that the outsourced services — including contracts for engineering and architecture, waste management, consulting and information technology — represented the most cost-efficient option. DiNapoli also urged the MTA to establish a way to determine “whether these contracts were still necessary or if they could be suspended or scaled back to help manage fiscal constraints.”

Hand in hand with this recommendation was the comptroller’s finding that “the MTA contracted for some services that would appear to be within their in-house capabilities.” DiNapoli wants the MTA to document “the need to contract out for such services.” That’s being diplomatic. If the in-house capabilities exist, the MTA shouldn’t be paying anyone else to carry out its tasks.

As examples, DiNapoli’s audit cites 244 contracts worth $513.6 million for engineering and architecture services, 387 contracts totaling $203.9 million for maintenance services, 183 contracts worth $149.5 million for consulting services, and 46 contracts $99 million for waste removal. Furthermore, the MTA contracted out for real estate management services, tree trimming operations and bus engine repair efforts. All of these tasks could be and oftentimes are completed in-house.

In a press release, the Comptroller’s Office nicely bulleted its other findings:

  • MTA records showed that the agency initiated or completed consultant contracts valued in excess of $4.5 billion between January 1, 2005 and October 16, 2008;
  • Spending on miscellaneous contracts consistently exceeds $1 billion per year and is rapidly approaching $2 billion per year;
  • The value of awarded contracts nearly tripled between 2006 and the first 10 months of 2008, while the actual number of contracts declined by 35 percent during the same period;
  • New York City Transit alone accounted for 776 contracts worth $1.8 billion during the audit period; and,
  • Nearly one-quarter of all service contracts were non-competitive, including awards to sole contractors and well as emergency purchases.

DiNapoli also issued a set of recommendations for the MTA:

  • Improve documentation of compliance with the MTA’s “All Agency Guidelines for Procurement of Services” by determining whether agencies can collaborate on contracts, or fulfill their needs by using another agency’s in-house expertise or existing contract;
  • Periodically re-evaluate personal and miscellaneous contracts after they begin; and,
  • Take steps to scale back or suspend reliance on service contracts, where appropriate.

The MTA took few issues with the findings and created a subcommittee on service contracts while the audit was ongoing. Whether any financial streamlining comes of it remains to be seen. This audit was one of nine on the MTA DiNapoli has released recently, and his office promises more to come. No matter how much posturing the State Senate does, this is real financial oversight, and the MTA should listen to these recommendations.

You can find a copy of the Comptroller’s Report in PDF form along with the MTA’s response to it right here.

9 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Second Avenue Subway

Legal woes plaguing Second Ave. subway

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 14, 2009

A little over one year ago, in June of 2008, Christopher K. Bennett, the vice president of the DMJM+HARRIS join venture tasked with designing the Second Ave. subway, issued a progress report about the subway construction project. On page 13 of the report (PDF), Bennett wrote that the tunnel boring machine for the Second Ave. subway was “expected to arrive on site in June 2009.” Three months after this date, we know Bennett’s report was overly optimistic, and over the last year, the due date for the Second Ave. subway has been pushed back from 2015 to late 2017 or even 2018.

This week, we learn that more delays of the legal variety are plaguing the project. One source concerns the stability of buildings and the MTA’s need for a blast permit while the other is a follow-up from last week’s relocation saga. Both present the possibility of even more delays for this troubled project.

We start with the blasting permit problems, first reported in Our Town nearly two weeks ago. Dan Rivoli writes:

The June evacuation of two buildings encompassed by the Second Avenue subway construction zone will delay some aspects of construction for an indefinite amount of time.

The MTA was set to conduct blasting underneath Second Avenue in the East 90s, with a blast test scheduled for the first week of August. Orange signs were placed in the area to warn residents of the blasting. But the Department of Buildings ordered residents of 1766 and 1768 Second Ave., at East 92nd Street, to evacuate because the buildings had pre-existing structural problems that made construction unsafe.

Now the Department of Buildings, which is working with the building owners on a plan to stabilizing the structures, is demanding that the structures be shored up before permits are given for any blasting, which makes tunnel boring easier. “When the partial stabilization is completed and accepted by [Department of Buildings], we will move forward with the controlled blasting program,” said Kevin Ortiz, an MTA spokesperson, in a statement.

The MTA decilined to offer Rivoli a comment on either the “start date for building construction or how long such work will take.” In the words of David Rosenstein, chair of the Friends of Ruppert Park, the project is “stuck.”

Today, the The Times offers up news of a legal challenge to the MTA’s relocation plans. Last week, I explored how the MTA had, according to Upper East Side residents, not provided relocation options that were “comparable housing.” Now, Upper East Siders are heading to court, and a State Supreme Court judge wants more information from the MTA. Michael Grynbaum reports:

Justice Walter B. Tolub of State Supreme Court in Manhattan told lawyers from the authority to return in a week with written details about the agency’s plans to provide assistance to the tenants, many of whom are elderly and living in rent-regulated apartments.

The authority is hoping to receive final approval this month to acquire the four residential properties along Second Avenue, which will be converted into ventilation shafts and other infrastructure for the $4.5 billion underground line, scheduled to open in 2017.

Under eminent domain law, tenants must be given assistance to move to a comparable new apartment in a similar neighborhood, but some of them say the authority has encouraged them to leave the Upper East Side and consider moving into affordable housing, including one building opposite an on-ramp to the Queensboro Bridge. (The authority says no one is being forced to leave the area.)…

[Lawyer Anthony P.] Semancik described a complicated formula used to determine how much rental assistance can be provided to rent-regulated tenants moving to a new, presumably more expensive apartment…But the authority could not produce a written version of [their relocation] formula and admitted that the formula had not been published except for presentations to community groups. Justice Tolub adjourned the proceedings for a week, until the authority could provide written documentation.

And so it goes. The MTA needs its blasting permits in order to dig the hole for the tunnel boring machine. The MTA needs these apartments on the Upper East Side in order to build infrastructure for the new subway. With these two aspects of the project in limbo, we will just keep waiting for the Second Ave. subway to arrive. Who will still be here to ride it?

16 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
AsidesMTA Politics

Look out, old Macky’s gone

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 14, 2009

When then-Nassau County Executive Thomas Gulotta appointed David Mack to the MTA Board in 1993, the appointment seemed to be a solid one. Mack had an accomplished résumé of police experience under his belt that included an assistant commissionership with the Nassau County Police Department and a similar role with the Long Beach Police as well. While his term expired in June, Mack had retained his position of co-vice chair of the MTA throughout the unsettled summer. He

Recently, though, Mack has come under attack as New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo investigated the State Police. While Mack refused to cooperate with the investigation, Cuomo determined that state officials had, according to The Times, “inappropriately granted Mr. Mack a dress uniform and the title of deputy superintendent, even though he had no law enforcement experience and appeared to perform few duties for the State Police.” Cuomo determined that the appointment to the MTA Board was one of patronage rather than of merit. On Friday, Mack announced that he would resign from the MTA and Port Authority Boards.

As Steven Higashide writes today at Mobilizing the Region, this resignation is a clear victory for transit advocates. Mack has in the past defended poor MTA practices of giving away far too many free transit passes and noted that complaints from the public were routinely ignored. Tom Suozzi will have a chance to appoint a new MTA Board member, and he would be wise to heed Higashide’s call to find a “good ambassador for the system.”

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
MTA Technology

MTA struggling in an age of open information

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 14, 2009

newsaslogo4

When I first came up with the idea to begin this blog in November of 2006, I brainstormed a name that I could spell with subway bullets. I wanted to relate the name of the blog to the subway and express that through an easily recognizable image. The current name and above banner were the end result of my brainstorming.

At the time, I didn’t realize that the MTA had trademarked the subway bullets and that I had run afoul of their trademark. Nearly 20 months after starting this site, I received a letter — in the form of a comment on a post that was at the time three weeks old — from the MTA’s Senior Associate Coounsel (sic), as he spelled it. In the initial letter, Lester Freundlich told me that I couldn’t use the image of the MetroCard in a blog post reporting on a MetroCard and that I couldn’t use the subway map. He didn’t even complain about my using the subway bullets; that issue came up later on.

Eventually, I worked out the issue with the MTA’s Marketing and Advertising department. I had to change the image, as you can see from the current one evocative of the Massimo Vignelli-designed subway signs, and I had to add a disclaimer to the site. As the use of the MetroCard image was a fair use, I was in the clear. All’s well that ended well for me.

I’m not the only person though that Lester Freundlich and the MTA legal department has contacted over the last few months. Two stories — one involving a Metro-North blogger and his iPhone application and one involving someone in San Francisco — raise some serious questions about how the MTA enforces its intellectual property rights and how prepared the MTA is for a digital world.

StationStops and an iPhone Application

Chris Schoenfeld is a Metro-North commuter and a web programmer. (Disclaimer: He’s also one of my advertisers.) In 2006, he started the Metro-North blog Station Stops, and in 2007, he wrote an application with the Metro-North schedule data. The MTA hasn’t yet figured out the digital world, and Schoenfeld’s application filled an obvious niche.

Over the years, Schoenfeld had, as I did, ran afoul of some of the MTA’s intellectual property rights. He had employed some copyrighted images of MTA property. At each turn, he removed them as requested.

In August, the MTA stepped up its campaign against Schoenfeld. In its original dealings with Schoenfeld, the MTA claimed that Station Stops was presenting itself as an official MTA site. That claim is, quite frankly, laughable. Schoenfeld’s site doesn’t resemble an MTA site, and it’s clearly a journalistic blog. A few days later, they seemingly dropped this complain but ordered him to cease selling the iPhone application. This charge rested on the claim that the MTA owns the copyright to the schedule data and that Schoenfeld’s use of the data violates that copyright.

Continue Reading
41 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Service AdvisoriesSubway Security

On 9/11 weekend, security concerns abound

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 11, 2009

The weekend service advisories can be found in the bottom half of this post. To skip right to them, click here.

As the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks arrived on a gray and rainy Friday, our city’s attention again turned to security. The Times looked at ways in which we’ve put the attacks behind us a city, but not everyone felt confident that the city is safer than it was eight years ago. ABC News looked at subway security and came away alarmed.

Despite hundreds of millions of dollars allocated to create a state-of-the-art surveillance system for New York City’s subway system, the monitoring technology is still not in place and experts say the city’s underground transportation tunnels remain a leading and unnecessarily vulnerable target to terrorism eight years after the 9/11 attacks devastated the country.

“Terrorists, if they did surveillance, would know that security hasn’t really improved since 9/11,” said former national security officer Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant…

Four years ago, the MTA awarded a more than $200 million contract t Lockheed Martin to create a surveillance system to monitor NYC’s subway systems. The technology was supposed to be in operation last year, but it remains unimplemented as Lockheed Martin and the MTA are currently suing each other over the contract and all work has stopped.

The MTA has “already paid $250 to $300 million to Lockheed and the only thing they have to show for it is litigation, being in court,” said NYC Transportation Committee Chairman John Liu.

While Washington, Atlanta and other major cities have installed similar surveillance systems, New York police have had to add extra officers to patrol its subways as it awaits its own high tech system – a system that MTA Executive Director Katherine Lapp said would alert authorities so that “hopefully we can respond and hopefully prevent an attack from happening.”

This is, of course, not really breaking news to those of us who have followed the story. What is shocking though is the federal government’s response to it. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano basically had no idea that the MTA had suffered through costly delays in securing the system or was engaged in a lawsuit with Lockheed Martin. “I ride the subway, the mayor rides the subway, the vice mayor rides the subway,” she said to ABC. “So the overall safety of the subways is safe. Now are we there yet on technology? That I can’t comment to.”

Maybe cameras aren’t the way to secure the subway. Maybe increased police presence is all we need to deter any potential attack. But even now, eight years later, the MTA’s security measures remain a work in progress.

* * *
Here are your weekend service advisories. These come to me right from the MTA and are subject to change with no notice. Check signs in your local station and listen to on-board announcements.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, September 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, there are no 1 trains operating between 34th Street and South Ferry due to a track chip-out at Chambers Street station. 2 and 3 trains provide alternate service between 34th Street and Chambers Street. Free shuttle buses replace 1 trains between Chambers Street and South Ferry. Note: Downtown 23 trains skip Christopher, Houston, Canal, and Franklin Streets.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, downtown 1 trains skip 96th Street due to station rehabilitation.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, downtown 2 trains skip 96th Street, then run local from 86th to 14th Streets. Uptown 2 trains run local from Chambers Street to 96th Street. These changes are due to a track chip-out at Chambers Street and station rehabilitation at 96th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, downtown 3 trains skip 96th Street, then run local from 86th Street to 14th Street due to a track chip-out at Chambers Street and station rehabilitation at 96th Street. Note: Overnight downtown 3 trains stop at 86th and 79th Streets, then run express from 72nd to 42nd Streets.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13, uptown 3 trains run local from Chambers Street to 96th Street due to a track chip-out at Chambers Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, Manhattan-bound 6 trains run express from Hunts Point Avenue to 3rd Avenue-138th Street due to a concrete pour at East 143rd Street-St. Mary’s Street.


From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, September 12, Bronx-bound 6 trains run express from Hunts Point Avenue to Parkchester due to rail replacement at St. Lawrence Avenue.


At all times until January 18, 2010, Far Rockaway-bound A trains skip Beach 67th, Beach 44th, and Beach 25th Streets due to station rehabilitations. – This is a permanent service change until mid-January.


From 5 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 10 p.m. Sunday, September 13, Coney Island-bound D trains run on the N line from 36th Street to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue due to 38th Street Yard work.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, D trains run local in both directions between 34th Street and West 4th Street due to a track chip-out in the 53rd Street tunnel.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, E trains are rerouted on the F line in Manhattan and Queens due to a track chip-out in the 53rd Street tunnel:

  • There are no E trains between 34th Street-Penn Station and World Trade Center. Customers should take the A instead.
  • Manhattan-bound E trains run on the F from Roosevelt Avenue to 34th Street-6th Avenue.
  • Queens-bound E trains run on the F from 34th Street-Herald Square to 47th-50th Sts. Trains resume normal E service from 5th Avenue-53rd Street to Jamaica Center.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, Manhattan-bound E platforms at Queens Plaza, 23rd Street/Ely Avenue, Lexington Avenue-53rd Street and 5th Avenue stations are closed due to a track chip-out in the 53rd Street tunnel. Customers may take the R or G instead. Note: Free shuttle buses connect the Court Square G/23rd Street-Ely Avenue, Queens Plaza, and 21st Street-Queensbridge F stations.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, Queens-bound E trains run express from Roosevelt Avenue to Forest Hills-71st Avenue due to cable work north of Roosevelt Avenue.


From 12:30 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, Manhattan-bound E trains run local on the F line from Roosevelt Avenue to 21st Street-Queensbridge due to track maintenance.


From 12:30 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, Jamaica-bound E trains run local from Queens Plaza to Roosevelt Avenue due to track maintenance.


From 12:30 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, F trains run local between Roosevelt Avenue and 21st Street-Queensbridge due to track maintenance.


From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13, and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, Queens-bound G trains run express from Roosevelt Avenue to Forest Hills-71st Avenue due to cable work north of Roosevelt Avenue.


From 8:30 p.m. to midnight Friday, September 11, and from 6:30 a.m. to midnight Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13, there are no G trains between Forest Hills-71st Avenue and Court Square due to the track chip-out in the 53rd Street tunnel. Brooklyn-bound customers may take the R to Queens Plaza, transfer to a shuttle bus connecting to Court Square. Queens-bound customers may take the E instead. Note: Queens-bound E and R trains run express from Roosevelt Avenue to Forest Hills-71st Avenue.


From 4:30 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 10 p.m. Sunday, September 13, there are no J trains between Broadway Junction and Myrtle Avenue due to switch renewal north of Broadway Junction. Free shuttle buses provide alternate service.


From 4:30 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 10 p.m. Sunday, September 13, there are no M trains running due to switch renewal north of Broadway Junction. Rerouted J trains replace the M between Myrtle and Metropolitan Avenues.


From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, Manhattan-bound N trains skip Lawrence Street due to station rehabilitation and construction of the underground connector at Lawrence Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, Brooklyn-bound N trains are rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge from Canal Street to DeKalb Avenue due to station rehabilitation and construction of the underground connector at Lawrence Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, N trains run local between DeKalb Avenue and 59th Street-4th Avenue due to station rehabilitation and construction of the underground connector at Lawrence Street.


At all times until December 2009, the Coney Island-bound side of the Avenue U and Neck Road stations are closed for rehabilitation. Customers should use Kings Highway B/Q, Sheepshead Bay B/Q, or Avenue U F stations as alternatives.


From 9:30 a.m. Friday, September 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, free shuttle buses replace Q trains between Prospect Park and Kings Highway due to Brighton line station rehabs.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13, Brooklyn-bound R trains are rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge from Canal Street to DeKalb Avenue due to station rehabilitation and construction of the underground connector at Lawrence Street.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13, Manhattan-bound R trains skip Lawrence Street due to station rehabilitation and construction of the underground connector at Lawrence Street.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13, Queens-bound R trains run express from Roosevelt Avenue to Forest Hills-71st Avenue due to cable work north of Roosevelt Avenue.


From 10:30 p.m. Friday, September 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, there are no Rockaway Park Shuttle S trains between Broad Channel and Rockaway Park due to station rehabilitations at Beach 105th Street and Beach 90th Street. A trains and free shuttle buses provide alternate service.

4 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
AsidesMTA Politics

Walder, starting in October, promises an MTA overhaul

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 11, 2009

During his confirmation yesterday, Jay Walder, the incoming head of the MTA, spoke about his plans for the beleaguered transit agency. While Walder spent some time talking to the Senate about the ways in which he hopes to make the transit system “more inviting,” his most telling comments concerned upcoming personnel changes. “It’s my intention to form a management team, bring new people into the MTA with a broad range of experience and success in different parts of the world,” Walder said. “It’s a fair expectation to say the MTA will be moving forward with a new team.”

For the next few weeks, the MTA will continue with its current interim structure minus outgoing Chair Dale Hemmerdinger. Walder said he will begin his job in early October after, in the words of Pete Donohue, “settling his affairs in England.” For now, Helena Williams will continue as the interim CEO, and Andrew Saul, the current vice chairman, will take over as interim chair during next Wednesday’s MTA Board meeting.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
MTA Politics

Walder confirmed as Senate preens

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 11, 2009

After a two-month circus that saw a bunch of uninformed State Senators sound off on transit issues, the MTA finally has a new permanent chairman and CEO. In a 47-13 vote that saw a unified Democratic front joined by a splintered state GOP faction, the Senate voted to approve Jay Walder as the new head of the MTA.

“I am confident that Jay will shepherd the MTA into a new era – one that benefits all riders, whether in the Hudson Valley, the five boroughs or on Long Island,” Gov. David Paterson said this evening. “I applaud this confirmation and look forward to working with Jay as we strive to make the MTA more efficient, transparent and accountable.”

Of course, as we’re talking about the State Senate, Thursday evening’s vote was hardly a smooth affair, and numerous Senators showed their utter ignorance and lack of perspective in voting down Walder’s nomination. With reports from all major outlets, let’s see what everyone was saying.

Per Elizabeth Benjamin, one Binghamton-based GOP Senator voted against Walder because his area has no MTA. “As an upstater, I have roads and bridges,” Tom Libous said in an effort to explain his “no vote. “I don’t have an MTA where I live.” Libous voted as he did to “send a message” to the rest of the state government. “We have no plan for roads and bridges. We need to have a comprehensive capital plan.” That is petty state politics at its finest.

John Flanagan, another Republican from Long Island, voted no because Walder had previously MTA experience. “He’s not a newbie to the situation here,” Flanagan said. “He’s got a track record – no pun intended – having worked for this authority.” For that and for Walder’s unwillingness to take a strong stand during this confirmation sideshow, Flanagan declined to approve a qualified candidate.

Stephen Saland, a Hudson Valley Republican, also voted no for no good reason. According to The Times’ coverage of the confirmation vote, Saland neglected to lend his support to Walder because his Senate colleagues refused to host one of their confirmation hearings in his district. Somehow, Saland is upholding his public duty with this vote.

Finally, one man who voted yes — Carl Kruger — continued to sound ignorant of reality. “There is still much work to be done to repair the frayed relationship between the MTA and its frustrated and beleaguered ridership,” the Senate Finance Committee Chair said in a statement. “But Mr. Walder answered our questions, allayed our concerns and appears committed to heralding the new era of transparency and accountability at the MTA that we fought so hard to achieve during the past year.”

I again question Carl Kruger’s ability to pay attention to reality. For years, the MTA has put numerous budget documents on its website. For years, the MTA has been more forthcoming than any other public authority with its fiscal information. It hosts multiple public forums and has opened its books for all to see. This “new era” began before Elliot Sander arrived; it’s not beginning today. I wouldn’t expect Carl Kruger — a politician who feels that bus lane enforcement will lead to increased congestion — to understand that.

In the end, this tomfoolery doesn’t really lead anywhere. The Senate is mocked, and the MTA has its head. On paper, Walder is eminently qualified, but during the confirmation hearings, he ducked answering questions on a few hot-button issues. He has his work cut out for him, and as the Senate will be keeping a close eye on him, it won’t be an easy task.

3 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Subway History

When you could finally take the A train

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 10, 2009

A relic of a naming convention lost to time. (Photo by flickr user wallyg)

Today, we celebrate a birthday. The venerable A train, made famous by Billy Strayhorn in 1939, is 77 years old for it was at midnight on September 10, 1932 that the A and its local sister the AA started operating along the 8th Ave. IND lines.

The Independent Subway line has, unsurprisingly, a long and tortured history. It took 12 years from the point of conception to open just the 8th Ave. line and parts of the original IND system did not open until 1988, 56 years after the first A train rolled up the tracks. Meanwhile, the Second System, which I explored in depth last year, has never materialized, and we’re still waiting for the Second Ave. Subway to arrive.

While you can read a complete history of the IND at NYCSubway.org, I want to put aside historical skepticism and look instead at the reports of the new subway’s opening. The Times covered the event in great detail, and the article is a gem of 1930s New York City reporting.

The opening itself was not marked by any ceremony. The line took seven years to build, and it cost $191.2 million. By mid-1932, the city was looking for someone else to operate the trains, but amidst a Great Depression, no one stepped forward. Paul Crowell reported on the first passengers to reach the platform:

There was no official “first train,” no official opening ceremony, no laudatory speech-making program. The chains which have blocked access to the turnstiles were removed just before midnight last night, and those who dropped their nickels in the turnstile slots were free to board a train at any station along the line. The full operating schedule has been in effect since Wednesday afternoon, and at every station on the line, uptown or downtown, a local or express was available within a few minutes after the prospective rider reached the station platform.

At Times Square, New Yorkers gathered en masse to await the opening of this new subway line with its brand new R1 rolling stock, wide platforms and mezzanine express stops. Crowell writes of the maddening crowds all waiting to drop their nickels into the turnstiles:

The largest crowd to board trains immediately after the official opening was at the Forty-second Street station. At that point Mr. Delaney gave the signal to throw the turnstiles open to the public. The first person to drop his coin into the slot was Billy Reilly, 7 years old, of 406 West Forty-sixth Street, who had been waiting several hours for his first ride on the new line. He got a preferred place on line when, Mr. Delaney learned that he was born March 14, 1925, the day ground was first broken for the new subway.

At this station, as well as at Columbus Circle and Thirty-fourth Street, a carnival spirit was manifested by those who waited to board the first trains. They rushed through the turnstiles, cheering and shouting and rushed down the stairways to the platforms. The first train to pull in was a southbound express. It was filled to capacity and carried the first load of straphangers to ride on the new line. Fifteen minutes after this train pulled out there was still a line in front of the main change booth at the Forty-second Street entrance of the station.

Of course, not everything was smooth sailing for the A train. One passenger alleged that the turnstile had eaten his nickel, called the new line a “rotten subway” and ran off to catch his train. Other rowdy teenagers stuck gum into the turnstile slots as lines grew long. That’s the 1930s equivalent of “Swipe Again at This Turnstile.”

Meanwhile, New Yorkers celebrated the night away, and many came out just for the spectacle of it. According to Crowell’s reporting, 2808 passed through the Times Square turnstiles between midnight and 1 a.m. on a Saturday, and at 2 a.m., the trains were still packed. “Of this number not all were riders, however, for many were satisfied to pay their nickel, make a complete inspection of the new station and return to the street,” Cowell wrote.

As the MTA and city and state officials have proclaimed the Second Ave. Subway an eventual boon for the Upper East Side, so too did New York officials proclaim the IND for the West Side. “The opening of the Eighth Avenue subway, will, in my opinion, do more constructively to bring about the rejuvenation of the west side than any other single known factor,” one-time Governor and then-head of the West Association of Commerce Alfred E. Smith said.

The technical details of the new subway, meanwhile, were impressive. The city, in fact, learned from the previous mistakes of the Interborough Rapid Transit planners. While the IRT served as the city’s first subway, many of its stations are far too close together, and some key stops are built on curved sections of the tracks. Trains can’t maintain or achieve top speeds as they navigate the Union Square curve or run from Bowling Green to Wall St. to Fulton St. Crowell noted the changes:

Subway stations have been located with respect to the density of population in connection with running distances between stops. The stations are at least 600 feet long, with provisions for extension to 660 feet if necessary. They will accommodate ten-car trains with ease. They are lighted under a new system designed to eliminate shadows. All platforms are straight-edged, locations on curves having been avoided.

The cars are designed in accordance with the view of a committee of experts which gave its services without charge. Tests conducted by the board’s engineers indicate that the trains can be loaded and unloaded in 33.3 percent faster time than those on the B.M.T. and Interborough. Each car will seat 60 persons and provide standing room for 220.

And thus a subway line was born. Today, we take the IND for granted and wait for the Second Ave. Subway. Will we witness “gay midnight crowds” when the 33-block, four-stop extension of the Q train opens up in 2017 or 2018? Will we witness a spectacle and a ceremony or will just shrug its collective shoulders? If history is our guide, it will be a momentous night indeed.

21 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
TWU

MTA pleads poverty in TWU arb appeal

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 10, 2009

As the MTA attempts to avoid an arbitration ruling that guaranteed TWU workers 11 percent raises over the next three years, the agency has plead poverty in its court filings. In its motion to overturn the arbitration decision, filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court, the transportation authority said it does not have the money to pay its workers and adequately operate its trains at the same time.

For its legal claim, the MTA is alleging that the arbitration panel made egregious fiscal mistakes in evaluating the MTA’s ability to pay the raise. The agency has also threatened to scale back service and raise fares to maker labor ends meet. Pete Donohue has more:

In legal papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, transit officials also say the arbitration panel that crafted the contract last month made critical blunders when evaluating the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s finances.

In one instance, the panel said the MTA has a $75 million rainy-day fund, which the authority says has been drained. “The MTA simply does not have the money to pay for the ramped-up, out-of-scale unbudgeted costs…without foisting upon the public some very unpleasant choices regarding fares, service levels…and maintenance of the system,” the MTA argues.

While I haven’t yet secured the filings, The Post has more:

The suit said the raises would waste millions of dollars of a new payroll tax — 34 cents of every $100 of a business’ income — on “out-of-scale compensation increases for employees who, by all accounts, already are well paid.”

… [Arbitrator John] Zuccotti and [TWU President Roger] Toussaint both agreed the MTA can take money from its capital programs — the same budget that funds the Second Avenue Subway, the purchase of new buses and station rehabilitation — to pay the raises.

I certainly don’t agree that the MTA should be removing capital funds to cover labor costs. That represents a backwards investment in moving transit in New York City forward.

No matter the outcome though this appeal could turn labor relations toward an acrimonious stalemate. The case is set to be heard on Tuesday, and both the MTA and TWU have a lot at stake.

6 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Newer Posts
Older Posts