Second Ave. Sagas

Category: Asides

  • A PA toll increase and the law of intended consequences

    When the Port Authority raised its fares this month, it levied a disproportionate increase on tolls for drivers who still insist on paying cash while giving those who use E-ZPass something of a break. The thinking behind this move is simple: The Port Authority does not need to spend as much money collecting tolls if they can eliminate cash lanes. This is, not coincidentally, why the MTA wants to eliminate MetroCards as well. It’s possible to spend money up front on improvements that will realize multi-million-dollar savings down the line.

    Lo and behold, the move has paid off. With cash fares so high, more drivers are turning to E-ZPass, and SI Live is ON IT.”We have had higher than usual volumes at the Staten Island E-ZPass customer service center today,” a Port Authority spokesman said. Drivers can save $2.50 per fare with an E-ZPass while bus operators can realize savings of $10 per trip. So the transportation agency can save costs on fare collection while passing those benefits onto its customers thanks to the power of a relatively simple technology.

  • Give the MTA’s new Weekender map a whirl

    I’m away from my computer right now so I can’t give the MTA’s new online weekend map a ride, but you can. Check it out right here in all of it’s Vignelli glory. As you poke around with the map, I would love to hear your reactions. Leave a comment with your thoughts, criticisms and potential improvements, and we’ll soon find out just how useful this new offering is.

  • A brief look at the shortlist for Walder’s replacement

    With Jay Walder’s departure date just a few weeks away, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s search committee is hard at work trying to find the next person brave enough to take on the role of MTA CEO and Chairman. Today, we find out a little bit more about the potential candidates under consideration. Courtesy of The Daily News, the list contains the following: Jeffrey Morales from Parsons Brinkerhoff, Tom Prendergast from NYC Transit, Helena Williams from the LIRR, Michael Burns of Santa Clara’s Valley Transportation Authority and Neil Peterson, a transit vet who founded a ZipCar predecessor.

    Williams, a one-time interim MTA head, and Predergast are, of course familiar names around these parts, but I’m not too familiar with the other three. I’ll try to prepare some profiles of these potential candidates. Morales and Peterson both have experience with West Coast transit and transportation agencies, and Morales is a former higher-up from the Chicago Transit Authority. At the least, if one of these five is chosen, the next MTA head will have a pedigree of transportation and transit policy, and that’s a step in the right direction.

  • Along the Bx9, a third driver assault in as many months

    As we’ve learned over the last few years, bus drivers are among the most vulnerable of MTA employees. There is no physical barrier between them and passengers, and irate riders often take out their frustrations on drivers. Over the years, the MTA has promised more cameras to enable them to catch perps who assault drivers, and they are slowly working on a bus partition pilot that will better protect drivers. The hits just keep on coming though.

    CBS News’ Lou Young spoke with Maria Hogan, a driver in the Bronx who was assaulted this weekend. She had to deal with an irate passenger when she passed a stop closed for construction. The passengers yelled and then, on the way out, he punched her. As Young recounts, this happened in the middle of the day on Saturday afternoon “all of 300 yards from the passed stop.” It was the third such assault on this same bus line in three months.

    Both the MTA and driver’s union reps said the right things. The MTA is committed to improving safety, and the union wants to work closely and quickly with the authority in doing so. Officials attribute a recent uptick in driver assaults to frustration over the economy, but whatever the cause, driver security has to be a priority. Protective measures should be implemented as soon as possible, and if the authority can’t speed up the pilot program, increasing police patrols on high-violence bus routes could be an answer.

  • Skanksa JV set to build Second Avenue’s 86th St. station

    The MTA announced this morning that it has awarded a $301 million contract to a joint venture of Skanska USA and Traylor Bros Inc. for the construction of the 86th St. station cavern along the Second Ave. Subway. The construction, which will start this month an wrap in the fall of 2014, will include the excavation of the station cavern, installation of the cavern’s concrete structural lining and basic utility and underpinning work.

    MTA and Skanska officials praised this deal as a clear sign that Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway will indeed see the light of day sometime this decade. “With this award we move one step closer to making the Second Avenue Subway a reality for our customers,” Michael Horodniceanu, the President of MTA Capital Construction, said in a statement.

    Skanska has played a key role in this $4.45 billion subway expansion plan that the MTA says will open in December 2016. They are part of the joint venture building the Phase 1 tunnel, recently won the contract or the 34th Street station along the 7 line, are working on Fulton Street and have completed numerous other MTA renovations. “Skanska and the MTA have a long and successful history of working together to build, renovate and improve New York City’s transit system,” Michael Viggiano, a executive vice president with Skanska, said. “We are excited to build yet another major project with our MTA partners, one with historical significance. New Yorkers will soon have subway service on the Upper East Side which will reduce overcrowding and delays on the Lexington Avenue line.”

  • Work on final 7 line extension contract set to start soon

    Although the opening of the MTA’s first new subway station in over 20 years still seems as though it is a ways away, December 2013 will get here sooner than we realize. To that end, the MTA announced today that work on the final contract for the 7 line extension will begin this month. The contract — a $513.7 million deal awarded this summer to a joint venture of Skanska USA and the RailWorks Corp — will be funded through the Hudson Yards Development Corporation.

    Essentially, this contract is for the finishes for the one-stop, $2.1-billion subway extension. Under it, contractors will lay tracks and build the signal systems and third rail. They will add numerous pieces to the infrastructure of the new station at 34th Street and 11th Ave., including escalators and elevators, power systems, lighting, plumbing, heating, ventilation and even air conditioning. “This award marks a major milestone as we continue to make progress on the construction of the 7 extension project,” Dr. Michael Horodniceanu, President of MTA Capital Construction, said in a statement. “With the award of this contract, we’re one step closer to opening up the Far West Side of Manhattan to major, transit-oriented economic growth.”

    Unfortunately, though, with this contract comes the death of a barely-alive dream. For now, the 7 line extension will be just one stop from Times Square to 34th and 11th Ave. While not quite a subway to nowhere, this expensive expansion will not stop at 41st St. and 10th Ave. Contractors who built the tunnels made sure to grade the path at that location to allow future construction, but neither a shell nor carved-out walls will be in place. Any effort to right this transportation planning oversight will carry a significant cost. Still, the finish line for the 7 line extension is now in sight.

  • From the TWU, opening salvos in a long war

    A pair of articles concerning the TWU and its touchy relationship with the MTA caught my attention yesterday. First, NY1 reported on a small labor protest involving health care. Allegedly, the MTA has violated its contract by cutting some union members’ health care benefits, and the TWU has filed a protest. “There are issues with prescriptions, issues with hospital stays. There is an across the board effort by the MTA to nickel and dime transit workers to death,” TWU President John Samuelsen said. “If they attack our benefits, we’re gonna attack back.”

    The Daily News too covered what they termed a “flash mob” protest. According to Pete Donohue’s coverage, Monday’s mini-protest was the first in a concerted attempt to bring “unorthodox and unexpected” to the MTA. “This fight starts now,” Samuelsen said.

    For its part, the MTA struck a somewhat conciliatory tone. “We look forward to sitting at the bargaining table to negotiate, in good faith, a new collective bargaining agreement with TWU Local 100,” the MTA said. The problem is one of timing: The MTA cannot fight a political fight for capital dollars while negotiating with the union while waiting for and adjusting to a new CEO and Chairman. They could use a union willing to hold back until everything else is settled, but that seems like an unlikely outcome right now. The fall will be an interesting one indeed.

  • On Election Day, a voter’s guide to transportation

    Few New Yorkers may realize it, but today is an election day. From the relatively high-profile House race to replace former Rep. Anthony Weiner to a trio of Assembly districts in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, voters are being asked to head to the polls for some special elections. While transportation isn’t a major issue in any of these campaigns, it is always on the minds of New Yorkers, and to that end, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign has published a voters guide to transportation.

    In the House race, New York City transit isn’t a major issue. David Weprin has opposed congestion pricing, and his GOP opponent Bob Turner repeated the tired talking about about the “job-killing” MTA-supporting payroll tax. The race in Brooklyn’s 54th Assembly district hasn’t touched upon transit while Jane Deacy in Queens also railed against the “job-killing” payroll tax. She has no other solutions for MTA funding, but neither does Democrat Phil Goldfeder. In Manhattan, GOP candidate Paul Niehaus also received the talking points memo about the “job killing” payroll tax while Dan Quart wants to “restructure the MTA to ensure dedicated funding streams so our subways, buses and roads do not fall into disrepair.” So there you have it; now get out there and vote.

  • Tales from a fare-jumping high school student

    Pete Donohue’s weekly column made its appearance in the Daily News today, and it is a thought-provoking one, to say the least. In it, Donohue follows a 17-year-old student who attends high school in Park Slope but lives in a neighborhood far away both physically and socioeconomically, and the main thrust of the column focuses on Alicia’s fare-jumping.

    Although Alicia has a Student MetroCard, she says she still jumps the turnstiles as often as possible in order to save up her student rides for non-school-related activities. She told Donohue that she uses the rides to travel elsewhere — to the movies, to visit friends — and she doesn’t worry about a potential summons. “Why would I?” she said. “I know when to hop and where to hop. I know where the police are going to be and when they’re going to be there.”

    The 17-year-old has a very them-vs.-us approach to her illegal activities (and her abuse of the Student MetroCard as well). “The cops, the MTA, they’re all going to get paid whether I pay or not, whether I hop or don’t hop. I could put the money I save aside into a college fund or something,” she said. The article, though, is about more than just this one girl’s experiences; it’s about socioeconomic class in New York, attitudes toward transit and the role of the much maligned and underfunded Student MetroCard program. It’s worth a read and some deeper thoughts as well.

  • If you see something, sue someone

    With the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks dominating the news lately, various anti-terrorism efforts have made headline. The MTA, of course, has burned their “See something, say something” campaign into our collective consciousness over the past few years, and they’ve licensed it to transit and security agences around the world. Now and then, though, groups use it or a derivative slogan without permission, and the authority doesn’t like that.

    As The Post detailed last week, the MTA moved to trademark the slogan in 2007 and is now challenging a t-shirt retailers’ attempt and an online security firm’s effort to do the same. Over the years, the MTA has gone after numerous copycats — including a few universities — who haven’t requested permission. Allen Kay, head of the Korey Kay & Partners agency, is steamed when others steal his work too. “I don’t think they have a right to it,” he said. “I live for original ideas. It galls me anytime someone does something derivative — or outright steals. I think that’s despicable.”