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AsidesSecond Avenue Subway

More Second Ave. stories about buildings and food

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

While sagas about businesses dominated the morning headlines today, we’ve got buildings and disgruntled residents along Second Ave. today. As The Post reports today, an MTA structural engineering study has found that 51 out of 225 buildings along Second Ave. between 125th and 63rd Sts. are too structurally unsound to withstand underground vibrations from subway construction. To avoid costly and lengthy litigation with negligent landlords, the MTA will pay to shore up these buildings, many of which are 100 years old. “The majority of the buildings we found problematic are really in the northern part,” MTA Capital Construction head Michael Horodniceanu said.

Agency officials said that contractors have fixed up 12 of the problematic buildings and another five are in progress. Still, that leaves 34 buildings that need to be supported and another 18 under examination. While residnets at 1873 Second Ave. will move back in on Nov. 6 (and a Dunkin Donuts will soon reopen), they aren’t happy, and that unhappiness should spread down the avenue as the MTA evacuates more buildings during this structural engineering process. “It was exceptionally frustrating,” an anonymous resident said to The Real Deal. “We got nothing in writing. We always had to call with our questions and the relocation people gave very political answers. They were never straightforward.”

In other Second Ave. subway news, the tunnel boring machine, says Capital Construction, is moving ahead at a pace slower than expected. According to MTA documents, the 20-day average dig for the tunnel boring machine has been just 44.4 feet per day, well under the projected pace of 55 feet. As such, the completion date for TBM Run #1 has been pushed back to Feb. 15, 2011 instead of Jan. 15. Still, the MTA says the project is still slightly ahead of the proposed July 2009 schedule that would see revenue service by the end of 2016.

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AsidesLIRRNew Jersey Transit

Morning NJ Transit derailment causing evening commute woes

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 25, 2010

Late this morning, a New Jersey Transit train suffered a minor derailment as the train left Penn Statin this morning, and, as City Room notes, “the accident and its aftermath have put Tracks 1 through 9 out of commission at the 21-track station.” In the aftermath of this incident, NJ Transit is now sharing tracks with Amtrak and the Long Island Rail Road, and everyone is suffering delays into and out of Penn Station this evening.

For Long Island-bound commuters, the MTA warns that trains out of Penn Station are running up to 30 minutes behind schedule, and many rush hour trains have been or will be canceled. The full list of cancellations is available here. For better service east, consider taking the subway to the Atlantic Ave. Terminal. NJ Transit too is reporting delays of up to an hour with some service terminating in Hoboken.

Right now, PATH has added service and is cross-honoring NJ Transit rail tickets and passes at 33rd St., Hoboken and Newark Penn Station while NJ Transit buses are cross-honoring rail tickets and passes systemwide and private carriers departing from Port Authority are also cross-honoring all NJ Transit passes. Officials say the derailment will be cleared up by the Tuesday a.m. rush, and commutes tomorrow morning will proceed as scheduled.

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AsidesBrooklyn

Restoring bus service through MetroTech and a change at Jay St.

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 25, 2010

Here’s an intriguing announcement that came out of today’s MTA Board committee meetings: Transit is restoring bus service through the MetroTech complex in Downtown Brooklyn for the first time since Sept. 11, 2001. The agency press release notes that “due to security measures adopted by the New York City Police Department following 9/11,” Transit had to reroute the B54 around the MetroTech Center, but now that the tenant that “required these security measures” is vacating the area, the B54 will resume service through the center.

The new routing will remove the B54 from the Flatbush Ave. extension and Tillary St. and send the bus down MetroTech Walk instead. The MTA believes this change will “improve reliability and provide a more direct route” for those traveling to the subway. The stops along Jay St. at Tillary St. and Mrytle Ave. will be discontinued, and the B54 will stop at MetroTech walk and Lawrence St.

Speaking of the subway, The Brooklyn Paper speaks with Transit officials this week about the upcoming renaming of the Jay St./Borough Hall subway stop. When the extensive renovations are finished within the next few months and the Lawrence St. R stop connects with the A/C/F station at Jay St., the complex will be renamed Jay Street-MetroTech. “The Jay Street station is much closer to MetroTech than it is to Borough Hall,” Deirdre Parker, Transit spokesperson, said to the paper. “So the entire complex, including Lawrence Street, will be called Jay Street-MetroTech when the project is finished.”

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AsidesMTA Economics

Tales from the economics of transit

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 22, 2010

The fallout from the MTA’s June service cuts has continued into the fall, and today, I have two stories that highlight both the politics and economics behind the service cuts. The first came from last week’s issue of The Brooklyn Paper, and it involves the dollar vans that have replaced some eliminated local bus routes. Sulaiman Haqq, the businessman running the van service along the defunct B71 route, has found that he is bleeding money as few people ride the service. During the first two weeks of service, he averaged 1-4 passengers during his 16-hour shift and certainly isn’t covering even his costs. “This is the reason why public transportation is subsidized,” he said. “It is not profitable.”

The second story comes from yesterday’s Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Sen. Marty Golden, Councilman Vincent Gentile and Assemblywoman Janele Hyer-Spencer led yet another protest against the elimination of two express buses in advance of a lawsuit alleging that the MTA’s cuts violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. I’ve profiled Hyer-Specner and Golden in the past, and these two are offering up nothing new. “Let’s return the X37 and the X38 back on the FDR Drive, exiting at 23rd Street. That is the best way to transport people quickly and efficiently from my district to uptown Manhattan,” Golden said yesterday. Neither he nor Hyer-Spencer have done anything to help return the $143 million Albany took from the MTA late last year. With that money and a little help from the right people in Albany, the MTA could theoretically look to restore service along these two highly unprofitable express bus routes.

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ARC TunnelAsides

NJ Assembly Rep: No evidence of ARC cost overruns

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

As the ARC Tunnel Doomsday clock reaches 11 p.m., one New Jersey state representative claims that Gov. Chris Christie’s attempts at killing the project are simply wrong. NJ State Assembly Transportation Chair John Wisniewski announced today that a review of New Jersey Transit planning documents show that the ARC Tunnel is currently on track to cost $8.7 billion and that he could find no evidence of cost overruns in the projections from June onward.

“The documents provided by the governor’s own administration fail to provide any justification for the governor’s claim of billions in cost overruns on the tunnel project,” Wisniewski said in a statement today. “That claim seems as though it was simply pulled out of thin air by the governor. The governor is risking New Jersey’s economic future with numbers that, at least according to these documents, have no basis in reality. Over-the-top sound bites by Gov. Christie aside, the fact is the OPRA documents include reports dated July 30, Aug. 24 and Oct. 5. All of the reports include the following statement: ‘The overall project remains within budget.’ The next sentence in each report indicates the total project budget is $8.7 billion.”

Wisniewski, who might have more to say, doesn’t seem to account for the fact that, seven years ago, this project was budged at under $5 billion, but for now, it’s not clear from where Christie’s claims of cost overruns of up to $5 billion originate. The OPRA documents are available online right here.

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AsidesBuses

Building a better M15 SBS

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

When Select Bus Service debuted along 1st and 2nd Aves. just last week, riders and the press were quick to deem it a disaster. People couldn’t figure out how to pay before boarding; the proof-of-payment slips for use on SBS buses but not the regular local M15s provided too confusing; and the route didn’t seem to have enough buses to meet demand. Well, the MTA and NYC’s Department of Transportation have listened to the complaints, and as the Daily News reports today, improvements are coming to the Select Bus Service route.

First, the MTA plans to add three additional buses to fill service gaps. This will bring the total number of SBS buses along the M15 to 40. More importantly, though, is the word that riders can use SBS proof-of-payment receipts to board local buses, a point of contention in the early goings. This way, if a local bus arrives before an Select Bus Service bus, those waiting can choose to board the local without paying another fare. “It’s common sense,” Gene Russianoff said. “Riders should be able to take whatever bus comes first if they want to get on the move.”

The MTA meanwhile noted that speeds have already improved along the route. Last week, the buses were averaging 98 minutes end-to-end while this week that time is down to 88 minutes. When the camera enforcement comes online next month and even more cars start moving out of bus lanes, the service should speed up then as well.

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AsidesPublic Transit Policy

Weekend Reading: The debate over high-speed rail

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 16, 2010

Throughout the world, countries are building or already enjoying high-speed rail networks, but America, once the home of the world’s first railroad barons, has been left in the dust. Now, the Obama Administration is trying to get regional high-speed rail networks off the ground, but poor state finances along with a skeptical public beholden to the auto industry and crushingly high price tags have left these proposals surrounding by question marks.

Not helping the matter is inherent skepticism in the press coverage of the high-speed rail initiative. Take, for instance, a Room for Debate feature from the opinion pages of The Times. Six commentators offered up their views on the future of rail in the U.S., and most of them were bearish on the idea. Robert Puentes from Brookings wants sensible investments that offer smart connections; Jan Brueckner, a U.C. Irvine economist, doubts that Americans will change their transportation patterns; and Sam Staley from the Reason Foundation calls a high-speed rail network “infeasible and not cost-effective.” It’s designed to fail before it even gets off the ground.

Only Bob Yaro, head of New York’s own Regional Plan Association, seems to understand the need for high-speed rail. At $500 billion, a comprehensive rail network “won’t come cheap,” he says, but “we can’t afford not to build a national high-speed system. It’s not the only infrastructure investment needed to secure our economic futures. But it’s one that will be essential to our future mobility and competitiveness.”

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AsidesSecond Avenue Subway

Second Avenue’s a gas

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 15, 2010

After a construction mishap underneath Second Ave., hundreds of residents at the George Washington Houses, a New York City Housing Authority project, are without gas, The Times reports today. Per Joseph Berger’s reporting, Cruz/Tully Joint Venture, a Second Ave. subway contractor, accidentally turned off a gas valve that feeds the building at 1905 Second Avenue. When the gas lines were inspected, the pipes were found to be faulty, and thus gas could not be turned back on until all of the gas pipes are replaced. This is yet another example of how shoddy building work and landlord negligence has led to problems for the Second Ave. subway.

The MTA has so far pointed its finger at the contract. “This was an inexcusable mistake on the part of the contractor working on the Second Avenue Subway project,” an MTA spokesperson said to Metro. But at the same time, NYCHA has to take responsibility for their gas lines. Had they properly maintained the building, Cruz/Tully could have reactivated the gas shortly after accidentally shuttering it.

While the gas hiccup won’t impact work on the subway, it has left neighbors even more resentful of the project, and residents are concerned that the gas could be out for as much as two months. The Housing Authority has issued two-valve hot plates in the meantime, and the contractor will distribute Visa gift cards ranging from $600-$1200 for those customers impacted by the outage. Yet, as one asked, “Who’s going to cook a Thanksgiving dinner on a hot plate?”

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ARC TunnelAsides

A private solution for ARC Tunnel funding woes?

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 14, 2010

Despite the fact that neither New Jersey nor the Feds have released an audited update of the ARC Tunnel cost overuns, Senator Frank Lautenberg, a Garden State Democrat, is trying to secure a private partnership to help get the tunnel back on track. As Bloomberg News reported, Lautenberg says he has reached to a “major New York City-based finance firm” in an effort save the ARC Tunnel. Lautenberg has also asked the feds to throw in more money for this vital rail infrastructure upgrade and has asked Port Authority to contribute more as well.

Meanwhile, New York’s own governor has finally broken his silence on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s decision to scrape the ARC Tunnel. “I just cannot be critical of the governor of New Jersey if he can save nearly $3 billion that New Jersey would be putting into that one program and use it for other issues statewide. I cannot quarrel with his decision,” he said during a WOR-AM radio spot yesterday. Casting a skeptical eye on Lautenberg’s financing ideas, David Paterson said he believed that the costs are “too great for private financing.” If private investors couldn’t, he reasoned, save St. Vincent’s hospital, how can they fund a tunnel that could need between $2-$5 billion more than expected?

New York State, of course, stands to benefit from the ARC Tunnel but, outside of money giving through Port Authority, has yet to make a significant contribution to this project. The outgoing governor, though, said the Empire State could not lend a hand. “There’s going to have to be redress because the one thing that can save overcrowding right now is expansion of the railways,” he said. “If I had the resources to do it, I would say it would be valuable enough to invest in this project.”

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AsidesService Cuts

Walder: No more service cuts on my watch

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 13, 2010

MTA CEO and Chairman Jay Walder plans to serve out his full six-year term as the head of the beleaguered transit authority, and this morning, he vowed that the MTA would not cut train and bus service again on his watch. “I think we’ve heard the voice of the people,” he said. “Our intent is not to cut those services any further.” While speaking at a Crain’s New York Business breakfast this morning, Walder said he could not promise the same when it comes to fare hikes. Despite recent efforts to close a substantial budget gap, the MTA is slated to raise fares again in 2013, and Walder plans to adhere to that schedule. I’ll have more on Walder’s comments at the breakfast later.

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