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AsidesLIRR

LIRR switch replacement system years late, over budget

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

The fire at the Hall signal tower that has severely curtailed LIRR service started, according to the MTA, when rain water served as a conductor for an electricity surge, and the irony of it, as I explored yesterday, is that a computerized signal system is set to go online in November. It comes as no surprise then that The Post notes that this signal system should have been activated years ago.

In a piece that explores the nature of the fire and its ramifications, three Post reporters comment on the signal upgrade efforts: “It’s unlikely a similar fire would have caused such mayhem if the parent MTA had implemented on time and on budget a new microprocessor-based system designed to replace the near-century-old system that failed…It’s three years late and 167 percent over budget.” This development is an unsurprisingly one in the annals of MTA projects. Few major transit works have been completed on time or on budget, and at some point, someone — the comptroller, an external auditor, the MTA itself — should tell us why rampant delays and cost overruns have become the accepted norm. For now, we’ll just wait for the LIRR to close the barn door after the horse already escaped.

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AsidesPublic Transit Policy

On the need for better transit funding policies

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

In a few weeks, the MTA will host a series of public hearings on a proposal to raise fares by approximately 7.5 percent, and then a few weeks after that, New Yorkers will go to the polls at Election Day to send a bunch of unqualified and largely inept legislators back to Albany. As the vote and the fare hike draw ever closer, one topic not on the lips of politicians this year is a funding solution to the MTA’s woes. While congestion pricing or bridge tolls remain untapped, the only solutions Albany can offer involve service cuts, fare hikes or more borrowing, quite destructive in the long-term. The MTA’s funding crisis so no signs of abating.

Today in the Albany Times Union, John Petro of the Drum Major Institute takes Albany to task for neglecting its duties to public transit in and around the New York City area. “State lawmakers,” he says, “must craft a long-term plan for taming the debt they let grow out of control and for maximizing new sources of transit funding without overburdening average taxpayers or the riding public.” The only problem with this seemingly simple mandate is that state lawmakers have buried their heads in the sand and have taken dedicated funds away from the MTA at the time of greatest need.

In his piece, Petro urges the media to push hard on Andrew Cuomo’s non-stance on the MTA. In his campaign literature so far, Cuomo has barely paid heed to the MTA’s problems and has instead hinted that he might rollback the payroll tax, a source of $1.4 billion in annual revenue for public transit. Petro also urges New York’s representatives in Washington to secure more funding for operations assistance. As he says, “Our public transit system is an irreplaceable asset and an invaluable part of the nation’s infrastructure that should be protected. Leaders in state government better start treating it that way.” I hope someone is listening.

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AsidesSecond Avenue Subway

As SAS construction heads south, 2nd Ave. merchants suffer

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

For the past few years, business owners along Second Ave. near the upper 90s have bemoaned the constant state of construction around the Second Ave. Subway launch box. With noise and dust filling the air, with fenced-off sidewalks and a general state of disarray, business has suffered and many stores have closed. Now that the project work is heading south along the avenue, business owners in the East 60s and 70s are finding out that life amidst a subway construction isn’t very much fun.

As The Real Deal reported this week, some merchants have found business down by 40 percent as the MTA has set up fences and has begun working between 69th and 74th Streets. The Beach Cafe at 70th St., for instance, has been open for 40 years but has seen business drop by a quarter since subway work began. There is, said owner Dave Goodside, “no guarantee that we’re going to be in business next year and that’s due to the subway construction. We’ve never felt like that before, but that’s how we feel.”

New York City politicians are attempting to usher through a bill granting these businesses tax abatements during construction, and the MTA has been promoting the “Shop Second Avenue” initiative. Additionally, once work is completed on Phase I of the SAS sometime between 2016 and 2018, these businesses will see property value shoot up, but that is little consolation as their day-to-day existences remain in limbo. These shops are but necessary victims of a badly-needed subway extension.

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AsidesManhattan

15 Penn Plaza developer pledges $100M for Penn Station

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on August 24, 2010

The battle between the Empire State Building and the proposed 15 Penn Plaza took center stage at a City Council hearing yesterday, and while the two sides duked it out over the skyline, Vornado, the developer of 15 Penn Plaza, dangled a transit carrot in front of the city politicians. David Greenbaum, the head of the company’s New York office division, said that Vornado is prepared to spend $100 million on improvements in and around Penn Station as long as the city gives final approval to the project. The Empire State Building owners claim that 15 Penn Plaza would block the sweeping views of the iconic Art Deco skyscraper and radically alter the skyline, but it’s hard to ignore $100 million in transit improvements. That money is, after all, hard to come by, and private developers should be contributing to transit as they plant buildings that will increase demand.

I reported on Vornado’s $100 million plan earlier this year, and the centerpiece is the reopening of the Gimbels Passageway underneath 33rd St. between 6th and 7th Avenues. The rest of their plans include wider staircases, a direct entrance to the express platforms at 32nd and 7th and a variety of new entrances and connections between the subway and PATH at 6th Ave. The City Council will vote on the future of 15 Penn Plaza tomorrow.

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AsidesBuses

Disabled groups threaten TLC with suit over dollar vans

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on August 19, 2010

As the MTA must respond to a lawsuit over the June service cuts from disabled advocacy groups, the Taxi & Limousin Commission may face a similar legal challenge soon. The TLC will soon began licensing dollar van companies to provide service along bus routes that were eliminated by the MTA. This private van service isn’t subjected to the same Americans with Disabilities Act standards as the MTA, but with the TLC’s imprimatur needed to run vans, advocacy groups may have a legal opening they’re willing to exploit. And it exploit they will.

As Crain’s New York reported yesterday, an attorney with the United Spinal Association said that his organization will sue if the TLC doesn’t require vans to be wheelchair-accessible. “If the TLC wants to go ahead with inaccessible vans, we will sue them,” Jim Weisman said. The TLC, reports Jeremy Smerd, is not going to require accessible vans, and as the Crains reporter notes, with the TWU’s application for a van route in, this lawsuit could pit disabled riders against one of its key transit allies. The dollar van program will not start until September, and at that time, these advocacy routes will weigh their legal options.

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AsidesRolling Stock

Reefing program cut as R32s and R42s stick around

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on August 19, 2010

As first reported by Heather Haddon, the MTA will not be scrapping the R32s and R42s that currently run along the A/C and J/Z lines. To save approximately $1.6 million in 2010 and and around $2.4 million overall, Transit will retrofit these cars and keep this batch of 46-year-old rolling stock in use for a few more trips before replacing them later on in the five-year capital plan. The MTA still plans to spend $748 million in capital funds to buy 340 new B division cars before 2015.

As Haddon reports, “[These] trains have the worst record for breakdowns in the system, and are about seven times more likely to fall apart than the new cars on the letter lines, NYC Transit records show.” By keeping them in service and ending the reefing program, the authority can save money on transportation, hazardous material abatement and barging costs. I do wonder how much of those savings is offset by higher maintenance costs. Either way, the fish in the mid-Atlantic will be so disappointed, and we won’t be seeing anymore of those nifty photos of scrapped subway trains on barges.

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AsidesMTA Economics

In the suburbs, an uphill battle to overturn the payroll tax

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on August 18, 2010

As the summer has dragged on, an MTA payroll tax revolt has slowly developed in the suburban counties that ring New York City. Nassau County has filed a suit to overturn the tax, and the future of the levy has become a campaign issue in some of the far-reaching areas that see only minimal MTA service. Even though Gov. David Paterson shifted the bulk of the tax burden to New York City denizens, these suburban dwellers want their transit service but not the costs associated with it.

In The Wall Street Journal today, Andrew Grossman offers up an overview of the tax revolt. He reports that Suffolk County will file a brief in support of Nassau County’s lawsuit but also stresses how the payroll tax now accounts for $1.3-$1.5 billion of the MTA’s $12 billion budget. Without it, the MTA is sunk. “It was either that or let them raise fares 35 or 40%, cut service dramatically,” Jim LaCarrubba, campaign manager to payroll tax supporter Sen. Brian Foley, said. “To just say you don’t like it and have no solution on how to fix the problems, it’s not being genuine to the public.”

Republican challengers such as Lee Zeldin highlight the flaws in the opposition’s argument. He though claims the MTA could save $1.3 billion simply by cutting administrative costs and raising fares, but a fare hike to cover such a great deficit would be in excess of 25 percent. Other State Senate hopefuls are more willing to consider East River bridge tolls, but most simply want other people to pay for their services. “Out here on the East End of Long Island people rely a lot less on” the LIRR, Zeldin said. “That’s why there’s so much resentment.” The challenges to the payroll tax, as Grossman reports, have very slim chances of legal success.

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AsidesSubway Cell Service

Where the cell signals leak in

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

As the MTA has once again renewed its vow to bring cell service and wifi underground, many have wondered if constant connectivity is truly good or if the yammering masses will slowly drive us all insane. I’ve long been of the belief that cell access on platforms only won’t lead to louder waits. The subway system isn’t a quiet and peaceful arena today, and the vast above-ground portions have long had cell service. Riders along the elevated routes haven’t become boorish on their phones.

Today, Heather Haddon and Katherine Lieb unveil the secrets of underground cell service and highlight those stations that already have cell access either from street-level grates or from nearby landmarks. Nearly four dozen of the 277 underground stations have service at some point or another. The list, available on amNew York’s website, includes 30 IRT stations, many of which aren’t very far below ground, and a handful of the oldest BMT stops along the R. Only a few IND stops have service because they were built relatively deep underground. Nevins St. in Brooklyn has long been my favorite transfer point between the East and West Side IRT lines because of its stellar cell service.

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AsidesBuses

Judge denies TWU’s commuter van injunction request

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

A New York State Supreme Court judge denied the TWU’s request for an injunction against the city’s new commuter van program. Designed to replace bus routes lost to the service cuts with private operators, the commuter van program came under fire from the TWU who claimed it violated state law and was an unsafe alternative to bus operations. Justice Anil C. Singh disagreed, and now the Taxi & Limousine Commission will move full speed ahead. The TWU will run one of these van routes, and The Daily News has more on the one operator-per-line approach the TLC will soon establish for this pilot program.

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AsidesBuses

TLC begins fining bus lane-blocking cabbies

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on August 12, 2010

While New York City is still awaiting authority to dole out tickets to drivers caught blocking bus lanes, the Taxi & Limousine Commission in conjunction with the MTA has mailed out the first round of summonses for those cabbies who are caught in the bus lanes. According to Heather Haddon of amNew York, the commission mailed out 30 tickets last week with another 120 more to come.

Fines are $150, and cabbies are, of course, not happy with it. “I wish there were other ways for the city to find money other than consistently targeting drivers who work for a living,” David Pollock, the man behind Taxi Insider, said. But Pollock has it wrong. It’s so much about finding money by harassing cab drivers as it is ensuring that buses have the right of way they deserve. To avoid the $150 ticket, cab drivers must simply stay out of the bus lanes, and the buses will be able to operate at optimal speeds. Anything else is just plain selfish.

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