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AsidesSubway Cell Service

Amtrak, now with some wireless internet

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on March 3, 2010

Over the last three and a half years of writing here, one of the recurring topics has focused on Internet access or lack thereof on the region’s commuter rail lines. The MTA has been engaged in a never-ending attempt to wire its underground subway system for basic cell service, and Sen. Chuck Schumer has called for wireless access on the MTA’s commuter rails. It truly is a matter of economics and productivity because people with Internet don’t suffer through time lost to commuting. Maybe people can spend more time with their families because they can get work done on their rides into and out of work. Still the efforts continue with no real end in sight.

Earlier this week, though, Amtrak kinda sorta joined the wireless fray. The national rail carrier announced wireless internet access for Acela Express passengers this week. Access is free on board all Acela Express trains, in stations in D.C, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Providence and Westwood, Massachusetts and in all ClubAcela lounges. Unfortunately, Amtrak says it won’t be extending access to its non-Acela trains in the near future. For a country so obsessed with productivity, the lack of non-phone carrier Internet access along our train lines is a technological step backward.

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AsidesView from Underground

Subway reality TV show runs off the rails

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on March 2, 2010

A plan to film a reality TV show based on the day-to-day lives of train conductors, the MTA’s station agents and other subway employees has been postponed due to the MTA’s budget crunch, Michael Grynbaum reported in The Times today. The series was to focus on MTA employees as they “handle track fires, angry customers and the grind of running the country’s biggest mass transit system,” but with money tight, the authority has ceased work on a 15-minute pilot. “The plan is to follow these guys wherever they go,” producer Ross Breitenbach said. “The M.T.A. has been interested in letting us tell real stories, not a sanitized commercial.”

I’m not sure why outside production money can’t be used to cover the costs of this pilot, but I could see why the authority wouldn’t feel comfortable devoting hours to a TV show amidst a financial crisis. Still, the MTA had hoped to use this show to, in the words of Grynbaum, “showcase the human side of an often-demonized system.” Adding an element of personality to the vast anonymity of the subway system could go a long way toward making New Yorkers more sympathetic to the plights of the MTA and the cause of transit. Hopefully, when times are better, the MTA and A&E Networks can revisit this interesting project.

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AsidesMTA

A new effort to target homeless undergound

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

For many homeless people in New York City, the subways are an alluring spot. Getting in costs just two dollars; they’re open 24 hours a day; and train cars and stations provide shelter from the elements. Yet for the millions of New Yorkers who use the subway to commute around the city, homeless people can make the trips unpleasant and the subways unsightly. In a move designed to combat the growing number of homeless people taking up residence at various train terminals, the MTA and the Bowery Residents’ Committee have pledged to increase outreach efforts and the number of case managers targeting the subway’s homeless.

According to Heather Haddon of amNew York, a new $1.5 million contract is set to commence in March, and case workers will target areas such as Penn Station and Grand Central where the homeless concentration is particularly high. Over the last few years, the number of homeless people in subways has risen, and an increased attention to this problem will serve both social needs and commuter comfort.

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AsidesSecond Avenue Subway

Along Second Ave., handling buildings with care

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

As the MTA has dug into Second Ave. along the Upper East Side, the agency has come across buildings that are not up to code. Landlords haven’t ensured that their buildings are structurally sufficient, but instead of fighting in court and potentially delaying the already-delayed subway line, the agency opted to pay for building bracings in the fall. Earlier this week, agency officials promised to do a more thorough examination of the “fragile” buildings along Second Ave., amNY’s Heather Haddon reported. “It really proved to be much more problematic and challenging than was originally thought,” MTA Capital Construction President Michael Horodniceanu said.

For the authority, this admission is a positive step forward. The Second Ave. Subway represents a unique challenge for the MTA because it is the first subway line built through a densely populated neighborhood marked by very old residential buildings. This city and others around the world simply haven’t witnessed the construction of a subway of this magnitude through built-up neighborhoods in generations. That the MTA is so keen to learn from the mistakes makes me believe that, if Phases II-IV of the SAS ever see the funding they need, the construction efforts will grow markedly smoother after Phase I opens in late 2016.

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AsidesService Advisories

Amidst slush, Transit scales back service

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

With a heavy and wet snow blanketing the New York City area, the MTA has implemented its inclement weather service schedule. For information on commuter rail and bus service changes, head on over to the authority’s website. For those of you relying on the subways to get around the city tonight, check out the inclement weather service plan. The B, V and W trains will end service earlier than normal. Most express trains will run local for all or part of their routes, and the Queens-bound G trains will terminate at Court Sq. It’s messy and slippery out there. So be careful on the way home tonight.

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AsidesQueens

An expansive rail solution for Southeast Queens

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

Southeast Queens — the area of the city’s largest borough out beyond JFK Airport — currently sits in something of a transit dead zone. It’s served by subway lines on the north and south and has the AirTrain and LIRR tracks running through certain neighborhoods, but the rail transit options are not integrated in a way that promotes convenient or face commutes from the eastern edges of New York City into Manhattan’s Central Business District. While certain bus rapid transit/select bus service plans are on the table to address some Jamaica-area bus service improvements, rail options are rather mentioned by planners looking to improve access.

In an interesting and thorough piece at The Transport Politic, Yonah Freemark explores a few solutions to the Southeast Queens problem. He first proposes a city-subsidized fare for Long Island Rail Road that would keep intra-city travel costs the same as a MetroCard swipe. Doing so would allow for faster, better and cheaper commutes for residents in the Queens neighborhoods such as Rosedale and Queens Village that are serviced by LIRR but not New York City Transit. He then proposes a few additional stops in southeast Queens and urges a new Jamaica-to-Howard Beach AirTrain line that would serve as a connector between the A and E/J/Z with stops at Liberty Ave. and Linden and Archer Blvds.

Freemark’s plan is an interesting one in that it uses existing infrastructure and would require relatively low-cost investments by the city, state and MTA. For an area of New York City far from the job hubs of downtown Manhattan and long underserved by transit, implementing any aspect of this plan would go along way toward encouraging transit use in a car-heavy area of the city. [The Transport Politic]

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AsidesSubway Advertising

MTA dumps delinquent advertising contractor Titan

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

Earlier this month, in an effort to highlight ways in which the MTA can better maximize its revenue potential, I wrote on how Titan Outdoor Holdings, one of the MTA’s advertising contractors, had fallen $18 million behind in its payments to the transit authority. Today, the MTA announced that it has terminated its contract with Titan after the company failed to pay $20 million owed to the authority for 2009 and 2010. The MTA has draw on Titan’s bank to collect the money it is due.

CBS Outdoor will take over the advertising space inside and outside buses and on Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North trains and stations that Titan hard previously managed. This company has been managing New York City subway and Staten Island Railway advertising space for years, and the MTA noted that CBS Outdoors has paid all of its bills despite an economic downturn.

“The sale of advertising space is a critical revenue source, especially at a time when MTA is facing a budget shortfall of $750 million,” MTA CEO and Chairman Jay H. Walder said in a statement. “MTA can’t afford to bail out businesses that do not perform the contractual promises that were the basis for their selection. We’re pleased to be moving forward with CBS Outdoor.” All’s well that ends well.

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AsidesTWU

Bloomberg questions retirees’ free rides

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

If New York City’s students won’t enjoy the benefits of free MetroCards, Mayor Bloomberg wants to know why retired transit workers should too. As Tom Namako reported earlier this week, Bloomberg, on his weekly radio show, questioned why retired TWU members get to enjoy the benefits of free transit for life at a cost of nearly $16 million annually to the MTA amidst a budget crunch for the authority. “I’m just pointing that out. It turns out that MTA is required to give the TWU retirees a free MetroCard once they begin receiving their pension payments,” he said.

Both MTA and TWU leaders downplayed the costs. A Metro-North official noted that most did not use their free passes during peak hours and said that the MTA “[doesn’t] see it as a center of revenue loss.” John Samuelsen, head of the TWU, questioned the Mayor’s dollar figure. “We have retirees that live all over the county, like in Florida, and they certainly don’t ride the subway,” he said. “They worked their whole life in the transit system, and they earned those passes.” Considering how he campaigned on a platform of MTA reform, the Mayor, long silent on the MTA’s current financial crisis, is shooting blanks here.

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AsidesSelf Promotion

SAS on CBS 2 news, again

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 23, 2010

A media alert: I’ll be on the WCBS 2 local news again this evening during the 6 p.m. broadcast. I’ll be talking about the MTA’s decision to eliminate 1000 positions in as put of the agency’s cost-cutting measures. For more coverage on that story, check out my posts on the station agent issue and MTA CEO and Chairman Jay Walder’s statement on the personnel reductions. I’ll link to the video when CBS posts it to their website.

Update 10:15 p.m.: The video is now available right here on WCBS’ website. It’s a rather even-keeled look at the service cuts and features what I think to be the most valid need for station against. If the MTA urges us to say something if we see something yet no one is there to whom we can say something, what are we do? Still, the costs of the station agents appear to far outweigh the benefits at a time when money is more than tight for the authority.

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AsidesService Cuts

Cuts made official as Walder pledges to reduce all costs

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 23, 2010

MTA CEO and Chairman Jay Walder officially announced plans to eliminate 1000 MTA jobs as part of the agency’s comprehensive cost-cutting measures designed to close a $761 million budget gap. As I reported late last night, the layoff plans will include 600 administrative jobs and 500 station agent positions. The station agent positions were slated for elimination through attrition, but the MTA’s dire financial situation has forced the authority to speed up the timetable for cutting personnel levels.

“The State’s economic crisis demands that the MTA move quickly and decisively to cut costs, and that is exactly what we are doing,” Walder said in a statement. “These layoffs are extremely painful, but we must live within our means and make the tough decisions that businesses and families across New York are making.” The agency noted that it would “comply with applicable statutory and collective bargaining obligations” for those unionized workers due to lose their jobs and that non-union workers would be offered severance packages.

Meanwhile, as part of his overall push to change the way the MTA operates and improve its financially accountability and efficiency, Walder promised more cost-cutting measures in the future. If he is successful, Walder could, despite having to inflict pain upon riders and workers, vastly improve the beleaguered authority. “This is just the beginning of a comprehensive overhaul of how the MTA does business,” he said. “We will be reducing overtime, consolidating redundant functions and working with suppliers to lower costs. We will not stop until I can say that every dollar the MTA receives is spent wisely.”

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