MTA Absurdity

It’s en vogue to dump on the MTA these days, and no one is letting actual reporting getting in the way of the fun. After all, the city’s transit agency is near-broke, suffers from inept management and is raising fares. Now, we learn that they can’t even spell the names of their own stations properly.

Ha! Right? Well, not quite. It turns out that this typo isn’t really a news story in the current sense of the word. It’s a seven-decade-old problem, but that hasn’t stopped the outrage from building. Let’s recap.

The fun started on Monday when Gothamist published a short post about the Broadway IND Crosstown stop. One of the station’s numerous tilings is out of order. Instead of saying “Broadway,” the letters read “Brodaway.”

Yesterday, The Daily News picked up this typo and reporting it as a serious news story. In doing so, Pete Donohue and Veronika Belenkaya brought this to the attention of New York City Transit officials. As we’ll soon learn, it would probably have been a better idea to let this sleeping dog lie.

Meanwhile, the madness spread with an over-the-top rant by WPIX’s Steven Bogart. He bashed the MTA for this misspelling:

When you’re riding the rails on the G line in Brooklyn, there’s a stop along the way that we New Yorkers like to call “Broadway.” The problem is the “we” doesn’t seem to include our beloved Metropolitan Transportation Authority. They’ve actually misspelled one of the most iconic street names in these United States, calling it “Brodaway” instead.

The grotesque error was spotted inside the Queens-bound G train tunnel in Williamsburg…With the MTA moving toward implementing a massive fare hike in order to plug a budget gap that they say has worsened by the global financial crisis, one could only hope some of that money will go toward spelling courses for the agency’s hundreds of employees.

People in the know were quick to debunk the News story. A lengthy Subchat thread delved into the history of this typo, and NY1 News acknowledged this history. People who grew up along the IND Crosstown line remember seeing this misspelling through the decades, and according to Kevin Walsh at Forgotten-NY, the typo has been in place since 1937.

Meanwhile, the MTA is primed to send someone to fix it. In the midst of a budget crisis, they are going to pay to fix a 72-year-old mistake that existed a good thirty years before the MTA made its ignoble debut in 1968. The cash-strapped authority is going to spend money on materials and man-hours to fix what many feel is one of the quirks of the subway system.

Talk about an overreaction. Perhaps we could let Mayor LaGuardia foot the bill for the replacement tiles. The IND Crosstown, typo and all, opened on his watch.

A photo of the misspelling in the late 1990s courtesy of Forgotten-NY.

It’s not a stretch to say that the South Ferry story — the first new station in 20 years delayed by a one-inch miscalculation — is indicative of the larger problems plaguing the MTA. After all, like every other recent capital project, the South Ferry station is tens of millions of dollars over budget and now 14 months late. But there’s something about the way the MTA handled this gap problem that speaks volumes about its internal organization.

When last we saw this story, Newsday had reported that a gap between the platform and train doors ranging from 0.04 inches to one inch in violation of safety standards had to be closed. Thus, the opening of the new South Ferry Terminal would be delayed by a few weeks. As Wednesday progressed, more news emerged.

Surprisingly — or not, really — the Daily News reported that it will cost $200,000 to replace and enlarge the two pieces of plastic that will close the gap. That’s about 1200 feet of plastic and labor for $200,000. No wonder the MTA is running a deficit. (For what it’s worth, the News also notes that water is already seeping into the sparkly new station. The MTA will attempt to use more grouting to stem that leak. At least the new station will fit in with the rest of the subway system’s popular Water Damage motif.)

The good story emerged from a William Neuman City Room post alleging a credibility gap at the MTA. This gap is far wider than an inch. Neuman writes:

Now members of the authority’s board are unhappy that they were not told about the problem. “I feel we’ve got to be told exactly what’s happening,” said Andrew Albert, a board member. “Mistakes do happen,” he added, “but we have to know.”

The flap began on Monday when the authority’s capital construction czar, Michael Horodniceanu, told a board committee that the station opening was being delayed because it was taking longer to test the station’s mechanical systems, such as the fire suppression system, than had been anticipated.

He made no mention of the gap problem, even as he was being questioned by board members about the delay…

On Wednesday, after a meeting of the full authority board, Mr. Horodniceanu told reporters that he had first become aware that the gap might be too wide at least a week ago. He said that measurements were taken last weekend and that he reviewed the data Monday afternoon.

Horodniceanu released a statement to the media and the Board when questioned about his unwillingness to offer up the gap problem on Monday. “Until I had clear indication that there is nothing that we can do,” he said, “and that did not happen until Monday, when I got a plot of the survey, it was not a topic that I thought ought to be brought up unless I had an answer and a solution. If I bring just problems without solutions that’s an issue. And that’s not how we do business.”

That’s the whole problem, isn’t it? At last night’s largely unremarkable but heavily attended Brooklyn-based fare hikes and service cuts hearings, the few speakers I sat through before leaving at 7:30 all noted the same thing. The MTA doesn’t do business properly. Just add this to the long list of internal problems plaguing an agency that needs public support more than it needs more bad P.R. right now.

Mind the one-inch gap. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

When I noted yesterday that the South Ferry Terminal opening has been postponed, I reported that this delay was due to some testing. It turns out the station won’t open for a few more weeks because of one whole inch.

Via Newsday:

The grand opening of New York City’s first new subway station in 20 years is being delayed by an inch.

Transit officials say the gap between the platform and the train at the $500 million South Ferry subway station is an inch too wide in some places, exceeding the three inch maximum allowed by federal regulations.

To fix the problem, authorities plan to install wider rubbing boards, a plastic strip that protects the platform edge from swaying trains, a three to four week job.

Oops.

When the Blue Ribbon Commission on Sustainability and the MTA unveiled its 148-page draft recommendations last week, the news coverage was decidedly mixed. It’s no small feat to digest and present a report that William Neuman in The Times aptly described as being “filled with colorful, head-scratching, tongue-twisting gobbledygook.”

When both The Times and The Post opted to lead with the story about the Green MetroCard proposal, then, I wasn’t too surprised. William Neuman aptly summarizes this idea:

The authority said on Thursday that it was considering a “green MetroCard” program that would let riders make donations to help pay for making its operations more environmentally sustainable. The program would also apply to commuter rail tickets and E-ZPasses.

The idea was among dozens of proposals in a $1 million report by a commission appointed by the authority to recommend ways to lessen the adverse environmental impact of its operations.

Under the program, whose details are still being developed, riders buying MetroCards or commuter rail tickets at station vending machines could tack on an extra charge in the form of a tax-deductible contribution for green projects, said Ernest Tollerson, the authority’s policy director.

Now, as someone writing a news blog with a background in journalism, I can understand why a newspaper would latch onto this idea. At a time when the MTA is gearing up to raise fares by as much as 23 percent and cut service, even the simple idea of a voluntary contribution comes across as out of touch and just plain bad PR. But on the flip side, the suggestion is one sentence in a report of 149 pages, and it has garnered far more attention than it should have.

While the newspaper’s attention to this program is defensible, the latest news out of Staten Island is not. Lou Tabacco, a Republican from South Shore, has decided to attack the MTA for this innocuous if misguided one-sentence proposal in a document chock full of new ideas. Here’s the story from the Staten Island Advance:

Tobacco called the idea, which was among about 100 suggestions that came out of a $1 million sustainability report, “an insult to commuters and lawmakers who are being asked to bail out the MTA.”

“First, the MTA calls for higher fares and tolls on commuters during these difficult economic times. Now they’re contemplating asking for donations from the same people whose pockets they are already trying to pick,” said Tobacco. “Enough is enough.”

“Surely, environmental considerations are an important aspect of any transportation plan, but wasting taxpayer money on bogus commissions is the last thing commuters need.”

Come on, Assemblyman Tobacco. You’re making a mountain out of a mole hill, and while this may be a bad idea, it was put forth by a Blue Ribbon Commission tasked with identifying all potential sustainability programs. Furthermore, this is the first draft of their recommendations; it’s not even a finalized product. The odds of this Green MetroCard contribution program coming to fruition are slim to none.

In the end, this latest development out of Staten Island shows why the public is skeptical of the MTA, but it also shows why elected officials don’t fund the MTA. They just don’t get it, and it almost seems like an uphill battle just getting any of these officials to pay attention to transit in any way that makes sense.

Last year, I was curious to see what Improv Everywhere’s no-pants day was all about it. In a nutshell, the public pranksters wreck havoc on the subways by organizing a massive no-pants ride during which a bunch of 20-somethings ride around on our subways in their skivvies.

The 2008 version of this annual day of derrieres in the subways was fun. I rode around in my underwear with 899 of my closet friends, and if you look closely on flickr, you might even find a glimpse of me sans pants.

This year’s event is set for Saturday. The organizers are urging everyone to meet at 3 p.m. in Foley Square in Lower Manhattan. It’s going to be in the low 30s or upper 20s and might snow, but everyone’s pants stay on until you’re safely underground.

Beware the No-Pants Day 2K9 crowd though. It’s becoming quite the destination, and the joke seems to take on a different meaning. The No-Pants Ride was wild in 2002 because six people did it, and it was just so weird. It gained national attention in 2006 when Improv Everywhere opened it up to the public and the police arrested a few pants-less straphangers. Last year, 900 people showed up, and while some “victims” just minding their own business were surprised, most guessed that subway cars half-full of people missing their pants was perhaps a coordinated effort.

This year, the numbers are off the charts. There’s a full-page feature on it in this week’s TimeOut New York. Charlie Todd, the event’s founder, is predicted over 1000 participants. The Facebook invite has 1500 confirmed guests and another 1600 maybes. While clearly not everyone who RSVP’d is going to show up, this has the potential to go from an amusing stunt to an overwhelming takeover of the subways.

Of course, that might just be the point. It challenges the paradigm of wearing pants on the subway, and I guarantee that unsuspecting riders on the chosen train lines won’t really know what to think. Some will be grossed out or offended. Others may join in the joke. Popularity aside, that’s the real fun of it. Meanwhile, why not try subway-map boxers? At least, you’d be winking at the joke.

After the main event, there’s a pants-less party near Union Square, and it sure is something seeing so many bare…legs…on the subway.

An MTA worker, shown here in 2006, rests on the job. (Photo by flickr user pixxiestails)

A quick joint through flickr reveals a whole series of photos of MTA employees asleep on the job, and it’s no secret that MTA station workers aren’t known for their bedside manners and even demeanor. Now, with budget cuts looming, the MTA is going to have to start cutting workers. While the Transit Workers Union will push hard to make sure their members don’t lose their jobs, the MTA is going to have to trim the bloat.

To that end, Jim Hoffer at ABC’s Eyewitness News did some digging this week and found a whole of bunch of underperforming MTA employees. While the authority had no comment for his story, Hoffer paints a picture of agency ready to face an internal gauntlet. While the MTA will need more money than that available from internal cuts, paring down a large bureaucracy is beneficial for streamlining operations as well.

The tale of the employees, though, is a classic. Reports Hoffer:

He’s supposed to be working, instead a transit track inspector is headed home after a little grocery shopping. Other transit employees caught on tape should be working too, instead they’re using the MTA dump truck to drive 30 miles to a beach on Long Island to hang out, chat and catch an ocean breeze. Other transit workers have so much free time during their 8-houir shift, they set up an outdoor gym where they can exercise at all hours of the work day.

“How many hours do you actually work on the track in an 8 hour shift?” I asked a track worker, who asked not to be identified.

“Typically it’s about 1 hour, an-hour-and-a-half of actual work,” he responded. Fed up with what he calls a culture of waste and abuse at a time when the MTA threatens record fare hikes, this worker said the problem starts high up.

“The supervisors are the problem. The supervisors allow this type of behavior. There is a system that allows the workers to slip out to go an do whatever they want,” he said.

Hoffer’s tales are endless and amusing. He has one about a worker who checks out his bar every hour or so and another about a team that works about 90 minutes a day. The workers, though, get $25-$30 an hour for their eight-hour shifts and benefits too. Sign me up!

The TWU, of course, denies the allegations. Roger Toussaint told Hoffer that the 90-minute work days are exceptions and that crews loiter, for hours on end, on platforms because they’re not allowed on the tracks during rush hour. But this seems to me to be a tale of bloat.

I can’t say where the responsibility for this issue lies. Hopefully, soon, the MTA will release a response to Hoffer’s story. But for now, I will raise a skeptical eyebrow. From circumstantial evidence, I’m inclined to believe the report, and I have to think that, with funds tight, the agency will soon crack down on this waste. Only after they do so can they ask the government for more sources of funding.