Second Ave. Sagas

Category: MTA Absurdity

  • Six friends break subway record

    Friday was a record-breaking day for the New York City subway. Six friends, all grads of Regis High School, broke the record for fastest per-navigation of the New York City Subway on a single fare.

    Headed by New York City transit buff Bill Amarosa, the group completed their Rapid Transit Challenge more than 90 minutes faster than the previous best. Here’s what New York 1 had to say:

    “It was a unique experience it was definetely worth ten years of waiting for,” said Amarosa. “It is probably something I won’t do again in the immediate future; but it was great to spend a day on the subway with other New Yorkers, with my friends and classmates. It was just an awesome experience.”

    “I was really proud because he was planning this for a long time and when he said he was actually going to do it, it was great, really great,” said Carol Amarosa, Bill’s mother. “He’s wanted to do it for 12 years.”

    The group started out at 3:30 Thursday afternoon at the Rockaway Park station in Queens and they made it to the 241st Street station in the Bronx by 4 p.m. Friday.

    By starting at Rockaway Park in Queens, the group of friends made sure to cover the hardest-to-reach stations first. They started on the outskirts of the New York City subway and made their way eastward (with some backtracking during the day).

    The group included their 125 favorite photos from the day on their website. It will still be a while before the Guinness Book of World Records certifies this new run as the official world record.

    Image from Rapid Transit Challenge.

  • Post: Bar ban presenting a potential conflict

    After a tragic accident on an LIRR train involving a drunk passenger, the MTA board announced in December that they might consider a ban on alcohol sales on MetroNorth and Long Islrand Rail Road trains. Clearly, commuters looking to take the edge off a busy day at work were none too thrilled about this news.

    But all is not what it seems, as the New York Post reported on Tuesday. According to an exclusive report, the board member behind the drive to ban alcohol sales, Mitchell Pally, works for the law firm that represents many of the bars and restaurants in Penn Station. These bars and restaurants would clearly benefit from a ban of on-board alcohol sales on commuter trains.

    Long Island Rail Road bartenders, who fear their jobs are on the line, say it was only after Mitchell Pally was hired three months ago to handle “government relations” at the Weber Law Group, a Melville-based firm, that talk of the prohibition began.
    “We’ve all been wondering where this whole thing came from, and when we checked the company’s Web site, we thought we may have our answer,” said one LIRR bar-cart attendant, who asked not to be identified.

    Other MTA board members say this conflict of interests certainly raises some eyebrows, and they’ll be looking into it before issuing any decision on an alcohol ban.

  • If you see an armrest, say something

    Today’s ridiculous MTA story comes to us courtesy of The New York Times. Armrests on LIRR’s and Metro-North’s M7 lines are destroying people’s pants!

    Any way you cut it, $102,009.17 buys an awful lot of pants.

    That is how much the Long Island Rail Road and the Metro-North Railroad have paid over the last four years to customers who have torn clothing on the notoriously fabric-snagging armrests in a line of cars known as the M7.

    The payments range from $1,405.61 for the new Paul Stuart suit that a man ripped on Metro-North last year, to $10 or $20 for minor damage fixed by a tailor.

    That’s right: armrests. These armrests, you see, are “are longer and narrower than those on older cars and can slide unobtrusively into a trouser pocket as a passenger sits down — and then snag as he settles into his seat or when he stands up to leave,” reports William Neuman.

    This problem, The Times notes, is fairly widespread. Train riders nod knowingly when the tell-tale sound of a tear rings out amid the silence of the morning commute, and the MTA hasn’t been too quick to reimburse the full price of lost clothing. The officials opt instead for the sale price or a depreciated assessment of older pairs of pants and skirts.

    So to solve this rather amusing problem that should have been focus-grouped out of existence before the M7s came on the tracks a few years ago, the MTA may invest $1-$2 million in an armrest replacement program. Ah, the luxury of a commuter rail.

    For fun, what could we buy with the $102,009.17 that the MTA has given out so far:

    • 1342 30-day unlimited MetroCards.
    • 4250 7-day unlimited MetroCards.
    • 61,083 swipes with a pay-per-ride card (counting the free rides).
    • One fourth of a new bus.