Last week, when the MTA announced its plans for green escalators, I responded with some skepticism. The MTA has, after all, run into numerous troubles with their escalators, and I wasn’t sure if they could maintain its rather complicated new machinery. Well, it seems as though my initial thoughts were right. As City Room reported, the green escalators’ first day was not a smooth one. While I’m sure the MTA will iron out their problems, the public, as Sewell Chan noted, is bound to remain skeptical anyway.
Subway Escalator by flickr user hizonic.
If I were the MTA, I wouldn’t attempt to draw too much attention my escalators. We have long heard about how many escalators are notoriously out of service, and in a way, the escalators are symbolic the larger problems plaguing the MTA.
But that’s not stopping the transit authority from plowing ahead on the escalator issue. According to Sewell Chan of The New York Times, the MTA is set to unveil some rather spiffy and environmentally-sound escalators over the next few months in an effort to respond to past critiques of their moving staircases. This move should also save the MTA just under $2000 per escalator per year.
Chan reports:
Starting on Monday, 35 recently installed escalators at four stations will start operating at variable speeds as part of a pilot program. The escalators, which use infrared motion sensors, will slow to just 15 feet per minute when no one is on them, compared with the normal full speed of 100 feet per minute. The escalators will gradually accelerate to the full speed, over a few seconds, once a rider steps on.
“Like humans, machines benefit from a little rest from time to time, and the escalators that provide service to subway customers are no exception,” said Paul J. Fleuranges, a spokesman for New York City Transit, the arm of the authority that runs the subways and buses.
By replacing old escalators with new ones that use a variable-frequency drive and numerous sensors, positioned near the escalators, officials hope to save on energy costs, and, just as important, reduce the wear and tear on the many mechanical parts in the heavily used machines.
“It’s not an idea we invented,” Thomas Kenny, principal mechanical engineer in the department of capital program management at New York City Transit, said in a phone interview. “We call it sleep mode. Others call it intermittent operation. It’s been used widely across the world, particularly in Europe and Asia.”
According to Chan, the lucky escalators can be found at the following stations: 34th Street-Herlad Square; Roosevelt Island, home of notoriously unreliable escalators; Jamaica-Van Wyck; and Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer. Don’t you all go screwing around with the sensors now.
It’s hard to argue with the MTA on this one. Environmentally-friendly escalators that save the beleaguered transit agency some money are a plus in my book, but there’s a catch. These escalators have to work in order to be effective, and the MTA’s track record in that regard is far from stellar. I hope the MTA can pull this one off, but until their escalators run with some regularity and fewer breakdowns, I’ll be skeptical of it all.
Maybe, come Monday, the MTA will prove me wrong. I hope so.
Fourteen years, six months and 25 days ago, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority introduced the world to the MetroCard. These pieces of plastic — then blue with yellow letters — had a magnetic strip that would automatically deduct the $1.25 fare. Until Jan. 6, 1994, straphangers had the distinct pleasure of carting around packets of tokens or cash to buy tokens from surly clerks.
Over the years, the MetroCard has ushered in a mass transit ridership boom in New York. With the advent of discounts and unlimited ride cards — which just celebrated their tenth anniversary — New York’s vast public transit system became infinitely more accessible. Riders could pay by credit card — a fact the L train still oddly touts as a new development — and no one had to deal with pockets stuffed with tokens.
This week, in one of the more disastrous MetroCard-related incidents for the MTA in the card’s short history, the MetroCard Vending Machines went down throughout the system, leaving straphangers stranded at rush hour on two consecutive days. According to the MTA, these failures came about when an encryption device, required by credit card companies to process secure transactions, failed, and the one remaining device could not handle the load on its own.
According to Ray Rivera, writing for The Times, these outages resulted in 122,000 failed transactions. New York City Transit, the branch of the MTA that operates the MetroCard machines, has refunded all cards that were charged but did not result in a MetroCard being distributed to the charge card holder. According to Paul Fleuranges, the VP of Corporate Communications at NYC Transit, the problem has since been cleared up and the agency has issued 20,218 refunds.
This technological snafu got me thinking about the fate of the MetroCard. I’ve been long anticipating the demise of the MetroCard and the rise of the smart card in New York. That day, however, seems a long way off. Could a smart card technology have avoided this disaster though?
The short answer, of course, is no. As with any technological problems, once a computer glitch hits and particularly so for one based on a payment system, it will impact any attempt to buy a product. In thise case, the credit card problems had everything to do with the credit card transactions and nothing to do with the MetroCard itself.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t look for better ways to purchase MetroCards. Right now, we’re stuck, for better or worse with the MetroCard Vending Machines. We’re stuck with hulking machinery that isn’t too flexible with the change it distributes and often has problems — particularly at busy stations — reading credit cards. Those of us who rely on pay-per-ride cards can take advantage of the EasyPayXpress program, but the 50 percent of us who use Unlimited Ride cards are stuck waiting on line as outdated technologies lumbers along.
Why not add an EasyPayXpress option for Unlimited Ride cards? Why not start a mail-order MetroCard service not related to the TransitChecks program? Or why not make Unlimited Ride cards renewable with the option for an automatic refill billed to one’s charge card?
Fourteen and a half years ago, the MetroCard was the next great technology, and fourteen and a half years ago, Apple users were stuck with laptops that looked like this and sported a whopping 4MB of RAM. Perhaps it’s time to upgrade the technology.
So you know about this ongoing MetroCard Vending Machine problem, yes? Well, it seems that an encryption device is to blame. This problem, ongoing since Monday, has basically knocked out the MVMs throughout the city, and people have had to resort to cash-based transactions. For those pay-per-riders out there, now would be a good time to look at that EasyPayXpress thing the MTA’s got goin’ on. For everyone else, we’re stuck waiting for a fix.
So how’s this for efficiency? Eight months after announcing this initiative and over 11 months since the flooding that knocked out nearly the entire subway system, the MTA is finally almost ready to start implementing a text-message service alert system in a few months.
Sigh.
According to the Daily News, the MTA should, if all goes according to plan, unveil its alert system sometime this fall. Pete Donohue has more:
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority expects to start sending alerts to commuters’ cellphones and computers with details about unplanned service problems in September, the Daily News has learned.
The notices will help riders alter their routines to avoid floods and other incidents that cause delays, or warn them away from a crippled system altogether, officials said…”Communications with the public when you have this type of catastrophe is essential,” MTA CEO Elliot Sander said.
Efforts to improve communications began before last summer but intensified after the Aug. 8 storm, Sander said.
According to the article, the MTA has contracted with an unnamed outside firm with the capacity to send one million texts in the span of five minutes. Riders will be able to sign up for free for these alerts on the MTA’s Website, and as they can do with the weekend service advisory e-mails, riders will be able to choose for which lines they would like to receive texts.
Now, the MTA should definitely be applauded for this measure. If anything, Lee Sander as the CEO and Executive Director of the beleaguered transit agency has done an excellent job improving communication lines between the MTA and its riders.
But — and this is a rather big “but” — by the time this service will be rolled out, 13 months will have past since the August 2007 flooding. That is a painfully slow response time for a technology that other companies have been using for years. Better late than never, right?
The New York Post would like you to know that subway delays are up.
Subway delays are the bane of any New Yorker’s existence. They hit seemingly at random but also only when the trains are crowded and un-air-conditioned and only when one is running late. Or at least that’s how it seems to feel. According to New York City Transit numbers, as shown above, subway delays are actually on the rise this year.
I briefly touched upon this uptick in delays on Friday. Over the weekend, Patrick Gallahue of the New York Post explored just how NYC Transit is planning on addressing these delays. With the average number of delays up 27 percent over the 12 months prior to March compared with the same time period a year ago, the MTA is trying to beef up how it is assessing subway delays and how it responds to them.
The agency is planning to use a system similar to the one that the NYPD employs for statistical analysis of criminal offenses, known as CompStat, to investigate why an increasing number of trains are lagging behind schedule.
“We are undertaking a major effort to categorize all the reasons [for the delays] and try to deal with them on a systematic basis,” NYC Transit President Howard Roberts said [Friday]. “Essentially, we will adopt something very close to the city’s CompStat system for crime and apply it to on-time performance.”
CompStat is an interesting model for the MTA to pursue. Initiated in the early 1990s by William Bratton, then the NYPD head, the program analyzed crime reports in a way that helped police leaders from the chief on down to precinct commanders identify trends and criminal hotspots. It was supposed to be responsible for an improved city response to rising crime rates and helped turn the tide against a crime in the Big Apple.
The only problem is that those assumptions — that CompStat worked and was the driving factor behind a reduction in crime — have been challenged by economists, urban planners and other academics. Steven Levitt of Freakonomics fame wrote an article (PDF) noting that various other factors including increased police presence contributed to the reduction in crime as much if not more than the CompStat reports.
But indisputably, the CompStat approach here will help the MTA. By implementing an analytic software tool, the MTA will be in a better position to note which lines are suffering from which types of delays. As the line manager program expands, the people in charge — the analogous NYPD personnel would be the precinct commander — could address the problematic hotspots along their subway lines. Everyone wins.
Of course, this all seems like common sense, and of course, the MTA will be unable to avoid delays caused by chronic door-holders. But this new system should benefit everyone. As William Henderson, a member of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee, said to The Post, “There are probably some delays you can’t do much about. The challenge is to find the delays you can do something about and try to put something in place to reduce those.”
As the results from the Rider Report Card project trickled in, straphangers continually noted that announcements in subway cars were both useless and mostly unintelligible. On some lines — B trains, I’m lookin’ at you — the PA systems feature feedback and static; on others, the volume on the announcements is just too low to hear.
This isn’t, of course, a new problem. NYC Transit has dealt with PA problems in their subway cars from time immemorial. But now, with the line manager/subway Guinea pig program in full swing, the MTA is going to attempt to rectify this problem. Beginning sometime soon, train cars on the 7 line will be outfitted with better microphones and external speakers in an effort to test better PA systems in the subways. As with everything else falling under the line manager program’s purview, if these new systems are successful, they could spread to the rest of the subway system.
Pete Donohue, the Daily News’ transit beat writer, has more:
Hundreds of subway cars built more than 20 years ago are being outfitted with external speakers so messages can be broadcast directly to riders on station platforms.
Transit officials also are looking to replace the microphones in conductors’ cabs – possibly with the type used by token booth clerks – to improve how well riders on trains can hear the messages…
No. 7 train conductors make their own announcements, but as they lean out the window to see the closing doors and platform, they are a good 12 inches from the fixed microphones, [7 line manager Louis] Brusati said. That’s too far for their announcements to be relayed with adequate volume, he said. Transit workers recently tested two goose-neck microphones that get closer to conductors making announcements with promising results, Brusati said.
For now, this project won’t cost the MTA much. They’ll be using speakers they have in stock but will have to outfit some of the cars electrically.
More problematic, however, is a point made by a Subchatter over the weekend: “What the higher ups apparently don’t realize is that external speakers, open windows, and loud microphones don’t mix. Ask any conductor who works on the (3) line, where the R-62s have always had external speakers.”
The problem there will be feedback. The goose-neck microphones will pick up the sound from the external speakers, and no one’s ears will be happy. This is of course a minor technical problem.
The MTA really needs to address PA system problems. Outside of the new cars, it’s often very hard to hear on-board train announcements, and this move is a step in the right direction.
The circle and diamond designations for local and express trains seem rather familiar. (Photos by M. Roberts for the Daily News)
Ah, the good ol’ 7 line. More crowded that most U.S cities’ entire public transportation networks and long the testing ground for new MTA programs — how’s that project line working? — John Rocker’s favorite trains will again change the way it announces whether its trains are running express or local.
In October, the MTA introduced an LED light pilot program to help differentiate trains. The test lights were fairly straightforward: Trains whose LEDs read LCL were going local, and those with LED lights that said EXP were, obviously, going express.
Yesterday, the MTA unveiled the results of this LED light indicator test. As Pete Donohue reported, 7 trains will be equipped with red diamonds or green circles to indicate express or local service, respectively. Donohue writes:
NYC Transit has begun rolling out subway trains with new digital signs brightly declaring if they are running express or local: a red diamond for express, a green circle for local. The first train fully loaded with the broadsides hit the rails during [Monday’s] rush. More subway cars will be rigged in the coming weeks and months.
“It looks sharp,” No. 7 line General Manager Louis Brusati said of the markings. “It will immediately tell people what train it is.”
NYC Transit President Howard Roberts said: “It is another step in making the ride on the No. 7 line as smooth and effortless as possible.”
Transit officials hope to trim train delays by making it easier to identify express and local trains. Service announcements are made on trains and in stations, but riders often are puzzled.
Now, I’m all for bringing in new technology for our subways, and that’s what New York City Transit is doing with these line manager programs on the L and 7. Donohue notes that digital communication signs on station mezzanines along these two lines will be rolled out in the next two months. These signs could give information about train delays or route changes. I’m not quite sure how the 7 and L trains can really change their route, but that’s neither here nor there. The fact that these technologies are on the way is a major achievement.
I am still stumped though about this seemingly new way to indicate express or local service along the 7 line. Back in the day — and by “the day,” I mean the late 1990s — 7 trains used their rollover signs for this designation. Diamond 7’s always ran express while circle 7’s always ran local. But at some point in the last few years, NYCT employees decided that it was too hard to change a bunch of rollover signs during depot stops, and so passengers grew so confused that the MTA had to install something new over a system that was already in place.
We don’t know how much this LED light program costs, but considering that the MTA is not really in a position to spend frivolously right now, I have to wonder if asking employees to take the time to turn the rollover signs would really be that inconvenient right now. There’s really no point in installing an unnecessary technology on top of something that isn’t yet obsolete.
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the MTA’s Web site.
On the one hand, it’s a great resource for many things MTA. They’ve got press releases, maps, schedules and construction information up the wazoo. But on the other hand, there’s no rhyme or reason to the structure, and vital parts go without updates for months or years in certain cases. It also had this inconvenient tendency to crash under the load of heavy traffic.
While the MTA has quietly improved the site’s reliability and performance over the last few months, one aspect of the site — the Trip Planner — has seen numerous upgrades and an increased level of popularity. Yesterday, the MTA’s efforts paid off when the Center for Digital Government handed out its Best of New York Awards. The Trip Planner took home the gold for “Project Best Advancing Service to the Public.”
The MTA was deservedly proud of this award. “We believe Trip Planner is by far the most accurate travel itinerary provider there is for New York City,” Paul Fleuranges, NYC Transit vice president for corporate communications, said. “This award from the Center for Digital Government is proof that we are providing our customers with quality digital customer service.”
As Trip Planner has improved, traffic has increased correspondingly. According to the MTA, in February, an average weekday saw 6912 trips planned while an average weekend saw 5512 trips planned. Those figures represent a 272 percent and a 287 percent increase, respectively, over the usage numbers from February 2007.
For the next year, the MTA plans to add a station locator, places of interest and address finder features to the application. If I were running it, I’d also look at a way to add staircase location to the directions too. Some of the system’s larger and busier stations have multiple entrances, and it’s handy to know which exit will put you closer to your destination.
Meanwhile, as the MTA deserves some recognition for its Web site, I am eagerly looking ahead to a planned overhaul of the MTA’s site. MTA.info 2.0 will be a welcome addition to the online subway resources.
These will have to wait. (Photo by flickr user craigshadow2007)
Surprise, surprise! A contract issued by the MTA will not be fulfilled on time because of a mechanical problem. This time, a whole bunch of R160 cars won’t hit the tracks on time due to a gearbox defect, according to the Daily News. Pete Donohue has more:
NYC Transit stopped putting new R160 model subway cars on the rails shortly after they arrived from the assembly line after a gearbox defect was detected about two weeks ago, transit officials confirmed.
The agency won’t put the high-tech cars – and hundreds more yet being built – into service until a fix is designed and approved by the agency, officials said.
Under a $950 million contract awarded to two manufacturers that joined forces, a total of 660 cars were to be in service by May, according to Metropolitan Transportation Authority documents. Now, it looks like it will be late this year, or early next year, before the full allotment is shuttling straphangers from station to station.
Of course, officials from Alstom Transport, the company responsible for the new cars, declined to comment. Meanwhile, the MTA says they are pleased with the cars currently in use. Those do not suffer from the gearbox defect and will not be taken off the rails. The losers then are those folks along the N and Q lines who were due for new cars sooner rather than later.
Meanwhile, this defect is just another issue of an MTA partner failing to fulfill the terms of a contract. Already this year, we’ve seen stories about problems with the MTA’s security camera project and its bus arrival board project. We know that implementation of the arrival boards on the L line has been fraught with delays and implementation problems.
At some point, the MTA should take a public stance here. It’s simply not acceptable for all of these companies to miss deadlines set forth in contracts. Over the next few months, the MTA is going to put out a text message alert contract, and Rick Bowen, one of the unsuccessful bidders for that deal, said on this site yesterday that the MTA’s demands “may not be technically possible.” If the MTA is serious about getting more funding and delivering more service, it must show more responsibility with their preexisting contracts, unforeseen mechanical problems or not.