AsidesPANYNJ

Port Authority to study PATH extension to Newark Airport

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 24, 2012

With dreams of providing a one-seat ride from Lower Manhattan to Newark Airport, the Port Authority announced last week that it would study the feasibility of extending PATH train from its current terminus at Newark’s Penn Station to the nearby Liberty International Airport. The study will lead to updated cost estimates, ridership figures and construction timeframes.

“Mass transit options to our airports are essential to the future growth and economic vitality of our region,” Port Authority Chairman David Samson said in a statement. “We need another mass-transit link to Newark Liberty International Airport, which served nearly 34 million passengers last year, so this initiative is of utmost importance. We will move quickly to make it a reality.”

Off-the-cuff, the Port Authority estimates that such a project would include “more than $600 million in design and construction activity over the project’s life, while adding permanent jobs for the link’s operation.” Meanwhile, airport-bound travelers from Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn as well as other parts of New Jersey could have streamlined routes to the airport. A PATH extension and the Newark airport parking lots could also serve as a park-and-ride option for New Jersey commuters heading into Manhattan.

It’s unclear when such a study would be complete, how such an extension would be funded or when we can expect all of this. Still, it’s a worthwhile PATH extension that would have a major impact on the Newark Airport. I’ll follow along when and if this plan moves forward.

81 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Self PromotionService Advisories

The returns of FASTRACK and ‘Problem Solvers’

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 24, 2012

It’s the final FASTRACK of 2012 for the IND Sixth Avenue line. (Click the map to enlarge)

How about some mid-day announcements on this fine fall Monday? We start with the return of FASTRACK as the MTA’s work program enters its final home stretch for 2012. Despite initial plans for two more treatments, tonight’s work begins the last rotation for the program’s first year, and the current victims will be passengers riding along the 6th Ave. line. From 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., trains will be rerouted along the 8th Ave. line between 59th St./Columbus Circle and West 4th St. For all of the gory details, check out my post from July. Nothing has changed.

Meanwhile, I’m pleased to announce another return: “Problem Solvers,” my popular Q-and-A series with the Transit Museum, is making its fall debut on Wednesday, October 17 at 6:30 p.m. I’ll be sitting down with “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz, traffic engineer extraordinaire, to discuss how the city is combating congestion and what else it could be doing. The event will be at The Actors Fund Arts Center at 160 Schermerhorn Street, just a few blocks from the Transit Museum. Reserve your seat for this free event now.

6 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
View from Underground

After Bleecker St., other missing transfer points

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 24, 2012

In a day and a half, one of the more annoying out-of-system transfers will be eliminated.

At 12 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, after decades of frustration and months of waiting, the transfer between the uptown 6 train at Bleecker St. and the B/D/F/M trains at Broadway/Lafayette St. will finally open. For thousands of riders, this transfer will cut down on travel times and improve one of the oddities of the system. The project may be months late and millions over budget, but it’s welcome nonetheless.

In The Times today, Matt Flegenheimer tried to get to the root of the transfer’s history. Why weren’t the north and south platforms at Bleecker St. aligned? Even though the BMT station opened 30 years after Bleecker St., it took transit planners another 70 years to correct the problem. “There’s no real documentation” concerning the origins of this decision, a Transit spokesman said.

I’ve heard various theories over the years. Some have said that the streets weren’t wide enough to accomodate two platforms and four tracks all in parallel while others have pointed to real estate costs, the curvature of the streets or the political reality aboveground at the time the IRT was laid out and constructed. Ultimately, the historical why of it isn’t really important. It’s been corrected, and anyone who takes the subway for the first time on Tuesday afternoon won’t know any better.

With this saga behind us — although I still think a public accounting for the delays and cost overruns would be appropriate — I took a look at the subway map to assess a few other spots that could use similar treatment or at least a free transfer. In no particular order, I’ve laid out my top choices. Here we go:

1. Junius St. (3) and Livonia Ave. (L)
The 7th Ave. IRT and the L train meet once in Manhattan, and that’s it. Meanwhile, the 3 train crosses over the L as the former nears Junius St. and the latter Livonia Ave. While these two stops are in a neighborhood miles removed from the Chelsea station, such a transfer would provide a streamlined ride for those heading to Canarsie or through Bushwich and into Williamsburg. A walkway overpass leads from one end of Junius St. to the L platform at Livonia Ave. over the Bay Ridge Branch for the LIRR, and the area has long clamored for a free transfer.

2. Hewes St. (J/M/Z) and Broadway (G)
Here, we again have a spot in Brooklyn where an elevated line crosses over another, and yet, there is no free transfer in place. The Hewes St. station has a shuttered entrance that leads to, well, Hewes St., two short blocks away from the G train. Building an in-system transfer here would be fairly costly and possibly challenging with the South 4th St. shell in the way, but an out-of-system transfer would easily connect G train riders with a two-seat ride into Midtown or Lower Manhattan. At some point soon, Transit is going to have to assess how it treats the G train, and putting in place a free transfer at this spot in South Williamsburg would be a good start.

3. Jay St./Metrotech (A/C/F/R) and Borough Hall (2/3/4/5/R)
That the R stops at both of these stations is a strong argument against such a transfer. Costs, predicted to be steep, is the other. Still, once in Brooklyn the A, C and F don’t intersect with the IRT lines, and a transfer could better deliver straphangers to the Fulton and Culver Lines. Still, Fulton St. is only a few stops away, and all of these lines, less the F, meet up there.

4. Fulton St. (G) and Atlantic Ave.-Barclays Center (2/3/4/5/B/D/N/Q/R)
Here, an underground tunnel would be far too long, far too costly and far too complicated to engineer. It would to skirt BAM and the LIRR’s Atlantic Terminal, and it would probably require some serious reengineering of the underground space to improve passenger flow. The station’s main passageways are on the other side of the B/Q tracks. Still, an out-of-system free transfer would help traverse the 600 feet or so between the lonely G train and this major hub. As it stands now, the G connects with trains to Manhattan at isolated points, but it never runs into the IRT lines or the BMT lines. Such a transfer would correct this problem.

Beyond these four, it’s hard to spot too many other places on the map where adding a free out-of-system transfer or creating new in-system transfers would make much sense. Maybe one could make an argument for a 2/3 stop at 103rd and a transfer to the B/C station there, but it’s likely more cost and trouble than it’s worth. Still, in a few spots the system could be more passenger-friendly, and with Bleecker Street’s quirk resolved, it’s time to look at a few others.

123 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Service Advisories

Weekend work impacting service on 13 lines

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 21, 2012


From 6 a.m. Saturday, September 22 to 10 p.m. Sunday, September 23, there is no 3 train service between Franklin Avenue and New Lots Avenue due to switch renewal south of New Lots Avenue and track panel installation at Sutter Avenue. 4 trains and free shuttle buses provide alternate service. 3 trains run between 148th Street and Franklin Avenue and via the 2 line between Franklin Avenue and Flatbush Avenue

  • Take 4 trains between Franklin Avenue and Utica Avenue (trains make local stops)
  • Transfer between the 3 and 4 trains at Franklin Avenue
  • Free shuttle buses operate between Utica Avenue and New Lots Avenue
  • Transfer between 4 trains and free shuttle buses at Utica Avenue

Reminder: From 12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m., the 3 operates between 148th Street and Times Square-42nd Street only.


From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m., Saturday, September 22, 3 trains run local in both directions between 96th Street and 72nd Street due to repairing and replacement of roof beams at 79th and 86th Streets.


From 4 a.m. Saturday, September 22 to 10 p.m. Sunday, September 23, there are no 4 trains between Utica Avenue and New Lots Avenue due to switch renewal south of New Lots Avenue and track panel installation at Sutter Avenue. Free shuttle buses provide alternate service.

  • 4 operates between Woodlawn and Utica Avenue, making local stops between Franklin Avenue and Utica Avenue
  • Transfer between trains and free shuttle buses at Utica Avenue


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 22 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 24, downtown 4 trains skip 138th Street-Grand Concourse due to station rehabilitation at 149th Street-Grand Concourse.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 22 to 5 a.m., Monday, September 24, 207th Street-bound A trains are rerouted via the F line from Jay Street-MetroTech to West 4th Street, then run local to 59th Street-Columbus Circle due to track work between High Street and Fulton Street.


From 12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m., Saturday, September 22 and Sunday, September 23 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, September 24, F trains replace A shuttle train service between Euclid Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard due to Culver Viaduct rehabilitation and tunnel lighting installation. Service to/from Far Rockaway is not affected.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, September 22 and Sunday, September 23, there are no C trains between Manhattan and Brooklyn due to Culver Viaduct rehabilitation and tunnel lighting installation. C trains are rerouted via the F between West 4th Street and 2nd Avenue, the last stop.

  • Traveling to/from Spring Street, Canal Street and Chambers Street, customers should take the A or E instead. Transfer between trains at West 4th Street.
  • Traveling to/from Brooklyn, customers should take the A or F instead.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 22 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 24, D trains run local in both directions between DeKalb Avenue and 36th Street due to Culver Viaduct rehabilitation and tunnel lighting installation.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, September 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 24, there are no F trains between Jay Street-MetroTech and 18th Avenue due to Culver Viaduct rehabilitation and tunnel lighting installation. Free shuttle buses provide alternate service. F trains operate in two sections:

  • Between 179th Street and Jay Street-MetroTech and rerouted via the C to/from Euclid Avenue
  • Between Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue and 18th Avenue.

Free Shuttle buses operate in three sections:

  • Between Jay Street-MetroTech and 18th Avenue, making stops at Church Avenue and Ditmas Avenue only.
  • Between Jay Street-MetroTech and 4th Avenue-9th Street, making stops at Bergen Street, Carroll Street and Smith-9th Sts.
  • Between 4th Avenue-9th Street and Church Avenue, making stops at 7th Avenue, 15th Street-Prospect Park and Ft. Hamilton Parkway.

From 12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m. nightly, the F operates to/from Lefferts Blvd. replacing A shuttle service.

From 11:30 p.m. Friday, September 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 24, there is no G train service between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. and Church Avenue due to Culver Viaduct rehabilitation and tunnel lighting installation. Customers may take the A or F for connecting service between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. and Jay Street-MetroTech.

G trains operate in two sections:

  • Between Court Square and Bedford-Nostrand Avs.
  • Between Bedford-Nostrand Avs. And Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. every 20 minutes

From 4 a.m. Saturday, September 22 to 10 p.m. Sunday, September 23, there is no J train service between Crescent Street and Jamaica Center due to structural steel repair and painting north of Cypress Hills. J trains operate between Chambers Street and Crescent Street. Free shuttle buses and E trains provide alternate service. Free shuttle buses operate between Crescent Street and 121st Street, and connect with the E at Jamaica-Van Wyck, where service to/from Sutphin Blvd and Jamaica Center is available.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 22 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 24, M service is suspended due to station renewal at Fresh Pond Road, Forest, Seneca, Knickerbocker and Central Avenues. Free shuttle buses operate between Metropolitan Avenue and Myrtle Avenue, making all station stops.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 22 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 24, downtown N trains run express from 34th Street-Herald Square to Canal Street due to track work at 14th Street.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, September 22 and Sunday, September 23, downtown R trains run express from 34th Street-Herald Square to Canal Street due to track work at 14th Street.

11 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
BrooklynLIRR

Post-game specials from the LIRR, but who pays?

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 21, 2012

The MTA will run extra subway and LIRR trains from the Barclays Center after events are over. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

My unintentional week of coverage concerning the new Barclays Center wraps up today with a look at an announcement from the LIRR. The MTA, as we know, will run extra service along the 2, 4 and Q lines after events at the Barclays Center in order to clear out the crowds, and this week, the agency announced plans to increase LIRR service out of the Atlantic Avenue Terminal as well. With extra train service and a dearth of easy parking in the area, everyone from the MTA to Brooklyn residents are hoping that relatively few people will drive to the Barclays Center.

“If you are planning on attending a Nets game or going to see JAY-Z, Barbra Streisand, Justin Bieber, The Who or any of the other top acts at Brooklyn’s hottest new venue, we will have plenty of trains to get you there and get you home at the end of your evening,” LIRR President Helena Williams said in a rather canned statement. “The LIRR’s new Atlantic Terminal is just across the street from the Barclays Center, so using the LIRR is definitely the most convenient way to go.”

The MTA has released a brocher detailing post-event service [pdf], and here’s a detailed breakdown of the plan:

The LIRR’s enhanced late-night service from Atlantic Terminal will feature eastbound trains departing approximately every 15-25 minutes after an event. Following Nets games, the last train from Atlantic Terminal will depart at 11:55 PM on both weeknights and weekends. Following evening concerts and other special events, the last train from Atlantic Terminal will depart at 12:41 AM weeknights and weekends. NYPD and MTA Police will be on hand to assist customers arriving at the Center.

There is, of course, a catch: These extra trains will essentially operate as shuttles, ferrying riders from Atlantic Avenue to Jamaica, where Long Island-bound travelers will have to catch the next scheduled train to their ultimate destinations. Still, as the MTA’s brochure illustrates, the increased service is designed to ensure that riders make it to their connecting trains in time. The shortest layovers in Jamaica will last all of two minutes, leaving very little margin for error. Island-bound riders who can’t get to Jamaica will have to resort to 2 or 3 train service back to Penn Station.

I was curious about the extra service. Who pays for it all, I wondered. The issue isn’t without controversy as the WMATA and Nationals have run into a dispute this season over service for games that run late. Metro has asked the Nats to pony up nearly $30,000 per hour when the team wants the D.C. subway to run later than normal. In New York, the system’s closing too early isn’t the issue but frequency is.

In New York, the MTA picks up the bill for extra service. The only exception concerns special service to Belmont for which the New York Racing Association pays. Officially, the MTA says it’s just part of the agency’s overall job. “Our subway, bus and commuter rail services remove cars from road, help improve the environment and support the economy. If thousands of people want to travel to a sporting event, a concert, a parade or just a nice day in the park, we are there to make their trips as safe and efficient as possible,” the MTA said to me in a statement. “Of course, the main reason we add extra trains and buses following sporting and other special events is to increase capacity in order to accommodate everyone, including regular customers who are not traveling to or from an event.”

I’ll leave you then with a question: Should the MTA pay for this service? It comes, after all, out of taxpayer and fare-payer pockets, but at the same time, the extra service goes a long way toward keeping cars off the road. One of the reasons why the Yankee Stadium parking lots, for instance, have been so empty is due to the increased Metro-North and subway service. It seems then that the few extra trains are beneficial to everyone. It’s a win-win a relatively marginal cost.

31 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
AsidesSubway Advertising

Geller ads set to make subway debut

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 20, 2012

Pamela Geller’s controversial anti-Islam ads will begin appearing in 10 subway stations throughout the city, the MTA announced yesterday. These ads have been the subject of much litigation over the past few years as Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative group successfully sued the MTA over its advertising practices. After Geller won her case on First Amendment grounds, the same judge chided the authority over its slow response to the ruling, and thus, in advance of next week’s board meeting, the authority’s hand has been forced.

As The Times reported yesterday, the MTA is essentially being forced by a judge’s order to accept and publish the ads. The MTA had asked for a stay pending the September 27 board meeting, but the judge told the MTA it had two weeks to revise its policy or appeal. Instead, the MTA will run the ads as the references to Muslims as “savages” do not constitute “demeaning” language under the current guidelines.

The MTA said that, in spite of the geopolitical events in the Middle East, it must accept the ad, but it could have appealed or revised its policies. The judge’s initial ruling gave the authority enough of an out to reject the ad had it worked to restructure its advertising guidelines, but the Board hasn’t met since the ruling came out. So the ad will arrive, amidst controversial and fanfare. Hopefully, a new ad policy isn’t too far behind.

51 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Subway History

Red and green messages from the subway globes

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 20, 2012

Most straphangers likely have no idea what this green globe outside of the new Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center entrance really means. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

As I took a walk around the outside of the new Atlantic Ave.-Barclays Center subway entrance on Monday afternoon, I chuckled to myself when I spotted a free-standing pole with a green globe on top of it. The subway globe strikes me as an iconic part of the subway system, albeit one that isn’t very old, and the globes themselves are supposed to broadcast a message to the public. These days, based on emails and Twitter comments I’ve received, no one really knows what they mean.

I’ve always associated the globes with the subway system and for good reason. Once upon a time, the globes were simply white with the word “subway” written through them. The color system in place today with red and green globes made their New York City debuts, so to speak, at around the same time I did. The MTA installed the globes in 1982, about a year before I arrived on the scene, and they were introduced as a safety measure.

One of Randy Kennedy’s classic Tunnel Vision columns from 2002 explores the history behind the globes, complete with a vintage Motel 6 reference:

The globes are always the first interaction that riders have with the system, sometimes a block or more before they even enter it. The globes are supposed to serve as a kind of beacon, announcing that the system is intelligible, that people are in charge down there, and that they have, in the comforting words of Tom Bodett, left a light on for you…

in the early 1980’s, mostly to try to prevent muggings, transit officials started a color-code system to warn riders away from entrances that were closed at night. The original idea was to follow the three-color stoplight scheme: green meant that a station had a token booth that never closed; yellow meant a part-time token booth (but in some places, with a token, you could still get in through a full-body turnstile); and red meant an entrance with no booth and no way to get in (though you might be able to get out, through one-way full-body turnstiles).

As the number of words in that description indicates, however, this system was much, much more complicated than go, slow down, stop. So the yellow lights were discontinued a decade ago to simplify things, transit officials said, meaning that the red lights would serve the yellow lights’ purpose, as well as the purpose that the red light used to serve. But then the MetroCard was introduced in 1994, meaning that many entrances that had been exit-only were equipped with full-body card-entrance turnstiles. And then, responding to concerns that the colored lights did not give off enough light, transit officials several years ago began installing what they call “half-moons” when station entrances were rebuilt. These are globes that have a colored top half and a milky white bottom.

I reached out to the MTA for their official take on the globes today, a decade after Kennedy re-introduced New York to this convoluted history, and even now, the meaning is malleable. A Transit spokesman told me that green globes indicate entry and exit 24 hours a day, seven days a week with a Metrocard, and that red globes indicate exit only. There are, he said, very few station entrances remaining with those red globes.

This subway globe in Times Square indicates an unstaffed entrance open only 18 hours a day. (Photo via Second Ave. Sagas on Instagram)

A simple survey of my daily commute, though, reveals a different meaning. The globe in the photo above sits atop the staircase that leads from the end of the Shuttle platform to the sidewalk outside the police station on 43rd St. and Broadway. This station has two iron maiden entrances, but it is unstaffed and open only from 6 a.m. to midnight. The red globe seems to indicate that no one is downstairs and the station closes — or at least that’s my interpretation.

Around the city, other red globes do indeed indicate exit-only areas, but some also seem to signal a part-time entrance. With fewer station agents, perhaps the MTA should reconsider the use of colors and associate red with a shuttered booth for those among us concerned with personal safety. For now, though, these colored lights seem almost vestigial, a reminder of a time when New Yorkers are far more worried about heading underground and encountering the wrong person or no one at all.

26 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Subway Advertising

‘The ads, the ads are everywhere’

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 19, 2012

You Are Here…inside a giant advertisement for a sports arena. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

As I took a walk through the new subway entrance at Atlantic Avenue on Monday, the fact that I was essentially strolling through a giant advertisement was not lost on me. Barclays is paying the MTA $4 million in 20 installments over the next two decades to keep its name on the Atlantic Ave. station complex and the subway map. Even as it serves as an identifier of what will become a major destination for Brooklyn-bound subway riders, it’s still advertising.

Over the years — actually the decades and even the century — New Yorkers have grown accustomed to advertising in the subways. Billboards have long decorated the station walls, and while old advertisements in vintage trains seem quaint by comparison to today’s staid placards, they’re still ads nonetheless. They’ve been there since nearly Day One, and they’ll continue to be there long into the subway future.

Lately, the MTA has beefed up its advertising offerings. With a lucrative deal in place with CBS Outdoors, the MTA has expanded advertising tremendously. Video boards outside of stations flash dynamic ads while station takeovers — particularly at Times Square and Grand Central — see the walls plastered with posters. A Shuttle train gets its monthly wrapping, and even staircases and turnstiles carry corporate sponsorships. Now, Metrocard fronts and backs are for sale, and for the MTA, this means dollars.

A staircase at Grand Central in 2011 promoted Simply Orange. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

Earlier this week, David Dunlap of The Times explored the proliferation of advertising underground. The MTA, he found, has upped its advertising revenue to $120 million from $106 million five years ago and just $38 million 15 years ago. As the subways have been slowly modernized, ridership has spiked and safety has improved in leaps and bounds, advertisers are willing to spend dollars to attract captive underground audiences. Advertising dollars, Dunlap notes, now make up one percent of the MTA’s budget.

Not everyone, though, is happy about it. As Transit hopes to expand its digital advertising footprint while keeping ads somewhat reasonable — buses, for instance, are not fully wrapped due to safety concerns — critics voiced their concerns. “We’ve gotten to the point now where the M.T.A. doesn’t respect its own environment and is filling it with sight pollution,” Siva Vaidhyanathan, a UVA professor who once taught in New York, said “A bright yellow subway car, branded to sell something, is not comfortable, it’s not respectful and it’s not dignified. Environmentally, the city should be paying attention to dignity as a quality-of-life indicator.”

That is, of course, a complaint put forward since the dawn of the age of subways. As the first operators of the subway argued, advertising was an integral part of their plan. As long as billboards didn’t obscure station names, August Belmont wanted ads, to the chagrin of the City’s Rapid Transit Commission and William Barclay Parsons. Belmont successfully defended a lawsuit against the ads brought forth by the Manhattan Borough President, and Squire Vickers uttered a classic line: “It is hoped that the revenue will prove to be an efficient balm for hurt minds.”

That is, once again, where we are. The ads are indeed everywhere, and we accept it. Some become conversation pieces of parts of New York City lore — Dr. Zizmor, anymore? All in all, they have endured as a balm for hurt minds. We pay in ads or we pay in dollars. The choice is an easy one.

35 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
AsidesMTA

MTA Board to consider scaling back meeting frequency

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 18, 2012

Here’s a bit of inside baseball for you: Citing productivity concerns for its board members, Joe Lhota has proposed that the MTA Board meet less frequently in 2013. Already, the MTA Board convenes 11 months out of the year — omitting the August — and the MTA head believes this schedule does not promote the “efficient use of time and resources” of Board members or agency heads. Thus, when the Governance Committee meets tomorrow, its members will address a proposal to reduce the number of meetings to eight a year. The Board and its committees would meet approximately every six weeks.

In addition to reducing the number of board meetings, Lhota has proposed a twice-yearly “Chairman’s Forum” in which Lhota and the agency presidents would field comments and questions from the public. These forums, Board materials say [pdf], would “promote transparency in MTA operations and ensure that MTA leadership remains accessible and accountable to the riding public, transportation advocates and elected officials.” These meeting would be streamed live over the Internet as well.

Generally, I’m agnostic on the issue of board meeting frequency. The meetings themselves are generally the same and only of interest when the MTA is fielding a big-ticket procurement issue, has a capital projects update or must debate a fare hike/budget. Fewer meetings may raise some oversight concerns, but an organization of the MTA’s size can easily get by with eight meetings a year instead of 11. The forums, on the other hand, are an intriguing idea that would allow more direct interaction (other than through Twitter) between MTA execs and riders. The trick though is to avoid the same litany of complaints and speakers at every forum, as has happened at these types of meetings in the past.

5 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Brooklyn

Ahead of the arena, a new subway entrance for Atlantic Ave.

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 18, 2012

A solitary straphanger ponders the new Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center subway entrance on Monday afternoon. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

Amidst little fanfare on Monday afternoon, the MTA opened up a new subway entrance. This isn’t just any old subway entrance. Rather, it is the subway entrance that leads to the Barclays Center, an arena that sits atop rail yards handed over by the MTA Board to Bruce Ratner for a well-below market rate of $100 million.

Over the years, the Atlantic Yards debacle has garnered more than its fair share of debate (and a very thorough website devoted to tracking the project in all its glory), but one element that has seemingly flown under the radar until recently concerns traffic, transportation and pedestrian flow around the arena. Simply put, the arena is in a terrible spot for pedestrian safety.

On its north side is a six-lane road that features cars speeding by at all hours of the day, and on the other side is a six-lane road that features cars speeding by at all hours of the day. Meanwhile, parking in the area is nearly non-existent, and the city, Ratner and the MTA has spent a few months telling anyone who will listen to just take the train. The Barclays Center has begun an ad blitz showcasing how subway-accessible the arena is, and the Harlem Globetrotters plugged the LIRR last week. It may take a trip or two from intrepid drivers to discover the reality of the situation, but beyond some loading areas that are slightly recessed from the rest of either Atlantic or Flatbush Avenues, car access to the arena is nearly a non-starter.

An ad blitz to promote transit to the Barclays Center is currently underway. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

And so to accomodate the crowds, part of the arena work involved a new subway entrance that eliminated the need to cross these busy thoroughfares. Until Monday, passengers disembarking at the erstwhile Atlantic Ave.-Pacific St. stop had to cross either Atlantic or Flatbush to reach the location of the arena. A new subway entrance that leads directly from the IRT and BMT Brighton Line platforms and features wide concourses is ready, willing and able to accomodate the crowds that will fill the 18,000-seat arena.

With no public ribbon-cutting or any sort of press release, Transit had what could be called a soft opening of the subway entrance and the surrounding plaza on Monday. I took my camera to the area at around 5:30 p.m. and found it largely empty. The benches behind the eco-friendly entrance were in use, but only a few curious subway riders were making use of the new entrance. That will change as word gets around.

So besides some plant life growing on the entrance building, what did I find? The new entrance is, as the green globe attests, open 24/7 and provides easy access to 5th Ave. in Park Slope as well as the Best Buy building as part of the Atlantic Terminal Mall complex. The station entrance itself has clearly been built to handle a large influx of crowds. With two escalators, an elevator and five stair cases to go with an ample number of turnstiles, post-game subway riders will find it easy to get from the arena to their trains.

Once inside the station, a wide concourse with two ramps directs riders to the IRT trains. The ramp heading up leads to the Manhattan-bound local (2/3 trains) while an underpass ferries passengers to the express island platform for the 4 and 5 trains or the Brooklyn-bound local tracks. The staircase to the B and Q train platform is right around the corner. In fact, this station could improve the transfer between the IRT and BMT as the walk from the back of the local 2 or 3 platform to the lower level BMT Brighton platform is much shorter. I do worry that with only two small staircases leading down to the rear of the B/Q platform, crowds could build up after events.

A classic MTA sign fail at the rear of the Manhattan-bound IRT local platform obscures directions to the rest of the station complex. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

And so the station is ready for action, and it will be required to deliver. With busy roads and a relatively small sidewalk area surrounding the Barclays Center, getting subway-bound sports fans or concert-goers underground quickly and safely will be a paramount concern for event organizers. To the naked eye and with few riders around, the station looks ready to deliver. We’ll find out in ten days how it handles the crowd.

After the jump, a complete slideshow of photos from the new station entrance.

Continue Reading
42 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Load More Posts