Moynihan Station

Moynihan Phase 1 work to start later this year

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 9, 2012

New entrances into Penn Station will help alleviate dingy conditions at the rail hub.

When last we checked in on Moynihan Station, things were not looking good for the oft-delayed and rather expensive project. Phase 1 — essentially some wider concourses and more entrances — had to be scaled back amidst cost concerns when the bids on the project came in well above expectations. The Phase 2 work which includes the conversion of the post office building into the actual train station remains unfunded and a dream in the eyes of the project’s supporters.

Now, though, the Port Authority has some cause to celebrate. With a new price tag of $270 million, Phase 1 will kick off later this year, nearly two years after the ceremonial groundbreaking, Port Authority head Patrick Foye said yesterday. According to Reuters, Skanska’s $148 million bid to add street-level entrances at 31st and 33rd Sts. was the winning one. The different will go toward a new ventilation system and a mighty expensive underground walkway to Penn Station.

In comments yesterday, Foye spun this is a big step forward. Dana Rubinstein was on hand to report:

Foye, himself a Long Island Railroad commuter, said what has been a “fairly dingy” commuter experience would now “be fit for humans.”

…The project’s impact will be felt mainly by commuters. “It’s going to mean easier access to and from the tracks for Long Island Railroad commuters, New Jersey Transit and Amtrak,” said Foye. The authority was careful to present the project as Phase I of a two-part redevelopment that will culminate in the conversion of the Farley post office into an Amtrak terminal and retail center called Moynihan Station.

Though Related Companies and Vornado Realty Trust are still the designated developers for Phase II, the project is unfunded and generally considered, at the very least, dormant. Even so, Foye argued on Tuesday that the completion of this track work, which he called, “the concourse of the new railroad station, of the new Moynihan Station,” would help make the latter a reality.

“The way I’d say it would be that the commencement of construction here later this year is gonna send a message to the development community, to investors, to Related and to Vornado and frankly to the whole community that this project’s gonna happen,” said Foye, “And, we would expect that not only is it a precondition to Phase II and the redevelopment of this building, but that it’s commencement will accelerate those discussions and that investment.”

By itself, the Phase 1 project is a worthwhile one. Improving access into and out of Penn Station will go a long way toward easing the crush of commuters in this underground cavern. That the Port Authority worked to ensure bids came in at budget is a step in the right direction too.

As I’ve noted in the past though, the Moynihan Station plan — with a price tag ranging from $500 million to $1 billion — leaves much to be desired. It doesn’t increase track capacity through the city and represents a nice building for politicians and a lot of dollars spent on some cosmetic upgrades. If it’s a future key for high-speed rail, that’s an easier pill to swallow, but I still wonder about our infrastructure spending priorities at a time when funds are not freely flowing.

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MTA Absurdity

The lessons of Jimmy Roemer and MTA contractors

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 8, 2012

An ex-con who once stole $10 million from the MTA and served jail time for the payroll scam was hired by an MTA contractor to again oversee payroll, this time on the East Side Access project. It’s an “only in New York, only involving the MTA” story uncovered this weekend by The Daily News, and it underscores the challenges an agency the size of the MTA faces in an industry with few checks and balances.

Greg Smith had the story:

Since November, Jimmy Roemer has helped manage the payroll at the MTA’s biggest construction site — the $7.3 billion East Side Access tunnel that will someday link the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal. He’s had prior experience managing payroll at another MTA work site — though perhaps not the kind of experience the MTA would want.

A decade ago, Roemer participated in a brazen conspiracy to steal $10 million from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s massive renovation of its headquarters in lower Manhattan. He spent some of the spoils on a waterfront lodge he named after the Frank Sinatra song “Summer Wind.”

As he pleaded guilty to six counts — including fraud, obstruction of justice and tax evasion — in 2003, he explained how managing the payroll allowed him to routinely inflate workers’ hours and bill for workers who did not exist. This is precisely the job he’s held for the last six months: determining how many workers are needed each day and signing off on time cards for Dragados-Judlau, which has $1.1 billion in MTA contracts at the East Side Access tunnel.

Following the revelation, every party pointed a finger elsewhere. The MTA blamed Dragados-Judlau. “He was hired by the contractor, and we don’t pry into their hiring methods,” authority spokesman Adam Lisber said to The News. “We have a very robust system for checking the fitness and responsibility for all of our contractors, and it is on them to do the work the way we expect. We don’t sit down with their payrolls and examine everybody on it.”

The contractor’s representative, meanwhile, had a different explanation for the grave oversight. “Honestly, it wasn’t that big of a deal to me at the time,” supervisor Sean Clevenstine said. “He told me he was convicted, he told me he did time, he told me he paid restitution. I never got into the particulars and the specifics because it was, to me, I was filling a union position with a union employee.”

Roemer, who helped funnel money to the Genovese crime family and still owes the MTA $200,000 in restitution, has been removed from his post and declined to comment to The News. The incident itself is a black eye for Dragados-Judlau and reflects poorly on the MTA too. That said, the authority isn’t exactly in a position to run background checks on every single employee hired by its various contractors. Considering the number of contractor employees working on MTA projects, such a process would be exceedingly cost and time-consuming.

Still, something broke down somewhere. Dragados-Judlau seems to have only the barest of checks in place, and they seemingly rely on the honor system. Clevenstine’s comment concerning a union man filling a union position speaks volumes on the state of play (although Roemer will soon be a former member of Local 14, according to recent reports). If the contractors can find a few good union men for those union positions, they have no need to go that extra mile.

The MTA, meanwhile, has no checks in place. They could provide contractors with a list of people convicted of a fraud similar to Roemer’s. Considering convictions for these crimes are relatively uncommon, such a list should be easy to put together, and it would behoove the authority to figure out a way to achieve this end. After all, this revelation looks bad, especially on a project that’s already delayed and over budget for a whole mess of reasons.

Ultimately, this news strikes me more as business as usual than any such great revelation. It’s a crooked business with only a handful of powerful contractors bidding on each MTA project, and they need to come in under their competitive bids. The process failed here as it has so many other times in the past.

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East Side Access Project

Lhota: East Side Access now expected in 2019

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 8, 2012

While speaking with the Long Island Association earlier this morning, MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota let slip the news on East Side Access that has been a few months’ coming. “We were originally looking at 2018, but the most recent analyses puts the opening at 2019,” Lhota said. “I don’t want to see it go past 2019.”

LIBN.com has more:

The problem with East Side Access isn’t digging below Grand Central Station, where “cavernous tunnels” have been carved out, but on the Queens side of the project. Tunneling underneath the Queens rail yard near Jamaica, where trains from Amtrak and Acela are stored in addition to MTA’s own vehicles, has become an issue.

Contaminated soil languishes and must be disposed of properly, and unlike closer to the water, the ground is soft rather than rocky. Lhota said workers have also run into springs and brooks that nobody knew existed below the surface. The MTA has brought in experts from Europe to help with developing a plan going forward.

To call this a nightmare scenario for the MTA would not be hyperbole. Initial estimates, clearly optimistic, placed the completion date during 2012, and the timeline slipped first to 2014 and then to 2016 and then to some undetermined date in the future. Now, it seems, we will have to wait seven more years for this project, with substantial tunneling completed, to see revenue service.

There is, as yet, no word what this timeline will mean for the costs. I’ll have more info as I receive it. At least for now those bemoaning Metro-North service into Penn Station will have a good decade to refine their arguments.

* * *
(Update 5:30 p.m.): Later in the day, the MTA put out the following statement as the authority acted to temper down fears of a never-ending project:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is reevaluating the risks in the construction schedule for the East Side Access project, and plans to present its findings to the Capital Program Oversight Committee later this month. One preliminary analysis of risk factors has indicated the completion date may move to 2019, as East Side Access construction intensifies in the busiest passenger rail yard and the largest passenger rail interchange in the nation.

The analysis is not complete, and the MTA is identifying ways to mitigate those risk factors to allow the project to be completed as early as possible. The MTA continues to work with its partners at the Federal Transit Administration to update the East Side Access funding agreement to reflect the new schedule.

Amtrak and the MTA are working closely together on East Side Access and improvements to the East River tunnels and the Harold Interlocking to accommodate the roughly 500,000 passengers who rely on 1,200 train movements through the region each day. Senior executives at Amtrak, the MTA and NJ Transit regularly meet to coordinate construction activities and do everything possible to keep work moving forward.

We’ll have a more definite timeline later this month when the MTA Board gathers to discuss this delay-plagued project.

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MetroCard

To fight Metrocard fraud, a longer swipe delay

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 8, 2012

For as long as I can remember, the key time for a Metrocard has always involved 18 minutes. The cards, the MTA has long said, cannot be used on the same bus route or at the same subway station for 18 minutes. It’s a delay long enough to frustrate the average straphanging family looking to take advantage of an unlimited ride card, but it hasn’t stymied scammers.

Those who sell swipes have long been a thorn in the MTA’s side. We’ve all seen the folks who stand in station agent-less entrances offering to sell swipes for less than the cost of a ride. Some of them are more menacing than others, and some will go so far to jam up Metrocard Vending Machines to make sure their scams are the only ways into the subway system. I’ve seen them at some of the more desolate entrances to the Columbus Circle station, and they are positioned all over.

For years, the MTA has tried to cut down on these scammers. Summonses are ineffective, and arrests are just temporary setbacks. With only an 18-minute gap between swipes, these scammers can buy multiple Metrocards and simply swipe through the pack until the time is up. Now, the MTA is upping the fight against scammers in an effort to capture more money. As Pete Donohue noted in The Daily News, the authority has quietly upped the swipe time at a few stations and is generally being more aggressive in combating those who are using the same card multiple times at one station.

Donohue writes:

In the test program, the MTA targeted 28 stations where MetroCard records indicate high rates of fraud. Turnstiles were tweaked to reject a time-based card that had been used in the same station in the previous 36, 48 or 60 minutes. For decades, the lockout time has been 18 minutes, but that’s easily skirted by rotating through a series of cards.

The MTA’s theory: increase the lockout time and a scammer needs more MetroCards to make the investment in time or money worth it. “We know the police are out there doing everything they can to address this problem,” MTA spokesman Charles Seaton said. “We think we can do some things internally to make this kind of fraud less financially attractive.”

Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign has some concerns about the plan. “It’s OK to make things harder for illegal swipers with longer blackout periods,” he said. “But transit officials have got to balance that against the mobility of the rest of us, such as when we’ve forgotten something at the office and have to reenter a station. We are New Yorkers and we are always in a hurry.”

As a frequent swiper, I am having a tough time finding too much fault with his idea. While Russianoff is right to raise a concern, do legitimate subway riders swipe in more than once in an hour at the same station? The only time I could imagine doing so is if I swipe in, realize I’ve forgotten something and then have to return home to pick it up. Even then, I could still journey a few extra blocks to enter at a different station.

The MTA has often proclaimed loses due to Metrocard scams in excess of $20 million. That’s enough to save some bus routes or avoid a future service cut. While no business can reduce its bleed rate to nothing, a 60-minute time limit at the same station seems perfectly reasonable to me as the familiar yellow-and-blue fare payment system lives out its last years. Once the Metrocard vanishes, I wonder what future scams will resemble.

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Subway Maps

The drama — and mistakes — of the subway map

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 7, 2012

Contrary to the subway map, West End Avenue does not end at 116th Street.

While the MTA draws the ire of millions of New Yorkers who endure packed trains and climbing fares, it often seems as though nothing quite captures the imagination of a dedicated subsection of straphangers quite like the subway map. From its design to its creation to its geographical accuracy (or lack thereof), New Yorkers are content to spend more time discussing the map than we rightly should. If this were a crime, I’d certainly be guilty of it.

Today’s tale of subway map woes comes to us from Matt Flegenheimer of The New York Times. Not only does he focus on geographical inaccuracies but he delves into the soap opera behind the map’s creation. As subway stalwarts know, the current bastardized iteration of the subway map grew out of the efforts to discard the Massimo Vignelli map. Heralded as a piece of design art that suffered functionally, the Vignelli map was ushered out in a 1979 redesign that saw various stakeholders — including Michael Hertz and John Tauranac — have input on the new map.

Essentialy, Tauranac steered the committee overseeing the redesign while Hertz’s company was in charge of execution. Tauranac was in charge of geography; Hertz overlaying the system on a diagram of the city. Both parties duke it out over the map’s flaws and faults. Now, The Times’ focus on the errors has the two men warring again:

On the West Side of Manhattan, beginning near Lincoln Center and extending toward the campus of Columbia University, Broadway is seemingly misplaced. It is west of Amsterdam Avenue at West 66th Street when it should be east. It drifts toward West End Avenue near 72nd Street, where it should intersect with Amsterdam. It overtakes West End Avenue north of the avenue’s actual endpoint near West 107th Street, creating several blocks of fictitious Upper West Side real estate…

Many New Yorkers have undoubtedly noticed that the subway map has its geographic faults, from peccadilloes like a wayward street to more obvious inaccuracies like the supersize island of Manhattan. But Mr. Tauranac’s sheepish discovery of the errors has at once rekindled and complicated a long-simmering debate over who deserves credit for the watershed 1979 guide. Michael Hertz, whose firm is credited with designing the initial template for the map, has long chafed at Mr. Tauranac’s calling himself the “design chief” on a project that has garnered numerous accolades, including a commendation from the United States Department of Transportation and the National Endowment of the Arts.

“We’ve had parallel careers,” Mr. Hertz said in a telephone interview. “I design subway maps, and he claims to design subway maps.”

While Tauranac, who also takes a jab at Vignelli’s map in the article, is content to battle it out in the press with Hertz, the truth remains that the map is a semi-fictionalized part of New York City. It requires people riding the system to have a passing familiarity with their destination, and it does not provide point-to-point directions or above-ground accuracy. As MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg said, “This is not a street map. This is a subway map.”

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Queens

Making the case for the Rockaway Beach Branch

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 7, 2012

A schematic shows the Rockaway Beach Branch service from 1955 until it was shuttered in 1960. (Courtesy of Railfan.net)

After a flurry of activity this winter concerning the reactivation of the LIRR’s Rockaway Beach Branch line and some Queens residents’ calls to turn the right-of-way into a park, news concerning the rail line’s fate has died down. Recently, though, local politicians have thrown their voice behind the rail line.

In mid-March, Community Board 14 voted to voice its approval for reactivation of the Rockaway Beach Branch spur. It’s unclear what, if anything, anyone will do with this non-binding vote, but the role this old rail spur could play in improving intra- and inter-borough transportation in Queens is tremendous. Recently, Vincent S. Castellano took to the Queens Courier to outline exactly why this rail line should be reactivated, and his argument deserves a look.

Castellano offers up both a history lesson and an argument for better rail service. The history is important though because it sets the stage for today’s depart. Essentially, in 1962, the then-privately operated LIRR shut down the 3.5-mile stretch of the Rockaway Beach Branch between Queens Boulevard and the Aquaduct now under the microscope. The A train started using the southern portion out to the Rockaways at a tremendous cost to mobility.

“By disconnecting the northern part of the Rockaway Beach Branch,” Castellano wrote, “the powers that be severed train service between south and north Queens. Have you ever wondered why a Rockaway train has to go through Manhattan to go to Flushing? This is why.”

After some good old bashing of local politicians who have failed to solve traffic and transportation problems for decades, Castellano gets down to the crux of his argument:

Let me suggest that the best plan for the future of Queens is the original one from 1952. Re-establish the connection between the existing A train at Aqueduct and White Pot Junction in Kew Gardens. This can be done simply by adding new NYCTA tracks on the 3.5 mile northern branch thereby making the connection to Queens Blvd. There the old Rego Park Station (near 63rd Drive) could be rebuilt as a transportation hub providing transfers between the subway and the LIRR mainline. The Rego Park Station is less than 10 minutes from Penn Station.

This short 3.5 mile stretch of track effectively connects the A, E, J, M, R and Z subway lines to the LIRR. In addition, it runs parallel to Woodhaven Blvd so it will reduce congestion there. It also crosses Jamaica Avenue, Atlantic Avenue and Metropolitan Avenue and terminates in the vicinity of Junction Blvd, Queens Blvd and the LIE. If you had to create this right of way today the cost would be staggering. Yet this priceless public asset (paid for with taxpayer dollars) just sits there collecting rust for the last 50 years. Have we elected the wrong people to manage public assets?

Making the new Rego Park Station a transportation hub in the center of Queens also makes other transportation options possible. Limited/Select bus services could be established from the Rego Park Station to LaGuardia Airport, Citifield, Queens College and Flushing. This would be a one transfer, one fare connection between north and south in Queens. It would finally make Queens College accessible in practice and not just in theory. Re-establishing the Rockaway Beach Branch would also reduce vehicular traffic and congestion since this plan is cheaper, faster and more efficient than existing mass transit plans and current vehicular options within Queens.

Castellano ends his piece proclaiming this spur to be “shovel-ready,” and I’m not so sure I’d go that far. Nothing in New York City without a time-consuming environmental review process is truly shovel-ready. Plus, to reactivate the rail line would require extensive testing and cleaning up of the preexisting infrastructure. Some parts of the right-of-way have been encroached upon, and the MTA would have to deal with those who need to be moved. It’s not quite as easy as a snap of the fingers.

This project, however, is one that merits serious consideration. Much of the infrastructure is there, and construction costs would pale in comparison with, say, Phase II of the Second Ave. Subway. It would truly right a transportation wrong and ease congestion and traffic throughout parts of Queens. With bits and spurts of momentum behind it, this project should stay on the front-burner until it moves forward. It makes too much sense for the region for it stall out.

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Service Advisories

Weekend work, movie filming impacting 11 lines

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 4, 2012

Not much to say here on a night when this happened to the Yanks in Kansas City. You get service advisories for the weekend instead, and I’ll have more content later in the morning.

Note the first entry. I can honestly say I’ve never seen a 15-hour train diversion due to a movie filming. I hope someone’s getting some money out of that one. Otherwise, that seems like a pretty flimsy reason to skip a reasonably popular station.


From 5 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday, May 6, downtown 1 trains skip 125th Street due to movie filming.

  • To this station, customers may transfer to the M4 bus at 137th Street (free transfers issued) or take the downtown 1 train to 116th Street and transfer to an uptown 1 train.
  • From this station, customers may take the M4 or M104 bus to 116th Street (free transfers issued) and transfer to a downtown 1 train.


From 12:01 a.m. Sunday, May 6 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 7, 3 service is extended to New Lots Avenue due to platform edge, mechanical and electrical work at Fulton Street and renewal of switches north of Borough Hall. Note: 3 trains operate express in both directions between Chambers Street and 96th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Sunday, May 6 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 7, there are no 4 trains between Brooklyn Bridge and New Lots Avenue due to platform edge, mechanical and electrical work at Fulton Street and renewal of switches north of Borough Hall. Customers should take the 3, N, Q or R instead. Note: 4 trains operate local in both directions between 125th Street and Brooklyn Bridge.


From 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Sunday, May 6, there are no 5 trains between Grand Central-42nd Street and Bowling Green due to platform edge, mechanical and electrical work at Fulton Street and renewal of switches north of Borough Hall. Customers should take the 4 (operating between Woodlawn and Brooklyn Bridge.), Q or R trains instead. 5 trains run every 20 minutes between Dyre Avenue and Grand Central-42nd Street.

  • For service between Grand Central-42nd Street and Bowling Green, customers may take the 4.
  • For service between Brooklyn Bridge and Bowling Green, customer may use the nearby Cortlandt Street, Rector Street and Whitehall Street R stations, served by the uptown Q and Brooklyn-bound R trains during this time.


From 11:30 p.m. Saturday, May 5 to 6 a.m. Sunday, May 6, 207th Street-bound A trains are express from Canal Street to 59th Street-Columbus Circle due to switch replacement north of West 4th Street.


From 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 5 and Sunday, May 6, Manhattan-bound C trains run express from Euclid Avenue to Broadway Junction due to system inspection.


From 12:01 am to 6 a.m., Saturday, May 5 and Sunday May 6 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m., Monday, May 7, Bronx-bound D trains run express from 36th Street to Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street, skipping DeKalb Avenue due to track work north of Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street.


From 11:30 Saturday, May 5 to 6 a.m. Sunday, May 6, Queens-bound E trains run express from Canal Street to 42nd Street-Port Authority due to switch replacement north of West 4th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m., Saturday, May 5 and Sunday, May 6 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m., Monday, May 7, Manhattan-bound N trains run express from 36th Street to Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street, then via the Manhattan Bridge, skipping DeKalb Avenue due to track work north of Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 5 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 7, Manhattan-bound Q trains run via the R line between DeKalb Avenue and Canal Street due to track work north of Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, May 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 7, Manhattan-bound Q trains run express from Sheepshead Bay to Prospect Park due to track panel installation south of Kings Highway.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, May 5 and Sunday, May 6, Manhattan-bound R trains run express from 36th Street to Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street, then via the Manhattan Bridge, skipping DeKalb Avenue due to track work north of Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street. Note: Manhattan-bound Q trains replace the N and R, stopping at Jay Street-MetroTech, Court Street, Whitehall Street, Rector Street, Cortlandt Street and City Hall.


From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m., Saturday, May 5 and Sunday, May 6 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m., Monday, May 7, there are no R trains between 59th Street and 36th Street in Brooklyn due to track work north of Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street. Customers should use the N instead. R trains operate between 95th Street and 59th Street in Brooklyn.

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AsidesMTA Technology

Boingo, Transit Wireless team up for underground WiFi

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 3, 2012

As Transit Wireless is hard at work bringing cell service to the New York City subway stations, the company has announced a deal to bring WiFi underground as well. Transit Wireless announced a deal today with Boingo that will see the company manage and operate a WiFi network within the city’s underground subway stations. The roll-out for the service will be gradual over the next five years and will cover stations in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.

“Boingo has a proven expertise in operating easy-to-use wireless services in high-traffic venues serving people on-the-go,” Transit Wireless CEO William A. Bayne Jr. said in a statement. “Our partnership with Boingo helps us deliver on our commitment to providing best-in-class technology amenities to our community of commuters and visitors to the Big Apple.”

Boingo, known for its vast array of airport networks it operates, will be charging for the service. It’s roaming partners, which include Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon may be able to use the service for a lesser charge as well. On the one hand, this is a positive development for New York City subway riders. On the other, it’s somewhat redundant as smart phone users will be able to use Transit Wireless’ own network to access the Internet. Still, this move should further the push toward technological innovation in the transit space.

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MTA Technology

A technological future for the city’s transit

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 3, 2012

I’ve grown up in a technologically oriented age. I’ve had a computer for as long as I can remember, the Internet throughout high school and Google for my collegial and professional careers. Still, throughout most of my first three decades, my native transit agency has had a tough relationship with technology. It’s begun to change, though, and over the next few years, we’ll see it progress even more so.

Until recently, the MTA’s embrace of technology was lukewarm at best. We had heard countless stories of the troubles. Bus tracking couldn’t happen in New York because of GPS interference in the canyons of Manhattan. One contractor had filed suit over a new monitoring project. Countdown clocks were perennially on the horizon. The website resembled something out of the late 1990s.

Lately, though, the agency has turned the page. We have countdown clocks in nearly every A Division station, new rolling stock that incorporates technological advances, a BusTime system slowly spreading across the city and a more dynamic website. No one will confuse the MTA with a groundbreaking technology company, but after refusing to release data for years, we’ll soon enjoy real-time subway arrival data. It’s a solid start.

Earlier this week, I attended a panel on technology in transit. Among the speakers at NYU’s Rudin Center were an app developer, officials from the Port Authority and MTA, a Google engineer and one of the leaders from Open Plans. They spoke at length about the role technology will play in the short- and long-term, and all five of the panelists agreed that the future will involve rapid innovation.

On an individual level, we know what to expect. The MTA will make its subway data available and will soon bring arrival boards in one form or another to its B Division. It’s also seeking to implement a next generation fare payment system. PATH is hoping to incorporate dynamic signage and a better train tracking system. Right now, for instance, Exchange Place-bound customers at the World Trade Center have no idea which train will leave first, and that’s a flaw that should be corrected.

Technological innovations that impact transportation aren’t limited to public transit either. The Port Authority is working on ways to bring more information about road conditions to the public, and it already pays off. When I have to drive around the city, I’ll always check the traffic conditions online before picking my route. In the future, we should have more information concerning delays and problem spots.

Of course, with the improvements — which cost money to implement and money to maintain — come questions. We’re living through an era of austerity. Governments refuse or cannot invest in transit service, and agencies have cut bus routes and train frequency. Meanwhile, technological innovations move forward, and many critics claim that flashy technology is simply a front of worse service. Should we accept countdown clocks if the trade-off is fewer and more crowded trains?

I asked the panelists to comment on that critique, and the answers were similar. We cannot move forward without technology. Many seemed to view the service cuts as somewhat temporary. When the money returns, so too will service. The technological improvements, meanwhile, can cost a fraction of what it would cost to restore the service cuts, and they serve to make commutes more convenient and passenger-friendly. The information helps riders plan their trips, and it can help the operations staff plan routes and frequency. The possibilities are endless.

I buy it. I embrace the technology. I crave the countdown clocks and BusTime, the Google Maps traffic layers and the simple signs pointing to the next train to depart. But I grew up enmeshed in technology. It is no replacement for frequent service, but we need the improvements to move forward. Now if only the MTA would release its Board committee materials in searchable PDF format. It is, after all, 2012.

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MTA EconomicsMTA Politics

A temporary reprieve for an onerous bond fee

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 2, 2012

Earlier this year, as the MTA went about securing its capital future, an infuriating state law concerning the issuance of debt rose to light. Even as New York State has required the MTA to issue debt, it is also takes a fee of about 8.4 cents per every dollar of debt issued. Thus, if the MTA issues $1 billion in debt, New York State, the body that required the MTA to issue the debt, takes in $84 million. As the state has collected over $100 million from the MTA over the years, I called it the great bond swindle.

When The Daily News brought the issue to light in February, it caught the attention of some New York politicians who were, rightfully so, outraged. Now, the MTA is, as the Staten Island Advance notes, getting a temporary reprieve. In an editorial calling for the permanent elimination of the debt fee, the Staten Island newspaper summarizes recent developments:

The authority would have had to fork over $50 million in BIC over the next two years alone to borrow the money it plans to raise through bond issues. Of course, this added financial burden has meant that the hard-pressed MTA, which is required to have a balanced budget, has been forced to resort to fare hikes, service cuts and even more borrowing to fund its operations.

As Ms. Malliotakis said, “This policy was completely counterproductive as it was bleeding the MTA dry and contributing to the agency’s chronic failure to maintain adequate bus service and keep tolls and fares at a reasonable level,”

Now that wrong has been righted, however – at least temporarily. At the urging of MTA officials, including Staten Island board member Allen Cappelli, and elected officials such as Ms. Malliotakis and Assemblyman Michael Cusick, who authored legislation to eliminate the fee, Gov. Andrew Cuomo finally relented and waived the bond issuance charge for new MTA bonds, but only on those issued in 2012 and 2013 to refinance old debt.

MTA Board members have quickly called for the authority to use the savings to restore services lost to the 2010 cuts. “The MTA needs to look at the additional money from this and increased passenger revenue and invest it in restoring much needed bus and subway restorations as well as some additions to service,” Cappelli said. Meanwhile, city workers removed two bus stops around the corner from my apartment that once served the late great B71, leaving me with the feeling that these lost routes ain’t never coming back.

Meanwhile, this absurd measure by the state has been rectified for now, and as the Advance says, it should be overturned permanently. Good riddance to bad polices.

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