Moynihan Station

Moynihan Phase 1 scaled back amidst cost concerns

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 13, 2012

The chances of this Moynihan Station rendering becoming a reality are slim.

The Moynihan Station project won’t die and can’t really move forward either. Despite a TIGER grant and a groundbreaking in October 2010, the plan to spend more than a $1 billion without truly increasing cross-Hudson train capacity has hit a stumbling block. As The Wall Street Journal reports today, due to escalating costs, the already-modest Phase 1 is being further scaled back.

Phase 1 of the two-phase project was not a particularly ambitious set of improvements. For $267 million, the Port Authority, now the overseers of the site, had planned to build two new entrances to Penn Station from west of Eighth Ave.; double the length and width of the West End Concourse; drop 13 new access points to the platforms; double the width of the 33rd St. Connector between Penn Station and the West End Concourse; and make other critical infrastructure improvements. Now that bids are in on the work and every single one came in above budget, the PA is reducing the scope of Phase 1.

Ted Mann has the story:

State and federal officials wary about mounting costs plan to scale back the first segment of work for the future Moynihan Station, the latest setback for an ambitious project almost two decades in the making. Plans to revamp a concourse and upgrade passenger amenities in a portion of Penn Station were narrowed after officials determined that bids for the estimated $267 million project came in too high, said Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is assuming control of the long-delayed venture…

“The response of the federal government, state government, MTA and Port Authority to the higher-than-expected bids is a unified approach to reduce the scope of phase one and thereby reduce the amount to be spent,” Mr. Foye said in an interview on Friday. “Phase one is funded and all government parties are working closely together to move phase one forward.”

…Mr. Foye said officials agreed to rebid the contract, focusing on the expansion of the existing West End Concourse, nestled beneath the main steps of the Farley building. Other elements of the first phase, including improvements to the 33rd Street corridor under Eighth Avenue, two new entrances to the station across Eighth Avenue and a new passenger waiting area, will follow once costs can be lowered, Mr. Foye said.

As I’ve long maintained, the Moynihan Station project borders on being a total waste. It’s a fancy way to fund some upgrades for the Amtrak platforms and ventilation infrastructure. It doesn’t offer up more track capacity into or out of the city, and it seems to represent spending on a structure that would allow politicians to point to something nice but not entirely functional. If these cost overruns and rejiggered project allow planners to take a second look at Moynihan Station, so much the better.

56 comments
1 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
7 Line Extension

Photos: Inside the 7 line extension

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 12, 2012

The Far West Side of Manhattan is a bit of a no-man’s land. Outside of the Javits Center and some barbecue at Daisy May’s, only storage units, the Intrepid and some boat decks provide reasons for a trip west. Yet in just over 22 months, Manhattan’s first new subway extension since the late 1980s will open, and the 7 line will head to 34th St. and 11th Ave. to an extensive deep cavern station that may one day, if all goes according to plan, serve over 30,000 passengers per hour. The Hudson Yards development will one day be a big destination.

The 7 line extension is the MTA’s under-the-radar $2.1 billion megaproject. The route goes through sparsely populated lands without a heavy residential or mixed-used presence as Second Ave. is. It’s a project that was spurred on by the idea of bringing the Olympics to New York but outlived the failed bid for the 2012 Games. It’s been fully funded, to an extent, by the city, but cost overruns shelved what would have been a very useful station at 41st St. and 10th Ave.

In a sense, this project is a throwback to another era in New York City’s history. Despite lofty projections and a three-block-long mezzanine that puts the IND’s overbuilt system to shame, when it opens, the new station will see far fewer than 30,000 passengers an hour. Rather, this station is meant to spur on development at the Hudson Yards area. With a subway stop, Manhattan’s last frontier will become a much more desirable area. “When we open,” Michael Horodniceanu, the MTA Capital Construction president, said during a tour of the extension, “the ridership will yet to be there. We expect this to spur ridership.”

The mezzanine at 34th Street and 11th Avenue stretches on for three city blocks. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

On Friday, I took a tour of the 7 line extension. At 34th St. and 11th Ave., across the street from the Javits Center, the new station is a deep cavern, over 100 feet underground, with a mezzanine that spans over three city blocks. It will have inclined escalators and elevators leading into immense entrances. As the new extension will require six additional trainsets for the 7 line, the new build will have tail tracks that will stretch to 25th St. Horodniceanu said future development could lead to a station near Chelsea Piers or a further extension to 14th St. if the money ever materializes. In fact, such work could have been a part of the current extension had someone wished to fund it.

After entering at 34th St., we walked the length of the station and took a stroll through the tunnel connecting the new extension with the current terminal of the 7 train at 41st and 8th Ave. We walked underneath the Lincoln Tunnel, the Port Authority Bus Terminal and active IND tracks at 8th Ave. Still, the lost station was on my mind as I’ve long believed it to be a very costly mistake not to build it. Contractors have flattened out the otherwise steep grade of the tunnel for a stretch at 41st and 10th Ave., and again, if the money materializes, the MTA could build two side platforms there, rectifying this wrong.

The 7 line cuts through the IND's abandoned lower level platform at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

By the time we reached 8th Ave., the old and the new merged. We took a peek at the 7 trains waiting to head to Queens and saw the remnants of the lower level IND platform at 42nd and 8th Ave. This platform, long rumored to have been built to block a westward expansion of the 7 train, served as a set for the movie Ghost and has been bisected by the new construction. Today, it serves as a staging area and temporary rest room for the workers underground.

The MTA offers up the 7 line extension of a project that can be built under budget, and while Horodniceanu said it has an “agressive” delivery date of December 31, 2013, they think they can still make it on time. The last contract isn’t due for delivery until June of 2014, and real estate acquisition problems slowed down the overall time frame. But the MTA is offering up substantial bonuses if the contractor can deliver before Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s third term is over. The 7 line extension, omitted station and all, has long been Bloomberg’s pet project, and he wants to ride that train before his days are out.

After the jump, a full slideshow of my photos from the tour.

Continue Reading
26 comments
2 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Service Advisories

Less than three inches of snow cancels most weekend work

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 10, 2012

It might snow! One to three inches! Therefore, most weekend work is canceled. Here are the remaining service changes. Stay warm.


From 11 p.m. Friday, February 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 13, uptown 1 trains run express from Chambers Street to 14th Street due to rail and tie renewal at Houston Street and track replacement south of 14th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m., Saturday, February 11 and Sunday, February 12 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, February 13, uptown 2 trains run express from Chambers Street to 14th Street due to rail and tie renewal at Houston Street and track replacement south of 14th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, February 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 13, there are no 7 trains between Times Square-42nd Street and Queensboro Plaza due to track panel installation and CBTC work south of Queensboro Plaza, ADA work at Court Square and station renewal at Hunters Point Avenue. Customers should take the N, R, E or F between Manhattan and Queens. Free shuttle buses operate between Vernon Blvd-Jackson Avenue and Queensboro Plaza. In Manhattan, the 42nd Street shuttle (S) operates overnight. From 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, February 11 and from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, February 12, Q service is extended to/from Ditmars Blvd. due to the 7 line suspension. (Repeats next seven weekends through March 31-Apr 2.)


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, February 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 13, there are no L trains between Lorimer Street and Broadway Junction due to CBTC signal work. Free shuttle buses provide alternate service between Lorimer Street and Broadway Junction, making all station stops.


From 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, February 11 and from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, February 12, Q service is extended to/from Ditmars Blvd. due to the 7 line suspension.

(42nd Street Shuttle)
From 12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m. Saturday, February 11, Sunday, February 12 and Monday, February 13, the 42nd Street shuttle operates overnight due to the 7 line suspension.

21 comments
2 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
AsidesMTA Construction

Follow-up: Broadway FASTRACK under consideration for 2013

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 10, 2012

When the MTA announced its FASTRACK program, their initial plans called for work on only the two IRT lines and the two IND lines. The BMT Broadway line was noticeably absent from the work blitz and overnight shutdown. I reached out to Transit this week to find out why the N, Q and R trains weren’t getting the same treatment and found out that the Broadway could be a part of FASTRACK in 2013 if and when the program is continued.

These year, though, those lines will escape the treatment simply because they’re in better shape than the rest of the subway system. “The amount of work along that corridor didn’t warrant shutting that segment at this point,” Transit spokesman Kevin Ortiz said to me earlier this week. Most of the stations that would be shut down along the Broadway line have recently been renovated, and the number of stations that come to mind that need the most work — mostly just City Hall — doesn’t warrant a total shutdown.

I didn’t have the chance to ask about the BMT Nassau St. line, but the Chambers St. and Bowery stations along the J/Z need far more work and attention than that provided by the FASTRACK shut down. Maybe one day, their times will come.

11 comments
2 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Metro-NorthPenn Station Access

LI Pols protesting better train service to NYC

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 10, 2012

Penn Station access for Metro-North will not be a grievous insult to Long Islanders.

There must be something in the water out on Long Island that makes its politicians put forth some crazy ideas. A few days after one group of Long Island State Senators proposed a further repeal of the MTA payroll tax, another is protesting what is, in essence, better commuter rail service for New Yorkers from both the Island and Westchester.

The story goes a little something like this: On and off for the last decade or so, the MTA has toyed with a Penn Station Access Study that discusses how best to bring Metro-North trains into Penn Station. In November, thanks to a push from Bronx politicians, the authority announced that it is engaged in a Federal Environmental Assessment that is exploring the impact such a routing would have. The assessment will be finished by the end of 2013, and at that point, the MTA will determine how best to proceed with this project.

Meanwhile, a group of Long Island Senators is having what can charitably be described as a freak-out. They are already calling upon the MTA to reject Metro-North service to Penn Station, and their complaints seem utterly short-sighted. “To make room for the new Metro-North Trains, the LIRR could be forced to cut the number of trains it runs into Penn Station,” Kemp Hannon, a Republican from Nassau County, said. “The LIRR is already sharing ingress into Penn Station, and any reduction of service could have a devastating impact on commuters and other travelers. With only seven of Penn Station’s existing 21 tracks being allotted to the LIRR, any reductions would seriously impair LIRR operations and affect all LIRR riders.”

The Senators, as Newsday reports, sent a letter to MTA Chairman Joe Lhota expressing their displeasure with the move. They don’t want to see a reduction in LIRR service to Penn Station, but they seem to be ignoring both common sense and commuting patterns.

Right now, as we know, the MTA is building out the East Side Access project that will, by 2016 or 2018 or some point this decade, bring LIRR service to Grand Central. The MTA studies show that tens of thousands of people from Long Island want and need direct service to the East Side. These folks currently travel via LIRR to Penn Station and then make their ways to the East Side. It’s circuitous and inconvenient.

Based on the current MTA funding proposals and the speed of construction, any Metro-North service into Penn Station is unlikely to see the light of day before the East Side Access project is completed. By then, the LIRR won’t need to run as many trains into Penn Station becomes some of its ridership will choose instead to go to the East Side. The Long Island Senators claim that, even after ESA is in service, LIRR must operate the same service into Penn Station. They want it all at the expense of better commutes for New Yorkers from Westchester. It simply defies transportation reason.

35 comments
2 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
View from Underground

Do you know what it means to miss Penn Station?

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

The original Penn Station lives on only in photographs.

Amongst the transit literati and New York architect community, nothing triggers more nostalgia than old Penn Station. The McKim, Mead and White original met its demise 49 years ago, and its destruction along with the threatened demolition of Grand Central led to today’s wave of overly enthusiastic preservation. Yet, thanks to the dingy, cramped and ugly underground replacement, someone always wants to find a way to bring Penn Station back.

This time around, the argument belongs to Michael Kimmelman, architect critic for The New York Times. In a piece set to appear in Sunday’s paper but already available on the web, Kimmelman argues for a grand restoration of dignity for Penn Station commuters. His overall idea is an intriguing one. When the Javits Center is torn down as part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s convention center scheme, we will move Madison Square Garden to 34th St. and 11th Ave. and rebuild a grand train station where the Garden is now. Sounds great, right? Stay tuned.

In the piece Kimmelman is very dismissive of the Moynihan Station plan. Why? Read on:

Because the open secret about the Moynihan plan is that Amtrak alone would move across Eighth Avenue. Long Island Rail Road, New Jersey Transit and the subways wouldn’t budge. And only 30,000 of those 600,000 people who use Penn Station each day take Amtrak, never mind all the subway riders passing through.

That’s right: 95 percent of commuters will still have to contend with Penn even when the Moynihan plan is realized.

It’s true that the Moynihan plan will eventually improve a few access routes to subways and commuter trains. But it will add no new tracks and have limited effect on the congestion and misery of Penn Station. New tracks aside, the challenge is at the bare minimum to bring light and air into this underground purgatory and, beyond that, to create for millions of people a new space worthy of New York, a civic hub in the spirit of the great demolished one, more attuned to the city’s aspirations and democratic ideals.

This, of course, is no secret for many of us. We’ve bemoaned the dollars to be sunk into Moynihan with little to no upgrade to train capacity. It’s a similar story at Fulton Street where the headhouse represents a large chunk of an expensive project and sits a block away from a $4 billion PATH hub that also won’t increase capacity. In fact, as he proposes this new Penn Station, Kimmelman draws a comparison with the PATH hub.

“We depend on developers to improve neighborhoods,” he writes, “and at the same time we waste unconscionable amounts of public money on architectural follies like the much-delayed World Trade Center PATH station, which is projected, even after ground zero is fully developed, to serve only perhaps 60,000 riders and whose exploding cost is already approaching $4 billion, a scandal still waiting to dawn on New Yorkers.”

So the solution here appears to be…spending billions to build something that will create a “light-filled Penn Station” without increasing train capacity? Kimmelman manages to skirt the real issue: We can build the most glorious Penn Station possible and spend lavishly on it, but without an added tunnel underneath the Hudson River, without an expansion of track capacity underneath Penn Station and an increase in the number of trains that can cross into and out of New York City, we will just be repeating the same spending mistakes transplanted a few miles north from the World Trade Center site.

Maybe one day we’ll have a glorious train station on the West Side. Maybe we’ll have something to match the splendor of Grand Central (and hopefully, it will be a little less bland than the LIRR’s Atlantic Terminal). But we shouldn’t ask to spend billions at 34th Street just for the sake of aesthetics. A pretty building might look good, but it won’t allow for more trains and more rail commuters.

76 comments
2 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
AsidesMTA PoliticsTWU

As food ban moves forward, TWU subway rat contest showcases rodents

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

As part of their effort to draw attention to the fact that subway rats are really gross — a fact I did not realize needed attention drawn to it — the TWU has recently hosted a subway rat photography contest, and yesterday, they crowned a winner. The grossest rat in the subway dates back from 2008, and it’s really gross. If you want to see what Michael Spivack saw at the 7th Avenue station along 53rd St., click here. The entire gallery is equally disgusting.

Spivack, who has won himself a free monthly MetroCard for spotting this grotesque rodent, said the creature was still living when he snapped the photo. “I was waiting for the D train when I saw something on the platform,” he said to The Daily News. “The thing wasn’t moving but it was alive. I got as close as I dared to get.”

While the TWU’s contest brings visual attention to the rat infestation in the subway system, Albany is slowly attempting to do something to address the problem. The bill to ban food underground moved out of transportation committee by a 16-3 vote although nine of the ayes came with reservations. The bill now sits with the State Senate Finance Committee.

20 comments
2 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Public Transit Policy

Editorial: Stop the House Transportation Bill

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

On Monday, when it wasn’t clear if the House Ways and Means Committee mark-up of the Transportation Bill would see the light of day, I discussed New York’s staunch opposition to the bill. MTA officials as well as the region’s federal representatives gathered a few days ago to speak out against a bill that would turn guaranteed transit dollars into, well, nonguaranteed dollars. Our region stood to lose more than any other.

Now, as the bill is moving toward a floor vote with signs that it could pass the House, The Times has lent its editorial voice to the fight, and they aren’t holding back. Calling it a “terrible bill,” the Grey Lady urges the House to reject it, and if it passes, the Senate to turn it back. Here’s their take:

Here is a brief and by no means exhaustive list of the bill’s many defects:

¶It would make financing for mass transit much less certain, and more vulnerable, by ending a 30-year agreement that guaranteed mass transit a one-fifth share of the fuel taxes and other user fees in the highway trust fund. Instead it would compete annually with other programs.

¶It would open nearly all of America’s coastal waters to oil and gas drilling, including environmentally fragile areas that have long been off limits. The ostensible purpose is to raise revenue to help make up what has become an annual shortfall for transportation financing. But it is really just one more attempt to promote the Republicans’ drill-now-drill-everywhere agenda and the interests of their industry patrons.

¶It would demolish significant environmental protections by imposing arbitrary deadlines on legally mandated environmental reviews of proposed road and highway projects, and by ceding to state highway agencies the authority to decide whether such reviews should occur….

In any case, none of this is good news for urban transit systems, including New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which, in 2010 alone, received about $1 billion from the trust fund.

If we want to enjoy future subway expansion projects, if we want to see the Second Ave. Subway’s Phase 1 wrapped up on time, this bill cannot become law. Transportation for America has more on speaking out against this bill with the details on contacting your federal representatives. New York City denizens need not worry about our representatives voting in favor of HR 7, but this is a national issue. Say no to HR 7.

22 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Taxis

Taxis and Transit: A love-hate relationship?

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

New York City Taxi Activity from Juan Francisco Saldarriaga on Vimeo.

Advocates for better transit in New York City focus most of their attention on issues facing buses and subways and rightly so. After all, over 7 million people per day use the buses and subways. But in terms of increased mobility and flexibility, taxis play an important but understated role in the city’s transportation network. Still, they are cars and bring with them the ups and downs of cars. How do we reconcile the two?

A few recent pieces have put the spotlight on taxis, and they each highlight how these vehicles are both integral to a successful city and could also be a problematic part of an auto-centric attitude. Eric Jaffe at The Atlantic Cities’ blog focused on the complementary nature of taxis. He highlighted recent research by Columbia professor David King who studied taxi ride frequencies. King has found asymmetrical taxi throughout the day, and Jaffe explains:

King sees an important pattern for the data points: the origins and destinations have a geographical asymmetry that suggests people are only using cabs for one leg of their daily round trip. If this were a video of people driving their own car to and from work, the morning and evening rush would be a perfect mirror. It stands to reason, then, that the other leg of the trip is taken by public transportation; after all, it’s unlikely that many people park their car somewhere then take a cab home.

In other words, writes King, New York City taxi cabs appear to work within the existing transit network, not against it:

This matters because it means that individual’s travel journeys are multi-modal. If we want to have transit oriented cities we have to plan for high quality, door-to-door services that allow spontaneous one-way travel. Yet for all of the billions of dollars we have spent of fixed-route transit and the built environment we haven’t spent any time thinking about how taxis (and related services) can help us reach our goals.
King, for one, has spent a lot of time thinking about this subject. He and colleagues Jonathan Peters and Matthew Daus of CUNY recently presented a paper on the complementary transit nature of taxi cabs at a meeting of the Transportation Research Board. In it, they argue that “taxi service is a critical aspect of a transit system.”

…There’s a good bit of common sense. Taxis enable car-less travelers to switch modes in the middle of a journey. A New Yorker can take the subway to work, walk to a bar, then cab it home, and many do just that every day. This “asymmetrical mode share,” as King and company call it, is a hallmark of transit-oriented cities — granting easy, flexible travel to no-car residents.

Jaffe wonders “why many urban transport experts ignore the idea of using cabs to expand a transit network.” The answer, I believe, can be found in a recent piece by Charles Komanoff. Using his congestion pricing model, Komanoff has determined that adding an additional 2000 yellow cab medallions could increase Manhattan traffic by a considerable amount. In fact, based on the amount of time taxis spend in Manhattan, that increase projects to an around 10 percent of current traffic levels.

Therein lies the rub. We need taxis to offer the flexibility for those who do not want to drive or cannot afford a car, but taxis also contribute to congestion which has a strong negative impact on pedestrian life, the city’s productivity and its environment. In other words, taxis — can’t live with them, can’t live without them. It’s an irreconcilable conundrum.

23 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
AsidesSecond Avenue Subway

Dogs the latest Second Ave. Subway ‘victims’

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

The Second Ave. Subway construction isn’t even for the dogs, according to irate pet owners along the Upper East Side. Although a recent study conducted by MTA contractor Parsons Brinckerhoff found no concerns with the air quality along Second Avenue, residents have continued to claim that dust and debris from the blasting is creating unsafe conditions for people. Now, canine lovers say their dogs are suffering as well.

As DNA Info’s Serena Solomon reports, pup owners say their animals are suffering as well. Some dogs have been coughing with runny noses while others are exhibiting skin conditions and “psychological issues” relating to the ongoing subway blasting. “As soon as the sirens go off, the whole building starts barking,” dog owner Noura Insolera said. Her dog Winnie, she explains, “runs back and forth, scratches at the walls, tries to jump out the window.”

Even if the air quality isn’t impacting these pups’ lives, their owners say the animals have either become skittish or lethargic in the face of more blasting. Color me skeptical, but it seems as though dogs are just the next pawn in the great NIMBY fight against a new subway line.

9 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Load More Posts