Second Ave. Sagas

TWU, MTA demands coming into view

by Benjamin Kabak January 17, 2012

written by Benjamin Kabak on January 17, 2012

As the MTA and TWU continue working toward a new contract, the expectations and demands from both sides are coming into view. We learned yesterday that the TWU plans to tell the MTA and Gov. Cuomo to “take their set of demands and shove it,” but what exactly are those demands?

According to Crain’s New York, the MTA’s demands are in line with what other New York unions have received recently. MTA CEO and Chairman Joe Lhota has proposed a five-year deal with no wage increases in years 1-3 and two percent bumps in years four and five. The MTA also has reportedly requested higher health care contributions from workers, a furlough period, a part-time bus driver position and a lower salary for station cleaners.

On the other hand, the TWU wants constant wage increases, especially if it signs a five-year deal, and seems cool on the thought of productivity gains, according to The Wall Street Journal. The union, says The Journal, wants five years of wage increases tied to the Consumer Price Index. They won’t get any such raises without major productivity gains though.

Ultimately, the issue boils down to money. The MTA doesn’t have money to usher in an increase in labor costs. A wage increase will come at the expense of the number of TWU members on the work rolls and their job descriptions. The union has mentioned slowdowns as they operate without a contract, but for now, the two sides will continue to negotiate.

January 17, 2012 18 comments

Public Transit Policy

Feeling the squeeze in seats too narrow

by Benjamin Kabak January 17, 2012

written by Benjamin Kabak on January 17, 2012

The MTA's familiar bucket seats aren't wide enough for most New Yorkers. (Photo by flickr user bitchcakesny)

The 2 and 3 trains out of Brooklyn represent a chunk of my daily ride to work, and when my office moves to the West Side, I’ll be riding those trains for longer. In the morning and in the evening, I always root for the 2 train to arrive. It’s not the overall experience of the new rolling stock per se, but rather it is the seats. The bucket seats on the 3 train — as well as various other cars across the system — just do not work.

New Yorkers, you see, just don’t fit into the bucket seats. It’s not that New Yorkers are getting wider. Some are; some aren’t. But rather, the seats themselves aren’t wide enough for a normal sized adult who rides the subway, often with coats and layers. While the bench seating feels more natural, even in tight squeezes, the bucket seats are inefficient, impractical and uncomfortable. People try to squeeze into their perfectly defined spaces only to find the lip of the seat digging into certain areas where things should not dig.

As transit agencies are planning for next-generation rolling stock, the subways at least have done away with the buckets. All new cars have the bench seats. Yet, commuter rail cars still have something approximating bucket seats, and as car configurations are redesigned to conform with wider bottoms, seating may be a victim. Christine Haughney of The Times explored this conundrum yesterday. She wrote:

Each time an agency decides to purchase new trains or buses, it must consider whether to make its seats wider, knowing that a decision to do so could come at the expense of passenger capacity. New Jersey Transit has a five-year plan to add 100 double-decker train cars that have seats 2.2 inches wider than the 17.55-inch seats found in its single-deck trains; the seating configuration has been changed to two seats on either side of the aisle, rather than three on one side and two on the other. Amtrak intends to introduce “designs that will be able to accommodate the larger-sized passengers” on 25 new dining cars starting next year, said a spokesman, Cliff Cole.

But while transit agencies consider the needs of heavier passengers, they do not always yield to them. Over the past half-century, the width of New York City subway seats has not changed much, said Marcia Ely, assistant director of the New York Transit Museum. If anything, the seats have occasionally gotten smaller — and immediately encountered resistance.

Joseph Smith, who retired in 2010 as a New York City Transit senior vice president who also oversaw bus operations in the city and on Long Island, said that the agency once had to abandon plans to introduce Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses, which are popular in Europe, after riders complained about too-narrow seats.

Haughney’s article focuses on how transit agencies and the federal government are changing their requirements for weight distribution as well. Metro-North’s M9 cars will require double seats that can handle loads of up to 400 pounds while new federal crash-test standards for buses require 175 pounds and 1.75 square feet per person, up 25 pounds and 0.25 square feet over previous standards. “It’s clear that the US population is getting heavier,” Martin Schroeder, an engineer with the American Public Transport Association, said to The Times. “We are trying to get our hands on that and figure out what is the best average weight to use.”

This is are just a polite way of dealing with the reality of expanding waist lines, but that’s a genuine concern on public transportation (or anywhere, really). We’ve all been squeezed in the middle of people who are wider than the bucket seats or find ourselves underneath someone trying to sashay his or her way into a space that just isn’t big enough. It’s a hazard of the job, so to speak.

On the other hand, though, the increasing weights of passengers will require different federal standards which will require heavier and more plodding vehicles. We’ll lose seats on trains as New Jersey Transit, for instance, plans to cut out a third seat on some new cars, and we’ll lose speed as buses and rail cars, like their passengers, become heavier to cope with the added weight.

January 17, 2012 30 comments

TWU

Negotiations continue as TWU contract expires

by Benjamin Kabak January 16, 2012

written by Benjamin Kabak on January 16, 2012

As Sunday turned into Monday, the current contract between the MTA and TWU Local 100 expired. The two sides maintained talks throughout the weekend but were unable to come to an agreement. A strike seems exceedingly unlikely as, by all accounts, new MTA CEO and Chairman Joe Lhota and Union President John Samuelsen have a solid weekend relationship, but it’s unclear what impact the end of the contract will have on both the negotiations and transit operations.

In a statement released shortly after midnight, the authority vowed to keep open their talks. Considering the MTA’s current fiscal position, arbitration is not currently under consideration. “Even though the MTA and TWU Local 100 have negotiated through the weekend, we have been unable to reach a settlement prior to the expiration of the contract,” the MTA explained. “While we remain far apart, the MTA will continue to negotiate in good faith in the hope of reaching a settlement.”

The TWU, at least in public, took a more strident tone. Speaking at a rally to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., Samuelsen voted to keep up the fight. “I’m going to go back into the hotel and I’m going to tell the MTA chairman and the governor they can take their set of demands and shove it,” the union leader said. “We’ll fight them until they relent and give us a fair contract.”

Pete Donohue of The Daily News had more:

The MTA demands include establishing a new class of part-time bus drivers, five unpaid vacation days and overtime after 40 hours — instead of after eight hours in a day. MTA officials also have said any wage increases must be paid for by work-rule changes that cut costs.

One source close to the negotiations said there appeared to be pressure coming from the Cuomo administration not to grant workers even a small pay increase. The Cuomo administration last year reached deals with the state’s two largest unions that froze pay rates for the first three years of five-year deals…

Despite the bleak outlook Sunday, there was progress on some fronts, sources said. The MTA has agreed to improve the bathroom facilities for female workers in the subway and identify suitable locations for female bus drivers to make pitstops along their routes.

The biggest gap in negotiations ultimately concerns the money. Lhota has vowed to uphold former MTA head Jay Walder’s pledge to maintain a net-zero labor increase while Samuelsen is fighting against it. Simply put, though, the MTA and New York State do not have the money for an increase in the cost of the TWU’s contract. Things aren’t yet at a head, but with the contract expired, the future remains murky.

Without a contract, TWU workers can make their displeasure with the situation known. The union could institute letter-of-the-law slowdowns and other legal measures that can gum up transit operations. It is highly unlikely that the union would strike, but as Jan. 16 dawns, there is no contract in place between the TWU and MTA. Anything is now possible.

January 16, 2012 26 comments

Service Advisories

Weekend work impacting 15 subway lines

by Benjamin Kabak January 13, 2012

written by Benjamin Kabak on January 13, 2012

As Friday evening dawns, we’re on the verge of a three-day weekend. NYC Transit will operate trains on a regular weekday schedule on Monday, but the intervening pair of days, service changes abound. Subway Weekender has the map.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 16, there is no 1 service between 34th Street-Penn Station and South Ferry due to switch renewal north of 14th Street.

1 trains operate between 34th Street-Penn Station and 242nd Street
For service between 34th Street-Penn Station and Chambers Street, take the 2 or 3.
Free shuttle buses replace 1 train service between Chambers Street and South Ferry.

(Note: Overnight, 3 trains run express between Times Square-42nd Street and 148th Street.)

From 4 a.m. Saturday, January 14 to 10 p.m. Sunday, January 15, downtown 2 trains operate express from East 180th Street to 3rd Avenue/149th Street due to track panel installation at East 180th Street. (Repeats next two weekends.)

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 16, 2 trains run local in both directions between 34th Street-Penn Station and Chambers Street due to Port Authority concrete work south of Chambers Street and switch renewal north of 14th Street.

From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, January 14 and Sunday, January 15, 3 trains run local in both directions between 34th Street-Penn Station and Chambers Street due to Port Authority concrete work south of Chambers Street and switch renewal north of 14th Street.

From 10 p.m. Friday, January 13 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 16, downtown 4 trains run express from 14th Street-Union Square to Brooklyn Bridge due to work on the Broadway/Lafayette-to-Bleecker Street transfer construction and station painting at Astor Place and Spring Street.

From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday, January 14, downtown 4 trains skip 138th Street-Grand Concourse due to a platform and edge survey at 149th Street-Grand Concourse. Customers should take the 5 instead.

From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday, January 15, uptown 4 trains skip 138th Street-Grand Concourse due to a platform and edge survey at 149th Street-Grand Concourse.

From 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday, January 14 and from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday, January 15, downtown 5 trains run express from East 180th Street to 3rd Avenue-149th Street due to track panel installation at East 180th Street. (Note: Trains run every 20 minutes during this time.)

From 10 p.m. Friday, January 13 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 16, downtown 6 trains run express from 14th Street-Union Square to Brooklyn Bridge due to work on the Broadway/Lafayette-to-Bleecker Street transfer construction and station painting at Astor Place and Spring Street.

From 11 p.m. Friday, January 13 to 4:45 a.m. Monday, January 16, free shuttle buses replace A trains between Beach 90th Street and Far Rockaway due to track panel installation from Beach 67th to Beach 60th Streets.

From 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday, January 14 and Sunday, January 15, uptown C trains skip Spring, 23rd and 50th Streets due to electrical and substation work at Jay Street-MetroTech.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 16, Brooklyn-bound D trains run via the N from 36th Street to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue due to station and line structure rehabilitation near 25th Avenue.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 16, E trains run via the F line in both directions between 36th Street in Queens and West 4th Street due to work on the 5th Avenue Interlocking Signal System. E platforms at 5th Avenue, Lexington Avenue-53rd Street and Court Square are closed.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 16, Queens-bound F trains run via the A line from Jay Street-MetroTech to West 4th Street due to electrical and substation work at Jay Street-MetroTech.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 16, there is no L train service between Lorimer Street and Broadway Junction due to signal work. L trains operate in two sections:

Between 8th Avenue and Lorimer Street
Between Broadway Junction and Rockaway Parkway

Free shuttle buses provide service between Lorimer Street and Broadway Junction, making all station stops. Customers should use the J as an alternative where possible.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 16, N trains stop at DeKalb Avenue in both directions due to track replacement work at Atlantic Avenue.

From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 14 to 5 a.m., Monday, January 16, there is no Q train service between 57th Street-7th Avenue and Prospect Park due to track replacement work at Atlantic Avenue. For service between 57th Street-7th Avenue and Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street, customers may take the R or N instead. Free shuttle buses provide service between Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street and Prospect Park. (Repeats next two weekends in January and last three weekends in February.)

(Rockaway Shuttle)
From 11 p.m. Friday, January 13 to 4:45 a.m. Monday, January 16, A trains replace S trains between Broad Channel and Rockaway Park due to track panel installation from Beach 67th to Beach 60th Streets. Free shuttle buses replace A trains between Beach 90th Street and Far Rockaway.

January 13, 2012 4 comments

Buses MTA Technology Staten Island

Video: Introducing SI BusTime

by Benjamin Kabak January 13, 2012

written by Benjamin Kabak on January 13, 2012

Real-time bus tracking made its Staten Island debut on Wednesday, and this week, the MTA released video exploring the technology. Give a watch to find out how the authority, working with students from Columbia and the folks from OpenPlans, have improved upon GPS-based technologies. I’ll have more in the coming weeks on how the agency plans to tackle the canyons of Manhattan and how you can track buses as they move through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.

January 13, 2012 5 comments

MTA Construction

What FastTrack says of the state of good repair

by Benjamin Kabak January 13, 2012

written by Benjamin Kabak on January 13, 2012

Workers at 23rd Street were able to give the track bed a thorough scrubbing with no trains zooming by. (Photo by Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Patrick Cashin)

“State of Good Repair” isn’t a term used much by the MTA these days. Half a decade ago, it was the nearly unattainable Holy Grail of the status of the city’s infrastructure. We had fancy new rolling stock, but the tracks, signals, switches, shops and stations weren’t up to par. A never-ending cycle of multi-decade investment and work was designed to bring the system into a state of good repair, but as Transit came to learn the Sisyphean nature of their quest, the phrase slowly left the MTA lexicon.

This week, New York City Transit debuted its FastTrack program. For four nights — the last of which is tonight — from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., there is no service along the East Side IRT from Grand Central to Atlantic Ave. as work crews blitz the stations along that route. In a few weeks, the West Side lines will undergo a similar experience as the authority is piloting with a potential once-a-quarter plan to spiffy up the subways.

The origins of this idea remain a bit hazy. Jay Walder had spoken of full line shut-downs as early as May of 2010, and the MTA finally unveiled the current iteration of its FastTrack plan in mid-November. At the time, the authority explained that it could save at least $10-$15 million doing this week all at once rather than piecemeal over night and during weekends.

At the time, it was kinda sorta billed as an alternative to weekend work, but that was seemingly an optimistic interpretation of the MTA’s plans. They had always maintained that weekend work would go on as planned; after all, the capital investment projects never end. But by shutting the stations for a few days, they can get much-needed repairs out of the way quicker and more efficiently than they otherwise would. “This is not a replacement for weekend work,” Transit spokesman Kevin Ortiz clarified to me earlier this week. It does though add up to more inconvenience for many over the course of the week on top of endless weekend diversions.

Overall, the the MTA says these closures impact around 10-15 percent of the 250,000 people who ride the subway each weeknight, and so far, things have gone off smoothly. While a few newspaper reporters drummed up some ill-informed and irate straphangers and Transportation Nation ran a hilariously self-aware series of photo interviews with a balance of viewpoints, riders I’ve spoken with have found it annoying but hardly Earth-shattering. As New York’s subways enjoy an abundance of redundant service, most have found easy alternate routes to connect from Manhattan to Brooklyn. One compared this work to alternate side parking: It just happens, we deal with it and it’s not a major life event.

So what exactly is the MTA doing as they inconvenience 25,000 every weeknight? According to authority’s materials, crews have inspected repaired signals and switches and have replaced third-rail defects. They have cleaned stations, repaired broken tiles and replaced light bulbs. They have cleared the tracks of litter, debris and mud. They have repaired platform edges at various stations and have installed ADA warning strips at others. These aren’t particularly sexy repairs, but station components will look and work better because of it.

Yet, I can’t help but think that we shouldn’t need to cut off all service to make these repairs. Some of the track work requires shut downs, and concentrated access to the tracks requires alternate routing. Yet, by allowing the system to deteriorate, the MTA is forced to fast track its repairs. We still have a 24-hour system, and the MTA has always faced neighborhood opposition when it has threatened to shutter stations and reroute trains during the wee hours of the night. Here we are, though, with less weekend night service for 16 weeks a year. We still won’t enjoy that state of good repair.

January 13, 2012 48 comments

Queens Service Advisories

Eleven weekends of no interborough 7 service

by Benjamin Kabak January 12, 2012

written by Benjamin Kabak on January 12, 2012

Queens residents along the Flushing line hoping for a quick trip into Manhattan are going to be out of luck until April. Starting next weekend and continuing through April 2, 2012, Transit is suspended weekend 7 service between Queensboro Plaza and Times Square. Furthermore, the Court Square station will be shuttered entirely from January 21-April 2. So much for that convenient new transfer.

The MTA says this work is part of two projects. First, the authority is installing a communications-based train control along the 7 with a completion date of late 2016. Second, the Court Square closure is part of a comprehensive rehabilitation project that will make the station accessible to the disabled by June.

“We are taking the opportunity to do a lot of work during this period and while we regret the inconvenience to our customers, this is work that must be done in order to improve the performance of this line,” Transit President Thomas Prendergast said. “We have already accomplished a lot here and we have seen an improvement in reliability. With the work we are doing now, we are continuing that progress.”

Since the old Steinway Tubes offer “virtually no clearance,” the authority must shut down service in the tunnels to perform this work. When the 7 is out of service, Transit will provide a fare-free shuttle bus between the Vernon-Jackson and Queensboro Plaza stations. Customers are urged to transfer at Queensboro Plaza for N and Q trains which will run between the two boroughs. Those who switch from the 7 to the G can walk to the 21st St. – Van Alst station.

During the service shutdown, Transit says it will perform the following work along the 7 line with more to come in the fall.

Additional track and tunnel maintenance work in the Steinway Tube, including upgrading emergency alarms and telephones, installing the copper cable associated with them and replacing collapsed ducts in the tube.
Track replacement work along 23rd Street between Queens Plaza South and 44th Drive.
Installation of electrical equipment at the Vernon-Jackson Station for the CBTC project.
Station renewal work is continuing at the Hunters Point Avenue Station, including platform, stairway and mezzanine repairs, bringing the station to a state-of-good-repair. This $5.2M project is scheduled for completion in May 2012.
A series of station improvements at the Vernon-Jackson station. This work includes replacing platform edge concrete, removing wood rubbing boards and replacing them with boards made from polyethylene, installing tactile platform edge ADA warning strips and repairing or replacing platform columns. Transit will also repair cracked platform surfaces, walls and station ceilings while improving the lighting.

I had hoped to journey into Queens for a show on January 28. Already, I’m reassessing my plans. It’s going to be a tough 11 weeks for folks used to a speedy connection between the two boroughs.

January 12, 2012 37 comments

Asides MetroCard

Sticking with a MetroCard replacement plan

by Benjamin Kabak January 12, 2012

written by Benjamin Kabak on January 12, 2012

One of the key items Jay Walder had hoped to accomplish during his time atop the MTA involved the fare payment technology. The MetroCard, practically obsolete since it was first introduced in 1994, hasn’t seen an upgrade in 18 years, and I can’t imagine keeping one computer around for the better part of two decades. Walder had been pushing forward on a contact-less smart card plan using credit and debit cards that would have saved the MTA millions in fare-collection costs, but his departure and the MTA’s general financial woes cast some doubt on a plan that’s been in the works for nearly a decade.

While speaking with The Times this week, new MTA Chairman and CEO Joe Lhota issued something of an embrace of the smart card project. “Anything we can to do to make it easier for our customers to get on, to get off our system, is the right thing to do,” he said. “But we have to evaluate it. Does the investment make the most amount of sense? So we need to evaluate new technologies; we have to, always.”

After the interview, Lhota stressed that is “fully committed to moving the smart-card program forward.” One way or another, the MTA has to move forward with something. They spend too much on fare collection and MetroCard Vending Machine maintenance today, and the technology has long since passed its prime. Someday, our contact-less fare payment system will come. (For more on the MetroCard replacement project, check out my past coverage of what the MTA termed “an E-ZPass for Transit.”)

January 12, 2012 22 comments

View from Underground

On the need to put lipstick on a pig

by Benjamin Kabak January 12, 2012

written by Benjamin Kabak on January 12, 2012

Sprucing up decrepit stations could improve public perception of the MTA. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

Now that Joe Lhota has been confirmed as the new Chairman and CEO, he’s been unleashed on the media. I’ll have my chance to sit down with him next week, but so far, as he’s spoken with the various New York press outlets, Lhota’s immediate concerns are focused on around improving the image of the MTA. While some may call this a frivolous pursuit, it plays an important part in drumming up some level of public support for the beleaguered authority and the city’s transit system.

For Lhota, the public face of the system concerns its decrepit infrastructure. We see stations with tiles literally falling off the walls as I saw tonight at 7th Ave. along the Culver Line. We see broken staircases, blown light bulbs and paint peeling off of every surface. It’s dirty; it’s dingy; it isn’t a nice sight.

The new chairman sees the need to focus on cosmetics as an extension of the broken windows theory. “The thought was if a window is broken, someone is going to break another window or someone is going to break into the house,” he said. “Fix it. Fix it up front. When paint starts peeling, either peel it off or repaint it.”

Shoddy paint jobs are a particular concern of his. “It’s one of the things that bothers me, and I’d like to fix it as much as we can,” he said. Lhota has been riding the train to work, just like you and I do, for years, and he sees how riders relate to the system.

In addition to paint, Lhota wants to tackle the rat problem as well. During his confirmation hearings while pressed on the issue, Lhota expressed some disgust at the amount of food in the subway. He didn’t advocate for an outright ban on eating underground; that would have been too controversial. But he suggested that riders and their dirty habits are to blame for the influx of rodents. “If you’re going to eat down there,” he said, “take it with you,”

The TWU seems to agree. The MTA’s largest union is hosting a rodent contest to see which members can snap the best photos of the largest rats in the system. They’re using this as a backdrop to argue for more attention to working conditions underground. “Who the hell wants to work around hundreds of freaking rats?” Jim Gannon of TWU Local 100 said earlier this week.

Of course, if the TWU were willing to allow station agents to clean their stations, rats may find fewer morsels underground. That involves a discussion of work rules, and it’s one of the MTA is trying to have with the TWU as the two sides continue their contract negotiations.

Rats and paint are two issues that strike at the fundamentals of the environment. They have nothing to do with systemic failures from Albany concerning transit funding or the need to cut down on ever-climbing capital construction costs. Eliminating rats and sprucing up stations as the FastTrack program is trying to do are cosmetic improvements to the subways that go a long way.

Lhota seems to understand that if he leads an effort to make the subway environment a more friendly, welcoming and clean space, New Yorkers will not view the subways with such disdain. They may never come to love their commutes, with packed subway cars and pushy riders, but if the surroundings are clean, perhaps they won’t come to dread them either. With small environmental improvements, the MTA could see a big rise in public support, and when it comes to those big-ticket topics, more public support could help push politicians to do the right thing. All it might take is a fresh coat of paint.

January 12, 2012 27 comments

High-Speed Rail

On Amtrak, infrastructure upgrades and costs

by Benjamin Kabak January 11, 2012

written by Benjamin Kabak on January 11, 2012

Amtrak released its 2012 agenda today. You can read the press release in all of its PDF glory right here. One of the key initiatives concerns its profitable Northeast Corridor service, and I wanted to highlight it for a brief moment. Says the press release:

160 MPH HSR UPGRADES IN NEW JERSEY In 2012, Amtrak will advance design, engineering and other pre-construction activities for a $450 million project funded by the federal high-speed rail program that will boost top train speeds from 135 mph to 160 mph along a 24-mile section of the NEC between Trenton and New Brunswick, New Jersey. The project supports the goals of the Gateway Program and includes upgrading track, electrical power (frequency converter capacity and additional substations), signal systems and overhead catenary wires to permit the faster speeds and also reconfigures track switches at the western entrance to New York Penn Station to mitigate congestion issues. Major construction work will begin in 2013 with project completion expected in 2017.

So let me get this straight. Amtrak is going to spend nearly half a billion to improve their trains’ top speeds by 25 miles per hour along a 24-mile-long section of track. And it’s going to take another five years for this project to finish. No wonder an American high-speed rail line — let alone an entire network — can’t get off the ground.

January 11, 2012 35 comments

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