7 Line Extension

Video of the Day: Progress on the 7 extension

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on November 21, 2011

The MTA late last week unveiled a new video glimpse inside the 7 line extension,and progress is moving quickly. According to the video, the build-out of the station at 34th St. and 11th Ave. has been completed ahead of schedule, and the area is ready for the vast array of finishes, ventilation structures and signals that must be installed before the extension enters revenue service by the end of 2013.

Throughout the video, Shawn Kildare from MTA Capital Construction calls the terminal a real “21st century station” with ample room for passengers to circulate throughout the space. It will connect the Javits Center and the Hudson Yards development to the subway, but it won’t provide a station at 41st St. and 10th Ave. The barest of provisioning has been implemented to ensure future work if the funds are ever in place, but this project should be remembered for what it failed to deliver to Hells Kitchen as much as for it promises to deliver to the Far West Side.

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Brooklyn

On transit improvements at Atlantic Yards

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on November 21, 2011

Renderings of the Barclays Center show a new planned subway entrance, but we do not yet know how access to the platforms will be reconfigured.

At the crossroads of Atlantic Ave. and Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn rests one of the borough of Kings’ busiest subway stations. Over the next few years, it’s only going to get worse, but proposals to expand and adapt the station to new uses from the Barclays Center and, eventually, Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards complex have yet to see the light of day.

The brouhaha over the Atlantic Yards is a well-covered story. Under heavy pressure from local politicians, the MTA, as we know, sold out the air rights over the Vanderbilt Rail Yards to Bruce Ratner for well below-market. Originally, Ratner planned to build a new basketball arena for the Nets along with a massive mixed-use complex at the corner of three low-rise brownstone neighborhoods. Due to the financial crisis, though, the plans for the array of towers were shelved, but progress on the arena, set to open in September of 2012, has moved forward.

Late last week, though, Ratner announced plans to build some of the Atlantic Yards towers in 2012. With some financing in place, Ratner will build a 32-story residential building at Flatbush Ave. and Dean Street. that will house 350 units. The current plans include 14 other residential buildings, including one of 50 stories.

Enter the Atlantic Ave./Pacific St. In terms of those swiping in, the station is the third busiest in Brooklyn and the 30th most popular in the city. In 2010, over 10.1 million straphangers entered the station, and the station saw an increase of traffic of 4.4 percent over 2009. That tells only part of the story though as the station serves as a major transfer point between the subway and the LIRR as well as an inter-system transfer point between the 4th Ave. lines, the IRT and the Brighton Line.

So what happens when the Barclays Center and, eventually, the Atlantic Yards complex opens? Right now, the station has a variety of entrances from various street corners. There’s an entrance to the 4th Ave. platform at 4th Ave. and Pacific St., an entrance to the LIRR and the local Manhattan-bound IRT station in the Atlantic Center and an entrance to the Brighton Line off of Hanson Place. It isn’t perfect, but it works.

Meanwhile, changes are in store. As the renderings for the Barclays Center show, work on the arena includes a new street-level entrance to the Atlantic Ave./Pacific St. station that will go from the plaza outside of the arena to, well, somewhere, and the fact that the “somewhere” is undefined is concerning. Over the past few weeks, I’ve asked the MTA for renderings of the subway improvements, and although the arena and work on subway access has been long-planned and will open in ten months, the MTA doesn’t yet have renderings. They have only schematics that have yet to be released to the public, and we have no idea how the flow of people will be improved or addressed at a major subway location in Brooklyn.

When the Atlantic Yards project was first negotiated, transit improvements were part of the deal. To add so many people to a small area right on top of an already-busy subway station was simply inviting transit capacity disaster, and Ratner pledged to improve the Atlantic Ave./Pacific St. subway station and also the LIRR terminal. So far, all we know for sure is that the subway stop will bear Barclays’ name when the arena opens. Anything else is conjecture.

Ultimately, these designs will be released for the public, but as Ratner begins to work on the new Atlantic Yards terminals, he shouldn’t get off so lightly. Transit improvements and a plan to address the added demand his units will bring must be a part of the planning process as his buildings move forward. To avoid the subject will leave straphangers out in the cold.

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Service Advisories

Weekend work impacting 16 lines

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on November 19, 2011

A little bit late with these. Sorry about that.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 21, there are no 1 trains between 242nd Street and 168th Street due to station rehab work at the Dyckman Street station, switch repair north of 238th Street and structural, platform edge and canopy work at stations between 207th and 242nd Street stations.

  • For 181st and 191st Street stations, customers should take the 1 train to 168th Street and transfer to the M3 or shuttle bus on St. Nicholas Avenue.
  • For Dyckman Street and 207th Street stations, customers should take the 1 to 168th Street and transfer to the A train.
  • For 215th, 225th, 231st, 238th and 242nd Sts., take the 1 to 168th Street and transfer to the A to 207th Street, then take the shuttle bus on Broadway.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 21, there is no 2 service in Brooklyn due to track work south of Wall Street and fiber optic cable installation between Hoyt Street and Atlantic Avenue. 2 trains run between the Dyre Avenue 5 station and the South Ferry 1 station.

  • 5 trains replace the 2 in Brooklyn (Manhattan-bound trains run express from Franklin Avenue to Atlantic Avenue.)
  • 2 trains run local between 34th Street-Penn Station and Chambers Street
  • 2 trains operate via the 1 line between Chambers Street and South Ferry
  • 2 trains replace the 5 between East 180th Street and Dyre Avenue.
  • 5 trains replace the 2 between East 180th Street and 241st Street.

Note: Customers may use a free out-of-system transfer between the 2 at South Ferry and the 4 or 5 at Bowling Green station. (Repeats next weekend.)


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 21, there is no 3 service in Brooklyn due to track work south of Wall Street and fiber optic cable installation between Hoyt Street and Atlantic Avenue. Customers should take the 4 instead. 3 trains operate between 148th Street and 14th Street. (Repeats next weekend.)


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 21, 4 train service is expanded to and from New Lots Avenue due to a chip out south of Wall Street and fiber optic cable installation between Atlantic Avenue and Hoyt Street. (Manhattan-bound 4 trains run express from Franklin Avenue to Atlantic Avenue.) (Repeats next weekend.)


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 21, 5 train service is extended to and from Flatbush Avenue due to track work south of Wall Street and fiber optic cable installation between Hoyt Street and Atlantic Avenue. See 2 train entry for details. (Repeats next weekend.)


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 21, downtown 6 trains run express from 14th Street-Union Square to Brooklyn Bridge due to conduit and wire installation at 14th Street-Union Square.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, November 18 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 21, there is no 7 train service between Times Square-42nd Street and Queensboro Plaza due to cable and electrical work between Grand Central-42nd Street and Hunters Point Avenue, painting of the elevated steel structures and cable replacement in the Steinway tube. Customers should use the E, N, Q, S and free shuttle buses for alternate service.

  • Use E, N or Q between Manhattan and Queens
  • Free shuttle buses run between Vernon Blvd-Jackson Avenue and Queensboro Plaza
  • Q service is extended to and from Astoria-Ditmars Blvd during the daytime hours
  • In Manhattan, the 42nd Street shuttle operates overnight


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 21, Queensboro Plaza-bound 7 trains operate express from 74th Street to Queensboro Plaza due to track panel installation south of 33rd St-Rawson Street. Customers must backride for missed stations. For service into Manhattan, customers may take the 7 to 74th Street-Roosevelt Avenue and transfer to Manhattan-bound E or F trains.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, November 19 and Sunday, November 20, there are no C trains between Manhattan and Brooklyn due to F suspension for work on the Culver Viaduct. C trains run via the F line between West 4th and 2nd Avenue, the last stop. Note: F trains replace the C between Jay Street-MetroTech and Euclid Avenue.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 21, Coney Island-bound D trains run on the N line from 36th Street to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue due station and line structure rehabilitation near Fort Hamilton Parkway. Note: Brooklyn-bound D trains run local from DeKalb Avenue to 59th Street; Manhattan-bound D trains run local from 36th Street to DeKalb Avenue.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 21, Bronx-bound D trains skip 182nd-183rd Sts due to the demolition of stairs at 182nd-183rd Sts station.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 21, free shuttle buses replace F trains between Jay Street-MetroTech and 18th Avenue due to the Culver Viaduct Rehabilitation Project.
F trains run in two sections:

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

Free shuttle buses run in three sections:

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


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, November 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 21, Queens-bound F trains run on the M line from 47th-50th Sts-Rockefeller Center to Queens Plaza due to Lexington Avenue-63rd Street station reconstruction.


From 11 p.m. Friday, November 18 to 5 a.m. Monday, November 21, there are no G trains between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. and Church Avenue due to station painting at Classon Avenue and Clinton-Washington Avs. Free shuttle buses provide alternate service via Jay Street- MetroTech. G trains run in two sections:

  • Between Court Square and Bedford-Nostrand Aves
  • Between Bedford-Nostrand Avs and Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts.

Customers may take the A or F from Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts to Jay Street-MetroTech for shuttle bus to Church Avenue. See F entry for shuttle bus information.


From 4 a.m. Saturday, November 19 to 10 p.m. Sunday, November 20, Jamaica Center-bound J trains skip Hewes Street, Lorimer Street and Flushing Avenue due to track panel installation north of Hewes Street.


From 4 a.m. Saturday, November 19 to 10 p.m. Sunday, November 20, M trains run every 24 minutes between Metropolitan Avenue and Myrtle Avenue (every 20 minutes overnight) due to track panel installation at Hewes Street.


From 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, November 19 and Sunday, November 20, Manhattan-bound Q trains run express from Kings Highway to Prospect Park due to station rehab work at Avenue M and Newkirk Plaza.

(42nd Street Shuttle)
During the weekend, the 42nd Street (S) shuttle extends operating hours through the night and early morning hours in order to provide cross-town service due to the 7 suspension between Times Square and Queensboro Plaza.

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AsidesEast Side Access Project

At ESA under Grand Central, a fatal accident

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on November 18, 2011

Some very tragic news from the East Side Access project: Michael O’Brien, a 26-year-old sandhog, was killed by falling concrete yesterday while working on the East Side Access project underneath Grand Central Terminal. As the Daily News reports, O’Brien, an employee of Dragados, a private contractor working on the project, was working not 10 feet away from his father when the slab of concrete came lose and fell on him. His father tried to perform CPR to save him, but he died at Bellevue Hospital yesterday evening. Said the MTA in a statement, “The Metropolitan Transportation Authority wishes to extend its deepest condolences to Mr. O’Brien’s family and his fellow workers.”

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View from Underground

The rising tide that could take out the subways

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on November 18, 2011

A storm surge of just over feet could take out the New York City subway system for nearly a month, according to some projections. (Via Transportation Nation. Click to enlarge)

With Hurricane Irene bearing down on New York in late August, the MTA took the nearly unprecedented step of shutting down the city’s subway system. Faced with dire predictions of potential storm surges that could easily flood the various East River tunnels, the MTA had to protect its employees and passengers while attempting to minimize damage to old equipment susceptible to salt water.

As we know, the city was spared the worst of the storm, but Metro-North’s Port Jervis line suffered heavy damage. Some New Yorkers were critical of the city’s reaction and the inconvenience it caused, but others in policy positions worried that we were simply delaying the inevitable. At some point, a big storm will cause serious damage to our transportation infrastructure. It’s not a matter of if but when.

Earlier this week, scientists from Columbia, Cornell and CUNY issued a report at the behest of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority exploring the impact climate change could have on the state. You can read The Times’ top-line coverage right here. I had planned to explore what this report had to say about the subways, but Andrea Bernstein, in a very comprehensive piece for Transportation Nation, beat me to it. Read her piece right here.

For those us interested in subway service, Bernstein’s reporting touches upon two key issues. First, she talks with Projjol Dutta, the MTA’s Climate Adaptation Specialist, who was brought on to make the MTA’s operations more environmentally-friendly but has focused on climate-change remediation issues instead. He helped develop plans to raise ventilation grates in order to keep too much rainwater from flooding the subways as it did back in August of 2007.

Dutta explored how climate change and the anticipated effects has led the MTA to develop ways to cool platforms and how these costs impact the MTA’s capital plans. With higher temperatures expected over the next century, the MTA must keep the air underground cooler. “We have to get that heat out,” Dutta said. “This is not for something as superficial as personal comfort, there’s lots of electronics that a train carries. We had a lot of heat related problems, so we’ve had to introduce cooling into areas that did not hitherto require heating…“Our core mission is to provide trains, buses, and subways. [Climate change] takes something away from that core mission. If you did not need the air tempering, you could have built another station.”

The second part concerns flooding. Bernstein writes:

[Columbia professor Klaus] Jacob has worked with the MTA to model what would happen if you couple sea level rises – the FTA says to expect four feet by the end of this century – with intense storms like Irene. In forty minutes, Jacob says, all the East River Tunnels would be underwater. Jacob says he took those results to the MTA, and asked, if that happened, how long would it take to restore the flooded subway to a degree of functionality?

“And there was a big silence in the room because the system is so old. Many of the items that would be damaged by the intrusion of the saltwater into the system could not recover quickly. You have to take them apart. You have to clean them from salt, dry them, reassemble them, test them and cross your fingers that they work.”

In a best-case scenario, Jacob calculated that it would take 29 days to get the subway working again. But in the meantime, a halted subway would almost halt the city’s economy, which, he says produces $4 billion a day in economic activity. The thing is, Jacob says, the city came within a foot of that happening during Irene. Because the astronomical tides were so high, and the storm so intense, the storm surge mimicked a future where the sea is much higher than it is now. During Irene, Jacob says, the storm surge was 3.6 feet. “Had it been not 3.6 feet but 4.6, we would have been in deep trouble.”

These are dire predictions of dire times, and there’s no easy solution in sight. The MTA doesn’t have storm gates for its tunnels, and its infrastructure is indeed vulnerable to the so-called Big One. As Bernstein notes, Jay Walder said it best: “The worst fear that we had, which was that the under river tunnels on the East River would flood with salt water, were not realized. We certainly dodged something there.” What happens next time?

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View from Underground

Video of the Day: The L Train Notwork

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on November 17, 2011

WeMakeCoolSh.it “L Train Notwork” Behind the Scenes from Matthew McGregor-Mento on Vimeo.

As the MTA works to bring cell service underground, a group of artists in — where else? — Williamsburg have decided to bring a wireless intranet network to the L train every day. The group, called WeMakeCoolSh.it, has been experimenting with their project from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. every day this week in the last two cars of the L train between Morgan Ave. and 8th Ave.

Here’s how this works: Using a few battery-powered web servers, the group creates mobile hotspots on the train. Those riding the L with their WiFi-enabled devices — which is just about everyone — can sign onto the network to chat with fellow straphangers, read curated news and creative content and surf the limited intranet. “We like to encourage strangers to talk to each other, and this seemed like a great way to do it,” the founders said in a press release. “When people ride the trains during rush hour, they are forced to be so close to each other, but they rarely interact with each other. We wanted to give people something to talk about.”

According to the group, they’re not doing anything intrusive that violates any MTA rules or regulations. Their equipment fits into regular shopping bags, and they say they “aren’t doing anything you couldn’t do on the average laptop or mobile device.”

Earlier this week, the group released the video above which shows how they set up their mobile train network. Tomorrow morning is their final run. While I’m sure some people will find this art both kitschy and ridiculous, it’s a clever way to connect people on a train in the morning.

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AsidesView from Underground

#OccupyTheSubways: Anticipating a crowd

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on November 17, 2011

As the Occupy Wall Street Day-of-Outrage protests gather steam this afternoon, those in the streets are taking the message underground. As the group’s website notes, Occupy Wall Street protestors will descend upon the subways at 3 p.m. this afternoon. Initial media reports claimed that the protestors were seeking to “disrupt” travel, but the message on the group’s website is less convincing.

According to the site, protestors will “gather at 16 central subway hubs and take our own stories to the trains.” So instead of disrupting travel, it appears as though the 99 percenters will instead be trying to convince fellow Straphangers to join their cause. For protestors, targeting the subways carries with it some risks as the so-called 99 percent use the subways to commute to and from work and travel throughout the city. Even if the subway-centric element of today’s day of action ends before a planned 5 p.m. rally in Foley Square, interfering with subway travel could do the movement more harm than good.

As a warning then, the transit hubs are as follows. Expect crowds; expect slower trains; expect lots of people, both cops and protestors. Bronx: Fordham Road, 3rd Ave./138th Street, 163rd St./Southern Boulevard, Yankee Stadium. Brooklyn: Broadway Junction, Borough Hall, 301 Grove St., St. Jose Patron Church in Bushwick. Queens: Roosevelt Ave./Jackson Heights, Jamaica Center/Parsons/Archer, 92-10 Roosevelt Heights. Manhattan: 125th St. (A/C/B/D), Union Square, 23rd St./8th Ave. Staten Island: SI Ferry Terminal, 479 Port Richmond Ave.

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MTA Economics

In final four-year budget plan, no service cuts

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on November 17, 2011

If the MTA is unable to attain a net zero wage increase for unionized workers, operating deficits could top $500 million by 2014. (via)

The MTA Wednesday unveiled its final 2012 budget and the latest set of projections for 2013-2015. Although the budgets still rely on revenue generated by fare hikes in both 2013 and 2015, the authority does not currently anticipate cutting services to balance its books. However, the long-term outlook remains debt-heavy, and the MTA admitted that its four-year projections rest on a precariously balanced dime.

“The MTA has achieved a fragile fiscal stability by reducing expenses and operating more efficiently,” Joseph Lhota, MTA Executive Director, said in a statement. “It’s clear, though, that we’re still feeling the impact of the economic crisis and must continue to reduce costs even as we work to improve service.”

The details, available in full as a PDF here, remain substantially the same as they were in July. Thanks to aggressive cost-cutting measures instituted while Jay Walder was the CEO and Chair, the MTA anticipates annual savings of at least $850 million by 2015. By freezing non-unionized worker pay for three years, reducing administrative overhead and reining in overtime, the MTA has begrudgingly become a leaner organization.

Yet, the long-term outlook is rife with potential problems. Even still, the MTA is relying on two fare and toll hikes that will be designed to increase revenue by 7.5 percent, but those are the safe figures. The MTA is counting on $323 million in what they’re calling “net zero wage savings for represented employees.” In other words, unionized workers will either by taking pay freezes for the foreseeable future or the MTA will have to resort to layoffs. I don’t think John Samuelsen will be too happy to hear that.

The MTA, meanwhile, warned of inherent risks in their rosy projects. For now, the authority anticipates an operating surplus in 2011, a balanced budget in 2012 and a smaller surplus in 2013 before the MTA lands over $200 million in the red by 2015. Much of this deficit, the authority says, is driven by increasing costs of retiree and healthcare benefits that will eat up nearly all of the additional revenue generated by the anticipated 2013 and 2015 fare hikes.

Furthermore, the MTA warns that a variety of factors could turn this rosy outlook sour. Among those factors are a stagnant overall economy; reductions in state subsidies and dedicated taxes; a failure to achieve desired expense reductions; an increase in labor costs due to bargained-for agreements that do not attain the “net zero” wage level; less funding for the capital program. As far as projected budgets go, then, the MTA’s current plan may be a final one that needs approval but it’s hardly set in stone.

The other 800 pound gorilla in the room involves debt on the operating budget and funding for the capital plan. As the MTA seeks to close a significant funding gap in its five-year capital plan, it will do so through a series of measures that will increase its long-term debt obligations. Even as the authority retires debt from the 1980s, more will hit the books. Future New Yorkers will have to pay for both our desired maintenance and theirs.

“In the context of the ongoing economic crisis in New York State, this proposal advances our critical capital investments in an affordable way,” MTA CFO Robert Foran said. “It relies on revenues already dedicated to capital expenses and keeps debt service at a manageable level, with the percentage of debt to capital investment the lowest in 15 years.”

And what of the surplus and budget flexibility? Two MTA Board members have proposed reinstituting services lost to the 2010 cuts. Mitch Pally and Allen Cappelli both called up on the MTA to include a $20 million item in its $12 billion budget that would restore some of the old service. “I don’t believe we can restore all of them, but I believe a portion of them should be – and can be – funded in this plan,” Pally said during yesterday’s MTA Board meeting.

Everyone is fighting for a piece of the pie, and those who inherit the most are those who will have to face the MTA’s mounting pile of debt. For now, the authority will stay afloat, but the long-term outlook is not comforting.

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