AsidesMTA Politics

Russianoff: Next MTA head must be ‘vocal advocate for transit’

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

In two days, Jay Walder will depart from his position atop the MTA and begin to prepare for his lucrative move to Hong Kong. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, then, will become front and center in the debate over transit. He will have to own up to the impact of making his own choice for head of the MTA and can no longer fall back on the idea that Walder was someone else’s choice and the MTA someone else’s problem. With rumors of Joseph Lhota’s impending nomination swirling, Cuomo has yet to make an official announcement, but that likely could come before Friday.

Once Cuomo does name names, all eyes in the transit community will shift to that person. We’ll inspect the process behind his nomination, his credentials and his plans for an agency eternally mired in an economic crisis. To that end, Gene Russianoff, head of the Straphanagers Campaign and a member of the search committee tasked with finding candidates to lead the MTA, has some ideas for Jay Walder’s eventual replacement. Ride the system, know the riders and their concerns and be an advocate for them, he says in a column in today’s Daily News. It’s obvious advice, but past heads have no always heeded such a call.

Beyond the need to restore customer relations as a priority at the MTA, Russianoff also urges the next MTA head to wade into the explosive politics surrounding transportation. The next MTA head needs to work with unions to smooth over rocky relationships while improving efficiency, and the person Cuomo names should urge the Governor to sign the Transit Lockbox Bill. Reducing borrowing while further improving transparency are on the list as well. It’s tough to argue with Gene’s list, and now we wait to find out if the next MTA Chair and CEO is up to the task.

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Abandoned StationsSubway History

The Underground Mysteries: 76th Street

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

The IND Second System plans included a subway extension past 76th Street to Cambria Heights near the Nassau County border.

For students of the history of New York City and its subways, abandoned stations and half-built shells offer up an alluring reminder of what was and what could have been. Scattered throughout the city are various platforms now shuttered and lost to the era of longer trains, and of course, the provisions that remind us of the grand plans for the IND Second System capture the imagination. We know of the shell at South 4th Street and a similarly hidden one at Utica Ave. But what of the other subway mysteries?

One long-standing urban rumor has concerned a station along the IND Fulton line just east of Euclid Avenue and past the walls that mark the end of the C local train. This is the 76th Street station, an urban fable kept alive by an old April Fools joke, some mysterious construction barriers and track maps that hint of an unbuilt subway extension. The 76th Street station itself is a mystery. If it exists, it would be found at the area of 76th Street and Pitkin Ave. in Queens. Officially, it was never really built, and no one has photographic evidence of it. But there’s long been lingering doubts in the minds of even the most ardent subway historians.

The immediate tale of 76th Street begins where many subway legends start: on SubChat. A recently revived thread from February covered the discussion of a potential C extension down Pitkin Ave., and one person claimed to know someone who had the seen station. The topic comes up now and then, and in 2001, rumors of the station’s existence were prevalent.

What we know today are snippets of rumors and in complete images. The story is fueled by a cinderblock wall past Euclid Ave. and a signal that’s facing the wrong way. For some reason, subway construction crews at one point decided to brick up the area at the end of the local tunnel, and all that remains are stubs on track maps and signal schematics. A 2007 post by the LTV Squad simply fueled speculation, and like any good urban legend, the story doesn’t die.

An MTA board offers hope that the 76th Street station truly exists. (Photo via LTV Squad)

Early in the decade of the double aughts, two subway historians brought tales of the 76th Street station to light. In a comprehensive posting on April 1, 2002 that included some excellent Photoshops, Joe Brennan created a history of 76th St. He even claimed the station had been in revenue service but was shuttered as part of a city cover-up. That, of course, was an April Fools joke, but Randy Kennedy’s 2003 column on 76th Street was no laughing matter.

Kennedy spoke with one man who insisted the station exists, and his evidence was similar to that found by the LTV Squad. An electric board says 76th Street; the cinder block wall is an oddity; other transit workers and police officers claim the station exists on the other side of the wall. It’s a case based on circumstantial evidence, but until someone returns with photos, 76th Street will remain forever a debated part of subway lore.

And yet, we do know what was supposed to go past that cinderblock wall sixty-plus years ago. As part of the IND Second System, the Fulton Line was to split near Euclid with one section continuing along Liberty Ave. and the other heading east to 229th St. in Cambria Heights, right near the Nassau County line. Some plans called for the IND to use the LIRR right-of-ways, but the details are immaterial. Eventually, due to costs and some engineering concerns, the plans for such an ambitious extension were scrapped. It is true that a signal schematic references the “future 76th Street interlocking,” but that is ultimately a future that never came to pass.

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AsidesBusesMTA Economics

US DOT doles out dollars for NYC buses

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

The U.S. Department of Transportation released nearly $1 billion in funds for localities to spend on various livable streets and bus facility upgrades this week, and New York City and the MTA secured over $134 million of that total for a variety of badly-needed projects. “These grant funds will make sure that bus service in our communities remains reliable and desirable while putting thousands of Americans to work at the same time,” Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff said.

According to the grant list (available here as a PDF), the MTA will spend on the money on vehicle replacement and a bus command system while the NYC Department of Transportation will invest $3.4 million into a plan to improve bus access in and around the Broadway Junction area. The new command system, which will receive $34 million in federal funding, has been to designed to address communications failures that arose during last winters crippling blizzard.

Meanwhile, as the MTA’s bus fleet ages and buses break down more often, the authority will use over $60 million in federal funds to purchase 112 new vehicles. “This is welcome new funding and is a much needed investment that will go a long way toward updating our equipment and bus fleet,” authority spokesman Kevin Ortiz said to the Daily News. “It will help improve service and reliability for our customers.”

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AsidesBuses

For London, a comprehensive bus tracking system

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

Bus riders in London are for a treat as Transport for London announced yesterday that its real-time bus tracking system is now available “anytime and anywhere.” With over 8000 buses running via 700 routes and making 19,500 stops in the U.K. Capital, the system is one of the most complex in the world, and the new system allows bus riders to check the locations of all buses within 30 minutes of a select stop, street or post code. The information is available via the web, mobile browsers and text message.

TfL officials also announced they will be replacing 2000 digital signs and adding 500 more in an effort to better inform riders at popular stations throughout the city. Later this year, the agency will release datasets so that mobile developers can release bus tracking apps. “Over six million bus journeys are made every day in London and this fantastic application of bus data will now enable people, wherever they are, whatever they are doing, to have at their fingertips the power to know exactly when their bus will reach any one of the Capital’s 19,500 bus stops they want to use, at any time of day or night,” Kulveer Ranger, Director of Digital London, said. “This technological step forward will revolutionise the way people use London’s buses and will banish the need for them to ever wait at a bus stop again.”

New York, meanwhile, is working its way toward a similar system. Transit teams are developing a bus-tracking platform for Staten Island that will be modeled after the B63 pilot. If all goes according to plan, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx will see a rollout over the next few years as the technology grows and funds are released. Our system won’t come with MTA-installed screens; rather, that’s a decision local merchants can make using the live streaming data. Still, it’s a worthwhile endeavor, and one, as London will show, that can truly change the way people view and use the bus system.

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View from Underground

What future the NYC subway pay phone?

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

This Brighton Line pay phone at 7th Avenue has seen better days.

Pay phones in New York City are a dying breed. Aboveground, nearly everyone has a cell phone, and pay phones, with their quaint request for a quarter, have fallen into disrepair. Most are extremely dirty, and many do not work. Underground, where cell signals do not yet permeate, the story is much the same. In fact, a Straphangers survey earlier this year found that a third of all pay phones in the subway’s 40 busiest stations simply do not work.

Now, as Verizon looks to exit the pay phone business, the future for these underground communications lifelines may be short-lived. An article published last week by the Dow Jones Newswire didn’t gain much attention, but it features a key bit of information on the city’s subway system. Verizon is going to sell its NYC pay phone network to a California-based company called Pacific Telemanagement Services, and the buyers would like to disconnect all of the phones in the subway system. “At MTA, there’re many, many more phones in place than are justified,” Thomas Keane, the head of PTS, said.

While I saw an earlier version of the story that claimed PTS may shutter the subway pay phones, the company says it remains committed to keeping the city’s most popular phones up and running. Greg Bensinger had more on the impact this sale may have on underground pay phones:

Among Verizon’s more frequented pay phones are those on New York’s underground subway platforms, where wireless signals mostly don’t reach, Keane said. Under PTS management, some of those pay phones would be closed or turned into kiosks with commuter information, he said, noting the firm will have to negotiate those terms with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority…

Still other perils lie ahead for pay phones. In New York, the MTA has already rigged six subway stations with wireless service and plans to similarly retrofit all 277 stations by 2016. And Washington’s Metro this year said it would remove nearly all of the pay phones in its system, about 1,000, after failing to reach terms on a new contract with Verizon.

“People tend to forget about pay phones, until their cellphone doesn’t get a signal, until there’s a natural disaster or other emergency,” Keane said. “We want to make sure there’s a future with pay phones where Americans need them.”

Because the MTA has a service contract with Verizon that will, in all likelihood, be assigned to Pacific Telemanagement Services upon completion of the sale, the MTA won’t be losing its pay phones any time soon. Removals will, as the article said, have to be negotiated. Yet, it’s easy to see how forces are aligning against the pay phone. Cell service is available at a handful of underground stations, and that number should swell to around 36 within the next 12 months. Furthermore, the MTA is ready to move forward with its Help Point Intercom pilot to provide better emergency response underground. Only those looking to reach a person aboveground to talk business or pleasure will need a pay phone.

For now, I can’t get too worked up over the eventual death of the subway pay phone, if that truly comes to pass. Verizon has removed pay phones in the system for years, and stations as popular as 42nd St.-Bryant Park and West 4th St. have seem their phones removed for good. Meanwhile, it’s tough for me to imagine a scenario that would cause me to place a subway pay phone in contact with my ear or mouth.

Yet, the pragmatist in me hears faint stirrings of worry over emergency situations in which contact with the outside world is impossible. Do we live in a city ready to give up its underground pay phones? Perhaps not.

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Public Transit Policy

With ridership high, East River ferry seeks a higher subsidy

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

Since Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided to invest precious city transportation subsidy dollars in East River Ferry service, I have been highly skeptical of the offering. The ferries seemed to target areas with limited populations that already had access to nearby subway stations without incorporating fare payments for the boats into the MetroCard system. Perhaps I was a bit premature in my assessment.

In today’s Times, Patrick McGeehan explores how the ferry service has been more successful than anticipated by both the city and its operators. He reports:

According to data supplied by city officials, nearly 350,000 people have paid to ride the ferries since late June, far more than the 134,000 they had projected. On weekdays, the number of riders has averaged 2,862, almost double the forecast of 1,488.

The weekday riders have not all been commuters, either. On Friday evening, two visitors from Zurich, Michael Luetscher and his 13-year-old daughter, Bignia, rode from Pier 11 near Wall Street to the Greenpoint apartment they had been staying in all week. They were returning from shopping and checking out the Occupy Wall Street demonstration, which Mr. Luetscher said was smaller and calmer than he had expected.

The big surprise for the ferry operator has come on the weekends, when ridership has averaged almost 4,500, more than six times the city’s projection. On Sunday, Oct. 9, the service carried about 6,500 passengers, said Paul Goodman, the chief executive of BillyBey, which operates under the flag of New York Waterway. “The enthusiasm that we’ve seen from these communities tells us that even though the city was in some manner hoping to encourage development along the waterfront, we’ve tapped into demand that was already there,” Mr. Goodman said.

There is, of course, a catch. With chillier autumn months nearly upon us, the ferry operators are concerned that their planned reduction in service will dissuade customers from sticking around, and they want the city to fork over more dough in an effort to subsidize increased service. Goodman has asked for a “more favorable financial arrangement” in exchange for more money, but city officials do not want to increase taxpayer expenditures in what Seth Pinsky of the Economic Development Corporation termed “an era of limited resources.”

Without an increase in subsidies, New York Waterway will, of course, have to raise its fares — which could lead to a decline in ridership anyway. It’s the great battle for public dollars that we see played out with the subways on a regular basis. Ultimately, ferry service has the potential to service a rather niche group of commuters who live in high-priced condos along the waterfront and want faster access to Lower Manhattan or Midtown. Without a deeper understanding of who rides the ferries and why, it’s tough to say the city should pony over more dollars.

For now, we know that summertime ferry service can be a success. What happens over the next six months will likely determine the fate of this three-year East River ferry experiment.

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PANYNJ

Photos: Inside the TWA Flight Center

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

Former airline employees and urban historians were among those who descended upon the TWA Flight Center yesterday. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

With its vast network of underground tunnels and hidden infrastructure, New York seemingly possesses a city within a city. For every public plaza and popular park, there are a number of off-limits locations that capture our imagination. For years, the West Side Line held the top spot in that category, but since the High Line opened, attention has shifted to the TWA Flight Center, a sealed off relic of another era in aviation now owned by Jet Blue.

The Eero Saarinen-designed building, with its sweeping curves and glamorous reputation, reminds us of a time when flying was a luxury and not a headache. It has been immortalized in film and screen, and as Jet Blue and the Port Authority work to renovate the headhouse, it will one day soon be returned to use in a yet-to-be-determined function. This weekend, the space was open to the public as part of the Open House New York event.

I journeyed out to JFK Airport this weekend to catch a glimpse of the interior of this iconic building. There’s something about off-limits infrastructure that brings out urban explorers who want to know more about the history of their city. By and large, transportation infrastructure isn’t opened up during Open House NY due to liability and security concerns. (I know I’d pay and sign a release to see the station shell at South 4th Street.) This weekend, though, I had to chance to explore.

What follows is a slideshow of my photos from the event. In various states of renovation and disarray, the Saarinen headhouse is a sight to behold. For more on the past, present and future of this historic building, check out New Yorkology’s coverage of the event.

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View from Underground

‘What we’ve got here is failure to communicate’

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

A web-based weekend diagram is no stand-in for adequate customer service.

When the weekends roll around in New York City, I know just as well as anyone else that riding the subways becomes something of a crap shoot. Usual train routes are thrown out the window as weekend work forces the subways into an oft-indecipherable mess of service changes that are often scheduled with no regard for each other. We’re lucky if all of the folks driving the MTA’s subways know about the service changes. Expecting straphangers to memorize the voluminous changes simply isn’t realistic.

Now, we all know why the MTA has to change service over the weekend. It gives the authority the best time to perform work, and by reducing service over a span of 54 hours on the weekend, the authority doesn’t interfere with peak-hour, weekday travel. To that end, the MTA has tried to make weekend subway trips as easy as possible. They’ve redesigned their signs and unveiled an online diagram of weekend subway service. By and large then, it’s possible to find out either before you leave the house or once you get to the subway what the changes are, but when things go bad on the weekends, they go very, very bad. Communication, it seems, is the issue.

I had three experiences this weekend that truly drove home that point. The first happened on Saturday. I was waiting at Spring Street for a downtown 6 train in order to reach the Brooklyn Bridge stop where I could transfer to a Brooklyn-bound train. According to the MTA’s timetable, normal southbound service on the 6 at around 3:45 p.m. involves a train every eight minutes. I waited 20 minutes for mine as four different express trains passed Spring St. Not once did the MTA make an announcement concerning any delayed trains, and with the PA/CIS system offline, the countdown clocks could not placate the impatient masses. I could have walked to Foley Square in 20 minutes.

Today, I had a similar experience while heading to the TWA Flight Center for Open House New York. I made it to Jay St. at around 1:30 to wait for a Rockaway-bound A train to take me to Howard Beach, and I waited and waited and waited and waited. In the 30 minutes, I stood there waiting I saw four Coney Island-bound F trains arrive, four local C trains and four Lefferts Boulevard-bound A trains. It was not until later when I arrived home did I learn from Twitter that A service to the Rockaways had been temporary suspended due to a problem with the South Channel Bridge. The MTA never sent an announcement to the Jay St. platform, and conductors on arriving A trains failed to mention it either.

The final strike came on Sunday evening when I was journeying back to Brooklyn from the Upper West Side. First, the MTA had arranged weekend service so that it was basically impossible to get a one-seat ride from areas in Brooklyn served by the BMT Brighton Line or the IRT Nostrand, New Lots or Eastern Parkway lines to Manhattan. The Q wasn’t running at all, and the 2 and 3 weren’t heading into Brooklyn. I wonder if there’s a way for the MTA to stagger these service changes without cutting off an easy ride to the West Side for everyone in a large swath of Brooklyn.

With these service changes in place, the ride back from the Upper West Side featured numerous cut-ins by the conductor on my 2 train as he told riders where to go. As we pulled into Times Square, he urged passengers to switch to the N, Q or R trains to get to Brooklyn, and then he did the same when he told riders nearing 14th St. to take the L to Union Square. Now, generally, that’s a great idea, but by telling customers to switch to the Q, the conductor was giving out erroneous information. With the Q shut down, people switching from the IRT to the BMT would find themselves even more inconvenienced than if they simply made the out-of-system transfer to Bowling Green from South Ferry.

Now, I know and you know that the MTA doesn’t want to ruin people’s weekend commutes. They’d prefer to run frequently trains without altering the service patterns, but life with a subway system over 100 years old doesn’t quite work like that. We begrudgingly accept service changes. We shouldn’t though begrudgingly accept bad customer service and communication. Transit has a central control room with the ability to broadcast messages to PA-equipped subway stations throughout the city. When they don’t take advantage of that ability, it’s a problem.

Ultimately, there’s no compelling reason why Transit never made an announcement regarding the Broad Channel problems yesterday. If they can broadcast it to Twitter, they can send it to the station. With the PA/CIS technology in place, there’s no compelling reason why two 6 trains went missing from the schedule at 3:45 p.m. on a Saturday with nary a word over the PA system, and it goes without saying that conductors shouldn’t be telling riders to switch to trains that aren’t even running.

In the minds of customers, these little things all add up over time. If the MTA wants public support at a tough time in its financial and political history, it has to do its part too. Keeping straphangers informed of changes over the weekend when travel is already tough enough should become a customer service priority.

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Service Advisories

Weekend work impacting service on 16 subway lines

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 14, 2011

It’s a tough weekend to travel into Brooklyn from the West Side. There will be no 2 or 3 service south of Chambers St. Yuck. Otherwise, not a bad weekend. SubwayWeekender has the map.

Before I jump into the regular services advisories, though, I have a note from Transit on station reopenings in the Bronx as the five-year, $89-million effort to renovate Pelham Line stations wraps up. Says the release:

MTA New York City Transit announces that the Elder Avenue and St. Lawrence Avenue 6 stations rehabilitation project is near completion and they will reopen at 5 p.m. Sunday, October 16. Subway service will resume at both Elder Avenue and St. Lawrence Avenue stations which have been closed for eight months in both directions in order to accomplish station renovations.

Fare-free boarding on local buses and the late night extension of the Bx4 bus service in the area will be discontinued.

The project included new mezzanines, new platform floors, windscreens, tactile warning strips and canopy roofs, as well as electrical upgrades and the installation of fluorescent lighting. While service at these stations will be restored, there is still work to be completed, including the installation of new interior and exterior wall panels and the upgrading of the stations’ electrical and communications systems.

The stations will also be painted and artwork will be installed in the platform windscreens and mezzanine windows. The entire rehabilitation is scheduled for completion in early 2012. This will mark the end of the $89 million five-station renovation on the Pelham 6 line which included: Whitlock Avenue, Elder Avenue, Morrison Avenue-Soundview, St. Lawrence Avenue and Parkchester.

On with the changes…


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 15 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 17, there is no 2 service in Brooklyn due to track work south of Wall Street, platform edge rehabilitation at Hoyt Street and the installation of fiber optic cable ducts between Nevins Street and Hoyt Street. 2 trains run between the Dyre Avenue 5 station and the South Ferry 1 station.

  • 5 trains replace the 2 in Brooklyn
  • Downtown 2 trains are rerouted to the 1 at Chambers Street and operate to/from South Ferry
  • Uptown 2 trains are rerouted to the 5 at East 180th Street and operate to/from Dyre Avenue.

Note: Customers may use a free out-of-system transfer between South Ferry and the Bowling Green 4, 5 station.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 15 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 17, there is no 3 service in Brooklyn due to track work south of Wall Street, platform edge rehabilitation at Hoyt Street and the installation of fiber optic cable ducts between Nevins Street and Hoyt Street. 3 trains operate between 148th Street and 14th Street. Customers should take the 4 instead.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 15 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 17, 4 train service is extended to and from New Lots Avenue due to track work south of Wall Street, platform edge rehabilitation at Hoyt Street and the installation of fiber optic cable ducts between Nevins Street and Hoyt Street. 4 trains operate local in Brooklyn.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 15 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 17, 5 service is extended to and from Flatbush Avenue due to track work south of Wall Street, platform edge rehabilitation at Hoyt Street and the installation of fiber optic cable ducts between Nevins Street and Hoyt Street. (See 2 train entry for details.)


At all times until 5 p.m. Sunday, October 16, 6 trains skip Elder Avenue and St. Lawrence Avenue in both directions due to station rehabilitation.


From 4 a.m. Saturday, October 15 to 10 p.m. Sunday, October 16, Manhattan-bound 7 trains run express from 74th Street to Queensboro Plaza due to track panel installation south of 33rd Street-Rawson Street.

(Overnights)
From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, October 15 and Sunday, October 16 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, October 17, uptown A trains skip Spring, 23rd and 50th Streets due to track work south of Canal Street.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, October 15 and Sunday, October 16, uptown C trains skip Spring, 23rd and 50th Streets due to track work south of Canal Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 15 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 17, Coney Island-bound D trains run on the N line from 36th Street to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue due to structural repair and station rehabilitation from 71st Street to Bay 50th Street and ADA work at Bay Parkway. Notes: 71st Street station is closed October 15-28; customers should use free shuttle buses between 71st Street and 62nd Street. 18th Avenue station is closed October 15-24; customers should use the B1 or free shuttle buses between 18th and 20th Avenues.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 15 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 17, D trains run local in both directions between 34th Street-Herald Square and West 4th Street due to work on the 5th Avenue Interlocking Signal System Project.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 15 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 17, E trains run on the F line in both directions between 36th Street, Queens and 34th Street-Herald Square due to work on the 5th Avenue Interlocking Signal System Project.

  • E trains travel the 63rd Street and 6th Avenue corridors making F station stops.
  • E trains originate and terminate at 34th Street-Herald Square F station.
  • Customers between West 4th Street and WTC, should use the A or C.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 15 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 17, Brooklyn-bound F trains run on the A line from West 4th Street to Jay Street-MetroTech due to electrical and substation work at Jay Street-MetroTech.


From 11 p.m. Friday, October 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 17, there are no G trains between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. and Church Avenue due to station painting at Classon and Clinton-Washington Avenues. G trains operate in two sections:

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

Note: A trains provide connecting service between Hoyt-Schermerhorn and Jay Street-MetroTech.


From 4 a.m. Saturday, October 15 to 10 p.m. Sunday, October 16, Jamaica-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, October 15 to 10 p.m. Sunday, October 16, M trains operate every 20 minutes between Metropolitan Avenue and Myrtle Avenue due to track panel installation north of Hewes Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, October 15 to 5 a.m. Monday, October 17, there are no Q trains between 57th Street-7th Avenue and Prospect Park due to tunnel column structural repair between Atlantic Avenue and Prospect Park. For service between 57th St-7th Ave and Atlantic Av-Pacific St, customers should take the N or R instead. For service between Atlantic Av-Pacific St and Prospect Park, customers should use the free shuttle buses.

(42nd Street Shuttle)
Throughout the weekend, the 42nd Street (S) shuttle operates overnight due to track work south of Wall Street, platform edge rehabilitation at Hoyt Street and the installation of fiber optic cable ducts between Nevins Street and Hoyt Street.

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AsidesNew Jersey Transit

NJ Transit riders offer up low marks for train service

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on October 14, 2011

In an effort to provide transparency and improve service, New Jersey Transit released this week the results of its second annual rider survey. Unfortunately for the commuter authority, its riders aren’t very happy. As the survey shows, train customers gave NJ Transit a 4.2 out of 10 in overall satisfaction with announcement during service interruptions ranking just a 3.6. Fares, which have increased a bit lately, earned just a 3.3, and few people said NJ Transit was a good value for the money. Overall, just 57 percent of respondents said they would recommend New Jersey Transit’s rail service to a friend or relative.

While satisfaction with the rail offerings declined, customers ranked buses higher this year than last, and the light rail has been particularly well received with 85 percent saying they would recommend it. For their part, NJ Transit officials said they would use these results to improve. “The customer satisfaction survey results are driving NJ Transit’s understanding of what really matters to customers, enabling us to better respond to their needs and demands,” Executive Director James Weinstein said. “While these results show that overall we’re moving in the right direction, we need to continue to work to make meaningful changes and improvements that increase customer satisfaction.”

It’s notable that the commuter rail network suffered the most with regards to service disruptions. Without an alternate route into Manhattan, NJ Transit will always be at the whim of trains entering through the lone rail access point. Until a second tunnel is constructed — and who knows when that will be — customers will have to wait out those delays.

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