Fulton Street

Photo of the Day: A glimpse inside Fulton St.

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 15, 2011

Photo by Patrick Cashin/MTA

Where:Inside the construction of the Fulton St. Transit Hub
When: June 8, 2011

The MTA recently sent staff photographer Patrick Cashin inside the Fulton St. Transit Center to snap a series of photos of the hub in progress. The results are now up on Flickr, and we see, after years of stops and stops, that the project is moving ahead quickly. Relocated murals are in place; walkways have been built; and currently shuttered platforms are undergoing renovations.

The authority still maintains the Transit Center will be fully operational by the end of 2014, and various segments are opening up as work finishes up. By the time of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in a few months, the southbound Cortlandt St. station along the R should finally reopen, and Lower Manhattan’s transit center, albeit it with a very steep price tag, will untangle one of the more confusing subway stations around.

21 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
MTA EconomicsMTA Politics

Payroll tax likely sticking around for now

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 15, 2011

With the state legislature’s term rapidly expiring, Republicans in Albany cannot scrounge up enough bicameral support to overturn the controversial MTA payroll mobility tax, Judy Rife reported today. Despite the fact that State Republicans will vote for repeal today as a symbolic gesture to curry favor with their constituents, the Assembly will not be following suit. “We have several bills pending in the Senate, but we don’t yet have a partner for any of them in the Assembly,” a spokesman for Dean Skelos said to the Albany-based reporter. 

Assembly Democrats, well aware of the GOP’s repeal efforts, are not inclined to address MTA funding over the next few days. “We have no plans to change the MTA payroll tax,” a Sheldon Silver spokesman said.

Over the past few weeks suburban representatives who campaigned on anti-payroll tax platforms have ramped up the call for a repeal, but to me, their arguments seem spurious at best. Lee Zeldin, for instance, claims that the MTA can generate over $1 billion in cost savings through internal efficiency improvements, but the numbers just aren’t there to support this charge. Without another source of funding then – be it congestion pricing or bridge tolls – the MTA can ill afford to lose the payroll mobility tax revenue. As flawed as it is whet tax must remain.

Interestingly, Rife notes too that while politicians have called for a forensic audit of the MTA, they have also refused to pass a bill that would fund such an audit. Good ol’ grandstanding, ain’t it grand?

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
BusesManhattan

On 181st St. and being afraid of bus lanes

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 15, 2011

The DOT plan for 181st Street leaves much to desired.

For three years, the New York City Department of Transportation has been working with the Washington Heights community to address 181st St. Spanning from one bridge to another, the upper Manhattan thoroughfare plays host to two subway stations, five bus routes and a Hudson River Greenway entrance. A few blocks north of the cross-Bronx, this street would be ripe for a transit- and pedestrian-focused overhaul, and yet it’s not getting one.

When DOT unveiled its designs for the street less week, it presented what Streetsblog called a plan “far less ambitious than what could have been.” What was a road once under consideration for a fully protected bus lane has turned into yet another compromise in which a loud but vocal minority with trumped up concerns over access have triumphed over the safety and mobility of pedestrians and transit riders.

Noah Kazis has more:

For bus riders, the curbside parking on the south side of 181st Street would be replaced with a dedicated eastbound bus lane from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., improving reliability by clearing the way for Bronx-bound buses at the very beginning of their routes. On the block between Audobon and Amsterdam Avenues, which a DOT spokesperson said was where buses suffered the biggest delays from congestion, the bus lane would be in effect from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

The entire project is part of DOT’s Congested Corridors program, and the plan includes left-turn bays to help traffic move more smoothly. Curb parking will be replaced with loading zones during designated times, intended to minimize the rampant double parking along 181st. By keeping the through lanes clear, said the DOT spokesperson, these features will also keep buses moving smoothly…

That’s a fair number of changes to a stretch barely over half a mile long, but it’s much less than what was on the table in October. One option, for example, would have built New York City’s first physically separated bus lanes on 181st. With one in each direction and a raised bus stop mid-street, that plan would have provided one fewer traffic lane and one fewer parking lane than the current plan, but done much more for transit riders.

Another option was an approach that would have made 181st a real multi-modal street. With large sidewalk extensions on the whole corridor, a buffered bike lane and a bus lane, this discarded option would have redistributed space from drivers to every other user of the street.

A glimpse at what should have been.

So why did DOT compromise at the expense of the many? According to Kazis, Denny Farrell, an Assembly representative known for his personal collection of convertibles and corresponding windshield perspective, but the heat on the Department of Transportation. He claims some locals expressed concerns over a one-way street while others wondered how buses would turn into a protected lane — a concern that doesn’t exist in the myriad locations around the world with dedicated and physically separated bus lanes.

To make an omelet, one must break eggs, but unfortunately, NYC DOT has pulled back from that approach. Instead of angering small but powerful people who don’t represent the demographics and needs of the community, DOT has decided to build slowly on the status quo. There’s no harm in incremental improvements, but at some point, those incremental improvements need to take the next step. The 34th Street plan, more ambitious than this one, fell to NIMBYs, and the 181st St. plan has seemingly fallen to those who live to drive around Upper Manhattan in their cars.

For New York City to become a more mobile area, buses will need to become a priority. Someone will be inconvenienced; someone else won’t like the buses. But more commuters and more New Yorkers will benefit from faster surface transit and travel. After all, cities are about people, not their cars, and while cars do have a place in an urban environment, road space should be prioritized appropriately. Right now, the people are losing the fight.

9 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
MetroCardMTA Technology

An online solution for lost or damaged MetroCards

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

As the MTA has struggled over the years to fit technology into their offerings, their online customer support has lagged far behind the technology we see in the system. Countdown clocks and FIND displays are incongruous with the way the MTA had, up until recently, treated its web presence. Take, for example, a MetroCard.

If a straphanger loses or damages his or her MetroCard, he or she must call a phone number or mail in their card or, if lost, a claim for a replacement. It is a clunky process filled with vague questionnaires that often ask for too much unnecessary information, and I know more than a few people who sacrificed the errant swipe rather than deal with the confusion.

Now, though, the MTA is working to address that problem. The agency has unveiled a new MetroCard eFix website. Now when a straphanger has a problem with a MetroCard, he or she can fill out an online form and set the dispute-resolution process in motion digitally. “The introduction of eFIX is yet another example of how the MTA is working to make things more convenient for our customers. From countdown clocks, to BusTime, to a website filled with real information that our customers can use, we are constantly working to be responsive to the needs of our customers.” NYC Transit President Thomas F. Prendergast said in a statement.

The eFix site allows users to select one of six categories: lost or stolen reduced fare cards; Select Bus Service errors; MetroCard not returned from the bus farebox; MetroCard Vending Machine problem; or a transfer problem.
Overcharged. The eFix system, designed in house, will verify claims as they are entered which results in increased speed and accuracy. The MTA is also planning future enhancements to the system as well.

I haven’t yet had the opportunity to test out the system, but just its mere introduction is a step in the right technological direction for the 1400 folks who submit claims on a daily basis. Making it easier for the customer to recapture lost money is a good move.

32 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
AsidesMTA Absurdity

Today in endless escalator outages: 181st St.

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

For years, the MTA has struggled with its escalators. At stations that are deep underground, the moving staircases — which operate for 24 hours and take quite a beating — break regularly, and when they do, repairs are often slow to come. Today, we arrive at 181st St. where one of the the lengthy escalators has been broken since February. Then earlier this week, the second escalator broke, and suddenly straphangers had to hike up and down the staircases.

For residents of the area, broken escalators in Washington Heights are, in fact, the norm. NY1 reports that the MTA says these escalators work less than half of the time. “I moved to this neighborhood in 2006, and it’s been going on since,” one subway rider said. The first escalator was repaired fairly quickly, but the one out since February remains entombed in a wooden box.

The MTA offered up an array of excuses. As Tina Redwine reports, “MTA officials said the problem with the 181st Street escalator is that workers needed to disassemble heavy equipment, one piece weighing up to 2500 pounds, in order to send the escalator out for repair. Then it has to be reinstalled and tested.” It will be another 10 weeks at least, and the authority said that this timeline is “not good enough.” Still, as we’ve seen at Lexington at 53rd St. and countless stations around the system, broken escalators are the norm far more often than they should be.

16 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Public Transit Policy

Still waiting for action from the feds

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

It’s clear from their words that officials within the Obama Administration are well aware of the funding crisis facing local transit authorities. Across the country, vital agencies are short billions of dollars for necessary maintenance, repairs and upgrades, and yet, dollars trickle out of Washington at a snail’s pace. It’s easier and more palatable for the government to spend billions bailing out the auto industry than it is for them to invest in transit operations.

If the Obama Administration has its way — a long shot for sure — that tied could turn. In comments yesterday at the American Public Transportation Association meeting, Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff said that he wants to see transit agencies stem their economic tide. “We are trying to deal with all those challenges at once,” he said. “Not just maintenance but also on expansion, also to provide increased formula funds.”

Rogoff spoke at length about the age of American transit networks and the need to modernize. “There are power substation facilities serving the SEPTA system that have equipment in it dating from the 19-teens and 20’s. Thank heaven they overbuilt those systems back in the 20’s because they actually have been able to endure and serve the service,” he said. “But it is, sometimes it is rather spooky when you see how many tens of thousands of daily commuters that are dependent on the continuing reliability of systems that are approaching 50, 60, 70 years-old in some of these cities. That’s why we really want to surge forward with the investment because some of those systems are going to have to be replaced you cannot keep milking them along another half century.”

Transportation Nation offers more from Rogoff’s press conference:

The tension between just fixing everything that’s broken — or about to break — and all the new transit that’s needed to really give Americans mobility options was fully on display at an APTA press conference at its annual rail conference Monday. Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff argued: “We want to provide the American public in the maximum number of communities with real transit choices, and give them the opportunity to keep more money in their wallet rather than hand it over at the gas pump, but in order to do that the transit service has to be available, it has to be safe and clean. It has to be reliable and desirable.”

…But before thinking about making transit a real option for most, if not all Americans, Rogoff said, there’s a $50 billion hole that needs filling. In the seven largest systems, which carry 80 percent of the rail transit passenger load in the U.S. – including New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington and Los Angeles — there is a $50 billion backlog of major maintenance needs. Rogoff said the FTA has proposed combing funding streams to “rifle shot” resources to where they are most needed.

“Reliable transit is really the difference between getting home in time to have dinner as a family, or not getting home in time to supervise homework, or not being able to pick your kid up on time from day care, all of these core quality of life issue, which are critical if we are going to entice more people on transit. But for for the millions of transit riders who do not have an automobile option these investments are critical to maintaining a viable transit system,” Rogoff said.

Now, this push to convince Congress to approve billions in transit assistance is one we’ve heard before. Senator Chuck Schumer has worked to wring dollars out of DC while Obama’s officials have spoken about it for years. The money, of course, never materializes. Despite Rogoff’s strident words, I can’t get my hopes up. We’ve seen no amount of leadership on federal assistance.

Meanwhile, on a local level, transit funding is under attack. A growing chorus of voices wants to remove $1.3 billion in the form of the payroll mobility tax from the MTA’s budget. The money to replace those lost funds won’t just materialize, and eventually, we’ll have a transit funding crisis — that is, if we don’t already. The time for talk is over. Where’s the action, from D.C., Albany or even City Hall?

16 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
AsidesMTA Absurdity

MTA IG uncovers chain-link fence fraud

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 13, 2011

Did you hear the one about the chain-link fence company submitting bogus work claims? That’s the focus of Pete Donohue’s column today, and the story is an odd one. Apparently, the MTA contracted with Long Island-based the American Chain Link & Construction company in the “early 2000s” to provide fencing around various transit properties. The company submitted invoice “devoid of any backup documentation to explain what expenses the company had incurred for such things as materials, equipment rentals and labor, according to the inspector general’s office” and got paid anyway.

At some point, the MTA Inspector General got wind of the fraud and began investigating. Only 14 of 100 invoices had enough detail to allow the IG to examine the work, and all but one of those were deemed fraudulent. Suffolk County authorities claim the lack of documentation meant they could pinpoint only $31,000 in fraudulent charges while the case settled for a guilty plea and the forfeiture of $60,000 the MTA still owes American. Donohue even mentions that “bus managers in the same transit agency, meanwhile, routinely challenged American’s bills and paid less than what the company initially sought.” What a strange story.

3 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
ARC TunnelPublic Transit Policy

In NJ, proximity to rail becomes alluring

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 13, 2011

A few days ago, UBS made headlines when it announced its interest in moving back to Manhattan. While the cynical among us wondered if this was just a ploy to gain more favorable tax breaks by playing Connecticut off of New York, company sources claimed the move is necessary in order to attract young talent. Stamford, after all, isn’t exactly a happening city for good minds right out of college.

In New Jersey, a different story is unfolding: Transit-oriented development has become all the rage. Dana Rubinstein reports in The Journal today:

As New Jersey slowly emerges from the economic downturn, its office market is beginning to transform into one concentrated around train stations. Businesses have been leasing space in areas served by train stations at a higher rate than those only accessible by car, according to real-estate firms. The trend reflects demographic shifts and higher gasoline prices as well as changes in worker priorities.

For example, businesses are beginning to recognize that many employees care less about living in sprawling estates and more about living in diverse areas with restaurants and entertainment within walking distance, notes Robert Puentes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program. “All these things are starting to add up and companies are very attuned to it,” he says…

The average vacancy rate in so-called transit hubs in New Jersey was 14.7% in the first quarter of this year, compared with 29.7% in areas not considered transit hubs, according to real-estate brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle. The report defines transit hubs as the 40 million square feet comprising office space in Newark, Elizabeth, Jersey City, Hoboken, Paterson, East Orange, New Brunswick, Trenton and Camden, Morristown and Metropark, all cities with rail service.

At the same time, asking rents in transit hubs were higher, averaging $27.43 compared with the rest of the suburban market’s $23.51, according to the Jones Lang LaSalle report. Since 2009, more than 20% of all leasing has occurred in the transit hubs, compared with 15 percent before 2009. Further, of the 52 leases larger than 100,000 square feet signed in New Jersey since 2008, 22 of them were in transit hubs.

Panasonic recently made headlines when it decided to move from Secaucus to Newark. While the decision has been driven, in part, by a generous tax credit, company officials say accessibility played a role in the move as well. “We have literally 1,000 people driving cars every day,” Peter Fannon, a company VP, said. “The key element for us, which really brought the focus back to Newark, were the environmental benefits, specifically the ability to be in an urban center where there are housing, restaurants, hotels, and most importantly, mass transit facilities, all within a three- or four-block radius of our new location.”

With these trends emerging and with policies in place to encourage hub-based growth and transit-oriented development, it would be an ideal time for New Jersey to move forward with a plan that will greatly improve trans-Hudson commuter rail access while cutting down travel time. Unfortunately, private businesses and state leaders aren’t seeing eye-to-eye. As development policies and economic realities push TOD, the ARC Tunnel plans, which will look more and more necessary as time passes, remain dearly departed.

10 comments
2 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
MTA Technology

Technology and the law of unintended consequences

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 13, 2011

Countdown clocks at Bergen Street offer a glimpse into the MTA's true headways.

As regular readers know, I am a big supporter of the MTA’s new countdown clocks. In fact, outside of those people who rabble over money spent on something they personally deem superfluous without understanding the rationale behind the expenditures, I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t find the countdown clocks calming. We know how far away the next train is; we know the trains are moving closer as time ticks away; and we no longer have to deal with the mysteries of waiting and peering into darkened tunnels.

Yet, the countdown clocks allow us to sneak a peak at the MTA’s operations, and now and then, we see things we do not like. Let me tell a story that I’ve told in various forms before. I wish I didn’t have to keep repeating myself, but this type of incident happens far more regularly than I would like.

To set the stage, it is Friday night at 11:38 p.m. I have just taken the 4 train back to Brooklyn from Yankee Stadium, and I am hoping that I won’t need to wait long for a connecting 2 or 3 train that will take me to Grand Army Plaza. When we slowly pass Hoyt St., I can see the countdown clocks threatening a 13-minute wait until the next 2 train is due to arrive, and I hope that there is a train at Nevins awaiting connecting passengers.

When we pull into Nevins St., I get my hopes up. There’s a 3 train across the platform, but the 3 train has its doors closed. At that hour of the night and with the next train so far behind, I had hopes that the operators would grow less worried about adhering to the MTA’s fantasy idea of a schedule and more concerned with customer service. Instead, as the doors on the 4 open, the 3 train pulls away. So much for those poor saps who have to get to Bergen St., Grand Army Plaza or Eastern Parkway. Instead of waiting for 12 minutes at Nevins, I opted for the 20-minute walk back home from Atlantic Ave.

To me, there is nothing quite as frustrating as watching a local depart as an express pulls in when nighttime headways at their worst. We’ve heard frequently from the MTA about improving on-time performance, but as I’ve said in the past, on-time performance means little if customers aren’t inconvenienced by it. On Friday night, more than a few of us sighed audibly or cursed under our breaths as that 3 train pulled out. We were inconvenienced by it, and because of the countdown clocks, we knew that the next local train would be an interminable 12 minutes away.

Enter the law of unintended consequences. In the days before countdown clocks, I likely would have waited for that next 2 train, growing more and more impatient with every passing minute and thinking ill of the train operator who left us stranded at Nevins. With the countdown clocks, I could better plan my trip home, but I also knew with certainty that the local train should have waited 20 extra seconds for a connecting express because the next train wasn’t particularly close.

Meanwhile, the countdown clocks gave me a glimpse of the MTA’s true headways as well, and I’ve noticed this problem with some frequency. Ideally, headways at 11:40 p.m. on a Friday at Nevins St. would be around 8-10 minutes per train, and technically they are. There is, however, a catch. The countdown clocks told me that the next 2 train was 12 minutes away while the next 3 was 17. Two trains in 17 minutes makes sense, but no trains in 12 minutes doesn’t. When different routes — in this case the Flatbush Ave.-bound 2 and the New Lots Ave.-bound 3 — share a track, the headways might sound convenient, but often, bunching happens. The countdown clocks lay it all out there for everyone to see.

Ultimately, my trip home lasted a few minutes less than it would have had I waited for the next train, and I was able to take a nice walk on a warm evening to let out my frustration. But with technology that allows us to see just when the next train is coming, the MTA should ask its train operators to think about customers when its late at night and headways are long. The extra few seconds would make for many more satisfied customers.

23 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Service Advisories

Weekend work impacting travel on seven lines

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 11, 2011

Light weekend of work. Here you go.


From 12 noon to 5 p.m., Saturday, June 11, the 116th Street station is EXIT ONLY due to the 116th Street Festival. Customers will not be allowed entry into this station in order to prevent overcrowding on platforms and stairways. For Manhattan or Bronx-bound service, customers should use the 110th or 125th stations instead.


From 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday, June 12, 77th Street station is EXIT ONLY due to the Puerto Rican Day Parade. Customers will not be allowed entry into this station in order to prevent overcrowding on platforms and stairways. For uptown or downtown service, customers should use the 68th or 86th Street stations instead.


From 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, June 11, Flushing-bound 7 trains skip 82nd, 90th, 103rd, and 111th Streets due to the installation of cable trays, surface prep and elevated structure painting at 111th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 11 to 5 a.m. Sunday, June 12, Manhattan-bound A trains run on the F line from Jay Street-MetroTech to West 4th Street, then local to 59th Street-Columbus Circle due to platform edge, mechanical and electrical work at the Fulton Street Transit Center. Note: During this time, there is no A train service at Fulton Street in either direction.


During the overnight hours, from 11 p.m. Friday, June 10 to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, June 11, and from 11 p.m. Saturday, June 11 to 5 a.m. Sunday, June 12, uptown A trains skip 72nd, 81st, 86th, 96th, 103rd, 110th, and 116th Streets due track work south of 110th Street.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, June 11, uptown C trains run on the F line from Jay Street-MetroTech to West 4th Street due to platform edge, mechanical and electrical work at the Fulton Street Transit Center. Note: During this time, there is no C train service at Fulton Street in either direction.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, June 11 uptown C trains skip 72nd, 81st, 86th, 96th, 103rd, 110th and 116th Streets due to track work south of 110th Street.


From 11 p.m. Friday, June 10 to 5 a.m. Sunday, June 12, Queens-bound F trains skip 14th Street and 23rd Street due to track work north of 23rd Street.


From 11 p.m. Friday, June 10 to 5 a.m. Sunday June 12, there are no G trains between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. and Church Avenue due to track work north of Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. G trains operate in two sections:

  • Between Court Square and Bedford-Nostrand Avs and
  • Between Bedford Nostrand Avs and Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. (every 20 minutes)

Note: During this time, service at Smith-9th Sts. is limited to one direction. For service from this station, customers should take a Coney Island-bound F to 4th Av-9th Street and transfer to a Manhattan-bound F.


From 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, June 11, Brooklyn-bound N trains skip 30th Avenue, Broadway, 36th Avenue and 39th Avenue due to structure painting.


From 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, June 11, N trains run local between DeKalb Avenue and 59th Street in both directions due to structure painting.

4 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Load More Posts