AsidesMTA

In the news: The future Lady McCartney

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 23, 2011

Now that the proverbial cat is out of the bag and everyone knows current MTA Board member Nancy Shevell is set to marry Paul McCartney, The Times decided to profile her. The article, which appeared in yesterday’s New York section, is light on details and high on fluff. The current board member will carry the honorific Lady McCartney due to the former Beatle’s knighthood, and her fellow board members will fete her at some point.

While Shevell couldn’t be reached for comment, the pieces notes that her term will expire at the end of next month. As she is a freight executive who was once chided for missing too many board meetings, I’ve recently questioned whether she will be reappointed. Now if only The Times would profile other MTA Board members who aren’t set to marry folks as famous as Paul McCartney.

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AsidesMTA Economics

GCT Apple Store rumors percolating again

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 23, 2011

The on again/off again rumors surrounding an Apple Store at Grand Central appear to be on again, according to a story in today’s Wall Street Journal. The MTA will issue a request for proposals today on the current space inhabited by Metrazur, and despite steep costs, sources expect Apple to submit a response, Andrew Grossman reports today.

Grossman offers up a few details on the MTA’s attempts at extracting more money from its valuable retail spaces. Metrazur’s lease currently runs through 2019, and although the restaurant is making money, it plans to close on July 1 because the MTA, which is making only $400,000 a year off of the substantial space, is going to ask the next tenant to pay the restaurant’s owners a substantial termination fee. “It’s an offer that’s hard to refuse,” Chef Charlie Palmer said. “It’s hard to compete with whatever that company might be that’s taking the space.”

With retail experts believing that a Grand Central Apple Store could become more popular than the city’s other premiere locations, the MTA is looking for a deal focuses around a low base rent and a share of any story’s profits. The price may be steep, but for a chance to take up such a high-profile space in one of the nation’s busiest train terminals, it just be might worth. The authority too is looking to boost its own bottom line. “We believe that this special site in Grand Central Terminal can generate more revenue to support transit services,” agency spokesman Jeremy Soffin said.

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Capital Program 2010-2014

On the need to fund the MTA’s Capital Program

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 23, 2011

Over the past few months, as the spring legislative schedule has inched closer toward summer recess, I’ve beaten the drum about the MTA’s current capital funding. The five-year plan is short $10 billion, and it’s only funded through the end of 2011. As Albany has struggled with the state budget, it must also turn its attention to the capital program, and it’s no stretch to say that the city’s economy depends upon it.

Without a properly-funded capital plan, the MTA’s physical infrastructure will further erode. Without a properly-funded capital plan, tracks will break down, trains will be delayed and business will suffer. Without state support, the riders will have to pay more and more so that the MTA can simply maintain the current levels of service.

Today, in the latest edition of Crain’s New York Business, the trade mag talks about the need to fund the capital plan. While the city’s commuters and straphangers are relying on MTA investments, so too is the construction industry. I’ll excerpt the editorial as it touches upon these various issues:

State lawmakers, who congratulated themselves two months ago for closing a $10 billion budget gap, have made no progress in filling another hole that is just as big. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has no capital funding in place for the next three years and needs the state to identify revenues this year to issue bonds. That will be controversial, so Albany needs to get moving.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislators must undertake the mission knowing that the capital plan cannot be shrunk significantly. MTA contractors could reduce construction costs by a few hundred million dollars by negotiating new work rules with their unions; the MTA could pare the price tag a bit more by delaying nonessential improvements. But if there’s one thing we’ve all learned about the transit system over the years, it’s that postponing vital work backfires…

Maintaining a state of good repair, improving service and finishing large projects—East Side Access, the Fulton Transit Center and phase one of the Second Avenue subway—are crucial in order for the regional economy to grow. It won’t happen without money.

Funding for the MTA is not an expense but an investment with proven returns. Unfortunately, some lawmakers prefer to portray the agency as a cesspool of waste and to use it as a scapegoat to distract voters. It’s time they acknowledge the MTA’s role in reviving the city and its suburbs, and the efficiencies Chief Executive Jay Walder has found in the past two years. He shaved $525 million from the operating budget, including $93 million in service cuts to underutilized bus and subway lines. He lopped $2 billion off the capital plan without killing important projects.

It’s Albany’s turn now. Legislators must identify at least $750 million in annual revenues to finance 30-year bonds. Fares have been increased for three straight years and are scheduled to rise 7.5% in 2013, so riders ought to be spared until then. Businesses funded most of the 2010-11 capital plan with a payroll tax that generates $1.5 billion annually.

How does Crain’s propose finding the funding then? Through road usage fees: “One option is to raise more revenue from drivers. A variable fee on vehicle trips that congest Manhattan’s central business district is logical, since they impose large costs on the economy. Also, the payroll tax mechanism should be improved to lessen its political toxicity and increase compliance.”

As Crain’s notes, transit ridership has surged by 50 percent over the past 15 years as capital investment in the system has grown as well. The state and its subways are heading toward a turning point, and while Albany may have to make some tough choices, it cannot leave 5 million daily subway riders out in the cold. The city’s economy simply cannot take the hit.

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Service Advisories

A wealth of weekend work

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

Apologies for not getting up these service advisories last night. Yesterday was my law school convocation, and I was out celebrating with my family. I seemingly picked a bad weekend to miss the advisories because there are a ton of them. We’ll start with a map.

On Monday, the F and G trains will again stop at 15th St./Prospect Park and Fort Hamilton Parkway. But before that, peep a look at this weekend’s map:

Click the map to enlarge.

Below are the changes in text form. These come to me from NYC Transit and are subject to change. Check out the signs in your local station and listen to on-board announcements as well. Subway Weekender has the full map.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, May 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 23, 1 trains operate between 14th Street and 168th Street due to Dyckman Street station rehabilitation, switch replacement at 238th Street and Port Authority work at WTC. The 2, 3, and A trains, the M3 bus and free shuttle buses provide alternate service. Free shuttle buses operate three routes: between Chambers Street and South Ferry, between 168th Street and 191st Street (customers may also use the M3 bus), and between the 207th Street A station and 242nd Street. 2 and 3 trains run local in both directions between Chambers and 96th Streets. The 1 operates express between 34th Street and 14th Street.


At all times beginning 5 a.m. Monday, May 23 until June 2011, the Manhattan-bound platform at 238th Street will be closed for station component work. For Manhattan-bound service, customers should take the Bx9 bus or walk to the 242nd or 231st Street Station.


From 4 a.m. Saturday, May 21 to 10 p.m. Sunday, May 22, Bronx-bound 2 trains skip Jackson Avenue, Prospect Avenue, Intervale Avenue, Simpson Street, Freeman Street, 174th Street and East Tremont Avenue due to track panel installation at Freeman Street and 174th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m., Saturday, May 21 and Sunday, May 22, and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, May 23, downtown 4 trains skip 33rd, 28th, 23rd Streets, Astor Place, Bleecker, Spring and Canal Streets due to gap filler replacement at 14th Street-Union Square. Customers traveling to these stations may take the 4 to 14th Street-Union Square or Brooklyn Bridge and transfer to an uptown 4.


From 5:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Saturday, May 21 and from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Sunday, May 22, Bronx-bound 5 trains skip Jackson Avenue, Prospect Avenue, Intervale Avenue, Simpson Street, Freeman Street, 174th Street and East Tremont Avenue due to track panel installation at Freeman Street and 174th Street. Note: During this time, trains run every 20 minutes between Dyre Avenue and Bowling Green.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 23, downtown 6 trains skip 33rd, 28th, 23rd Streets, Astor Place, Bleecker, Spring and Canal Streets due to gap filler replacement at 14th Street-Union Square. Customers traveling to these stations may take the 6 to 14th Street-Union Square and transfer to an uptown 6.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 23, Manhattan-bound 6 trains skip Morrison Avenue/Soundview and Whitlock Avenue stations due to station rehabilitations at Elder and St. Lawrence Avenues. At all times until October 2011, 6 trains skip Elder Avenue and St. Lawrence Avenue in both directions due to station rehabilitation. Customers may use the Bx4, Bx4A and Bx27 buses to transfer to nearby stations. (Overnight note: Free shuttle buses will operate between the Parkchester (6) and the Simpson Street (2) stations.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, May 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 23, there is no 7 train service between Times Square-42nd Street and Queensboro Plaza due to signal and maintenance work. For service between Queens and Manhattan, customers should take the E, F, or N trains. Transfer is available between the N and 7 trains at Times Squre-42nd Street and at Queensboro Plaza. Transfer between the E and 7 trains are available at 74th Street-Roosevelt Avenue. Free shuttle buses will operate between Vernon Blvd.-Jackson Avenue and Queensboro Plaza. The 42nd Street (S) shuttle will operate throughout the weekend between Times Square and Grand Central stations.


During the overnight hours, from 11:30 p.m. Friday, May 20 to 6 a.m. Saturday, May 21, from 11:30 p.m. Saturday, May 21 to 7 a.m. Sunday, May 22, and from 11:30 p.m. Sunday, May 22 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 23, uptown A trains skip 72nd, 81st, 86th, 96th, 103rd, 110th, and 116th Streets due track work north of 110th Street. Customers traveling to these stations should take the A to 125th Street and transfer to a downtown A.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, May 21 and Sunday, May 22, there are no C trains between Manhattan and Brooklyn; C trains are rerouted to the F line between West 4th Street and 2nd Avenue (the last stop) due to work on the Culver Viaduct. Note: F trains run on the C line between Jay Street-MetroTech and Euclid Avenue.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, May 21 and Sunday, May 22, uptown C trains skip 72nd, 81st, 86th, 96th, 103rd, 110th and 116th Streets due to track work south of 110th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 23, Bronx-bound D trains run on the N line from Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue to 59th Street, then local to 36th Street due to station rehab and structural repair work at stations between 71st Street and Bay 50th and ADA work at Bay Parkway. There are no Bronx-bound D trains at Bay 50th, 25th Avenue, Bay Parkway, 20th Avenue, 18th Avenue, 79th Street, 71st Street, 55th Street, 50th Street, Ft. Hamilton Parkway or 9th Avenue stations.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 21 to Monday, May 23, D trains run local on the R line between DeKalb Avenue and 36th Street due to work on the Culver Viaduct.


During the overnight hours, from 11:30 p.m. Friday, May 20 to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, May 21, from 11:30 p.m. Saturday, May 21 to 6:30 a.m. Sunday, May 22, and from 11:30 p.m. Sunday, May 22 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 23, Manhattan-bound E trains skip 65th Street, Northern Blvd., 46th Street, Steinway Street and 36th Street due to track work north of 36th Street.


At all times until 5 a.m. Monday, May 23, 2011, Manhattan-bound F trains skip Ft. Hamilton Parkway and 15th Street-Prospect Park due to the Culver Viaduct Rehabilitation Project. Manhattan-bound F trains will continue to bypass Smith-9th Sts.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, May 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 23, free shuttle buses replace F trains between Jay Street-MetroTech and 18th Avenue due to work on the Culver Viaduct. F trains run in two sections:

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


From 11 p.m. Friday, May 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 23, Queens-bound F trains skip 14th Street and 23rd Street due to platform edge and track work at 34th Street. Customers traveling to these stations may take the F to West 4th Street and transfer to a downtown F.


At all times until 5 a.m. Monday, May 23, 2011, Queens-bound G trains skip Ft. Hamilton Parkway and 15th Street-Prospect Park due to the Culver Viaduct Rehabilitation Project.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, May 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 23, there are no G trains between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. and Church Avenue due to work on the Culver Viaduct. 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)

Customers may take the A from Hoyt Schermerhorn Sts. to Jay Street-MetroTech for shuttle bus options.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 23, Brooklyn-bound N trains operate on the D line from 36th Street to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue due to track panel installation along the route. There is no Brooklyn-bound N service at 8th Avenue, Ft. Hamilton Pkwy, 18th Avenue, 20th Avenue, Bay Pkwy, Kings Highway, Avenue U or 86th Street stations.


From 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday, May 21 and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday, May 22, some Brooklyn-bound N trains terminate at 34th Street (skipping 49th Street). Some Queens-bound N trains terminate at Queensboro Plaza due to signal and maintenance work.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 21 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 23, Brooklyn-bound Q trains run local on the R line from 57th Street-7th Avenue to Canal Street due to signal and maintenance work.


From 5 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, May 21 and Sunday, May 22, Brooklyn-bound R trains skip 65th Street, Northern Blvd, 46th Street, Steinway Street and 36th Street due to track work north of 36th Street. Customers traveling to these stations may take the E or R to Queens Plaza and transfer to a Forest Hills/71st Avenue-bound E or R.

(42nd Street Shuttle)
From 11 p.m. Friday, May 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, May 23, The 42nd Street (S) shuttle will operate overnight as an alternative to 7 line service which is suspended in Manhattan.

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Taxis

TLC study calls for end to dollar van program

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 20, 2011

The Taxi & Limousine Commission yesterday released a set of data concerning the misguided dollar van pilot program yesterday, and while I’m still working to track down the numbers, Transportation Nation clued us into the findings. In a phrase, they are not good, and in fact, the TLC is considering the program a complete bust.

Here’s how Andrea Bernstein reported the news:

Along the B23 line in Brooklyn, 1580 riders used to take the bus. Two took the privately run commuter vans. The most “successful” line was along the former Q79, which had 650 riders, and about 27 customers a day.

According to the TLC “Lessons Learned:”

  • Drivers won’t cruise where there is no demand.
  • Timing is everything.
  • Local outreach/advertising is essential.

The TLC recommends the pilot “be terminated and the lessons learned from it be used to inform other projects in underserved areas.” It says the three-month lag in setting up the commuter van meant commuters found other options, and by then, drivers weren’t cruising for non-existent drivers.

If your initial reaction to this news is one of shock that a leading taxi agency operating in 2010 needed a disastrous study and pilot period to learn these lessons, well, you’re not alone. In fact, these are lessons that Cap’n Transit knew back in October and lessons that I wrote about in March. If two amateur transportation analysts understand how to run a semi-successful dollar program, why didn’t the TLC? It’s almost as though they set this up to fail from the get-go.

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MTA AbsurdityMTA Technology

Photo of the Day: A countdown clock, the wrong way

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on May 20, 2011

Photo by Benjamin Kabak

Where: The south end of the downtown 6 platform at Bleecker St.
When: Wednesday morning shortly after 11:15 a.m.

Earlier this week, the Bowery Boogie excitedly heralded the arrival of countdown clocks on the Bleecker St. platforms at the Broadway/Lafayette station complex. The clocks along the 6 line, long covered by the MTA, were turned on at the entrances this past week, and I found myself at the station heading down to the City Hall area on Wednesday morning. While most of the countdown clocks were functional, one seemed out of place, and I snapped the above photo.

As you can see from the picture, the customer information board toward the south end of the downtown platform is aligned in a rather amusing direction. Instead of facing the platform so that folks at either end can see it, the clock is facing out toward the track and in toward a blue plywood wall. Unless you’re standing in the few feet of space in between the board and the track, the clock is all but invisible to the rest of the station. In other words, this particular countdown clock isn’t particularly useful.

The MTA has struggled with these clocks at certain stations. A few at 72nd St. and Broadway were obscured by emergency exit signs and low-hanging pipes. Others have faced walls while some have been placed awkwardly near station entrances. By and large, the new system is a success, but now and then, something wrong sticks out like a sore thumb. Why this board was installed in such a strange fashion when the blue plywood has a cutout for it in the first place will remain a mystery until someone comes to realign it.

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View from Underground

Emergency exit stings: entrapment or enforcement?

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

An emergency exit stands alone amidst construction in 2007. (Photo by flickr user rlboston)

Usually, when we talk about the great emergency exit debate, we do so in the context of exiting a station. Should those who think they are in more of a hurry than others risk the ear-piercing sounds of the alarm to power through the emergency exit? Should others follow once the exits are opened by someone else? The moralists and pragmatists have squared off before, and today, the alarms are largely ineffective.

But what of people who use the emergency exits to sneak into the subway system without paying? Those are the folks we never mention because it’s clear they are violating the law. By skirting the turnstiles and the need for a swipe, they can enter without a fare. In this week’s column, though, Pete Donohue highlights the hazy ethics surrounding some recent police stings. Is it entrapment or ethics, he asks:

Carlos, a hair stylist from Long Island, says he’s never been in real trouble. Never arrested. Never even got a speeding ticket. But there he was, surrounded by four uniformed police officers in a midtown station one morning last week. He stole a sheepish glance at the cops and the commuters rushing by, then settled his gaze on the tiled floor.,,

Minutes before, as he hurriedly approached a bank of turnstiles below 33rd St. and Seventh Ave., Carlos saw that the emergency exit gate was wide open. He made an instant decision not to break stride. He ducked through the opening. ..Little did he know that a police officer was peeking around a nearby pillar like a schoolboy playing spy, eying the emergency exit gate that exiting riders constantly swing wide open. Carlos didn’t get more than 15 feet past the gate when the young officer stepped out from his hiding spot…Carlos was issued a fare-beating ticket. The fine is $100.

The hairdresser was caught in a cynical trap that is wrong on far more levels than it is right. It’s a cheap version of the “broken windows” theory of policing that was born in the urban lawlessness of the 1980s and embraced by former Police Commissioner William Bratton in the early 1990s. Police have partly credited the sharp decline in subway felonies to their cracking down on relatively minor offenses like turnstile jumping. In the process, they wound up nabbing plenty of bad guys who had weapons or were wanted for serious crimes.

Turnstile jumping is one thing. But the swing-gate sting pushes the bounds of fairness. It’s entrapment, inducing people who wouldn’t dare jump a turnstile to enter without swiping a MetroCard – including some who have valid cards in their wallet. It’s trickery that engenders bad feelings toward cops whose supervisors don’t allow them to use a modicum of judgment.

Donohue’s article ends with the story of another person who entered through an open emergency exit and right into the arms of the cops even though she had an unlimited ride card. “I didn’t even think about it,” she said. “I assumed the turnstile was broken. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

To me, this is a pretty cut-and-dry issue. If you enter the system without swiping — unlimited ride card or not — you are violating the law, and the affirmative defense of entrapment doesn’t apply here. Cops aren’t actively encouraging or inducing anyone to break the law, and per New York State law, “conduct merely affording a person an opportunity to commit an offense does not constitute entrapment.” If the cops are leaving emergency exits open to test straphangers’ ethics, it might be a waste of time or resources, but it’s certainly not entrapment.

It is likely a better use of resources for cops to keep shadier elements out of the system. The man and woman in Donohue’s article made mistakes, brok the law and had to pay. It is a fate they could have avoided by doing what everyone else does and swiping in.

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Subway Maps

What impact a subway map’s design

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

A new paper underscores how the design of a subway map can impact passengers' travel decisions.

New York City’s subway map has a tortured existence. As I’ve written many times over the past four and a half years, the map is not quite schematic and not quite geographically accurate, and thus, it serves only as a loose proxy for navigation throughout the city. According to a new study, that could lead to warped perceptions about New York.

In a paper entitled “Mind the map! The impact of transit maps on path choice in public transit,” NYU graduate professor Zhan Guo explores how cartographical distortions can impact people’s relationships with the city writ large. The Transportationist highlights the paper’s conclusion (and a working paper edition is available online). It reads, in part:

The case study on the London Underground confirms that a schematic transit map indeed affects passengers’ path choices. Moreover, the map effect is almost two times more influential than the actual travel time. In other words, underground passengers trust the tube map (two times) more than their own travel experience with the system. The map effect decreases when passengers become more familiar with the system but is still greater than the effect of the actual experience, even for passengers who use the underground 5 days or more per week.

The paper also shows that the codification of transfer connections is also important. Different codification can make a transfer look more or less convenient on a transit map than in reality, which will either decrease or increase the perceived transfer inconvenience for the corresponding stations. This paper observes both situations in the underground case study and quantifies this codification effect, in terms of the number of attracted or precluded transfers, for four major transfer stations: Baker St., Bank/Monument, Victoria, and Oxford Circus.

Of course, these results are only based on the London Underground, a unique case in many aspects. Few transit maps enjoy such public popularity as the tube map in London. Many transit maps include prominent geographical features, which dilute the map effect. Other systems have different past or present versions of their transit map, which precludes a lasting and stable map effect. Many metropolitan regions possess an easier-to-comprehend urban form than London, which could weaken the role of a transit map in the formation of a cognitive map. The subway map effect in New York City is probably different from that in London. Therefore, readers should be cautious about making generalizations.

In spite of the last sentence in the excerpt above. Guo ponders how maps can impact transit operations and planning. A map, he says, “might unintentionally shift more passengers to a congested segment in the network and thus form a bottleneck” and a modification of a map could “change passenger behavior and mitigate platform and train crowding.” It’s the ultimate in human behavioral manipulation underground.

Over at Greater Greater Washington, David Alpert explored how applying Guo’s findings could impact the DC map. The changes, he notes, are not necessarily positive ones. A redesigned DC map would better show various landmarks in relationship with each other — Union Station’s proximity to the Capitol is one example — but it doesn’t necessarily improve overall system use.

“This is less useful in many ways than the classic map,” Alpert writes. “Most riders travel to and from stations in the core, and tourists or other riders unfamiliar with the system are most likely of all to do so. This map gives little space to that area and leaves large amounts of empty space at the edges.”

In New York, our map suffers from this problem in certain hub areas. It’s tough to tell how far places in Midtown are from the subway, and transfers are often distorted. For instance, the current iteration of the subway map makes no mention of the fact that the Q and N stop at a different platform at Canal St. than the R train does, and the transfer from the Shuttle to the C at Franklin Ave. in Brooklyn in deceptively far.

Ultimately, as Guo writes, “individual passengers and transit agencies should ‘mind the map’ in order to make their best planning decisions.” It is yet another consideration to ponder as the subway map, always a popular topic of conversation and debate, is revised and reevaluated.

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AsidesQueens

MTA announces short-term 7 line repairs

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

For the past few months, commuters and politicians along the IRT Flushing line have grown even more impatient with the MTA than they usually are. At various points this winter and spring, the 7 line has faced numerous unplanned delays due to its aging signal infrastructure and flood-prone tunnels. To speed up repairs, the MTA will institute a series of weekend outages, Transit announced today.

This weekend and again for a weekend in June and one in July, there will be no 7 service between Queensboro Plaza and Times Square so that crews can work in the Steinway Tunnels. The work, says Transit, includes signal circuit repair, removal of silt and muck from the roadbed, power system improvements in the area and grouting of tunnel walls to address water intrusion. This work will provide some short-term relief as the longer-term installation of a new signaling system is ongoing.

“The recent deterioration in service illustrates clearly why this work is so vital and why we must perform it at this time, and I have to be frank, performing this vital work will require major planned service disruptions for some time to come,” NYC Transit President Thomas F. Prendergast said. “We are committed to improving service along the Flushing Line and we will keep everyone informed of service changes and how the work is progressing.” As of now, there is still no word on the Court Square entrance, another long-term problem plaguing part of the 7 line.

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AsidesRolling Stock

Slideshow of the Day: The end of reefing

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

For the past decade, the MTA has disposed of old subway cars through a reefing program. In fact, more than 2500 cars, stripped of their valuable and toxic parts, have been dropped to the ocean floor to create a home for ocean life and a destination for water tourists. (Check out a video on reefing here.) In a slideshow for The Times over the weekend, though, Michael Grynbaum reported on the end of the reefing program.

According to Grynbaum’s MTA sources, the newer cars aren’t fit for reefing. “After 10 years,” he writes, “the authority determined that its newer subway cars would not be suitable for this fate; those trains have more plastic parts than their predecessors, making them more expensive to prepare for reefing. The era of the underwater subway graveyard officially came to an end.” The authority will try to find a “more efficient manner of disposal.” The reefs then will stay as they are, and the photos of cars being sunk will remain as dramatic as they ever were.

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