AsidesFare Hikes

Dispatches from the fare hike hearings: Walder’s comments

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 14, 2010

Last night’s fare hike hearing in Monday was hardly the raucous affair I had anticipated. As Michael Grynbaum noted, “empty seats outnumbered the audience,” and those who stood up to voice their views were more subdued than normal. The public’s outrage, misdirected as it is, can last only so long. Still, MTA CEO and Chairman Jay Walder’s statements prior to the open-mic session spoke volumes about Albany and its approach to transit.

“I don’t think that’s really the choice we have right now,” Walder said. “We’re dealing with a financial situation that I believe is going to require a fare increase.” He later clarified this view, noting that Albany is “well aware of the [MTA’s] financial difficulties” and has refused to act. Outside the Cooper Union, the Straphangers Campaign had called upon the state legislature to renew a debate over congestion pricing or East River bridge tolls. Those pleas will fall upon deaf ears.

For frequent readers of SAS, the theme of Albany inaction is not a new one. The state has simply given up, and so too have its people. They won’t protest; they won’t vote; they’ll just keep paying more and more. We need the subways more than politicians realize. Will they only notice when they’re nearly gone?

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AsidesBuses

Mixed reviews on the first day of van service

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 14, 2010

The Taxi & Limousine Commission-approved private van service designed to replace bus routes lost to the June service cuts launched yesterday with one van along the former Q74 route, and Rebecca White of The Times went along for the ride. First, she feels in some gaps: The commuter van pilot is set to last one year, but operators can pull out after 90 days if the routes prove to be unprofitable or if ridership is too low. Then, she gets on board the van, and that’s when the first signs of trouble emerge.

Naresh Guness, driver of the van running in Queens, found that few people knew about or boarded his shuttle. Only eight people paid to go to Queens College early in the morning, and his second run was empty. Guness tried to remain optimistic. “I wasn’t expecting to make money this week. I am making a sacrifice, but it is going to pay off. It always takes time to build.”

Yet, a comment from one of his potential riders hints at why this service doesn’t work in a city with an integrated transit network. “Two dollars? That’s not bad,” Queens college student Laura Diaz said. “But I buy a MetroCard, so there’s no point in paying more.” It’s that MetroCard-based sentiment that could doom these vans. New Yorkers like to pay for their transit in bulk and use the same fare cards for all of their rides. It’s cheaper and more convenient than a pure pay-per-ride system, and it’s going to take a lot to convince people used to New York City Transit buses with MetroCard readers to shell out even more for their bus-like service. With a year left on the pilot, these first 90 MetroCard-less days are going to be the telling ones.

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MTA Economics

The ties that bind subway service and real estate values

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 14, 2010

Cutting bus lines can depress real estate values along the entire route.

Prior to last night’s reportedly tame fare hike hearings, the MTA made a pledge to the City Council. While speaking with the council’s Transportation Committee, officials promised that, despite debt levels that will continue to rise, the agency will not cut service to the extent they did this June any time soon. “There are no,” Hilary Ring, the MTA’s head of government affairs, said, “future service cuts on the table.”

For New Yorkers who need their subway system but are wary of the MTA’s always-impending financial doom, this promise is good news indeed, but for one subsection of the city, it’s even more welcome. That group consists of those who are buying and selling homes and are searching for certainty in the city’s ever-changing transit landscape. Earlier this year, sellers saw value plummet while buyers saw good deals disappear as subway lines were rerouted and buses slashed. Now, with stability from the MTA, the location-based market can settle.

It’s no secret that the city’s real estate values are tied in with transit. Any apartment listing will feature proclamations that the place is “just steps” from the nearest subway, and real estate values decline as homes are further away from the nearest subway stop. Last week, Melanie Lefkowitz tackled just this topic in The Wall Street Journal. She explores how the MTA’s June cuts left the real estate market in flux:

Location, location, location lies at the core of any real-estate transaction. In New York City, mass transit is an equally essential factor. The loss of the V and W subway lines and the scaling back of bus service in all five boroughs hit commuters hard, for sure, but also appears to be affecting the property values of homes in their now-abandoned paths.

Real-estate data compiled by StreetEasy.com show a dropoff in sales in some neighborhoods along the bus routes since they ended this summer. In Kensington and Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, where condo buildings along Coney Island Avenue and Ocean Parkway can be a half-mile walk from the nearest subway, the X29 stops on Coney Island Avenue could mean a quick ride into Manhattan. That bus was cut. The number of home sales dropped 60% in Kensington and 83% in Ditmas Park between July 2009 and June, when bus service ended, but that is likely due to a spike in June when the first-time home-buyer tax credit expired.

Not every neighborhood where the buses ran is affected. For example, Jackson Heights, where the QM22 culminated, has been relatively untouched because of easy proximity to several subway lines. Other neighborhoods farther from Manhattan already appeal primarily to those who commute by car to jobs in the other four boroughs or nearby suburbs. But in more far-flung, gentrifying areas, where buyers were willing to accommodate longer commutes in exchange for bargains, brokers say they are already feeling some pain.

“The buyer who buys in Astoria is looking for a cheaper price and to get into Manhattan quickly,” said Ms. Palmos, adding that she is having the same problem with a condominium building in Upper Ditmars, north of Astoria. Apartments there that she said would have easily sold for $500,000 with the express bus nearby are now languishing on the market at prices about $420,000.

Some real estate brokers in Lefkowitz’s piece clearly have no knowledge of the topic. Matthew Giordano, a vice president at Massey Knakal, says, “The N and the R, they’re older trains—the Never and the Rarely. They just don’t seem to have that frequency.” Knakal clearly hasn’t seen the R160s even if his gripes about less frequent service — especially along Brooklyn’s 4th Ave. where the R is now the sole local train — may inadvertently ring true.

But overall, real estate brokers recognize a simple fact of life in New York City. As Charles Sciberras, an Astoria broker said, “The closer to the train the higher the demand. Two to three blocks away from transportation is very easy for me to rent.”

For New York City, these real estate fluctuations represent the law of unintended consequences at its finest. The MTA doesn’t mean to depress property values by cutting service; it’s just trying to meet its own budget demands. In fact, the MTA says it doesn’t consider the market impact of its potential service changes. Yet, something as simple as a bus cut can knock nearly 20 percent off of an apartment’s price. It is yet again a remainder of how New York City operates because of the subways, and even as the state’s transit policy languish, the subways will rule the city.

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MTA Politics

Public unaware of transit policy, says poll

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 13, 2010

Marist poll results highlight how public sympathies do not lie with the MTA. (Graphic via The Wall Street Journal)

The New York City Transit Authority was born out of the need to divorce subway fare rates from politics. For too long, Big Apple politicians had run on campaign promises of maintaining the five- and later the ten-cent fare, and because of the political armageddon that would fall on anyone who raised the fares, the subways had fallen into an economic crisis.

In terms of fare policy, then, the TA has served its goal, but instead of isolating the subways from the political process, the MTA has become a pawn in the political game. Since New Yorkers will never be happy with the combination of low fares, a system still struggling to escape the specter of the nickel fare and current levels of subway service, politicians can exploit that distrust and dislike of the MTA for political gain. Even as Albany takes dedicated funds away from the subway system, politicians blame the TA for its own economic woes.

Apparently, the public is listening, too, but to the wrong people. A Marist poll released today says that 61 percent of New Yorkers say the MTA is most to blame for the fare hikes and service cuts. The remaining 39 percent are split among Mayor Michael Bloomberg (17 percent), the state legislature which charters and funds the MTA (12 percent) and Gov. David Paterson (10).

Transit advocates have long tried to educate voters on issues relating to subway funding, but most, says Andrew Grossman of The Wall Street Journal, just aren’t listening. He writes:

The uncertain budget picture has some advocacy groups trying to increase pressure on candidates to support new funding streams for the MTA, such as congestion pricing—a scheme, championed by Mr. Bloomberg, to charge drivers to enter crowded parts of Manhattan during the day. It has failed to gain support in the Legislature.

The MTA doesn’t “print their own money. They don’t control the state budget and they certainly don’t control the dedicated taxes that the legislature can pass to fund them,” said Noah Budnick, the deputy director of Transportation Alternatives, a group that tries to persuade people to find other ways to travel than driving. Mr. Budnick’s group is running a “Rider Rebellion” campaign that seeks to put pressure on candidates to support more funding for mass transit.

Such efforts aimed solely at Albany risk alienating supporters of the MTA in the Legislature, warns Assemb. Richard Brodsky, a Westchester Democrat who chairs the committee that oversees the agency. Mr. Brodsky is running for Attorney General in Tuesday’s Democratic primary. “The obvious answer is that everybody is at fault,” Mr. Brodsky said. “It’s a confluence of failures, and no one is exempt from them.” He said the MTA still has inefficiencies that need to be solved.

On the one hand, Brodsky’s answer is the obvious one, but on the other hand, his august legislative body isn’t doing their part. The MTA has cut hundreds of millions of dollars for its budget this year while Albany has engaged in theft. The state hasn’t been willing to consider a congestion pricing plan or a tolling plan that would more evenly share the funding burden, and they have replenished the state’s general fund with $143 million from the MTA’s coffers. The MTA might be easy to blame and should carry some of that load, but Albany deserves far more spite than it receives.

Later today — at 5:15 in front of the Cooper Union — the Straphangers Campaign, Transportation Alternatives, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and the Pratt Center for Community Development — will announce its opposition to the fare hikes and suggest other ways in which the MTA, with some help from Albany, could raise the money it needs to raise. Late last week, Gene Russianoff sent Jay Walder a letter about the MTA’s fare hike proposal. The missive, available here, asks how the MTA arrived at its current proposal and how the fare hike would impact ridership, questions the MTA has yet to answer fully. This is the work politicians should be doing with an assist from the Straphangers, and yet Russianoff is left largely to fend for himself.

In the end, this Marist poll shows how people don’t have a firm view of New York City subway policies. According to respondents, a whopping 29 percent of them use MTA services less frequently than they did before the cuts, but the MTA says that ridership is actually staying steady after the cuts, if not increasing as the city’s economy rebounds. From pointing fingers to assessing riding patterns, New Yorkers seem to have a long way to go before they fully grasp how the subways work politically, and although the MTA shouldn’t get a free ride, as long as voters aren’t willing to hold politicians responsible, the economic situation and our subway system simply will not improve.

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ARC Tunnel

NJ suspends ARC Tunnel work to review costs

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 13, 2010

The $8.7-billion project could come in up to $1 billion over budget. (Map courtesy of The Star Ledger)

The State of New Jersey is shutting down all new work on the Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel for 30 days to assess the project’s budget. Officials believe the project, with its $8.7-billion price tag, could see budget overrans of up to $1 billion, and the state simply does not have the money to foot that bill, The Star-Ledger reported last night. The fate of the project and the state’s plan of action after this 30-day review is up remain unclear.

Despite its flaws, this tunnel, the centerpiece of the plan known as the Access to the Region’s Core, remains a key piece of New York’s infrastructure expansion plans, and New Jersey Transit has imposed this 30-day moratorium at the behest of the Federal Transit Administration. Officials hope that the review shows a project on or close to budget. “During that 30 days, we’re going to do a full evaluation of our go-forward costs,” NJ Transit Executive Director James Weinstein said. He later added, “The governor has made it clear to me that this project must stay on time and on budget. Anything short of that is unacceptable. During the next 30 days we will work to meet that directive.”

The tunnel is currently under construction with work proceeding apace in North Bergen and under the Palisades. While these aspects of the project will be permitted to go forward, no new bids will be accepted or contracts issued until the 30 days are up. While nothing specific to the ARC Tunnel’s plans have triggered this review period, FTA officials have compared it to the now-late and over-budget East Side Access and Second Ave. Subway digs. Ted Sherman of The Star-Ledger has more:

[T]he estimated cost of the new tunnels has steadily climbed since the project was first approved. The initial projection in 2005 was $5 billion. As recently as 2008, the Federal Transit Administration had asked the state to put in as much as $1.1 billion in contingency expenses to accommodate potential increases in construction costs and interest rates, bringing the price tag from $7.6 billion up to $8.7 billion.

The new questions over the tunnel’s cost come in the wake of reviews by the FTA of other high-profile New York regional transit project — some well over budget and significantly behind schedule. According to FTA projections, the Long Island Rail Road’s $7.3 billion East Side Access project was $800 million over budget and more than 18 months behind schedule. And the plan to create a Second Avenue subway line was found to be roughly $500 million over budget, and now 14 months behind schedule.

The federal agency has not yet come up with its projections on the Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel, said Weinstein. But following a five-month review, it told the state that “based on experience with other major tunneling-projects in the region, additional contingency factors could impact the project’s overall cost estimate.” Weinstein expects to meet soon with Peter Rogoff, administrator of the FTA, who in public statements has been pegging the tunnel cost at between $9 billion and $10 billion.

When — or if — completed, this new tunnel will allow 48 trains per hour to enter New York City from New Jersey. That would represent an increase of over 100 percent of current capacity, but the new tunnel, as Sherman notes, “does not add any capacity to Amtrak” and will feed New Jersey Transit trains into only a new terminal west of Penn Station and not Grand Central.

Still, New Jersey politicians are concerned with this development. “This stoppage could put billions of dollars in federal funding at risk. These funds are dedicated to New Jersey and could deprive the state of thousands of desperately needed good-paying jobs,” Senator Frank Lautenberg said. “We have worked hard together for years with the state of New Jersey and the federal government to advance this project, which is critical for New Jersey’s economy and our future.”

Other transit advocates too voiced their concerns for the future of this project. “It casts a dark shadow over the project’s future,” Kate Slevin head of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign said to The Times. “This calls into question the Christie administration’s commitment.”

New Jersey officials remain committed to the project on the record, but as Sherman points out, New Jersey’s transit money is in scarce supply. The Transportation Trust Fund has nearly run dry; New Jersey Transit recently enacted steep fare hikes and service cuts; and the political will to raise gas taxes, which haven’t kept up with inflation or the state’s fiscal needs, is non-existent.

Reportedly, this review will not impact the projected 2018 completion date, but that could easily change over the next 30 days. “My fear,” Jeffrey Zupan of the Regional Plan Association, said to The Times, “is New Jersey will say, ‘Oh, it costs just too much,’ and delay it further. That would be awful.”

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Fare Hikes

The impending circus with a MetroCard at stake

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 13, 2010

MTA Board Members Listen to Audience During Hearing at FIT email 2--(c) William Alatriste (1)

MTA Board members are gearing up for another round of public abuse. (Photo by flickr user azipaybarah)

Whenever the MTA is facing a fare hike, the authority’s board must partake in a charade that most transit advocates consider to be akin to a circus. At public locations throughout the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District, MTA Board members and agency presidents will subject themselves to countless hours of public abuse as the uninformed masses heap insults upon them. Straphangers, disgruntled workers and grandstanding New York City politicians will take to the mic to gain political points without adding to the discourse, and the MTA is expected to both take it without response and turn public unrest into coherent policy.

This time around, though, the circus has a point for the way we ride rests in the balance. As we learned in July, this year’s fare hike proposal came with a huge hitch: The MTA may very well do away with the Unlimited ride MetroCard. To combat the fact that the average fare today is lower, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than what we paid in 1996, the authority has proposed to cap the unlimited ride cards and eliminate the one- and 14-day cards. The overall proposal looks a little something like this with a $1 surcharge on new cards added as well:

Pass Type Current Fare Unlimited Proposal Capped Proposal
30-Day Card $89 $104 $99/90 trips
Fare Per Trip      
59 rides $1.51 $1.76 $1.68
90 rides $0.99 $1.16 $1.1
110 rides $0.81 $0.94 N/A
       
7-Day Card $27 $29 $28/22 trips
Fare Per Trip      
16 rides $1.69 $1.81 $1.75
22 rides $1.23 $1.32 $1.27
30 rides $0.90 $0.97 N/A

There is, of course, a third proposal that made waves last month. The MTA could institute a scheme where they offer capped and uncapped cards, and the truly unlimited cards could cost around $130 for 30 days. It isn’t a Doomsday scenario, but it’s a big blow to the psyche of New York’s straphangers long used to riding the rails as often as they want for under $100 a month. Even if the $130 scenario doesn’t come to pass — “It’s not going to happen,” Andrew Albert of the NYC Transit Riders Council said — the costs will go up.

Enter the fare hike hearings. In the past, I’ve subjected myself to these hearings, a fate I wouldn’t wish upon anyone, and I’ll likely attend a part of the hearing in Brooklyn next week. They are, to say the least, tedious affairs. They start with the politicians who think they are too important to sit through the hearing and must be heard while people are paying attention. These electeds — the same people who voted to remove $143 million in earmarked money from the MTA’s coffers — will point fingers as “fat cat Board members” and anyone but themselves. It is a lesson in deflecting blame.

Then, the union leaders and disabled riders will bemoan the way the MTA dumps on them. While some of the complaints are valid, the point of the hearings is not to create a free-for-all. The authority is interested in raising the fares by 7.5 percent in a way it and the public think is fair for all. No one likes fare hikes, but they’ve become an evil of the New York City subway system.

Instead of this circus, then, New Yorkers should defend the way we ride. The Unlimited Ride cards ushered in a new golden age of sorts underground. People ride more often than they used to and have come to rely on the subways for shorter rides. It’s easier to justify a two-stop trip when the MetroCard was bought and paid for two weeks ago, and the ride itself actually helps to reduce the average cost of a swipe. To maintain ridership, to maintain the role of the subways as the desired method for travel, Transit should encourage people to ride, and to do that, the Unlimited ride cards should not be cut.

Starting tonight, then, New Yorkers should stand up for their Unlimited ride cards. The MTA Board has to vote on two competing proposals later this month, and they haven’t decided yet which one to implement. If enough people speak up, we’ll keep our unlimited ride cards for a few dollars more. Maybe 90 rides would be enough for everyone, but as soon as straphangers start counting their swipes, the subways seem more like a luxury and less like a vital part of everyday life. Only the circus can save these cards this time around.

After the jump, the full information about the nine upcoming fare hike hearings.

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Self PromotionService Advisories

Save the Date: A talk in DUMBO (and service advisories)

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 10, 2010

I’ll have the service advisories up later tonight, but I wanted to alert my loyal readers to a talk I’m giving on Thursday, September 16. As part of Gelf Magazine’s Geeking Out series, I’ll be speaking on the MTA next week as part of an event called “The Anatomy of the Big Apple.” Also talking that evening will be Sharon Zukin and Charles Koumanoff. The event start at 7:30 p.m. with doors opening at 7, and it’s at the JLA Studios art gallery on 63 Pearl St. in the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn. Admission is free, and drinks will be available. The F is the nearest subway, and the A/C and 2/3 aren’t far.

And now on to the service advisories. These come to me via New York City Transit and are subject to change without notice. Check out the signs in your nearest station and listen to on-board announcements. No Subway Weekender this week because he’s getting married. We’ll just have to make do with the text announcements instead.


From 12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m. Saturday, September 11, from 12:01 a.m. to 7 a.m. Sunday, September 12, and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, September 13, downtown 1 and 2 trains run express from 14th Street to Chambers Street due to work to replace the roadbed at Franklin Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 13, Manhattan-bound 2 trains run express from Franklin Avenue to Atlantic Avenue due to tunnel ceiling inspections.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, September 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 13, there are no 2 trains between Manhattan and the Bronx due to switch renewal at the 142nd Street junction north of 135th Street. 2 trains run between Flatbush Avenue-Brooklyn College and 96th Street, and then are rerouted to the 1 line to 137th Street. Free shuttle buses replace the 2 between 96th Street and 149th Street-Grand Concourse. 5 trains replace the 2 between 149th Street-Grand Concourse and 241st Street. Note: After leaving 96th Street, uptown 2 trains stop at 103rd Street then run express to 137th Street (days).


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, September 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 13, there are no 3 trains running due to switch renewal at the 142nd Street junction north of 135th Street. 4 trains replace the 3 between New Lots Avenue and Nevins Street all weekend. 2 trains replace the 3 between Nevins Street and 96th Street. Free shuttle buses replace 3 trains between 96th Street and 148th Street.


From 4 a.m. Saturday, September 11 to 10 p.m. Sunday, September 12, Manhattan-bound 4 trains run express from Mosholu Parkway to Burnside Avenue due to track panel replacement north of Kingsbridge Road.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 13, New Lots-bound 4 trains run local from Atlantic Avenue to Utica Avenue and are extended to and from New Lots Avenue to replace the suspended 3 due to switch renewal at the 142nd Street junction.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 13, Manhattan-bound 4 trains run local from Utica Avenue to Atlantic Avenue due to switch renewal at the 142nd Street junction and tunnel ceiling inspections.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 13, 5 trains run between the 241st Street 2 station and Bowling Green (days) and 149th Street-Grand Concourse (overnights) due to switch renewal at the 142nd Street junction. Note: 5 shuttle trains run between Dyre Avenue and East 180th Street, all weekend.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 13, downtown A trains run express from 59th Street-Columbus Circle to Canal Street due to a track chip-out at 42nd Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 13, 207th Street-bound A trains run on the F line from Jay Street to West 4th Street, then local on the A to 59th Street-Columbus Circle due to work on platform edges, tiles and stairs at Broadway-Nassau St. (Fulton Street Transit Center).


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 13, Brooklyn-bound A and C trains skip Broadway-Nassau Street due to work on the Fulton Street Transit Center.


At all times until Fall 2011, Manhattan-bound A trains skip Beach 25th, Beach 44th, and Beach 67th Streets due to station rehabilitations.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight Saturday, September 11 and Sunday, September 12, downtown C trains run express from 59th Street-Columbus Circle to Canal Street due to a track chip-out at 42nd Street.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, September 11 and Sunday, September 12, Manhattan-bound C trains run on the F line from Jay Street to West 4th Street due to work on platform edges, tiles and stairs at Broadway-Nassau St. (Fulton Street Transit Center).


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 13, downtown E trains run express from 34th Street-Penn Station to Canal Street due to a track chip-out at 42nd Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 13, uptown F trains skip 14th and 23rd Streets due to substation rehabilitation north of West 4th Street.


From 10:30 p.m. Friday, September 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 13, free shuttle buses replace G trains between Court Square and Bedford-Nostrand Avenues due to a track chip-out north of Metropolitan Avenue.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, September 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 13, there is no M train service due to platform edge rehabilitation. Customers should use free shuttle bus service instead.


From 9:30 p.m. Friday, September 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 13, free shuttle buses replace Q trains between Prospect Park and Coney Island Stillwell Avenue due to station rehabs on the Brighton Line.


From 11 p.m. Friday, September 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 13, uptown Q trains run local from Canal Street to 34th Street-Herald Square due to a track dig-out north of 23rd Street.


From 11 p.m. Friday, September 10 to 9 a.m. Saturday, September 11, from 9 p.m. Saturday, September 11 to 9 a.m. Sunday, September 12, and from 9 p.m. Sunday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 13, downtown Q trains run local from 34th Street-Herald Square to Canal Street due to a track dig-out north of 23rd Street.

(Rockaway Park Shuttle)
From 10:30 p.m. Friday, September 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 13, free shuttle buses replace S trains between Rockaway Park and Beach 60th Street due to station rehabilitations.

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Subway Maps

A New York City cartographer’s dream job

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 10, 2010

Via Kottke.org comes a link to a job description fit for a New York-based cartographer. New York City Transit is looking for a map manager. Here’s your chance to reimagine the subway map as you see fit. Job responsibilities include:

…the design and timely updating of NYCT’s printed and online map products, including the extensive service schedule panels on the reverse side of all “pocket” bus maps; researching and responding to map design and information issues; identifying, researching, recommending, and adapting evolving map drawing and production technologies; adapting Transit’s map products to the agency website and providing modified products for third party publications; advising on or producing custom maps for major agency initiatives and proposals; advising and assisting on other product design, graphics technology procurements and related staff training for all graphics services in Marketing and Service Information.

Related responsiblities include interfacing with the Planning and Schedules departments to obtain, understand and verify service information and changes; interfacing with MTA HQ for direction on product cover and other style changes; supervising press runs; etc. Annual output includes approximately 5 million printed pieces.

I’d love to pick the brains of the person who lands this job. After all, who doesn’t have their own views on the design and purpose of the city’s ubiquitous map?

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Second Avenue Subway

Underneath 2nd Ave., Adi plows quickly ahead

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 10, 2010

As Second Ave. residents and business owners continue to bemoan and debate the impact of the ongoing construction, work underneath the avenue is continuing at a brisk pace. The MTA tells me that on Wednesday, Adi, the tunnel boring machine digging out the south tunnel, bore through a record-setting 102 feet. At the end of the day on Wednesday, the TBM had mined 2175 feet and was approaching 83rd St., nearly 10 blocks south of the launch block and 20 blocks north of its final destination.

Lately, the MTA’s pace has been far brisker than the 60 feet per-day average the contractors had anticipated, and those familiar with Manhattan’s geology tell me that this brisk pace is, unfortunately, unsustainable. The rock in the East 80s is far sturdier than the rock in the East 70s, and the TBM’s pace will probably slow to a mark closer to that average pace. Still, for a project slowed by, well, just about everything, this fast mining work is a bright spot of good news.

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Brooklyn

A trolley plan for Brooklyn inches slowly forward

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 10, 2010

The Brooklyn Historic Railway Association’s trolleys, seen here at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, disappeared without a trace in sometime after mid-2005. (Photo via BHRA)

For decades, the word Brooklyn was synonymous with the trolley. Throughout the early years of the 1900s, the borough became known for its extensive streetcar system, and its baseball team now the property of Los Angeles still carries with it shortened form of the Trolley Dodger. Ripped up by the auto industry in the 1950s, the trolley tracks remain a buried part of Brooklyn’s past, but now they could be inching closer to being a part of the borough’s transportation future as well.

The New York City Department of Transportation and House Representative Nydia Velazquez announced yesterday evening a new feasibility study that will explore a long-proposed trolley route in Brooklyn. The URS Corporation will conduct a five-month study on a route that would run from Ikea in Red Hook to either Atlantic Ave. at Pier 6 of the new Brooklyn Bridge Park or the Borough Hall subway stop. The study will cost $295,000 and will be funded by a grant Velazquez has had in her pocket since 2005.

“A streetcar system in Red Hook has the potential to reconnect this neighborhood with the rest of the city and greatly improve transit options for residents,” the Congresswoman said. After the study, DOT plans to meet with local groups to explore how a streetcar route would impact the neighborhood.

This announcement is not without controversy however. It stems from a long-standing dispute between the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association, New York City and Representative Velazquez. Over ten years ago, the BHRA received approval and funds to establish a streetcar route from Red Hook to the Borough Hall subway stop. They built part of the route on private land and purchased 17 streetcars, some of which remain parked behind the Red Hook Fairway today.

But after Phase I — the private construction — wrapped, the city pulled the plug on the project and revoke the consent it had granted BHRA. Bob Diamond, the group’s head, was rightfully outraged, and a long-term standoff followed. Velazquez succeeded in securing the grant nearly half a decade ago but refused to release the funds for a feasibility study. The streetcars languished in storage in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and then disappeared without a trace in mid-2005. Diamond grew frustrated with the city and as a recently as last week, threatened to cease his Atlantic Ave. subway tours, close up shop with the BHRA and leave New York.

Since that flurry of press coverage over Diamond’s outrage, the city has seemingly embraced the streetcar idea, and the study will proceed apace. Velazquez has requested $10 million in funds for construction of a Red Hook route, and the money is pending approval in the House. Considering the state of Congress and the upcoming midterm elections, that grant is no sure thing, but the politicking behind this plan is moving forward.

So what then would the trolley route look like? Diamond and the BHRA recently published an updated route to include the new Ikea and other destinations in Red Hook. Click the image below for more details.

The questions harder to answer are the ones URS will examine. Someone will have to be best positioned to own and operate this trolley route, be that the MTA, NYC DOT or a private group. URS will have to determine the operational and maintenance costs and whether or not this route would enjoy ridership. It will explore demographic and economic development data as well as current transit patterns and needs. It will assess technology and construction issues as well as the economic impact a streetcar route would have on the neighborhood.

As BHRA is pushing the street car as an impetus behind transit-oriented development, the Columbia Street waterfront and Red Hook could use better public transit access. Still, as presented this streetcar plan is only slightly more than a glorified feeder route that would mirror a bus route and deliver residents to a subway route. Progress, though, is progress, and it’s about time that Velazquez’s office release the money for the study. It might not lead to a new borough-wide trolley network, but it is forward progress nonetheless.

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