As a solid follow-up to my morning rant about the lack of subway expansion in New York City comes word that, as I posited, public transportation investment is the nation’s leading in job creation. AltTransport highlights a new (PDF) report by the Transportation Equity Network that shows how $1 billion in transit investment leads to 9000 more new jobs than $1 billion in road investments. Of course, New York City, with its extensive transit network, TEN finds, leads the nation in both transit investment and job creation through this spending. The city has spent 75 percent of its Transit Improvement Program funds on transit and has created 34,679 jobs per $1 billion spent. While New York politicians are clamoring for road improvements, investment in transit would lead to a stronger economy and a better city overall.
For a few pieces that I’m readying for next week, I’ve delved into the political history of numerous subway expansion efforts. Most resemble the failed Staten Island subway plans in that the Transit Authority proposes an extension, the Board of Estimates approves the program, the Mayor signs it into law and then, nothing. The money isn’t there; the cost estimates skyrocket. Something gets in the way, and that something is a failure of leadership.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a few foolhardy men who believed they can change the city used their positions of power and influence to secure lucrative contracts that allowed them to build and operate the first subway systems. The Interborough Rapid Transit company gained its premiere spot through some officially-sanctioned monopolies and eventually accepted the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit as a competitor. The men behind these private companies were out to turn a profit, and they did so by driving workers who built the subway hard and pushing the city for high payments for expansion plans.
In the 1920s, in response to both the financial successes of the IRT and BMT and the overcrowded subways, Mayor John Hylan proposed a city-owned and operated competitor. Thus, the Independent Subway System, one of the most overbuilt subway systems in the world, was born. As the city’s Board of Estimates artificially deflated the fare for political gain, the subway companies faltered financially, and the city eventually assumed control of all three in a grand unification scheme. The IND Crosstown line — today’s G train — opened in 1937, and after that, the pace of subway expansion in New York City slowed considerably.
After unification, parts of subway routes in the outer boroughs with some connections into Manhattan would open, and the Chrystie St. Connection in 1967 involved a massive undertaking. These snippets of subway routes were originally proposed as part of the ambitious Second System, but sapped of money by the Great Depression and political will by the bad guy in our tale, most of that system hasn’t seen the light of day.
Today, there are glaring holes in subway service. Some train lines end, built with expansions in mind, have been stuck at their terminals for 80 years. Other major landmarks — such as the city’s airports — remain frustratingly out of reach of a one-seat ride to Manhattan. Still other parts of the city once slated for subway access — the Sheephead Bays and Eastern Queens of the Big Apple — remain disconnected. It is for lack of trying.
As Robert Moses built out the city’s roads throughout the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, subway construction took a back seat to the automobile. Moses didn’t allow space for a train connection to what was then Idlewild Airport as he built various highways out to the airport. He foreclosed the Verrazano Bridge to an eventual rail connection by engineering a grade too steep for the city’s subways. He pushed aside proposals to fund transit and would have nothing of expansion plans.
Today, the irony is that the subways need a Robert Moses. They need a big dreamer with the proper political clout to push through major projects. Nearly two and a half years ago, then-MTA head Elliot Sander proposed an ambitious 40-year plan that included the circumferential subway, cross-Bronx routings and an expansive Second Ave. Subway. It was a new Second System, and it remained a dream on paper.
Sander didn’t have the political influence to garner much support for his plan, and he was out at the MTA by the middle of 2009. His replacement Jay Walder is more focused on the technological innovation of transit and is trying to, amidst an ongoing budget crisis, bring a modern sense and sensibility to the MTA and New York City Transit. Beyond the projects already in progress, Walder hasn’t paid much lip service to a growth plan.
So we wait until a transit champion comes along. It won’t be any time soon, but an ambitious plan to invest in the subways and expand the tracks eastward, southward, westward could stimulate the construction economy and provide an opportunity for growth in a crowded city. Who will one day be that leader?
Just five days after restoring full service past Jamaica, the Long Island Rail Road is again canceling trains. This time, though, the cause for the service changes is a hurricane bearing down on Long Island. Nature is a fickle beast, and service to the East End of the Island will pay because of it.
According to the MTA’s service advisory, “the LIRR will suspend train service east of Speonk on the Montauk Branch and east of Ronkonkoma on the Main Line, which normally takes customers to Greenport and Long Island’s North Fork.” The agency summarizes the changes:
LIRR service west of Ronkonkoma and west of Speonk will operate on a normal schedule. In addition, eight early getaway trains between 2:02 PM and 3:48 PM scheduled from Penn Station heading east on Friday will continue to operate to Babylon, Great Neck, Far Rockaway, Hicksville and Huntington.
The last eastbound train to Montauk will leave Penn Station at 12:39 AM Friday morning and arrive in Montauk at 3:57 AM. The last train traveling westbound to Penn Station is scheduled to leave Montauk at 5:39 AM and arrive at Penn Station at 8:42 AM. The last westbound train will leave Greenport at 5:30 AM Friday morning.
Those commuting from stations east of Speonk and Ronkonkoma will not have LIRR service on Friday morning. These cancellations could become potential problems for people who need to evacuate the Island by heading west. Roads will grow clogged, and the pace slow.
Earl, currently a hurricane, is expected to reach Long Island on Friday and should be a Tropical Storm by the time it does so. Still, the LIRR will not have a service update until late Friday night and will work to restore trains by Saturday morning. Depending up on the damage sustained though, it could take up to eight hours to reactivate the line after the storm passes. If Earl knocks out trees or power lines, service could of course be suspended for longer.
New Jersey Transit wants to bring wi-fi to its trains and stations. As The Record reported yesterday, the commuter rail has issued a request for proposals from providers of wireless broadband service to outfit its fleet and bring Internet access to the commuting masses. The agency is hosting a pre-proposal conference next week in Newark, and officials are excited about the potential to bring better amenities to its customers. New Jersey Transit said the price of wi-fi access — whether it would be free or come with a cost — would be determined by the RFPs. Wi-fi, said executive director James Weinstein would “[enable] those who wish to remain connected and productive during their commute to do so continuously.” He added, “We hope to receive responses from qualified wireless service providers to advance our plan to bring the Internet aboard NJ Transit trains in the near future.”
With this announcement, New Jersey Transit joins the efforts of the region’s other commuter rail services to offer wi-fi on board trains and in stations. Metro-North and the LIRR are engaged in a similar process, and New York City Transit recently announced its intention to kickstart its underground wi-fi program. To compete in a global economy, these technological advances are badly needed indeed.
These often-dirty subway benches could be going the way of the dodo. (Photo by flickr user nicolasnova)
New York City Transit’s wooden benches are an iconic part of the subway experience. Found in most underground stations, these benches are designed with raised arm rests to discourage people from living on them, but the wood can grow disgusting as gum, food, beverages and various unknown substances are rubbed into the grain, leaving them sticky and grimy. Some have been reported to carry bed bugs.
According to a report in today’s amNew York, though, these wooden benches’ days might be numbered. Transit, says Heather Haddon, is again considering stainless steel benches. In a piece that explores the various competing architectural and visual styles of a subway system pieced together over 100 years and presented to riders with a 21st Century sensibility, Haddon drops in a note in the end about the future of the benchs:
NYC Transit officials are weighing whether to scrap the standard wood bench and opt for the system’s first stainless steel seats for the Second Avenue Subway and No. 7 extension stations. Designers are having a vigorous debate between the two models, with some viewing the steel as cold, while others blasting the wood as unhygienic, [Transit architect Judith ] Kunoff said.
In coming months, officials will install prototypes of the two competing benches at an undisclosed station to get the public’s feedback, she said. It’s not the first time that transit has wxperimented with seats — funky orange benches were installed at the Jamaica-Van Wyck station in Queens, and the system also experimented with plastic, metal and stone in the 1960s.
It’s certainly undeniable that stainless steel is cold and that wood is unhygienic, but in the debate between the two, I’d take cold ten times out of ten. As I noted earlier this year, benches are an integral part of the subway experience. While at peak hours, finding a platform seat is rare, at off-peak hours when waits are longest, benches can provide welcome relief for the weary who don’t want to stand impatiently at the platform’s edge.
New York’s wooden benches — bed bugs, gum stains, stickiness and all — are a rarity among the underground systems. While New York has experimented with non-wooden benches, around the world, materials differ. The Paris Metro has molded plastic; the DC Metro sports some unforgiving concrete; the London Underground has something metallic. The grime factor is significantly less elsewhere.
So Transit will tantalize us with a pilot at some undisclosed station so bench enthusiasts don’t skew their sample. If anyone spots this pilot in the next few months, you know how to reach me. In the meantime, keep raisin’ a skeptical eyebrow at those wooden seats. Who knows what lurks within?
The MTA’s raised ventilation grates could be put to the test tomorrow.
As Hurricane Earl passes by the New York area to the east, it’s going to rain, it’s going to be windy, and the city’s public transit grid is going to be put to the test. A little over three years ago, our subway system suffered a devastating outage amidst a torrential storm. Twenty of the 22 subway lines were with abbreviated or no service, and water rushed in through ventilation grates as the MTA’s communications network failed. How the system holds up this weekend may very well help us see how prepared the city is were a big storm to strike.
If the worst of the storm for the city is rain and some ocean swells, the transit network should be fine, but the MTA is warning customers to be prepared. Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road can help serve as evacuation routes as long as the tracks remain clear, but the MTA is at Earl’s whim. As the authority said, “The potential for service disruptions caused by flooding during periods of sustained heavy rains does exist.”
As transit workers are currently clearing drains of loose debris, the new ventilation grates that are supposed to prevent excess run-off water from flooding the subway tunnels will be put to the test. The ones above on flood-prone Queens Boulevard have won architectural praise. Now, they’ll have to garner recognition for their practicality as well.
Despite these imminent concerns of the havoc wind and rain may wreck on New York City on Friday, the issue of a big hurricane runs deeper, and a huge storm could take out the subways. New Yorkers don’t like to admit that New York City is a hurricane danger zone. Thousands of residents live close enough to the city’s shores to be in the path of potentially destructive storm surges, and while we tend to think that hurricanes happen somewhere else, a 1938 storm took out numerous houses on Long Island and resulted in the deaths of 600 New Yorkers. It very well could happen again.
Over the years, as the area’s weather patterns have changed, various analysts have commented on the city’s storm preparedness, and the general consensus is that we’re not prepared. Five years ago, Streetsblog founder Aaron Naparstek penned an extensive piece for the New York Press on the Big One. It is, he says, all too likely that a storm will hit New York, and as the city’s emergency personnel note, few New Yorkers will take the need to evacuate seriously. We are New Yorkers; we are impervious.
Naparstek’s piece concerns the impact hurricanes would have on the infrastructure above ground, but what of the subways? He offers a tantalizing glimpse of the way tunnels would fill with water:
For a taste of what will happen to the city’s infrastructure, we can look at the damage wrought by the great nor’easters of the early 1990s. During those storms, the L train had to be backed out as the 14th Street tunnel began filling with water, and the FDR highway was so badly inundated that 50 motorists had to be rescued by dive teams. In the event of a direct hit by a category-3 hurricane, surge maps show that the Holland and Battery Tunnels will be completely filled with sea water, with many subway and railroad tunnels severely flooded as well. The runways of LaGuardia and JFK airports will get flooded by 18.1 and 31.2 feet of water, respectively.
Erik Holm writing in The Wall Street Journal tackles the same subject and believes the subways would sustain lasting damage in the event of a storm surge or direct hurricane hit. If Lower Manhattan, a major subway hub, is flooded in a storm surge, the resultant damage could lead to a crippled subway system as the salt from the ocean water works its corrosive effects on switches and other electronic subway equipment.
Every now and then, huge storms have reminded us that water will spill over, into and around anything in its way. The subways are no exception, and although models show Earl veering away from New York on its trip up to Maine, we can’t always expect to be so lucky for much longer.
As the Taxi & Limousine Commission prepares to launch its dollar-van program along now-defunct bus routes, transit advocates are watching to see how and if these routes become profitable. The MTA says many of their eliminated routes were cost-prohibitive to run, but tossing these services to private operators allows for more flexibility. Private operators can run fewer buses and aren’t beholden to the demands of a public-benefit corporation as the MTA is. Whether these routes can be run at cost or with a profit remains to be seen.
Today in the Wall Street Journal, Jen Weiczner profiles the Hampton Jitney, one of New York’s longest running and most successful private transportation companies. The Jitney, which offers luxury trips to the Hamptons over the summer and chartered rides in the winter, makes $20 million a year and, as Weiczner reports, has cornered the market on mass transit to the Hamptons. “For 36 years, the company has maintained a near monopoly on express transportation to the Hamptons,” she writes, “drawing passengers with newspapers, snacks and beverages – all handed out, airplane-style, by uniformed attendants. And every so often, passengers get goodie bags with products that advertisers pay the Jitney to distribute like Tory Burch gift cards and Vera Bradley accessories.”
Of course, the Hamptons Jitney is in a bit of a unique situation. It caters to a very wealthy clientele that expects upper-class service, and it covers distances greater than any New York City bus route would. Still, the Jitney shows that public transportation can be, in limited ways, a profitable undertaking. I don’t expect the dollar vans to fair quite as well, but if run properly, they should be adequate replacements for the lost bus service.
As above-ground complaints about the Second Ave. Subway are making headlines, underneath the avenue, progress on the tunnel is continuing apace. When we last checked in on Adi, the TBM drilling out the subway tubes, it had reached only 90th St. and was drilling an average of just 14 feet a day. In August, however, the MTA was able to pick up the pace.
Late last week, DNA Info reported that the TBM had drilled through 1760 feet of rock in August and had nearly reached the 2000-foot mark. Today, the MTA confirmed that the machine has reached 1928 feet. Meanwhile, Ben Heckscher at The Launch Box notes that the TBM is moving faster than expected. Last week on one day, for instance, the TBM mined 92.74 feet, and yesterday, the machine dug out 74 feet, ell above estimates of 50-60 feet per day. Adi is now somewhere underneath 84th St., approximately a mile away from its ultimate goal of 65th St.
In other Second Ave. Subway TBM news, Wired magazine went underground this week with a slideshow feature on the tortured 75-year history of the new subway line and the technology behind the tunnel boring machine. Since the photographer took his shots when the media took a trip in the launch box, the photos are similar to the ones I presented in May, but with one amusing difference: I accidentally appear in one of Wired’s photos.
This auxiliary building for the Second Ave. Subway at 72nd St. is drawing complaints from the neighborhood.
Building a new subway line in age with stringent requirements about station and tunnel security and accessibility is a trying affair. No matter how involved the affected community is with the project, someone is bound to find something they don’t like. For the MTA along Second Ave., they’ve faced their fair share of complaints as Upper East Siders have bemoaned entrances at 96th St. and 72nd St. as well as ventilation structures up and down the avenue. Yet again, the auxiliary structures are coming under fire.
While some residents have sued the MTA over updated designs to these structures, others believe the MTA has missed an opportunity to beautify and develop the above-ground area on top of the Second Ave. Subway. Had the Authority better designed the auxiliary structure, the Upper East Side could have seen more affordable housing and nicer buildings, says Richard Bass, a lawyer representing one Second Ave. co-op in discussions with the MTA.
In the Real Estate section in today’s Times, Terry Pristin goes in depth on this issue. Did the MTA, she asks, adequately integrate these buildings into the neighborhood? Few seem to think so, and many, she writes, view these buildings as “a missed opportunity or an unwelcome industrial intrusion into a residential neighborhood, or both.” Bass suggested that the MTA could have taken advantage of New York’s air rights laws to build above their auxiliar structures, but the Authority has instead chosen an austere look.
The agency, reticent to speak because of the pending lawsuits, answered some questions about the above-ground decisions. Pristin reports:
Kevin Ortiz, an M.T.A. spokesman, said by e-mail that the agency had worked with developers on both the 97th Street site, where the Century Lumber Corporation once stood, and on 72nd Street, the longtime home of Falk Drug and Surgical Supplies. Plans for 72nd Street, where the site measures 75 feet by 75 feet, were scuttled because “in order for a development to work, additional property would have had to be acquired, which we couldn’t justify as a transportation use,” he said.
On 97th Street, “M.T.A. Real Estate worked very long and hard to make it work, but in the end the developer lost interest,” he said.
In a subsequent e-mail, Aaron Donovan, another M.T.A. spokesman, said the developers that the agency had consulted owned the sites. Mr. Donovan said the agency had not issued requests for proposals from developers “because we didn’t own the properties,” which were acquired through eminent domain. According to the M.T.A., only the 97th Street site, which measures 100 feet by 125 feet, is large enough to accommodate a residential development. The M.T.A. also would not say why it did not consult a second developer for that site.
In addition to the visual elements and seemingly missed opportunities to allow for residential development, other urban land-use experts have questioned whether the MTA is maximizing its opportunities while minimizing costs. The Authority hasn’t successfully worked with real estate developers on plans that would help defray costs as new subway construction raises land values and rents. The same can be said of the lack of a station stop at 41st St. and 10th Ave. along the 7 extension. “The MTA does not think of its real estate as either an investment opportunity or a development opportunity,” Julia Vitullo-Martin of the RAP said to The Times. While a bit hyperbolic, the MTA’s real estate planning has often worked against and not with the neighborhoods serviced by new subway routes.
Not all is lost however along Second Ave. The auxiliary structures may be monolithic, and they might not appear to fit the character of the neighborhood, as the MTA claimed they would in the SAS Environmental Impact Statements. Civitas, the Upper East Side civic group, has long questioned the aesthetic impact these buildings will have, and the MTA defends that on grounds of lower maintenance costs. But Civitas was succcessful in convincing the MTA to include 360 square feet of real estate at 69th St. and 240 at 72nd St., says Pristin. At least the avenue won’t face too many windowless ventilation walls as some side streets in Midtown do.
It’s no easy task to build subways through neighborhoods that are replete with 80- and 90-year-old buildings, and the MTA seems to be learning this the hard way. One day, in a decade, we’ll view these structures with the same disregard with give every MTA substation, but those who live next to them might see them as lost opportunities to better a neighborhood soon to enjoy the benefits of a subway line running through it.
Amidst concerns over a porous subway system, the MTA is planning to equip the upcoming R179 order of new rolling stock with security cameras, Tom Namako of The New York Post reported today. While the system’s preexisting rolling stock will not be retrofitted with cameras, each of the 340 new cars that make up the R179 fleet will have the necessary technology built in so that the MTA can simply put the cameras, shown at right, into the new cars.
“Future cars will be camera-ready,” Paul Fleuranges, a Transit spokesman, said to The Post. “The hardest part of retrofitting old cars to run the lines is that it involved taking the car apart.”
The MTA is currently running one train on the E line that’s equipped with an in-car camera surveillance system, but that car is just a part of a 12-month pilot program. As Namako notes, by ordering the R179s with the ability to install cameras, the MTA may be leaning toward approving this pilot program on a wider scale. The cameras, said Fleuranges, “will be part of the infrastructure, in case we want to go that route.”
As part of the pilot program, four cars along the E are each equipped with a set of four cameras, and the cars with cameras are identified with a decal, seen here at left. The camera sets are linked into one DVR system, and the four cameras are tied into a network controller unit that transmits the signals between cars. The cameras are placed to “effectively cover the passenger area,” according to Transit, and while the agency stressed that the cameras are for recording purposes and not live monitoring, it’s unclear how Transit plans to make use of the footage. The police have yet to request the video feeds.
As with many MTA pilots, the camera program was in development for years. The MTA first announced plans to create what many call a ring of steel in March 2007, reiterated a commitment to the pilot in April 2008 and again in August 2009 before installing the surveillance equipment this February. Various other cities, including Washington, DC, and London, have long outfitted their subway cars with such technology, and it has been used as both a criminal deterrent and a tool for identifying perps and terrorists.