AsidesTWU

With station agent hearings on tap, mediation looms for TWU

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on July 12, 2010

As the MTA and TWU continue to square off over station agent dismissals and other cost-savings proposals that would impact labor, the two sides have reportedly agreed to go to mediation to attempt to settle their disputes. While TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen continues to remain firm in his call for a no-layoffs provision, MTA CEO and Chairman Jay Walder believes mediation could help lower the MTA’s budget deficit without resorting to further service cuts. “Labor represents a large portion of the cost of doing business here, about two-thirds of the cost of doing business at the MTA. My hope is that we can work together in partnership,” he said.

This news breaks on the eve of the public hearings the MTA must hold before it can shutter more token booths and fire station agents. The hearings are set for Tuesday and Wednesday with two per evening, and Streetsblog has the details: Manhattan and Queens tomorrow; Brooklyn and the Bronx on Wednesday. These hearings come after a state judge deemed the initial layoffs illegal without public comment, but I have to wonder how useful this political charade will be.

For weeks, the TWU has planned to turn the hearings into a labor rally. As a recent release on the union’s Facebook page noted, labor organizers hope to “pack these hearings and deliver a strong message that we’ve had enough.” As the TWU is also alleging that these hearings are illegal, I can’t imagine anything other than animosity tomorrow night. Will TWU officials propose funding mechanisms to keep their jobs? Will they support congestion pricing or bridge tolls? Or should the riders have to pay for jobs that are largely unnecessary?

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Subway History

The MTA’s days of wine and roses

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on July 12, 2010

When details of the 2011 fare hike got out on Friday, to many New Yorkers, threats of increased unlimited ride fares and a MetroCard surcharge came as no great surprise. The MTA had, after all, raised fares in both 2008 and 2009, and the authority has spent nearly all of 2010 pleading poverty. That the fares aren’t going up in 2010 is only a matter of semantics; due to the payroll tax funding package, the MTA can and will raise fares on January 1, 2011.

Yet, life wasn’t always all about fare hikes for New York City subway riders. Although the MTA raised the fares regularly throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, straphangers could take solace in the fact that these hikes were often little more than cost-of-living adjustments. The MTA then didn’t have to live fare hike-to-fare hike as it does today, and once upon a not-so-long-ago time, the authority had enough money in its coffers to grant its riders a holiday reprieve from the full fare.

Our story starts on October 18, 2005. On that day, the MTA announced plans to offer a fare discount between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Since the MTA had a balance sheet that was, at the time, projected a surplus that could have reached $900 million, the authority wanted to give something back to its riders. “It’s unprecedented,” Gene Russianoff said at the time. “I’ve never seen any holiday-related discounts for riders. I think it will encourage people to use transit during the holiday season at a time when gas prices are going through the roof. It’s a smart way to reward customers.”

The discounts included relief for everyone. The base fare was to be $1 while bonus days were to be added to unlimited ride MetroCards and commuter rail passes. The MTA estimated that the giveaway would cost $50 million overall with an expected increase in ridership covering from the lost fare revenue. The rest of the budget surplus was to go pension relief, security projects and service improvements, and because the MTA had to have a $0 balance at the end of the year, the money had to be spent.

The next day, the headlines were decidedly less friendly. New York’s liberal and conservative political groups called the fare giveaway an irresponsible marketing gimmick. Because the MTA had been anticipated budget deficits in both 2007 and 2008 — deficits that came to pass — for some time, fiscal experts, such as James A. Parrott of the liberal Fiscal Policy Institute, wanted the authority to plan for long-term budget stability and a source of revenue flow for capital projects. Others, such as the Manhattan Institute’s Ed McMahon, wanted the dollars to cover the MTA’s pension obligations. Then-Governor George Pataki called for the MTA to use the money to cover construction costs at South Ferry or the Fulton St. transit center.

Most commentators figured the good will earned by the temporary fare relief would be short lived. “Whom does this actually benefit?” Preston Niblack, from the city’s Independent Budget Office, said. “It does not really solve any structural issues. It’s great from a public relations point of view, but it does not address long-term needs.”

When the MTA Board held its October meeting, the fare holiday garnered approval amidst a contentious debate. A vocal minority of board members paid heed to the looming financial crisis, and they urged the MTA to, in the words of Andrew Saul, “bank the money” to lessen the pain of future deficits. “I’m not sure in the long term that this is really in the interest of the riders,” Saul said. “This agency is facing tremendous financial stress going forward.”

In November, as the MTA’s surplus ballooned to $1 billion, the discount December was a foregone conclusion. Even as the MTA tried to pare down its future debt, the authority went forward with a plan that many figured was nothing less than bribery and nothing more than a public relations move gone bad. If New Yorkers saw the discount fares and assumed the MTA could afford such a program, these New Yorkers would forever be skeptical of the MTA’s claims of poverty and deficits.

In the end, the program was neither a success nor a failure. The MTA lost approximately $46 million in lost revenue, but few people had changed their fare-buying or ticket-purchasing behavior. As 77 percent of customers said the program saved them money, the MTA even budgeted $50 million for another fare holiday in 2006, but it was not to be as the MTA canceled the 2006 discount in order to postpone an impending fare hike.

Today, the fare discount lives on in memory only. Instead of a holiday reprieve this year, we’ll be preparing for another fare hike as the MTA looks to close a budget deficit nearly as large as the surplus from five years ago. The $46 million the MTA gave up to provide that discount fare wouldn’t have made a huge discount today, but it served as a portent of bad times to come. From now until the real estate market recovers, we’ll be suffering through fare hikes and not holidays.

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Service Advisories

July 10-July 12 weekend service advisories

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

New York City might have enjoyed a short, four-day work week, but we had a busy one around these parts. The week ended with details of a dismaying fare hike and more delays along Second Ave. It seems as though 2010 has brought nothing but bad news for the MTA.

Anyway, with a weekend upon us, it’s time again for the service changes. Subway Weekender has the map. The details are below, and one of the changes has a priceless typo. These come to me via the MTA and are subject to change without notice. Listen to announcements on board your train and pay attention to signs in your local station.


From 4 a.m. Saturday, July 10 to 10 p.m. Sunday, July 11, downtown 1 trains run express from 137th Street to 96th Street due to track panel installation north of 125th Street.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, July 9 to 5 a.m. Saturday, July 10, from 11:30 p.m. Saturday, July 10 to 7 a.m. Sunday, July 11, and from 11:30 p.m. Sunday, July 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, July 12, free shuttle buses replace 2 trains between 96th Street and 149th Street-Grand Concourse due to track switch renewal north of 135th Street. During this time, 2 trains run in two sections:

  • Between Brooklyn College-Flatbush Avenue and 96th Street, then rerouted to the 1 line to 137th Street
  • Between 149th Street-Grand Concourse and Wakefield-241st Street

Customers may transfer between the 2 and free shuttle buses at 96th Street or 149th Street-Grand Concourse.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, July 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, July 12, 2 trains run local between 96th Street and Times Square-42nd Street due to the 96th Street station rehabilitation.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, July 9 to 5 a.m. Saturday, July 10, from 11:30 p.m. Saturday, July 10 to 5 a.m. Sunday, July 11, and from 11:30 p.m. Sunday, July 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, July 12, free shuttle buses replace 3 trains between 148th Street and 96th Street. 1 and 2 trains replace the 3 between 96th Street and Times Square-42nd Street due to track switch renewal north of 135th Street.


From 5 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Saturday, July 10 and from 7 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Sunday, July 11, 3 trains run local between 96th Street and Times Square-42nd Street due to the 96th Street station rehabilitation.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, July 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, July 12, downtown 4 trains run express from 125th Street to Grand Central-42nd Street due to HVAC work in a communications room.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, July 9 to 5 a.m. Monday, July 12, there are no 5 trains between Dyre Avenue and 149th Street-Grand Concourse. Free shuttle buses replace the 5 between Dyre Avenue and East 180th Street. 2 trains replace the 5 between East 180th Street and 149th Street-Grand Concourse due to rail work north of East 180th Street and cable work on the Dyre Avenue line.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, July 10 and Sunday, July 11, 5 trains run every 20 minutes between 149th Street-Grand Concourse and Bowling Green due to rail work north of East 180th Street and cable work on the Dyre Avenue line.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, July 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, July 12, downtown 6 trains run express from 125th Street to Grand Central-42nd Street due to HVAC work in a communication room.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, July 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, July 12, uptown A trains run express from Canal Street to 59th Street-Columbus Circle due to a concrete pour north of West 4th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, July 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, July 12, A trains skip Broadway-Nassau St. in both directions due to work on the Fulton Street Transit Center.


At all times until July 9010, Far Rockaway-bound A trains skip Beach 36th Street due to station rehabilitation. – Planning far, far ahead I see. That’s also a very precise reopening date for a 7000-year project.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, July 10 and Sunday, July 11, uptown C trains run express from Canal Street to 59th Street-Columbus Circle due to a concrete pour north of West 4th Street.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, July 10 and Sunday, July 11, C trains skip Broadway-Nassau St. in both directions due to work on the Fulton Street Transit Center.


From 11 p.m. Friday, July 9 to 5 a.m. Monday, July 12, Manhattan-bound D trains skip 174th-175th Sts. and 170th Street due to a track chip out north of 170th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, July 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, July 12, Stillwell Avenue-bound trains run on the N from 36th Street to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue due to structural repair and station rehabilitations from 71st Street to Bay 50th Street, ADA work at Bay Parkway and track panel installation at 20th Avenue.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, July 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, July 12, Manhattan-bound D trains run express from 36th Street to Pacific Street, then skip DeKalb Avenue due to a track chip out at DeKalb Avenue.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, July 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, July 12, downtown D trains run local from 34th Street-Herald Square to West 4th Street due to substation rehabilitation work south of 34th Street.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, July 9 to 5 a.m. Monday, July 12, Manhattan-bound E trains run express from Forest Hills-71st Avenue to Roosevelt Avenue due to a track chip out north of Elmhurst Avenue.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, July 10 to 5 a.m. Sunday, July 11, uptown E trains skip Spring and 23rd Streets due to a concrete pour north of West 4th Street.


From 12:30 a.m. Saturday, July 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, July 12, Jamaica Center-bound E trains run local from Roosevelt Avenue to Forest Hills-71st Avenue due to track work south of Elmhurst Avenue.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, July 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, July 12, Brooklyn-bound F trains run on the A from West 4th Street to Jay Street due to tunnel lighting rehabilitation.


From 12:30 a.m. Saturday, July 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, July 12, 179th Street-bound F trains run local from Roosevelt Avenue to Forest Hills-71st Avenue to due to track work south of Elmhurst Avenue.


From 3:30 a.m. Saturday, July 10 to 10 p.m. Sunday, July 11, there are no J trains between Broadway Junction and Jamaica Center due to track panel work at Crescent Street. E trains and free shuttle buses provide alternate service.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, July 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, July 12, Manhattan-bound Q trains run on the R line from DeKalb Avenue to Canal Street due to track chip out at DeKalb Avenue.


From 12:01 a.m., Saturday, July 10 to 5 a.m. Monday, July 12, there are no Q trains between Times Square-42nd Street and 57th Street-7th Avenue due to tunnel lighting south of Queens Plaza. Customers should take the N train instead.


From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m., Saturday, July 10 and Sunday, July 11 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, July 12, there are no R shuttle trains in Brooklyn between 59th Street and 36th Street due to a track chip out at DeKalb Avenue. Customers should take the N instead.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, July 10 and Sunday, July 11, Manhattan-bound R trains run express from Forest Hills-71st Avenue to Roosevelt Avenue due to a track chip out north of Elmhurst Avenue.


6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, July 10 and Sunday, July 11, R trains rare rerouted to the F line between 57th Street-7th Avenue and 36th Street due to tunnel lighting work south of Queens Plaza.

  1. For service to/from 5th Avenue-59th Street and Lexington Avenue-59th Street, customers should take the N.
  2. For service to Queens Plaza from Queens, customers should take the E.
  3. For service to Queens Plaza from Manhattan, customers should take the N to nearby Queensboro Plaza station.
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Second Avenue Subway

Delays, overruns again plaguing Second Ave. Subway

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on July 9, 2010

A 2009 MTA slide still tells a story of delays and high costs for the Second Ave. Subway.

Nearly a year ago, the Federal Transit Authority disputed the MTA’s claims that the Second Ave. Subway would open by the end of 2016. While the FTA’s estimates had Phase 1 costs at nearly $5 billion and the opening in mid-2018 at the latest. Officially, the MTA had disputed these figured and continued to proclaim a 2016 date for the project. Now, it seems, the tide is turning for the worse.

According to a report in The Observer, the MTA is officially acknowledging the risks of delays and overruns for both the East Side Access and Second Ave. Subway projects. The details are not pretty:

By these estimates, the Second Avenue Subway is now estimated to cost $4.98 billion, another $307 million beyond the numbers the M.T.A. had been working off, with completion in February 2018, up from December 2016. East Side Access is now at $8.1 billion, up $328 million, with completion in April 2018, up from September 2016. (At the same time, the M.T.A. still says that it believes it can bring the projects in below these numbers and on its schedule.) …

All told, the situation involving East Side Access and the Second Avenue Subway tells a story that is all too frequent with giant public sector projects. The projects were approved and sold to the public with one price tag, only to see the budget prove far too insignificant (very rarely, if ever, do projects come in well below their initial projections). And once a project has started—once the foot is in the door—it becomes really difficult to pull the plug, even if the public would never have signed onto the initial price tag.

In this case, the Second Avenue Subway was initially supposed to be $4.1 billion, with completion slated for June 2014; East Side Access was budgeted at $6.3 billion, to be finished in December 2013.

With regard to these projects, M.T.A. spokesman Jeremy Soffin said the agency would work toward the existing budget, which it views as attainable. “We have a budget and a time line that we’re working toward and we plan to meet,” he said. “Both we and the F.T.A. acknowledge that here’s risk inherent in these projects.”

According to Eliot Brown, the FTA has blamed rising construction costs and poor oversight as sources for both the delays and cost increases along Second Ave. As the MTA has capital funds secured only through 2011 but significant federal contributions to this project, Phase 1 will open eventually this decade, but I have my doubts about Phase 2 and beyond. Simply put, for the MTA to earn more support for capital investment of this magnitude, these projects need to meet their deadlines and budgets. So far, these goals have been elusive ones indeed.

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Fare HikesMetroCard

Fare hikes in ’11 could include MetroCard surcharge, cap on unlimited rides

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on July 9, 2010

As the MTA begins to prepare for a 2011 fare hike, the authority is considering a plan to implement a surcharge on new MetroCards and to cap the number of rides available to those who use weekly and monthly cards, The New York Post reported this morning. While the single-ride fare would remain at $2.25, the total fare hike package will result in a 7.5 percent increase.

The news of a fare hike comes amidst a year of cuts and budgetary problems for the beleaguered transit authority. Faced with an initial $800 million budget gap, the authority had to implement sweeping service cuts in June that saw two subway lines axed and numerous bus routes scaled back or eliminated entirely. Still, despite internal cost-cuttings, the MTA has to find $400 million, and with Albany silent on such revenue-generating proposals as East River bridge tolls or congestion pricing, the fare hikes remain one of the MTA’s few reliable sources of revenue. Additionally, Albany granted the MTA the ability to issue a 2011 fare increase when the legislature approved the payroll tax funding plan last year.

Per The Post, the hikes would be put in place or or near January 1, and the proposal looks a little something like this:

  • Riders would pay a $1 surcharge every time they get a new MetroCard from a vending machine instead of refilling an old one.
  • $27 weekly MetroCards would rise by about 4%.
  • $89 monthly cards would increase to just under $100.
  • Number of rides on weekly and monthly cards would be capped.
  • Single-ride fare would remain at $2.25.
  • Elimination of off-peak fare pricing on all LIRR and Metro-North trains.
  • Overall fare hike would be 7.5%.

Tom Namako’s sources defended the need to charge for a new MetroCard, one of the proposal’s more controversial aspects. “When I see what it costs to produce MetroCards, it’s not efficient, and it makes me sick when I see them strewn across the floor at stations,” his source said. For this surcharge to be an equitable one, however, the MTA will have to address the fact that Unlimited ride cards are currently not refillable. Being forced to pay a surcharge because the system is flawed would penalize the 50 percent of riders who rely on those weekly or monthly passes.

Despite these increases, the single-ride fare would stay the same. Less than 10 percent of riders pay the full $2.25 these days, and it’s clear that the MTA is trying to change the fact that, in inflation-adjusted terms, the average fare is lower now than it was in 1996. “We’re very interested in keeping the single-ride fare at the level it’s at now,” a Post source said.

On the record, the MTA cautioned that these rumored plans are just that. Official overall budget numers are not due until later this month, and a specific fare hike proposal would not arrive until the fall. “The rescue agreement reached with the Governor and Legislature last spring called for a 7.5% increase in revenues from MTA fares and tolls in January 2011, and despite an $800 million budget shortfall caused by deteriorating tax revenues, it has always been our intention to try to adhere to this agreement,” the agency said in statement. “As we have consistently said, the amount of the increase must be determined in the context of our overall financial plan, which is not finalized and will be presented to the MTA Board later this month. At that time the Board will be asked to authorize public hearings on the fare increase to be held in the fall. Only after those hearings will a final decision be made on both the level of the increase and how it will be implemented.”

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Public Transit Policy

Federal money for construction but not operations

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on July 9, 2010

The feds are funding Second Ave. Subway construction efforts, but money for operations remain out of reach. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

As part of the continued federal support for the MTA’s megaprojects, Rep. Carolyn Maloney announced this week that the transportation appropriations bill for 2011 will contain $400 million for the Second Ave. Subway and the East Side Access project. Maloney has been touting her role in delivering this money for the better part of 2010, and the grants are a welcome addition to the MTA’s capital coffers. The ease with which this money was delivered, however, lays bare the inherent contradictions in the way Washington funds construction but not operations for the nation’s transit authorities.

In announcing the grants, Maloney spoke of the economic impact of the construction efforts. “I’m proud to have helped to make sure that this year’s House transportation bill includes a $400 million boost for these two ‘megaprojects,’ which are creating thousands of jobs right here in New York,” she said. “On their first day in operation, the Second Avenue Subway and East Side Access will move more people than the entire transit systems of most other major American cities. I thank Chairmen John Olver and David Obey and their colleagues on the House Appropriations Committee for their ongoing commitment to funding the Second Avenue Subway and East Side Access, which are vitally important boosts for our region’s economy.”

With this grant, the Second Ave. Subway will receive $197 million and the East Side Access $215 million. Maloney, who slammed the progress along Second Ave. in a report last fall, focused this time on the way the subway work creates jobs. For every dollar spent, she said, city GDP increases by $1.59, and the Second Ave. Subway will generate $4.347 billion in economic activity during construction. Afterward, East Side residents will enjoy quicker and more comfortable commutes as many residents are closer to a subway line, and overcrowding will be lessened along the East Side IRT.

This is all well and good for New Yorkers. We need to make sure the MTA construction projects are fully funded, but what of the other transit budget? What of operations and the need to maintain consistent and frequent service? What of helping out cash-strapped agencies avoid budget cuts?

Over the past few years, between Recovery stimulus grants, 9/11 grants and general transportation appropriations grants, Washington has sent billions of dollars to the MTA, and every single cent has gone to the capital budget. None of these billions can be used to close an $800 million operating budget. “The law is quite clear,” MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said. “The federal money cannot be used to cover operating expenses.”

As Maloney appeals to the economic impact of construction, the deafening inaction from Washington on the transit rescue package speaks volumes about the stilted funding priorities. A federal rescue plan for transit operations would generate billions in economic activity as well. It would keep hundreds, if not thousands, of workers in their jobs and would ensure fast transit service into and out of the city’s business areas. It would keep cars off the roads and ensure productivity remains high.

Of course, as we saw yesterday with the political support for Select Bus Service, politicians prefer to point to a concrete accomplishment. Representatives can say that they helped usher in Select Bus Service. Look how much better the commutes are. They can’t say that their millions staved off service cuts that would have been a huge headache because constituents have a tough time conceptualizing that as a true political accomplishment. That money, however, is just as important.

So we can celebrate the $197 million for the Second Ave. Subway, but at the same time, we should be wary of it. If the MTA could earn that much from Washington for operations, it wouldn’t have to cut service twice over. After all, last month’s cuts save the agency just $93 million while impacting the rides of hundreds of thousands daily. But that’s the way Washington works. Until it changes, we’re left with expansion plans that go forward while service declines.

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BrooklynMTA Construction

Video: The Jay St./Lawrence St. connector

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on July 8, 2010

Underneath the streets of Downtown Brooklyn, MTA contractors are busy digging out a free transfer between the A/C/F station at Jay St. and the R stop at Lawrence St. The two stations are literally on top of each other with the BMT station directly beneath the IND stop. As part of the 2005-2009 capital plan, the MTA opted to connect these two popular lines, and just this week, the authority posted a video update of the project.

This new connector is good news for the people of Kings County. It’ll provide Downtown Brooklyn with a true interchange between the IND and BMT lines, and it furthers the MTA’s goal of improving connections and building transfers that just make sense. The renovations at Bleecker St. that will connect the uptown 6 platform with the B/D/F/M station and the new South Ferry station that connects the IRT terminal to the BMT stop at Whitehall St. spring to mind as well. The authority should look into other transfers, including one between the L and 3 near Junius St. and Livonia Ave. and the G and J/Z trains at Broadway and either Lorimer or Hewes Sts. MTA representatives say however that those transfers aren’t currently under consideration.

The $108 million project includes a complete rehab of the Jay St. stop, a new free transfer and an ADA-compliant station replete with elevators. In the video, engineers talk about the challenges they faced in digging directly beneath Willoughby St. and the final plans for the station. Watch it out below.

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AsidesPANYNJ

For PATH stations, a $200 million overhaul

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on July 8, 2010

The Port Authority’s PATH system has a reputation for being, in the words of one author, “drab, dirty and uncomfortable.” Some trains aren’t adequately air conditioned, and the system’s stations haven’t been upgraded in years. That should begin to change, however, as PATH will invest $200 millionin its stations as part of a $1 billion upgrade plan.

The changes are extensive. As The Record’s Tom Davis reported earlier this week, the money will go toward expanding platforms along the World Trade Center line to “accommodate 10-car trains, which will allow an additional 400 passengers per trip”; a new public address system; better signage and maps; new station benches, lighting and flooring that “will make the wait in stations safer, more comfortable and visually appealing”; and a public arts program that will beautify the drab stations. “Mass transit over 40 years or so has continued to evolve, and you see train stations across the country are continuing to evolve,” Bill Baroni, deputy executive director of Port Authority, said. “We’re doing the same with the PATH stations.”

The crown jewel of this renovation will be the Harrison Station that currently serves the Red Bulls’ new arena. A $100-million investment will see a new pavilion arise that can better accommodate the larger crowds, and PATH officials believe the upgrades will help attract more people to the cross-Hudson subway and take a few folks out of their cars. “We’re trying to make it more commuter friendly,” Baroni said. “Like all good transit systems, we’re evolving constantly.”

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Buses

Making buses slightly sexier

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on July 8, 2010

A New York Magazine illustration highlights the various elements of the MTA's Select Bus Service plan. Click to view the descriptions.

Cut a bus. Add better bus service. That’s the MTA’s mantra this year as the transit authority had to eliminate or scale back numerous bus routes last week as part of the service cuts while Select Bus Service, the city’s abridged version of Bus Rapid Transit, will make its debut along 1st and 2nd Avenues in the fall. As Jay Walder tries to, in his words, “make buses sexy,” the MTA in partnership with New York City’s Department of Transportation is implementing a plan that’s almost there but doesn’t quite satisfy what both politicians and activists want.

This week, the glowing coverage of the city’s Select Bus Service comes from New York Magazine’s Robert Sullivan. He profiles the advances in bus routing that the MTA and DOT are working to put into action, and for the most part, he treads familiar ground. He talks about how buses are cheaper to build out and how bus lanes can truly elevate bus service in the eyes of a ridership used to hearing about elderly and poor bus riders. He pays lip service to the “BRT-as-surface subway” line of thinking that I have shot down in the past.

“When the city adopts a world-class ‘Bus Rapid Transit’ system,” Kyle Wiswall of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, said to Sullivan, “people are going to have a tough time, efficiency-wise, telling a bus apart from a subway—it’s going to be like a subway with a view.”

There are, of course, obvious problems with Wiswall’s claims. Buses can’t go as fast as subways, and unless they run with near-constant frequency, they can’t approach the capacity of one full subway car, let alone a 600-foot train of 8 or 10 cars. As New York has drawn them up, the Select Bus Service lanes don’t cross the arbitrary borough borders and don’t cross over or under the city’s rivers. Without the Holy Grain of dedicated and physically separated bus lanes, few will mistake SBS for a subway, and as Sullivan notes, a world-class bus system is a ways off.

Where Sullivan’s article hits its stride is in its discussions of the conflict between politicians and city planners. Usually planners want to be more ambitious than the politicians, but in the debate over Select Bus Service, the New York’s transite-phobe politicians have embraced calls for a more encompassing plan. He writes:

In this case, however, many lawmakers are more ambitious about buses than the bureaucrats. When the MTA and the DOT were putting together their plans for First and Second Avenues, nineteen legislators—including City Council members, State senators and assemblymen, and U.S. representatives Carolyn Maloney, Jerry Nadler, and Nydia Velázquez—wrote a letter pressing them to “take the project further” and build physically separated lanes. The DOT subsequently made changes, but it argued that external circumstances (i.e., Second Avenue subway construction) makes separated lanes impossible.

“A lot of us think that they are not seizing the full opportunity here,” says Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh, who helped organize the campaign. “They are not thinking broadly enough about how to restructure the service and restructure the streets.” Kavanagh is not anti-car; he believes, in fact, that more buses on First and Second Avenues might make Lexington Avenue better for cars. “We have to get the balance right,” he says. But the shift in balance should not be to increase bus speed slightly; the shift needs to turn buses into a substitute for rail, with rail-like speeds and rail-like reliability. Kavanagh says that his fellow legislators are prepared to take flak for risks. “We are willing and ready to help facilitate the conversations that need to happen and to sell the ideas to businesses.”

It’s an odd moment: The DOT and the MTA are both captained by mass-transit evangelists fluent in urban best practices. They are committed to working together rather than at the usual cross-purposes. They are moving toward a radical revamping of mass transit and the city street. And they are being chided—by Albany legislators!—for their limited scope.

Perhaps it’s post-traumatic-stress disorder. Although Westchester assemblyman Richard Brodsky, a noted congestion-pricing killer and MTA watcher, speaks excitedly about improved bus service, he’s circumspect about overzealous technocrats: “Someone’s got to be like your aunt, saying, ‘No, no, dear, that won’t work.’?” But politicians who are hesitant about the bus future end up groping for an argument against it, and the reflexive populist case for the automobile is difficult to make in comparison with buses.

Sullivan goes on to blame poor leadership from the mayor and no political capital from the governor for the DOT/MTA reticence. Mayor Bloomberg has long been licking his wounds from the congestion pricing fight, and David Paterson is treading water until Andrew Cuomo can take over the reins. Meanwhile, Select Bus Service moves forwards with some positive elements but many omissions that are needed to make the bus system truly rapid transit.

For now, though, we’ll be satisfied with the baby steps and ask for more. With Albany hesitantly granting the MTA the right to use bus-lane cameras, we’ll need dedicated and separated bus lanes. To serve areas without subway access, the BRT plans should include more borough-to-borough connections. As they are right now, the routes are simply faster feeders to subway hubs. And to succeed, the MTA will have to ensure that fare beating remains at acceptably low levels.

Select Bus Service is probably the biggest on-street change to New York since the trolley tracks were ripped up decades ago, and if it works, something good will have come out of a period of MTA service cuts. The road to true innovation remains a bumpy one.

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AsidesBuses

DOT halts TransportAzumah van service

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on July 7, 2010

As private van operators have sprung up to replace bus routes lost to the MTA service cuts, New York City’s Department of Transportation has waged a campaign to stop these businesses. With support from labor unions concerned about the privatization of transit services, DOT has claimed that these unregulated vans pose a serious safety threat to passengers, and the agency has gone to court to enforce its position. Yesterday, NYC DOT earned a temporary restraining order against TransportAzumah’s Joel Azumah, a fleet owner who had been operating vans along the now-defunct X25, X29, X90 and QM22 routes.

The city has until July 15 to make the case for a permanent injunction, and Azumah said he will fight the court order. He says that his $6-a-ride vans do not violate transportation laws because they are private charters outside the realm of city regulations. “My customers are very, very, very angry,” he said to the Daily News. “They had the benefit of a service that they were enjoying…We want the city – if they are going to interfere with these services – to run the buses.”

In other vans news, Yonah Freemark writing at Next American City profiles the rise of private service in New York City in the wake of the MTA’s service cuts. Freemark wonders if the city’s move to legitimize some private transportation providers will undercut labor’s position but posits that cities should ensure that people can get around cheaply and efficiently. As long as the MTA has to cut services, the private bus companies should be allowed to roll on.

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