MetroCardMTA Economics

Relying on unused MetroCards for revenue

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 16, 2009

Right now, in my wallet, I have three MetroCards. One is my standard 30-Day Unlimited Ride card I use when I’m not planning on being out of the city for an extended period of time. The other two have cash on them. One currently has $10.50 and the other has $1.00. The one with just a buck is set to expire at the end of September.

For me to make full use of these pay-per-ride cards, I’d have to do some fancy math. The card with more money has 4 rides with $1.50 left over; the card with a dollar is useless until I add more money. With the new fare scheme for pay-per-ride cards — $2.25 per ride with a 15 percent discount at $8 and over — I am not alone in possessing MetroCards with awkward amounts of money left on them. In fact, the MTA is counting on just this problem for some of its budget.

Heather Haddon in amNew York details how the MTA relies on unused MetroCards for millions of dollars in revenue. The agency knows that people throw out MetroCards with money, and the agency is now including these millions in its budget estimates for 2010. Haddon reports:

Straphangers threw out an estimated $40 million in unused or unrefunded fare money in 2008, according to agency documents. The MetroCard windfall was up a whopping 38 percent from two years earlier.

What’s more, NYC Transit is budgeting for that revenue to increase to $48 million next year because of the recent fare hike…

At least two other transit agencies decline to budget for unused fares, arguing the revenue is a moving target that can’t be relied on for operations. “It’s a tricky one to compute. We don’t recognize it as a revenue source,” said Cathy Asato, a spokeswoman for the Metro in Washington D.C.

A MTA spokesman said including the figure for unused fares adds transparency, and all revenue estimates are updated three times a year.

Currently, straphangers with expired MetroCards can transfer the unused fare to new cards up to two years past the expiration date on the back. According to Transit spokesperson Paul Fleuranges, the agency fields approximately 1500 refund requests per month, but with fare math becoming increasingly complicated, busy New Yorkers are content to let the dollars slip away.

This fiscal reality could lead to a conflict of interests for those in charge. Transit should tell its riders how to use all of the money straphangers put on MetroCards, but if the agency needs the revenue to meet its budget estimates, officials may be less than forthcoming with refund information.

As far as I can tell, this $40 million doesn’t include Unlimited Ride MetroCards that do not pay for themselves. The MTA could, in fact, be recovering more than just the 21 million unused rides they currently take in.

23 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
MTA Politics

Bloomberg blasts Walder compensation package

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 16, 2009

The city’s billionaire businessman mayor isn’t happy with Jay Walder’s compensation package, and Bloomberg is going to make his displeasure known by withholding his MTA votes when the transit agency’s board meets to confirm its new Chair and CEO.

Bloomberg’s unhappiness focuses around Walder’s Golden Parachute provisions. When Gov. David Paterson nominated Walder as head of the MTA, the Board attached a severance scheme to the deal. Walder is due to server a six-year term, but if he is kicked out — by the State Senate, by Paterson’s successor — Walder earns severance. If he doesn’t serve the full term, he earns a $350,000 severance, or the equivalent of one year’s salary. If he is booted within six months, he earns an additional $500,000, and if he is removed after six months but before a year, he earns another $400,000. This number dwindles as time and Walder’s tenure goes on.

According to reports from July, these conditions were necessary to attract Walder away from his job in London. The transit expert had a comfortable role at McKinsey, the consulting firm, and a life in London. He wouldn’t come to New York with the risk that he would be fired within a year. “If you want to bring in people of the highest caliber, you have to be willing to pay them salaries that are commiserate with what others in the industry are getting,” MTA board member Mitchell Pally said at the time.

Now, Bloomberg is upset the MTA for what he feels is an overly generous compensation package issued during a bad time for the state economy. Because Bloomberg respects Walder and feels uncomfortable making a big issue about, the four votes Bloomberg controls will abstain from voting on Walder. In the end, this is a political statement by a candidate running for office on a platform of reforming the MTA and not a mayoral judgment on Walder. The new MTA head won’t be overpaid or overcompensated, and Bloomberg the business man knows that. Welcome to campaign season.

13 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
MTA Absurdity

A costly ruling on overtime for bus drivers

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 16, 2009

On and off for the last few months, I’ve explored the way labor costs are dragging down the MTA’s overall financial outlooked. I’ve examined how rising pension costs will saddle the MTA with more debt and have explored the recent arbitration decision, currently under appeal, that would grant TWU workers an 11 percent raise over the next three years.

Generally, my tone has come across as anti-labor simply because of the costs. While organized labor is generally a net positive, the unions have not been too sympathetic to the MTA’s financially reality. While union leaders will always look out for the rank-and-file, bad economic times for the transit authority will eventually impact its workers as well. Oftentimes, unions lose sight of that reality.

Today, I have another tale of union support contributing to the MTA’s economic woes. As Pete Donohue first reported, the MTA has been ordered to use — and pay — overtime workers to dispatch shuttle buses even though other dispatchers on regular time are available to do this work. This ruling could cost the MTA up to $1 million in increased and unnecessary labor costs. The Daily News transit writer reports:

The arbitrator of a labor-management dispute in Queens recently ruled the [bus] dispatchers’ contract is silent on how weekend bus shuttles can be staffed. So the agency must stick to what it has done for more than 20 years: Fill shuttle posts with workers who volunteer to work more than 40 hours per week for higher pay rates, contract arbitrator George Nicolau said.

Looking for savings, NYC Transit last year began assigning shuttle posts to underutilized workers not assigned regular routes, a move challenged by a dispatchers union.

The “very unfavorable” decision means NYC Transit “literally can have a dispatcher…with no work to do but we cannot assign that dispatcher to shuttle work,” NYC Transit President Howard Roberts recently wrote to MTA board members. “Instead we have to leave that dispatcher idle and bring in another dispatcher on overtime to supervise the shuttle work,” he wrote in the letter obtained by The News.

In the grand scheme of the MTA, the $1 million per year this ruling could cost the agency is small beans. When budget deficits reach into the billions, a meager $1 million hardly makes a dent. But this ruling flies in the face of common sense. If idle workers are available to do this job and if the MTA can avoid paying overtime wages at the same time, why can’t the transit agency make use of those workers?

I don’t want to dislike the unions, and I want to believe they are sympathetic to the needs of the MTA. This story makes for bad press though. Maybe some of the pro-labor union members who read this blog can explain the rationale behind this ruling and the union’s position. For now, I just don’t get it.

14 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
AsidesView from Underground

Improving your commute

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 15, 2009

As part of a new series this month, WNYC’s Brian Lehrer is taking a look at how New Yorkers commute. Lehrer along with Robert Buzz Paaswell, Director of the University Transportation Research Center at City College, will help listeners redesign their commutes. The series kicked off yesterday with a question: “Does your commute shape the city, or does the city shape your commute? What one thing have you done or would you do to redesign your commute?”

The comments on WNYC’s site are quite fascinating as New Yorkers have a wide array of commutes and views on their commutes. I’ll look closer at what people are saying and offer my take over the next few days. In the meantime, feel free to chime in. How would you improve or redesign your daily commute in this city of interborough and intraborough commuters?

12 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
MTA Economics

DiNapoli: MTA spending frivolously on service contracts

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 15, 2009

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli issued a report yesterday exposing billions of dollars of MTA waste over the last four years. DiNapoli’s office examined the MTA’s spending on personal and service contracts and discovered numerous inefficiencies and redundancies in the process that has cost the agency approximately $2.9 billion in unnecessary spending.

“The MTA has raised fares and received more tax dollars to cover its deficits and debt,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “At the same time, the MTA expanded its use of personal service contracts without a thorough evaluation of the need or cost-effectiveness of those contracts. Now more than ever, every dime counts, and the MTA needs to manage public resources more carefully. Consultant contracts should only be used when absolutely necessary, and there has to be documented justification of that need.”

According to the state audit, these contracts now consume nearly 15 percent of the MTA’s operating budget, and expenditures have increased from $315 million in 2006 to $881 million last year. Oftentimes, the MTA could not prove that the outsourced services — including contracts for engineering and architecture, waste management, consulting and information technology — represented the most cost-efficient option. DiNapoli also urged the MTA to establish a way to determine “whether these contracts were still necessary or if they could be suspended or scaled back to help manage fiscal constraints.”

Hand in hand with this recommendation was the comptroller’s finding that “the MTA contracted for some services that would appear to be within their in-house capabilities.” DiNapoli wants the MTA to document “the need to contract out for such services.” That’s being diplomatic. If the in-house capabilities exist, the MTA shouldn’t be paying anyone else to carry out its tasks.

As examples, DiNapoli’s audit cites 244 contracts worth $513.6 million for engineering and architecture services, 387 contracts totaling $203.9 million for maintenance services, 183 contracts worth $149.5 million for consulting services, and 46 contracts $99 million for waste removal. Furthermore, the MTA contracted out for real estate management services, tree trimming operations and bus engine repair efforts. All of these tasks could be and oftentimes are completed in-house.

In a press release, the Comptroller’s Office nicely bulleted its other findings:

  • MTA records showed that the agency initiated or completed consultant contracts valued in excess of $4.5 billion between January 1, 2005 and October 16, 2008;
  • Spending on miscellaneous contracts consistently exceeds $1 billion per year and is rapidly approaching $2 billion per year;
  • The value of awarded contracts nearly tripled between 2006 and the first 10 months of 2008, while the actual number of contracts declined by 35 percent during the same period;
  • New York City Transit alone accounted for 776 contracts worth $1.8 billion during the audit period; and,
  • Nearly one-quarter of all service contracts were non-competitive, including awards to sole contractors and well as emergency purchases.

DiNapoli also issued a set of recommendations for the MTA:

  • Improve documentation of compliance with the MTA’s “All Agency Guidelines for Procurement of Services” by determining whether agencies can collaborate on contracts, or fulfill their needs by using another agency’s in-house expertise or existing contract;
  • Periodically re-evaluate personal and miscellaneous contracts after they begin; and,
  • Take steps to scale back or suspend reliance on service contracts, where appropriate.

The MTA took few issues with the findings and created a subcommittee on service contracts while the audit was ongoing. Whether any financial streamlining comes of it remains to be seen. This audit was one of nine on the MTA DiNapoli has released recently, and his office promises more to come. No matter how much posturing the State Senate does, this is real financial oversight, and the MTA should listen to these recommendations.

You can find a copy of the Comptroller’s Report in PDF form along with the MTA’s response to it right here.

9 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Second Avenue Subway

Legal woes plaguing Second Ave. subway

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 14, 2009

A little over one year ago, in June of 2008, Christopher K. Bennett, the vice president of the DMJM+HARRIS join venture tasked with designing the Second Ave. subway, issued a progress report about the subway construction project. On page 13 of the report (PDF), Bennett wrote that the tunnel boring machine for the Second Ave. subway was “expected to arrive on site in June 2009.” Three months after this date, we know Bennett’s report was overly optimistic, and over the last year, the due date for the Second Ave. subway has been pushed back from 2015 to late 2017 or even 2018.

This week, we learn that more delays of the legal variety are plaguing the project. One source concerns the stability of buildings and the MTA’s need for a blast permit while the other is a follow-up from last week’s relocation saga. Both present the possibility of even more delays for this troubled project.

We start with the blasting permit problems, first reported in Our Town nearly two weeks ago. Dan Rivoli writes:

The June evacuation of two buildings encompassed by the Second Avenue subway construction zone will delay some aspects of construction for an indefinite amount of time.

The MTA was set to conduct blasting underneath Second Avenue in the East 90s, with a blast test scheduled for the first week of August. Orange signs were placed in the area to warn residents of the blasting. But the Department of Buildings ordered residents of 1766 and 1768 Second Ave., at East 92nd Street, to evacuate because the buildings had pre-existing structural problems that made construction unsafe.

Now the Department of Buildings, which is working with the building owners on a plan to stabilizing the structures, is demanding that the structures be shored up before permits are given for any blasting, which makes tunnel boring easier. “When the partial stabilization is completed and accepted by [Department of Buildings], we will move forward with the controlled blasting program,” said Kevin Ortiz, an MTA spokesperson, in a statement.

The MTA decilined to offer Rivoli a comment on either the “start date for building construction or how long such work will take.” In the words of David Rosenstein, chair of the Friends of Ruppert Park, the project is “stuck.”

Today, the The Times offers up news of a legal challenge to the MTA’s relocation plans. Last week, I explored how the MTA had, according to Upper East Side residents, not provided relocation options that were “comparable housing.” Now, Upper East Siders are heading to court, and a State Supreme Court judge wants more information from the MTA. Michael Grynbaum reports:

Justice Walter B. Tolub of State Supreme Court in Manhattan told lawyers from the authority to return in a week with written details about the agency’s plans to provide assistance to the tenants, many of whom are elderly and living in rent-regulated apartments.

The authority is hoping to receive final approval this month to acquire the four residential properties along Second Avenue, which will be converted into ventilation shafts and other infrastructure for the $4.5 billion underground line, scheduled to open in 2017.

Under eminent domain law, tenants must be given assistance to move to a comparable new apartment in a similar neighborhood, but some of them say the authority has encouraged them to leave the Upper East Side and consider moving into affordable housing, including one building opposite an on-ramp to the Queensboro Bridge. (The authority says no one is being forced to leave the area.)…

[Lawyer Anthony P.] Semancik described a complicated formula used to determine how much rental assistance can be provided to rent-regulated tenants moving to a new, presumably more expensive apartment…But the authority could not produce a written version of [their relocation] formula and admitted that the formula had not been published except for presentations to community groups. Justice Tolub adjourned the proceedings for a week, until the authority could provide written documentation.

And so it goes. The MTA needs its blasting permits in order to dig the hole for the tunnel boring machine. The MTA needs these apartments on the Upper East Side in order to build infrastructure for the new subway. With these two aspects of the project in limbo, we will just keep waiting for the Second Ave. subway to arrive. Who will still be here to ride it?

16 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
AsidesMTA Politics

Look out, old Macky’s gone

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 14, 2009

When then-Nassau County Executive Thomas Gulotta appointed David Mack to the MTA Board in 1993, the appointment seemed to be a solid one. Mack had an accomplished résumé of police experience under his belt that included an assistant commissionership with the Nassau County Police Department and a similar role with the Long Beach Police as well. While his term expired in June, Mack had retained his position of co-vice chair of the MTA throughout the unsettled summer. He

Recently, though, Mack has come under attack as New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo investigated the State Police. While Mack refused to cooperate with the investigation, Cuomo determined that state officials had, according to The Times, “inappropriately granted Mr. Mack a dress uniform and the title of deputy superintendent, even though he had no law enforcement experience and appeared to perform few duties for the State Police.” Cuomo determined that the appointment to the MTA Board was one of patronage rather than of merit. On Friday, Mack announced that he would resign from the MTA and Port Authority Boards.

As Steven Higashide writes today at Mobilizing the Region, this resignation is a clear victory for transit advocates. Mack has in the past defended poor MTA practices of giving away far too many free transit passes and noted that complaints from the public were routinely ignored. Tom Suozzi will have a chance to appoint a new MTA Board member, and he would be wise to heed Higashide’s call to find a “good ambassador for the system.”

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
MTA Technology

MTA struggling in an age of open information

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 14, 2009

newsaslogo4

When I first came up with the idea to begin this blog in November of 2006, I brainstormed a name that I could spell with subway bullets. I wanted to relate the name of the blog to the subway and express that through an easily recognizable image. The current name and above banner were the end result of my brainstorming.

At the time, I didn’t realize that the MTA had trademarked the subway bullets and that I had run afoul of their trademark. Nearly 20 months after starting this site, I received a letter — in the form of a comment on a post that was at the time three weeks old — from the MTA’s Senior Associate Coounsel (sic), as he spelled it. In the initial letter, Lester Freundlich told me that I couldn’t use the image of the MetroCard in a blog post reporting on a MetroCard and that I couldn’t use the subway map. He didn’t even complain about my using the subway bullets; that issue came up later on.

Eventually, I worked out the issue with the MTA’s Marketing and Advertising department. I had to change the image, as you can see from the current one evocative of the Massimo Vignelli-designed subway signs, and I had to add a disclaimer to the site. As the use of the MetroCard image was a fair use, I was in the clear. All’s well that ended well for me.

I’m not the only person though that Lester Freundlich and the MTA legal department has contacted over the last few months. Two stories — one involving a Metro-North blogger and his iPhone application and one involving someone in San Francisco — raise some serious questions about how the MTA enforces its intellectual property rights and how prepared the MTA is for a digital world.

StationStops and an iPhone Application

Chris Schoenfeld is a Metro-North commuter and a web programmer. (Disclaimer: He’s also one of my advertisers.) In 2006, he started the Metro-North blog Station Stops, and in 2007, he wrote an application with the Metro-North schedule data. The MTA hasn’t yet figured out the digital world, and Schoenfeld’s application filled an obvious niche.

Over the years, Schoenfeld had, as I did, ran afoul of some of the MTA’s intellectual property rights. He had employed some copyrighted images of MTA property. At each turn, he removed them as requested.

In August, the MTA stepped up its campaign against Schoenfeld. In its original dealings with Schoenfeld, the MTA claimed that Station Stops was presenting itself as an official MTA site. That claim is, quite frankly, laughable. Schoenfeld’s site doesn’t resemble an MTA site, and it’s clearly a journalistic blog. A few days later, they seemingly dropped this complain but ordered him to cease selling the iPhone application. This charge rested on the claim that the MTA owns the copyright to the schedule data and that Schoenfeld’s use of the data violates that copyright.

Continue Reading
41 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Service AdvisoriesSubway Security

On 9/11 weekend, security concerns abound

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 11, 2009

The weekend service advisories can be found in the bottom half of this post. To skip right to them, click here.

As the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks arrived on a gray and rainy Friday, our city’s attention again turned to security. The Times looked at ways in which we’ve put the attacks behind us a city, but not everyone felt confident that the city is safer than it was eight years ago. ABC News looked at subway security and came away alarmed.

Despite hundreds of millions of dollars allocated to create a state-of-the-art surveillance system for New York City’s subway system, the monitoring technology is still not in place and experts say the city’s underground transportation tunnels remain a leading and unnecessarily vulnerable target to terrorism eight years after the 9/11 attacks devastated the country.

“Terrorists, if they did surveillance, would know that security hasn’t really improved since 9/11,” said former national security officer Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant…

Four years ago, the MTA awarded a more than $200 million contract t Lockheed Martin to create a surveillance system to monitor NYC’s subway systems. The technology was supposed to be in operation last year, but it remains unimplemented as Lockheed Martin and the MTA are currently suing each other over the contract and all work has stopped.

The MTA has “already paid $250 to $300 million to Lockheed and the only thing they have to show for it is litigation, being in court,” said NYC Transportation Committee Chairman John Liu.

While Washington, Atlanta and other major cities have installed similar surveillance systems, New York police have had to add extra officers to patrol its subways as it awaits its own high tech system – a system that MTA Executive Director Katherine Lapp said would alert authorities so that “hopefully we can respond and hopefully prevent an attack from happening.”

This is, of course, not really breaking news to those of us who have followed the story. What is shocking though is the federal government’s response to it. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano basically had no idea that the MTA had suffered through costly delays in securing the system or was engaged in a lawsuit with Lockheed Martin. “I ride the subway, the mayor rides the subway, the vice mayor rides the subway,” she said to ABC. “So the overall safety of the subways is safe. Now are we there yet on technology? That I can’t comment to.”

Maybe cameras aren’t the way to secure the subway. Maybe increased police presence is all we need to deter any potential attack. But even now, eight years later, the MTA’s security measures remain a work in progress.

* * *
Here are your weekend service advisories. These come to me right from the MTA and are subject to change with no notice. Check signs in your local station and listen to on-board announcements.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, September 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, there are no 1 trains operating between 34th Street and South Ferry due to a track chip-out at Chambers Street station. 2 and 3 trains provide alternate service between 34th Street and Chambers Street. Free shuttle buses replace 1 trains between Chambers Street and South Ferry. Note: Downtown 23 trains skip Christopher, Houston, Canal, and Franklin Streets.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, downtown 1 trains skip 96th Street due to station rehabilitation.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, downtown 2 trains skip 96th Street, then run local from 86th to 14th Streets. Uptown 2 trains run local from Chambers Street to 96th Street. These changes are due to a track chip-out at Chambers Street and station rehabilitation at 96th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, downtown 3 trains skip 96th Street, then run local from 86th Street to 14th Street due to a track chip-out at Chambers Street and station rehabilitation at 96th Street. Note: Overnight downtown 3 trains stop at 86th and 79th Streets, then run express from 72nd to 42nd Streets.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13, uptown 3 trains run local from Chambers Street to 96th Street due to a track chip-out at Chambers Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, Manhattan-bound 6 trains run express from Hunts Point Avenue to 3rd Avenue-138th Street due to a concrete pour at East 143rd Street-St. Mary’s Street.


From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, September 12, Bronx-bound 6 trains run express from Hunts Point Avenue to Parkchester due to rail replacement at St. Lawrence Avenue.


At all times until January 18, 2010, Far Rockaway-bound A trains skip Beach 67th, Beach 44th, and Beach 25th Streets due to station rehabilitations. – This is a permanent service change until mid-January.


From 5 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 10 p.m. Sunday, September 13, Coney Island-bound D trains run on the N line from 36th Street to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue due to 38th Street Yard work.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, D trains run local in both directions between 34th Street and West 4th Street due to a track chip-out in the 53rd Street tunnel.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, E trains are rerouted on the F line in Manhattan and Queens due to a track chip-out in the 53rd Street tunnel:

  • There are no E trains between 34th Street-Penn Station and World Trade Center. Customers should take the A instead.
  • Manhattan-bound E trains run on the F from Roosevelt Avenue to 34th Street-6th Avenue.
  • Queens-bound E trains run on the F from 34th Street-Herald Square to 47th-50th Sts. Trains resume normal E service from 5th Avenue-53rd Street to Jamaica Center.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, Manhattan-bound E platforms at Queens Plaza, 23rd Street/Ely Avenue, Lexington Avenue-53rd Street and 5th Avenue stations are closed due to a track chip-out in the 53rd Street tunnel. Customers may take the R or G instead. Note: Free shuttle buses connect the Court Square G/23rd Street-Ely Avenue, Queens Plaza, and 21st Street-Queensbridge F stations.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, Queens-bound E trains run express from Roosevelt Avenue to Forest Hills-71st Avenue due to cable work north of Roosevelt Avenue.


From 12:30 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, Manhattan-bound E trains run local on the F line from Roosevelt Avenue to 21st Street-Queensbridge due to track maintenance.


From 12:30 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, Jamaica-bound E trains run local from Queens Plaza to Roosevelt Avenue due to track maintenance.


From 12:30 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, F trains run local between Roosevelt Avenue and 21st Street-Queensbridge due to track maintenance.


From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13, and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, Queens-bound G trains run express from Roosevelt Avenue to Forest Hills-71st Avenue due to cable work north of Roosevelt Avenue.


From 8:30 p.m. to midnight Friday, September 11, and from 6:30 a.m. to midnight Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13, there are no G trains between Forest Hills-71st Avenue and Court Square due to the track chip-out in the 53rd Street tunnel. Brooklyn-bound customers may take the R to Queens Plaza, transfer to a shuttle bus connecting to Court Square. Queens-bound customers may take the E instead. Note: Queens-bound E and R trains run express from Roosevelt Avenue to Forest Hills-71st Avenue.


From 4:30 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 10 p.m. Sunday, September 13, there are no J trains between Broadway Junction and Myrtle Avenue due to switch renewal north of Broadway Junction. Free shuttle buses provide alternate service.


From 4:30 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 10 p.m. Sunday, September 13, there are no M trains running due to switch renewal north of Broadway Junction. Rerouted J trains replace the M between Myrtle and Metropolitan Avenues.


From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, Manhattan-bound N trains skip Lawrence Street due to station rehabilitation and construction of the underground connector at Lawrence Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, Brooklyn-bound N trains are rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge from Canal Street to DeKalb Avenue due to station rehabilitation and construction of the underground connector at Lawrence Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, September 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, N trains run local between DeKalb Avenue and 59th Street-4th Avenue due to station rehabilitation and construction of the underground connector at Lawrence Street.


At all times until December 2009, the Coney Island-bound side of the Avenue U and Neck Road stations are closed for rehabilitation. Customers should use Kings Highway B/Q, Sheepshead Bay B/Q, or Avenue U F stations as alternatives.


From 9:30 a.m. Friday, September 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, free shuttle buses replace Q trains between Prospect Park and Kings Highway due to Brighton line station rehabs.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13, Brooklyn-bound R trains are rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge from Canal Street to DeKalb Avenue due to station rehabilitation and construction of the underground connector at Lawrence Street.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13, Manhattan-bound R trains skip Lawrence Street due to station rehabilitation and construction of the underground connector at Lawrence Street.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13, Queens-bound R trains run express from Roosevelt Avenue to Forest Hills-71st Avenue due to cable work north of Roosevelt Avenue.


From 10:30 p.m. Friday, September 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, September 14, there are no Rockaway Park Shuttle S trains between Broad Channel and Rockaway Park due to station rehabilitations at Beach 105th Street and Beach 90th Street. A trains and free shuttle buses provide alternate service.

4 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
AsidesMTA Politics

Walder, starting in October, promises an MTA overhaul

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on September 11, 2009

During his confirmation yesterday, Jay Walder, the incoming head of the MTA, spoke about his plans for the beleaguered transit agency. While Walder spent some time talking to the Senate about the ways in which he hopes to make the transit system “more inviting,” his most telling comments concerned upcoming personnel changes. “It’s my intention to form a management team, bring new people into the MTA with a broad range of experience and success in different parts of the world,” Walder said. “It’s a fair expectation to say the MTA will be moving forward with a new team.”

For the next few weeks, the MTA will continue with its current interim structure minus outgoing Chair Dale Hemmerdinger. Walder said he will begin his job in early October after, in the words of Pete Donohue, “settling his affairs in England.” For now, Helena Williams will continue as the interim CEO, and Andrew Saul, the current vice chairman, will take over as interim chair during next Wednesday’s MTA Board meeting.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Load More Posts