Service Advisories

Making heads or tails of weekend service changes

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 4, 2008

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And just think: This isn’t even the most confusing service alert this weekend.

It has long been a Friday tradition around these parts to post the MTA’s various weekend service alerts. I post them as a service to my readers; it’s hard getting around the city on weekends when one does not know if the A is running on the F or if trains are stopping where they shouldn’t be stopping and not stopping where they should be stopping.

Apparently, I’m not the only one who has noticed this confusing trend — brought about, of course, by the MTA’s efforts to modernize and maintain our extensive subway system when the work would cause the least amount of disruption possible. Today, Clyde Haberman of The New York Times checks in with a column about the myriad service changes. Weekend travel, he writes, is confusing:

“You need a scorecard to keep up with it,” said Andrew Albert, chairman of the New York City Transit Riders Council. He hears an “unbelievable” number of complaints from flummoxed passengers. And if regular riders are often confused, Mr. Albert said, imagine the strain for tourists or for New Yorkers who are on a weekend excursion and using an unfamiliar subway line.

Haberman dissects the way the MTA presents the service change information:

But weekends are not the slack periods they once were. Ridership on Saturdays and Sundays averaged a combined 4.8 million in January, the highest figure in more than 35 years, said Paul J. Fleuranges, a spokesman for New York City Transit.

So when the No. 6 train skips five stations or the D train runs along N train tracks, thousands upon thousands of people may be thrown for a loop. They swipe their MetroCards, poor devils, totally unaware of the adventure that awaits them.

Mr. Fleuranges said his agency has “made strides in getting information out to people.” It posts advisories both in stations and on the transportation authority’s Web site. It sends word to 70,000 people who have signed up for e-mail notices of service changes.

Still, Mr. Albert says more could be done, like changing the notices’ typography so that riders can focus more readily on trains they care about. “When someone walks into a station and sees a wall of diversion notices, he turns off,” Mr. Albert said. “It’s worthless.”

Now, considering that people enter one station and often must transfer, it makes sense to put up as many advisories as the MTA deems reasonable. Making them more readable is a noble goal, but in the end, it’s really up to the riders, who shouldn’t be surprised anymore by weekend service changes, to figure out where they are going and how they will get there. The MTA can only do so much to baby its 4.8 million subway riders.

This weekend, meanwhile, is brutal for Brooklyn. The F and G are screwed up, and no trains are running along the 2 and 3 lines from Chambers St. to Atlantic Ave. Here’s everything for you:


From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, April 5 and Sunday, April 6, Manhattan-bound 1 trains skip 238th, 231st, and 225th Streets due to switch work near 238th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 5 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 7, there are no 2 trains between Atlantic Avenue and Chambers Street. Uptown 2 trains replace the 5 from Bowling Green to 149th Street and uptown 5 trains replace the 2 from Chambers Street to 149th Street. These changes are due to several projects, including station rehab at Chambers Street and tunnel lighting in the Clark Street tunnel and Wall Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 5 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 7, there are no 3 trains running. The M7, M102 and free shuttle buses replace the 3 between 148th Street and 135th Street. The 4 trains will make all 3 stops between Atlantic Avenue and New Lots Avenue. These changes are due to third rail work at 145th Street.


From 4 a.m. Saturday, April 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday, April 6, Bronx-bound 6 trains run express from Parkchester to Pelham Bay Park due to track panel work at Middletown Road. The last stop for some Bronx-bound 6 trains is 3rd Avenue.


From 4 a.m. Saturday, April 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday, April 6, Flushing-bound 7 trains run express from Queensboro Plaza to Flushing-Main Street due to track and switch work at 74th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 5 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 7, there is no C train service. Customers should take the A in Manhattan and the F in Brooklyn. A trains run local between 168th Street and Canal Street. Downtown A trains skip 50th, 23rd and Spring Streets. Free shuttle buses replace A trains between 168th Street and 207th Street. Transfer is available between the Broadway or Ft. Washington Avenue shuttle buses and A trains at 168th Street. These service changes are necessary due to Bergen Line signal work, Chambers Street signal modernization and tunnel lighting between 168th and 207th Street.


From 11 p.m. Friday, April 4 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 7, free shuttle buses replace A trains between Far Rockaway and Beach 90th Street due to track tie replacement work from Beach 67th Street to Far Rockaway.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 5 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 7, there are no E trains between West 4th Street and World Trade Center due to Chambers Street signal modernization. Customers should take the A instead.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 5 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 7, Manhattan-bound F trains run on the V line from Roosevelt Avenue to 47th-50th Streets due to work in the 63rd Street tunnel.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 5 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 7, free shuttle buses replace F and G trains between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. and 7th Avenue due to Bergen line signal work.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 5 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 7, G trains run in two sections due to Bergen line signal work:
– Between Forest Hills-71st Avenue and Bedford-Nostrand Avs. and
– Between Bedford-Nostrand Avs. and Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 5 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 7, there are no G trains between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. and Smith-9th Sts. due to Bergen line signal work. Customers should take the shuttle bus instead.


From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 5 and Sunday, April 6, Queens-bound J trains skip Hewes Street, Lorimer Street and Flushing Avenue due to tie and rail replacement.

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Congestion FeeMTA Economics

MTA Source: If congestion pricing fails, expect more fare hikes

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 4, 2008

In a story bound to pick up speed over the weekend, the tireless Elizabeth Benjamin at the Daily News’ The Daily Politics blog reports that MTA board members are threatening more fare hikes if congestion pricing isn’t approved. That leaves with one question: Is the MTA board engaging in some political chicanery or are this fair city’s subway riders up a fare hike creek without a paddle if congestion pricing fails this weekend?

Benjamin reports that she got a call from an anonymous MTA board member who levied this fare hike threat:

In a move that seemed designed to scare the bejeezus out of state lawmakers, an MTA source called this morning to insist the authority is actively “looking at different scenarios” to fund its five-year capital plan if the Legislature doesn’t pass congestion pricing – including the possibility of yet another fare hike.

“If they don’t get a new revenue source out of Albany, either congestion pricing or some other new tax, they’re going to have to get the money somehow,” the source said. “Their current finances are so soft they can’t do the $30 million (worth of service improvements) they promised. How are they going to pay the debt service on the next capital plan?”

When pressed, MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin danced around the issue a little bit. “A number of things have been looked at, but no specific fare numbers are being run,” Soffin said to the Daily News reporter. “But, if the capital plan isn’t funded, we have to find ways to fund it, and we have limited choices.”

For the MTA, the fiscal news really is this bad. Just a 10 days after the MTA had to indefinitely postpone service upgrades that should have come our way after the fare hike, Benjamin notes that the MTA’s finances are looking even shakier:

MTA revenues from four taxes on real estate transactions dropped in March far below what the authority’s budget projected. The budget anticipated a $47 million drop but those revenues fell $79 million in March.

If that trend continues the MTA is in deeper financial trouble. It already is projecting a $200 million deficit for next year and much larger deficits in subsequent years, largely because of rising payments for debt racked up because of inadequate funding during the Pataki years.

The unspoken bad news here is that even with congestion pricing, the MTA will still be facing a budget deficit. For the umpteenth year in a row, Albany is going to scale back its fiscal contributions from the originally-promised levels, and the MTA cannot just print money itself. Another fare hike next year seems inevitable.

Yet again, we’ll be faced with the trade-off: Do we want a subway system that’s cheap — some might say too cheap — and bad service or are we willing to shoulder yet another fare hike to maintain or improve service levels? No matter the answer to that question, the debate is a long way off. Meanwhile, if Albany isn’t going to kick back state funds for the MTA, the least they could this weekend is acknowledge the city’s home rule message and pass congestion pricing. The money will be a dedicated revenue stream for the MTA, and the authority should could use it.

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Congestion FeeMTA Economics

Russianoff praises congestion pricing’s transit lockbox

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 3, 2008

Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign is something of a subway guru. He is a tireless advocate for riders’ rights and for all things public transit in New York City. When he talks, rail watchers listen.

Yesterday, Russianoff talked and in a big way. In a piece in The Post, not normally a big congestion pricing supporter, Russianoff outlined his support for and belief in a transit lockbox for the revenues from congestion pricing. Usually historical arguments based on the way the MTA has been funded over the last 40 years, Russianoff lays out a compelling case for the security of a lockbox. While many MTA watchers on this blog and elsewhere have been skeptical of the promise that all congestion pricing revenue would go toward transit improvements, Russianoff’s pieces assuages many of those fears.

He writes:

Some still doubt the lockbox will work. But dedicated funds for transit actually have a very good track record of getting the cash where it’s supposed to go.

The MTA has been funded by several such revenue streams (via portions of the corporate-franchise, mortgage-recording, real-property and sales taxes, among others) since the early ’80s, providing tens of billions to run our subways, buses and commuter rail. And the dedicated funds have never been raided to balance the state’s budget or fund projects unrelated to transit.

Indeed, one such fund goes back to the MTA’s birth: Back in 1968, the agency was granted the surplus from the tolls on MTA bridges and tunnels. The funds support both daily operations and the rebuilding of the system.

This year, it’s set to get $334 million from facilities such as the Brooklyn-Battery and Queens-Midtown tunnels and the Triborough Bridge. In 40 years, the bridge and tunnel surpluses have never been taken and used for non-transit purposes.

Russianoff ends by urging the public and its elected representatives to avoid voting against congestion pricing because of sketpicism over the funds. If the money is earmarked for the MTA, then, as history shows, it will be delivered to the MTA no ifs, ands or buts about it.

Indirectly, then, Russianoff’s piece brings us to another conclusion: The MTA has suffered financially not because they have been denied funds from their dedicated revenue sources but because state and city institutions have not come through with fiscal contributions to the transit authority. For decades, public officials have promised the MTA money to cover budget gaps when dedicated revenue streams can’t cover everything, and for decades, public officials have reneged on those promises. For the most recent example of this, we need look no further than Monday when news came that Albany may not deliver all that was once promised.

As Russianoff urges, New Yorkers need to hold their public officials responsible for this oversight. Too long have our elected representatives siphoned money away from the MTA. If we care about transit, we should urge these officials to fund the MTA. Enough with the wasteful projects and pork spending. Give this city — the economic engine of New York State — the funds it needs to run a state-of-the-art 21st century transit network. It all starts with congestion pricing, but it ends with money that far exceeds those contributions.

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Metro-North

In the Bronx, Metro-North continues work on their most expensive station ever

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 2, 2008

This will one day be a Metro-North stop filled with Yankee fans. (Photo by Mark Vergari of The Journal News)

It’s amazing what this city will do for the Yankees.

While a new stadium goes up across the street from venerable Yankee Stadium, the city and its taxpayers are footing the bill for a larger portion of that construction project that anyone likes to admit. Meanwhile, a few hundred yards away, various city agencies are paying $91 million to build the most expensive and largest station ever built by Metro-North.

With a new baseball season upon us and construction at the Yankee Stadium site continuing at a rapid pace, Ken Valenti of The Journal News toured the construction. LoHud.com has some poorly resampled pictures posted of the station under progress. While this concrete platform will soon be a Metro-North crown jewel, for now, things are progressing:

The project has outsized dimensions compared with most Metro-North work. The platforms are 20 to 25 feet wide and 420 feet long, compared with typical platforms 12 feet by 70 feet, Miceli said. Staircases and elevators will connect the platforms with a 10,000-square-foot covered mezzanine, making the walkway accessible to people in wheelchairs. The new walkway will be 25 feet wide, more than twice the width of the one with the curved plastic top, of which only part remains, and connected to the one under construction by the wooden steps. The new walk will make room for 15,000 fans arriving for the start of a game by train and from the parking area…

New York City pitched in $39 million for the project. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is paying $52 million, but $4 million of that comes from legislative earmarks from Rep. Jose Serrano, D-Bronx, and state Assembly members Carmen Arroyo and Jose Rivera. None of the money came from the Yankees.

Of course, the project is delayed with an anticipated completion date of shortly after Opening day 2009, but would you really expect an on-time delivery here?

My biggest concern with the project is, of course, fiduciary. While the Metro-North stop will benefit the South Bronx neighborhoods surrounding Yankee Stadium, I’m a little dismayed that the Yanks couldn’t toss in a few million dollars to off-set the MTA’s expenditures here. The MTA could use the financial relief, and the Yankees are veritably rolling in dough these days.

But either way, this will certainly be a useful station when it opens next year.

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MTA AbsurdityMTA Technology

NYCT installing redundant signs on 7 trains

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 2, 2008

7explclsigns.jpg

The circle and diamond designations for local and express trains seem rather familiar. (Photos by M. Roberts for the Daily News)

Ah, the good ol’ 7 line. More crowded that most U.S cities’ entire public transportation networks and long the testing ground for new MTA programs — how’s that project line working? — John Rocker’s favorite trains will again change the way it announces whether its trains are running express or local.

In October, the MTA introduced an LED light pilot program to help differentiate trains. The test lights were fairly straightforward: Trains whose LEDs read LCL were going local, and those with LED lights that said EXP were, obviously, going express.

Yesterday, the MTA unveiled the results of this LED light indicator test. As Pete Donohue reported, 7 trains will be equipped with red diamonds or green circles to indicate express or local service, respectively. Donohue writes:

NYC Transit has begun rolling out subway trains with new digital signs brightly declaring if they are running express or local: a red diamond for express, a green circle for local. The first train fully loaded with the broadsides hit the rails during [Monday’s] rush. More subway cars will be rigged in the coming weeks and months.

“It looks sharp,” No. 7 line General Manager Louis Brusati said of the markings. “It will immediately tell people what train it is.”

NYC Transit President Howard Roberts said: “It is another step in making the ride on the No. 7 line as smooth and effortless as possible.”

Transit officials hope to trim train delays by making it easier to identify express and local trains. Service announcements are made on trains and in stations, but riders often are puzzled.

Now, I’m all for bringing in new technology for our subways, and that’s what New York City Transit is doing with these line manager programs on the L and 7. Donohue notes that digital communication signs on station mezzanines along these two lines will be rolled out in the next two months. These signs could give information about train delays or route changes. I’m not quite sure how the 7 and L trains can really change their route, but that’s neither here nor there. The fact that these technologies are on the way is a major achievement.

I am still stumped though about this seemingly new way to indicate express or local service along the 7 line. Back in the day — and by “the day,” I mean the late 1990s — 7 trains used their rollover signs for this designation. Diamond 7’s always ran express while circle 7’s always ran local. But at some point in the last few years, NYCT employees decided that it was too hard to change a bunch of rollover signs during depot stops, and so passengers grew so confused that the MTA had to install something new over a system that was already in place.

We don’t know how much this LED light program costs, but considering that the MTA is not really in a position to spend frivolously right now, I have to wonder if asking employees to take the time to turn the rollover signs would really be that inconvenient right now. There’s really no point in installing an unnecessary technology on top of something that isn’t yet obsolete.

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MTA Absurdity

Breaking: MTA announces plan to shutter subways at night

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 1, 2008

This will soon be a familiar sight to New Yorkers. (Photo by flickr user graphicdefine)

Is the City That Never Sleeps finally going to bed?

After 104 years of life with a 24-hour subway, New York City may have to learn how to cope with a transit system that shuts down late at night. Due to the MTA’s budget crisis and looming cuts from Albany, MTA CEO and Executive Director Elliot “Lee” Sander announced today that the MTA will start shutting the entire subway system for a few hours each day.

“I have reviewed our 2008 revenues to date and the projected contributions from Albany,” Sander said during an afternoon press conference, “and as a result, I will recommend to the Board that we move ahead with stopping the trains for a few hours each night.”

According to preliminary plans, during the week, the subways will begin their last runs at 12:30 a.m. and resume service at 5:30 a.m. On the weekends, the last trains will run at 2:30 a.m. with service starting up again at 6:30 a.m.

For decades, New York had resisted calls to close the subway system. In the mid 1990s, transit experts and city planners questioned the need for 24-hour service, and in 1981, an impassioned letter to the editor of The Times explained why the subways had operated 24 hours a day since the inaugural ride in 1904.

But all good things must come to end. With capital construction costs on the rise and the revenues from congestion price no sure thing, the MTA has decided to cut back service in the short term until the economy and their finances recover. “If we implement these service cutbacks now,” Sander explained, “we can can speed up the time frame for our big-ticket capital projects such as the Second Ave. Subway and the Long Island Rail Road East Side Access plan.”

Coming on the heels of yet another fare hike, the news has left New Yorkers, used to getting anywhere at any time, fairly shocked, the promise of 24-hour bus service that mirrors subway lines hasn’t mollified subway rider advocates. “We understand that the MTA is in a financial bind,” Straphangers Campaign guru Gene Russianoff said, “but we’re not prepared to give up our 24-hour subway service. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers rely on that subway service to get to work and to live their lives.”

As far as I’m concerned, happy April Fools Day.

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Congestion Fee

City Council approves amended congestion fee bill

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 1, 2008

In a close vote late Monday evening, the City Council sent a strong home-rule message to Albany when it passed Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing proposal. The Council vote now sends the plan up to the State Legislature for ultimate approval.

Diane Cardwell of The Times has more on the vote and what it means for the revolutionary plan’s future:

Approving the proposal, Ms. Quinn said, would send a message to the Legislature that the “people who were elected to represent the New Yorkers who live in our five boroughs are sick and tired of our streets being clogged with traffic, we’re sick and tired of the children who live in our city literally having to fight to be able to breathe, and that we see congestion pricing as a solution to this problem.”

But the ultimate fate of the proposal now resides in Albany, where the intentions of lawmakers whose approval is needed remained unclear. Gov. David A. Paterson and the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, have expressed their support. But Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who has derailed Mr. Bloomberg’s ambitions in the past, remained noncommittal, telling members of the Democratic conference on Sunday night that he would not take the issue up until the state budget was completed.

Meanwhile, the form of congestion pricing passed by the City Council looks a bit different than Mayor Bloomberg’s original plan. Gone are the boundaries at 86th St. Instead, congestion pricing will go into effect south of 60th St. At the last minute, other key changes which probably saved the plan were put in place by the Senate majority. Elizabeth Benjamin summarized those changes. They address many of the concerns the congestion pricing critics had:

– Requires the Port Authority of NY/NJ to contribute $1 billion to the 5-year MTA capital plan. If the authority fails to make this payment, then the amount of the toll offset for commuters who use the Hudson River crossings will be reduced. (This is to address complaints that NJ communters weren’t paying their fair share in the original plan).

– This eligible to receive an earned income tax credit would have congestion pricing fees reimbursed over the amount of the monthly Metrocard. (This is to address complaints about the lack of an exemption for poor people).

– Increases the time to pay fines for non-EZPass drivers to 96 hours (four days) prior to incurring a penalty and provides three separate notices to be sent to a driver prior to the issuance of a violation. (To create a fairer fine structure).

– Strengthens language regarding prevailing wage to include all public works performed by the MTA with congestion pricing funds. (To assuage concerns of organized labor union and their allies).

– Expands the handicapped license plate exemption to include those with a NYC tag and an EZPass.

For the MTA, that golden carrot of funds is one step closer, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. After facing lower-than-expected revenues and the threat of less money from Albany, the MTA needed a win, and they have received at least a provisional win. The money from the congestion pricing plan will go to the MTA, and the MTA will be able to fund more of its capital campaign. That’s a win.

Pricing opponents are sure to be out in full force tomorrow, but this is a good plan for New York. It’s a good plan for the future of our region and for the future of our transportation network. It’s one step closer to reality, and that is good news indeed.

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AsidesCongestion Fee

Council approves congestion pricing

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on March 31, 2008

Finally, some good news for New York’s battered and beleaguered transportation network: The City Council has approved congestion pricing. The plan now heads to the state legislature which should heed New York’s home-rule decision. I’ll have more on this and its potential impact on transit later on tonight.

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AsidesCongestion Fee

Congestion pricing vote set for 3:30 p.m.

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on March 31, 2008

Another financial milestone for the MTA is fast approaching. At 3:30 p.m. this afteroon, the City Council will hold a vote on the revised congestion pricing plan. While, as City Room’s Sewell Chan notes, the State Legislature will ultimately approve or vote down the plan, the Council has to approve the plan before the Legislature can vote. This morning, The Times looked people who drive when they don’t have to. Those are the folks who should be paying the fee. More as this story develops. After a bad financial week, the MTA could really use a congestion pricing win today. [City Room]

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