Second Ave. Sagas

At least we’re not in Montreal

by Benjamin Kabak August 28, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on August 28, 2007

The McGill Metro stop in Montreal was literally falling down this weekend (Photo by flickr user blork)

Subways all over the globe had issues this weekend, and after yesterday’s post noting the problems in China and Washington, DC, my readers were more than happy to share their experiences in subway systems that just can’t measure up to New York’s.

The best tip came from Greg who e-mailed me about the problems in Montreal. On Friday, officials shut down the McGill Metro stop in Montreal when two large cracks were discovered in the tunnels linking the subway station to a nearby mall. That sounds like fun. CBC News had more:

Police emptied buildings and sealed off a large section of Montreal’s downtown core for the weekend, and service was cancelled on part of one subway line after two fissures in a tunnel linking the McGill station to malls were discovered Friday…

Fearing that roads could collapse, Montreal police cleared several city blocks of people in an area bordered by Sherbrooke, St. Catherine and Bleury streets and University Avenue, and shut the streets to traffic.

With a major university laying claim to this subway stop, New Yorkers can imagine this infrastructure issue happening right here in the playground that is the West Village. Imagine if deep fissures appeared in the ceiling at the West 4th St. stop (which is not hard to picture if you’ve looked closely at that station lately). Not only would the city be collectively flipping out, but service on up to 8 subway lines would be messed up.

So as the week rolls on and the State Comptroller tells us that the MTA doesn’t really need that fare hike, we can yet again be grateful that the tracks aren’t catching fire as they are in Washington, D.C., and that the sky — or ceiling — isn’t falling like it is in Montreal. Yet.

August 28, 2007 2 comments

Fare Hikes MTA Economics

The Comptroller will have none of that fare hike

by Benjamin Kabak August 27, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on August 27, 2007

The Comptrollers are revolting. (Well, then, maybe they should shower. I’ll be here all week.)

Nearly three weeks after New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr., issued a report on how the MTA could avoid a fare hike, the State Comptroller Thomas P. Napoli has issued a similar finding. He says that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority should hold off on its fare hike until the agency can huddle with city and state legislatures to develop a cohesive plan to financing public transportation that doesn’t unfairly burden the riders.

Citing the need to wait until after the congestion pricing panel issues its findings and recommendations, Napoli was fairly critical of the MTA’s willingness to move forward with a fare hike. From his office’s press release:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority should hold off on its fare hike plans until after the City and the State have fully considered the recommendations of the recently established congestion pricing commission and the MTA’s proposed five-year capital program, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said in a report released today. The MTA has proposed raising fares and tolls in early 2008 and again in 2010 to help address sizeable looming budget gaps.

“The MTA should put New York’s commuters first,” DiNapoli said. “Before the MTA asks for more money from straphangers, it should develop a coordinated strategy with the State and City to balance its operating budget and to finance the next five-year capital program. The MTA has taken some good first steps to develop a long-term plan for its future fiscal health. But talk of a fare hike is premature. The City is trying to reduce congestion and encourage greater use of mass transit. Any fare increase should be the last piece of a comprehensive plan, not the first.”

Napoli noted that, as many have observed said lately, the MTA doesn’t need the fare hike to run a balanced budget in 2008; the agency itself forecasts a net balance of $323 million.

MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin issued his own press release (not yet available at the MTA’s own press site):

We are grateful that Comptroller DiNapoli has acknowledged both the M.T.A.’s record ridership and the $6 billion in projected deficits we face over the next four years. These two factors dictate the fiscally responsible path we have proposed, which calls for internal belt tightening and contributions from all of our funding partners to address these deficits before they threaten service. The plan introduces stability and predictability to the fare structure by calling for biannual cost-of-living increases instead of much larger increases in crisis situations. The proposed financial plan accepts the M.T.A. responsibility to provide improved service to a rapidly growing city and region and acts immediately to put the agency on sound financial footing. Deferring the proposed 2008 fare and toll increase will only lead to more drastic increases and unacceptable service cuts in 2009.

In my view, the MTA’s release dances around the fact that both Comptroller’s have now told the MTA to ask for more money from the City and State. While Soffin cannot come out and lay the blame at the feet of politicians who have long stifled the MTA and have deprived the agency of its rightful funds, I hope the MTA is at least pursuing this course as well. It’s better to beg hat-in-hand in Albany than it is to stick the straphangers with another fare hike.

The full Comptroller report can be access here as a PDF or here as an audio file. Key bullet points after the jump:

August 27, 2007 1 comment

International Subways WMATA

At least we’re not in China. Or Washington, D.C.

by Benjamin Kabak August 27, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on August 27, 2007

On Sunday afternoon, I headed off from Brooklyn to the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in Alphabet City’s Tompkins Square Park. Generally, the best way for to go is via the F train to 2nd Ave. It’s a short walk from 1st Ave. and Houston to Tompkins Square.

But it’s the weekend, and things never go as planned on the weekends. Manhattan-bound F trains were running along the A tracks from Jay St./Borough Hall to West 4th. So I had to take the F to West 4th and then switch to a Brooklyn-bound F train making the stops in Manhattan. That Brooklyn-bound train showed up right away, and this weekend service advisory cost me just a few minutes of extra travel.

In New York, we tend to grumble and groan about the myriad service changes. We never know which train is running when and where. But as I silently bemoaned the endless service changes, I realized things aren’t much better elsewhere.

Take China. As The Times pointed out on Sunday, it’s a different — and dirtier — world across the Pacific. With the Olympics headed their way in just under a year, China is panicking. For the largest nation in the world, the Olympics will serve as a coming out party. After years of following an isolationist foreign policy, China will welcome emissaries from all over the globe.

As part of the Olympics, the Chinese are constructing a new subway line at breakneck speed. But they’re also have problems with customer service on the current rail systems, Reuters reported last week:

China is trying to stamp out protests over rail delays ahead of the Beijing Olympics, threatening passengers with legal action if they stay aboard their train once it has reached its destination. “Refusing to leave the train will be regarded as an illegal act endangering train safety,” the China News said, citing a long list of unlawful measures proscribed by central authorities.

There have been several instances of Chinese passengers refusing to leave their trains after serious delays, demanding compensation and an apology from state-run railway operators…In the report, jointly released by the ministry and the Public Security Bureau, passengers must conform in order to ensure a safe and orderly environment before the Games taking place in the capital in August next year.

Yikes. I’d hate to end up in a Chinese prison over a train protest.

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., a city with just five subways lines, every single line had a problem on Sunday. According to the WMATA, five different incidents of smoke and fire on the tracks or in equipment rooms led to rampant delays all day. This is of course analogous to the subway floods from a few weeks ago that knocked out nearly all of the subway lines.

So as another week begins — the last one before the Labor Day holiday — we should take comfort in knowing that New York is not alone in dealing with subway problems. But more importantly, the MTA is listening to its riders and subway bloggers. They’re using report cards to grade lines, and they’re keeping their eyes and ears on the pulse of the riders. We have a great subway system with room for improvement and a whole bunch of leaders willing to take the steps to improve it. And that is always a good thing.

Photo: Firefighters in DC work to restore order to the Metro. (Courtesy of WUSA 9)

August 27, 2007 5 comments

MTA Technology

Google Transit may come to New York

by Benjamin Kabak August 24, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on August 24, 2007

Bringing Google Transit to New York would be an ambitious undertaking.

Google Transit, part of Google’s ~~plan to take over the world~~ laboratory of experimental services, is pretty nifty. Using, as Google puts it, all available public transportation schedules and information, the service supposedly plots out the most efficient route from point to point. It includes the option to view various routes and has a cost comparison tool.

The only problem for us in New York is that the service is available only in a few regions of the country right now. All of that, however, could change. This post on Read/WriteWeb points to an article on Bloomberg.com announcing that Google is looking to take on a Transit map for the entire New York Metropolitan area.

Chris Dolmetsch and Ari Levy from Bloomberg News have more:

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority and New Jersey Transit, which together carry more than 9 million people a day, are working with [Google] to give users one place to go for maps, schedules and trip planners. The agencies serve the five New York City boroughs and suburbs in New Jersey, Connecticut, Westchester County and Long Island.

“We are always looking for ways to incorporate technology in what we do,” Jim Redeker, assistant executive director of New Jersey Transit, said in a telephone interview from Newark. Google has “good experience at making this work.”

According to the article, New Jersey Transit will share its route map and schedule information with the search company, and the MTA is in talks to do the same. Furthermore, this would be, by far, the most ambitious undertaking for Google Transit as New York City alone has 468 subway stops, just 35 fewer than the rest of the nation combined. When one factors in the Long Island Railroad, Metro-North, PATH and New Jersey Transit, the number of stations just keeps on growing.

While the article notes that public transportation use in Duluth, Minnesota, increased by 12 percent after Google Transit took on the city’s public transportation system, I would find it hard to believe New York would be in line for a similar increase. First, the city’s public transportation system is so pervasive that it is already an ingrained part of life in New York City. I wonder if Duluth can say the same?

Additionally, we already have many of the services that a New York-oriented Google Transit service would provide. From the MTA Trip Planner and the NJ Transit Itinerary Planner to Hopstop, OnNYTurf’s Subway map and GypsyMaps, New Yorkers aren’t lacking for direction-minded Websites.

None of those sites, however, provide information for all of the city’s transit services (bus, regional rail, subway) in one place, and Google, who, according to Bloomberg, hopes to make a pretty penny from a New York-oriented transit site, would fulfill that need. And as Allison L. C. de Cerreño, director of New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management, said to Bloomberg, “Most people know Google. That’s actually a very powerful way to get the information in one place, in a way that most people are familiar with.”

A hat tip to Brian for this story.

August 24, 2007 7 comments

Taxis

Planned taxi strike will lead to crowded subways

by Benjamin Kabak August 24, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on August 24, 2007

This Prius taxi may be off the streets for a few days in early September. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak).

Get ready for some crowded subway cars when September 5th and 6th roll around. Just two days after vacation season and Labor Day weekend draw to close, the Taxi Workers Alliance union members plan to strike over Taxi and Limousine Commission plans to install GPS technology in the city’s 13,000 taxis.

Bobby Cuza, NY1 transit guru and local TV heartthrob, has more:

The Taxi Workers Alliance says that at 5 a.m. on Wednesday, September 5th its members will go on a 48-hour strike…At issue is a new GPS system, a satellite-tracking technology the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission is requiring in all 13,000 of the city’s yellow cabs. It’s just one in a package of technology improvements that also includes a credit card reader and a video screen in every backseat.

The TLC says GPS will allow riders to track their trip on an electronic map, and make it easier to recover lost property. But the Taxi Workers Alliance calls it an invasion of privacy, arguing drivers’ movements could be tracked even while off-duty – and that any technological snafu will cost them.

As I see it, there are two separate issues of varying importance here. Let’s deal with what I consider to be the lesser of the two problems. Taxi drivers are concerned that the GPS system will enable the Taxi and Limousine Commission to track their every move as they drive around the city.

I don’t see this is a legitimate concern. For a while, the city has been able to employ various tracking methods for drivers: E-ZPass records could chart speeds, traffic cameras could watch for transgressions. But it doesn’t happen. In short, no city agency has the money or manpower to monitor every GPS record, and when we’re talking about 13,000 cabs running around the city, the monitoring issue is compounded. GPS systems would allow riders to get fair treatment; taxi drivers wouldn’t and shouldn’t have to worry about Big Brother.

The second issue is neatly summarized by Taxi Workers Alliance Executive Director Bhairavi Desai. “The technology, if it shuts down, the meter shuts down,” Desai said to Cuza. “If the meter shuts down, the drivers cannot pick up a fare.”

This is a legitimate concern and one the city and T&LC should address. Taxi drivers, who barely eke out a living as it is, shouldn’t have to bare the brunt of the costs if the city-mandated technology fails. Here, I side with the taxi drivers.

Meanwhile, how will this affect those of us who avoid taxis and take the subway? Well, for two days at a time when the city’s population is swelling with vacationers returning home and college students checking in for the year, 13,000 taxis will be off the roads. Expect crowded trains and grumpy people who usually think they’re too good for the subway stooping to the level of a common straphanger. Oh, joy. I can’t wait.

August 24, 2007 5 comments

MTA Technology

The subways are in ur facebook, updatin’ ur transit alerts

by Benjamin Kabak August 23, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on August 23, 2007

A screenshot of the Facebook Subway Status application. The Seventh Ave. Express is definitely running local on the weekends for now until the end of time, it seems.

This afternoon, SUBWAYBlogger pointed its loyal readers in the direction of a nifty new Facebook application. The application — which you can find here — is called Subway Status. And that, folks, is the genius of Facebook and the orgy of (mostly) crap they unleashed with the application roll-out a few months ago.

(For all of you who don’t know Facebook, it’s a social networking site that started with colleges, expanded to high schools and has ended up open to everyone. It’s more addictive than crack if you were born in the 1980s or later.)

Anyway, the application, as you can imagine, brings subway information to the Facebooking masses. Using information readily available to the public as well as input from readers, Subway Status keeps subscribers attuned to the latest service alerts. To use this informative application, a Facebook user installs it on his or her profile and selects a favorite or oft-used subway line. That person can then view the alerts in that line and contribute. While nearly everyone in New York takes more than one subway, the application limits users to just one line, but it’s very easy to “transfer lines,” as the application so aptly puts it. I like where this is going.

Now, while SUBWAYBlogger and this Daily Intel post took care of the preliminaries, I decided to use Facebook for its true purpose: ~~stalking your friends~~ making new connections. I contacted Amos Bloomberg, the application’s creator, via Facebook, and he graciously answered some questions about this app. As Bloomberg mentioned, he’s worked on an idea such as this for a while, and it all stems from the lack of communication from the MTA, something with which we are quite familiar after recent events.

So take a read through the interview. And if you want to Facebook me, do it here. I’ll be your friend.

Second Ave. Sagas: Is Subway Status an independent application or was it developed in conjunction with the MTA?

August 23, 2007 4 comments

Brooklyn F Express Plan Fare Hikes

Brooklyn council members to vote down fare hike over F express plan

by Benjamin Kabak August 22, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on August 22, 2007

The construction on the Gowanus Viaduct is quickly becoming an issue in the F Express plan. (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

Everyone likes the F Express plan. Over 3600 people have signed the petition, and MTA board members have voiced their support. The plan would even give meaning to the neglected V train. But the MTA is throwing up a roadblock.

Over and over again, the MTA keeps saying that construction on the Gowanus Viaduct renders this plan impossible until 2012. Now, those of us who have been most vocal in the push to get this plan approved have never really understood how the work on the viaduct renders express tracks — unused tracks that would cost literally billions of dollars to build today — out of service.

Yesterday, we learned, via the Kensington (Brooklyn) blog, that two city council members agree with us. The MTA just hasn’t adequately explained why the F Express plan must suffer. The two politicians — Simcha Felder of Borough Park and Dominic Recchia of Coney Island — write:

The MTA has said that an express F train cannot be considered until 2012, upon competition of the Gowanus Viaduct restoration. As you know, in addition to the two unused express tracks between Bergen St. and Church Ave., a single unused track exists thereafter up to Kings Highway. Anyone who has ridden the elevated portion of the Culver line has seen the single express track between Church Ave. and Kings Highway used sporadically despite the scheduled Gowanus Viaduct project. We fail to understand what relevance the Viaduct has to the elevated express track between Church Ave. and Kings Highway, or, for that matter, the underground express tracks beyond the Viaduct, from 7th Ave. to Church Av. Additionally, we remain unconvinced that the MTA’s 2012 goal is reasonable timeframe for the completion of work on the Viaduct, and, transitively, full restoration of express service.

The MTA has also cited insufficient demand as an argument against restoration of express service on the F line. Based on the community’s loud voicing of their concern over this matter, including an online petition with more than 3,500 signatures, we believe the demand will be particularly evident when service is improved, and the MTA is offering its riders a more reasonable commute. At a time when the city’s leadership is attempting to convince more New Yorkers to step out of their cars and into mass transit, a fare hike without tangible improvements would severely undermine this effort.

While, as the Gotham Gazette notes, it’s not politically risky for anyone to oppose a fare hike, Felder and Simcha are using their platform to make a good point. We want more information on the Gowanus Viaduct. Will it really take until 2012? Is there no way to accommodate express service on the rest of the BMT Culver line in Brooklyn?

This line would have a positive impact on many people’s lives in Brooklyn. It should happen, and we shouldn’t have to sit through anymore vague answers as the MTA stalls on another construction project.

August 22, 2007 11 comments

Self Promotion

The MTA is listening…to me!

by Benjamin Kabak August 21, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on August 21, 2007

Michael Rundle, reporter for Metro, one of the city’s free daily newspapers, called me last week to talk subways. Specifically, we chatted about the recent proliferation of blogs talking about the MTA and the city’s subways.

It all started a few months ago with the F Express plan. During the major push for this plan — which is still gaining traction among politicians — Gary led the charge with some help from Kensington (Brooklyn) and The Gowanus Lounge. With a new group dedicted to saving the G train setting up shop online, Rundle and his article affirm what those of us writing have learned: The MTA is listening to the bloggers.

He writes:

The message seems to be getting through. Elliot Sander, executive director of the MTA, recognized that bloggers were calling for refunds after subway flooding during an Aug. 9 press conference. And with the introduction of “Rider Report Cards” on the L and 7 trains and new features on the MTA’s Web site, transit officials are increasingly recognizing the importance of customer opinions.

“Yes [we read them], and yes [they make an impact],” MTA spokesperson Jeremy Soffin said yesterday. “Reading blogs is a good way of keeping in touch with what our customers are thinking. Like anything online, the information varies from extremely well-informed people to those who aren’t well informed. But there certainly are a lot of real experts out there.”

Now, neighborhood blogs aren’t the only ones writing about the subway. Gothamist and City Room both cover the MTA religiously, and Streetsblog keeps its eye on public transportation as well. In another realm, the tireless contributors to the Subchat message board keep tabs on the city’s transit systems as well.

For our part, we bloggers have learned that for us to be heard, we have to stay on top of both the news and the facts. Here’s what yours truly had to say to Rundle: “I’ve been very outspoken at times. But at the same time I have to really be on my toes that I’m getting the story right. We have a lot of responsibility now. Things move slowly [at the MTA] but they are listening.”

As I today celebrate the nine-month anniversary of this blog’s first post, I am on the one hand surprised at the traction I and other subway writers have gotten. The MTA listens to us and uses our words as part of a barometer on customer service. It’s humbling. But at the same time, it’s hardly surprising that subway blogs and transit-oriented posts have gained in popularity. This city, after all, runs on its subways. We’re lost without them. And for that, I’ll keep on blogging.

August 21, 2007 14 comments

MTA Construction

Checking up on the Columbus Circle construction

by Benjamin Kabak August 20, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on August 20, 2007

MTA workers lay out the floor on the downtown IND platform at Columbus Circle. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak.)

It’s hard to find a station in worse shape right now than the Columbus Circle hub. The station — a key transfer point between the West Side IRT and the 8th Ave. and 6th Ave. lines — is in the middle of an extensive renovation that won’t end until 2009 at the earliest.

It’s not a stretch of the imagination to call the current state of the station is a huge disaster. Blue construction walls dot the station’s landscape, and platform sizes have become severely restricted as work crews attend to matters as large as asbestos abatement (West Side IRT) and floor reconstruction (IND platforms). While in April, I wrote an extensive post looking at the overall plans for the station, let’s take a peek, by way of some subtlely-taken Blackberry photos, of the current state of the station.

As I’m currently undergoing physical therapy at an office on 57th St. between Broadway and 8th Ave., I have the pleasure of navigating this station two days a week now. Progress is haphazard; one day, a staircase will be open, and the next day, it will be shut. One day, sections of the platform will be roped off; the next day, they’ll be open.

Mainly, what I’ve seen are crews working on the floors on the IND platforms. For months, the platforms have existed below grade with the trains. Warning signs urged straphangers to watch their steps. Now, the platforms are rising up, at least in the middle, to meet the train doors. Take a look:

August 20, 2007 11 comments

Service Advisories

The subways stink and so does your weekend service

by Benjamin Kabak August 17, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on August 17, 2007

Leave it to amNY to bury the lead. In an obvious article about how the subways smell, the most interesting quote from a rider came in third graph, nearly 100 poorly written words into the article.

“The further you go uptown in Manhattan, and anywhere in the Bronx, it gets pretty bad,” Jamie Rocha said to reporter Marlene Naanes. “I don’t really know how to describe it.”

While Naanes then goes on to note that, yes, the subways smell bad and that New York City Transit plans to add 350 more cleaners to their employment rolls this fall, there is no follow-up here. This, people, is the news.

Is the MTA doing a better job of cleaning up high-volume stations through which tourists and working people pass everyday? Is the MTA neglecting stations based on where they fall among New York City’s socioeconomic geography? These are questions worth exploring, and yet, here, they go unanswered.

Over at Gothamist, the coverage of this article features an interesting conversation in the comments. One person astutely noted that public bathrooms in the subways would go a long way toward alleviate the stench on the platforms. While the MTA would still need to maintain a vigilant janitorial crew, keeping the smell in the bathroom is preferable to stinky platforms.

Meanwhile, speaking of things that stink, here are your your weekend service advisories. Lots of changes everywhere – but particularly on the West Side IRT and 8th Ave. lines. Stay alert when reading those signs. For the changes in convenient press release form, click here.

See you on Monday.

August 17, 2007 4 comments

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