MTA Absurdity

A little water floods the MTA’s Website too

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on August 10, 2007

During the morning panic as yesterday’s subway deluge set in, the tracks weren’t the only part of the MTA flooded. Its Website was overwhelmed with visitors — 44 million of them in a few hours, according to some sources — and the system just couldn’t handle the pressure.

With this outage, bloggers and reporters across New York are noting something I noticed in July when their site went down during the East Side power outage. Similarly, Todd has long railed against the oft-down MTA Website on his own site and in the comments section of mine.

Now, with another big rain storm on the horizon, the MTA is readying its system both online and off. This afternoon, MTA CEO Elliot “Lee” Sander spoke about the emergency plans in place for Friday.

“We will be strategically placing pumps throughout the system at potentially flood-prone locations, strategically placing management and customer personnel at key stations throughout the system to help our customers navigate in case of service disruptions,” he said. “We’ll be adding additional support personnel — such as signal ventilation and drainage maintainers — so that we can immediately address any situations that may arise.”

This all sounds great for those tracks such as the ones underneath Queens Boulevard that are prone to flooding, but what of the glorious Internets? In a post noting how hard it is to navigate the MTA’s Website (something I’ve long since chalked up to the ills of bureaucracy), Chan found some folks at the MTA willing to talk about the site:

On Wednesday, the authority’s Web site recorded 44 million hits…according to Wael Hibri, the authority’s chief information officer. But an untold number of riders were unable to reach the site because the authority was using an old firewall. Mr. Hibri said the authority had scheduled an upgrade of the firewall; the upgrade is to occur this weekend.

Mr. Hibri said the authority had more than enough server capacity to handle the demand. It was the old firewall, he said, that hindered many people from entering the site.

The M.T.A.’s Web site is one of the busiest in the country, [an MTA Executive Director Christopher P.] Boylan said…During the height of the transit chaos on Wednesday morning, Mr. Hibri said, the site got 3.8 million hits. By comparison, the authority got about 2 million hits an hour during a brief power failure in parts of Manhattan and the Bronx on June 27.

So while Sander has men in the tracks ready to pump out the subway, Hibri is relying on the old wing-and-a-prayer method. After all, the same firewall in place on Wednesday won’t be upgraded until this weekend at the earliest.

Friday is bound to be another taxing day for the MTA’s site. As soon as the first drops fall, people at their desks across the city will flock to MTA.info expecting the worst for the subway systems after Wednesday’s debacle. It sounds like that old firewall might once again stifle traffic.

We’ll find out later if millions of New Yorkers trying to will their way to an easy start to their weekends once again overwhelms the MTA. Good luck to them.

Meanwhile, if the MTA’s firewall blocks you out, I’ll have all of the service alerts, and I’ll be updating them as often as possible. So check back early and often when the rains fall. Or just chead on over to Chris’ site. He has all the MTA alerts you’ll ever need.

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Fare HikesMTA AbsurdityMTA Economics

The great student MetroCard swindle

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on August 9, 2007

City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr., tried to help out the straphangers, but the weather would have none of that. Literally lost in yesterday’s flood was his report proclaiming the impending MTA fare hike could be avoided if Albany and the city fulfill their fiscal obligations to the MTA.

While a pesky flood captured the city, Thompson’s report deserves another look. An analysis of the six ways in in which, combined, the MTA could draw in enough revenue to fend off a fare hike for now, Thompson’s work serves as public support for the subway rider, and buried in his report is a gem.

Recommendation five concerns the ever-popular Student MetroCards. A favorite of students around the city who abuse this program for all its worth, this program is supposed to be covered by allocations from the City and State, but, unsurprisingly, the City and State are shirking their responsibilities. Thompson notes that an adjustment of the school fare reimbursement to “fully reflect the cost of all authorized student bus and subway trips” would provide the MTA with $71.5 million more.

In other words, the City and State are not paying what they should be for the city’s students to ride the subways for free. He goes more in depth into the economics:

The City should increase its reimbursement to NYCT for fares for schoolchildren. Such increases would make up for unilateral decreases in school fare reimbursements during the mid-1990s. Currently the City and the State each contribute $45 million per year to subsidize school fares.

NYCT recently provided the Office of the Comptroller with data regarding student MetroCard use during the 2005-2006 school year. During that school year, students took 133.4 million subway and bus rides at a cost to the transit system of $161.5 million, based on average non-student bus and subway fares. After subtracting the combined City and State fixed school fare reimbursement of $90 million, NYCT provided $71.5 million of unreimbursed service last year.

The emphasis there is mine, and yes, you read that correctly. The City and State seem to expect the MTA to simply foot the bill for student riders at a loss of $71.5 million to a cash-strapped Authority. That’s outrageous.

Many politicians in and around New York City like to give lip service to the fare hike. We’ll do what it takes to avoid it, they say. Well, here’s your chance. End this ridiculous practice and reimburse the MTA for rides it gives to students. The MTA is under no obligation to provide this service, especially considering how many students abuse the privilege of these MetroCards. If the city and state refuse to reimburse the Authority for the service, the program should end. It’s as simple as that.

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Service Advisories

Three inches of rains blamed for subway mess

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on August 8, 2007

As New York City Transit struggles to overcome a subway deluge that virtually shut down the subways for hours this morning, New York politicians have entered everyone’s favorite part of disaster relief: the finger-pointing.

Before the trains are back up and running, before the tracks have dried, the names are flying with Eliot Spitzer, Elliot Sander, the City Comptroller and even the National Weather Center getting in on the act.

Earlier this afternoon, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and MTA CEO Elliot “Lee” Sander held the ever-popular press conferences about the event. amNY’s Rolando Pujol was on hand to report. Spitzer dropped the bombshell that this system-wide failure happened after a torrential storm that dropped three inches of rain in an hour. Three inches! Imagine if New York City ended up on the wrong end of a hurricane-like storm. It would be crippling.

Spitzer noted that the delays and problems constituted “a highly unusual event,” but I beg to differ. Just two weeks ago, I wrote a little-noted post on the inadequacies of the MTA’s subway drainage system. Prophecies of doom came to bear sooner than any of us expected.

Lee Sander decided to ignore the state of the MTA and instead blamed the weatherman. “The timing and intensity of this storm took us by surprise because it was not predicted by the National Weather Service,” he said. But really, Lee, you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the rains drain.

Meanwhile, City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr., used this flood to draw attention to his call for proper and adequate state funding of the MTA and NYCT. In another release from his office, Thompson called on the state to protect its infrastructure.

“I urge the MTA to take this matter seriously and consider all of the New Yorkers who were inconvenienced today,” Thompson said. “These are the same New Yorkers who are expected to dig deeper into their pockets to pay higher fares over the next few years. Time and again, the riding public has been inconvenienced because the State has not appropriately invested in New York City Transit’s infrastructure. Today’s system-wide disruption indicates that there still is much more work ahead.”

So while the Governor has ordered a commission to investigate the system-wide failure today, the finger-pointing has started before the subway system is back up and running. Meanwhile, service alerts are as follows:

Click here for the latest MTA service alerts
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Service Advisories

MTA, NYCT service drowned by a little water

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on August 8, 2007

Update 2:34 p.m. Things are returning to normal. The MTA has another set of promising updates out:
trains are suspended in both directions between the South Ferry Station and the Chambers Street Station.

and trains rains have resumed service but with residual delays.

trains are suspended in both directions between the 86th Street Station and the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall Station.

trains are running shuttle train service in both directions between the East 180th Street Station and the Dyre Avenue Station, and suspended in both directions between 86th Street and Bowling Green.

trains are suspended in both directions between the 59th Street/Lexington Avenue Station and the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall Station.

trains are running. (We have a winner! Back to normal first.)

trains are running local.

trains are suspended in both directions between the Brighton Beach Station and the 145th Street Station.

trains are suspended in both directions between the Euclid Avenue Station and the 168th Street Station.

train service has resumed with residual delays.

trains are suspended in both directions between the 21st Street-Queensbridge Station and the Forest Hills-71st Avenue Station.

trains are suspended in both directions between the Queens Plaza Station and the Jamaica-179th Street Station.

trains are suspended in both directions between the Long Island City-Court Square Station and the 4th Avenue-9th Street Station.

trains are suspended in both directions between the 2nd Avenue Station and the Forest Hills-71st Avenue Station.

Franklin Avenue Shuttle trains are suspended in both directions between the Prospect Park Station and the Franklin Avenue Station.

42nd Street Shuttle service has resumed with residual delays.

trains are running with residual delays.

trains are running with residual delays.

trains are running with residual delays.

trains are running with residual delays.

trains are operating via the line between Stillwell Terminal and Dekalb Avenue and continuing on to 57th Street/7th Avenue.

shuttle trains operating between Kings Highway and Stillwell Terminal Station.

trains are suspended in both directions between the 57th Street-7th Avenue Station and the Forest Hills-71st Avenue Station.

trains are suspended in both directions between the Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard Station and the Whitehall Street Station.

================

Update 1:50 p.m.: Still delays. Things are moving station-to-station. This update from the MTA is minor. Also, Digg me at left now. On to the service alerts:

trains are suspended in both directions between the South Ferry Station and the Chambers Street Station.

trains are suspended in in both directions between the Penn Station-34th Street Station and the Atlantic Avenue Station.

trains are suspended in both directions between the New Lots Avenue Station and the Harlem-148th Street Station.

trains are suspended in both directions between the 86th Street Station and the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall Station.

trains are running shuttle train service in both directions between the East 180th Street Station and the Dyre Avenue Station.

trains are suspended in both directions between the 86th Street Station and the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall Station.

trains are running with delays.

trains are running local.

trains are suspended in both directions between the Brighton Beach Station and the Bedford Park Boulevard Station.

trains are suspended in both directions between the Euclid Avenue Station and the 168th Street Station.

trains are suspended in both directions between the 145th Street Station and the Norwood-205th Street Station.

trains are suspended in both directions between the 23rd Street-Ely Avenue Station and the Forest Hills-71st Avenue Station.

trains are suspended in both directions between the Queens Plaza Station and the Jamaica-179th Street Station.

trains are suspended in both directions between the Long Island City-Court Square Station and the 4th Avenue-9th Street Station.

trains are suspended in both directions between the 2nd Avenue Station and the Forest Hills-71st Avenue Station.

Franklin Avenue Shuttle trains are suspended in both directions between the Prospect Park Station and the Franklin Avenue Station.

42nd Street Shuttle trains are suspended in both directions between the Times Square-42nd Street Station and the Grand Central-42nd Street Station.

trains are running with residual delays.

trains are running with residual delays.

trains are running with residual delays.

trains are suspended in both directions between the Broad Street Station and the Bay Parkway Station.

trains are suspended in both directions between the Kings Highway Station and the 57th Street-7th Avenue Station.

trains are suspended in both directions between the 57th Street-7th Avenue Station and the Forest Hills-71st Avenue Station.

trains are suspended in both directions between the Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard Station and the Whitehall Street Station.

For earlier updates, click here
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Fare Hikes

NYC Comptroller: With help from state, MTA could avoid fare hike

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on August 8, 2007

Two weeks after the MTA announced a 2008 fare hike, the New York City Comptroller has issued a report concluding that the MTA could avoid a fare hike if the City and State were a little bit more willing to subsidize mass transit.

The comptroller’s report is condemnation of the ways in which the State of New York has inappropriately re-appropriated money earmarked for downstate mass transit. They’ve hijacked supposedly dedicated streams of funding and are using them to fund upstate transportation networks used by a relatively miniscule amount of the state population. At the same time, the City of New York isn’t doing enough to meet its financial obligations to the MTA.

According to Comptroller William C. Thomspon’s report, the City and State should enact six sensible measures that would right these economic wrongs. These measures would guarantee the MTA enough money to avoid fare hikes for now and enough financial solvency going forward to minimize the impact of a potential future hike. Let’s take a look at his proposals:

Continue Reading
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MTA Economics

Stewart Airport rail link just a waste

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on August 7, 2007

Did you know that New York City has a fourth airport that, once upon a time, was designated the next major Metropolitan-area airport? Well, so much for that plan.

Nestled in Orange County, just west of Newburgh, lies Stewart International Airport. It’s 80 miles outside of New York City, and if you can get there, it is the home of the some of the cheapest flights around the area. It never did achieve Gov. Rockefeller’s goals of becoming the fourth major airport in the region (behind LaGuardia, JFK and Newark), but that hasn’t stopped various state entities from trying to boost its profile.

The latest effort comes in the form of everyone’s favorite airport buzz phrase: a rail link. According to a report in Monday’s edition of The Sun, the MTA is studying the possibility of a rail link between Penn Station and the airport. The link, which would consist of a three-mile spur off of Metro-North’s Port Jervis line, would probably bring about a renewed interested in this transportation hub nestled just outside the world of New York City.

Annie Karni of The Sun has more:

Transit officials say a three-mile spur off the Port Jervis line on Metro-North Railroad, which could cost more than $600 million to construct, could be an efficient way to attract passengers and airlines to the underutilized upstate airport, where the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is expected to take control of operations in October.

The airport now is accessible only by country roads, and driving to the airport from Manhattan takes about an hour and a half without traffic. The former military base, located about 60 miles north of Manhattan, accommodated 300,000 passengers last year; transit officials estimate that its infrastructure could be expanded to process up to 10 million passengers annually.

The article is filled with various opinions on the rail link. Some officials say the area needs this fourth airport to be more accessible because the other three are, as any traveler can attest, overcrowded. But others, such as Jeffrey Zupan of the Regional Plan Association, think the rail link is not a financial viable idea unless it can siphon off upstate travelers who commute down to the city’s three other airports. “It’s going to be a real loser from an operating cost point of view. ” Zupan said to Karni. “It will have to run long distances and relatively frequent service, or people aren’t going to use it.”

Meanwhile, this idea seems somewhat ridiculous. It right now takes an hour and a half on Metro-North/NJ Transit to reach the Salisbury Mills stop from Penn Station. Considering that it would take another train ride to get to the airport and airlines are asking people to get there 90 minutes earlier, travelers would have to begin their journeys up to four hours before their scheduled departure time. That is quite inconvenient.

To me, this project seems like a no-brainer waste-of-money. But if the MTA is going to build something, they should fund it in a way similar to that used at JFK. The Authority could either have the airline passengers pick up the bill through a plane ticket fee and have the fares be such that costs are covered. With more pressing capital construction projects on the docket — Second Ave. subway, LIRR East Side Access plan, 7 line extension, Fulton St. hub — and a need for a JFK rail link, a line up to Stewart just seems superfluous and overly expensive at a time when the MTA really needs to prioritize.

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Buses

Probably, you should give up that handicap seat

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on August 6, 2007

Giving up a seat is more than just a suggestion sometimes. (Photo by flickr user ggtavo.)

So, you know those priority seats on the bus? Yeah, it’s probably a good idea to give them up. Or so one Queens passenger discovered on Friday.

In a story The Post reported yesterday, a bus driver in Queens took exception to a young passenger who refused to give up his seat to another elderly rider. I’ll let the details tell the story:

A Queens bus driver smashed a passenger over the head with a phone when he refused to give up his handicap seat to an elderly woman, police said yesterday.

The bus driver, Larry Woods, 44, and the allegedly inconsiderate rider, Christian Custis, 22, were both arrested and charged with assault after a brawl erupted over the seat on the Q43 bus in Jamaica.

Police said the fight began when Woods asked Custis to give up his seat to the frail woman with a cane who boarded at Hillside Avenue and 164th Street at 11:16 a.m. Friday. Things turned ugly when Custis, who is not disabled, refused to relinquish his spot, cops said. Woods then clobbered Custis in the head with the bus’ onboard phone as stunned passengers looked on, police said.

There ain’t much left to say. If you are young and healthy, give up your seat to an elderly passenger. Otherwise, the driver will get all phone-wacky up on your head.

This is why I love public transportation in New York City.

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MTA Economics

Minnesota tragedy underscores infrastructure investments

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on August 6, 2007

The Minnesota bridge collapse serves as a dramatic wake-up call over the state of public infrastructure. (Photo courtesy of flickr user Koldark.)

When the I35 bridge collapsed last Thursday in Minnesota, the tragedy and its aftermath sent shockwaves through the country. The road and the bridge were built in 1967 at a time of massive growth in the numbers of automobiles owned by Americans.

In the days following the bridge collapse, engineers and officials across the country have noted that many other bridges of similar age and design could present safety problems across the nation. Obviously, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will begin to take a more proactive role in assessing road standards, and states are going to be investing a lot of money into road maintenance, inspection and upgrades.

But for those of us living in cities dependent on public transportation for our commuting needs, the lesson is the same. Too bad no one has mentioned it yet.

The oldest parts of New York City’s subway system are over 100 years old. Even the newest parts of the IND lines are all around 70 years old. Outside of Manhattan much of our train system runs above ground. The Culver Viaduct over the Gowanus Canal is set to undergo a complete renovation; various parts of the elevated 7 tracks in Queens are on the MTA’s Capital Construction to-do list.

But this is a short list of elevated parts of the subway dependent on aging infrastructure. The Broadway Bridge at the northern tip of Manhattan is from 1960. The elevated tracks at Yankee Stadium date from 1917. The list literally runs for miles and miles.

For us in New York, as we debate ways to fund mass transit, ways to cover budget gaps, ways to build new subway lines and maintain old ones, the bridge in Minnesota should serve as a stark reminder to the age of our great subway system. At 100, the New York City subway is no baby. We need the money to maintain it; we need the money to keep old structures modern and sufficient for the demands of a very crowded subway that serves as the lifeblood of New York City.

Now, with roads under the microscope, politicians may turn a little gung-ho in their efforts to inspect every roadway and bridge in the country. But the subways are just as important, and now is as good a time as any to remember that. A subway bridge collapse would be just as tragic and shocking as the one in Minnesota. We can’t afford to see that happen.

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Service AdvisoriesSubway Maps

Designing the ideal subway map

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on August 3, 2007

3_brooklyn_comparison.jpg

Someone can always design a better subway map. (Image from Kickmap)

Among the subway literati, the map is always a hot topic of conversation. Unlike the standard Tube map or the WMATA map, the MTA’s subway map represents an effort to bring street-level reality to the cartography of the subway.

Again and again, MTA officials talk about how they like the subway map because it incorporates the city’s geography with that of the subway. Want to know how far it is from 10th Ave. to the 14th St. stop on the A, C or E? You can eyeball it with the current map.

Today, Gothamist sat down with Michael Hertz, the designer of the current map in use now for 30 years. The interview is great for people who love subway map minutiae (like I do). Hertz talks about designing the map within the limits of the geography of New York City.

The problems with putting the system on a map that has to fold into someone’s pocket are obvious. How do you cram all of the stops into Lower Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn while maintaining some semblance of geographical accuracy? How do you show the differences between daytime local service and express service while including a bit about nighttime service changes in a way that tourists and people not overly familiar with the subway system can understand?

During the course of the interview, Gothamist can’t help but ask Hertz the question about the map his replaced in the 1970s: the infamous Massimo Vignelli map that distorted New York City geography. Every now and then, the Vignelli map comes up in subway map discussion as it did in The Times last September. Hertz, while discussing the origins of the colors of the New York City subway lines, launches into the typical diatribe about Vignelli’s map that often concludes with a condemnation of a square representation of Central Park. While everyone knows Central Park isn’t square, to fit the subways on his map, Vigenlli made it square. No one liked that much.

Meanwhile, everyone’s favorite new map Kickmap – pictured above next to the current map – came up as well. Again, The Times comes into play as they introduced Kickmap to a wider audience in an article in April. Kickmap, designed by Eddie Jabbour, is a subway-centric map. While attempting to adhere to some level of geographical accuracy, Jabbour’s iteration attempts to highlight more subway information. He tries to show track routes and clearly-delineated express stops.

Hertz’s response to Kickmap: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Rightly so, he levels the same criticisms toward Kickmap as Vignelli’s map received in the 1970s. It doesn’t allow for easily understandable service changes, and it doesn’t help people place the subway within the context of the city at large.

The interview is quite interesting, and if you want to be overwhelmed with subway map trivia, check it out.

Meanwhile, it’s Friday afternoon, and the subway doesn’t help us understand the crazy service changes one bit. That’s where the MTA’s website comes in handy.

The N trains are running local from Manhattan into Brooklyn at all times. Manhattan-bound trains are running over the bridge from DeKalb to Canal this weekend.

The West Side IRT lines are a bit funky this weekend. And the A has service changes up the wazoo.

For a full overview, check out the MTA’s list of weekend service changes. Safe travels this hot weekend.

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MTA Construction

Report: Track workers’ culture encourages safety violations

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on August 3, 2007

After a thorough review, New York City Transit has released two reports about the deaths in April of track workers who were struck by trains. The reports were highly critical of the organizational culture of the track workers and blamed the deaths on safety standards that are ignored at work sites across the system.

The New York Times has more on the two reports:

The reports delivered a broad indictment of safety practices on the subway tracks, and called for discipline to be considered for three of the supervisors involved, along with a major overhaul of safety procedures.

In one of the accidents, a report said, workers carried heavy equipment across live tracks without covering the electrified third rail or setting up warning lights to alert oncoming trains. In the same accident, the report said, a supervisor assured the two workers he would act as a flagman, watching for trains, and then left his post. Moments later, one worker was dragged under a train and died, and another was seriously injured when he was pinned between the train and a wall.

Howard Roberts, president of New York City Transit, voiced his concerns about the approach to safety on the rails. “There are some major barriers, the primary one being cultural, that we have to figure out how to handle,” he said. “In many cases people do not follow the rules and consider the rules in some cases not to be particularly pertinent to how they see themselves as getting the work done.”

The more critical of the two reports examined Marvin Franklin’s death by the wheels of a G train at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station. According to that report (PDF here), one of the work supervisors did not maintain his position as Franklin helped carry equipment over live tracks.

The other report (PDF here) noted that the work supervisors didn’t even know the proper safety procedures for ensuring that the tracks are cleared before sending workers across. In this incident, Daniel Boggs was killed by an 3 train on the downtown express tracks in Manhattan at a time when he thought there were no more express trains that night.

In all likelihood, the work supervisors will be disciplined, and the MTA has already instituted a whole slew of new safety measures. The MTA has issued new radios to work crews. They plan to enforce flagging of adjacent active tracks during work times. They are working to ensure that all emergency radio and phone boxes are in working order, and they are attempting to limit the noise in the tracks so workers can hear trains coming.

To me, these measures seem like common sense. Working on the tracks is one of the most dangerous jobs in New York. Following safety procedures is a matter of survival.

TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint seemed to agree. “These are concrete steps in the right direction,” he said.”For us at TWU, there is no doubt that structural safety deficiencies —including a lack of communication, as well as faulty procedures and rules — contributed to the deaths of Danny Boggs and Marvin Franklin. We are committed to working with the leadership of NYC Transit to ensure meaningful change and does justice to our members who have made the ultimate sacrifice.”

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