Self Promotion

Event: ‘Problem Solvers’ on Feb. 5 to tackle subway ridership

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on January 29, 2014

Curious about how the MTA models ridership? Ever wondered just what I mean when I talk about the MTA’s load guidelines? And who designed those turnstiles anyway? These questions and more are on tap next week when “Problem Solvers,” the Q-and-A series I host at the Transit Museum, makes its 2014 debut.

Joining me on Wednesday, February 5 at 6:30 p.m. will be Bill Amarosa, New York City Transit’s Manager of Service Data Analysis. Amarosa has been monitoring the city’s subway ridership and analyzing station usage for years. As an intern with Transit’s OMB, he compiled ridership data by station back to 1940 and later continued that research so OMB could publish a 1904-2004 ridership report for the subway’s 100th anniversary. He returned to Transit in 2008 as OMB’s Manager of Ridership and Revenue Analysis and in November 2013 moved to Operations Planning as Manager of Service Data Analysis. In 2006, Amarosa also broke the Guinness World Record for riding the entire NYC Subway in the shortest time, visiting all 468 stations on a single fare in 24 hours, 54 minutes, 3 seconds. (I covered that story way back in 2007.)

I’m sure we’ll talk about his record-setting ride, and I know Bill and I will discuss everything from turnstile design to experiencing an over-crowded G train station in Williamsburg and the ways the MTA tries to adapt service patterns to meet ridership. The event is free, but the Transit Museum asks you to kindly RSVP. It’ll be a good time for all.

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East Side Access Project

East Side in-Access: A mid-project post mortem

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on January 29, 2014
East Side Access may be completed sometime around my 40th birthday.

East Side Access may be completed sometime around my 40th birthday.

During the MTA Board’s Capital Program Oversight Committee meeting on Monday, one board member asked MTA CEO and Chair Tom Prendergast if the agency should continue work on East Side Access. The news out of the meeting was grim as the worst-case estimate came with a $10.772 billion price tag and a late 2023 completion date. With the delays mounting, Prendergast unequivocally expressed his support for the work. A plan to bring the Long Island Rail Road to the East Side has been part of the MTA’s mission since its founding in 1968, and the agency isn’t about to give up now.

It isn’t quite as simple or noble as Prendergast makes it out to be. Yes, East Side Access in some form or another has been around since the 1960s when the 63rd St. tunnel was designed and then constructed with a lower level for commuter rail trains. But the truth is that the MTA has already sunk billions into this project, has already dug out tunnels from Queens to Manhattan, has already made progress on the caverns and would owe the feds a significant amount of money if the project were to go kaput. The politics and economics of it have left the MTA in a tight spot: damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

With that said, Monday’s meeting wasn’t just a pro forma attempt to save face. It had its awkward moments as MTA Capital Construction President Michael Horodniceanu spent the first few minutes describing the progress the MTA made last year while letting the 800 pound gorilla in the room languish in the corner. It also had its bad news as the MTA’s independent contractor unveiled the range of completion dates. The MTA still feels it can finish the project by the end of 2020 at a cost of $9.6 billion but three other estimates — including one from the FTA — have completion dates that range from November 2022 to September 2023 with price tags going from $9.7 to $10.7 billion. It ain’t 2012, and it ain’t $4.5 billion.

What came out of the meeting though is rather damning. As Ted Mann details at length in The Journal, the MTA will reestablish management control over the project. It will restructure leadership to have better oversight over workers and contractors, and the resulting structure will be aggressive in working to keep the timeline and costs in line. Outside of the inherent design flaws, a lack of clear oversight and leadership has been the criticism most frequently levied at this project from a variety of sources. This restructuring is, at worst, a few years late, and at best, a clear attempt to regain control.

But my takeaway from the meeting was more philosophical: In so many buzzwords, stutters and timelines, the MTA essentially admitted that it had no idea what it was getting itself into when East Side Access began and was in over its head for years. Prendergast repeatedly stressed how this project is the largest public work in the country and as complicated as the ongoing Panama Canal projects. MTA officials also said, in so many words, that Amtrak, freight operators and the LIRR have not been cooperative in adjusting to work schedules. It has been an utterly perfect storm of problems.

In the end — or I guess the middle if this thing still has another eight years to go — we can look to nearly everyone for blame. Contractors had no idea how to bid on this project (or intentionally bilked taxpayers and the MTA). The MTA had no idea how to adequately and accurately plan this project. With turnover at nearly all levels, the MTA also couldn’t put in place an adequate oversight program. The list goes on and on. Maybe we’ve reached a turning point, but it would be naïve of us to think that. Still, we now have a better sense of what went wrong and a path, if a muddled one, toward completion. East Side Access will arrive, if slowly, and for now, it’s still just a money and time sink that is a reminder of our inability to complete anything on time and on budget.

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AsidesLIRRMetro-North

Gains in 2013 for LIRR, Metro-North ridership

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on January 28, 2014

Year-end ridership numbers for the various MTA train lines are starting to trickle in. It’ll be a few more months before we have a snapshot of subway ridership for 2013, but we know that both the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North reported increases in train travel last year. For Metro-North, in fact, 2013 featured record ridership. Now imagine if trains weren’t derailing far more regularly than we’d like.

For east-of-Hudson service, Metro-North’s 81.8 million passengers topped the record set previously set in 2008. Not coincidentally, as the region’s economy and job outlook has improved, so too has commuter rail ridership. On a line-by-line basis, the Harlem Line saw ridership grow by 1.2 percent and carried nearly 27 million passengers while the New Haven line carried a record 38.975 million customers. The Hudson Line carried just under 16 million riders. West-of-Hudson ridership declined by a few percentage points as, per the MTA, the ridership “has been slow to recover since Hurricanes Sandy and Irene.”

Meanwhile, out on the Island, the LIRR’s total ridership topped 83.4 million, making it the busiest commuter rail system in the nation. It was the seventh highest ridership total since the end of World War II, and it too was driven by an improving economic outlook and the opening of the Barclays Center. “We are seeing an increase in both commuters going to work and occasional riders,” LIRR President Helena E. Williams said in a statement. “We had the opportunity to add back some service in 2013 and we are pleased that riders are responding by using the LIRR more often to get to work as well as for leisure and other travel during the off peak periods. We believe the increase in ridership also reflects an improving Long Island and NYC economy.”

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View from Underground

Transit set to remove trash cans from 29 more stations

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on January 27, 2014

This decals won't pop up in stations without garbage cans.

In the never-ending war pitting the MTA vs. rats and also endless amounts of garbage, the transit agency has spent the last few years engaged in a battle of reverse psychology. Since late 2011, the MTA has couterintuitively removed trash cans to combat trash, and now this program will expand to 29 stations. It’s somewhat controversial and often derided, but according to Transit, it’s getting results as the amount of garbage in the trash can-free stations has rapidly declined.

For years, the MTA has suffered from a trash problem. Some of it stems from the sheer volume of people who use the system; some of it stems from the fact that, for various reasons, the MTA hasn’t made a move to ban eating underground. No matter the cause though trash has mounted up in stations, and due to the logistics of a vast 24-hour system, it cannot be picked up timely or regularly. With trash that sits for days, rats abound, and station environments become generally unfriendly and dirty.

The pilot then is designed to appeal to common courtesy. Most people won’t discard their garbage if there’s no trash can and will instead carry it out of the system. A small percentage of riders will chuck their trash where they can — under seats, on platforms, in the tracks, in a small space between a pipe and a wall — but those folks are apt to do that even with trash cans present. Eliminating trash cans then will eliminate trash.

As you may have guessed from the news that the MTA is cutting out garbage cans at 29 more stations, the pilot is apparently working. “We’ve seen a change in customer behavior. Riders knew that there weren’t trash cans at those stations, so they took their trash somewhere else,” Joe Leader, Transit’s vice president of subways, said during a board committee meeting yesterday.

The MTA’s own numbers seem to bear witness to this reality. Since removing trash cans at ten stations over the past few years, the agency has seen trash collection reduced by 66 percent at those stations with a small increase — 3.2 percent — in bags collected litter thrown on the tracks. Track fires not increased, and the MTA say these stations are as clean as they were with garbage cans. Meanwhile, the reduced trash at these stations has allowed the MTA to allocate resource to collecting trash and cleaning other areas of the subway system.

Additionally, the trends over time have shown significant improvement as well. As more time has elapsed, litter has become less common at these stations. Garbage overnight has nearly disappeared, and the daytime levels of heavy litter are 11 percentage points better than average. By and large, straphangers are taking out what they’re bringing in. It’s the national parks philosophy hard at work.

To continue this program, the MTA will add an additional 29 stations along the J/Z and M lines to the program. To combat the potential for track fires, the agency plans to increase track cleaning frequencies, but garbage cans will essentially disappear from most of the BMT Nassau St., BMT Jamaica and BMT Myrtle Avenue Lines in an effort to further reduce collection costs. The MTA won’t spread this program to all 468 stations; it’s trying to better seal up existing garbage facilities to fight the rodent problem. But for now, trash cans will become more scarce underground, seemingly to better behavior by most.

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BrooklynService Advisories

FASTRACK in Brooklyn: No local IRT service

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on January 27, 2014

FastrackBrooklyn24

Here’s a FASTRACK that’s, uh, near and dear to my heart. My own station will be closed each night this week as FASTRACK knocks out all local service between Atlantic Ave. and Franklin Ave. along the IRT in Brooklyn. From 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for the next four nights, 2 and 4 trains will run express, skipping Bergen St., Grand Army Plaza and Eastern Parkway. The 3 train service into Brooklyn will end early each night while 4 trains will head to New Lots a little earlier than usual.

As FASTRACKs go, this one is a pretty easy one. The Q makes a stop at 7th Ave. that can serve much of the area, and the stops aren’t that far apart to make walking out of the question. Still, the MTA will run shuttle buses up and down Flatbush Ave. and Eastern Parkway to provide access to the shuttered local stops. Free shuttle buses operate between Atlantic Av-Barclays Ctr and Franklin Av making station stops at Bergen St, Grand Army Plaza, and Eastern Pkwy.

Meanwhile, Monday was a pretty busy day at MTA HQ as Metro-North and the LIRR reporting very high ridership figures for 2013, Transit announced an extension of the trash can-free station program, and Capital Construction ate humble pie over the East Side Access project. I’ll have more on each of those stories over the next few days.

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MTA Construction

On the MTA’s Capital Construction accountability problem

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on January 27, 2014

A panoramic view of the mezzanine at the new 7 line stop at 34th St. and 11th Ave. The station will not open in June as originally predicted. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

Last week was a rough one for MTA Capital Construction. A few hours after we learned that East Side Access will cost $10 billion and will be delayed until 2021, the MTA’s Board materials revealed the news that the 7 line extension wouldn’t be opening in June after all. It could be ready by September; it could be ready by the fourth quarter of 2014. Either way, it wasn’t a good way to end the week.

Over the past decade, delays and cost overruns have become the norm. The first phase of the Second Ave. Subway was supposed to be in service a few years ago; the 7 line was originally proposed for the 2012 Olympics; the Fulton St. Transit Center had an initial opening date of 2007. On a smaller scale, we’ve seen station rehabs fall months, or in some cases years, behind schedule, and something as simple as a staircase redo or an elevator repair can seem endless.

The litany of missed deadlines and cost overruns for only the MTA’s megaprojects could fill a post, and I’m not going to recite them here again. Everything is late, and nothing is on budget. The latest news though has New Yorkers casting a wary eye toward Second Ave. If these other projects are late, can we reasonably expect the Second Ave. Subway to open on time in December of 2016?

That question itself has no easy answer, and there’s some controversy behind it. Back in July of 2009, a federal report questioned the MTA’s own timelines. While the MTA’s worst-case scenarios then predicted an opening date of July 2017, the feds didn’t see the project reaching completion prior to August 2017 and noted that construction could stretch into 2018. The MTA aggressively disputed that account.

At the time, MTA CC President Michael Horodniceanu, in no uncertain words, committed to a 2016 date. It was, he said, “set, as far as I’m concerned, in stone.” He did warn that the MTA has “a variety of factors that many times are unanticipated.” It was a firm commitment with a hedge, but since then, the MTA has taken pains to repeat their belief that the Second Ave. Subway will be ready by mid-2016. The feds haven’t revised their estimates one way or another. (Note that when the MTA announced the 2016 date, it also believed East Side Access would open in 2016 as well.)

In materials released for Monday’s meetings, the MTA reiterated its 2016 launch date for the Second Ave. Subway, but should we expect it? I don’t have a firm answer, but with history as our guide, I’m not placing any bets. The MTA hasn’t delivered a major project on time yet (and we can dispute whether a 2016 launch date for the East Side’s new subway line should even be considered “on time”). I’m struck though by something Horodniceanu said when discussing the Fulton St. Transit Hub back in 2009. “What I present today,” he said of plans to open the new hub in 2014, “I stand by. I expect you to hold me accountable to it.” This came years before a bunch of politicians called the 7 line extension “on time and on budget” a few weeks ago. It was a laughable claim then just as it is now.

The appeal to accountability is the irony in Horodniceanu’s five-year-old statement as public accountability, at least, has been lacking. No one has been held accountable for the failure to realize deadlines, and nothing much has changed over the past decade of capital works. Later on Monday, Horodniceanu will take the spotlight when he presents the latest on East Side Access, and the accountability should start now. If our transit network is to expand, the MTA has to figure out why these projects’ initial budgets and timelines are so wrong and how it can avoid these problems in the future. After a bad week, New Yorkers needs that accountability now more than ever.

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Service Advisories

Weekend work affecting 11 subway lines

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on January 24, 2014

A thumbs-up from then-Mayor Bloomberg on a delayed opening date. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

For a Friday in late January, today sure was a busy day. If you missed it, we learned that East Side Access may not be finished until 2021 and could cost $10 billion. Then, as most people’s days drew to a close, we learned that the 7 line extension will be delayed a few months as the escalators and elevators have repeated failed testing. I’ll have more to say about that next week. For now, though, things are not looking good for the MTA’s ability to deliver anything on time.

Meanwhile, there’s weekend work to be done. That, at least, will finish on time.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 25 to 5:00 a.m. Monday, January 27, 4 trains run local in both directions between Grand Central-42 St and Brooklyn Bridge City Hall due to signal work at 14 St-Union Sq.


From 5:45 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Saturday, January 25 and from 7:45 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Sunday, January 26, 5 trains are suspended between E 180 St and 149 St-Grand Concourse due to Dyre Avenue line signal modernization. Transfer between 2 and 5 trains at E 180 St and/or at 149 St-Grand Concourse. 5 service operates in two sections:

  • Between Dyre Av and E 180 St, every 30 minutes.
  • Between 149 St-Grand Concourse and Bowling Green, every 20 minutes.


From 5:45 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Saturday, January 25 and from 7:45 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Sunday, January 26, 5 trains run every 20 minutes between 149 St-Grand Concourse and Bowling Green. Trains run local in both directions between Grand Central-42 St and Brooklyn Bridge due to signal work at 14 St-Union Sq.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 25 to 5:00 a.m. Monday, January 27, 5 trains run every 30 minutes between Dyre Av and E 180 St due to Dyre Ave line signal modernization.


From 11:45 p.m. Friday, January 24 to 4:00 a.m. Monday, January 27, Brooklyn Bridge-bound 6 trains run express from Pelham Bay Park to Parkchester due to station work and platform demolition work at Castle Hill Avenue and Middletown Road stations.


From 11:45 p.m. Friday, January 24 to 5:00 a.m. Monday, January 27, 207 St-bound A trains are rerouted on the F line from Jay St-MetroTech to W 4St, then run local to 59 St, due to Sandy-related tunnel survey work.


From 6:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Saturday, January 25 and Sunday, January 26, Manhattan-bound C trains are rerouted on the F line from Jay St-MetroTech to W 4St and due to Sandy-related tunnel survey work.


From 12:30 a.m. Saturday, January 25 to 5:00 a.m. Monday, January 27, E trains run local in both directions from 36 St to Forest Hills 71-Av due to signal modernization at Forest Hills 71-Av and Kew Gardens Union Tpke.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, January 24 to 5:00 a.m. and Monday, January 27, E trains are rerouted on the F line in both directions from Roosevelt Av to W 4 St due to Sandy-related electrical work. Free shuttle buses run between Court Sq-23 St and 21 St-Queensbridge, stopping at Queens Plaza.


From 12:30 a.m. Saturday, January 25 to 5:00 a.m. and Monday, January 27, F trains are suspended from Coney Island-Stillwell Av to Avenue X due to switch renewal north of Coney Island-Stillwell Av. F service operates between 179 St and Avenue X. Free shuttle buses operate between Stillwell Av and Avenue X, stopping at West 8 St and Neptune Av.


From 12:30 a.m. Saturday, January 25 to 5:00 a.m. and Monday, January 27, F trains run local in both directions from 21 St-Queensbridge to Forest Hills-71 Av due to due to signal modernization at Forest Hills 71-Av and Kew Gardens Union Tpke.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 25 to 5:15 a.m. Monday, January 27, L trains run every 24 minutes between Rockaway Pkwy and Broadway Junction due to track and roadbed maintenance. L service operates in two sections between 8 Av and Broadway Junction, and between Broadway Junction and Rockaway Pkwy. To continue your trip, transfer at Broadway Junction.


From 6:45 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Saturday, January 25, and Sunday, January 26, Ditmars Blvd-bound N trains are rerouted on the D (express) from Stillwell Av to 36 St in Brooklyn due to design survey work near 20 Ave.


From 12:30 a.m. Saturday, January 25, to 5:00 a.m. Monday, January 27, Q trains are suspended in both directions between Coney Island- Stillwell Av and Brighton Beach due to switch renewal north of Coney Island- Stillwell Av. Q service operates between 57th St-7th Avenue and Brighton Beach. Free shuttle buses provide alternate service between Stillwell Av and Avenue X, stopping at West 8 St and Neptune Av.

(Franklin Av)
From 11:45 p.m. Friday, January 24 to 5:00 a.m. Monday, January 27, Franklin Av Shuttle is suspended due to circuit breaker house work at Prospect Park. Shuttle buses provide alternate service, making station stops at Franklin Av, Park Pl, Botanic Garden, and Prospect Park.

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7 Line ExtensionAsides

7 line extension opening to be delayed a few months

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on January 24, 2014

While we all gathered to celebrate Mayor Bloomberg’s 7 line extension a few weeks ago, the rest of New York City is going to have to wait even longer as this project too has been delayed a few months. According to MTA documents to be presented to board members on Monday, due to issues with the escalators and elevators at 34th St. and the transmission backbone system, the opening of the station at Hudson Yards will be delayed until at least late summer/early fall of 2014 and possibly into the fourth quarter of 2014.

The three main concerns seem to focus around equipment. The hand rail motor for the high rise escalators at 34th Street failed the Factory Acceptance Test; the transmission backbone system which operates all major systems including HVAC, fire alarms and the elevators and escalators were delayed; and the inclined elevators at 34th St. have twice failed Factory Acceptance Tests. The MTA notes as well that “installation logistics and access…may become an issue.”

According to the documents, the MTA is working with contractors to mitigate the delay, but it’s not likely that the agency will meet the previously promised June 2014 date. The delay should not impact the cost, but it is yet another sign of problems managing major construction projects. By the time it opens, the 7 line extension will be nearly two years late past original estimates and one year off of its revised timeline that had service commencing in December.

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East Side Access Project

East Side in-Access: Costs could balloon to $10B for oft-delayed project

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on January 24, 2014

East Side Access progress as of October. The project is not expected to be completed until 2021. Photo: Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Patrick Cashin

When word came down a few weeks ago that East Side Access was again over budget and late, I guessed the delay would be minimal, pushing the project’s completion date back into 2020. Today, Ted Mann blew the cover off that theory as he reports in The Wall Street Journal that East Side Access may not be completed until 2021 and could cost as much as $10 billion. It is the latest setback for a deeply flawed project beset with problems.

Mann reports:

Officials from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will present a new timeline for the project, known as East Side Access, to members of the MTA board on Monday, and now believe trains might not run into the station until 2021 or beyond. Others within the authority said the project cost might not reach $10 billion, and noted that the higher estimates build in the risks of future delays. The timeline for completion also could be shortened, one official said. The MTA’s most recent cost estimate was $8.2 billion.

Amid the disappointment with the latest delays, the project executive overseeing East Side Access is departing, according to a person familiar with the matter. Alan Paskoff, a senior vice president at the MTA’s Capital Construction division, will leave the agency in April, according to this person. Mr. Paskoff couldn’t be reached for comment…

The project has been plagued by delays and cost overruns. In 2006, when a federal grant agreement was completed, the MTA said it could run LIRR trains into the station by December 2013. The date slipped to 2016 by 2010, when Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff wrote to a U.S. senator that progress had been “grim.”

The new completion estimate has its roots in November 2012, when officials at the MTA’s Capital Construction division rejected the bids for a major contract to build the “Manhattan Structures”—construction in the station caverns and related facilities and systems. The bids had come in some $365 million over the MTA’s budget for that phase of work. Rather than accept the bids, MTA officials said, the authority rejected them and broke the Manhattan Structures contract into smaller segments, some of which are still being advertised for bids.

The MTA has reserved all comments on East Side Access until after Monday’s board committee meetings, but this thing is a mess. While officials have repeatedly called it the “most technically complex” of all MTA mega-projects, this is a self-inflicted wound. The station cavern is unnecessarily deep, and the engineering challenges have added to the project’s woes. It’s not yet clear exactly why this project will be eight years and billions of dollars over budget, but heads should roll and causes discovered.

With the latest news, the questions will sure to focus around its future. Should the MTA continue? Can the money go elsewhere? At this point, too many federal dollars have been sunk into this project and too much of it exists to stop now. It was flawed from the start and continues to be a never-ending morass seven stories beneath Grand Central.

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BronxMetroCardMTA TechnologyStaten IslandView from Underground

Links: MetroCard money, an extended 3 train and SI countdown clocks

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on January 24, 2014

I’ve been sitting on a bunch of open tabs for a little while and thought it would be a good idea to get around to sharing these. These are stories I found interesting or newsworthy but just haven’t had an opportunity to post here.

$500 million from unused MetroCards

I’ve talked a bit about the MTA’s new green fee and the money realized from unused MetroCards, and a recent piece in The Times put those dollars into context. Throughout the first decade of the 21st century, the MTA collected half a billion dollars from unused fares. Since straphangers have to pre-pay for MetroCards, dollars that are left on the cards long after their expiration dates remain with the MTA, and on an annual basis, the money is a small, but important, part of the agency’s annual budget.

Unused fares isn’t something that’s come about because of the MetroCard era. Back in the day, New Yorkers would buy tokens and never use them. They would get lost, get forgotten, get overlooked, and the MTA could collect those fares. But today with uneven bonuses that make the math of a free fare more difficult, more dollars are left on cards that expire, and the $1 fee for new MetroCards means revenue as well.

As the MTA phases out the MetroCard — the topic of my March 19 Problem Solvers session — these unused fares may diminish a bit. The next system may well be a pay-as-you-go set-up that doesn’t focus around any proprietary fare collection system. While the MTA will lose the money from unused fares, it will also drastically reduce the amount it has to spend to collect fares. That’s a win for the customers, and a win for the transit agency as well.

Send the 3 to the Bronx

As New York City subways go, the 3 train runs an odd route. It stretches deep into Brooklyn but then stops short of anything in Manhattan. It terminates at 148th St. near the Lenox Yard and goes no further north. In a piece at Welcome2TheBronx, Richard Garey argues for extending the train to the Bronx. With the need for some cross-Bronx subway service and the incoming soccer facility near Yankee Stadium, the time may be right to look at some subway extension options.

Garey’s post focuses on the 3 train as a way to serve neighborhoods that once enjoyed streetcar service and now don’t, but I think he has the routing wrong. The 3 shouldn’t end up as another north-south route in the Bronx but could instead cut across the borough, serving areas that don’t have good cross-Bronx transit options while boosting subway service. It is, after all, a fast ride downtown on the IRT express. Without a massive infusion of cash, we’re just dreaming, but it’s an intriguing proposition after all.

Unhappiness at 149th Street

For years, I’ve been using the 149th Street-Grand Concourse subway stop as a transfer point on the way to Yankee Stadium, and for years, it has been one disgusting station. The walls were marred by leaking pipes, and on the way home from a World Series game in 2001, my sister and I saw squirrel-sized rats on the uptown 2/5 platform. It was very, very unpleasant.

Recently, the station underwent a renovation, but a few area residents are unhappy. One transit buff took a video tour of the station post-renovation and discovered some subpar work. Meanwhile, another group of residents wants to restore elevator service that was shuttered 40 years ago. As best as I can tell, the elevator in question went from the 2/5 platform to street level. The MTA has no money, and protestors hope Mayor de Blasio can help out. I wouldn’t hold me breath.

Countdown clocks for the SIR

Thanks to an infusion of funds from Council member Vincent Ignizio, four stations along the Staten Island Railway — Great Kills, Eltingville, Annadale and Huguenot — now have countdown clocks. The work is part of a $675,000 initiative funded by Ignizio’s office that will eventually include a Subway Time component that will add these SIR stations to the MTA’s tracking app. For now, the information is available on the St. George-bound side, but Tottenville-bound service will have its time in the sun as well. If you pay for it, it will come.

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