subscribe to this pageMay 15, 2008
It's No Hallucination: Polka-Dot Buses Aim to Cut Travel Time
By JENNIFER MASCIA
No, there are no illegal drugs being handed out as passengers begin their morning commutes: For the past few weeks, those seats on the M23 crosstown bus really have been decorated with light and dark blue bubbles.
The new upholstery is probably the most conspicuous feature of Select Bus Service, an experimental project by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, with the support of the city and state Departments of Transportation, to improve service on congested routes.
The project, the result of several years of study, draws on several elements of Bus Rapid Transit, a system of bus operating practices used in cities around the world. The system's main elements will eventually include bus shelters where passengers pay the fare before boarding; fewer stops and greater distances between stops; dedicated bus lanes with a distinctive color and lettering; direct routes with frequent service that supplements, but does not replace, regular local bus service; and electronic signals that give the buses priority (a few extra seconds) if a traffic signal is about to switch, say, to yellow from green.
If the project is successful and put into place citywide, it could prove to be a great relief for customers who have long complained about the snail-like pace of city buses, especially the crosstown buses in Manhattan. It could also mark one of the starkest changes for bus riders, who for more than a century have been accustomed to dropping their change - or now, dipping a MetroCard - into the fare box upon boarding.
Under the new system, customers will pay before boarding, collecting a proof of purchase from a fare dispenser, similar to a MetroCard vending machine or Muni-Meter parking ticket machine, in the bus shelter.
New Operation to Put Heavily Armed Officers in Subways
By AL BAKER
In the first counterterrorism strategy of its kind in the nation, roving teams of New York City police officers armed with automatic rifles and accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs will patrol the city's subway system daily, beginning next month, officials said on Friday.
Under a tactical plan called Operation Torch, the officers will board trains and patrol platforms, focusing on sites like Pennsylvania Station, Herald Square, Columbus Circle, Rockefeller Center and Times Square in Manhattan, and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.
Officials said the operation would begin in March.
Financing for the program will be funneled to the Police Department and will come from a pool of up to $30 million taken from $153.2 million in new federal transit grants to the state.
Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security, and Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced the grants at a news conference on Friday at Grand Central Terminal, where Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly outlined his plans to add a layer of security to the city's 24-hour transit system.
By Noah Shachtman EmailJanuary 24, 2008 | 8:59:00 AM
New York City's plan to secure its subways with a next-generation surveillance network is getting more expensive by the second, and slipping further and further behind schedule.
A new report by the New York State Comptroller's office reveals that "the cost of the electronic security program has grown from $265 million to $450 million, an increase of $185 million or 70 percent." An August 2008 deadline has been pushed back to December 2009, and further delays may be just ahead.
Shortly after a series of bombings in the London Tube, The Metropolitan Transit Authority, which oversees New York's mass transit systems, signed a contract in 2005 with defense contractor Lockheed Martin to put in thousands of security cameras, electronic tripwires, and digitally-controlled gates into New York's sprawling network of subways. The deal was inked just a few months after MTA chairman Peter Kalikow argued against "wasting money on unproven technology."
At the heart of the program was a network of surveillance cameras, passing what they saw through a set of intelligent video algorithms, designed to spot suspicious behavior: a bag left on the subway platform, a person jumping down to the tracks, a mob running up a down escalator.
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U.S. Approves $1.3 Billion for 2nd Avenue Subway
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
The long-dreamed-of Second Avenue subway will take another important step toward becoming a real thing of concrete and steel today, as the federal government plans to announce that it has formally approved $1.3 billion in financing for the project's first phase.
Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said in an interview that the money would be paid out over the next seven years as construction progresses on the subway's first leg, which will have stops on Second Avenue at 92nd, 86th and 72nd Streets and at 63rd Street and Lexington Avenue.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority began preliminary work on the line after Gov. Eliot Spitzer held a ceremonial groundbreaking in April.
Ms. Peters said the federal money would pay for about one-third of the work on the first phase, which is expected to cost more than $4 billion. The first leg is scheduled to open in 2014, and it will run as an extension of the Q line.
FROM one straphanger to another, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s executive director, Elliot G. Sander, consciously straddling the fence between polished bureaucrat (his upwardly mobile career) and put-upon proletarian (his roots in Jamaica, Queens), confides that the pending — read inevitable — bus and subway fare increase to $2.25 from $2 a trip is not his preference. But.
“I would prefer not to have a fare increase, and I want to keep the cost of transportation as far down as I can, but I am calling on our customers to basically keep up with the cost of living,” he said. “My objective is for the M.T.A. not to go into a death spiral, go where it was in the ’70s and ’80s when you had derailments, breakdowns, graffiti, track fires, you name it. This authority has been a high-wire act for the last 20 years.” Without a safety net.
Off-Peak Fares Eyed for New York City Transit
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority yesterday proposed charging people less if they ride subways or buses during off-peak periods, in hopes of easing overcrowding during the commuting rushes.
Under the plan, however, most riders would be hit with steep increases, as the authority seeks to generate $580 million from fare and toll increases during the next two years.
The City
Softening the Blow of a Fare Hike
Let's begin with the pocketbook-chafing fact that New York's bus and subway riders pay far more at the farebox than riders in any other major transit network. Their burdenwould go up again early next year under a proposal by the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The current base fare of $2 would rise 25 cents to achieve the authority's goal of boosting revenue by 6.5 percent. Another fare increase, as yet undetermined, would follow in two years.
The planned increases reflect the M.T.A.'s attempt to address projected financial woes, including huge out-year budget gaps, while also improving service and expanding the system. Its proposed solution depends on raising fares and tolls possibly as early as January. Foregoing a fare hike entirely, as the city and state comptrollers have both urged, may not be possible; there hasn't been an increase in more than three years. But every effort should be made to minimize the riders' pain.
There are ways this could be done. The M.T.A. is proposing to raise $262 million through higher fares and tolls. Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign, a nonprofit riders' advocate, suggests a more equitable sharing of costs. His group is calling for the city and counties to contribute $65 million, and the state to pitch in an equal amount. If they did that, riders would face only a 10-cent fare hike. It is a reasonable approach, and lawmakers should give it serious attention.
Keeping fares affordable is critical in a city where so many riders have low incomes. It also encourages people to use mass transit instead of their cars.
Is That Finally the Sound of a 2nd Ave. Subway?
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
The neckties are wide and the sideburns long, the pickaxes gleam in the sunlight. The governor thanks the president for providing money. The mayor jokes that "whatever is said about this project in the years to come, certainly no one can say that the city acted rashly or without due deliberation."
The governor swings his pickax, but the pavement is too hard. A jackhammer is brought in to loosen things up. Now the governor and the mayor lay to with gusto.
The Second Avenue subway is born.
Or so it seemed at the time.
The sideburns were long and the neckties wide because it was 1972. The president was Nixon. The governor was Rockefeller. The mayor was Lindsay. And nearly 35 years later, no trains have ever run under Second Avenue.
But the line has had at least three groundbreakings.
On Thursday it will get another one.
New York Underground
Take This Job and Love It
By ALEX MINDLIN
EVERY few months on Rider Diaries, an online forum for New York transit buffs, someone posts a message with a subject line like “I’VE BEEN CALLED!!!!” That particular exclamation appeared in October 2005; its writer, a skinny 20-year-old named Jason Brown, crowed that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had “finally reached my number.”
Congratulations poured in. “This is the biggest news of today!” one enthusiast wrote. Another added, “I wish I was in your seat.”
Mr. Brown had just gotten the subway fan’s equivalent of a Broadway callback. A year and a half earlier, he had taken the examination to be a conductor, and now he was being called in for a medical exam and an interview.
Had Mr. Brown scored lower, he might have waited even longer. The current list of conductor candidates, which is based on the 2004 exam, had 21,749 names on it in 2005. If previous lists are any guide, only about a third of those names will have been called by the time the list expires in 2009.
Mr. Kalikow eliminated a five percent fare increase for subways, buses and trains that had been scheduled for next September on the ground that revenues are running ahead of schedule. That sounds great, particularly to riders, but it ignores long-term fiscal realities.
By the M.T.A.’s own calculations, it will face a $1 billion gap in 2008, expanding to a $2.1 billion shortfall — equal to nearly one quarter of the authority’s projected revenue — in 2010. Of course, to reach those numbers, you have to use the authority’s accounting standards, which ignore the fact that the M.T.A. finances continuing capital expenses, including replacement of subway cars and buses, with borrowed money.
Charles Brecher is the research director of the Citizens Budget Commission and a professor of public and health administration at New York University’s Wagner School.
City Experiments by Adding Color to Bus Lanes
By Sewell Chan
bus lanesA new red bus lane on 57th Street. (Photo: New York City Department of Transportation)
With support from the Federal Highway Administration, New York City will be the first locality in the United States to test painted bus lanes, the city's Department of Transportation announced today.
As part of a trial period, existing bus lanes on East 57th Street, from Second to Fifth Avenues, and on Fordham Road, from University Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, are being painted terra cotta, a deep red like the color of bricks. If the experiment works, officials hope that more motorists will stay out of the lanes, which are used during the morning and evening rush, on weekdays.
The coloring of bus lanes - red is the most common color, but green and yellow have also been used - has been used in London; Edinburgh; Rouen, France; Seoul, South Korea; and Melbourne, Australia.
The colors do not affect the current bus lane rules. Vehicles other than buses may not drive in any bus lanes during the hours that they are in operation, except to make the next legal right turn. On East 57th Street and Fordham Road, the bus lanes are in effect from Monday to Friday, 7 to 10 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m.
The painting on 57th Street should be complete by Sept. 1, and the Fordham Road painting will begin after that.
Two different paint treatments are being evaluated. "One option involves adding color to the entire bus lane, while the other option involves applying the color only down the center of the lane," the department said in a news release. "A five-foot wide strip down the center may be more cost effective and more durable, since the strip will experience less wear from bus tires than a full lane striping would. However, this treatment may not be as effective as the full lane striping at reducing unauthorized use." On 57th Street and Fordham Road, one treatment will be used on one side of the street, and the other treatment on the opposite side.
August 10, 2007, 12:07 pm
New Bus Shelters Let You Plan Your Shopping and TV-Watching but Not Your Trip
By David W. Dunlap
In the department of missing transit information, the absence of route maps and trip tips at a few of the new bus-stop shelters being installed by Cemusa scarcely rises to the level of outrage.
But mild indignation may be in order, since the same shelters seem to have a full complement of advertising.
On the Avenue of the Americas at 56th Street, for example, riders cannot find out what lines serve the stop, where the buses go after they leave the stop or how to pay their fare, which is no small question for an out-of-towner. They can, however, learn about Verizon’s new BlackBerry 8830 World Edition for $199.99 (after rebate) or contemplate how delicious a Corona Extra or Corona Light might taste about now, just as long as they “relax responsibly.”
Twelve blocks south on the avenue, the shelter is silent on the question of whether riders can expect an M5 or an M6 or an M7 to pull up. Instead it, it lets them know that Glenn Close is starring in “Damages” on the FX network. Oh, yes, and that Verizon BlackBerry. Only $199.99. (After rebate.)
Is this another case of a corporate takeover of the public realm without the full benefit that was promised to the public? Not quite. Cemusa, the Spanish company that won a citywide street-furniture franchise last year, is not to blame.
JOE ANASTASIO, a slim, dark-haired Web designer for a Wall Street publishing company, was standing outside Madison Square Garden, dressed in black work boots, a torn blue check shirt and a bomber jacket. It was a brisk Sunday morning in the spring, and among the swirl of tourists clutching maps and hockey fans in Rangers jerseys, he might easily have been mistaken for a Metropolitan Transportation Authority track worker heading to a shift.
That is how Mr. Anastasio likes it. A 33-year-old native of Astoria, Queens, he is an urban explorer, to use a term he and his fellow adventurers accept somewhat wearily, along with urban spelunker, infiltrator, hacker and guerilla urbanist. Urban explorers, a highly disparate, loosely knit group, share an obsession with uncovering the hidden city that lies above and below the familiar one all around them. And especially during the summer, they are out in full force.
Alone and with cohorts, Mr. Anastasio has crawled, climbed and sometimes simply brazenly walked into countless train tunnels, abandoned subway stations, rotting factories, storm drains, towers, decaying hospitals and other shadowy remnants of the city’s infrastructure the authorities would rather he did not enter. Although he records his adventures on his Web site, ltvsquad.com, anonymity
is, for him, a necessary tool.
M.T.A. Web Site Went Dark, Too
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
When the power went out in a broad swath of the Upper East Side and the Bronx on Wednesday, a record number of commuters turned to the Internet to learn if their subway lines or commuter trains were running. But the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Web site provided no help.
The site became inaccessible shortly after the electricity went out at 3:41 p.m. and was down for about an hour, a little longer than the 49-minute power failure.
"Because the incident occurred right before people were getting ready to leave the office, we had a huge surge of traffic at one time, unlike anything we'd had before," Jeremy Soffin, a spokesman for the transportation authority, said yesterday.
The failure cut power to signals on several subway lines. Service was disrupted, with delays extending well into the evening, making the trip home for many commuters even more uncomfortable on a hot and muggy day. Service on the Metro-North Railroad was also briefly interrupted.
Some Subways Found Packed Past Capacity
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
They are just lines on a graph, but for many subway riders they will provide unique insight into one of the great aggravations of life underground: why trains on some lines are so often both crowded and late, while on other lines the trains seem to cruise along on schedule with almost no one on board.
In an unusually candid effort at self-examination for a habitually insular agency, New York City Transit yesterday presented what could be called an index of straphanger frustration. It made an analysis of each subway line that shows at a glance how often trains run late, how crowded they are and whether more trains could be added to ease the problems.
What is revealed is both predictable and eye-opening. Many subway lines are simply maxed out, meaning there is no room on the tracks they use to add trains that could carry the swelling numbers of riders. And that has implications that range from day-to-day decisions about how trains travel through the system to long-term planning on how to best move people around a growing city.
"From my point of view, this is scary," said Howard H. Roberts Jr., the president of New York City Transit, who presented the data to members of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's board. "This is scary in the sense that right now, on a lot of these lines, we're several years and a big capital construction project away from being able to provide what I consider adequate service. We're constrained."
Don't clog loop, say Co-op City residents
BY BILL EGBERT
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, April 2nd 2007, 2:35 PM
As the MTA rolls out plans for a new rapid-transit bus route for the Bronx, people living at one end of the line are saying, "Not so fast."
The proposed new express route for the Bx12 bus would run from Broadway and 207th St. in Manhattan, along Fordham Road and Pelham Parkway, to terminate at Asch Loop in Co-op city.
But Co-op City residents say the idea of ending the route at Asch is loopy.
"This is not about improving service to Co-op City," said Arthur Taub, a Co-op City transit advocate leading the charge against the proposal. "They're not giving us anything but headaches."
Bus carrying officials is tagged during tour to show off new stop closer to campus so students can avoid gang area.
By Angie Green, Times Staff Writer
February 27, 2007
The two-block walk from the MTA bus stop to campus has often been a frightening ordeal for students at the Santee Education Complex just south of downtown Los Angeles.
Some have complained of gang activity and being harassed or robbed - including one student who was held up at gunpoint. The area was branded by Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. David L. Brewer as "one of the worst blocks" in the area.
Eliminating subway and bus fares could put local mass transit on the road to success.
By D. Malcolm Carson, D. MALCOLM CARSON, an attorney and urban planner in private practice, is a member of the Los Angeles Board of Transportation Commissioners.
February 25, 2007
CLOSE TO HALF the travel time on most L.A. bus routes is spent at the curb. Bus riders know the frustration of waiting to board while someone coaxes a floppy dollar bill into the fare box. Likewise, plenty of irritated local drivers have been stuck behind that bus in the right-turn lane. Oh, and the despair of the train rider left struggling with an uncooperative ticket vending machine as the train pulls away.
So what would happen if, instead of hiking MTA fares as is currently under consideration, we made all the buses and subways free?
Eliminating transit fares is the logical flip side to the anti-congestion pricing schemes so favored by economists. London, for instance, charges a daily fee equal to about $15.60 to drive in the traffic-chocked central city between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays. Just as such fees on cars supposedly discourage driving, eliminating fares could encourage public transit use.
Contact: Press Office 212-669-3747
THOMPSON REPORT: MTA DELAYS IN REPAIRING AND FUNDING NYC RAILWAYS PUT RIDERS AT RISK
Urges adding $673 million more for NYC Transit repair and upgrade work
Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. today issued a report that faults the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for jeopardizing the safety and security of riders by consistently delaying critical infrastructure work in New York City.
A Review of MTA New York City Transit "State of Good Repair" Capital Expenditures found that since 1982, when the first MTA Five-Year Capital Plan was issued, large disparities have emerged between the commuter railroads and New York City Transit (NYC Transit) in achieving what the MTA itself considers a "State of Good Repair."
"New Yorkers are being shortchanged," Thompson said. "The MTA's efforts to bring the bus and subway system to a State of Good Repair have progressed slowly, raising concerns about rider safety and security. Service still has not reached the levels of reliability, safety and comfort New Yorkers require and deserve."
By JEREMY OLSHAN
February 2, 2007 -- Vital repairs to the city's subway system are routinely postponed as suburban projects hog the MTA gravy train, the city comptroller charged yesterday.
City subways and buses account for 94 percent of MTA riders but get only 75.5 percent of the agency's $15 billion five-year capital budget, according to a report from Comptroller Bill Thompson.
"New Yorkers are being shortchanged," Thompson said while proposing raising the city's capital-funds share to 80 percent - an infusion of $673 million.
Although MTA officials said they needed time to review the report and could not comment, Thompson said he's confident MTA CEO Elliot Sander and Gov. Spitzer will correct the situation.
Rising Costs Put New York Transit Projects at Risk of Delay
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority faces surging costs that could force it to eliminate or postpone badly needed projects less than halfway through a five-year, $21 billion program to expand and improve its transit system. By one estimate, the program is now $1.4 billion over budget.
Among the projects in that program are renovations to subway and commuter train stations, maintenance of antiquated signal systems, and the purchase of hundreds of buses and subway cars, and many of the projects may be affected, officials indicated.
Much of the problem has been caused by a rapid increase in the cost of construction in New York City, as a result of rising prices for materials and the large number of new projects, which gives contractors the leverage to charge more. In many cases, fewer companies are bidding on projects and offers are coming in much higher than expected.
Another problem is the weak dollar, which appears likely to raise the cost of a contract for subway cars with French and Japanese companies.
January 23, 2007
Chances are you've had to wait and wait for a city bus some time - and chances are you've seen a bunch of buses show up at the same time. In the following NY1 exclusive, transit reporter Bobby Cuza reports on a new high-tech system that could take the guesswork out of waiting for a city bus.
Peek inside the buses lined up in the 26th Street depot in Manhattan and here's what you'll find: Newly-installed tracking technology that lets dispatchers see exactly where a bus is, right down to the block.
And soon, you'll be able to as well.
"When this is fully implemented, it's going to change the way we do business," says New York City Transit Project Manager Robert Walsh. "I mean, you're going to be able to start at work, on your computer, to look at the bus stop - or start at home, whichever way you're going - and look and see what time the bus is actually going to be at your bus stop."
CITY TO SHELL OUT IN W. SIDE DEAL
By JEREMY OLSHAN Transit Reporter
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September 29, 2006 -- The city will pay $2.1 billion to build a single subway stop on the No. 7 train extension as part of its deal with the MTA to share a role in developing the West Side rail yards.
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
Published: September 20, 2006
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has proposed cuts of $20 million to bus and subway service for next year, meaning that riders could face longer waits for many buses and trains, which would be more crowded. The proposed cuts, which advocates said would be the most extensive service reductions in years, are a precursor to the kind of inconvenience riders may experience in the near future as deficits of more than $1 billion loom.