Subway Thread

[hkskyline]

NY Gov Spitzer vows to avoid 2007 subway fare hike

NEW YORK, March 8 (Reuters) - New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has promised to do his best to avoid hiking New York City's $2.00 subway fare, at least this year.

This was the first time the Democratic governor, who took office in January, addressed the almost always hot-button issue. "We will not move for a rate hike until everything else has been exhausted," Spitzer told reporters on Wednesday.

Spitzer vowed to hold fares to a price the public can accept and pledged to boost the amount the state gives the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for both operating expenses and capital projects.

"We will try to do that and have to see in future budgets where we go," he added.

In recent years the MTA, the biggest U.S. mass transit system with around 7.8 million daily riders, has raised fares every two years.

But outgoing Chairman Peter Kalikow late last year approved a new $5.4 billion budget that skips the 5 percent increase that had been planned for 2007.

Kalikow, appointed by former Republican Gov. George Pataki, had said the MTA could postpone the fare hike, thanks to historically high ridership, increased efficiency and the city's strong real estate market.

But the MTA, which operates New York City's buses, subways, commuter lines and several bridges and tunnels, faces enormous spending pressures.

In Manhattan, for example, its billion-dollar projects include a new Second Ave. subway. An extension for the No. 7 subway line west from Times Square and south to 34th St is also planned, though New York City has pledged $2.1 billion.

A new rail link between Lower Manhattan and John F. Kennedy International Airport also could be approved.

Yet the MTA already faces staggering budget gaps in future years, with a net deficit of nearly $1.8 billion projected in 2010.

The agency restructured its bond program several years ago, but Spitzer vowed to avoid borrowing for operating expenses, adding: "We will of course aspire to have less borrowing" for capital projects.

[AndySocks]

Originally Posted by savethewtc

They're like the 6, only newer and seem wider.
http://www.subwaynut.com/rollingstock/r160/index.html

Well... actually they are wider. That's because the old N trains were wider than the old 6 trains, too. Lettered trains have always had wider and longer cars than numbered ones (8 doors per car vs. 6). In geek-talk, IND/BMT has always been wider than IRT.

[hkskyline]

New York Council tells MTA to get more federal aid

NEW YORK, March 9 (Reuters) - New York's City Council criticized the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Friday for borrowing some $141 million to pay for improving security because so far it has not received the federal aid it expected.

Transportation Committee Chairman John Liu, a Democrat, noted the biggest U.S. mass transit agency's debt burden already is consuming a rapidly rising share of its budget.

Gary Lanigan, the MTA's budget chief, and Greg Kullberg, who runs its capital programs, told the committee they had expected to get $495 million from Homeland Security, based on their preliminary conversations with the federal officials. The two officials vowed to aggressively push for all the money.

The funds will help pay for the second phase of the MTA's security upgrades -- the first $721 million phase is about 78 percent done, according to the MTA officials.

The Council also rapped Taxi & Limousine Commission officials who testified earlier.

Liu said that for the past few years the city has "almost arbitrarily and capriciously" underestimated how it will get by selling taxi medallions.

Fiscal monitors say the city has a long history of using conservative forecasts to guard against having to cut services if there is an economic downturn -- and discourage unionized workers from seeking big raises.

The last medallion sale produced a $141 million windfall, Liu said, with each medallion fetching around $500,000.

Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration this time has forecast that each of the 150 new medallions will sell for only $200,000, Liu said.

Commission officials noted that this next medallion sale is for taxis specially equipped to ferry disabled individuals, suggesting this might lower the price. Adding that medallion prices fluctuate, they defended the use of conservative forecasts.

But Liu said using low-ball estimates deprives the Council of a greater say in how the extra cash is spent.

[XCRunner]

This thread has cool pics... 'nuff said.

[TalB]

Here are some recent pics on some updated stations.

The new stationhouse for the transfer between the L and M lines at Wyckoff Ave near Myrtle Ave.


Did someone call for a fixer-upper at 231st St Station off the 1 line recently?



The entrance to the Lexington Ave-63rd St Station off the F train has escaltors at the entrance.


The Gun Hill Rd Station of the 2 train now has a stationhouse.

[hkskyline]

New City Transit Chief Slated To Start Today
Special to the Sun
April 11, 2007

A former vice president of the city's bus system is scheduled to become president of New York City Transit today.

Howard Roberts, 67, was appointed yesterday by the CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Elliot Sander, to head the agency that oversees the city's subways and buses. Mr. Sander worked under Mr. Roberts in the 1980s in the MTA's bus division.

Transit advocates say they hope that Mr. Roberts's bus background will make him a proponent of implementing faster bus lanes, known as Bus Rapid Transit, in all five boroughs.

The former president of New York City Transit, Lawrence Reuter, stepped down from the post last month after 11 years in the job.

[TalB]

Has the 7 train been reopened between 42nd St-Times Square and 61st St-Woodside since April 2 or is it still closed?

[ramvid01]

Originally Posted by TalB

Has the 7 train been reopened between 42nd St-Times Square and 61st St-Woodside since April 2 or is it still closed?

It only closes on weekends. By the way, that sign says until April 2nd, so that sign is already expired.

[sfgadv02]

Gun Hill Road stationhouse looks the best. They are taking too long for the stationhouse in Myrtle/Wycoff, it's been 3 years almost!

[TalB]

Originally Posted by ramvid01

It only closes on weekends. By the way, that sign says until April 2nd, so that sign is already expired.

I wasn't here when this was the case.

[Wizzard]

Originally Posted by SaRaJeVo-City

This picture reminds me the commieblocks in central and eastern Europe as well in 5th Bratislava district in Slovakia where I live

Just the light railway is not built here yet

[ramvid01]

Errrr? Two cab train? wtf?

[Wizzard]

Does anybody know where is this picture from? Can it be somewhere in Bronx? I am really interested.

[bagel]

^ That's not NY. That's Philly. Those were experimental trains that were tested on SEPTA.

[thf5007]

Thats not Philly, thats Brighton Beach, Brooklyn right near Coney Island. My grandfather lives in Trump Village and while that picture seems a bit old, the neighborhood looks exactly the same today. As for the subway cars, those cars were tested in both Philadelphia and New York.

[koolkid]

Those trains look hideous. Good thing they never saw daylight. Oh wait, they did...

[bagel]

Ok-- I thought it was Philly because one of the pictures showed the Spectrum-Pattison SEPTA station.

[hkskyline]

NYC subways test detectors to make work crews safer
12 May 2007

NEW YORK (AP) - After a pair of worker deaths, the agency that runs New York's subway system is testing devices that would sound an alarm when a train approaches crews working on the tracks.

The system being tested would give workers a sensor, linked wirelessly to other detectors mounted on trains.

As the rumbling subway car approached, workers would hear a ring or a vibrating alarm. The units could also be set to trigger flashing lights.

The transit agency sharpened its focus on safety after two track workers were hit and killed by trains while working within the tunnels within five days late last month. In both cases, investigators suspect the trackmen didn't hear approaching trains until it was too late.

The cacophony from rushing subways in New York's dim, low-ceilinged stations can be so loud, at times, that workers can get confused about which trains are coming on which tracks.

A spokesman for the company that makes the detection devices, ProTran1, said the system performed well during tests Friday. A New York City Transit spokesman said the agency will evaluate the tests.

In the meantime, supervisors have been given radios to improve communication with train controllers, and maintenance workers have been retrained on track safety.

[kub86]

Are there any in-depth ridership analysis reports online for NYC? I'm looking for ridership stats for subway stations and/or time charts that show when people use the entire system (broken down by hour). I found Moscow's and London's....just need NY's! You'd think it'd be easy but i can't seem to find anything. Anybody seen anything similar???

[TalB]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/ny...l?ref=nyregion
Transit Chief Plans to Ask Riders to Grade Subway and Bus Lines

By WILLIAM NEUMAN
Published: May 15, 2007


Joe Fornabaio for The New York Times

Howard H. Roberts Jr., president of New York City Transit, is known for close cooperation with labor.

Griping about subway service is practically a vocation for many New Yorkers. Yet it often goes hand in hand with the conviction that no matter how much they complain, no one is ever likely to listen.

But now the man who runs the city’s subways and buses says that he actually wants to hear their complaints. Howard H. Roberts Jr., appointed last month as president of New York City Transit, said yesterday that one of his first major initiatives would be a system of rider report cards for subways and buses.

Riders on each line will be asked to grade different aspects of service, including the cleanliness of cars and stations, safety and the responsiveness of employees.

He said he would also ask riders to list the three things that they thought most need to be improved.

“I want to know what passengers want,” Mr. Roberts said yesterday during a wide-ranging interview that touched on topics as diverse as dirty subway cars and his affinity for the poetry of Robert Frost.

“I think too often people sit around in offices like this and say, ‘O.K., I know better than the customer what it is they want and so this is what we’re going to do.’ I want the customer to drive the priorities.”

The first report cards could appear this summer on the No. 7 line, Mr. Roberts said. He envisions cards that would be handed out to riders as they exit stations, and which they could fill out and mail in at no cost.

By the fall, he said, he hopes to bring the report cards to every line in the system, and bus lines as well.

Mr. Roberts said that he did not expect to be able to respond with a single solution that would work for all lines.

“It may very well be that different subway lines in the city will have different priorities,” he said. “If it’s cleanliness on the 6 line and it’s security on the A line, those are the things that have to be my first priorities on their lines.”

Mr. Roberts declined to say how he would fill out one of the report cards, but he had his own complaints about cleanliness. He said that he too often found cars that were dirty and full of trash when riding the subway to work as early as 4:30 a.m.

Mr. Roberts had been on the job less than two weeks when Daniel Boggs, a track worker, was struck and killed by a No. 3 train near Columbus Circle on April 24. Five days later, Marvin Franklin, another track worker, was struck and killed by a G train at a station in Brooklyn.

Mr. Roberts, as transit chiefs have in the past, promptly began a comprehensive safety review. But he did it in a very visible partnership with Roger Toussaint, the president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union.

That cooperation has contrasted with the tense relations between labor and management that prevailed in recent years at the agency.

To a large extent, the tone had already been set by Elliot G. Sander, the executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, who hired Mr. Roberts to succeed Lawrence G. Reuter, who retired.

But in choosing Mr. Roberts, Mr. Sander knew that he was hiring someone with a history of getting along with labor leaders — a history that had not always worked out well for Mr. Roberts.

This is Mr. Roberts’s second stint at the transit agency, and he is now in the unusual position of having been hired to run an organization where he was once fired. He first came to work there in 1981, as vice president for finance and then as the vice president in charge of buses.

He was fired in 1986. Mr. Roberts said that it was a result of his closeness to the labor unions.

Mr. Roberts, who is 67, went on to work at Citibank, where he said he first saw customer report cards used to improve service.

He worked from 1989 to 1997 at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, the transit system for the Philadelphia area, where he used similar report cards.

Mr. Roberts’s formative years were spent in the Army. He graduated from West Point and then served for 20 years, retiring as a colonel.

Mr. Roberts said that the Army taught him about honor and duty; then he handed a reporter a sheet of paper with the final stanza of a Robert Frost poem, “Two Tramps in Mud Time.” The poem is a meditation on the things a person does out of necessity and the things he does because he chooses to, and Mr. Roberts said he planned to have the stanza posted on his office wall.

The poem says, in part: “My object in living is to unite/My avocation and my vocation/As my two eyes make one in sight.”

“That sort of describes why this job means as much to me as it does,” Mr. Roberts said. “Very few of us get to combine our vocation and our avocations and very few of us get to play for mortal stakes, and soldiers and doctors and leaders of transportation organizations and a very few other people do that.”