Transit

September 30, 2016

Vishaan Chakrabarti reveals idea to repurpose Madison Square Garden as part of the Penn Station overhaul

Earlier this week, Governor Cuomo revealed plans to transform a revamped Penn Station-Moynihan Train Hall complex into a "world-class 21st century transportation hub." Despite the flashy new renderings and promise of a 2020 completion date, not everyone is sold on the plan, including Vishaan Chakrabarti, former principal of SHoP Architects and founder of the Practice for Architecture and Urbanism. As outlined in the Times, he feels that Cuomo's scheme has one glaring omission--Madison Square Garden. Instead of demolishing the arena, as earlier plans had called for, Chakrabarti proposes repurposing it and "using its stripped skeleton to make a glass pavilion, which becomes a neighborhood gathering spot, not just a station." The venue would then move to the west end of the Farley Building.
Lots more details and renderings ahead

September 30, 2016

Aerial gondola proposed to better connect Staten Island with Manhattan

By Dana Schulz

With subway plans stalling and bus service failing, planners are turning their sites to alternate modes of urban transportation such as ferries and aerial gondolas. The latter has picked up steam over the past year thanks to the East River Skyway, which would run along the Brooklyn waterfront and into Manhattan, and it looks like the transit-starved folks over on Staten Island have taken note. Earlier this year, the Staten Island Economic Development Corporation launched a conceptual design competition for an aerial tramway that would better connect the borough to surrounding areas. As Untapped tells us, the winning proposal is a line that runs parallel to the Bayonne Bridge from Elm Park to the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail in Bayonne.
Find out more this way

September 29, 2016

MTA board member asks who will pay for Penn Station overhaul

By Michelle Cohen

As 6sqft previously reported, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced plans early this week for a $1.6 billion overhaul of Penn Station, and further details revealed that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority would be responsible for $150 of the project's costs. Since those plans were released, questions have been raised about where that organization's share of the tab would be coming from in an already stretched budget.
So where is this money coming from?

September 28, 2016

REVEALED: Governor Cuomo unveils plans for new Penn Station-Moynihan Train Hall complex

By Michelle Cohen

In a presentation (pdf) Tuesday at the Association for a Better New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that plans for transforming a revamped Penn Station-Moynihan Train Hall complex into a "world-class 21st century transportation hub" were back on track and ready to roll, complete with a slew of new renderings and the selection of a developer-builder team including the Related Companies, Vornado, and Skanska AB, to redevelop the Farley Building.
Find out all the details

September 26, 2016

Second Avenue Subway may miss December opening date

By Dana Schulz

After 100 years of chatter surrounding a Second Avenue Subway, it's no surprise that the MTA can't seem to stop flip-flopping on whether or not the line will meet its December opening date. In April of 2015, the agency announced that Phase I was 82 percent complete and on schedule, but this past June, reports of construction snafus signaled what many felt was an inevitable delay. NBC New York now confirms that the MTA is reassessing its timeline due to issues with elevator and escalator testing at the 72nd Street station.
More info right here

Transit

September 26, 2016

NYC Transit paid $431M in settlements to people injured by trains or buses in last five years

By Michelle Cohen

We’re frequently reminded of the MTA’s efforts to tighten security and keep us safe from terrorists; now the Daily News reports that errors in safety procedures have led to an alarming number of accidental injuries over the past several years. And victims are definitely saying something–at an average of $86.2 million in settlement payments per year, totaling $431 million over the last five years.
Take a look at the numbers

Transit

September 23, 2016

Construction has officially begun for citywide ferry system; first boats to arrive in 2017

By Michelle Cohen

Mayor Bill de Blasio, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and Citywide Ferry operator Hornblower have announced that construction has officially begun on 19 vessels that will kick off New York City's first citywide ferry system, with vessels sporting the latest in 21st century maritime technology. The mayor said in a statement, “We are moving full steam ahead and bringing modern ferry boats, outfitted with the latest technology and safety features, to our waterways. This new fleet will help us connect commuters and visitors alike to neighborhoods throughout the city.”
Find out more

Transit

September 22, 2016

REVEALED: Port Authority releases five design proposals for new bus terminal

By Dana Schulz

On Tuesday, an agreement was reached between West Side elected officials and the Port Authority that said the agency would expand the planning process for a new $10 billion bus terminal with more local input. And just today they've revealed the five proposals that were submitted to a design competition to replace the currently loathed site. Crain's brings us videos of the ideas, which come from big-name firms Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, Arcadis, AECOM in partnership with Skidmore Owings & Merrill, Perkins Eastman, and Archilier Architecture Consortium. Though this seems counter to the agreement, John Degnan, the Port Authority's New Jersey-appointed chairman, said he doubts "any one of them will be the final design," since they either further complicate existing planning issues or cost billions over budget.
Take a look at them all here

September 22, 2016

W train service starts up again November 7th

By Dana Schulz

NY1 has learned that the W train will make its triumphant return on Monday, November 7th. The line was taken out of service in 2010, along with the V train, due to MTA budget cuts, but the idea to revive the line came about last summer as a way to better connect Astoria when the Q train is rerouted once the Second Avenue Subway opens. As Curbed notes, at first it will operate between 57th Street and Whitehall Street in Lower Manhattan, but will eventually extend to Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard.
More details

Transit

September 15, 2016

Plan to close 14th Street to cars during L train shutdown gains steam with feasibility study

By Dana Schulz

One of many ideas to mitigate the forthcoming L train shutdown in 2019 (in addition to others such as the East River Skyway, more bike lanes, and even an inflatable tunnel) is to shut down 14th Street to vehicular traffic and make it a bus-only zone. The idea was first presented in June by State Senator Brad Hoylman, and now he and a group of his government colleagues have won a request to the MTA for a traffic feasibility study of the proposal that they say will "relieve congestion and improve traffic flow."
Find out more

Transit

City’s new, five-year transportation plan looks to bike lanes in wake of L train shutdown

By Dana Schulz

The city's newly released, five-year transportation plan is all about the bikes. As part of his larger Vision Zero initiative, the Mayor announced yesterday that he'll roll out 75 miles of new bike lanes by the end of this year, which includes 18 miles of protected lanes, reports Gothamist. They'll be dispersed throughout the five boroughs, but centered in areas where the highest number of cyclist and pedestrian fatalities occur.
Find out more

Transit

Image via Alan Bloom/Flickr

September 12, 2016

MTA kicks off an intensive two-week subway cleanup

By Metro New York

Image via Alan Bloom/Flickr The rats won’t like this. The MTA’s Operation Track Sweep to spiffy up New York’s subways commenced Monday and will continue for two weeks. More than 500 MTA workers are part of the intensive system-wide cleanup to remove trash and debris from the tracks at all of New York City’s 469 […]

Transit

September 7, 2016

Uniqlo’s NYC subway-inspired t-shirt collection hits stores

By Rebecca Paul

The New York City subway map is an icon of our modern urban culture, and it was only a matter of time before the popular graphics made their way on to a t-shirt in some trendy way. Uniqlo just released a new line of SPRZ NY tees featuring designs pulled from the The New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual, a graphic system designed by Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda in the late 1970s. The new line of tees were produced in collaboration with the MoMA and appropriately named, "The Subway and the City."
see more designs here

September 7, 2016

Video: The first of 300 new R179 subway cars has (finally) arrived at the MTA’s 207th Street yard

By Michelle Cohen

The future has arrived, and it's delayed, of course. The first of the city's shiny new subway cars was delivered to the MTA yard at 207th street in Inwood last night. The new R179 cars are being made upstate by Canadian company Bombardier and are slated to replace old cars on the C, A, J, M and Z lines (the trains on the C line are the oldest); a final decision on which lines will get the new cars hasn't been made at this time. The newly-arrived car is a test model, though; we won't be packing into the new cars like sardines until at least 2018.
See the future pulling in

Transit

August 29, 2016

Subway Reads offers free e-books based on the length of your commute

By Dana Schulz

It can be a bit frustrating to start getting into a book on your commute when you just as soon have to put it down, which is part of the idea behind a new initiative called Subway Reads, a web platform that offers free e-books to subway riders that can be timed to their commute. The program is a collaboration among the MTA, Transit Wireless (the company behind the $250 million+ project to put Wi-Fi in 278 underground stations), and Penguin Random House. According to the Times, the platform was launched as a way to promote the fact that connectivity has already reached 175 stations, but it will only last eight weeks. During that time, users can download novellas, short stories or parts of complete books to their cellphones or tablets, and they can make their selections based on how long they expect to be on the train (the formula accounts for about a page a minute).
Find out how it works

August 25, 2016

Owner of Red Hook waterfront terminal asks city to consider his site for Brooklyn-Queens Streetcar railyard

By Dana Schulz

Just yesterday, 6sqft took a look at reports that the Brooklyn-Queens streetcar will require a train yard/maintenance facility that will likely take up an entire city block and cost around $100 million (which is included in the $2.5 billion overall cost). Finding such a large swath of available real estate would be challenging, but a local industrialist wants to ease the burden by offering up his own property. Crain's tells us that John Quadrozzi Jr., owner of the GBX Gowanus Bay Terminal on the Red Hook waterfront, wants the city to consider his site to host the train yard. The Terminal, which was originally constructed in 1922 as the New York Port Authority Grain Terminal, is a 13-acre shipping depot with an additional 33 acres of underwater property that's used for concerts, film shoots, and commercial offices, and it's expected to be very close to the streetcar's route.
Find out more

Transit

August 24, 2016

This 1927 city subway map shows early transit plans

By Michelle Cohen

If you're navigating the NYC subway and wishing you could start from scratch, these map outlines from 1927 might prove interesting. Found by hyperreal cartography, the maps, from the state's Transit Commission Office of Chief Engineer, outline the "plan of existing and proposed rapid transit lines" for New York City. What's shown on the map appears to be the Independent Subway System; the ISS or IND, as it was known, was first constructed in 1932 as the Eight Avenue Line. As one of the three networks that was integrated into the modern New York City subway, the IND was meant to be fully owned and operated by the city government, as opposed to the privately-funded Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) and Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) companies. The three lines merged in 1940.
Investigate the possibilities

August 24, 2016

LaGuardia Airport to get $5M in repairs prior to complete revamp

By Dana Schulz

Though work on Governor Cuomo's LaGuardia Airport overhaul commenced in June, the first part of the project, the replacement of Terminal B (which will alone carry a $4 billion price tag) is expected to be completed in phases between 2018 and 2022. But travelers will now get some more immediate relief, as the Wall Street Journal reports that $5 million in improvements are coming to the terminal by the end of the year in order to keep it up and running until the new buildings opens its doors to passengers in 2020. This includes repairing the current leaky ceilings, adding well-lit signage, improving ventilation and air conditioning, putting new seating and tables into the two food courts, painting walls, sprucing up restrooms, and bettering the acoustics at security checkpoints.
More this way

August 24, 2016

POLL: For $2.5 billion, is the Brooklyn-Queens Streetcar still a good idea?

By Dana Schulz

When the Mayor officially endorsed the plan for a Brooklyn-Queens streetcar, the estimated cost to realize the project was pinned at $2.5 billion. Since then there have been plenty of purported roadblocks that some believe could balloon costs further, such as the claims that the 16-mile streetcar route would run entirely through flood zones and require two new bridges. But the latest comes via Crain's, who reports that the necessary train yard/maintenance facility for the cars may be the size of an entire city block and cost $100 million, which only adds to concerns that the Brooklyn Queens Connector (BQX) may become more of an economic burden than the city can take on. While that may or not be so, proponents maintain that the cars are absolutely necessary. Not only are a number of areas along the BQX's proposed routes underserved by existing transit, but with all of the new office and residential developments planned for Brooklyn's waterfront, the fact is, adding additional transit is a necessity, not an option.
More details on the train yard and share your opinion

Transit

August 23, 2016

Penn Station’s archaic departure board to get a digital upgrade

By Metro New York

Amtrak has plans to upgrade their main departure board located at Penn Station with new digital information screens. The idea behind the new departure screen is to provide passengers with clearer and detailed travel information. There will be several information screens placed throughout the concourse to improve the flow of passengers at the station. READ MORE […]

Transit

August 18, 2016

VIDEO: The MTA tells all about dumping its subway cars in the Atlantic Ocean

By Dana Schulz

6sqft first learned about the MTA's interesting history of dumping old subway cars into the Atlantic Ocean through Stephen Mallon's insane photo series. The initiative began in late 2000 as a way to create artificial reefs and revive marine life along the Eastern seabed. Today, 2,400 cars now rest on the ocean floor in six states from New Jersey to Georgia, and we even got a peek inside them thanks to footage from novice divers at Express Water Sports, who lead scuba tours of the Bill Perry Reef system in Myrtle Beach, SC. Now, a video from the MTA itself (h/t Tracks) explains the history of the program, its financial viability, the environmental measures involved in the process, and some concerns about the reefs in the future.
Watch the full video here

Transit

August 17, 2016

Is NYC Really That Bike-Friendly?

By Diane Pham

With CitiBike expanding deeper into NYC’s many neighborhoods and 70-plus miles of new and upgraded bike lanes added this year alone, it comes as no surprise that more and more New Yorkers are taking to the streets on two wheels. However, while things appear to be changing for the better, it may come as a surprise to many that when […]

August 10, 2016

Mapping Subways, Buses, and Free Transfers in One Place

By Michelle Cohen

One MetroCard. One map. Done.This new set of maps from map obsessive Anthony Denaro shows all the ways we can use the New York City transit system's unlimited MetroCard and transfers in one convenient, color-coded place. This includes both subways and buses, and important junctions where you can transfer within and between them. Included are all NYC transit services that can be accessed with an unlimited MetroCard. As the map's creator puts it, "Millions of NYC residents live beyond a 15-minute walk to a subway station. Hundreds of thousands of people start their commute by boarding a bus and then transferring to the subway. This is a map for us. One complex transit map, for one complex transit-reliant city."
The map, and the idea behind it

Transit

August 8, 2016

Brooklyn Bridge May Get Expanded Promenade to Accommodate Growing Crowds

By Michelle Cohen

If you’ve ever had the experience of nearly being flattened by something on foot or wheels while walking or biking across the Brooklyn Bridge on a weekend afternoon, try to survive a little bit longer, help may be on the way. City transportation officials announced Monday that plans were in the works to alleviate the pedestrian and bike traffic that threatens to become “Times Square in the Sky.” The New York Times reports that among the possibilities for the aging bridge is a new path to help reduce some of the current congestion.
Find out more

August 2, 2016

New Interactive Subway Game Lets You Build the Transit System of Your Dreams

By Michelle Cohen

A new interactive New York City subway planning game created by electrical engineer Jason Wright gives you a chance to try your hand at building the subway system of your dreams. Though based on a similar idea to Dinosaur Polo Club's Mini Metro, the game goes further and gives players a lot more to work with. “Brand New Subway” lets players start from scratch or use current subway maps, modify historic maps dating as far back as the 1900s or use maps from the future (like the planned 2025 subway system map pictured above) (h/t DNAinfo).
Try your hand at playing god of the subways

Transit

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