Transit

December 22, 2023

Queensboro Plaza station will be closed every weekend in January

The Queensboro Plaza subway station will shut down every weekend in January to allow for accessibility upgrades, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced on Thursday. The Long Island City station, home to the 7, N, and W trains, will be closed starting the weekend of January 6 through the weekend of January 27, beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Saturdays and ending at 5 a.m. on Mondays.
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December 20, 2023

East Midtown Greenway opens, with nearly 3 acres of public open space on the waterfront

New York City has taken a major step forward in its effort to expand the greenway network. The city's Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and NYC Parks on Tuesday officially opened the East Midtown Greenway and the second phase of the Andrew Haswell Green Park, delivering nearly three acres of public open space, a new pedestrian walkway, a pedestrian bridge, landscaping, and a separated bike lane stretching from East 53rd Street to East 60th Street along the East River. The $197.6 million investment fills a significant gap in the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway.
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December 14, 2023

NYC unveils new protected bike lane on 10th Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen

The city on Wednesday unveiled the first phase of safety upgrades to a stretch of 10th Avenue in Hell's Kitchen. Installed between West 38th Street and West 52nd Street, a new 10-foot wide northbound bike lane will more safely accommodate the growing number of cyclists, e-bike riders, and micro-mobility device users. Additional improvements include new concrete pedestrian islands, new bike corrals, and redesigned intersections to slow down drivers when turning.
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December 7, 2023

Buy a piece of the NYC subway at the MTA’s memorabilia pop-up shop

After two previous years as a holiday shopping success, New York City Transit is once again offering genuine used subway system items for sale at their Memorabilia and Collectibles Pop-Up Shop. You'll find subway signs, grabholds, and more, with no processing fees. Read on to find out how to score an authentic piece of transit history.
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December 5, 2023

NYC to launch public e-bike charging stations for delivery workers

Just a few days after New York City saw its 18th death caused by an electric bike battery this year, Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday announced a new pilot program that will let some delivery workers charge their bikes outside. As part of the program, launching early next year, a variety of technologies to charge lithium-ion batteries will be tested at public docks across the city. Technologies include battery-swapping networks and secure e-bike parking docks with fast charging to docked e-bikes.
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December 5, 2023

MTA installs new turnstiles designed to stop fare evasion

The traditional turnstiles at a subway station in Queens have been fully replaced with new wide-aisle fare gates, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced Monday. Designed to increase accessibility and prevent fare evasion, the new fare gates were deployed at the Sutphin Boulevard Archer Avenue-JFK Airport subway station in Jamaica. The fare gates replace the emergency exit gate at the end of the station; more than half of all fare evasion occurs through these emergency gates, according to the MTA.
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December 5, 2023

PATH begins tap-and-go fare payment pilot

Contactless fare payment has finally made it to New Jersey. Starting Tuesday, five turnstiles at two PATH stations will accept tap-and-go payments as part of a test of the new Total Access PATH Payment (TAPP) system, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced. While TAPP is designed by the same company behind the MTA's OMNY, the two systems are not compatible.
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December 4, 2023

NYC receives $7.5M from feds for new Governors Island hybrid ferry

Ferry systems in New York City are getting a boost from the federal government. The U.S. Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has awarded the city over $10 million to modernize its fleet, including $7.5 million for the new Governors Island hybrid ferry and $3 million for a storage facility for the Staten Island Ferry. The funding stems from President Joe Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was enacted in 2021 and includes up to $108 billion for public transportation.
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December 1, 2023

NYC to improve safety conditions at 2,000 intersections per year

Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday launched an initiative that will boost New York City's ongoing efforts to improve traffic safety by doubling the number of intersections that receive safety enhancements to at least 2,000 per year. Visibility improvements will be made to a minimum of 1,000 intersections per year using an effective method known as daylighting. The initiative comes after a tow truck driver killed a 7-year-old at an "undaylighted" intersection in Brooklyn last month.
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November 30, 2023

Drivers will likely pay $15 to enter certain parts of Manhattan as part of congestion pricing plan

Drivers entering certain parts of Manhattan could be charged a $15 toll as part of New York City's congestion pricing program, the first of its kind in the nation. As first reported by the New York Times, the Traffic Mobility Review Board released a report on Thursday detailing the pricing structure for the tolls for the Central Business District Tolling Program, which covers an area of Manhattan from 60th Street to the Battery. The program aims to alleviate traffic, encourage the use of public transit, and reduce pollution, all while generating $1 billion in annual revenue for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
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November 22, 2023

City unveils new bike boulevard on Berry Street in Williamsburg

New York City has transformed Brooklyn's Berry Street into a permanent two-way bike boulevard. Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez on Tuesday unveiled the new street design, which includes the reconfiguration of every intersection, new loading zones, and a series of one-way vehicle traffic reversals from Broadway to North 12th Street in Williamsburg. The street design builds upon the corridor's success as a pedestrian-focused open street and better connects to Domino and McCarren Parks and the Williamsburg Bridge.
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November 20, 2023

Penn Station opens new accessible entrance with glass canopy at 7th Ave and 32nd Street

Travelers will now have a much easier time entering Penn Station. The transit hub's busiest entrance at 7th Avenue and 32nd Street reopened on Sunday following a renovation led by Amtrak and Vornado Realty Trust. The passageway is now fully ADA-accessible, with a 50 percent wider entrance, a new elevator, two new escalators, and a new glass canopy designed by Norman Foster's Foster + Partners that replaces the original concrete overhang.
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November 16, 2023

NYC completes restoration of national medallions along Avenue of the Americas

The city's Department of Transportation completed the full restoration of the national medallions found along the Avenue of the Americas. The medallions, which were originally installed in 1959, had fallen into disrepair, with only 18 of the original medallions remaining in early 2023. The medallions depict the emblems of 43 nations and territories across the Western Hemisphere and are now on display atop lampposts along Sixth Avenue between Canal and 59th Streets.
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November 6, 2023

Vintage NYC subway rides are back every Saturday during the holidays

The New York Transit Museum's Holiday Nostalgia Rides are back this season. Every Saturday between Thanksgiving and Christmas, New Yorkers can embark on old-school NYC subway trains in Manhattan from 2nd Avenue on the uptown F line platform and 145th on the downtown D line platform. The Holiday Nostalgia rides include eight cars used in the 1930s.
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November 6, 2023

Second Avenue Subway extension to East Harlem gets funding boost from Biden administration

The plan to extend the Q train to East Harlem received a funding boost this weekend. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Saturday announced a $3.4 billion federal grant for the Second Avenue Subway extension, covering nearly half of the project's estimated total cost of $7.7 billion. The plan will extend the Q by 1.8 miles and connect its current endpoint at 96th Street on the Upper East Side to 125th Street in Harlem, with fully accessible stations between them at 106th and 116th Streets.
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November 3, 2023

Construction officially begins on Hudson River tunnel project

Work to replace a decaying rail tunnel under the Hudson River is moving ahead after receiving $3.8 billion in federal funding. Gov. Kathy Hochul, United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Chuck Schumer and other officials on Friday announced the start of the first phase of the $16 billion Hudson Tunnel Project, part of the Gateway Program. This early phase of the project will create concrete casings for trains to travel under the Hudson River and through to Pennsylvania Station and will raise a section of road in New Jersey that will feed into the mouth of the new tunnel.
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October 30, 2023

MTA rolls out OMNY card machines at select subway stations

The time has come. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Monday installed the first OMNY vending machines at select subway stations across the city, marking a major step in the retirement of the MetroCard. The new machines allow people who pay with cash to purchase a tappable card to use at the turnstiles, which are all equipped with tap-to-pay technology. The installation of OMNY vending machines, which will also accept cards and digital wallets, in all 472 stations will continue through 2024.
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October 30, 2023

New R211 subway cars taken out of service due to faulty gears

Due to technical issues, almost all of the subway system's new futuristic cars have been taken off the rails. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority last week confirmed that six out of the seven new R211 subway cars had been taken out of service due to malfunctioning gearboxes which caused the car's wheels to lock up, drag along the tracks, and flatten, as first reported by Gothamist. The cars are expected to be back in service in a few weeks after being repaired.
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October 13, 2023

NYC launches plan to expand greenway network by 40 miles

New York City will build more than 40 miles of new greenways in the outer boroughs. Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday announced that the city would fill the gaps in the existing greenway network with protected bike lanes and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, bringing the citywide total of greenway corridors to 60 miles. The expansion, funded in part by a $7.25 million federal grant secured by the mayor last summer, will support existing greenway projects and the creation of new corridors, including the seven-mile Harlem River Greenway in the Bronx.
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October 9, 2023

Metro-North ‘Leaf Peeper’ train service returns for fall foliage lovers

Take a train ride up through the Hudson Valley and witness the breathtaking beauty of New York State's fall foliage. The Metro-North Railroad last weekend kicked off its annual "Leaf Peeper" train service, boosting service on the Hudson River line, which provides scenic views of upstate's changing foliage and stops in charming autumnal towns like Peekskill, Cold Spring, and Beacon. Five extra trains on Saturdays and four trains on Sundays have been added from October 7 through November 5.
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October 5, 2023

Explore public art across the NYC subway system with this new digital guide

Some of New York City's best art can be found underground. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts & Design this week launched a new digital guide featuring more than 400 permanent artworks located across the subway system and commuter rails. Found on the Bloomberg Connects app, the guide allows travelers to explore the extensive collection, including permanent art, like Roy Lichtenstein's mural at Times Square, William Wegman‘s famous Weimaraners mosaic at 23rd Street, Yoko Ono-designed artwork at 72nd Street, and Yayoi Kusama's work in Grand Central Madison.
explore art, underground
October 4, 2023

JFK AirTrain will finally accept tap-and-go OMNY payments

It just got slightly more convenient to get to and from John F. Kennedy International Airport via public transportation. The JFK AirTrain will accept tap-and-go payments using OMNY starting Tuesday, October 10, nearly three years after the system was installed in every subway station. Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday said only select gates in both the Jamaica and Howard Beach stations will have the contactless payment readers as part of the initial rollout.
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September 26, 2023

NYPL photo exhibition captures quirkiness of NYC subway in the 1970s

A new photo exhibition at the New York Public Library captures the everyday interactions of New Yorkers taking the subway in the late 1970s. Located in the Print Gallery of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, "New York Subways 1977: Alen MacWeeney" features 42 diptychs created by Irish-American photographer Alen MacWeeney that show New Yorkers on crowded and graffiti-filled subway cars. The free exhibition is on display now through January 7, 2024.
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September 25, 2023

NYPD ‘robocop’ now patrols Times Square subway station

Late-night commuters fear not! A 420-pound, 5-foot-2-inch-tall robot is now patrolling the Times Square subway station overnight. During a press conference held at the 42nd Street subway station last Friday, Mayor Eric Adams announced a two-month pilot program to test the robocop, officially known as the Knightscope K5 Autonomous Security Robot. The robot will patrol the 42nd Street station from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m., recording video to be viewed in case of an emergency or crime, according to the mayor.
READ MORe on the ROBOCOP
September 20, 2023

High Line-style pedestrian bridge to link Newark Penn Station and Prudential Center

Work began this week on a High Line-esque pedestrian bridge in Newark a decade in the making. Gov. Phil Murphy and Mayor J. Baraka on Tuesday broke ground on the Mulberry Commons Pedestrian Bridge, a walkable pathway above McCarter Highway that will link Newark Penn Station and the Prudential Center. The bridge is the second phase of the Mulberry Commons development, a 22-acre project aimed at revitalizing the area between downtown Newark and the Ironbound neighborhood, with Mulberry Commons Park at the center. Officials say the bridge will support economic growth, make Newark more walkable, and enhance the pedestrian experience in and around Newark Penn Station.
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