MTA

Image via Alan Bloom/Flickr Seeking innovative solutions to fix the mess that is the New York City transit system, Governor Cuomo on Tuesday launched a competition called the “MTA Genius Transit Challenge.” Just one of the governor’s recently proposed ideas to fix the subway, the international competition challenges participants to develop ideas for better signaling, new car designs, and WiFi throughout the system, including in tunnels. The winner of each category will receive $1 million and a possible contract deal with the state. In addition to the challenge, Cuomo announced he has created a Penn Station Task Force to devise alternative transportation solutions during Amtrak’s track work at the station this summer.
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May 23, 2017

Second Avenue Subway ridership continues to grow; MTA to add more trains

Just a month after opening on the first of the year, the Second Avenue Subway had eased congestion on the Lexington line by 11 percent. Now, nearly five months in, that figure has more than doubled, with ridership on the 4/5/6 decreased by 26 percent and a whopping 40 percent during peak morning hours. Moreover, Second Avenue's average weekday ridership is up from 140,000 to 176,000 passengers, an increase which has prompted the MTA to add two additional train trips during rush hour come this November.
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Transit

May 22, 2017

Governor Cuomo asks Trump for emergency assistance during Penn Station repairs

As his administration finalizes its budget plan, Governor Cuomo wrote a letter Sunday to President Trump asking for emergency federal funds to lessen what he called Penn Station’s “summer of agony,” reports the Daily News. With six weeks of infrastructure repairs coming to the transit hub this July and August, the governor said the station’s daily flow of 600,000 passengers will face a 20 percent reduction in service during peak hours while Amtrak shuts down some of its tracks, which will then have a ripple effect on the subway system and regional transit.
More details ahead

Grand Central Terminal Lobby via Wikipedia

May 18, 2017

Amtrak may relocate to Grand Central as Penn Station undergoes repairs

With major infrastructure repairs taking place at Penn Station this summer, state officials have suggested rerouting some Amtrak trains to Grand Central Terminal to ease train congestion. While no plans have been finalized, and it’s still unclear how long the switch would take to begin, crews are already training for the new path down Park Avenue into Grand Central, as Politico NY reports. Swapping stations, however, could cause temporary problems at the 42nd Street transit hub, which currently serves 750,000 passengers per day on four commuter lines via Metro-North.
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MTA announces six-point plan to combat subway delays and improve service

Photo via Dan Phiffer’s Flickr

May 16, 2017

MTA announces six-point plan to combat subway delays and improve service

After a week full of delays and malfunctions, the MTA has announced a six-point plan to address the subway’s chronic service problems. The agency’s plan will increase testing of tracks and signals, place more emergency personnel and police officers in stations and add more cars into service at a faster rate. The first phase of the MTA’s plan focuses on the A, C and E lines from 125th Street to Fulton Street in Manhattan, and at the 149th Street-Grand Concourse and 3rd Avenue-138th Street in the Bronx. Bottlenecks frequently occur at these sites, which cause delays that spread throughout the entire system.
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MTA releases ‘Baby on Board’ buttons for pregnant subway riders

Photo via MTA

May 15, 2017

MTA releases ‘Baby on Board’ buttons for pregnant subway riders

In the "ideas from abroad" column, the Metropolitan Transit Authority will begin offering pregnant riders a better shot at getting a seat on packed subway cars by way of a big yellow and blue button that reads "Baby on Board" and bears the MTA logo in an attempt to encourage passengers to offer up their seats, the NYTimes reports. Reportedly the idea began in London, where the underground has had a similar program in place for pregnant riders since 2005. Kate Middleton, now Duchess of Cambridge, got some public attention when she wore one on the Tube in 2013. Officials said about 130,000 buttons are distributed on the London transit system every year.
Worse than manspreading

New research shows that people are choosing Citi Bikes over the bus

Photo via Peter Burka on Flickr

May 9, 2017

New research shows that people are choosing Citi Bikes over the bus

A new before-and-after study shows that in New York City thousands of potential bus rides are likely happening by bike instead, reports CityLab. Recent research published in a new journal article on bike sharing stations along city bus routes, by Kayleigh Campbell and Candace Brakewood, an assistant professor of civil engineering at the City College of New York, revealed that for every thousand Citi Bike docks situated along Brooklyn and Manhattan bus routes, bus trips dropped by 2.42 percent. The study includes trips made between May 2012 and July 2014 and controls for a wide variety of factors in order to show the impact of bike sharing on bus ridership.
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May 2, 2017

Nearly 80 percent of subway escalators and elevators don’t receive necessary maintenance

The reason behind the incessant breakdown of the subway’s escalators and elevators? Nearly 80 percent of them do not receive the necessary maintenance by the MTA. After an 18-month audit, City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office found that in a random sample of 65 out of the city’s 407 total escalators and elevators, about 50 had not undergone any preventative maintenance service. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, only 20 percent of machines sampled by the comptroller’s office received the scheduled maintenance on time.
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April 27, 2017

First fleet of electric buses will be rolled out in NYC this year

In recognition of Earth Week, Governor Cuomo announced a new pilot program to bring electric buses to New York City this year. The MTA board has approved to lease the first five electric buses, and the lease for the next five will be presented later this year. The program will cost $4 million for three-year leases, which includes six depot charging stations. A charging station will be located at the Grand Avenue Depot in Maspeth, where buses will charge overnight. The first leg of the pilot will also include one "en-route" charging station at the Williamsburg Bridge Plaza in Brooklyn, which will serve as the hub for nine routes.
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Transit

NYC will get 70 new subway cars before the end of the year

The long-anticipated–and long-delayed–batch of about 70 shiny new subway cars will roll into stations before the end of the year according to the MTA as reported by AM New York. The new cars will replace the system's oldest–and most breakdown-prone–cars on the J, Z and C lines. Another 230 more are scheduled to hit the MTA rails over the course of 2018. Steve Plochochi, the MTA’s vice president of procurement and material, called the cars' arrival "long-awaited good news,” and outlined MTA plans for a “major design change” in subway cars for future models.
What about those future models

Transit

April 11, 2017

Contest winners suggest a car-free 14th Street with shuttles and bike lanes during L train shutdown

Advocacy group Transportation Alternatives has been trying to stay focused on grounded solutions–literally, as opposed to the tunnel and skyway ideas that are also being discussed–to mitigate the anticipated possible chaos when the dreaded 15-month L train shutdown hits. The organization is aiming for the ear of the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the MTA which control street design and bus expansion, respectively. The group recently held an "L-ternative" contest seeking pedestrian-centered proposals for main transit corridors along the L line, such as 14th street, Gothamist reports. The winning proposal, called 14TH ST.OPS, imagines a (car) traffic-free 14th Street with a six-stop shuttle bus using dedicated lanes, plus protected bike lanes.
Check out the winning post-L-Train vision

April 5, 2017

City Council proposes half-priced MetroCards for low-income New Yorkers

Although the recent subway and bus fare hike affects all New Yorkers, low-income residents are being especially hard hit by the jump in cost. As a way to ease this financial burden, the City Council has proposed a $50 million pilot program as part of the “Fair Fares” initiative which will provide half-fare MetroCards to New Yorkers living at or below the federal poverty line. As the Daily News learned, transit advocates say nearly 800,000 residents would be eligible for the discount under the full plan.
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April 4, 2017

This graphic color codes major transit lines in North America

Like New York, Boston's subway system is organized with a different color for each route. Unlike NYC, however, there's no corresponding numbers, so the lines along the T are actually referred to by their respective hues. Which is why Boston resident Ari Ofsevit, a transportation engineering and urban planning graduate student at MIT, found it odd that the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority didn't use the same colors on their Twitter alerts as were found on their maps and signs. As Next City reported, this inspired him to create a graphic comparing the various colors of 13 major transit lines across the U.S. and Canada.
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April 4, 2017

MTA Board officially approves 15-month shutdown of L train

It’s official. The Metropolitan Transit Authority board voted to approve a 15-month shutdown of the L train on Monday, instead of the originally proposed 18 months. The Board also awarded a $477 million contract to Judlau Contracting and TC Electric, who will responsible for repairing the train’s Canarsie Tunnel, which suffered severe flooding damage after Hurricane Sandy (h/t WSJ). The planned shutdown is set to begin in April 2019 and cuts all L train service between Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan.
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March 23, 2017

Starting Monday, three Brooklyn R train stations will shut down for six months

Last January, Governor Cuomo announced a massive undertaking to "modernize and fundamentally transform" the MTA and the subway by adding more countdown clocks, contactless payment by next year, Wi-Fi at all stations (mission accomplished, here), and other high-tech features. It also included news that 30 stations would be revamped, requiring them to shut down entirely for six to 12 months, instead of just on nights and weekends. As of Monday, as amNY tells us, the first three on this list-- the R train stations at 53rd Street in Sunset Park, Bay Ridge Avenue, and Prospect Avenue--will close for half a year for a combined $72 million renovation.
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Transit

March 23, 2017

The least affordable U.S. city for public transit isn’t NYC (and more fun facts about the cost of commuting)

In light of NYC's recent subway fare hike that bumped the price of a monthly pass to $121, the data jocks at ValuePenguin took a look at public transportation systems throughout the U.S. and ranked them according to affordability, based on the cost of a pass as a percentage of income and the median income of the city's commuters. Among the findings: New York City's transit system isn't the most unaffordable; that honor goes to Los Angeles. Washington D.C. topped the most affordable list among large cities, followed by San Francisco and Boston.
Read on for more insight on the cost of a commute

March 20, 2017

L train shutdown will be 15 months instead of 18 months

Finally, there’s some good news for the nearly 225,000 daily L train riders commuting to Manhattan. This weekend the Metropolitan Transit Authority announced that the Canarsie tube, which carries the L train between Manhattan and Brooklyn, will be closed for 15 months instead of 18, three months ahead of schedule. As reported by the Daily News, the MTA plans to begin rehabilitating the tunnel in April of 2019.
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February 17, 2017

The MTA is auctioning off 13,435 pounds of foreign coins

By Diane Pham

It's that time of month again when the MTA cleans house and gathers up all the stuff collecting dust in their offices and puts it up for public auction. While past offerings from the agency yielded all sorts of cool items ranging from vintage subway signs to old tokens to shiny grab holds, one eagle-eyed Reddit user noticed this month's selection includes a very curious lot: 350 bags of "Mixed Non-Ferrous Metal Foreign Coins & Slugs."
more details here

Transit

February 15, 2017

Removing garbage cans in subway stations led to more trash and track fires

For those who thought removing subway station garbage cans as a means to decrease litter and rats seemed counterintuitive, you were right. The Post looks at how things have fared since the MTA took out cans in 39 stations in 2012, and since this tactic was nixed by the state Comptroller’s Office in 2015. Despite the latter attempt to course correct, a new state report shows that the situation is still just as bad in many stations, with the amount of litter on the upswing and an increased number of track fires.
What's the solution?

February 13, 2017

As subway delays double, Cuomo may cut MTA funding by $65 million

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive budget includes a "hidden" $65 million cut to state funding headed for the MTA, the Daily News reports. The $244 million in funding–compared to $309 million in 2016–represents a 21 percent drop in money from the state’s general fund intended to shore up the MTA after a drastic 2011 payroll tax cut on regional businesses the transit agency serves. The funding cut comes on the heels of data that show subway delays have more than doubled during that same time period according to the New York Times.
So much to look forward to on the morning commute

Transit

February 9, 2017

‘Freedom Ticket’ will offer a transit discount to those in outer Queens and Brooklyn

By Diane Pham

New Yorkers living in the outer reaches of Brooklyn and Queens may soon find some relief when it comes to their daily commutes. The MTA’s New York City Transit Riders Council (NYCTRC) is looking to make travel more efficient and affordable for those residing in the city's transit deserts through a "Freedom Ticket" pilot initiative that will, says Gothamist, temporarily offer discounted flat-fee tickets for bus, subway and commuter rail travel with unlimited free transfers.
more details here

Transit

Governor Cuomo reveals new details about LED light shows coming to NYC bridges and tunnels

The George Washington Bridge outfitted with the new LED lights

February 7, 2017

Governor Cuomo reveals new details about LED light shows coming to NYC bridges and tunnels

"This is very exciting. This project is going to blow people away," Governor Cuomo told the Post about his plan to outfit the city's bridges and tunnels with multi-colored, energy-efficient LED lighting systems. In fact, he went so far as to say that these toll crossings would become the city's newest tourist attraction. Part of his larger $500 million New York Harbor Crossings Project, the lighting program called "The City That Never Sleeps" will take on different colors and patterns, be choreographed with music for holidays and events, and be visible from miles away.
More new details ahead

Transit

February 1, 2017

In just a month, Second Avenue Subway eases congestion on the Lexington Avenue line by 11 percent