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Subway Delays Up From Last Year

Posted by
on May 23rd, 2011 at 11:39 pm

Earlier today at MTA committee hearings, it was revealed that subway delays for March 2011 where up 10% as compared to the same period last year. NY1 had more in this brief report:

Metropolitan Transit Authority officials said Monday that delays have gotten worse on nearly all subways in the past year.

The numbered lines were hit hardest. Late trains were up more than 10 percent in March compared to the same time last year.

MTA officials said track and signal work are the primary contributors to the increase. Some board members called the figures unacceptable.

“That service continues to be pretty bad,” said Charles Moerdler, an MTA board member. “It ain’t getting any better.”

“We’re still bound by the principle that evenness of service is by far the most important thing rather than just late, although we’d like to do both,” said Tom Prendergast, president of MTA NYC Transit. “But evenness of service is more important because that way you’re having less impact on customers.”

Prendergast pointed out that the numbers don’t say how late trains are. For example, a train that’s five seconds late was counted the same as one that’s five minutes late. He said the numbers need to be weighted to put them in perspective.

For starters this news comes as no surprise as the delays have been pretty evident across the system. With all of the signal & track issues seeming to plague the system in all 4 boroughs, it is to be expected that delays would be up. As far as statistics go, new metrics need to be put in place as a train that is 5 seconds late should never be counted the same as being 5 minutes late. Can we all say asinine!

xoxo Transit Blogger

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0

MTA Plans To Launch Security Committee

Posted by
on May 23rd, 2011 at 11:23 pm

Earlier this afternoon, MTA Board Chairman & CEO Jay H. Walder announced the agency’s plans to launch a new security committee. Here is more via a brief report from NY1:

Metropolitan Transit Authority Chairman Jay Walder said Monday that he’ll head a new security committee.

The committee will discuss risk assessment and how to harden transit facilities against possible terrorist attacks.

“This committee now will be a place where we can have the discussion, obviously in executive session when we need to, that will allow us to continually assess where we stand in regard to the changing issues and evolving issues that occur in relation to security,” said Walder.

The agency had planned this even before the death of Osama bin Laden, which thrust transit security back into the spotlight when it was revealed Al-Qaeda had considered an attack on a transit system.

Let me just say it now, the security committee is a waste of time. Al Qaeda is about as real & legitimate a threat as Jason, Jaws, or Freddy! It is nothing but a chess piece moved from location to location by our government as justification to attack a different country & destroy our freedom & liberty within ours.

What a security committee via the agency should worry about is the day to day crimes that occur on subways whether it be theft, muggings, etc…. & not so called terrorist attacks that if & when they do happen are inside jobs.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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0

Service Diversions 05-23-11

Posted by
on May 23rd, 2011 at 5:01 am

I have just updated the Service Diversions by removing all of the weekend work that wrapped up by a minute ago. The planned work for this week & beyond in some cases has been moved to the forefront.

I suggest printing out a copy before heading to your destination. If you have an internet capable handheld device, you can use it to access the mobile version of this site. The next update will be sometime on Thursday or Friday after I received the planned weekend diversions from the MTA directly.

As always, stay safe & have a wonderful week.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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0

MTA Says Culver Viaduct Work On Schedule

Posted by
on May 22nd, 2011 at 11:55 pm

The Culver Viaduct project which has impacted Brooklyn service on the F Train & G Train over the past few months will begin a new phase in a few hours. In a couple of weeks, both sides of the Smith-9th Sts station will be closed.

Although the work has caused some strain to commuters & residents in the area, it is good to know that as of now the MTA is on schedule with the project even with losing 2 weeks in the winter due to the weather. This news was announced on Thursday at the Community Board 6 meeting at the Prospect Park YMCA. Gwen Ruelle of the Carroll Gardens Patch has more:

The MTA’s big construction plans for the F and G lines are moving along – and actually on time, too.

At a Community Board 6 meeting at the Prospect Park YMCA on Thursday evening, representatives from the agency touted that the Culver Viaduct Project will enter the next phase of construction on May 23. The entire project, they said, is slated for completion in early 2013.

“Even with the horrible weather, we only lost two weeks this winter,” Andrew Inglesby, Assistant Director of Community Relations for the MTA, boasted.

The $275.5 million engineering and construction project will rehabilitate the elevated steel and concrete Culver Viaduct structure, which both the F and G train lines run along. The MTA has said it will also work to rehabilitate signals and switches, as well as the platforms, canopies and historic archway at the 4th Avenue-9th Street station.

Starting in mid-June, service to and from Smith-9th Streets will be suspended entirely until March of 2012 for a total station rehabilitation.

MTA representatives, and Allyson Bechtel, Senior Transportation Planner, explained that transportation would be supplemented by the B61, which will provide more frequent travel late nights during the nine month period. Daytime frequency will remain the same.

“People assume its a high volume station, the truth is its in the lower third in terms of ridership,” said Inglesby. Both officials were confident that the B61 will be enough to provide commuters with their needs, although Inglesby noted that the MTA would be willing to look at alternatives “if travel patterns are exacerbated.”

Inglesby also noted that the progress at the 4th Avenue-9th Street “is rapidly progressing.”

Click here for the complete report.

This is fantastic news for an agency with a history for falling behind on projects. Hopefully they can keep up the great pace & reward these riders & residents with a much better & safer complex for decades to come. Only if all of their projects could be like this one.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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2

Apple Store May Actually Come To Grand Central

Posted by
on May 22nd, 2011 at 11:41 pm

Back in February, Apple lovers were gushing over the rumor about an Apple Store actually opening a location in Grand Central Terminal. The rumor originally started with a story in The New York Observer with interest confirmed by ifoApplestore.

However a month later, it seemed the prospects of the technology giant opening a location in Grand Central appeared all but dead according to Cult of Mac & The New York Observer.

Fast forward to tomorrow’s edition of the Wall Street Journal which claims the seed has been planted for the technology giant to work with the MTA. Andrew Grossman has more:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is looking for new tenants for a marquee space in Grand Central Terminal, and computer giant Apple Inc. has expressed interest in putting a store there.

The agency is looking for a single renter for two adjacent balconies on the north and east sides of the terminal. It will issue a request for proposals Monday. The current tenant of one of the balconies, celebrity chef Charlie Palmer’s Métrazur restaurant, plans to close July 1 even though his lease ran until 2019 and the eatery was doing “quite well,” Mr. Palmer said Sunday.

A new tenant would be required to pay Mr. Palmer a substantial sum of money to vacate his lease.

“It’s an offer that’s hard to refuse,” said Mr. Palmer, who declined to put a number on it. “It’s hard to compete with whatever that company might be that’s taking the space.”

If Apple inks a deal to put a store in the train terminal, it would be company’s fifth Manhattan retail location. It would also be among the most challenging. The terminal is a city landmark, so any changes to the interior must be approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. At 15,230 square feet, the space the MTA is putting up for rent is small compared to Apple’s other Manhattan locations.

But the payoff could be high for the gadget maker. In addition to the tens of thousands of well-heeled commuters who pass through every day on their way to and from Connecticut’s Gold Coast and Westchester County, Grand Central is a magnet for tourists who come to gawk at its Beaux-Arts architecture and constellation-dotted ceiling.

Retail experts said an Apple store in Grand Central could surpass the popularity of the store that’s open 24 hours a day under the plaza in front the General Motors building. Apple’s designers built that store by putting a glass cube leading into a basement on Fifth Avenue, and experts figure the computer maker would figure out a clever way to make the Grand Central site work.

The MTA has spoken with Apple about the space and hopes that the company bids on it, said Jeremy Soffin, a spokesman for the authority. Other stores and restaurants could also bid on the space. An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

Click here for the complete report.

Am I the only one tired of the back & forth with Apple renting out space from the MTA in Grand Central? Personally I don’t care if they open a store there or not. If they do, all I want to see is that they are a good tenant & pay market rate for the space as any kind of sweetheart deal is something the MTA should not engage in. We shall see…….

xoxo Transit Blogger

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