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LIRR Conductor Finds Wallet & Returns It

Posted by
on January 14th, 2010 at 4:31 pm

Just a short time ago, the MTA Long Island Rail Road held a press conference to talk about a conductor who found a wallet with $2,830 in it & turned it in which led to the owner reclaiming it. Here are the complete details courtesy of a press release I received a few minutes ago:

One of Long Island Rail Road train conductor Larry Pinkham, Jr.’s duties is to walk through his train after all customers leave at the final stop, checking for items passengers may have left behind. He did just that on Tuesday (January 12) when the 2:52 PM train from Penn Station completed its run at Huntington (at 3:59 PM), Pinkham was checking the train when he came across what he described as “a wallet that was large and bulky” right near the window seat of one of the cars. The wallet turned out to contain $2,830 in cash and, luckily, identification of its owner.

As per railroad procedure, Conductor Pinkham, a 10-year LIRR veteran, turned in the wallet and its contents to LIRR managers at the railroad’s Lost and Found Office in Penn Station. The cash was tagged and deposited for safe keeping and its owner, David Sperling, an attorney from Huntington, was contacted.

“Our Lost & Found operation depends on our employees who are responsible for turning in the items they find,” said LIRR President Helena E. Williams. “We’re very proud of Conductor Pinkham, who did the right thing at the right time. His actions are in the highest tradition of LIRR customer service.”

Customers who lose an item are urged to file a report online by going to www.mta.info and following the link to the LIRR site. The LIRR Lost and Found Office is located at Penn Station and is open 7:20 AM to 7:20 PM, Monday through Friday. The phone number is 212-643-5228.

I feel Larry Pinkham, Jr, deserves a round of applause for showing honesty & integrity while doing his job. While his actions might not seem like a big deal, I feel it truly is as not everyone would have done the same thing. Unfortunately we are in a society that is filled with a lot of dishonesty & lack of integrity. So when positive displays of honesty & integrity are shown, they must be celebrated. Good job Larry & keep up the good work!

xoxo Transit Blogger

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MTA Debuts New Website

Posted by
on January 13th, 2010 at 3:30 pm

A short time ago, the MTA officially debuted a new look to their website. The agency sent out a press release just a few minutes ago with some highlights:

Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Chairman and CEO Jay H. Walder today unveiled a new and dramatically simplified website that offers the MTA’s eight and a half million daily customers access to better organized and far more detailed information about their daily commute.

“One of my first priorities when I came back to the MTA was to improve the way we communicate with our customers,” said Walder, who began his tenure on October 5. “We have completely overhauled the MTA’s outdated website format by putting the customer first with clear, easy-to-find information to help navigate our transit system.”

The web improvements unveiled today include:

• A new “Plan&Ride” corner of the website for the first time puts a trip planner search feature directly on the mta.info homepage. Plan&Ride provides MTA customers with regional transit travel planning for not only the MTA’s twelve NYS counties, but well beyond those borders, into New Jersey and Connecticut. Plan&Ride offers MTA customers their choice of three trip planning systems, with Google’s transit trip planner as the default.

• A real-time service status information box is front and center on the homepage and on each MTA agency homepage. The information box also provides the status of traffic on the MTA’s seven bridges and two tunnels. Customers will now be able to check and see at a glance if their own subway line, bus route or railroad branch is operating with “Good Service” or if there are unexpected “Delays,” “Planned Work,” or “Service Changes”.

• A Developer Resource Center where the MTA will make data available to software developers who are interested in creating smartphone or web applications – or “apps” – that help our customers. While the new Resource Center will launch with existing service and schedule data, the intent over the longer term is to identify and make available other data about the MTA system and its operation. That should lead to new and exciting apps that will provide improved information for customers.

o The MTA today also jointly announced with Google that the leading format for sharing data, known as the “Google” Transit Feed Specification will now be known as the “General” Transit Feed Specification, or GTFS.

“Google applauds the MTA’s efforts to open up their route and schedule data to all app developers,” said Joe Hughes, Lead Developer of GTFS at Google. “Transit agencies around the world are finding that open GTFS data means more and better apps for transit riders, at no additional cost to the agency.”

“We need to get out of our own way and instead get out in front of the data sharing revolution,” said Walder. “By making access to our data directly from our website, we are encouraging the developer community to do the work we can’t to create apps that benefit our customers at no cost to the MTA.”

• More and better information for mobile users: The MTA mobile site, which customizes the view of schedules, maps, and service alerts for mobile devices, will reflect the new web redesign on its opening page. It will offer a detailed real-time service alert feature similar to the new system on the MTA webpage. A newly designed smartphone-compatible link will also be available as well.

o A new web-based feature available through Metro-North Railroad’s home page, Metro-North Train Time™ provides convenient real-time train status and schedule information on your smart phone or computer for 67 stations, including Grand Central and Harlem-125th Street. The feature will give up-to-the minute train arrival/departure information, train stops, track assignment, train status, and final destination information for the next 12 trains at those stations, and more will be added this spring. This is the first step in providing such improved information across the MTA family.

• An entirely new section on the website entitled “Accountability and Transparency” heralds a new era of openness at the MTA by grouping all types of budgetary and financial information in one place and by providing quick access to Board Agendas, MTA policies, reports and more. The new site also includes a Performance Indicator Dashboard – “MTA Stat” – that rates the MTA’s operating performance.

• An MTA Newsroom provides current information about MTA initiatives, including the introduction of a new video section.

• Direct links to newly launched MTA Facebook and Twitter pages will allow our customers to follow us in the world of social media.

“Moving forward, we will be updating and improving the web site on a continual basis, but it should be clear today that the MTA is committed to doing a better job communicating with our customers and using technology to operate more efficiently,” said Walder.

All I can say is about time! For someone who runs multiple businesses involving an online presence, I completely understand how important the look, & functionality of your website is. With all the technological advances that have debuted in the last 5+ years, it seems amazing that the MTA’s website barely implemented any of them into their site. I have wondered here & there about as to why they did not. However one transit advocate/blogger in particular has spent a lot of time looking into this.

Ben K. of Second Avenue Sagas fame has posted many entries over the last couple of years regarding the lack of keeping up with updated website technologies to the MTA website compared to other transit agencies. So it was no surprise to see he was all over this the other day. I am sure he will have a thorough update in the coming days.

I poked around the site a bit & feel it has potential from what I have seen so far. I won’t really focus on the looks of it as that tends to be a matter of opinion. As someone who deals with many websites, I find looks important but will never rate that higher than functionality.

From what I can tell, the key information that riders would visit the site for seems more easily accessible. This point alone means they are on the right track. I wonder if the problems I recently encountered with the service diversions in Firefox (do not display) have been fixed. In the end, good job MTA & try to keep up with technology this time around.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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No LIRR Long Beach Service For Next 2 Weekends

Posted by
on January 13th, 2010 at 2:49 pm

Just a short time ago, the MTA Long Island Rail Road sent me a press release to share with you all. For the next two weekends, buses will replace train service on the Long Beach branch between Valley Stream & Long Beach due to a long planned construction. Here are the complete details:

The long-planned installation of two new Long Island Rail Road bridges over Powell Creek and Hog Island Channel means there will be no train service at stations along the Long Beach Branch over the last two weekends in January.

Buses will serve LIRR customers between Long Beach and Valley Stream on Saturday, January 23 and Sunday, January 24 and again on Saturday, January 30 and Sunday, January 31. Regular weekday train service will not be affected by the project.

The $24.5 million project, which is funded through the MTA Capital Budget and federal grants, will also require train outages on four other weekends later this year – March 20-21, March 27-28, May 1-2 and May 15-16. Each weekend will be preceded by a public information campaign so that LIRR Long Beach Branch customers can plan ahead.

In addition to the temporary busing for the weekend dates listed above, the work will require the Railroad to close the eastbound platforms at Island Park, Oceanside, East Rockaway and Centre Avenue on the following weekends: January 16-17; February 6-7, 13-14, 20-21, 27-28 and March 6-7. The LIRR reminds customers to allow extra time to cross over to the westbound platform upon arriving at those stations Eastbound, when busing is in effect, customers will transfer to buses at Valley Stream for stations Lynbrook through Long Beach.

Customers should allow up to 34 minutes of additional travel time. Westbound, customers will board buses at stations Long Beach through Lynbrook bound for Valley Stream, where they will transfer to trains to complete their trip. Buses will depart up to 33 minutes earlier than scheduled train times.

Both the Powell Creek Bridge (located between the LIRR’s East Rockaway and Oceanside stations) and the Hog Island Channel Bridge (located between Oceanside and Island Park) were built in the 1920s, and have served the LIRR well for nearly 90 years. These two bridges are being replaced as part of the Railroad’s ongoing efforts to modernize its infrastructure and ensure safe and reliable service for our customers and neighbors for decades to come.

The existing Powell Creek and Hog Island Bridges are open-deck wooden and steel structures supported by wooden piles through which water is visible below. These structures will be removed and replaced with pre-cast concrete structures, supported by reinforced concrete-filled, steel pipe piles, which will provide safer, closed-deck concrete roadbeds.

The project will also alleviate a recurring flooding condition at Powell Creek Bridge, which has at times led to delays and temporary service suspensions, by raising the elevation of the bridge by approximately one foot. Bridge walkways will also be installed at both locations to make it safer for LIRR employees.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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LIRR To Run Extra Trains On MLK Jr Day

Posted by
on January 13th, 2010 at 2:42 pm

As it does every year, the MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) will be running extra trains along with a holiday schedule on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Here are the complete details courtesy of a press release sent to me by the LIRR:

The MTA Long Island Rail Road will operate on a holiday schedule with extra trains added on Monday, January 18, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a federal holiday. There will be 31 extra eastbound and westbound trains, to and from Penn Station, added on various branches to accommodate holiday travelers. Off-peak fares will also be in effect all day.

Customers are reminded to check regular printed branch timetables for extra train departure times.

Please note some trains are listed more than once due to common stations on different branches. For example, Hicksville is served by both Port Jefferson and Ronkonkoma Branch trains.

The extra trains are as follows:

Babylon Branch Westbound:

• Depart Babylon 5:08 AM, making all stops to Rockville Centre, then Jamaica, arrive NY 6:20 AM

• Depart Babylon 5:51 AM, making all stops to Rockville Centre, then Jamaica, arrive NY 7:03AM

• Depart Babylon 6:18 AM, making all stops to Rockville Centre, then Jamaica, arrive NY 7:31 AM

• Depart Babylon 6:51 AM, making all stops to Rockville Centre, then Jamaica, arrive NY 8:03 AM

• Depart Babylon 7:19 AM, making all stops to Rockville Centre, then Jamaica, arrive NY 8:33 AM

• Depart Babylon 7:38 AM, making all stops to Rockville Centre, then Jamaica, arrive NY 8:51 AM

• Depart Babylon 7:45 AM, stopping at Jamaica, arrive NY 8:47 AM

• Depart Babylon 9:09 AM, making all stops to Rockville Centre, then Jamaica, arrive NY 10:22 AM

Babylon Branch Eastbound:

• Depart NY 2:35 PM, stopping at Jamaica, then Babylon (arrive 3:35 PM)

• Depart NY 4:59 PM, stopping at Jamaica, Rockville Centre, then all stops to Babylon (6:13 PM)

• Depart NY 5:32 PM, stopping at Jamaica, Rockville Centre, then all stops to Babylon (6:47 PM)

• Depart NY 5:59 PM, stopping at Jamaica, Rockville Centre, then all stops to Babylon (7:13 PM)

• Depart NY 6:32 PM, stopping at Jamaica, Rockville Centre, then all stops to Babylon (7:47 PM)

_________

Montauk Branch Westbound:

• Depart Speonk 6:45 AM, making all stops to Babylon, then Jamaica, arrive NY 8:47 AM

Montauk Branch Eastbound:

• Depart NY 2:35 PM, stopping at Jamaica, Babylon, then all stops to Speonk (4:35 PM)

_________

Port Jefferson Branch Westbound (to Huntington):

• Depart Hicksville 5:47 AM, stopping at Jamaica, Woodside, arrive NY 6:29 AM

• Depart Huntington 5:42 AM, making all local stops to Jamaica, arrive NY 6:48 AM

• Depart Hicksville 6:47 AM, stopping at Jamaica, Woodside, arrive NY 7:28 AM

• Depart Hicksville 7:18 AM, stopping at Jamaica, arrive NY 8:21 AM

• Depart Huntington 7:30 AM, stopping at Jamaica, arrive NY 8:15 AM

• Depart Hicksville 7:47 AM, stopping at Jamaica, Woodside, arrive NY 8:30 AM

• Depart Hicksville 8:47 AM, stopping at Jamaica, Woodside, arrive NY 9:30 AM

Port Jefferson Branch Eastbound (to Huntington):

• Depart NY 3:35 PM, stopping at Woodside, Jamaica, then Hicksville (4:19 PM)

• Depart NY 4:35 PM , stopping at Woodside, Jamaica, then Hicksville (5:19 PM)

• Depart NY 5:07 PM, stopping at Woodside, Jamaica, then all local stops to Huntington (6:13 PM)

• Depart NY 5:35 PM, stopping at Woodside, Jamaica, then Hicksville (6:19 PM)

• Depart NY 6:07 PM, stopping at Woodside, Jamaica, then all local stops to Huntington (7:13 PM)

• Depart NY 6:35 PM, stopping at Woodside, Jamaica, then Hicksville (7:19 PM)

_________

Port Jefferson Branch Westbound:

• Depart Port Jefferson 8:25 AM, making all local stops to Huntington, Jamaica, arrive NY 10:15 AM

Port Jefferson Branch Eastbound:
• Depart NY 4:05 PM, stopping at Jamaica, then all local stops to Huntington, then all local stops to Port Jefferson (6:01 PM)

_________

Port Washington Branch Westbound:

• Depart Great Neck 7:43 AM, making all local stops to Woodside, arrive NY 8:18 AM

• Depart Great Neck 8:23 AM, making all local stops to Woodside, arrive NY 9:02 AM

Port Washington Eastbound:

• Depart NY 5:03 PM, making all stops to Great Neck (5:39 PM)

• Depart NY 6:03 PM, making all stops to Great Neck (6:39 PM)

• Depart NY 7:03 PM, making all stops to Great Neck (7:39 PM)

_________

Ronkonkoma Branch Westbound:

• Depart Ronkonkoma 5:10 AM, making local stops to Hicksville, Jamaica, arrive NY 6:29 AM

• Depart Ronkonkoma 6:10 AM, making local stops to Hicksville, Jamaica, arrive NY 7:28 AM

• Depart Ronkonkoma 7:10 AM, making local stops to Hicksville, Jamaica, arrive NY 8:30 AM

• Depart Farmingdale 7:19 AM, stopping at Bethpage, Hicksville, Jamaica, arrive NY 8:15 AM

• Depart Ronkonkoma 8:10 AM, making all local stops to Hicksville, Jamaica, arrive NY 9:30 AM

Ronkonkoma Eastbound:

• Depart NY 3:35 PM, making stops at Woodside, Jamaica, Hicksville, then all local stops to Ronkonkoma (4:55 PM)

• Depart NY 4:35 PM, making stops at Woodside, Jamaica, Hicksville, then local stops to Ronkonkoma (5:55 PM)

• Depart NY 5:35 PM, making stops at Woodside, Jamaica, Hicksville, then local stops to Ronkonkoma (6:55 PM)

• Depart NY 6:35 PM, making stops at Woodside, Jamaica, Hicksville, then all local stops to Ronkonkoma (7:55 PM)

xoxo Transit Blogger

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Service Diversions 01-08-10

Posted by
on January 8th, 2010 at 4:26 pm

I just updated the “Service Diversions” page with the latest plans scheduled for this weekend & following week (beyond in some cases). For customers using train service to travel to or around the Fulton Street Transit Center, don’t forget to read this post with important information.

Lastly I suggest you print out a copy to carry with you or access the page directly from your portable device while out traveling. May all of you have safe travels during the holiday season & upcoming new year.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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