Buses Replace Trains On Oyster Bay Branch This Weekend
The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) has just sent out a press release to announce that buses will replace trains on the Oyster Bay Branch this weekend. The buses will be in place over a 30 hour period as the result of a track switch in the Mineola area & the replacement of the Larrabee Avenue grade crossing in Oyster Bay. Here are the complete details:
You might enjoy reading these related entries:Train service on the MTA Long Island Rail Road’s Oyster Bay Branch will be replaced by buses and vans for approximately 30 hours this weekend, November 8 and
November 9. From 12:01 AM, Saturday, November 8 through 6:00 AM, Sunday, November 9, a track switch in the Mineola area and the Larrabee Avenue grade crossing in Oyster Bay will be replaced. The service impacts are as follows:Eastbound
Customers will board Huntington-bound trains at Jamaica up to 27 minutes later than usual then transfer to buses or vans at Mineola to complete their trips. Customers should anticipate up to 23 minutes additional travel time from Mineola. Buses and vans to Oyster Bay will depart from the south side platform near the Mineola Intermodal Center.Westbound
Customers will board buses or vans from their stations (Oyster Bay through East Williston) then transfer to westbound trains at Mineola to complete their trips. Westbound buses will depart between 22 and 48 minutes later than usual train departure times.Customers should obtain a copy of the special November 8-9 Oyster Bay Branch timetable at their station or at all terminals. Customers can also contact the LIRR’s
24-hour Travel Information Center in Nassau County at 516-822-LIRR, in Suffolk County at 631-231-LIRR or in New York City at 718-718-217-LIRR. The Travel Information Center’s TDD telephone number for the hearing impaired is 718-558-3022. Customers can also consult the LIRR website at www.mta.info.
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$99 Millon Dollar GPS Bus Plan Stalls
A Bx31 that won’t be seeing GPS anytime soon if ever departing the Westchester Square terminal. Rezied photo courtesy of Eye On Transit.
So were you one of many hoping for the MTA to install GPS systems on their bus fleet which would have enabled buses to be tracked & “real” time arrivals to be posted at bus stations? Well if you fall in that category, I urge you not to hold your breath as if you do, you won’t survive. MTA’s New York City Transit may pull the plug on the $99 million dollar deal that would have provided such technology to buses such as the one pictured above. New York Daily News transit reporter Pete Donohue has more in this report:
NYC Transit may pull the plug on a troubled $99 million project to track buses and post “real” arrival times on bus-stop message boards, the Daily News has learned.
Officials have halted some work “pending a decision on the future of the project,” according to a report by the agency’s outside engineering consultant.
NYC Transit lawyers also are reviewing legal options, according to the report, which says the contractor is two years behind schedule and still having technical problems with the GPS tracking system.
“It’s a dirty, rotten shame,” Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign said. “A bus locator system could greatly improve bus service with better dispatching and more real-time information. If your car’s GPS can guide you around town, I don’t see why buses can’t do the same.”
The report by the Carter-Burgess engineering firm refers to problems in general terms, citing software issues, a high failure rate of onboard equipment and inaccurate arrival times relayed to message boards placed on just a handful of routes in Manhattan so far.
Citing inaccurate data, bus managers turned off the dozen or so electronic informational screens that had been installed along East Side bus routes.
Click here for the complete report.
This is a shame as a city that is supposed to be so advanced continues to lag behind others in transit technology. The MTA really needs to find a way to make such a plan work as riders deserve this & so much more.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Buses Meet Their Final Resting Place
B68 turning around in the Mermaid Bus Loop in Brooklyn. Resized photo courtesy of Eye On Transit.
For those who ever take the time to wonder where do buses go that have logged hundreds of thousands of miles & provided rides to millions, your answer is here well at least for NYC Transit buses. Buses which have logged on average, more than 400,000 miles are sent to the Eastchester Depot. When they arrive they are taken apart with reusable parts saved. New York Daily News transit writer Pete Donohue has more in his report:
You might enjoy reading these related entries:Some day, that bus you’re riding will end up in a windy, sprawling asphalt lot along a marsh in the Bronx, the place where NYC Transit buses come to die.
Under a new program, buses that have traveled, on average, more than 400,000 bumpy miles on city streets are sent to the MTA’s Eastchester Bus Depot, a 27-acre site in an industrial pocket near the New England Thruway.
The rigs’ final hours are far from peaceful.
“Basically, they bring them here and we tear them apart,” mechanic Sham Seonarain, 34, said with a bit of glee in his voice Thursday.
The buses either limp into the depot or are towed in, where teams of mechanics ravage each one in power-tool blitzes lasting 30 hours apiece.
The deconstruction experts salvage up to 80 different parts to be reused – everything from rear-view mirrors to windows to 1,500-pound transmissions.
Before the program was launched in August, a bus completing its last passenger run would be parked at one of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s 29 depots.
There, some parts might be removed by the depot’s mechanics before the bus was sold as scrap.
Click here for the complete report.
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Hudson Rail Yards Deal Faces A Delay
You know the old saying, “when it rains it pours”. The saying definitely applies to MTA CFO Gary Dellaverson who has made press but for the wrong reasons. The initial story from the New York Times focused on the risky investments into C.D.O. bonds (Collateralized Debt Obligations) by many agencies including the MTA. Now the New York Observer talks about how the MTA failed to meet the deadline it outlined in the contract to sell the rights to develop the Hudson Rail Yards site as part of a $1 billion dollar deal with Related Companies. Eliot Brown has the details in this report:
The deal to put $15 billion in residential and commercial development atop the M.T.A.’s West Side rail yards has hit a delay, as the agency will not sign a contract with developer Related Companies this week, as was originally scheduled. The state authority says it has reached an agreement with Related (which is in a joint venture with Goldman Sachs) to push back the deadline for signing a contract for the property by another 90 days, as the M.T.A. has been slower than expected in producing the needed paperwork.
“We have together agreed on an extension of the designation period,” said Gary Dellaverson, the CFO of the M.T.A. (who has to have one of the least enviable jobs in government these days). “Our expectation was that the documents would have been turned a month and a half ago.
“This is my fault—the fault of the M.T.A.,” he said. “This is not a product of either Related or Goldman or their lawyers.”
The M.T.A. named Related the conditionally designated developer back in May, when Related beat out other developers, offering to pay over $1 billion for the rights to develop the 26-acre West Side site. At the time, the agency gave itself and Related 165 days to sign a contract, according to details of the agreement provided to the M.T.A. board at the time, a window that would have expired today. But the agency has been slow to create the contract, a fact it says is due in part to the collapse of the credit markets.
The M.T.A.’s attorneys for the deal, Paul, Weiss, have had much work related to the financial crisis and have been slower than expected in finishing their work, Mr. Dellaverson said. As a result, the first draft of the contract and other documents have not yet been provided to Related.
Click here for the complete report.
How on earth can the MTA justify causing a delay in a deal that would bring them $1 billion dollars. The official closing of this deal should have been one of the top priorities handled by the agency. This deal was in place way before the economic crisis hit so that can’t be an excuse for such poor execution. Lets just hope for their sake that they are right & that the downturn in the economy does not curb the overall value of this deal. With the financial hole the agency is in, what more motivation do they need to close this deal? I mean they didn’t need an economic crisis to occur to know that this deal needed to be finalized. Get with the program Dellaverson!
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Election Day = Go Out & Vote!
Well the historic day is finally here. By the end of the night (more likely tomorrow morning), history will be made when we elect either the first African American President or Female Vice-President.
I am not going to try & influence anyone to vote for one candidate over the other. The one thing I will try my best to do is to urge everyone to go out & vote regardless of who you support. It does not matter whether you are a Democrat, Republican, or Independent. If you have a candidate that you support, go out & prove it by engaging in one of the best freedoms afforded to us.
One last thing, although most of the attention is on the Presidential election & rightfully so, I urge you to do your homework on your local elected officials. These individuals are the ones who will most shape the area in which you reside. I’ve done my homework & regardless if my choices win or lose, I will come home knowing I did my homework & voted with knowledge & not blind party affiliation.
So I now must bid you adieu as I go walk to my polling place. So go out & vote or I will beat you up!
P.S. Check to see how transit friendly your local elected officials up for election have been.
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