New York City - Transit News

[k1052]

Originally Posted by CIA

If we're talking fantasy, why not extend the N along the same alignment.

Because this was never going to be an MTA project since the previous attempt was shot down. They have other places to spend their time and money

[chris08876]

Subway will be shut down at 11 pm today due to the blizzard. This being the "entire" system.

[202_Cyclist]

Work on New Hudson Train Tunnels Chugs Along
Despite Christie’s Derailing of New Hudson River Tunnels, Some Progress Is Made


Amtrak's North River tunnels connect New Jersey lines to Manhattan. Photo: Kevin Hagen for The Wall Street Journal

By Andrew Tangel
Wall Street Journal
Jan. 25, 2015

"When opened in 1910, a pair of rail tunnels sped up trips for passengers who might have otherwise ridden ferries across the Hudson River.

These days, commuters often find the underwater tubes are the reason they are late to work.

Congestion into and out of New York Penn Station slows trains to a crawl. Broken-down trains and faulty signals force riders to sit and seethe as they cancel appointments and miss meetings..."

http://www.wsj.com/articles/work-on-...ong-1422240370

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by k1052

Rather run AirTrain over the GCP from a new transfer station at Astoria Blvd N/Q stop, to LGA terminals, and onward to Jamaica for connection to existing JFK AirTrain. Both the city and suburbs would get what they want.

i think this is the grand airtrain plan, but there is also the issue of rebuilding the terminals. instead, they should spend all that $ and more on developing stewart and eventually phase out laguardia.

[k1052]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

i think this is the grand airtrain plan, but there is also the issue of rebuilding the terminals. instead, they should spend all that $ and more on developing stewart and eventually phase out laguardia.

I don't think an airport that remote would be viable to replace LGA, at least not with out a rapid link to the city which itself would cost a fortune.

[Nexis4Jersey]

Originally Posted by k1052

I don't think an airport that remote would be viable to replace LGA, at least not with out a rapid link to the city which itself would cost a fortune.

One of the reasons for the I-287 Rail corridor was to run an Express Service from Stewart to GCT and Hoboken. Electrifying part of the Hoboken Division was pegged at 1 billion in the 90s which included rolling stock... Hoboken to Stewart is the only option now , and the costs even with Electrification are probably still reasonable...

[k1052]

Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey

One of the reasons for the I-287 Rail corridor was to run an Express Service from Stewart to GCT and Hoboken. Electrifying part of the Hoboken Division was pegged at 1 billion in the 90s which included rolling stock... Hoboken to Stewart is the only option now , and the costs even with Electrification are probably still reasonable...

A prerequisite of any proposal would be for it to reach Penn or GCT at a minimum and that's going to cost a pretty penny from SWF. ISP might be doable since the LIRR is already right there and has long sought the political and financial ability to make huge upgrades to the main line that this would help justify. I don't particularly care for either option though. It seems the CTB replacement at LGA is going to proceed so the whole discussion is moot anyway.

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by k1052

A prerequisite of any proposal would be for it to reach Penn or GCT at a minimum and that's going to cost a pretty penny from SWF. ISP might be doable since the LIRR is already right there and has long sought the political and financial ability to make huge upgrades to the main line that this would help justify. I don't particularly care for either option though. It seems the CTB replacement at LGA is going to proceed so the whole discussion is moot anyway.

not necessarily with a one-seat ride. all the airports require a transfer and lga will too, so thats not the big issue. the airport itself is the big issue, its too small and will cost a ton to rebuild the terminals anyway. why not put the fork in now and point toward the future with upgrading stewart or even islip? i do agree its moot though and if anything is going to happen it will be this current airtrain plan, then perhaps a full extension connecting the jfk/lga airtrains and then a rebuild of lga. thats how it will most likely go. a shame as its just not real forward thinking to pour so much effort into lga anymore (and i'm no lga hater, that is my fav of the local airports, so it pains me to say that).

[chris08876]

MTA finances subject of lawmakers' panel

State lawmakers will take a look into the MTA's financial situation at a hearing today that aims to "stop the continuing cycle of increased fares and decreased service."

A joint hearing of the state Senate's transportation and infrastructure committees at 10:30 a.m. in Albany will grill officials on the MTA's budget and finances. The MTA is hiking fares and tolls in March as part of a planned series of hikes every two years. The MTA's finances are balanced up to 2017, though the agency is facing a $322 million deficit in 2018, according to budget documents. Meanwhile, transit officials have been pushing for money to finance a $32 billion capital program -- a $15 billion funding gap remains -- to keep the system in good working order and build megaprojects like the Second Avenue Subway and bringing Metro-North into Penn Station.

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http://www.amny.com/transit/mta-fina...anel-1.9891269

[chris08876]

Proposed Routes for NYC's Expanded Ferry Service

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced expanded ferry service across the five boroughs in his State of the City address Tuesday.

Diagrams: http://www.scribd.com/doc/254611698/...-Ferry-Service


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New York could have a citywide ferry system by 2017

New York City could have a ferry service connecting all of the city’s boroughs by 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday.

The idea is to create an affordable system for travelers that could also spur development in the city’s outer boroughs, de Blasio (D) said during his “State of the City” address. He said that ferry rides would cost the same as a MetroCard fare so that trips would “be as affordable to everyday New Yorkers as our subways and buses.”

“For years, the conventional wisdom has been that certain neighborhoods are doomed to isolation because of their geography,” he said, according to an advanced copy of his remarks. “We are going to change that.”

De Blasio’s address Tuesday was largely focused on his administration’s plans to improve affordable housing in the city, which he said presents “a profound challenge” to New Yorkers. The high housing costs in New York tie into the issue of income inequality, which was a centerpiece of de Blasio’s mayoral campaign in 2013.

He outlined plans to invest heavily in bringing more affordable housing and new infrastructure to the Bronx, set aside $30 million for spaces for artists to live and work, maintain 120,000 units of existing affordable housing and require major rezoning developments to include affordable housing in their plans. A legal defense fund will now provide free legal aid to tenants in rezoned neighborhoods, the vast majority of whom currently go to housing court without a lawyer, de Blasio said.

The idea of enhancing transportation to Manhattan is interesting because of the increasing number of people who commute there from the outer boroughs. The number of workers in Manhattan who traveled from these other boroughs increased between 2002 and 2009, even though the number of New York City residents overall working in Manhattan went down in the same period, according to a 2012 study from the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at New York University. This study found that three-quarters of all commutes to Manhattan involved some form of public transit.

Ferry service could be used to essentially connect people in “underutilized waterfront areas,” while also giving travelers in areas not well-served by transit an easier way to get to bus or subway lines, the New York City Economic Development Corporation said in a report that studied how other ferry services in the city had been implemented.

Looking to nearby rivers for help in alleviating congestion is not a new idea, but it has intrigued transportation planners in some areas. In Washington, there has been talk for decades of shuttling commuters on the Potomac River, something that has not materialized. A ferry service was launched in 2012 between Oakland and San Francisco, but it initially underperformed, carrying fewer passengers than planners expected (though those numbers spiked during a transit strike in 2013).

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/p...ystem-by-2017/

[chris08876]

Hudson Heights Slow Zone Would Lower Speed Limit to 20 MPH

The streets of Hudson Heights will get a makeover with lower speed limits, new signage, additional speed bumps and a new crosswalk under a plan to improve pedestrian safety in the area.

The neighborhood would officially be designated a slow zone under a proposal from the Department of Transportation that would reduce speed limits to 20 mph in the area running between the Henry Hudson Parkway and Broadway from 179th Street to Fort Tryon Park.

In addition, the Bennett Avenue entrance to the 190th Street A train station would get a long-awaited crosswalk with a stop sign.

The decision to create a slow zone came after the Hudson Heights Owners Coalition advocated for the changes, with support from Community Board 12, the 34th Precinct and several elected officials. The DOT acknowledged that the area had a high number of injuries from collisions, including one fatality, two severely injured pedestrians and four severely injured vehicle occupants from 2007 to 2015.

The DOT plans to install 22 speed bumps in the area, including two on Overlook Terrace, a hilly street where residents complain about cars and cyclists racing. There would also be 12 “gateways” at intersections on the outer edges of the designated area featuring signs explaining the rules of the slow zone.

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http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/2015...d-limit-20-mph

[mrnyc]

a big sbs/brt expansion is planned:

http://m.nydailynews.com/new-york/ci...icle-1.2110880

[chris08876]

Controversial plan to toll bridges gets new life

The Move NY plan hinges on its proposed East River bridge tolls, which will draw howls from some motorists but are barrier-free and fiscally efficient, and would rationalize traffic flow in Queens and Brooklyn, experts say. Some business groups favor congestion pricing because it will reduce traffic jams, which cost many businesses more money than tolls would. However, many New Jersey-bound truckers plow through lower Manhattan to avoid tolls that can reach $70 for an 18-wheeler to travel through Staten Island.

Mr. Silver delivered the fatal blow to the Bloomberg plan in 2008 when he declared that the Assembly would not vote on it. The speaker's decision reflected not only his lack of enthusiasm for it but that of the Assembly majority, which is dominated by New York City Democrats. Since then, proponents of Move NY have systematically courted members of the state legislature and say they have been generally receptive—even members who opposed the Bloomberg plan.

"We think that the Assembly is going to be an opportunity, depending on how things play out over the next couple of months," said Regional Plan Association President Tom Wright.

How Mr. Heastie handles Move NY—which backers plan to jump-start with a press conference later this month—is unknown. He could champion it or, more likely, merely take the pulse of his members, as Mr. Silver did. But he could also do something in between, namely, nudge ambivalent or fence-sitting members to endorse the plan, which would toll vehicles heading into congested parts of Manhattan while reducing tolls by $2.50 to $5 on some outer-borough bridges.

Another source of encouragement for the Move NY coalition is the de Blasio administration's embrace of Vision Zero, which aims to eliminate traffic fatalities in the city. The traffic engineers behind Move NY could develop a metric that shows how many lives could be saved by funding safety improvements with congestion-pricing revenue, and by reducing traffic into Manhattan, where an average of 10 people per day are struck by vehicles. Mayor Michael Bloomberg had promoted his plan as an asthma-reducer, but the argument did not seem to resonate. A fair amount of arm-twisting was needed to get the plan narrowly approved by the City Council before it died in Albany.

Mr. Schwartz, better known as Gridlock Sam, has been persuaded to drop from his version a fee on bicycles crossing East River bridges to Manhattan, which he had initially included apparently on the mistaken assumption that it would please then-Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. Mr. Markowitz is now out of office, but says he was never consulted about a bike fee and would have opposed the idea for the same reason he opposes new vehicular tolls: he views them as a tax on outer-borough drivers.

A lingering uncertainty for Move NY is what position Gov. Andrew Cuomo will take. Backers have kept the governor's staff abreast of the plan but have avoided putting him on the spot before it appears politically safe for him to support it.

One of the Schwartz plan's selling points—but also a source of controversy—is its imposition of tolls on East River crossings that have been free for as long as any current drivers have been taking them. The lack of tolls triggers a phenomenon known as bridge-shopping, whereby motorists on highways designed to transport huge volumes of vehicles exit those roads and descend onto city streets that lead to the Queensborough, Williamsburg, Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. Those four spans account for more than one million trips each day, while the tolled Midtown Tunnel and Hugh L. Carey (Brooklyn-Battery) Tunnel are underutilized.

The Move NY plan calls for E-ZPass users to pay $5.54 to cross the East River or 60th Street in Manhattan. Cars without E-ZPass would be billed $8 by mail using license plate-reading technology.

Designers of the plan say it would speed traffic in the central business district by 15% to 20%, reduce the number of vehicular trips into the district by 100,000 per year, yet increase the total number of visits by 110,000, thanks to the mass-transit improvements it would fund.

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http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...-gets-new-life

[chris08876]

R.P.A. calls, again, for outer-borough X line

The Regional Plan Association has a solution to New York City's outer borough transportation problems: build the Triboro Rx line, or the X line as it is alternately known.

The proposed 24-mile route along a mostly above-ground right-of-way now used entirely by freight trains, would serve more than 100,000 weekday riders and is, according to the association, "by far the most promising" concept for rail expansion in the outer boroughs.

Passengers would board at one of 22 different stations stretching from the Bay Ridge in Brooklyn to Jackson Heights in Queens, to Co-Op City in the Bronx.

Along the way, it would intersect with 6, N, Q, 7, E, R, F, M, L, 2, 3, and 5 trains, providing just the sort of intra- and inter-borough connectivity now lacking in New York City's radial, Manhattan-centric subway system.

(The G train, which has substantially less connectivity to other lines, carries a similar number of passengers.)

"This line would address many of the weaknesses found in the transit system in the boroughs—poor connectivity within and between the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn, slow bus service, excessive transferring and service reliability," reads the report.

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http://www.capitalnewyork.com/articl...borough-x-line

[C.]

A moot point since it's never going to happen, but it would be nice if the Triboro line made a stop at LaGuardia airport. It would involve a change of alignment north of Jackson Heights.

[Nexis4Jersey]

It would have to be commuter rail rather then Rapid Transit due to the Freight and Hell Gate line. An EMU-London Overground layout would work well. I would run it up to Stamford and have a flying JCT to connect to the LIRR. So you could run trains from Jamaica up to Stamford.

[chris08876]

Bus Rapid Transit, Not Ferry Subsidies, Would Help Struggling New Yorkers

In today’s State of the City address, Mayor de Blasio returned to his signature campaign issues of affordability and equity. Focusing mainly on housing, the mayor outlined a plan for growth centered around transit-accessible neighborhoods, and he recommitted to building several new Bus Rapid Transit routes.

But de Blasio missed the mark with his big new transit initiative — a subsidized ferry system. Dollar for dollar, ferries are just not an effective way to spend public money to improve transit options for low-income New Yorkers.

“If we are going to have affordable housing, how are we going to help people get around? What’s the role of transportation in making sure that people have access to opportunity and connecting to where the jobs are all over the five boroughs?” the mayor asked. “Well, we thought about that.”

De Blasio said rides on the new ferry system will cost no more than a MetroCard swipe when it launches in 2017. The system will receive $55 million from the city and serve neighborhoods including Astoria and the Rockaways in Queens, Red Hook in Brooklyn, and Soundview in the Bronx, according to DNAinfo.

“Ferries will be affordable to everyday New Yorkers, just like our subways and buses,” de Blasio said, adding that the ferries will help revitalize commercial corridors near their outer-borough landings.

This sounds great, until you look at how much ferries cost and how many people they would serve compared to better buses and trains.

Even with fares at $3.50 per ride, running ferries from Pier 11 to the Rockaways last year required a subsidy of nearly $30 per rider, according to the Economic Development Corporation. In part, that was because its limited schedule failed to attract much ridership. The more centrally-located East River Ferry has more ridership and a better schedule, but still had a slightly higher per-rider subsidy than bus service in 2013, on top of its $4 fare [PDF]. Dropping the fare to match the bus and subway would likely require additional subsidies.

[...]

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PDF: http://www.nycedc.com/sites/default/...nal_Report.pdf
http://www.streetsblog.org/2015/02/0...g-new-yorkers/

[mrnyc]

yeah great to at least see the triboro rx line back in the news a bit. so needed. along with a crosstown line along 125th and one in the bronx too, like across tremont or something.

[chris08876]

Why the Second Ave. subway could be delayed—again

It's an ominous refrain, repeated endlessly in the same automated monotone: "Ladies and gentlemen, we are delayed because of train traffic ahead of us."

Every New Yorker who rides the subway to work each day—all 6 million, on the busiest days—has heard that message echoed over loudspeakers when a train car comes to an unexpected halt. What most commuters don't realize is that those delays are tied to a contentious political fight playing out over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's five-year capital budget plan, which will fund critical improvements and repairs to the city's sprawling transit system.

Right now, the MTA is struggling to find funding sources for about half of that $32 billion plan. The agency could be forced to refund money to contractors on expansion projects like the East Side access project—which will connect the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal—if the budget debate isn't resolved 18 months from now, MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast said at a board meeting Wednesday.

"A year or two, we're OK," Mr. Prendergast said. "But as you start to get down that path, we get to the point where we don't have that money, we can't award design contracts, we can't award construction projects."
Another major project at risk is the new subway line that will run along Second Avenue, Mr. Prendergast said.

"Could we start the next phase of the Second Avenue subway? That would be one that would be up on the table," he said.

But Mr. Prendergast said the agency has never found itself in that position before, and he doesn't expect it will happen this time around.
"New York gets the money it needs to get the MTA to keep running," he said. Probably more so than any other entity in the United States."

Experts say the city's aging trains and buses, which already lag far behind other global metropolises, will deteriorate considerably if the transit authority is unable to digitize a century-old subway signaling system, replace miles of subway tracks and cars and fix tunnel lighting, among many critical repairs.

"We will start sliding backwards," said Richard Barone, director of transportation programs for the Regional Plan Association, an independent civic group that shapes transit policy across the tri-state area. "Stations will be looking worse. We won't have the money to maintain the track infrastructure to where it should be, and therefore it will result in greater delays. If we don't upgrade our signaling system, well, that's really bad because these are signals that are in some cases over 80 years old."

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also weighed in on the funding crisis in Albany on Wednesday, calling MTA's capital plan "woefully underfunded." The mayor criticized Gov. Andrew Cuomo's current contribution of $750 million toward the budget, saying it does not begin to address the transit authority's critical needs.

"We cannot ask riders alone to sustain the system with fare increases," Mr. de Blasio said.

Politicians and policymakers are divided over how to come up with the remaining $15 billion needed to fund the plan. Mr. Cuomo, who controls the MTA, has described it as "bloated," which implies that he will expect significant cuts in order for it to pass muster in the Legislature this summer. But the consensus among transportation experts is that the price tag actually isn't high enough to cover the massive amount of work that needs to be done.

[...]

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http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...-delayed-again

[chris08876]

New Citi Bike locations in Williamsburg, Greenpoint revealed


Rolling down the road: Citi Bike plans to add 53 stations in Williamsburg and Greenpoint.

The G-train-dependent neighborhood and neighboring Williamsburg will get 53 Citi Bike stations as part of the private bike-sharing program’s $30 million expansion, The Brooklyn Paper has learned. One local was thrilled to hear about the bikes, which are supposed to arrive by the end of the year.

“This helps ease transportation congestion, so I support it 100 percent,” Rolf Carle said. “As long as the stations are placed responsibly and with the character of the neighborhood, I am fine with it.”

The planned stations span the area from Flushing and Marcy avenues at the border of Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant to Franklin Avenue and Dupont Street in Greenpoint, a block from the mouth of Newtown Creek, according to a map provided to the area’s Community Board 1. Notable station sites include one in McCarren Park where Union Avenue is set to be converted to green space, one on either end of McGolrick Park, and one beside the India Street pier.

Citi Bike officials originally planned to include more stations when the program rolled out in May of 2013, but they had to scale back when Hurricane Sandy destroyed equipment stored in the Navy Yard and sponsor Citibank opted not to fund its replacement. The program got a cash infusion last year when a real estate developer bought Alta Bicycle Share, Citi Bike’s troubled parent company, and the program announced it was expanding into Greenpoint, and Williamsburg. Now, planners can afford to build on many of the spots they picked years ago.

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http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories...-bk_38_10.html