nyc subway – 6sqft

1939/1940 Worlds Fair, Worlds Fair Subway line, NYC subway, transportation, lost subway line, history, flushing meadows corona park, robert moses

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Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, NY, United States

World’s Fair Terminal Station. Photo via Bill Cotter

There was, for a short time, a line of the IND (Independent) subway that was built for the 1939/1940 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, the second most expansive American world’s fair of all time (second only to the St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904). The event brought over 44 million people to the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park site. To make visting the fair more convenient, the city created a new dedicated subway line extension and terminal, then the only line owned by the city.

The extension began on a bridge (called a flying junction) running through Jamaica Yard near what is now the Forest Hills-71st Street stop on today’s M/R lines. The extension turned north along the east side of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park over a wooden trestle and ended at the newly-created World’s Fair Terminal Station, which had two tracks and three platforms. The two-mile addition cost $1.7 million to build.

IND World’s Fair Subway Line; Photo via George Conrad Collection from NYC Subway.

The other two (privately owned) subway lines, the BMT and IRT also ran “special” trains for the World’s Fair, but those ran over already-existing routes. The special World’s Fair train cost an extra five cents on top of the regular five-cent subway fare.

IND map; source: NYC Subway

Though the short line carried nearly 7.1 million passengers in its first year, that number was only 54 percent of the projected ridership. After its run during the 1940 World’s Fair season, the New York City subway system had unified, and though there were plans to make the line permanent after the fair closed, the idea was abandoned as there were no major permanent attractions nearby (the fair pre-dated Citi Field and the United States Tennis Association complex). Political and financial reasons compounded the lack of need for the terminal, as did automobile-booster Robert Moses, who wanted the right of way to extend the Van Wyck Expressway and a street. Also, the IND World’s Fair Line did not meet construction standards for permanent lines, which, at the time, were required to be underground. Demolition began on January 15th, 1941–though the signals added for the World’s Fair Line remain in use today.

[Via Untapped Cities]

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7 train extension, NYC MTA, NYC subway construction, Hudson Yards subway station

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Hudson Yards, New York, NY, United States

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The Post reported last week that the Hudson Yards 7-train subway station, which opened just this past September after more than ten years of planning and delays, was a “disgusting, moldy mess,” noting that “leaks, flooded bathrooms and water damage” had put nearly half the escalators out of service. According to a plumber, it’s due to poor construction, with the ceilings not being made waterproof. If this wasn’t disturbing enough, especially considering the station’s $2.45 billion price tag, the Times has new information straight from the MTA: “A spokesman for the authority, Kevin Ortiz, said the contractor, Yonkers Contracting, would pay $3 million to fix the leaks. The work began last Friday and will take up to three months, Mr. Ortiz said.”

“Completely unacceptable.” #mta on leaky glitches at $2.4B #HudsonYards station details at 5:54pm #nbc4ny pic.twitter.com/XhspnLX0qb

— Andrew Siff (@andrewsiff4NY) March 15, 2016

Flooding and leaking ceilings could be a $3 million fix at #HudsonYards subway. What MTA says and who has to pay @ 6 pic.twitter.com/EcLsAlogrn

— ilana gold (@ilanagoldTV) March 15, 2016

The Times described the MTA’s frustration with the situation, explaining that chairman Thomas F. Prendergast will ask an independent engineer to review the project’s construction, design, and oversight. “What did we know and what actions did we take with respect to trying to correct the conditions that are existing there, so we can find ourselves in a position next time that we don’t have the same outcome?” he said. Michael Horodniceanu, the president of the MTA’s capital construction company, claimed officials knew about the leaks since the summer of 2012, but never informed the board, creating tension within the agency. “We spent $2 billion on this thing, and there is a significant blemish on this agency,” said board member Allen P. Cappelli.

[Via NYP and NYT]

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nyc, subway, mta, 7 train, public transportation, straphangers campaign, state of the subway, mta subway

Last month, the Port Authority of of New York and New Jersey officially launched a design competition for a new bus terminal, which could cost up to $10 billion and require the use of eminent domain. A new Port Authority Bus Terminal aims to accommodate tens of thousands of additional riders, many of whom will then need to connect to a subway line. To accommodate all these potential new riders, the MTA is looking to revive its past plan of building a 7 train station at 10th Avenue and 41st Street, reports Crain’s, which could cost up to $1 billion.

When the 7 line extension was first proposed 10 years ago, it included a station at 34th Street and 11th Avenue at Hudson Yards, which opened this past September, as well as a the aforementioned 10th Avenue stop. But when it surfaced that the latter would cost $500 million, in addition to the overall extension’s $2.4 billion price tag, it was cancelled. Now, sources tell Crain’s that the 41st Street station will likely cost as much as $1 billion.

Crain’s found out about the MTA’s interest in the station through documents about the surrounding city-owned blocks where the Covenant House youth shelter is located. It reads, “The MTA is in the process of preparing the conceptual design study of the 10th Avenue station for the No. 7 train extension.” This would take into account where the station would be located and how much space it would take up. However, MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said the agency has no set plans to open the station, noting that the study “looks at easement volumes so as not to preclude the construction of a new station in the future.”

[Via Crain's]

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This New York City Transit Frequency map, from Ft. Collins, Colorado-based public transit enthusiast and urban adventurer Tyler A. Green, is a mapped visualization of how frequently the city’s subways and buses travel along each line. You can use it to see where—and on which days—trains and buses run most and least often. The darker the color of a transit line on the map the more frequent your prospects are going to be. Four viewable data layers on the map represent buses and trains on Fridays and Saturdays. Hover over lines to see exactly how many trains or buses run in an hour between any two stops.

All subway lines

Some caveats from Green: “One thing to keep in mind: the trips per hour numbers that appear when you hover over lines on the map are not specific to a transit route. They encompass all transit services, potentially multiple routes and even modes, between the two stops that create an edge.”

Friday subway frequency

Saturday subway frequency

In visualizing all this transit data, some findings were more obvious—like the fact that transit in general runs more frequently on weekdays (Fridays in this case) than weekends. Green also found that even in dense areas, bus frequencies are higher in areas that have less subway service and vice versa, and that inter-borough connections between Queens and Brooklyn are weak for both subways and buses.

We compared a few highlights: Taking a look at the much-discussed L and G subways, on a Friday, the L train between First and Bedford Avenues clocked 14 trains an hour; from Halsey Street to Myrtle/Wyckoff, 18 trains an hour; Morgan to Jefferson Avenues, 12 trains an hour.

However, the G line between Clinton/Washington and Greenpoint Avenue never runs more than eight trains an hour, sometimes running only six, which is kind of a bummer, because we’re really starting to like the G. We know there are way more trains on the line than there used to be but, hey, MTA, step it up a little, please.

Friday subways do tend to run more trains in Manhattan, with lines running 18-24 trains an hour in a lot of places, and rarely dipping below 12, though that could be because there are more trains running over the same line.

Friday bus frequency

Saturday bus frequncy

As for buses, there are definitely fewer of them, too, on Saturdays than weekdays.

Read more from the map’s creator here on his blog with updates as he adds more info or figures things out.

[Via Googlemapsmania]

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NYC subway, pantone colors, train line colors, NYC MTA

It’s likely that every subway rider can name the colors that mark each train line — blue for the A, C, E, red for the 1, 2, 3. But did you know that these aren’t just arbitrary hues pulled from some MTA Crayola box, but rather 10 Pantone® spot colors? Even E-Z Pass and the LIRR and Metro-North lines have their own specific colors.

The color coding dates back to the mid ’60s when the city was in an economic downturn and people were staying off the rundown, haphazardly organized subways. To give the system a fresh, user-friendly look, the Transit Authority turned to graphic design, then an up-and-coming profession. They hired Italian designer Massimo Vignelli and Dutch designer Bob Noorda, both of whom were proponents of the popular “Swiss” style that featured solid, bright colors, simplistic illustrations, typographic grids, and the sans-serif font Helvetica. The men combined these elements into the 364-page New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual, forming the basis for the subway design we know today.

Today, the MTA doesn’t take new color choices lightly. When the T line eventually opens, it will be marked by robin’s egg blue, described by most as teal. When the decision was made back in 2011, the MTA said it was based on the fact that the color had been used previously for the no-longer-in-service J.F.K. Express train. But Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, told the Times, “It has a very upscale connotation. People with more discriminating tastes tend to choose that as a favorite color.”

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The ye-olde MetroCard swipe has made national headlines in recent weeks, thanks to Hilary Clinton’s inability to get through the turnstile and Bernie Sanders’ belief that we’re still in the dark ages using subway tokens. The fact that these snafus are so attention-grabbing goes to show how intrinsic the simple act of swiping a MetroCard is to New Yorkers’ daily lives, which makes today’s announcement that the MTA is seeking proposals for ways to pay for subway rides with “contactless media” like smart cards or mobile devices all the more emotionally charged. Though the Post notes that this wouldn’t take effect until at least 2021, 6sqft wants to know if you’ll lament the days of “please swipe again.”

Turnstile image via Phil Hollenback/Flickr; Hillary Clinton image via FiveThirtyEight/Twitter

The MTA has released its 2015 figures, which show the highest weekday subway ridership since 1948, reports the Daily News. Not only does this account for daily riders, which hit 5.7 million, but annual ridership as well, reaching 1.763 billion. Another interesting tidbit, especially considering the looming shutdown, is that L train usage decreased for the first time in about 20 years. This occurred from Third Avenue to Morgan Avenue in Brooklyn, resulting in a 4.2 percent increase along the J/Z and M lines.

Further evidence of the system’s overcrowding is that 49 days throughout the year (compared to 29 in 2014) saw the number of daily passengers surpass six billion, like October 29th when a record-breaking 6,217,621 customers swiped their MetroCards. But as WNYC notes, these figures come with major service problems, as every single one of the numbered lines fared poorer over the past 12 months. The 6 line was the worst, only meeting service standards 58 percent of the time, followed by the 4 at 60 percent and the 5 at 61 percent. The MTA points to the Second Avenue Subway as the solution for the east side lines, and they also announced that come the fall, the 2 and 7 lines will see increased service.

[Via NYDN and WNYC]

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To wait or not to wait, that is the question that engineer Erik Bernhardsson answered in his recent analysis of the MTA’s real-time API. In his post titled NY Subway Math he determined that if you’re in a hurry, you should only wait for a train to arrive for 11 minutes (h/t Technically). At this point, the chance that there’s a serious delay begins to rise. As he notes, “The interesting conclusion is that after about five minutes, the longer you wait, the longer you will have to wait. If you waited for 15 minutes, the median additional waiting time is another 8 minutes. But 8 minutes later if the train still hasn’t come, the median additional waiting time is now another 12 minutes.”

Bernhardsoon started looking at the data to “understand if to what extent waiting for a subway is ‘sunk cost’ vs. an investment.” He illustrates this in the graph above, where you can see how long you’re likely to wait for a train based on how long you’ve already waited. The blue line is the median, and the yellow is the 90th percentile. On a normal day, you’ll wait less than five minutes, but 11 minutes is where you’ll hit that dreaded yellow line that makes mechanical issues, sick passengers, and the like much more plausible.

[Via Technically]

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Lead image via Grim Santo/Flickr

Here’s a video that drops a subway token on the dark ages of 1990, when the city’s underground transit system may have been a little “creepy,” but buses still took forever. While our ideas of what’s merely unruly (afterschool hordes) and what’s downright dangerous (the NYPD, eek!) may have been changed by the intervening years, it’s interesting to note the things that have stayed the same (capacity crowds on the Lexington Avenue line). Our host, a Fonzie-meets-Geraldo-esque Newsday columnist by the name of Ellis Henican, skims the surface of the many, many things that are going on below it in the city’s subway tunnels of the day, including ghost stations, locked restrooms and more.

The subway was, and still is, “amazingly huge;” there were 25 lines (today there are 35) and about four million riders a day, compared to today’s six million riders daily totalling 1.8 billion rides a year. And today we’re faced with a whole new level of possible creepiness. Like audio surveillance, pizza rat, manspreading and dripping gunk.

Our host explains that crime was rife: The most dangerous time to ride the subway was apparently between 2-4 PM, when afterschoool hordes ran loose on the MTA; this youthful scourge may not strike as much terror into riders as it did in the pre-Giuliani era, but crimes of fashion and embarrassing the daylights out of one another in public threaten to reach epic proportions daily.

A recent report from the mayor’s office says homelessness is down by 12 percent from 2015, 36 percent less than 2005; our host paints a different picture from a different time, explaining that the E train had the most homeless riders because “it never goes above ground; the warmth stays in the car.” Which doesn’t really make sense, because as far as we can tell, the cars were heated even back in the long-ago ‘90s. And in today’s Wall Street shuttle of an E train, backpacks and smartphone zombies are more of a nuisance than riders-in-residence.

Then there’s the “sardine train,” the Lexington Avenue line on Manhattan’s east side. And that’s where we get to the part where things haven’t changed a bit. In 1990, the most absolutely hellish ride (human-body-to-space-ratio-wise) could be had on the the 4, 5, 6 trains during the evening rush hour. Sounds about right to us, and current numbers bear this out. According to a recent New York Times article on the growing problem of overcrowding on the very same East Side line, it’s still the most crowded in the system.

Things start to actually get a little creepy when the ghost stations are mentioned. These are stations that “don’t fit into the Transit Authority’s plans.” Apparently the MTA tossed around a few ideas about what to do with these abandoned no-man’s platforms, graffiti-covered, dark and forlorn. One idea was to use them as nightclubs (because we do like our nightclubs graffiti-covered, dark and forlorn). But then you’ve got to worry about, you know, trains. Which really could put a crimp in your clubbing game. More recently we’ve come up with some better ideas. In 2008, for example, public art was installed on the walls of an abandoned Myrtle Avenue platform just north of Dekalb Avenue.

Ghost stations aren’t the only creepy thing in the pre-millennial subway darkness. There are bathrooms! At the time the video was made, 105 stations boasted public restrooms. Which sounds like a good thing. Except they’re in subway stations. And most of them were chained shut. Which probably contributes at least somewhat to that familiar subway scent that may or may not be less pervasive than it was in the creepy ‘90s but definitely still exists.

Today there are allegedly 129 restrooms in subway stations (h/t Untapped) but no one seems to be sure how many of those are locked. One last ominous detail: The mysterious “ejector room.” Which the video does not explain, but we will: Those ejector rooms contain pumping systems that eject water from the stations during flooding conditions and remove water from lavatories.

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The MTA announced at a town hall meeting Thursday night that they would “decide in the next three months at most” on the final details for the planned Canarsie Tunnel work to repair damage caused by Hurricane Sandy that would halt L train service west of Bedford Avenue, according to DNAinfo. The agency is considering two options: shutting down service for that portion of the line completely for 18 months, or having partial service that would give only “one in five passengers service to Manhattan” (or 20 percent of current service) and last up to three years.

The MTA tells us how amazing the L train is and why we can’t have it in this video, which is actually pretty interesting.

Though the tunnel is “not in grave danger of collapse,” the MTA hopes to start work soon because the longer they wait,”the more likely it is that chunks of the tunnel wall will fall onto the tracks,” causing unplanned service and delays. Night and weekend service is off the table because of amount of work that needs to be done, and building a third tube would be time- and cost-prohibitive.

The agency hopes to be able to stick to the current plan of starting construction by 2019, according to MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz, though intermittent shutdowns may begin before then.

At the community meeting held at the Marcy Avenue Armory in Brooklyn–the first one held to address the topic–citizen groups like the L Train Coalition and rider advocacy group Riders Alliance voiced their frustration over the choices they were faced with, fearing that smaller businesses like stores and bars along the L would suffer from the lack of Manhattan access in addition to riders being faced with lack of job choices and miserable commute times.

A second public meeting to discuss the L train shutdown will be held at 5:30 PM on May 12 at the Salvation Army Theatre in Manhattan. The MTA will be visiting community boards along the L line to get feedback during the time leading up to the decision.

[Via DNAinfo]

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NYC subway, MTA, zebra signs, subway safety

If you’ve ever been able to tear your eyes away from your targeted entry point when the subway doors are about to open, you might’ve noticed that every time a train pulls into the station, the conductor is pointing out his window at something. And believe it or not, he isn’t calling out the crazy person screaming on the platform or gesturing to his fellow employees in the booth. This is actually a required safety precaution.

Halfway down every subway platform is a “zebra board,” a black and white-striped wood panel that’s meant to line up perfectly with the conductor’s window, signaling that all cars are at the platform. “Because opening the doors without a platform to step onto is such a serious concern, conductors are required to point at the sign every time to show that they’ve stopped at the right spot,” Mental Floss explains.

The zebra boards were implemented around World War I, when new technology allowed all train doors to be opened at once. Previously, there was a conductor between every two cars to manually open the doors. It wasn’t until 1966, though, that the pointing became a requirement, and it was influenced by Japanese railways. In Japan, conductors used pointing for several safety measures, including speed indicators, upcoming wayside signals, and, of course, position. In 1999, when the New Technology fleets were introduced, another layer of protection was added. “All new trains include the installation of Door Enable systems. This system requires the train operator to ‘enable’ the conductor by activating the door controls only on the platform side of the train after it is properly berthed,” according to the MTA.

Check out this video of New Yorkers having a little fun with the pointing rule:

[Via Mental Floss]

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New York City, NY, United States

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Pretty much everyone can appreciate a good map, and many of us are downright obsessed. Then there’s Cameron Booth, who has devoted a serious amount of his time to interweaving maps to transit systems all around the world with one another. The Portland, OR-based (by way of Syndey, Australia) graphic designer tweaks and reimagines the world’s city transit maps on his blog; Booth has also helped test and create map apps for cities throughout the world.

You could think of it as a way to travel everywhere at once, while not leaving home (as long as you stay within the bounds of this virtual transit system). Booth has tried his hand at versions of the transit systems of Paris and Portland, major U.S. highway routes and Amtrak train maps, and it’s both a graphic delight and an eye-opening way to see how cities’ transit systems get you from point a to point b. Take, for example, his project that combines the London tube diagram with the New York City subway system map.

Booth outlined the subway-fication of the tube map thusly: “All of the subway trunk lines have been adapted to use their closest matching colour from the Tube Map: the BMT Broadway uses the Circle line’s yellow, the IND 6th Avenue uses the Overground’s orange, and so on. ” He even makes a note of how confusing the Seventh Avenue (red) and Lexington Avenue (green) lines must be for color-blind users when they’re running next to each other.

Booth also notes that in tube map style, service patterns (express, local, weekends or rush hours only, etc.) generally aren’t shown. He adds that this treatment “makes this map next to useless for actually navigating the subway,” though he did “make one tiny concession to New York’s complexity” by adding route designation bullets at terminus stations.

NewYorkTube_detail_04-720x540

Booth also attempted to stick to Manhattan’s street grid, which, he says, “mostly works pretty well.” Once the map reaches the outer boroughs, more even spacing works better–he’s particularly fond of the section that goes into Coney Island.

NewYorkTube_detail_02-720x540

Other juxtapositions of the two lines do converge rather magically, others are more of a challenge. The “routing of lines near Atlantic Avenue/Barclays Center actually turned out pretty well. The Tube Map “dumbbell” interchange symbol is particularly ill-suited to the needs of the 4 Av–9 St station complex. Here, even an offset symbol fails to clearly show that the (orange) D service does not stop along the southbound Fourth Avenue line. The single red tick across the green route line at the Brooklyn Museum stop is also less than satisfactory, but space limitations demanded that approach.” He adds that “Little touches like this are immensely satisfying when putting a complex map like this together.”

New York Tube_v2

His take on the project overall? “Applying the design language of one transit map rigorously to another system is always interesting, even though the results here are decidedly mixed.”

Visit Cameron Booth’s site for many, many more maps.

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W train, mta service changes, second avenue subway, q train

Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio, notorious for their icy relationship, have been squabbling for well over a year about the MTA’s $27 billion, five-year capital plan. Last October, they reached an agreement where the state would contribute $8.3 billion and the city $2.5 billion, neither of which would come from increasing taxes. Seven months later, the Daily News reports that Albany has finally approved the plan, which covers track and station repairs, new train cars, new high-tech buses, a MetroCard replacement, the Long Island Rail Road’s East Side Access project, and, of course, the beginning of the Second Avenue Subway‘s phase two into East Harlem.

Second Avenue Subway construction

In a statement, Governor Cuomo said:

The MTA is the lifeblood of the New York metropolitan area’s transportation network and we must ensure it has the capacity to meet the travel demands of the next generation and fuel one of the largest economies on the globe. By investing in the most robust transportation plan in state history, we are reimagining the MTA and ensuring a safer, more reliable and more resilient public transportation network for tomorrow.

As the Mayor explained in October, the city would “take $1.9 billion from city funds and the rest from sources that could include development rights or rezoning.” The specifics of this haven’t been determined or confirmed, but before the state and city contribute funds, the MTA will have to exhaust its financial resources, which shouldn’t be a challenge for the debt-ridden agency.

[Via NYDN]

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Perhaps in an attempt to distract disgruntled riders from looming shutdowns and never-ending delays, the MTA has released a new subway map that features stations along phase one of the Second Avenue line and the reinstated W line to Astoria. The former isn’t planned to open until December (which, as Gothamist notes, we’ll believe when we see) and the latter November, but if you were stuck on a sweaty platform this morning, this eye candy is surely a welcome treat.

The map was included in the MTA’s minutes from Wednesday’s Board meeting (read the full document here), where they officially approved the W train restoration. The line was taken out of service in 2010 due to budget cuts, but was brought back to life recently as a way to better connect Astoria residents who have a lack of transportation options. The first phase of the Second Avenue Subway will extend the Q train up from 63rd Street to 96th Street. It’s expected to carry 200,000 riders a day, but NY Mag points out that the Q service won’t actually be increased, so this influx of people will be cramming onto already crowded cars.

[Via Gothamist and NY Mag]

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Although the NYC subway system may be hemorrhaging money, unable to turn a profit despite annual fare increases, expanded services and a slew of other measures taken to just to balance the books, there is one thing that it can gloat about. According to a just-released annual report from the American Public Transportation Association (h/t New Geography), the New York City subway accounts for ALL of the transit increase seen in the United States between 2005 and 2015.

In the last decade, subway ridership has ballooned nearly a billion trips, while transit systems outside the New York City subway saw a loss of nearly 200 million riders over the same period. And if current figures are any indication of what’s to come, this trend will only strengthen. As 6sqft reported in April, NYC subway hit 1.7 billion annual trips, the highest since 1948 when ridership was at its peak.

“The New York City subway accounts carries nearly 2.5 times the annual ridership of the other nine largest metro systems in the nation combined,” New Geography points out. It carries 11 times more riders that the Chicago “L” system, 10 times that of Washington’s Metro, and 50 times more than the Los Angeles system—though to be fair, L.A. has only in the last two decades started to build out its rail system, whereas the NYC subway is more than 100 years old. Moreover, the NYC subway also benefits from population density, 24/7 service and safer riding conditions (i.e. lower crime rates—largely what’s given it significant boosts since the more troubled 70s and 90s).

nyc subway ridership growth 2

Unsurprisingly, the subway also dominates over other regional transit systems, including the PATH, LIRR and Metro North, at 67 percent. “Other” inner-city transit options (e.g. the bus) make up just 5 percent of the total.

Adding to all of this, just last year, the American Public Transportation Association found that 2014 national transit ridership marked an unprecedented high for the United States. Meaning the success of our nation’s transit can wholly be attributed to how “effective” NYC’s subway system is. Oh, the irony.

[Via New Geography]

All graphs via New Geography

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Artist’s impression of one of the Second Avenue subway’s 16 new stations

While the New York City subway system has improved by leaps and bounds since the days of squealing graffiti-covered, crime-riddled trains, stations are still an unpleasant reality. Between the grime, stench, heat and noise of oncoming trains (which in turn makes it impossible to hear indecipherable, possibly important announcements), by the time the actual train shows up we’ve had our share of city cacophony.

The good news is that an engineering firm is working with the MTA to create the amazing possibility of quieter subway stations, Wired reports. The challenge of quieting the din lies in the fact that a subway station has to be “incredibly strong, graffiti-proof, soot-resistant, human bodily waste-resistant,” according to Alex Case, an architectural acoustician with the University of Massachusetts Lowell. This indestructible infrastructure by nature creates an echo chamber that amplifies the racket. Engineering firm Arup has been hired by the MTA to improve the acoustics of the new Second Avenue line, the first phase of which–a stretch of track that lies 10 stories below the Upper East Side–is scheduled to open this December, with 8.5 miles and 16 new stations on the way when the line is complete.

Artist’s impression of station platform

The company’s SoundLab has perfected ways to, in the words of Arup Global Acoustics principal Raj Patel, “listen to buildings before they’re built.” Arup’s acousticians have created digital models of the subway using recorded sounds and measurements from existing stations to study the best way to minimize the noise. Engineers have rigged up 50 loudspeakers and eight subwoofers to simulate the ear-assaulting commuter experience.

While they’ve perfected replicating the din, how do the engineers in the SoundLab propose to shield commuters from it? Ideas like wrapping stations in fabric or foam to muffle the sound won’t work since they’d attract filth in a New York minute. Any solutions that arise must be thoroughly washable and on-budget.

Arup’s best-laid plans start with the tracks. The MTA is springing for a “low-vibration track” that uses ties encased in concrete-covered rubber and neoprene pads and a continuously welded rail that gets rid of the clatter of wheels.

Metal-covered fiberglass ceiling already in use in Fulton Transit Center

“The big change is really in the finishes,” according to Joe Solway, the firm’s acoustic lead on the project. The tile and stone used in current stations bounce sound all around. The plan is to line the ceilings with absorbent rigid fiberglass or mineral wool—similar to the fluffy pink stuff used as home insulation–tucked behind a metal or enamel sheet, “like a Roach Motel for noise.”

Sound will be directed back toward the train instead of the platform by curved ceilings. And those speakers, whose very important purpose is to be clearly heard, will be placed at 15-foot intervals and directed toward riders for ideal resonance and volume, among other steps to improve fidelity.

Arup’s engineers have demonstrated that it’s possible to offer riders a crisp, clear announcement in a sonic environment that makes the words—however dreaded they may be—much easier to hear, which would definitely give New Yorkers one less thing to complain about.

[Via Wired]

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All images courtesy of Arup

sas, nyc sas, second avenue subway, second avenue subway 2014, SAS 2014, mta, nyc subway construction

New Yorkers have learned to take deadlines and budgets from the MTA with a grain of salt, and the Second Avenue Subway may be the worst offender since it was first proposed all the way back in the 1920s. But the past couple years have restored some hope; in April 2015, it was announced that Phase I of the project was 82 percent complete and on track for its December 2016 opening, and last summer the MTA even went so far as to say the entire line could open sooner than originally planned.

But yesterday the Post reported that there’s a good chance the Second Avenue Subway won’t be finished on time, blaming construction crews not showing up for work. This has put inspections behind schedule, and therefore “the agency has only completed 67 percent of the testing and needs to do another 1,100 checks by October.”

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Last summer, 6sqft shared an interactive map from transit data junkie Chris Whong that laid out all NYC land ares more than 500 meters from one of the city’s 470 subway stations. He’s now revised his Subway Deserts Map to better take into account walkability, using a 10-minute walk from a station as the buffer zone (h/t Gothamist). The “walkshed” is styled in the same hue as water, leaving only the map portions that are subway deserts. Not surprisingly, Manhattan is pretty well set, save for Alphabet City and the far east and west sides, and the majority of the Bronx is underserved, as is much of Queens, southeast Brooklyn, and the Williamsburg waterfront.

Whong works for the Department of City Planning, where he does data analysis and makes maps. For his Subway Deserts Map, which he made for fun in his free time, he utilized data from the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, OpenStreetMap, and OpenTripPlanner. He said the map gave him a new appreciation for living so close to a subway stop and hopes that it’ll prompt New Yorkers to visit some of these less accessible neighborhoods.

[Via Gothamist]

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We know that thing where they were dumping old subway cars into the ocean for fish to live in was pretty cool, but there are only so many the briny deep can handle, and as cars get upgraded, items from the various good old days of NYC transit increasingly become collectibles.

To that end, the MTA holds monthly online sales featuring retired and vintage subway cars (yes, you can apparently buy one of those), buses and their various parts and other ephemera, with items regularly added to the trove. All items are sold with a certificate of authenticity (don’t laugh, there’s actually a company that makes “vintage” subway signs). The current haul includes vintage subway and bus seats, roll signs and metal hanging straps (so you can feel like a commuter without leaving your living room).

According to the MTA, “along with its outgoing fleet of buses and subway cars, Transit has station signs and fixtures, vintage tokens, and other collectibles such as handholds, doors, deating and destination signs from retired subway cars including…historic “Redbirds,” “Brightliners” (R32), R38, R40 and R42 for sale when available.” You can also send them your email to get on the mailing list–you never know what may come up. Find out more about memorabilia and collectibles for sale here.

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Straphangers rejoice! As unveiled by Governor Cuomo at the NYC Transit Museum in Brooklyn today, the MTA has announced plans to build 1,025 new subway cars, and to modernize 31 of the city’s more than 400 stations. In addition to the majority of these cars taking on the globally-favored “open car end” format, they will also boast wider doors, Wi-fi, USB ports, improved lighting, cell service, full color digital information displays, security cameras for passenger safety, and interestingly, a new color palette—yes, Cuomo has also taken to branding the cars in New York’s state colors, blue and gold.

According to a press release from the Governor’s office, 31 subway stations will receive full renovations, while 170 will get “component and renewal work.” Big ticket improvements will include real-time updates for on-time performance at subway entrances, digital signage/way-finding, USB ports integrated into built-in furniture, countdown clocks, announcement screens, enhanced lighting, art installations, and easy to clean floors and finishes. The MTA also plans on swapping those unsightly prison-like iron bars for glass partitions. Additionally, renovations will consider the historical significance of each station.

As for the cars, 750 of the 1,025 promised will be gangway-style subways which, as 6sqft previously reported, could increase capacity by 8-10 percent and decrease wait times. Per a computer simulation of passenger flow conducted on behalf of the MTA, the design’s proposed wider doors (from 50 inches to 58 inches) have the potential to reduce train “dwell time” in a station by 32 percent. In addition to the abovementioned, cars will also feature digital ads, illuminated door opening alerts, and LED headlights.

Requests for proposals (RFP) for a design-build contract for the first three stations (Prospect Avenue Station, 53rd Street Station, and the Bay Ridge Avenue Station) will be issued this week. According to the governor’s office, “The MTA is using design-build contracts to expedite the process and ensure the shortest timeframe for project completion.” An RFP for the construction of the 1,025 new subway cars will also be released later this week, and like the stations, will give priority to proposals that focus on timing and cost-effectiveness. The first contract is anticipated to be awarded this fall.

The upgrades are part of the $27 billion capital plan that was finally approved by Albany in May after more than a year of squabbling between the state and the city.

In a statement, Governor Cuomo said:

New York deserves a world-class transportation network, worthy of its role as the heartbeat of the 21st century economy. The MTA design team developed a bold and visionary reimagining of the quintessential commuter experience, incorporating best practices from global transit systems, and focusing on our core mission to renew, enhance and expand. We are going to do more than renovate—we are bringing subway stations to a higher standard than ever before, and the new vision for subway cars will increase capacity and reduce overcrowding and delays.

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