The reason behind the incessant breakdown of the subway’s escalators and elevators? Nearly 80 percent of them do not receive the necessary maintenance by the MTA. After an 18-month audit, City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office found that in a random sample of 65 out of the city’s 407 total escalators and elevators, about 50 had not undergone any preventative maintenance service. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, only 20 percent of machines sampled by the comptroller’s office received the scheduled maintenance on time.

Chart via the City Comptroller’s Office

In addition to not meeting the scheduled preventative maintenance assignments, the report says the MTA also does not systematically track whether and how quickly all of the defects found were corrected. The New York City Transit (NYCT) Division of Elevators and Escalators, a part of the MTA system, is responsible for the maintenance, repair, and inspection of these facilities located in the subways. However, Stringer found that most work orders were never created, even after problems were found during preventive maintenance or inspections. In an analysis of 949 maintenance checklists, the audit found 331 checklists in which defects were noted. Yet, for 89 total cases, auditors found no evidence that work orders were ever created to fix the problem identified.

Seniors and people with disabilities struggle the most when it comes to broken escalators and elevators. In April, a disability rights group sued the MTA over the inaccessibility of its subway. The Disability Rights Advocates coalition, filed two lawsuits, one against the state, and one at the federal level, claiming the MTA has been negligent in elevator maintenance. While the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990, making transit systems in NYC accessible continues to be a major issue.

“When seniors and people with disabilities can’t get to where they need to go because of a broken elevator or escalator, government is failing them,” Stringer said in a press release. “There are New Yorkers who can’t make it to a job interview or doctor’s appointment. It’s unfair – and it’s gone on for far too long. It must get fixed.”

In the report, Stringer’s office made 13 recommendations to fix the problems. These include setting realistic targets for preventative maintenance assignments, reviewing service suspension memos, creating new procedures for recording work orders and finding a better way to track information by individual defects.

The MTA and the NYCT reject the audit’s findings and have yet to address its recommendations. However, the MTA said it does a have a detailed system for machine maintenance. A spokeswoman for the authority, Beth DeFalco, said the MTA fully complies with federal and state law accessibility obligations: “New York City Transit is spending $1 billion to increase the number of ADA-compliant subway stations and replace existing elevators and escalators as part of our current capital plan.”

[Via WSJ]

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In order to collect fares from various stations, the MTA created a special armored train that moved all the subway and bus fares collected to a secret room at 370 Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn. As Untapped Cities learned, the money trains, which ran from 1951 to 2006, had 12 collecting agents and one supervisor, all of whom were armed and wearing body armor. After the Metrocard arrived, the revenue collection system changed, and the final armored train rode in January 2006 on the same day the Money Room closed.

Six nights per week, multiple money trains would pick up fares from 25 to 40 stations on each run. The train had two cars, with one holding the collecting agents and the revenue in the second. The collections would then be delivered to the Department of Revenue’s Money Room, which was inside the 13-story building on Jay Street. To make the process discreet, the building was equipped with special security systems, a secret elevator on the second floor, and even special tunnels.

A Money Room employee uses a currency counter and sorter to process 30 bills per second

Prior to the Money Room, fares were collected from station booths and transported using a car. Tokens were introduced two years after 370 Jay Street opened but were later phased out completely by 2003.

As 6sqft recently reported, the former MTA headquarters at 370 Jay Street is being transformed by NYU into a$500 million expansion of its Downtown Brooklyn tech campus for the Tandon School of Engineering.

[Via Untapped Cities]

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All photos by Patrick Cashin / MTA New York City Transit

After a week full of delays and malfunctions, the MTA has announced a six-point plan to address the subway’s chronic service problems. The agency’s plan will increase testing of tracks and signals, place more emergency personnel and police officers in stations and add more cars into service at a faster rate. The first phase of the MTA’s plan focuses on the A, C and E lines from 125th Street to Fulton Street in Manhattan, and at the 149th Street-Grand Concourse and 3rd Avenue-138th Street in the Bronx. Bottlenecks frequently occur at these sites, which cause delays that spread throughout the entire system.

The Eighth Avenue line alone experiences 25 subway car breakdowns per month that last an average of 19 minutes each time, adding to track traffic. At least 50 trains every month are delayed on this line because of various incidents. Over the next six months, the MTA plans to center their efforts on Eighth Avenue, which will include doubling its use of ultrasonic technology to twice a month to check for broken sections. In response to delays caused by sick and distressed passengers, which the Eighth Avenue line alone averages 28 sick customers per month, the MTA plans to add more emergency medical technicians and police officers at stations. Additional officers will be placed at 125th Street, Columbus Circle, 14th Street, West Fourth Street and Fulton Street stations.

The agency’s interim Executive Director, Ronnie Hakim, said the constant delays are unacceptable. “We know riders are frustrated–we are too–which is why we are embracing this new plan,” she said.

The MTA also hopes to more increase efficiency in boarding and disembarking the subways, but exactly how to do that remains unclear. Some ideas include having station agents tell passengers where to stand on the platform for smoother access to the next train, or adding color-coding markings to show the best place to stand. Plus, in response to aging train cars, 70 new subway cars will be rolled out by the end of the year.

Part of the plan separates the roles of the CEO and the chairman roles. Tom Prendergast, the former head of the MTA, held both roles, but since he retired in January, Hakim has taken over as CEO and Fernando Ferrer has acted as the board’s chairman. Both positions remain temporary.

While the MTA has not released a timeline for the plan’s progress, many riders expect their commute to get worse before it gets better. This summer, portions of the M and N trains will close and the reconstruction at Penn Station will require multiple tracks to shut down. As 6sqft reported earlier this year, the subway suffered delays up to over 70,000 per month, up from about 28,000 a month in 2012 and with trains arriving behind schedule more than half the time.

RELATED: 

• Nearly 80 percent of subway escalators and elevators don’t receive necessary maintenance
• NYC will get 70 new subway cars before the end of the year
• MTA Board officially approves 15-month shutdown of L train

As the nation’s largest transit system, the New York City subway helps connect millions of people to its five far-reaching boroughs each day. While it has helped shaped the city’s indisputable wealth, density and culture, the cost of subway construction remains incredibly expensive, with the time of projects taking much longer than they should. According to a study, “Building Big for Less,” by the Regional Plan Association Lab (RPA), with the exception of a few minor projects, New York’s subway system peak performance was in 1937. Since the 1930s, there has been little increase in system capacity and today there are fewer miles of track and commuter rail than in 1937. RPA’s study focused on NYC and other world capitals in order to compare transit data on a large scale.

The data revealed that New York is falling behind and no longer leads in building new track miles. In total route miles constructed from 2006 to 2016, Denver, a city relatively new to public transportation, ranks first with most miles constructed. New York can be found near the bottom of the pack, below similarly dense cities like Paris and Los Angeles. When looking at route miles currently under construction, New York comes in last with just two miles. Singapore leads the way, followed by Paris.

According to RPA, our global peers are building new transit projects faster and at a cheaper rate. Madrid ranks first having built 71 miles for $3.5 billion. New York’s 13 miles of rail cost $20 billion. In one chart, the group compared what New York gets for its money compared to others. For example, the Second Avenue Subway, the most expensive subway extension ever at $807 million per track mile, only spans four miles. London’s Northern Line extension to Battersea cost $124 million per track mile for the same four miles.

[Via RPA Lab]

RELATED: 

•  MTA announces six-point plan to combat subway delays and improve service
• Amtrak may relocate to Grand Central as Penn Station undergoes repairs
• Nearly 80 percent of subway escalators and elevators don’t receive necessary maintenance

All charts courtesy of RPA Lab

Just a month after opening on the first of the year, the Second Avenue Subway had eased congestion on the Lexington line by 11 percent. Now, nearly five months in, that figure has more than doubled, with ridership on the 4/5/6 decreased by 26 percent and a whopping 40 percent during peak morning hours. Moreover, Second Avenue’s average weekday ridership is up from 140,000 to 176,000 passengers, an increase which has prompted the MTA to add two additional train trips during rush hour come this November.

The two new train trips will cost $600,000 a year. According to DNAinfo, they include a new southbound train on weekdays between 8:15 and 9:14am, bringing the total number of trains during this time from 10 to 11, and a new northbound train between 6:30 and 7pm, bringing the total number of trains during this time from three to four.

Even though these figures point to a great increase in ridership, the MTA has yet to reach its goal of 200,000 average weekday riders. However, this projection was estimated based on October figures, when the MTA traditionally sees the highest ridership.

At the MTA’s Monday meeting, Board member Andrew Albert said even more Q trains should be added to further decrease wait times on the Lexington Avenue line, which are down three percent. “We get this really terrific report this morning that ridership is burgeoning on the Second Avenue line and how it’s taking pressure off the Lex [lines], and all we get is one round trip added?” he said. In response, the MTA’s senior director of service planning Judith McLane said the new trips are preemptive and that the agency is sending N and R trains up to 96th Street to avoid overcrowding.

[Via DNAinfo]

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• In just a month, Second Avenue Subway eases congestion on the Lexington Avenue line by 11 percent
• Costly and inefficient construction is causing NYC’s subway system to lag (STUDY)
• MTA announces six-point plan to combat subway delays and improve service

The NYC subway map tidily lays out over 665 miles of track and 472 stations into a simple, easy-to-read design. While the map gives the impression that our fair city’s transit system is orderly and evenly spaced, as any true straphanger will tell you, that’s not the reality. Indeed, those colorful lines and nodes have been placed for maximum legibility, simply showing geographical approximations that often don’t even kind of match up with real life (as this man will tell you). Now, one redditor brings us an entrancing new animation that removes the MTA’s distortion, giving us a look at the real distance that exists between stations and lines.

As seen above, the distance between each stop and line is actually a lot closer than what’s depicted in the MTA’s version of the map. The best example of this can be seen in the Financial District where the official map shows a neighborhood with stops comfortably spaced out. In actuality, the stations are tightly clustered together. The same goes for stations on the Lower East Side which contract significantly when adjusted for distance.

[Via Reddit]

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Seeking innovative solutions to fix the mess that is the New York City transit system, Governor Cuomo on Tuesday launched a competition called the “MTA Genius Transit Challenge.” Just one of the governor’s recently proposed ideas to fix the subway, the international competition challenges participants to develop ideas for better signaling, new car designs, and WiFi throughout the system, including in tunnels. The winner of each category will receive $1 million and a possible contract deal with the state. In addition to the challenge, Cuomo announced he has created a Penn Station Task Force to devise alternative transportation solutions during Amtrak’s track work at the station this summer.

Courtesy of the governor’s office

Participants of the challenge must figure out how to accommodate the growing number of straphangers, with subway ridership reaching nearly six million people per day, according to the governor’s office. The categories of the competition include improving and modernizing the signal system, which was designed over 100 years ago, to increase the number of trains during peak times. Participants also must develop ways to bring better subway cars to the system quicker. Since it takes three years to build a new car currently, finding ways to build more subways faster or refurbish existing cars more effectively will be a big part of the competition. Finally, the competition seeks a way to connect the entire system with WiFi, even throughout tunnels, whose narrow structure makes it difficult to do so.

“With the launch of this MTA Genius Transit Challenge, we will draw some of the greatest minds from across the globe to the Empire State to help inspire forward-thinking, innovative ideas that will usher in a new era of mass transit for New York that ensures the safety and efficiency of travelers today and tomorrow,” Cuomo said.

A panel made up of engineers and transit experts, as well as representatives from the city and the surrounding region, will judge the competition and award the $3 million to the winners. The state hopes the competition will “harness the innovative capacity of outside experts who will team together to combine new perspectives, skills and technical understanding wholly separate from the work presently underway.”

Along with this competition, the governor released a series of ideas to fix Penn Station ahead of Amtrak’s renovations this July and August, some of which he laid out earlier this week in a letter to President Trump. These include having New York State or the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey take over operations at Penn Station, or preferably, Amtrak could turn over the station to a private operator.

The governor’s Penn Station Task Force is made up of transportation experts and stakeholders who are responsible for developing alternative transportation methods during Amtrak’s service cuts this summer. Notably, two of the task force’s members, Richard LeFrak of LeFrak and Steve Roth of Vornado Realty Trust, were hired by President Trump to oversee the administration’s infrastructure council earlier this year.

After remaining quiet over the MTA’s failures, Cuomo, who oversees the agency, received criticism from transit advocates and public officials like Mayor de Blasio, who said the governor should “just own up to” being in charge of the subway system. However, after launching a series of actions to fix the system, advocates cheered Cuomo’s proposals.

John Raskin, the executive director of the Riders Alliance, told the New York Times, “Governor Cuomo is taking a vital step, which is to declare that it’s squarely his responsibility to fix the subway. The next question is: What is the actual plan, and where will the governor find the money to pay for it?”

Find more information about the competition and how to participate, here.

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While just a few days ago Governor Cuomo announced his “aggressive” action plan to combat the chronic problems of the city’s subway service, the MTA’s new version of its capital plan released Wednesday shows barely any increase in spending for system improvements. As the New York Times reported, the agency increased its current five-year capital plan from $29.5 billion to $32.5 billion, adding $1.6 billion in debt. However, instead of allocating funds for subway service improvements, spending instead will go towards projects seen as priorities for Cuomo, like electronic tolling at bridges and the next phase of the Second Avenue Subway.

The MTA’s new version of its plan keeps spending for subways the same, with no significant increase for the installation of a modern subway signal system. Rather than investing in subway improvements that could help trains run more frequently and effectively, the plan provides $1.5 billion for a new track on the Long Island Rail Road, $400 million for electronic tolling and $700 million in additional funding for the Second Avenue subway’s second phase.

Robert Foran, the MTA’s chief financial officer, said this revised plan would increase the agency’s debt by about $5 billion, bringing it to nearly $42.5 billion in total. Despite this steep increase, the authority will not raise fares or tolls above the scheduled increase every two years. “This is not putting any additional pressure on fares and tolls,” Foran said.

The board’s capital plan may be amended again, based on the results of the “MTA Transit Genius Challenge,” a competition launched by the governor to find innovative solutions to the subway’s many problems. As 6sqft recently reported, the international competition challenges participants to develop ideas for better signaling, new car designs, and WiFi throughout the system, including in tunnels. The winner of each category will receive $1 million and a possible contract deal with the state

Cuomo, who is in charge of the MTA, received criticism from advocates and public officials for not taking enough responsibility for the failing transit system. As amNY learned, after the MTA first introduced its proposed 2015-2019 capital plan, Cuomo called the $32 billion budget “bloated.” Then following a year of negotiations between Cuomo and stakeholders, they reduced spending to $29.5 billion. After the governor announced various new plans, the capital plan currently is larger than first proposed.

Board member and executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Veronica Vanterpool, said the MTA should not assume any more debt. “I find it very curious that it’s not a ‘bloated’ plan anymore now with a different set of priorities,” she said. “My biggest concern is that there should be more state funding so that the MTA doesn’t have to take out that debt. If there’s a new set of priorities, let’s make sure there’s funding to match that new set of priorities — and there isn’t.”

[Via NY Times]

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• Governor Cuomo and the MTA announce a competition to fix the NYC subway system
• Governor Cuomo asks Trump for emergency assistance during Penn Station repairs
• Amtrak may relocate to Grand Central as Penn Station undergoes repairs

In response to the looming 15th-month L train shutdown, which will affect its nearly 225,000 daily riders beginning April 2019, real estate developers have started looking at Williamsburg’s hip and slightly cheaper neighbors, Greenpoint and South Williamsburg. Both areas sit nearby the G, J, M and Z trains, and in the past have offered a variety of housing options at cheaper prices. According to the New York Times, as developers begin their plunge into Greenpoint, sites along these train lines have become pricier and more difficult to lock down.

Rendering of the Gibraltar at 160 West Street in Greenpoint, via Joe Eisner

Architecture and development firm Mortar has secured three development sites along the G train; they plan to build 10- to 20-unit projects with one on Frost Street in Northern Williamsburg and two in Greenpoint, on Diamond and another on Eagle Street. Mortar’s founder Anthony Morena told the Times: “There were already a lot of natural drivers pushing people into Greenpoint, but the L train shutdown has meant more people paying attention to it. We’ve had buyers who were looking strictly at Williamsburg who have started looking at other options.”

Units at a new condo called the Gibraltar at 160 West Street in Greenpoint are going for more than $1,500 per square foot, compared to older units that ask for about $1,000 per square foot. And while developers are quickly scoping out areas along the G, J, M, and Z trains before the L train closes for 15 months, Jonathan Miller of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel said the year-and-a-half shutdown won’t permanently change the structure of these northern Brooklyn neighborhoods, but it moves up the timetable for new developments to take off.

While the G train offers less than ideal service and doesn’t run to Manhattan, it has become more attractive for many Brooklynites to live along as alternative transportation services, like Citi Bike and Uber, continue to grow in popularity. The impending L train shutdown has also increased investor demand for properties along the J, M, Z trains, which serve Williamsburg, Bushwick and Manhattan nabes. However, once the L train’s renovations are complete, it’s likely to reign once again as the best and most reliable subway. In 2016, the L train tied for first for best performing train along with the 1 and 7 trains.

[Via NYT]

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There’s plenty of blame to go around when it comes to the chronic failures of the NYC subway system, from the lack of funds to the lack of leadership. But now the latest piece of the MTA to get finger wag is not a person or a line in the budget, but the system’s C line. As the Times reports, C trains, the oldest and most break down-prone cars in the system, can many times be traced back to as the cause of system-wide failures. Breaking down roughly every 33,527 miles—as opposed to 400,000 miles for the average car, or 700,000 miles for new cars—when C line cars see delays, pangs can be felt throughout the entire network, making everyone’s commute increasingly miserable.

As 6sqft previously shared, it’s been an ongoing struggle to get the dated Brightliners out and newer models in. Cash was earmarked for replacement of 300 cars back in 2012, but New Yorkers will only begin to see a handful of them replaced this year. Moreover, the cars will be rolled out along not just the C line but spread across the J and Z as well. The Times is also quick to point out that the release of all 300 is still at least another year out—pending track testing—and the whole effort is already tens of millions of dollars over budget on top of being years late. And still, assuming all of the cars are eventually swapped, the old Brightliners could be brought back in 2019 to increase capacity as tens of thousands L line commuters seek alternative routes between Brooklyn and Manhattan during the 15-month L train shutdown.

“The tale of the Brightliners, and how difficult it has been to replace them, perfectly exemplifies the challenges, missed opportunities and lack of resolve—both political and financial—that have caused the system to arrive at the verge of collapse,” writes the Times.

Regional Plan Association V.P. Richard Barone shared some criticisms of his own with the paper concerning the MTA’s current M.O., noting that other cities have been far more effective in maintaining older cars. “Unlike other systems, the MTA does not give its cars a full midlife capital rehabilitation—it makes repairs to the critical—but does not gut and upgrade the interiors or exteriors and replace all mechanical systems,” he said. “This approach essentially rebuilds the cars, aside from structural age, making them almost new again.”

Phil Eng, the newly named chief operating officer for the MTA, seems to share the same sentiments, agreeing the agency needs to change its ways. He told the Times, “It is not just the infusion of money but how we use that money.” He added, “We need to do more than just repair things and be reactive.”

Historically slow to move, the MTA has of late been more keen to the issues. In May, Governor Cuomo announced his “aggressive” action plan to combat system failures, which included the launch of a “MTA Genius Transit Challenge” asking for ideas to fix the subway with a $1 million reward, as well as an uptick in the capital budget to $32 billion from $29.5 billion—although most cash directed to the subway has been funneled over to the second phase of the Second Avenue Subway.

[Via NYT]

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• NYC will get 70 new subway cars before the end of the year
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To mitigate the nightmare commuters will face during the 15-month L-train shutdown, the MTA and the Department of Transportation presented four possible alternatives that would make a portion of 14th Street a car-free busway. Streetsblog NYC reported that during a Manhattan Community Board 6 meeting on Monday, the agencies laid out the following options: a standard Select Bus Service (SBS) along 14th Street, enhanced SBS that includes turn and curb restrictions, a car-free busway in the middle lanes along 14th and a river-to-river car-free busway. Agency officials predict between 75 and 85 percent of the daily 275,000 daily L riders will use other subway lines, with bus service possibly absorbing between 5-15 percent of displaced trips.

A concept from BRT Planning International that includes both an exclusive busway and bike lanes

The MTA has already arranged 200 buses to serve the additional riders while the L train is out of service. These inter-borough shuttle buses would follow the path of the L train, starting at the Grand Street stop, crossing the Williamsburg Bridge and then moving up First Avenue to 14th Street, and back down Second Avenue. The other two routes would connect to the Broadway-Lafayette station. If the MTA designates street space for buses in Manhattan and Brooklyn, this could solve traffic issues typical city buses face.

However, if just five percent of displaced riders use bus service, the subways would become overcrowded and difficult to access. To prevent this from happening, the agency said “attractive” bus service will hopefully be implemented.

Streetsblog pointed out that the presentation did not touch on crosstown bikeways on 14th Street as a solution, even though the agencies anticipate that roughly 5-7 percent of L train riders will bike, take taxis or drive personal cars instead. Officials did not present a plan for creating safe bike lanes on 14th Street, despite saying more people will be riding their bikes on the street.

Rendering of car-free 14th Street courtesy of 14 ST.OPS via Transportation Alternatives

As 6sqft previously covered, the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives held a contest to find pedestrian-centered proposals for main street corridors along 14th Street. The winning proposal, 14TH ST.OPS, visualized a car-free 14th Street with six-stop shuttle buses in their own lanes, plus protected bus lanes.

[Via Streetsblog NYC]

RELATED:

• Contest winners suggest a car-free 14th Street with shuttles and bike lanes during L train shutdown
• MTA Board officially approves 15-month shutdown of L train
• MTA Announces Details on L Train Shutdown to Begin in 2019

Despite months of lobbying efforts by transit advocates and public officials, Mayor de Blasio declined to fund a $50 million program for half-price MetroCards for low-income riders. The mayor has previously said the city could not afford the pilot program, and also shifted the responsibility for funding the program to the state, since Governor Cuomo oversees the MTA. As the Gothamist reported, a study released by the Community Service Society of New York and the Riders Alliance, the NYPD arrested 5,137 New Yorkers for fare evasion between January and mid-March of this year, 90 percent of whom were black or Latino.

Chart courtesy of the Community Service Society of New York and the Riders Alliance

Advocates say providing low-income riders with cheaper MetroCards would reduce the number of arrests the NYPD makes for jumping subway turnstiles. Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez, the chair of the City Council Transportation Committee, pledged to continue fighting for these reduced subway fares.“For those that choose to jump the turnstile because they can’t afford a ride, they put themselves at risk of entering the criminal justice system, or, if undocumented, at risk of deportation,” Rodriguez said.

The “Transit Affordability Crisis” study (pdf) by the Community Service Society of New York and the Riders Alliance also found that more than a quarter of low-income New Yorkers were unable to afford transit fare at least once in 2015. Less fortunate New Yorkers depend on the transit system the most, according to the advocacy group, with 58 percent relying on subways and buses and just 15 percent relying on personal vehicles.

Council Member Rory Lancman from Queens announced legislation this week that would require the NYPD to regularly report data regarding fare evasion arrests and summonses, breaking down the numbers by race and by the subway station. He hopes the mayor will move low-level nonviolent offenses, like turnstile jumping, from criminal code to civil code. Lancman told Gothamist: “I think it will paint a very unflattering picture. Overwhelmingly fare evasion is a crime of poverty. People don’t risk arrest for not paying a couple dollars [for] fare, unless that couple dollars really means a lot to them.”

De Blasio had been adamant about the city not funding the council’s proposed program, and Freddi Goldstein, a spokeswoman for de Blasio, said in April: “This pilot program, like the original proposal, is a noble one, but the mayor has been very clear: the MTA is the responsibility of the state and they should consider funding the program.”

The MTA rolled out a pilot for a new initiative in February called the “Freedom Ticket,” which would connect bus, subway and Long Island Rail Road service under one ticket, making it more affordable for residents traveling from the outer boroughs. The agency also offers free fare to students, as well as the Access-A-Ride program, which provides transportation for people with disabilities.

[Via Gothamist]

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• City Council proposes half-priced MetroCards for low-income New Yorkers
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Republican mayoral candidate, Paul Massey, unveiled a transit infrastructure plan Monday, that included an idea to create a G train loop that would travel to Manhattan to help commuters during the 15 month-L train shutdown next year. Although little details have been revealed, his plan would presumably travel through Midtown on the F train route, loop back into Queens on routes used by the M and R train and then reconnect with the G at the Court Square stop in Long Island City. While a notable idea, according to Crain’s the MTA looked over Massey’s plan and said its implementation would be impossible.

The G currently runs through popular, and increasingly hipster, neighborhoods of Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Bed-Stuy, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, before hitting its final stop in Long Island City. According to the MTA, the G cannot run into Manhattan with the M and F trains already running locally along that corridor. Plus, M and R trains run local in Queens, making there no room for the G train. The G train’s last stop is at Court Square, where it turns around and goes back to Brooklyn.

Another problem Massey may face with his proposed plan is the pride of Brooklyn and Queens G straphangers since it’s the only line that doesn’t go into Manhattan. While once a line to scoff at, since it is the only line not to travel to Manhattan and for its shorter-than-the-platform trains, the G train has become a sense of pride for a lot of Brooklyn and Queens residents. The candidate has said that bringing the G to Manhattan would carry riders to more “primary destinations,” but a lot of New Yorkers in these outer boroughs find plenty of hot spots nearby.

Proposed G train to Manhattan loop via Lynch’s blog vanshnookenraggen

This is not the first time someone has proposed a Manhattan route for the G train. As 6sqft covered, a cartographer Andrew Lynch proposed the G should take its current Brooklyn route then head into Manhattan using the N, R tunnel. Then when it reached Manhattan, it would use the same Centre Street racks as the J and Z trains. To return to Brooklyn, Lynch thinks a new East River tunnel under the Williamsburg Bridge would be needed to be built. A Midtown loop would connect Manhattan with the end of the G line at Court Square, through the E and M train tunnels. But as most of us know, any infrastructure projects in the city take years to complete, like the Second Ave Subway, which took nearly 100 years to finish.

Massey will run in the Republican primary in September, facing off against Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis from Staten Island. The winner of the primary will move on to run against Mayor de Blasio this November. Massey’s other MTA proposals include launching a system-wide MTA maintenance campaign to upgrade subway signals, safety improvements and security, overhauling city traffic management policies to ease congestion, providing 50 percent discounted fares during off-peak hours and vaguely, said he would invest dramatically in roads and mass transit.

[Via Crain’s]

RELATED:

• Here’s What the G Train Could Look Like if It Went Into Manhattan
• MTA finally details its plan to deal with Penn Station repairs
• The MTA considers a ‘car-free busway’ as L-train alternative

This week, Governor Cuomo called on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to provide Long Island Rail Road riders a discounted fare for “enduring the inconvenience of a disrupted commute.” In response, the MTA said on Tuesday that the LIRR will offer fare discounts to commuters during Penn Station’s major repairs set to begin this July. The discount will average roughly 25 percent for those traveling to Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn and Hunters Point Avenue in Queens. Plus, according to Crain’s, commuters will receive free morning rush hour subway transfers from those two stations. Starting this week, discounted monthly tickets can be purchased at station vending machines.

Six weeks of infrastructure repairs at Penn Station begins July 10 and will last until September 1, as Amtrak plans on closing 21 of its tracks for renovations. The MTA said they will move three nighttime trains to rush hour and add 36 cars, while offering alternative transportation options like bus and ferry service. For riders with monthly commuter passes only, ferries from Glen Cove and Hunters Point will be available. Also, 200 coach buses will be added to pick up riders from eight different locations along the Long Island Expressway on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. The shutdown will cancel or divert 15-weekday trains between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., affecting nearly 9,600 LIRR morning commuters.

Like LIRR commuters, those using NJ Transit on the Morris and Essex Midtown Direct line will get a discount between roughly 56 to 63 percent during the six-week-long repairs. However, the fares of subway riders will not be discounted, despite riders facing daily delays and disruptions. Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams urged Cuomo to offer subway riders a similar discount. In a statement, Adams said, “We cannot have two different ways of treating commuters amid this ongoing transit crisis.”

Last month, the MTA unveiled a six-point plan to reduce poor service and train delays and the governor began a “genius” competition to find innovative ways to upgrade the signal system more quickly. On Tuesday, the MTA said a piece of signal equipment from the 1930s, known as an interlocking, had failed at 34th Street, which caused major delays. Despite the subway reaching a near crisis, the MTA has not had a permanent boss since January. As the New York Times reported, it’s unclear whether or not Cuomo will appoint a new chairman and chief executive to head the authority before Albany’s legislative session ends on Wednesday.

[Via Crain’s]

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After experiencing a big dose of the NYC “train pain” that seems to be reaching epidemic proprtions lately, subway passenger Michael Sciaraffo has launched a campaign against the MTA for what he feels are lousy safety standards. After being “trapped on a sweltering F train” that got stuck in a tunnel during a recent “colossal breakdown,” Sciaraffo was mad enough to demand that straphangers be provided with a better protocol for escaping to safety in the event of a mass emergency. The city’s already-strained subway system moved 5.6 million passengers a week 2016, leading to a reported 70,000 delays per month over the last five years according to NBC New York.

Summer subway repairs and their subsequent delays have caused similar–if not as severe–painful experiences throughout the system. After sweating for 45 minutes on an un-air-conditioned F train car, Sciaraffo feels he–and fellow riders–are in “deathly danger” due to the lack of clear instructions for escape in the event of being stuck in an overheated subway car, recounting how “people started to disrobe completely. Like they were at the beach.” The same concern was shared by at least one passenger who scrambled from a similarly stuck F train earlier this month, and today’s news of a Manhattan train derailment that, according to the New York Times, had panicked passengers “milling about on the tracks” to escape conditions more serious than heat compounds concerns of antiquated cars and equipment.

Sciaraffo has mounted a one-man campaign to get the governor, state lawmakers, city council members, federal officials, MTA officials and congressional representatives to bring about an overhaul of the system, lamenting that “as it stands right now, if you ask a subway rider what they should do in an emergency on a train, you will get a blank stare.” He believes subway customers should “be exposed to an ad campaign with pamphlets, ads and diagrams on train cars, platforms and stations,” pointing out that the Washington, D.C. metro system takes the step of instructing riders how to escape a train in case of an emergency.

The MTA’s response is that the idea of having passengers bolt from cars stuck in underground passageways is far worse. An MTA spokeswoman responded to Sciaraffo’s complaint by saying that “Customers should never leave a train on their own. It’s dangerous and potentially deadly and it requires us to shut down entire lines and delay thousands of other customers because of the safety hazard it presents.”

Which makes sense, as the idea of roaming unsupervised through subway tunnels filled with electrical wires and oncoming trains makes being stuck in a sweltering F train with naked passengers, raccoons and mice seem like a walk in the park.

But if your fight-or-flight response ever threatens to veer into the latter on an unfortunate summer commute, it might be worth it to review what the MTA offers in the way of guidance: “In the event of an emergency that requires evacuating a train, MTA New York City Transit needs you to follow some simple rules to facilitate getting you to a safe place. Remeber that your best protection is to remain calm, think clearly, and follow the instructions of the train crew.”

Though the information on exactly where the crew will take you isn’t posted on the brightly-colored instruction stickers that appear on trains–possibly for good reason–further reading tells us that there are, in fact, several routes to safety in the event an evacuation is required:

Train to Benchwall: The train crew and other emergency personnel will assist you to the area of the tracks adjacent to the train known as the Benchwall and lead you to an Emergency Exit or station platform (see figure 1).

Transfer to a train ahead or behind: Train crews and other emergency personnel will assist you in transferring from the train you were riding to another train that has pulled up ahead or behind (see figure 2).

Transfer to a train along side: Train crews and other emergency personnel will assist you from the train you were riding to another train that has pulled up along side. A device will be placed to enable you to move directly into the other train (see figure 3).

Evacuating to the trackbed: Once power is removed, train crews and other emergency personnel will assist you in evacuating to the trackbed and leading you safely to an Emergency Exit or station platform (see figure 4).

Sciaraffo feels this isn’t a good enough plan. “To deprive passengers of the ability to rescue themselves in an emergency situation is inhumane and frankly, if not already illegal, then it should be,” he said. “There are supposed to be emergency exits.”

MTA Acting Executive Director Ronnie Hakim has ordered a thorough review of recent subway delays; the MTA has promised to improve communication with customers, in addition to the rollout of a $20 million plan to put a rapid response team on the job of fixing signals and switches when they break.

[Via NBC New York]

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The city’s subways of today have machines that can test air samples and look for potentially dangerous gas build-up or biological and chemical agents. However, before such technology was invented, the city hired James “Smelly” Kelly to walk the tracks using just his nose and a few homemade inventions, to find and report any leaks or hazardous smells. As Atlas Obscura discovered, Kelly and his team would walk underground for allegedly ten miles of track each day, and by the end of his career, it is said Kelly walked over 100,000 miles of track.

James “Smelly” Kelly, courtesy of Harper Collins

A book written by Robert Daley in 1959, titled The World Beneath the City, detailed Kelly’s life and his superhuman nose in an entire chapter. According to Daley, Kelly was born in Ireland in 1898 and grew up helping his uncle find water. After experience using a submarine hydrophone in the British Navy, Kelly came to New York in 1926 and became a maintenance engineer for the Transit Authority. It took no time for him to develop a reputation for his ability to find leaks underground before anyone else.

After being promoted to the Foreman in the Structures Division, Kelly started training a small team of assistants that worked under him. In a 1941 profile of Kelly in the New Yorker, the article titled “Leaky Kelly,” said Kelly and his team would walk the tracks each day looking for damp spots and other signs of leakage, using his handmade tools. One contraption, the “Aquaphone,” was a typical telephone receiver with a copper wire attached. Kelly would place the end of the wire to fire hydrants, listening for a hissing sound that would signal a nearby leak. In addition to this mechanism, Kelly would bring along a doctor’s stethoscope and a map of Manhattan from 1763, which indicated pre-existing sources of water.

In the early 1940s, sometimes eels and fish were found clogging up pipes, drawn into the water system from the reservoirs. Legend has it that Kelly discovered a school of 40 killifish in a subway bathroom on 145th Street and a two-and-a-half foot eel from a sink pipe at 42nd Street. The New Yorker called it, “a spanking ten-inch trout, which would have been a noteworthy fish, even if it hadn’t been found splashing gaily in a two-foot water main in a Grand Concourse lavatory.”

The hippodrome was located on Sixth Avenue between West 43rd and West 44th Streets

One of the most notorious Smelly Kelly stories occurred after he was called to the 42nd Street station to figure out the cause of a horrible odor. According to Kelly, the smell was so bad it almost knocked him over. The disgusting stench? Elephant feces. The station had been built beneath the location of the old New York Hippodrome, a spot that featured circus animals. Layers of elephant excrement had ended up being buried at the site, and after a broken water main rehydrated the fossilized manure, it leaked into the subway. In his book, Daley writes, “If the New York Subway System has never had a significant explosion or cave-in, part of the reason is Smelly.”

[Via Atlas Obscura]

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While pols and officials twiddle their thumbs and shift blame for the subway system’s current state of chaos, the Regional Planning Association (RPA) and Rockefeller Foundation are actively looking for long-term solutions to help ease the city’s transportation woes. As first shared by DNA Info, earlier this year the two organizations put out a design competition asking participants to develop proposals that could transform various areas of the New York metropolitan region. Four ideas were awarded $45,000 by the RPA and Rockefeller, one of which included a transportation alternative that would exclusively serve the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn.

The proposal, developed by New York-based firm Only If and Netherlands-based firm One Architecture, centers on using a light rail to carry commuters between the outer boroughs. The new network would support the existing subway system by alleviating some of the overcrowding experienced on Manhattan-bound trains which, as the Times highlights today, is the main reason delays have become so commonplace.

The light rail would use existing infrastructure, running along a 25-mile long freight-train track that would connect to four other commuter lines. The idea is in many ways similar to the Triboro Rx, a plan proposed by the RPA in the 1990s and revisited in 2015.

In addition to providing 17 stops that would extend between the Brooklyn Waterfront, Central Queens, South Bronx, and the North Bronx, the new transit system would also incorporate green spaces and parks to provide both community areas and improved water management.

The RPA and Rockefeller Foundation will showcase all four winning designs at Fort Tilden at the beginning of August through September.

[Via DNA Info]

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It seems every day brings New Yorkers new subway drama, train delays and disappointment. While this week’s A-train derailment, which injured dozens of people, is being blamed on human error, not a track defect, the system is still over 100-years old. And despite its signals and tracks in need of a definite upgrade, the biggest cause of subway delays is overcrowding. According to the New York Times, overcrowding now accounts for more than one-third of the nearly 75,000 subway delays across the system each month.

Chart of subway delays, via NY Times and MTA

Fifteen years ago, the problem of overcrowding was practically nonexistent. In the 1990s, about four million people rode the subway daily. Now, nearly six million riders use it each day, its highest level since the 1940s. The subway has not adapted to the dramatic increase in ridership, now serving millions more in the same sized system. Beginning in 2011, the growth in ridership increased and then in 2013, it reached a tipping point, no longer being able to easily take in all of the extra riders. Train reliability may be a thing of the past, with only a few lines having on-time rates above 70 percent.

Subway officials say overcrowding causes an increase in “dwell time”–the period of time the train spends in the station loading and unloading passengers. As the crowd on the platform grows, it gets harder for people to get on and off the train. This delay can then be felt down the line of trains behind it. The system is designed for trains to spend only 30 seconds at each station before departing. However, in busy stations like Grand Central, the wait times constantly exceed that limit.

With more people moving to New York City and more tourists visiting than decades prior, the city really needs to expand the subway system by running trains more frequently and creating more lines. According to the NY Post, thirteen million tourists visited the city in 1990. In 2016, that number grew to 60 million.

[Via NY Times]

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During a press conference Thursday, Governor Cuomo declared a state of emergency for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and announced that he would sign an executive order to expedite the process of fixing the system. The governor’s announcement comes just two days after a subway train derailed at 125th Street, injuring over 30 people. His plan includes committing an additional $1 billion in the MTA’s capital plan and reviewing the system’s decades-old equipment.

Speaking at the MTA Genius Transit Challenge Conference, Cuomo described the subway system as “decaying rapidly.” Cuomo recently hired Joseph Lhota as the chairman of the authority which oversees the subway, a position that hasn’t been filled since his predecessor left in January.  Lhota previously held the same role from 2011-2012. The governor said Lhota will provide a reorganization plan for the agency within a month to fix the “long-standing bureaucracy that has evolved over time” at the MTA. The governor also wants a review of the capital plan, the cars and the physical equipment, which he wants to be completed within 60 days.

Cuomo hopes to accelerate the MTA procurement process, saying: “We want to do business, we need to do business, and we will do it quickly.” According to the governor, New York State will commit an additional $1 billion to the capital plan so the MTA has necessary resources. He said that subway cars are made to be on the tracks for 40 years, but that more than 700 cars have been used for longer. Some of the oldest subway cars now have been in use for over 50 years.

As 6sqft recently covered, the main cause of the subway dilemma’s is overcrowding. As more and more people move to New York, the outdated subway system cannot handle the dramatic increase in ridership. Overcrowding now accounts for more than one-third of the nearly 75,000 subway delays across the system each month. To really address the subway’s problems, in addition to upgrading its decades-old infrastructure, the system needs to expand its capacity to stop train delays and disruptions.

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As a solution to Manhattan’s rapid population growth and street congestion in the late 1800s, railroad companies decided to better serve their passengers by elevating the trains above ground. Originally, four elevated lines ran the length of Manhattan, but after complaints about the trains blocking light and emitting extremely loud noise, they suffered from a decrease in ridership. The elevated trains that ran along Second, Sixth and Ninth Avenues were all demolished between 1939 and 1942. The one line that stood its ground for a bit longer was the Third Avenue El, which was constructed between 1875 and 1878 and ran from South Ferry to Chatham Square before closing for good in 1955.

The El train before service was closed in 1955; Daybreak Express (1953) by Bryan Bosworth

The Third Avenue El began operating in August 1878, providing steam-powered service from South Ferry to the Grand Central Depot. The line later extended to 133rd Street in the Bronx. Demolition of the Third Ave El began in 1950 and all stations in Manhattan were closed by 1955. The Bronx section of the line remained open until 1973.

These videos from the 1950s showcase the Third Ave El’s final days of operation, the last elevated line to operate in Manhattan. After building mostly subterranean subways, that weren’t visible eyesores, many felt the elevated lines were obsolete.

Photo of the El running past Cooper Union courtesy of Sid Kaplan

As 6sqft previously discovered, Bronx-native Sid Kaplan used a camera to capture the dismantling of the Third Avenue El line in 1955 when he was only 17-years-old. After over sixty years, those photographs were put on display in the New York Transit Museum. Kaplan told the Times he had no intention behind the photos “except that I knew that if I didn’t take pictures of it, it’s going to be gone and I’m not going to get another chance.”

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