Eight weeks of infrastructure repairs at Penn Station officially began Monday, affecting commuters using the Long Island Rail Road, Amtrak and New Jersey Transit. Amtrak will close some of the station’s 21 tracks for renovations, which will force the MTA to cancel or divert 15-weekday trains between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. Overall, there will be a 20 percent reduction in the number of trains to Manhattan from NJ and Long Island. To minimize the impact on riders, the MTA has offered discounted fares and transit alternatives like ferry and bus service (h/t NY Times).

Over two dozen LIRR train routes have been canceled affecting thousands of commuters. The railroad will provide discounted fares, averaging roughly 25 percent, for riders using Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn and Hunters Point Avenue and Jamaica stations in Queens. Commuters will also receive free morning rush hour subway transfers from both stations, which can be purchased at the vending machines. The MTA plans on adding cars to every train and adding more trains during off-peak hours. Find the schedule here.

If traveling on NJ Transit’s Morris and Essex line, expect trains to be diverted from Penn Station to Hoboken Terminal. Commuters on this line will receive a 50 percent discount off fares to and from Hoboken, with their tickets honored on PATH trains and ferries. Trains that usually go to Hoboken in the morning will terminate in Newark.

Changes to Amtrak will affect Northeast Regional and Empire routes, but not Acela Express trains. As 6sqft recently covered, six Empire trains will be temporarily rerouted to Grand Central Terminal instead of Penn Station during the renovations. Amtrak also plans on terminating three trains traveling between New York and Washington, D.C. at Newark each day. Four trains running between New York and Harrisburg will start and end their routes in either Philadelphia or Newark.

Chart courtesy of the Comptroller’s office

The subway system, which Governor Cuomo declared as a state of emergency last week, will also be affected by Penn Station repairs. In a new survey released by Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office, subway delays caused 74 percent of commuters to be late to work, 65 percent said they were late to picking up or dropping off their children and 29 percent reported being late for a doctor’s appointment in the last three months alone. The survey also revealed that late trains are affecting those from lower-income communities more than those from higher-income neighborhoods.

In a statement, Stringer said: “We have a signal system that is 70 years old, cars that are some of the oldest in the world, and overcrowding that make New Yorkers feel jam-packed like sardines. A failure to invest decades ago led us to where we are today. Let there be no doubt that we need an all-hands-on-deck approach now. New York City’s ability to stay on top in this century – and the next – hinges on the quality of our transportation system.”

[Via NY Times]

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• MTA finally details its plan to deal with Penn Station repairs
• Grand Central will temporarily restore intercity rail service for the first time in 26 years
• Cuomo declares a ‘state of emergency’ for the NYC subway, gives MTA $1B for repairs

6sqft’s ongoing series The Urban Lens invites photographers to share work exploring a theme or a place within New York City. In this installment, we share a set of vintage photos documenting the NYC subway in 1981. Are you a photographer who’d like to see your work featured on The Urban Lens? Get in touch with us at tips@6sqft.com.

Grim, gritty, grimy–these are just a few of the adjectives one could use to describe New York City in the 1980s. Homicide rates were at near-record highs, the crack epidemic had exploded, the police force had dwindled after the recession, and government mismanagement left the city on the brink of bankruptcy. At the time, a 22-year-old photographer from Florida named Christopher Morris was interning at the photo agency Black Star. According to TIME, he saw the graffiti-covered subway, dark, dank, and dangerous, as a battleground that “proved an opportunity to work on something of a domestic front line.” Now an award-winning photojournalist, Morris recently rediscovered this set of shots that he took over six months in 1981, during which time he devoted himself to this unique, seedy underworld.

© Christopher Morris

© Christopher Morris

© Christopher Morris

© Christopher Morris

© Christopher Morris

© Christopher Morris

© Christopher Morris

© Christopher Morris

 
© Christopher Morris

© Christopher Morris

© Christopher Morris

© Christopher Morris

© Christopher Morris

Instagram: @christopher_vii
Website: christophermorrisphotography.com

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All photos © Christopher Morris

After an upper Manhattan track fire this week reminded them that trash catches fire, the Metropolitan Transit Authority is considering limiting the all-too-familiar practice of stuffing one’s face with hot, messy food while riding the subway. The New York Times reports that MTA chairman Joseph J. Lhota said Tuesday that he’d like to curb inappropriate eating as a way to eliminate fires caused by the ensuing litter.

Lhota recounted an experience he’d had where a fellow straphanger attempted to scarf down a tray of Chinese food on the 2: “Inevitably, the rice fell,” he said. “It was all over the place. I want to avoid things like that.” The MTA has noted that cities like Washington, D.C. have deep-sixed the ricefall threat by completely banning metro meals due to “the labor and cost associated with maintaining the cleanliness of the transportation system as well as for safety reasons.” NYC’s current rules allow it though they prohibit–but don’t really enforce–a rule banning open-container liquids.

Though the number of subway track fires has dropped 90 percent since 1981, the authority is working to reduce them even more; to that end, subway officials are considering a recommendation that that riders eschew messy foods while in transit. Packaged goods, Mr. Lhota said, are “less disruptive.””It may be an education program about what types of foods really shouldn’t be brought on,” though he wasn’t ready to rule out the idea of a ban.

In 2012, Lhota, in a previous stint as MTA chairman, delicately sidestepped a similar ban saying he’d seen children eating breakfast on the train and that he feared a ban would affect minority communities. Gene Russianoff, leader of rider advocacy group Straphangers Campaign, thinks a ban on subway scarfing would be about as hard to enforce as a nail-clipping ban: “It’s not like I would hand out individual slices to Pizza Rat on the subway. But there are people who have no choice–they’re going from work to school.”

[Via NYTimes]

RELATED:

• Overcrowding and ‘dwell time’ are why NYC’s subway system is failing
• The Urban Lens: Tour the grimy and crime-ridden subway of 1981
• Recent breakdown spurs demand for better subway escape plans
• Removing garbage cans in subway stations led to more trash and track fires

Lead image: Richard Yeh/WNYC

Although New York City’s subway is currently in a state of emergency, no government official seems to want to take ownership of the failing transit system. Governor Cuomo and Joseph Lhota, the recently appointed chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, called on Mayor de Blasio and City Hall to contribute more money for repairing the subway system on Thursday, citing a law that puts the city in charge of the track system. As the New York Times reported, Lhota and the MTA are preparing an emergency plan to deal with the subway, expecting more funds to come from the city. The plan, which Cuomo ordered the MTA to create within 30 days, is set to be completed by the end of next week.

Cuomo and de Blasio have frequently bickered over who should pay for subway restorations. Technically, the governor appoints members to the MTA board and controls the authority’s budget. However, according to Cuomo, the city owns the transit system through the NYC Transit Authority and leases it to the MTA. During a press conference on Thursday, Lhota said, “For anyone to say ‘not my problem, it’s the state’s problem,’ they don’t know the law. They don’t know the law and they don’t understand the relationship.”

The law Lhota is referring to dates back to 1981, during the city’s fiscal crisis and when the subway was in a deeper crisis than it is today. That year, on-time performance dropped by 50 percent and roughly 325 trains did not make it to their destinations each day on average. When the city was no longer able to pay for the maintenance of the subway, the state stepped in. According to the MTA head, that deal was never meant to be permanent. As Crain’s reported, Cuomo said: “It’s the legal obligation to be funding it, even though we stepped in on a moral level.”

The city has previously agreed in 2015 to put up $2.5 billion as part of the MTA’s $29 billion five-year capital plan. After declaring a state of emergency for the system, Cuomo pledged an extra $1 billion in capital funds next year, in addition to the already pledged $8.3 billion. A spokesperson for the mayor, Austin Finan, said City Hall’s contribution to the MTA’s budget has far exceeded its obligation.

“New Yorkers need serious leadership at a time like this,” Finan said. “Let’s stop the diversions and obfuscation and start spending the resources the MTA has on the repairs and maintenance that will keep New Yorkers moving.”

[Via NY Times]

RELATED:

• MTA considers ban on subway dining; snacking might be ok
• The Urban Lens: Tour the grimy and crime-ridden subway of 1981
• Here’s what will change as the ‘summer of hell’ for commuters begins

The ongoing public debate over whether the state or city controls the subway continued this weekend when Mayor de Blasio, riding a Manhattan-bound F train on Sunday, demanded Governor Cuomo “take responsibility” over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The mayor’s comments come after Cuomo and Joseph Lhota, the recently appointed chairman of the MTA, called on de Blasio and the city last week to contribute more money to the authority for repair work. As the New York Times reported, de Blasio said the MTA has a lot of money that they’re not spending, including the $2.5 billion contributed by the city in 2015, to the MTA’s 2015-2019 capital plan.

The war of words from the officials intensified when Cuomo, despite grandly celebrating the opening the Second Avenue Subway on New Year’s this year, said: “It’s the city’s legal obligation to be funding it, even though we stepped in on a moral level.” As 6sqft covered last week, MTA Chairman Lhota, appointed this year by Cuomo, held a press conference to reiterate the governor’s claims. “For anyone to say ‘not my problem, it’s the state’s problem,’ they don’t know the law. They don’t know the law and they don’t understand the relationship.”

De Blasio called the chairman’s claims “fiction” and that Lhota’s explanation made no sense. “The state of New York is responsible for making sure our subways run,” de Blasio said as he rode the subway from Park Slope to Jay Street Metrotech for a re-election event. “Again, everyone knows this. It has been decades and decades that the governor of the state, whoever the governor is, has named the head of the MTA and has effective control over the MTA.”

According to the mayor, the MTA has not spent billions under its control and said the state took $500 million from the authority’s budget to put into the state budget. “Give that money back before you talk about anything from the City of New York,” de Blasio said.

Despite the governor’s ability to appoint the MTA’s chairperson, oversee its budget and declare it in a state of emergency (which Cuomo did last month), the state doesn’t seem to be willing to take ownership of the failing transit system. In response to the mayor’s comments, Lhota released a statement: “What we need is leadership, not photo ops. The mayor’s comments today were completely disingenuous, knowing that the MTA is set to present its 30-day overhaul plan this week.”

[Via NY Times]

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• Cuomo says New York City is responsible for subway system, not the state
• Cuomo declares a ‘state of emergency’ for the NYC subway, gives MTA $1B for repairs
• MTA considers ban on subway dining; snacking might be ok

After months of what has seemed like rapidly accelerating deterioration, scary incidents, complaints and finger-pointing, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority revealed on Tuesday an $800 million emergency rescue plan for the city’s beleaguered subway system, the New York Times reports. Some key solutions identified for the initial phase of the plan, called “MTA Moving Forward,” included taking out seats on some cars–Boston’s transit system has done this in some cases to make room for more commuters. When asked when riders would begin to see the benefits of the plan, MTA chairman Joseph Lhota said that key parts of the plan’s initial phase would be implemented “relatively quickly.”

The plan outlines two phases of repairs and upgrades. The first phase would stabilize the troubled system, and the second would modernize the aging infrastructure of an already-strained subway system that moved 5.6 million passengers a week in 2016. Included are more than 30 separate measures that address the system’s biggest weaknesses–like antiquated signals and track fires–and specifies hiring 2,700 new employees. The rescue effort comes with a hefty price tag: $450 million in operating costs and $380 million in capital investment.

MTA Chairman Joseph J. Lhota

On the topic of removing seats, Lhota explained that MTA officials will remove the seats from a few cars on selected lines so more bodies could fit on board–possibly 25 more riders on each car. The plan also calls for extra cars to be added to trains on the C line, stepping up repairs to the most problematic signals, installing countdown clocks and refurbishing 1,100 more train cars per year to improve reliability. The MTA plans to create a “public dashboard” so that riders can see how the system is performing.

During  Tuesday’s announcement, Lhota asked the mayor to help fund the fixes, suggesting that the state and the city split the tab 50-50. As 6sqft reported earlier, the announcement comes on the heels of a growing feud between Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill De Blasio on the subject. Gov. Cuomo recently accused the city of not taking on its share of the subway’s financial burden; Mayor De Blasio demanded that Cuomo “take responsibility” over the MTA . The mayor expressed cautious optimism about the plan, calling it an “important first step,” though he stopped short of committing funds to back it, saying that it was “up to the M.T.A. to right the ship.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently accused the city of not taking on its share of the subway’s financial burden.

Last month, Gov. Cuomo declared a state of emergency for the New York City subway and gave Lhota 30 days to submit a rescue plan. Cuomo called the resulting plan “substantive and realistic,” agreeing to split the cost of the rescue plan with the city. Technically the governor appoints MTA board members and controls its budget. According to Cuomo, however, the city owns the transit system through the NYC Transit Authority and subsequently leases it to the MTA.

Gene Russianoff, leader of the Straphangers Campaign and a member of the advisory board that will oversee the implementation of the new plan, questioned the idea of removing seats from subway cars. “My standard is my mom. Would she like to stand all the way from Midtown, where she used to work, to Sheepshead Bay? The answer is a resounding no.”

Find out the details of the plan to improve the New York City subway system here.

[Via NYT]

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• Recent breakdown spurs demand for better subway escape plans
• All MTA Coverage

According to the Daily News, in 2016, roughly 92 percent of persons arrested for fare evasion were people of color, many of whom were also low-income and ended up spending at least one day in jail. With this in mind, State Senator Jesse Hamilton of Crown Heights and Assemblywoman Tremaine Wright of Bed-Stuy, both Democrats, will introduce legislation to decriminalize turnstile jumping cases. Instead of the offense warranting an arrest, misdemeanor charges, and a $100 fine, they propose the MTA’s Adjudication Bureau handle it as a civil matter.

Fare evasion has been one of the NYPD’s big broken-windows initiatives, started in the ’90s under Mayor Guiliani. Mayor de Blasio, too, opposes decriminalizing it, claiming that it would “create chaos” and noting that some of those caught for evading payment have been found with open warrants or illegal guns, according to amNY. He said that most people arrested for the crime “are recidivists” and “there’s no way in hell anyone should be evading the fare.” De Blasio also recently declined to fund a $50 million program for half-price MetroCards for low-income riders.

But Hamilton and Wright feel it’s wrong for someone to have a permanent record for failing to pay $2.75, when in many cases it’s simply because they can’t afford it. “No one should face the nightmare of arrest, a criminal record, loss of housing or deportation over fare evasion,” Hamilton said.

Their push comes after Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance announced last month that his office will stop pursuing criminal cases against most people arrested for fare evasion, instead issuing a civil summons and a fine to first-time turnstile jumpers. Repeat offenders would then get a desk-appearance ticket and the option to complete a diversion program ahead of going to court. The Brooklyn DA’s office committed to a similar policy soon after.

As 6sqft recently reported, 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.” And while 58 percent of low-income New Yorkers rely on subways and buses, 75 percent were unable to afford transit fare at least once in 2015.

In an in-depth feature last month, the Times recently explained that police currently issue a summons to 75 percent of those who are stopped for turnstile jumping or fare evasion. And if they have a history of similar arrests or don’t have proper ID, they’re charged with “theft of services,” a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail. In 2016, 67,400 people were issued civil summons and a $100 fine for the crime and 24,600 were arrested for theft of services.

This latter group, however, has fallen 19 percent over the past four years, but Hamilton still feels change is necessary: “Although these numbers are trending in the right direction, criminal records and jail time should not be the result based on inability to pay a transit fare,” a report issued by his office said.

[Via NYDN and amNY]

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• MTA considers ban on subway dining; snacking might be ok

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority revealed on Tuesday an $800 million emergency rescue plan to fix the city’s failing subway system, which includes hiring 2,700 workers, removing some seats and adding additional train cars. And on Wednesday the MTA board grappled with ways to pay for the plan, with some members calling for the agency to end its routine fare and toll hikes and find revenue through other means. However, according to the New York Times, the authority’s chief financial officer, Robert Foran, said the agency needed to continue to raise fares by roughly 4 percent every other year as part of their long-term financial plan.

In March, the price of a weekly MetroCard rose from $31 to $32, the sixth increase since 2008. Officials plan on raising fares for subway and bus riders in 2019 and 2021, following their routine hikes that occur every two years. Some board members rejected the ritual hikes amid the subway’s declining service. Board member Andrew Albert said the authority should secure alternative funding sources, instead of raising fares. “If you take these to their logical conclusion, at some point, the fare will be $10 and tolls will be $50, and I’m not sure that is sustainable,” Albert said.

The heated dispute over who bears the responsibility of fixing the subway continues between Cuomo, who controls the MTA, and Mayor de Blasio. During the announcement of the plan, MTA chairman Joe Lhota asked the city to split the bill with the state. In response, de Blasio, who called the plan a “positive step” forward, has not committed funds to support it. “I’m trying to be straightforward with the people of the city and the taxpayers of the city, that we cannot put our resources in when we know the state still owes the MTA money,” de Blasio said, maintaining that the state took $500 million from the authority’s budget to put into the state’s budget.

In addition to fare hikes, the MTA budget presentation by Foran revealed the effects of the costly repairs at Penn Station this summer. As 6sqft previously covered, discounts have been provided for Long Island Rail Road Riders and alternative transit options have been created to help commuters during this “summer of hell.” The MTA expected to lose $58 million from expenses and loss of revenue in July and August. That total includes over $21 million in lost revenue, $18 million for buses and $5 million for ferries.

Chart via Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office

After Governor Cuomo declared the subway system in a state of emergency last month, Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office released a new survey which revealed that subway delays caused 74 percent of commuters to be late to work, 65 percent said they were late to picking up or dropping off children and 29 percent reported being late for a doctor’s appointment in the last three months. Notably, late trains affect those from lower-income communities more than those from higher-income neighborhoods. Higher commuting expenses could potentially burden low-income New Yorkers further.

Update: On Wednesday, Cuomo announced that state funds will be available immediately for the MTA’s emergency action plan, committing the state to fund 50 percent of the plan. He demanded the city do the same: “There is no time for delay and there is no tolerance for a lack of commitment on this issue.”

And during a speech at the Association for a Better New York on Wednesday, the governor suggested allowing businesses to “adopt a station” by contributing additional funds, as a way to fund the MTA’s emergency plan. As Curbed NY reported, the funds would be determined by square footage and traffic of a station. Cuomo said the money would go towards “enhanced maintenance, additional security, and aesthetic features.” In 2009, the MTA sold the naming rights of Atlantic Ave-Pacific Street Station in Brooklyn, so it now reads Atlantic Ave-Barclays Center, bringing in $200,000 each year to the MTA for the next 20 years.

[Via NY Times]

RELATED: 

• MTA announces $800M emergency rescue plan for a distressed subway system, includes removing seats
• De Blasio urges Cuomo to ‘take responsibility’ for MTA
• Cuomo says New York City is responsible for subway system, not the state

On Tuesday the Metropolitan Transportation Authority revealed an $800 million emergency rescue plan for the city’s beleaguered subway system. As 6sqft reported, the MTA board has been scrambling for new ways to pay for the plan amid increasing dissatisfaction with fare hikes, even as the agency says they’ll need to raise fares by roughly 4 percent every other year as part of their long-term financial plan. According to Crain’s, Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke Thursday about a possible corporate sponsorship alternative: For $600,000, a donor can publicly “adopt” a station to help pay for amenities and improved cleaning; for $250,000, a “Partnership Council” membership would help raise money for improvements without the donor’s name attached to the station.

So what’s the appeal for corporate sponsors? In addition to the public shoutout, businesses get the satisfaction of knowing they’ll have a hand in strengthening a crumbling transportation system. Cuomo told the Association for a Better New York, a business group, “Businesses can enhance those stations, enhance maintenance, enhance security, enhance aesthetics. We want to bring the private sector in as a full partner.”

Though the plan is still in its early stages, MTA chairman Joseph Lhota explained how the strategy could avoid the red-headed stepchild problem as it might translate to subway station adoption: A company that sponsors a highly trafficked Manhattan station might also be asked to take responsibility for residential neighborhoods “outside the center.””All people in the city deserve the best subway service possible.”

Cuomo also appealed to President Donald Trump to deliver on a $1 trillion infrastructure program he promised during his campaign. New York and New Jersey need the federal government to come through on a promise to provide half the cost of the $20 billion Gateway Project that will build additional tunnels under the Hudson River. “Gateway is probably the most critical infrastructure project on the East Coast,” Cuomo said. “If those existing tunnels go down, it will be a catastrophe.”

[Via Crain’s]

RELATED:

• MTA board members seek an end to routine fare hikes, mulls selling subway station naming rights
• MTA announces $800M emergency rescue plan for a distressed subway system, includes removing seats
• De Blasio urges Cuomo to ‘take responsibility’ for MTA
• Cuomo says New York City is responsible for subway system, not the state

Image Public Domain

Continuing this summer’s subway saga, Mayor de Blasio announced a plan on Sunday that would tax the wealthiest 1 percent of New Yorkers to fund the system’s much-need repairs and renovations. The proposal, which requires Albany’s approval, would also provide half-price MetroCards for low-income straphangers. As the New York Times reported, the “millionaires tax” would increase the tax rate of the city’s wealthiest residents to 4.4 percent from roughly 3.9 percent for married couples with incomes over $1 million and for individuals who make more than $500,000 annually.

Image ©6sqft

De Blasio’s new tax would potentially generate between $700 and $800 million each year for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, with more than $500 million allocated for capital costs for subways and buses and $250 million for the half-price MetroCard initiative. As many as 800,000 New Yorkers, those at or below the poverty level, are expected to qualify for half-price fares. According to the city, about 32,000 New York City tax filers would pay this tax, fewer than 1 percent of all tax filers.

In a statement, de Blasio said: “Rather than sending the bill to working families and subway and bus riders already feeling the pressure of rising fares and bad service, we are asking the wealthiest in our city to chip in a little extra to help move our transit system into the 21st century.”

The mayor’s proposal comes amid an ongoing dispute between de Blasio and Governor Cuomo over who actually bears responsibility for fixing the subway. While Cuomo oversees the MTA, he, along with the authority’s chairman Joe Lhota, has called on City Hall to fund half of the roughly $800 million short-term emergency plan for immediate repairs. Up until this week, de Blasio has maintained that the city, which contributed $2.5 billion to the MTA’s capital plan in 2015, would not provide any additional funding to the authority.

Any tax changes for city residents would require approval from state lawmakers, which would be difficult for de Blasio with a Republican-controlled Senate. Lhota, while happy the mayor finally agreed the MTA needs more money, responded to the mayor’s proposal in a statement. “There’s no question we need a long-term funding stream, but emergency train repairs can’t wait on what the State Legislature may or may not do next year.”

The mayor’s plan stipulates the state must pay $8 billion towards the MTA’s current capital plan with the additional $1 billion for the subway Cuomo committed earlier this summer. Plus, the new funding would be separate from the short-term rescue plan and city officials expect the state to return money to the MTA it had previously diverted elsewhere. According to the mayor, the MTA has not spent billions under its control and also said the state took $500 million from the authority’s budget to put into the state budget.

The Riders Alliance, a group that advocates for affordable transit options, said they’re on board with the mayor’s proposed tax in a statement: “A millionaires’ tax would require some New Yorkers to pay, but the status quo requires literally millions of New Yorkers to pay in the form of lost wages, missed work and days ruined by breakdowns and delays. It’s fair to ask the New Yorkers who benefit the most from our city’s prosperity to pay a little more to repair the infrastructure that the entire economy relies on.”

[Via NY Times]

RELATED:

• MTA announces $800M emergency rescue plan for a distressed subway system, includes removing seats
• De Blasio urges Cuomo to ‘take responsibility’ for MTA
• Cuomo says New York City is responsible for subway system, not the state

Sketch of 59th Street-Columbus Circle via Candy Chan

While the official map of the New York City subway clearly labels which station comes next, it’s not very good at showing the actual geographic distance between stations or what the paths and tunnels look like in order to take the right exit. Like many New Yorkers, architect Candy Chan developed a love-hate relationship with the subway. As CityLab shares, after feeling constantly lost when trying to navigate the city underground, Chan created Project NYC Subway, which includes photographs, architectural drawings, and a series of three-dimensional sketches that display what the complex stations really look like.

Sketch of 14th Street-Union Square via Candy Chan

Chan was inspired by subway stations in Hong Kong, where she’s originally from, as each exit there is labeled with both a letter and a number. She then began visualizing subway stations for her project in 2015. Now, adding to her work, the architect added additional drawings of people and buildings for scale, sculptures, and parks.

Sketch of 34th Street-Herald Square via Candy Chan

Sketch of 42nd Street-Times Square via Candy Chan

Chan told CityLab: “At the beginning, my focus was on the station themselves, because I find it very disorienting to be in one of the bigger ones. Once I had about 20-something stations done, I started to look at how they relate to the city.”

The maps are aimed to help visitors and long-time New Yorkers navigate the system more efficiently, while also providing city agencies with more information about how people use urban spaces. Chan hopes to expand her maps into Brooklyn soon, and perhaps in the future, create an app of her diagrams to make them more accessible.

Chan’s drawings can be purchased through the Project Subway NYC website found here.

[Via CityLab]

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All sketches courtesy of Candy Chan’s Project Subway NYC

Rendering: Only If + One Architecture

Back in June, the Regional Plan Association (RPA), an urban research and advocacy organization, in conjunction with the Rockefeller Foundation, announced a design competition asking for proposals that would transform various areas of the New York metropolitan region. One of the four ideas chosen to receive $45,000 was a transportation alternative that would serve the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. As 6sqft reported, the proposal, developed by New York-based firm Only If along with Netherlands-based firm One Architecture, focuses on using a light rail to move passengers between the outer boroughs to alleviate some of the overcrowding that has plagued the current subway system with delays. On August 4, the organizations held an event at Fort Tilden to mark the opening of a public presentation of the selected proposals. “4C: Four Corridors: Foreseeing the Region of the Future” spotlighted this plan to strengthen the Triboro Corridor, a plan to address the future of the suburbs, and more.

The Triboro Corridor, running from Brooklyn to Queens to the Bronx, spans over 24 miles in length with 2.6 million current residents–and that number is expected to increase by 400,000 people by 2040. The proposed light rail would use existing infrastructure, running along a 25-mile long freight-train track that would connect to four other commuter lines, making 17 stops between the Brooklyn Waterfront, Central Queens, South Bronx, and the North Bronx.  The plan would also incorporate green spaces and parks along the route and ways to improve water management.

Noting the positive additions to infrastructure that have been the result of the city’s recent affluence–the High Line, CitiBike, and the Second Avenue Subway extension, for example–the proposal offers a “dual-purposing of the system of freight lines linking Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx for passenger rail as a game changer for the outer boroughs.” The firms worked to rethink the existing right-of-way and adjacent spaces to create a linear park and greenway along the proposed line as well as a “bike superhighway” for commuter and recreational use. Added bonus: storm water management through a reduction in road widths and parking spaces.

But a significant portion of the plan goes beyond transportation: “Acknowledging the dynamics of city making, the corridor plan moves beyond traditional transit oriented development (TOD) modes that focus predominantly on densification around stations. In this sense, the plan focuses not only on the station nodes, but also the in-between spaces, where community life takes place.”

The plan provides a “kit of parts” that embraces an inclusive growth approach that maximizes social benefit and civic empowerment while putting economic revenue to good use. The strategy can be implemented incrementally, through the development of three guiding strategies: a low carbon corridor, processes for the next economies and catalysts. Find out more about this “kit of urban parts” here.

The other three winning proposals include “Highlands” from PORT + Range, “Inner ring|suburbs” from WorkAC and “Bight|Coast” from Rafi A+U + DLAND Studio.

RELATED:

• 17-stop outer borough light rail proposed as a NYC subway alternative
• Does the City’s Brooklyn-Queens Streetcar Plan Actually Make Sense?
• Top 10 Transportation Proposals That Would Transform New York City
• Proposed ‘Triboro Rx’ Subway Line Would Better Connect the Outer Boroughs

Renderings: Only If + One Architecture

Photo © Governor Andrew Cuomo/Flickr

Just in the past month, power problems caused 32,000 subway delays, prompting Governor Cuomo to direct “Con Edison to take significant and immediate actions to improve the subway’s power reliability and prevent future service failure,” according to a press release. Less than two months after declaring a “state of emergency” for the subway system, Cuomo’s given Con Ed and the MTA one year to identify and repair the problems, the most comprehensive power review ever done, leaving them on the hook to inspect 470 manholes, 1,100 boxes, and 221 power substations at street level and 1,100 energy distribution rooms, 300 signal relay rooms, 15,000 track circuits, 11,000 signals, 13,750 insulated joints, 11,000 trip stops, 220 interlockings, and 1,800 switch machines below ground. The cost? It’s not yet been officially calculated, but Con Ed chairman John McAvoy says it’s likely to be tens of millions of dollars.

Photo © Governor Andrew Cuomo/Flickr

“To repair the MTA, we must also focus on the services that the MTA relies upon,” Governor Cuomo said. “The number one necessity is a reliable power supply. That must be provided by Con Edison. Over the years there have been band aids placed all over the system. We need to fundamentally upgrade the entire system. I thank Con Edison for their cooperation.”

As the Times explains, Cuomo was first prompted to overhaul the power system after an event at the Seventh Avenue and 53rd Street station on April 21st. Both the power and backup power failed during the morning rush hour, leading to delays on nearly half the system’s lines and stranding many riders underground for hours. An investigation by the state also included two other recent power-related incidents. On May 7th a Con Ed transformer failed at a transmission substation, the change in voltage affecting the DeKalb station. Two days later, the same station lost signal power, the cause of which is still being determined since both Con Ed and MTA lacked the equipment to monitor power at the location.

Though official findings from the investigation haven’t been released, according to the Governor’s office, the outages stem from four problem areas:

1. Loss of power
2. Frequent surges in power that force the system to go into failsafe mode (shutdown)
3. Frequent power dips which cause equipment to fail
4. An insufficient power back up system in the event of a power failure

Governor Cuomo touring a distribution room at Columbus Cirle. Photos © Governor Andrew Cuomo/Flickr

The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) will oversee the work, which will be spread across the system’s 600+ miles of tracks and be performed seven days a week. Their timeline gives six months for “priority projects,” nine months for “second priority,” and 12 months for total completion.

Currently, routine inspections of the power system are done every five years, but they’ll now be done annually. As the Times explains, the biggest issues stem from the nearly 90-year-old, antiquated signal system. As it stands now, “the power from Con Ed flows to an M.T.A. distribution room, where it then goes into the system, powering everything from signals to track equipment. For safety reasons, the signal system is designed with a fail-safe that is tripped when there are fluctuations in power that are read as an anomaly.” So even a “relatively routine spike” can turn a track light red, resulting in significant delays. Part of the MTA and Con Ed’s task is to find a safe alternative to this system.

It’s important to note that the power overhaul is not part of the MTA’s 30-day emergency plan, which focuses on the the system’s decades-old equipment and subway cars, nor is it included in this project’s $800 million budget. Mayor de Blasio has been staunch in his stance that the city will not fund half of this cost as the Governor has requested, and on Monday, he proposed taxing the wealthiest one percent of New Yorkers to fund the repairs. The feud is likely to heat up even more now, as it’s unclear how the new work’s cost will be split up.

RELATED:

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Photo via Lucas Klappas on Flickr

With New York City’s subway system currently in a state of emergency, public officials and advocates have been developing ways to pay for its urgent repairs. According to the New York Times, Governor Cuomo is planning to release a congestion pricing plan as a way to provide a dedicated source of funding for the transit system, as well as a way to reduce traffic on some of the country’s busiest streets. Ten years ago, Mayor Bloomberg pushed for a similar plan, charging drivers $8 to enter the most congested parts of Manhattan during peak commuting hours, but the legislation faced resistance and was never brought to a vote.

Photo © Governor Andrew Cuomo/Flickr

Cuomo, who has not yet revealed specifics of the plan, is drafting a proposal that will try to improve Bloomberg’s failed attempt. Bloomberg’s idea served as a major part of his environmental agenda and would have raised $500 million annually to fx the subway’s infrastructure. The plan failed because elected officials from Brooklyn, Queens and suburban areas outside of the city felt it benefited Manhattan at the expense of their own constituents.

During this current time of transit crisis, Cuomo said congestion pricing is an “idea whose time has come.” He told the Times, “We have been going through the problems with the old plan and trying to come up with an updated and frankly better congestion pricing plan.” Cities like London and Stockholm have implemented congestion pricing, successfully reducing traffic and improving public transportation systems.

Move NY, a group which develops transit plans for New York, recently revealed a congestion pricing plan that some elected officials said they would support. The group’s project would require drivers to pay a toll of $5.54 in each direction at four bridges: the Ed Koch Queensboro, the Brooklyn, the Manhattan and the Williamsburg. Drivers in Manhattan crossing 60th Street would be charged $5.54 toll in either direction, as well as along the West Side Highway and FDR Drive. To make it more equitable, the plan would reduce tolls by as much as 48 percent at other crossings, like the Cross Bay-Veterans’ Memorial, the Henry Hudson and the Throgs Neck Bridge.

In total, the group projects its plan would yield about $1.47 billion annually, with $1.1 billion for public transit, and the rest, for bridges and roads. Move NY has been pitching the proposal to the Cuomo administration, but no official plan has been released yet.

As 6sqft recently reported, Mayor de Blasio announced a plan that would tax the wealthiest 1 percent of New Yorkers to fund the subway’s much-needed repairs, as well as provide half-price MetroCards for low-income New Yorkers. The so-called “millionaires tax” would increase the tax rate of the city’s wealthiest residents to 4.4 percent from roughly 3.9 percent for married couples with incomes over $1 million and for individuals who make more than $500,000 per year. The plan must be approved by Albany to be enacted, something that many say is unlikely due to the state Senate’s GOP majority.

While both congestion pricing and a new tax may gain political momentum, it doesn’t pay for the immediate funds the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has requested. The authority released an  emergency action plan to fix the subway that takes more than $800 million in repairs and renovations. The governor has agreed to contribute half of the cost, asking the city provides its own share. As of now, the mayor has refused.

[Via NY Times]

RELATED:

• De Blasio wants to tax rich New Yorkers to fund subway repairs
• Cuomo wants to fund subway fixes with $600K corporate station naming rights
• MTA announces $800M emergency rescue plan for a distressed subway system, includes removing seats

Graphic via Citymapper

With subway disruptions and delays becoming a part of daily life in New York City, even lifelong New Yorkers sometimes have trouble finding alternative routes when their F train switches to a different line. Thankfully, there’s now an app that aims to make commuting in NYC a little less confusing. Citymapper, a transportation software start-up based in the UK, uses artificial intelligence to recommend new routes in response to MTA alert statuses. As CityLab reported, the app’s “bot” reads the complicated message from the authority and uses the relevant information to offer a clearer route change to avoid the problem.

Map of transit options near Times Square via Citymapper

Citymapper stands out among other apps, like Google Maps and Transit App, because it interprets messages in real time to provide commuters the best route possible. If traveling downtown on the F train from 63rd Street and the MTA sends this alert: “Due to FDNY activity at 23St there is no B, D, F, M train service between W4St-Washington Sq and 42St-Bryant Pk in both directions.” The app provides more concise and clear directions by figuring out which routes are accessible and which ones are disrupted.

In addition to subway routes, Citymapper also provides real-time information on the city’s buses and bikes, across all five boroughs. It also gives commuters hyperlocal weather updates and lets users personalize the app with most used places and favorite transport spots. Users can share their trip and ETA with friends, who can then watch them move along the route in the app and on their phone’s lock-screen.

Other tools within the Citymapper app include informing users which part of the train (front, middle or back) is the best to board, which entrance or exit would work best for the trip and the ability to save trips offline for when there is no service.

The app, which won the MTA’s App Quest challenge in 2013, is available for iPhones, Androids and in web browsers. Since creating the app for London and NYC, Citymapper has expanded to many cities across the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

[Via CityLab]

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Photo courtesy of Roman Kruglov’s Flickr

New Yorkers employed by the city have missed 17,143 hours of work because of transit delays and malfunctions, according to the Daily News. A new analysis by the Independent Budget Office (IBO), shows that city workers are on track to miss nearly 26,000 hours of work for the entire year, an increase of almost 30 percent from previous years. The report found the incident that caused the most city workers to be late happened in January when city workers lost a total of 1,075 hours after water spilled onto the tracks at West 4th Street-Washington Square station.

The IBO used information from a city worker database, the Citywide Human Resources Management System, which shows all excused tardiness. When a city employee arrives late to work for an excused reason, they enter a code that explains their lateness, along with proof. If the tardiness is excused, city workers are paid for the missed time. As the Daily News reported, the median salary for a city employee in 2015 was about $32.40 an hour for a 40-hour work week. This means that so far this year that the 17,143 hours excused so far cost the city $550,000 in pay.

While the database takes information from most major city agencies, like the NYPD, FDNY and Sanitation Department, it does not include data for Department of Education, NYCHA and the Health and Hospitals Corporation. This totals about 200,000 employees unaccounted for in the human resource database.

In response to the IBO’s analysis, a spokesperson for Mayor de Blasio said this solidifies the need for his proposed “millionaires tax” to be enacted, a plan which would tax the wealthiest New Yorkers to pay for subway fixes. “Riders’ cries might be out of Albany’s earshot, but they’re mad as hell and they won’t stand for it anymore–including our city employees,” mayoral spokesperson, Austin Finan, told the Daily News. He added: “The state should step up now and support the mayor’s plan to tax the wealthiest 1 percent to pay for the fix of our subways and buses, and return the half-million dollars it took from the MTA to fund the immediate turnaround plan.”

A spokesperson for the MTA, Shams Tarek, responded by saying the city should take some of the responsibility for the failing transit system by paying their half of the authority’s emergency action plan to fix the subway that costs more than $800 million. “Any increase in delays experienced on the subway show the critical need to support and fund the MTA’s Subway Action Plan and why City Hall and Mayor de Blasio should step up and fund their half of the plan,” Tarek said.

[Via NY Daily News]

RELATED:

• Cuomo to offer a congestion pricing plan to fund transit repairs
• De Blasio wants to tax rich New Yorkers to fund subway repairs
• MTA announces $800M emergency rescue plan for a distressed subway system, includes removing seats

Photo via Office of the Governor

A week from today, those who litter in the subway system will face a $100 penalty, double the current $50. The increased fine is part of Governor Cuomo’s newly announced “Keep It Clean” initiative, which will discourage subway littering through a new public awareness campaign. Each year, 700 fire-related track incidents are caused by littering. And in just the past six months, incidents related to standing water conditions (litter hinders the MTA’s ability to pump out millions of gallons of water daily) increased by 56 percent.

Governor Cuomo tries his hand at a Mobile Vac, photo via Office of the Governor

The MTA removes 40 tons of trash each day from the system. To mitigate the litter issue, around this time last year, the agency announced its “Operation Trash Sweep” initiatives, which increased the frequency by which the 622 miles of tracks get cleaned and introduced new individually-operated Mobile Vacs that allow workers to quickly suck up trash. In July, as part of the MTA’s $800 million emergency rescue plan, these efforts were ramped up; Cuomo’s new initiative supports these existing efforts and includes a water management system. As a press release from the Governor’s office explains:

As water flows through the track bed, it collects debris that clogs grated track drains, which in turn causes water to pool on the track bed, accelerating breakdown of the track plates and railroad ties. As pooling increases and the water level rises, it interacts with subway signal equipment – turning signals red and stopping trains on the track. As the water level increases further, it touches the third rail, severely impairing the electrical system. In these cases, service must be immediately suspended until the water is pumped out. Saturated third rail insulators and water-compromised positive cables can also catch fire, again requiring service suspensions until isolated and repaired.

Photo via MTA

To deal with the issue, the MTA will perform preventative water and trash removal between stations, “eliminating dirt and trash accumulated from over a century of the system’s operation.” To paint a picture of how dire the situation is, since the city implemented the Mobile Vacs last summer, they’ve collected 2.3 million pounds of trash and debris, with 70,000 pounds removed in just one day from Brooklyn’s Carroll Street Station.

The Governor feels that directing the Department of Environmental Conservation to raise the littering fine is one way to get various state agencies on board with an overhaul of the subway system. Plus, the Post shares evidence that more tickets, or presumably heftier fines, leads to fewer fires: In 2012, 669 tickets were issued for littering and there were 261 track fires; this year, fewer than 100 tickets have been handed out, but there have been 470 fires.

And now, check out the MTA’s anti-littering PSA:

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When the Second Avenue Subway opened this past New Year’s Day, it was nothing short of a miracle. Not only had the $4 billion infrastructure project been 100 years in the making but in the months leading up to its deadline, there was much talk about delays related to the system’s “rigorous testing schedule” not being met. As it turns out, the testing wasn’t met; the Times tells us that when the train opened on January 1st, “the fire alarm system was still being tested and more than 17,000 defects found during inspections had not been fixed.” And eight months later, the train is still operating under a temporary safety certificate.

The heavy push to meet the December 31st deadline came from a very vocal Governor Cuomo, who, during the inaugural ride said, “We needed to show people that government works and we can still do big things and great things and we can still get them done,” adding that those who worked on the line’s planning and construction “made a superhuman effort to get this done on time.”

But what did they sacrifice in order to do so? MTA oversight reports prepared by Urban Engineers of New York and submitted to the Federal Transit Administration stated that the number of issues was evidence that “quality was compromised for schedule acceleration.” When the line opened, there were 75 active water leaks at the 96th Street station, for example. And up until July, commuters complained of typically sweltering conditions, despite the promised climate-controlled stations. NBC uncovered that the MTA had failed to receive permission from the health department to activate air cooling because they hadn’t completed a test that to show there was no risk of Legionnaires disease in its cooling towers. Apparently, the agency had put the test on the back burner in order to focus on keeping the trains running.

The MTA committed to addressing these and all other problems with 60 days of the subway opening, but they missed the deadline and had it extended to April 15th. However, the most recent report from the end of May still showed 7,264 defects.

MTA Spokesman John McCarthy counters that the new stations have been “completely safe” since day one. “They feature state-of-the-art technology for fire protection, closed-circuit monitoring and new public address systems — any suggestion that safety was at all compromised to meet the deadline to open is patently false,” he said. The MTA is also downplaying the reported problems, noting that they’re minor things like fixing door closures or signs.

The final safety certificate is not expected to come through until November, so for the time being, the MTA has employed staff to patrol the stations to keep an eye out for fires or other safety issues. This is an expensive endeavor, added to what may an increased cost of running safety tests once the trains are already in operation.

[Via NYT]

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• All Second Avenue Subway coverage

Images courtesy of Governor Cuomo’s office

Photo courtesy of Roman Kruglov on Flickr

While your train will probably still be delayed and overcrowded, the reasons behind your slow commute may soon become clearer. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority managers will present statistics to the agency’s board on Monday that reflect the rider’s experience, rather than MTA staff. As the Daily News reported, the MTA will unveil a digital dashboard that informs strap-hangers how much longer than usual they will wait for a train and how many minutes are spent on delayed trains. Plus, the new service will provide a tally of major incidents.

The countdown clock at Brooklyn’s Lormier Street, photo via Wikimedia

Instead of trying to figure out the MTA’s complex lingo, the new stats will be available through a user-friendly dashboard. The page will provide an overview of the transit system as a whole as well as its day-to-day operations. Statistics for a single subway line or a comparison of several lines will also be accessible.

MTA board member, Andrew Albert, told the Daily News said, “If they are going to start producing indicators that show what the rider is experiencing, that can only be considered a great thing. The old [stats] were more attuned to what management was experiencing, versus what riders are experiencing.”

Although the dashboard might give commuters slightly more of a peace of mind, commuters will still most likely face delays and disruptions in train service. As 6sqft covered last month, city workers missed 17,143 hours of work because of transit delays and malfunctions.  The Independent Budget Office found that New Yorkers employed by the city are on track to miss more than 26,000 hours of work for the entire year, up nearly 30 percent from previous years.

[Via NY Daily News]

RELATED:

• ‘Citymapper’ app translates confusing MTA alerts into easy-to-read alternative directions
• Governor Cuomo’s new ‘Keep It Clean’ initiative doubles the fine for subway littering
• City workers missed over 17,000 hours of work due to subway delays this year

Maps via The Guardian

Out of NYC’s 472 subway stations, only 117 are fully accessible, a major problem considering more than 800,000 or one-in-ten New Yorkers have a physical disability (and this doesn’t take into account those who get injured or are with a stroller). The reason for this is that our subway system was built starting in 1904, long before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law in 1990. To highlight the issue, the Guardian put together these startling maps that show worldwide metro systems in their entirety as compared to versions that only include fully accessible stations.

Elevator at the Lincoln Center subway station, via Wiki Commons

Age seems to be the major determining factor in which cities offer the best accessibility. The London Underground, which dates to 1863 and is the world’s oldest metro, has only 50 fully accessible stations out of 260 (an additional 21 require ramps and staff assistance). Opened in 1900, Paris is even worse, with just nine fully accessible stations. Barcelona, on the other hand, is considered the most accessible system in Europe, with 129 of 156 stations classified as fully accessible. The metro here began operation in 1924, and since 1992, all stations built must be made accessible.

Back in the U.S., NYC ranks the least accessible out of the country’s ten largest metro systems, with less than 25 percent considered accessible. All of LA’s 93 stations and DC’s 91 are fully accessible. The LA system opened in 1990, on the heels of the ADA law. Washington DC was built throughout the 1970s and ’80s, but is considered one of the most accessible stations in the world. According to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, “All stations have elevators and directional signs indicating elevator locations. Rail cars feature gap reducers between the car and the platform, barriers between cars, priority seating for people with disabilities and senior citizens, and emergency intercoms accessible to wheelchair users that also include instructions in Braille and raised alphabet.” But systems that are even older than NYC are still faring better. Boston’s accessibility rate is 74 percent and it was built in 1897, and Chicago’s is 67 percent, even though it began operating in 1892.

Is New York City taking note? Just this past spring, an 18-month audit by City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office found that 80 percent of subway escalators and elevators don’t receive necessary maintenance. It also found that the MTA’s Division of Elevators and Escalators does not “systematically track whether and how quickly all of the defects found were corrected.” These findings were in response to lawsuits from the prior month; Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) filed state- and federal-level suits claiming the MTA has been negligent in elevator maintenance and discriminates against those with disabilities.

NYC law states that existing stations must be made ADA-compliant whenever they are renovated. The city has also committed to increasing the number of fully accessible stations from 117 to 144 by 2020. But advocacy group Disabled in Action (DIA) says this is not enough; “At the MTA’s current rate of elevator installation, it would take the MTA more than 100 years before 100 percent accessibility would be achieved,” said president Anthony Trocchia.

[Via The Guardian]

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