3 Bus Lines Start New Service Next Weekend
Back in July, the MTA announced that weekend service would be coming to the B2, X17 and X27. Next weekend, the service will begin. Here are the details via a brief release sent out a short time ago:
The MTA announced in July the extension and addition of service on several bus, subway and commuter rail lines to better serve customers around the region. These service investments will increase access to mass transit, accommodate ridership growth and attract new transit customers. In accordance with that effort, MTA New York City Transit is announcing that effective Sunday, September 30, three bus routes – B2, X17 and X27 – will offer full weekend service.
The B2 serves the neighborhoods of Gravesend and Marine Park in Brooklyn. By restoring the weekend route, it will provide additional weekend service to the Kings Plaza Mall. On both Saturdays and Sundays, Kings Plaza-bound B2 service will operate from 5:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. and Midwood-bound B2 service will operate from 5:15 a.m. to 12:30 a.m.
Manhattan-bound X17 Sunday service will operate from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Staten Island-bound X17 service will operate from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. In addition, the weekend X17 bus route will now add a stop in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn at the Gowanus Expressway Service Road and 86th Street.
The Manhattan-bound X27 Saturday service will operate from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. and the Brooklyn-bound service will operate from 7:15 a.m. to 10:15 p.m. The Manhattan-bound X27 Sunday service will operate from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the Brooklyn-bound X27 service will operate from 8:15 a.m. to 9:15 p.m.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Service Diversions 09-17-12
I have just updated the Service Diversions by removing some of the work that wrapped up earlier this morning.
As always if I see anything interesting or noteworthy, I will tweet about it so follow @TransitBlogger which you can easily do by clicking the button in the sidebar.
Have a wonderful week & enjoy the beautiful weather out there!
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Fare Hike Is Inevitable……
The big talk of lately in the transit world revolves around the eventual fare hikes that will come our way. Yesterday morning, MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota spoke at a breakfast forum sponsored by Crain’s New York Business.
At the forum, he spoke of what us in the know already knew, rising health care & pension costs along with debt service issues inevitably will lead to fare hikes. From what he spoke about, it looks like straphangers who depend on unlimited MetroCards or discounted cards will bear the brunt of it. Here is more via Andrew J. Hawkins of Crain’s New York Business:
Straphangers who use unlimited-ride MetroCards or other discounts may bear the brunt of next year’s fare increase, Joseph Lhota, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s chairman and CEO, warned Wednesday at a breakfast forum sponsored by Crain’s New York Business.
He added that the city should have another conversation about ideas like congestion pricing and bridge tolls because the transit system will need new revenues. But changing the fare structure is something the agency can do on its own.
“We have enormous discounts in the system. And I think we need to look at those discounts, and we need to have, on the entire fare issue, a public debate,” Mr. Lhota said to a packed audience of nearly 500 business people at the Plaza Hotel across from Central Park. “There’re a lot of people in New York who think our pricing system is mystifying. It shouldn’t be.”
The MTA recently announced that it would delay a planned 7.5% fare hike until March 2013 and would restore some of the service cuts made to subways and buses in recent years. But Mr. Lhota said debt service and rising health care and pension costs makes a fare increase unavoidable.
“Pensions, there’s nothing I can do about them. And that’s what’s driving my costs up. And that’s the direct reason why we’re having a fare increase,” he said.
The MTA will release its projections in October, Mr. Lhota said, and then convene a series of public hearings. The MTA board is expected to vote on the proposed hikes in December.
The base fare for subway and buses is $2.25, but Mr. Lhota said the MTA receives an average of $1.63 per trip. The agency offers reduced rate cards for seniors over 65. Seven-day unlimited cards currently cost $29, while 30-day unlimited cards go for $104. “Do we need a discount that deep?” Mr. Lhota asked.
But even if the MTA completely eliminates discounts, it would still fall short of its targeted $450 million increase in net revenues, he said. “The discounts aren’t enough to not have a fare increase,” he said.
Click here for the complete report.
Just a short time ago, the agency released more of what he had to say via a brief press release which stated:
MTA Chairman and CEO Joseph J. Lhota yesterday called on business leaders to support stable funding for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which he said “is New York’s common denominator” and the “lifeblood of our city and our entire region.”
“No mass transit system in the country supports itself on fares alone,” Lhota told a crowd of 500 at Crain’s New York Business breakfast forum Wednesday. He noted that the MTA carries more customers per day – 8.5 million – than any agency in the country yet receives less per trip in public financing.
“That’s incredible to me, considering we’re the economic backbone of this region, a region that represents 11% of our entire country’s economy,” Lhota said, noting that 90 percent of all people in Manhattan’s Central Business District get there on the MTA’s network of subways, buses trains, bridges and tunnels.
Speaking about a recent state court ruling in Nassau County that found the Payroll Mobility Tax and four related revenue streams unconstitutional, Lhota warned that the loss of $1.8 billion per year would be catastrophic to the region’s economy and lead to extreme service cuts and fare hikes.
Lhota acknowledged that the PMT has undermined support for the MTA in the suburbs.
“But it’s not my job to make tax policy. That’s Albany’s job. My job is to run the service,” Lhota said.
The PMT was created by the Legislature in May 2009 to address a budget gap caused by the collapse of the real estate market at the beginning of the current recession. For years, the MTA’s operating budget was bolstered by a transit-dedicated tax called the mortgage recording tax. In 2007, before the real estate bubble burst, the MTA received $1.6 billion from this dedicated tax. Last year, revenue slipped more than a billion dollars to just $597 million from the mortgage recording tax.
Lhota called on business leaders to “become advocates for transit.”
“We need you on our side,” Lhota said. “We need you fighting for the MTA.”
“Tell your Congress members, tell your State Legislators, that the MTA not only deserves their support, but needs a stable operating budget, needs a credible Capital Program to maintain our 100-year-old system and needs to be funded to continue providing great service … to continue to allow our region to grow.”
He noted that for the first time in 60 years, the MTA network is growing. Three huge construction projects – the No. 7 subway extension to the far West Side of Manhattan, the Second Avenue Subway on Manhattan’s East Side and the East Side Access project to bring Long Island Rail Road service to Grand Central Terminal – are pumping money into the economy through their construction and will fuel the regional economy’s growth after they open.
Honestly none of this comes as a surprise as the writing has been on the wall for quite some time. The next couple of months will be interesting to watch. Next month we will get the official details of what the fare hike will be & in November will be the public hearings. One thing I can guarantee is many politicians will come out rallying against the agency for the ever famous “constituent brownie points” yet will have no legitimate funding ideas to help the agency.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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MTA Names New Chief Transportation Officer
Earlier today, the MTA officially announced Herbert E. Lambert as the new Chief Transportation Officer of Rapid Transit Operations. He comes to the table with 30+ years of experience working for the MTA. Here is more via the official release I received:
Herbert E. Lambert, with more than 30 years of service in MTA New York City Transit’s Department of Subways, has been named to the position of Chief Transportation Officer, Rapid Transit Operations.
In this position, Lambert is responsible for planning, directing and controlling the daily operation of the largest subway system in North America, ensuring its smooth and efficient operation. He replaces John Johnson who retired earlier this year.
A life-long New Yorker, the 55-year old Lambert worked his way up from his 1981 entry position as a train conductor. As he worked his way through jobs with increasing responsibility, he demonstrated an instinct for subway operations. He rose rapidly through RTO ranks to become a Rail Control Center Superintendent in 1993. Continuing to demonstrate a penchant for transportation operations, he went on to become a General Superintendent, Control Center, and then Senior Director, Rail Operations Support. Very much a hands-on manager in his high level positions, Lambert is as likely to be found in the system, or at the scene of an incident as manning the Rail Control Center.
Aside from normal operations, Lambert oversaw the operations of the Rail Control Center on 9/11 and helped direct the planned shutdown and resumption of subway service during August 2011’s Hurricane Irene.
“Mr. Lambert brings a wealth of experience to a demanding job and over the years, he has demonstrated the ability and judgment necessary to help guide the daily operation of a subway system that carries more than five million customers, and 8,000 train trips each day,” said Carmen Bianco, Senior Vice President of the Department of Subways.
In his most recent position, Lambert served as Assistant Chief Transportation Officer of the B Division (lettered lines), a job he held for the past year. He retained that position even after being named Acting Chief Transportation Officer in April, performing both simultaneously.
“I am looking forward to serving in what I believe to be one of the most interesting, yet challenging jobs in the transportation industry,” said Lambert. “Each day it is a pleasure coming to work. No two days are alike, but that is part of the attraction of the job and the business we are in.”
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Service Diversions 09-13-12
Riders can get an early jump start on their weekend plans as I have just updated the Service Diversions for this weekend, next week & beyond in some cases.
Follow me on Twitter by looking up @TransitBlogger or clicking the button in the sidebar as I am using it a lot more! Check the diversions page daily as I update it as changes occur, diversions end, etc….
xoxo Transit Blogger
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