Good Samaritan Saves MTA Employee
A nightmare that many if not all subway riders have is to somehow end up on the tracks. This nightmare became a reality for a MTA employee who was knocked to the tracks by a lunatic who attacked her & a man who saved her.
39 year old Sabrina Scott was knocked to the tracks by the two at the East Broadway station on the 
in the Lower East Side of Manhattan as was headed to the Bronx. Thankfully she was saved by a Good Samaritan who disappeared right after the incident. Pete Donohue Ben Chapman, & Rich Schapiro have more in this report:
An unconscious MTA worker was plucked from Manhattan subway tracks by a mystery man after a clean-shaven lunatic attacked her on the platform, sources said Saturday.
“Are you scared of me?” the madman hissed repeatedly as he chased an off-duty Sabrina Scott around the East Broadway station about 6:15 p.m. Friday.
Alone on the F train platform, Scott, 39, cried out for help as she scampered away from the nut. Her frantic calls were finally answered by a man who rushed to her aid and began tangling with the attacker.
The loon still managed to land a blow to Scott’s head. Then, the tussling men knocked into her, sending her tumbling onto the tracks, cops said.
Scott was knocked out.
When she awoke, she was being carried by paramedics out of the station.
The single mother learned later that the good Samaritan had pulled her from the subway bed – and vanished.
“I want to say thank you to whoever it was,” Scott told the Daily News last night from Bellevue Hospital’s intensive care unit, white bandages wrapped around her head. “I have a son that I need to be here for, so thank God I’m still alive. Thank God.”
The harrowing ordeal left Scott with a concussion, a dislocated thumb, a deep gash on her head and a severely bruised left leg – but she is expected to make a full recovery.
TWU President John Samuelsen said Scott’s near-death experience underscores the need for platform screen doors. “It would be a smart capital investment that would save lives,” he said.
Scott’s family, meanwhile, implored the mystery man – described as a tall black man wearing headphones and a ballcap – who saved her life to come forward. “We’d like to thank him personally and take him out to dinner,” Scott’s sister said.
Click here for the complete report.
I am happy that Sabrina Scott was saved from this raving lunatic. When I read stories like this, it always reminds me of a short Jewish male I saved years ago during the overnight hours as he was being harassed & threatened by a much bigger black male on a Manhattan-bound 
train at the Chambers Street station. When push comes to shove, it is nice to know that there are New Yorkers who will do the right thing!
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Cuts To New Haven Line Begin Tomorrow
It is no secret that our region has faced a terrible winter. There have been plenty of victims whether it be injuries from fallen or the roads filled with potholes from all the snow & salt. The rails were not excluded from the damage, especially on the Metro-North’s New Haven line which features severely outdated cars.
The fleet used on the line has taken a pounding this winter & with the majority of them being over 40 years old, they could just not hold up. Due to this, the Metro-North has been forced to cut service to the line indefinitely. Here are the details courtesy of a press release the agency sent to me on Friday:
Starting on Monday, February 7, Metro-North will introduce a Reduced Winter Schedule affecting New Haven Line rush-hour, peak-direction trains. This schedule reduces service by approximately 10% during peak hours. In nearly all cases, customers will be able to board a train within five minutes of their normal departure time, although in some cases trains will make more stops than normal. During this time, weekday off-peak service will not be affected.
On weekends, a Sunday schedule will be in effect for both days. Beginning this Saturday, February 5, busing will be in effect on the Waterbury Branch until further notice with bus service following the train schedule.
These schedule changes, expected to last through March 4, are required because the railroad has had a severe and ongoing shortage of cars available for use on the New Haven Line. The problems with the fleet result from the age of the cars — almost 70 percent of the electric fleet is over 40 years old — and the impact of the unprecedented winter weather on them.
The printed version of the timetables are available at Grand Central Terminal. The new schedules are available online at Metro-North’s schedule page at mta.info, either in PDF format showing the entire line or through the point-to-point interactive schedules. Metro-North Train Time will reflect the new schedules.
Significant car shortages due to record-breaking amounts of snow and extreme cold have forced Metro-North to operate trains with fewer cars than normal, and to cancel trains, causing severe crowding and train delays. The new schedule will increase the dependability of the trains that are running.
“The service we have been providing has been far less than what our customers have come to expect from us and we strive to provide for them,” said Metro-North President Howard Permut. “It is time for us to take these additional steps to improve our service reliability and minimize further inconvenience.”
On a daily basis, there are close to 150 electric cars out of service on the New Haven Line, or 40% of the fleet. Metro-North employees are working around-the-clock to get damaged equipment back into service. However, with each new weather event, more weather-damaged cars arrive in the shops in need of repair. The cars, which pre-date the creation of Metro-North by about a decade, were designed in a manner that made key components extremely vulnerable to snow. These components include:
• Traction motors, which must be repaired or replaced – a job that routinely takes six or more hours to complete.
• Brakes, which freeze and get stuck from the extreme cold.
• Doors, which won’t close properly because the snow and ice that gets inside the door pockets prevents them from opening or closing on command.
Further complicating repair efforts is the fact that shop space is limited. Metro-North employees do not let this limitation stop them, working outside the shops, crawling under cars in the snow and extreme cold to repair components. The work is demanding, and progress is slow and hard won. Every day, repaired equipment goes back into service, and every day, more weather damaged cars arrive in need of repair.
The arrival of the new M8 rail cars will improve this situation in the future. Metro-North is testing the new M8 pilot cars; however this is a highly complex car with much computer technology. As we identify problems in testing — mostly related to complex software — we effect a fix and need to retest, and the testing has been delayed by the snowstorms. Metro-North is disappointed with the progress in getting these cars into revenue service, but the process cannot be rushed. We will put the cars into revenue service when we are confident that they operate both safely and reliably, and Metro-North remains hopeful that this will occur in the first quarter of 2011.
You can click here to read a letter written by Metro-North Railroad President Howard Permut.
Jim Grady of WNYC takes a look at how these cuts were a debacle that was years in the making:
Riders on Metro-North’s New Haven Line will wake up Monday to find their rush hour service on already overcrowded trains cut by ten percent. Railroad officials are blaiming bad weather for a backlog of repairs that has left them with too few train cars to meet the demands of regular service. The explanation implies good service will be back up once the wintry conditions pass.
Don’t count on it.
On any given day this winter, almost half of its cars have been laid up because of damage from snow, ice and cold. But the line’s repair sheds are so small that workers have been setting up in the elements to fix trains broken by…the elements. On top of those problems, 300 new cars, called M-8s, are indefinitely stuck in the testing phase.
MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said testing will only resume on the M-8s once the cold and snow has passed. “We don’t want to sacrifice the new cars to the weather,” he said.
Even when winter abates, the backlog of repairs will have to be handled by repair shops that have been unable to supply enough working cars. For years, the line has routinely run trains with fewer cars than platforms can handle, leading to standing-room-only crushes during peak times.
Connecticut’s $866 million investment in the M-8 cars was supposed to have averted a crisis like this one. They were scheduled to be put into service in late 2009 but production problems meant they were only delivered at that time. The MTA, which runs Metro-North, began testing them with an eye toward having the M-8s carry commuters by late last year.
Unspecified technical glitches arose and that deadline was missed. Then came winter.
The roots of Monday’s cut in service stretch back even further. The MTA wanted to order new cars around 2000. By agreement, the authority pays 35% of the costs of operating the New Haven Line, from equipment purchases to operating expenses, while the state of Connecticut picks up the rest. But then-Governor John Rowland refused to make the investment.
“The new cars should have been ordered a decade ago, before the existing fleet broke down,” said Jim Cameron of the Connecticut Commuter Rail Council. “The reason that didn’t happen is Governor Rowland didn’t want to spend the money.”
Connecticut riders will have a chance to confront their local lawmakers and railroad officials on February 16 at a meeting that the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council is calling “Winter Crisis: Commuter Summit.” It will be held at 7 p.m. at the Stamford Government Center.
Click here for the complete report.
This is a glaring example of why investing in our transportation infrastructure is arguably the most important thing our elected officials on all levels should be doing. The New Haven line’s ridership is extremely high & commuters standing from Connecticut to New York & vice versa are the norm when fleet is near normal levels. Imagine how it will be now with fewer cars available & cuts to service.
Connecticut voters should hold their Governor’s feet to the fire as poor decision making has led to this completely unacceptable debacle. In an age where ridership has been increasing, the last thing that should have been done was a no show in terms of infrastructure investments.
I strongly urge any of my readers who rely on Metro-North’s New Haven line to attend the summit & let their elected officials know that if they don’t step up & do right by all of you, that they will be shown the door when reelection time occurs.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Service Diversions 02-05-11
I have just updated the Service Diversions page with the latest planned work for the weekend, next week, & beyond (in some cases). I suggest printing out a copy before heading to your destination. If you have an internet capable handheld device, you can use it to access the mobile version of this site.
The next update will be at 5:01 AM Monday when the weekend diversions are removed & all subsequent work is moved up. As always, stay safe & have a wonderful weekend.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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MTA Ready To Build Contactless Fare Pay System
The MTA knows all about being behind in terms of technology. One of those ways happens to be with the lack of a contactless fare payment system being in place as seen in other cities. Last June, the agency teamed with New Jersey Transit, PATH, & Mastercard on a 6 month Smart Card pilot program which saw such a system implemented on select bus routes & subway stations.
The pilot ended this past November with no word about its future. However yesterday, word came out that the agency is ready to build out the system. DTN has more in this report:
After about four years of testing, the New York City area’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is beginning the process of building a fare-payment system based on general-purpose contactless cards. MTA officials tell Digital Transactions News that they plan to publish a so-called Concept of Operations, a document outlining the agency’s broad plans that would help vendors develop formal proposals. That document is expected to be available for review soon, though the agency hasn’t given an exact date.
“Once we finish our industry-outreach activities, we will begin the process of turning that into technical requirements and move into high-level system design, and then detailed system design,” an MTA spokesperson tells Digital Transactions News by e-mail. “We expect to issue an RFP [request for proposals] this year to enable us to identify a systems integrator. One of their tasks will be to work with us to do the detailed design.”
The program will be centered on using general-purpose, contactless credit, debit, and prepaid cards and other media based on the ISO 1443 contactless technology standard. That would include contactless fobs that already come with some payment cards, and stickers that attach to cell phones.
“Our fare-collection systems at our railroads are currently not interoperable with the subway/bus fare-payments system,” the spokesperson says. “We’d like to implement a single system that would enable our customers to use the same card or device to pay the fare on the New York City subway, buses in New York City and environs, the Long Island Rail Road, and Metro-North Railroad.” Planners also are considering making their new fare system capable of reloading E-ZPass accounts, which enable drivers to make cashless toll-highway payments in many Eastern states.
The MTA has not yet set a budget for the new fare project. “We’ll begin to develop cost estimates based on the [Concept of Operations], and continue to refine them as we move through design,” the spokesperson says.
In all likelihood, the new system won’t be cheap. The MetroCard system cost about $750 million in total, according to consultant Peter Quadagno, a former MTA official who had product-management duties for the card when it launched.
Click here for the complete report.
It is a shame that it took this long for the agency to get the ball rolling on technology that has long been available. Besides the initial concern about cost, I hope that by time a system is in place, the technology used is not nearly or completely outdated. I hope to find out more as time goes on.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Bloomberg: Approaching A Transportation Crisis
At a congressional hearing on high speed rail las week, Mayor Bloomberg made a powerful statement that should make everyone take notice. He said, “The Northeast is approaching a transportation crisis.” While some might think that is political theater from the mayor, he is speaking the absolute truth.
A lovely community manager at WNET alerted me to this story so I could share it with all of you. So here is the report written by Sarah Laskow courtesy of State Room:
Is New York City a transport heaven, or a transport hell?
When executing a perfect transfer, when that next subway train pulls up right as you’re ready to step on, when in half-an-hour you’ve crossed half the city, the subway system can seem like a marvel of the modern world.
But when you can’t catch a cab or find a parking space, when you just miss that late-night train and the station is cold and damp, when you calculate just how early you should get to the airport, it seems like it might be better to live anywhere else.
New Yorkers have some of the longest commutes in the country. The region’s three airports have the worst delays. The city’s buses “are not very reliable,” according to the New York state auditor. And the Metropolitan Transit Authority has a looming debt burden that could herald fare increases four times larger than the most recent bump.
The transportation in and around New York City is at a turning point. There are two problems to solve — how to get around and how to get away. And the decisions that policymakers are pursuing right now will determine how easy it will be to do both in the years the come.
Getting away has always been a particular problem in a city built on an island. Whatever Robert Moses’ flaws, one of his initial triumphs was smoothing the way for New Yorkers desperate to get themselves out of sweltering city streets and onto Long Island beaches. But the solutions that worked for Moses — bridges and highways — are no longer an option. As Mayor Bloomberg reported last week at a congressional hearing on high-speed rail, held in Grand Central Station, “The Northeast is approaching a transportation crisis.”
Click here for the complete report.
I normally don’t agree with the Mayor but he is right about the Northeast approaching a transportation crisis. I will throw in that is mainly the fault of elected officials who do not truly understand or care about the value of a well built, maintained, & thought out transportation system. Such a thing would clearly be an even bigger economical engine compared to what it currently is & that is saying something.
While I will not hold my breath on this high speed route materializing as when do states really work together for the benefit of all, it would be nice to have as it would be a money maker & truly utilized on such a busy corridor. Time will tell if this fantasy will turn into a reality.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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