Midtown Manhattan Holiday Bus Stop Changes
With the holiday season fast approaching, traffic in & around the Midtown Manhattan area will be picking up. Yesterday afternoon, MTA NYC Transit announced some bus stop changes that will be in effect until January 3. Here are the complete details courtesy of the press release I received:
MTA NYC Transit announces that effective, Sunday, November 14 and continuing through the holiday season until Monday, January 3, 2011, New York City Transit and MTA buses will not stop on Fifth Avenue at 49th and 50th Streets or on Sixth Avenue at 49th and 50th Streets.
M1, M1-Limited, M4, M4-Limited and Q32:
Customers may use the bus stop at 52nd Street instead. Local buses also stop at 46th Street.
M2, M2-Limited, M3, M5 and M5-Limited:
Customers may use the bus stop at 53rd Street instead. Local buses also stop at 47th Street.M5 and M5-Limited:
Customers may use the 47th Street bus stop instead.X1, X7 and X9:
These buses will not stop at 50th Street/Rockefeller Place or at 5th Avenue/48th Street. Customers may use the 7th Avenue/50th Street bus stop instead.QM1, QM5, and QM6:
Customers may use the 6th Avenue/51st Street bus stop instead.QM15, QM16, QM17 and QM18:
Customers may use the 6th Avenue/48th Street bus stop instead.
I suggest printing this entry out or make note of it before heading for any destination in those areas.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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MTA Names Darryl Irick New Bus Division Head
Late this afternoon, the MTA officially announced a new head of their bus division. MTA Chairman & CEO Jay H. Walder has named Darryl Irick to lead the 3 bus divisions within the agency. He will replace Joe Smith who announced his retirement, effective at the end of the year, last month. Here are the details courtesy of a press release:
MTA Chairman and CEO Jay H. Walder today named 24-year New York City Transit veteran Darryl Irick to serve as acting head of the MTA’s three bus divisions upon Joe Smith’s retirement at the end of the year. He will assume acting responsibilities for Senior Vice President, NYC Transit Department of Buses; President, MTA Bus Company; and President, Long Island Bus. Darryl will begin working with Joe Smith immediately in order to ensure a smooth transition.
Beginning his NYC Transit career in 1986 as a bus operator at Kingsbridge Depot, Irick has since earned progressively more senior positions in the areas of management, operations planning, and depot and road operations.
“Throughout his career, Darryl has distinguished himself with his ability to enter any operating environment and significantly improve performance,” said MTA Chairman Jay H. Walder. “I’m confident that he will rise to the challenge of continuing to improve our bus service even as we deal with historic budget constraints.”
In his new position, Irick will lead an operation responsible for transporting 2.8 million daily bus customers on a combined fleet of nearly 6,000 buses. The MTA’s bus operations have 18,500 employees based at 40 facilities stretching from Yonkers to Rockville Center, a 900-square-mile territory.
I am curious to see what kind of transition will take place & if he can continue the positive steps that have taken place within the bus divisions over 12-18 months.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Metro-North To Hold Veteran’s Day Ceremony
For those who will be around Grand Central Terminal tomorrow, I suggest you all stop by the grand concourse at 11 AM for the Veteran’s Day ceremony being held by the MTA Metro-North Railroad. Here are the details courtesy of a press release sent out yesterday:
A wreath will be hung and taps will be played at a solemn ceremony on Thursday November 11 at 11 a.m. as MTA Metro-North Railroad honors its veterans and all veterans of the United States Armed Forces.
The MTA Police Pipe and Drum Band will open and close the ceremony and the Commodore Vanderbilt American Legion Post #1158 will provide the color guard for Metro-North’s annual Veterans’ Day Ceremony on the Main Concourse of Grand Central Terminal.
Metro-North employs 669 veterans, about one in five of all employees, including a dozen who are currently on active duty.
In both World Wars I and II, millions of service men and women arrived in Grand Central from all corners of this country. They marched through the Main Concourse—onto troop ships—and into the heart of the battle in Europe.
“Metro-North Railroad can boast, with reverence and pride, that many of our fellow employees, both retired and working, span the breath of military service from World War II, the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam War, to the wars and conflicts of today in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Howard Permut, president of Metro-North Railroad. “Today, and every day, we thank you, we honor you and we respect you.”
I won’t be able to attend due to prior business commitments. However if anyone goes, I’d love to hear about it.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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The Stars Set To Shine Again In Grand Central
Yesterday afternoon, I received an interested press release highlighting how the stars are set to shine again in Grand Central Terminal. Here are the details:
New York City’s most-beloved galaxy, the constellation ceiling above Grand Central Terminal’s Main Concourse, came alive today with new luminosity in the form of light-emitting diodes.
Fifty-nine of the brightest stars in the winter sky, such as Castor and Pollux in Gemini and Rigel in Orion, were turned on Monday now that MTA Metro-North Railroad, steward of the Terminal, has completed installation of new fixtures.
“Using new technology to celebrate the traditional grandeur of Grand Central’s celestial ceiling is a testament to our commitment to improving the life of the city even as we continue to cut costs,” said Jay Walder, Chairman of Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Metro-North’s parent agency. “We hope people won’t run into one another as they crane their necks and peer skyward in admiration.”
“As New Yorkers face the first workday after the return to Standard Time, when afternoons are short and nighttimes are long, we thought it would brighten spirits to unveil these jewels today,” said Metro-North President Howard Permut. “This project is another reason to love Grand Central and we are proud to use the latest, greenest technology in the city’s beloved landmark.”
The long-lasting, cool-burning LED lights replaced a system of fiber-optic lights, which in turn replaced the original, 10-watt incandescent bulbs. The bulbs were state-of-the art when the terminal opened in 1913. The pride and fascination with which the new-fangled electricity was viewed was evidenced by the bare light bulbs found throughout the Terminal.
Over the years, the star bulbs burned out. Replacing them was labor-intensive as the barrel- vaulted ceiling is quite deep – 50 feet from the top of the cornice to the zenith of the arc. Accessible only through the attic above the sky ceiling, workers would have to crawl on all fours to reach the incandescent fixtures and screw in new bulbs.
Over the years, as the predecessor railroad headed for bankruptcy, there was less and less enthusiasm for this particular maintenance chore and the bulbs burned out, one by one, until the entire winter zodiac sky was dark.
The fiber-optic system, installed in 1997, was a major innovation when it was new and eliminated the need for electricians to change burnt out bulbs. Seven fiber-optic light sources sent light travelling through clear plastic tubes to the individual stars across the expansive, barrel-vaulted concourse ceiling.
Over the years, the tubes got brittle and brown, and did not project light with the same intensity. The stars faded. In the search for a new, environmentally friendly solution, LEDs seemed the obvious choice.
Metro-North sought vendors and selected Design Plan of Frenchtown, NJ, which did the design and supplied the equipment. Installation was performed by Metro-North electricians. The lights, on timers, will be turned off daily from 2 a.m. until 5 a.m., while the Terminal is closed for cleaning. The new fixtures are expected to last 50,000 hours, and use just 4 watts of electricity – 60% less than the previous lights.
The new fixtures were installed in their original locations so as not to disturb the famed, 25,000-square-foot cerulean ceiling, with 2,500 gold-leaf stars and a pair of intersecting 23-carat golden arcs depicting the elliptic and the equator.
The portion of the universe depicted in the mural shows the wintertime zodiac and associated constellations such as Pegasus, Triangulum and Fly, as they appear in the northern hemisphere, not as seen from Earth, but as seen from above. When the Terminal opened, there was a civic debate about the sky being reversed, but the builders insisted it was intentional and showed the stars from the gods’ perspective.
Each LED fixture has the same brightness, but the glass, lens-like diffuser changes the light’s intensity depending on its thickness and depth to better capture the size and intensity of the actual star being depicted. Seven transformers, each servicing several stars, change the power supply from 125 volts AC to 24 volts DC.
When gazing up, 125 feet above the Tennessee pink marble floor, one cannot see all the lighted stars at once. As people walk across the Concourse floor and their vantage point changes, different stars appear, giving a twinkling impression.
You can watch a video with more information courtesy of the MTA’s official Youtube channel:
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Service Diversions 11-08-10
I have just updated the “Service Diversions” page by removing all of the work that just wrapped up by 5 AM this morning. The latest information for the upcoming week & beyond in some cases is at the forefront.
Throughout the week, I will make minor updates on the page itself (no entries about it) by removing work already completed. The next complete update will be by late Thursday night or Friday morning (unless the diversions are not sent out until after).
As always, I suggest you print out a copy of the diversions to have with you while riding. You may also use any phone or electronic device to access the mobile friendly version of Transit Blogger. Have a safe week!
xoxo Transit Blogger
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