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LIRR Sees A Rise In Cashless Riders

Posted by
on July 28th, 2010 at 5:40 am

For regular Long Island Rail Road riders, it is known that the best way to ride is to buy your tickets in advance. When you don’t & have to buy them on the train, you pay an even more inflated cost for a service that is already priced too high. However let me not digress into that rant.

When the summer comes around, the LIRR sees a spike in ridership which mainly comes from those who are not regulars or completely unfamiliar to the ticket policies. This mainly takes place with young riders going to & from the Hamptons. Some stations out east such as Amagansett which does not even contain a ticket machine. So it is imperative that tickets are purchased in advance.

Unfortunately this message has not reached a number of riders as the LIRR has seen an increase in cashless riders. Andrew Grossman of the Wall Street Journal has more:

There are no ticket vending machines in Amagansett’s tiny train station. And there are no credit cards accepted on Long Island Rail Road trains.

Renee Osgood, 24 years old, learned these two things the hard way Monday morning. She barely made the 5:58 to get back to New York City, and once aboard, she discovered she only had $14 on her—$9 less than she needed.

Ms. Osgood is part of what Long Island Rail Road officials say is a growing trend of debit- and credit-card-reliant young people who get on trains from the Hamptons without cash and without prepaid tickets.

They’re creating hassles for conductors, who have to take down the names and addresses of ticketless passengers and give them invoices.

Passengers who ignore the invoices—which say “THIS IS A BILL” in bold letters at the bottom—just keep getting notices in the mail.

There are a growing number of cashless passengers riding the LIRR, spokesman Joe Calderone said, but the agency had no specific data beyond anecdotal evidence from conductors.

The problem is especially pronounced on the East End, where the railroad often carries people who don’t ride the system regularly and some stations don’t have ticket machines, which accept credit and debit cards.

The railroad doesn’t have any immediate plans to start accepting credit cards on trains.

But the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is studying a systemwide overhaul of the way it collects fares. It’s testing a system that allows riders to tap a transponder-equipped device on a reader at subway turnstiles, automatically deducting money from the user’s bank account.

Click here for the complete report.

This is an issue that the LIRR should not be dealing with. In today’s day & age, it is inexcusable that they have not implemented the means for a conductor to accept credit/debit card payments. Other systems have been able to implement such basic needs yet the most important system in the world can’t.

This is a fine example of the need for the MTA to catch up with technology if they ever expect to maximize the effectiveness of its overall system or better yet achieve the dream by MTA CEO & Board Chairman Jay H. Walder.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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Jay Has A Dream……

Posted by
on July 28th, 2010 at 4:12 am

They say that being a kid is the best time in life as you are filled with a lot of dreams & energy. When it came to dreams, it was always about dreaming for the stars & how anything is possible. When you become older & wiser, you start to factor in a thing called reality.

Obviously MTA CEO & Board Chairman Jay H. Walder is an adult but he has a dream & will do whatever it takes to accomplish it even if reality is against him. His dream, a cleaner & faster mass transit system. Eliot Brown of The Observer has more:

The perennial attempt to hike subway and bus fares is one of the more ritualistic political dances in New York. Any leader of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority who ever tries logic (fares, adjusted for inflation, are virtually the same as in the mid-1990s) is inevitably met with a blast of criticism. Politicians decry the move. Riders voice disgust. Protests ensue. The M.T.A. just doesn’t get what it does to the little guy.

Such is the position of Jay Walder, the M.T.A.’s still-new leader, who has many an innovative, rider-friendly idea (Countdown clocks! Cell-phone service underground! Fast buses throughout the city!), but who has spent much of his nine months on the job cutting costs, scouring for efficiencies, rolling back service and, now, increasing fares.

On Wednesday, July 28, the M.T.A. chairman and CEO is expected to plunge into an inevitable public swamp when he unveils the agency’s latest set of hikes, to be implemented in January, including a $10 jump, with new restrictions, for the monthly unlimited card-a 7.5 percent overall increase that Albany legislators initially gave a nod to last year.

Click here for the complete story.

Sadly with the way our elected officials treat the MTA, it is a pretty good bet that it would take years upon years until our system is at the level envisioned by Jay. While they are not the only culprit, as employee costs, bloated management, & budget overruns on capital projects are a factor, it is clear that their decades of abuse have hurt the agency. Hopefully things change but it is only fair if I & many others are skeptical.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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MTA & Vacca To Meet About The Bx8

Posted by
on July 28th, 2010 at 3:21 am

As I have discussed at different points in time, it was clear that some boroughs really got a knockout punch when the MTA’s service cuts went into effect. One of the boroughs to get a heavyweight hit was the Bronx which saw cutbacks or complete elimination to a number of routes including the Bx14.

I opined about the elimination of the Bx14 & how it came as no surprise to me due to the lack of service compared to other lines along with low ridership. The only area to really be hit by the elimination of the route was the Country Club section of the Bronx. The MTA attempted to address that issue by rerouting the Bx8 to serve it on its way to Throggs Neck.

Unfortunately many riders in the area are not happy & they are not alone as so is Councilman Jimmy Vacca. He will be meeting with the MTA to discuss the rerouting of the Bx8 along with potential solutions to address the concern of local riders & residents. Patrick Rocchio of The Bronx Times & YourNabe.com has more:

The backlash against the MTA’s new Bx8 bus route continues, and now city officials have jumped into the fight.

Throggs Neck residents want the MTA to recognize the flaws of its new bus route, and they’ve recruited community and merchant groups on their behalf.

In a closed-door meeting with community and merchant leaders on Tuesday, July 13 at Councilman Jimmy Vacca’s office, those concerned gathered to express their frustrations about the new route of the Bx8, which replaced the Bx14 bus on June 27.

The Throggs Neck Merchants Association and Throggs Neck Home Owners Association have asked Vacca to hold a special meeting about issues that have developed.

Vacca brought in the Spencer Estate Civic Association and Country Club Civic Association members, who have been having problems with buses running too frequently as well.

He has been in touch with the MTA about the unforeseen negative impacts the new route has had on different communities throughout Throggs Neck and Pelham Bay, and is hoping to affect change soon.

“The bottom line is that the current bus configurations cannot stand as they now exist, as there have been too many negative impacts,” Vacca said. “As many of us warned, the elimination of the Bx14 was uncalled for. The MTA has got to realize that all is not well, step in, and correct what they have done.”

Three major concerns have arisen from different communities along the portion of the Bx8 running from Spencer Estate and Country Club to Locust Point and Edgewater Park, Vacca said.

Firstly, residents from Edgewater Park and Locust Point have been forced to add a significant amount of travel time to their morning and nighttime commutes because their bus follows a less direct route to and from the Pelham Bay IRT train station.

Click here for the complete report.

The old saying of you can’t please everybody screams out in this situation. The MTA correctly eliminated a low ridership line & offered a decent alternative for those who used the service. Yet even with doing that, your typical NIMBY complains are coming the forefront especially about too much service.

I am curious as to how this meeting will go & what if any changes we will see to the route. I’ll keep tabs on this.

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Metro-North To Expand Fordham Station

Posted by
on July 28th, 2010 at 2:53 am

For my readers who depend on the MTA Metro-North Railroad, it comes as no surprise to you when I say it is one of the busiest stations in the system, especially in terms of reverse commuting. Anyone who has had to catch a train there can attest to how dangerously crowded it can become.

Thankfully the crowding issue will be resolved as soon as possible due the Metro-North’s project to expand the station. Here are the details courtesy of a report in the Mid-Hudson News:

Metro-North Railroad plans to buy a strip of land from Fordham University in order to widen and improve the outbound platform at the Fordham Station, where each morning, almost 6,000 people board northbound trains to get to jobs in Westchester and Connecticut.

After Harlem-125th Street, Fordham is the busiest station for reverse commutation, that is for people going north in the morning peak instead of into Manhattan. Over all, Fordham is Metro-North’s third busiest outlying station, after Stamford and White Plains.

“The current outbound platform is narrow and gets crowded during the AM rush,” said Metro-North President Howard Permut. “This purchase will enable the railroad to improve conditions for its Fordham customers.”

The property became available when Fordham built new dormitories and a retaining wall near the platform. The wall created a strip of inaccessible land at the platform level but below the level of the surrounding campus.

The total project cost is $14 million, including the purchase of the 7,128 square-foot parcel for $392,040.

I look forward to this project being done as the crowding can get out of hand. I have been at this station on a number of occasions & found it to be a safety hazard.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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Service Diversions 07-26-10

Posted by
on July 26th, 2010 at 7:59 am

I have just updated the “Service Diversions” page by removing all of the work scheduled to end by 5AM today.. The latest information for the upcoming week & beyond in some cases is at the forefront.

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 & do your best to keep cool!

xoxo Transit Blogger

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