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No LIRR Long Beach Service This Weekend

Posted by
on May 11th, 2010 at 1:24 pm

Setting the pre-cast concrete bridge deck panels at the Powell Creek.
Setting the pre-cast concrete bridge deck panels at the Powell Creek. Photo courtesy of the MTA Long Island Rail Road.

This has become a familiar theme for riders of the LIRR’s Long Beach line. Once again, the MTA Long Island Rail Road has announced that service will be suspended on the Long Beach line this weekend as they wrap up the construction of two new railroad bridges over Powell Creek and Hog Island Channel. Here are the complete details:

Buses will replace train service for Long Island Rail Road customers traveling between Long Beach and Valley Stream the weekend of Saturday, May 15 and Sunday, May 16 as work is completed on the construction of two new railroad bridges over Powell Creek and Hog Island Channel.

The $24.5 million project, which is funded through the MTA Capital Budget and federal grants, began in March and is wrapping up as planned in time to accommodate the weekend beach crowds expected in Long Beach beginning Memorial Day weekend.

So, for Long Beach branch customers this coming weekend, Saturday, May 15 and Sunday, May 16, service will be provided as follows:

Eastbound: Customers will transfer to buses at Valley Stream for stations Lynbrook through Long Beach. Customers should allow up to 34 minutes of additional travel time.

Westbound: Customers will board buses at stations Long Beach through Lynbrook bound for Valley Stream, where they will transfer to trains to complete their trip. Buses will depart up to 33 minutes earlier than scheduled train times.

“Our workers have been doing a remarkable job keeping this project on time despite some very adverse weather conditions, especially in March,” said LIRR President Helena E. Williams. “We are also grateful to our customers for their patience on the weekends when the work required us to suspend train service and substitute buses. The new bridges are part of the railroad’s ongoing efforts to modernize its infrastructure and ensure safe and reliable service for decades to come.”

Both the Powell Creek Bridge (located between the LIRR’s East Rockaway and Oceanside Stations) and the Hog Island Channel Bridge (located between Oceanside and Island Park Stations) were built in the 1920s, and have served the LIRR well for nearly 90 years.

The old Powell Creek and Hog Island Bridges are open-deck wooden and steel structures supported by wooden piles through which water is visible below. They were replaced with pre-cast concrete structures, supported by reinforced concrete-filled, steel pipe piles, which will provide safer, closed-deck concrete roadbeds.

The project will also alleviate a recurring flooding condition at Powell Creek Bridge, which has at times led to delays and temporary service suspensions, by raising the elevation of the bridge by approximately one foot. Bridge walkways will also be installed at both locations to make it safer for LIRR employees.

For those interested in seeing a video showing the LIRR Long Beach Branch bridge replacement work, click here.

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0

MTA LIRR/CooCoo Partnership Grows

Posted by
on May 11th, 2010 at 1:14 pm

In late January, I wrote a brief entry about a pilot partnership between the MTA Long Island Rail Road & the Long Island based text engine messaging company CooCoo. The partnership enabled LIRR riders to get travel information via text messages.

Fast forward to this past Monday where the LIRR announced a new phase to the partnership with CooCoo as riders will now be able to obtain fare information via text messaging. Here are the complete details from the press release I received yesterday:

MTA Long Island Rail Road customers can now obtain train fare information via cell phone text message from CooCoo, the Long Island-based text engine company that has been providing train schedules and service updates via cell phone at no extra cost beyond your phone company’s standard texting fee.

Since CooCoo debuted its LIRR travel information in January, some 50,000 unique users have tried the service with 77% coming back to use it again. Between 300 and 500 additional LIRR customers are discovering the convenience of CooCoo every day.

Texting your station-to-station request to 266266 (that spells CooCoo) gets you the train information you need – departure/arrival time, ticket prices and service updates – in seconds. The company estimates it will answer more than 1.8 million requests this year at the current rate of daily usage.

“We are excited about the innovative way CooCoo is getting LIRR travel information to the public and that it’s being done at no cost to the MTA,” said MTA Chairman and CEO Jay H. Walder. “The addition of ticket prices to this service is another positive step in an experiment that is promising to help us revolutionize the way mass transit data is provided in New York.”

Long Island Rail Road President Helena Williams said: “Customer response to CooCoo has been very encouraging. Our customers like the option of getting train and now fare information via cell phone. It’s very convenient and in the long run should help drive down our costs.”

CooCoo Co-Founder John Tunney said: “The fact that CooCoo is so user-friendly is why we’re getting such a high delight factor among LIRR customers. At CooCoo, our plan is to continue to introduce more innovative services for mass transit riders as time goes on.”

CooCoo is the latest in a series of enhanced LIRR customer communication efforts. Customers can also receive free, real-time customer E-Alerts by signing up at www.mta.info/lirr. For more information about CooCoo and its LIRR service go the MTA’s home page, www.mta.info/coocoo.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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5

MTA Chairman Opines On Union Work Rules

Posted by
on May 10th, 2010 at 1:33 pm

The battle between the MTA & unions (especially the TWU Local 100) is an editorial gift that keeps giving. The latest round continues to be about the pending layoffs the MTA says is necessary to help clean up an ever growing budget deficit. The battle lines are clear in this one as the MTA is focusing on cutting their deficit & unions like TWU Local 100 are about saving the jobs of their members.

Today’s edition of the New York Daily News has a report in which MTA Chairman Jay H. Walder opines on how union work rules are a “shame on the system”. Pete Donohue has more:

MTA chairman Jay Walder is bashing union work rules he says allow workers to play pool or read on the clock, calling them the “shame of the system.”

Rules embedded in labor contracts are hampering the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s efforts to increase efficiency – and save money, Walder told the Daily News.

“That has to change,” Walder said. “It might mean some of our bus drivers aren’t as good at playing pool as they are now, but we might have to bear that cost.”

Some bus depots have pool tables in crew rooms for drivers to use on their so-called swing shift, a period of time when drivers receive half-pay but aren’t behind the wheel.

A typical bus driver’s schedule can span 12 hours: driving a route for four hours during the morning rush and another four hours in the evening rush, the peak travel periods when service is most needed.

During the middle four hours – say, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. – drivers don’t have any work-related duties but are still on the clock.

Transport Workers Union Local 100 President John Samuelsen bristled at Walder’s comments.

“Our bus operators are away from their families 13, 14 hours a day and are compensated for it,” Samuelsen said.

“The MTA has agreed to these terms for 50 years – and it’s fair. Jay Walder is doing the exact thing the MTA has accused the union of doing in the past: trying to negotiate a contract in the newspaper.”

Click here for the complete report.

Let me first start off by saying the MTA is showing how they have mastered hypocrisy with the venue chosen for Jay’s opinions. Look back throughout the long battle history of the MTA & unions, & one specific tactic usually was thrown at the unions. The tactic was the MTA accusing the union of trying to negotiate their points through the media. Yet, this is exactly what Jay is doing.

I read the comments left to this article & some are your typical anti-union idiocy. Our region seems to have plenty of people who think driving a bus for instance is so easy, a caveman could do it. They choose to completely ignore how hard driving a bus is along with the big safety risks that face drivers daily. According to these “experts”, any person off the street could drive a bus & they should not get paid much to do so.

Are there some changes that should be looked into? Yes, I would be the first to say that some changes should be adapted in terms of rules in place for workers. However everything is not as cut & dry as the MTA & uninformed riding public have you believe. Instead of dishing out the reality of how complex things are, they revert to the typical bash the enemy routine. What does the MTA have to lose in doing that? They have a majority of the riding public supporting the idiocy that most transit workers are lazy & overpaid.

Why doesn’t the MTA take this same hard line stance with the levels of redundant management positions & the waste that goes on there? Why do they continue to always try & paint most of their problems on the blue-collar workforce? If they took this same intensity towards cutting wasteful management positions, cutting out waste & budget overruns with projects, getting better deals on products & services, etc…, their budget woes would be severely lower.

So Jay, instead of attacking the workers “pool skills”, focus on all of the real issues within your control at the MTA instead of cherry picking the ones that best protect your type & subsequent peers underneath you. Is that too much to ask for?

xoxo Transit Blogger

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0

MTA Station Agent Update

Posted by
on May 9th, 2010 at 9:56 pm

As you know by now, the MTA had planned to layoff hundreds of station token booth clerks due to their huge budget deficit. The first round of cuts were to have started this past Wednesday, but a judge issued a temporary restraining order against the MTA closing the booths. Yesterday evening, the MTA issued a brief press release to give an update on the situation. Here is the press release I received:

Budget Shortfall Requires Layoff of Station Agents

The MTA’s nearly $800 million budget shortfall for 2010 has forced us to make difficult choices to reduce costs, including laying off more than 450 subway station agents. The station agents are employed at subway booths that have been approved for closing and at other locations in the system.

A temporary restraining order issued by a court Wednesday night put the MTA’s closure of the 42 subway booths on hold for now. In light of the order, the MTA is refraining from laying off the employees needed to staff those booths while the litigation proceeds.

More than 250 of the station agents, however, are not required to keep those subway booths open, and those layoffs are now scheduled for next week to ensure that we achieve the maximum savings possible in light of the MTA’s budget shortfall.

I will continue to report on this as the situation develops.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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0

MTA Names New President Of Bridges & Tunnels

Posted by
on May 7th, 2010 at 2:47 pm

Just a few minutes ago, the MTA sent out a press release to announce the official appointment of a new President of MTA Bridges & Tunnels. Here are the complete details:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) today announced the permanent appointment of Jim Ferrara as President, MTA Bridges and Tunnels effective May 10. Approximately 800,000 vehicles utilize MTA Bridge and Tunnel facilities each day. Ferrara had been serving as Acting President since January, succeeding Susan Kupferman.

“Thirty-three years at Bridges and Tunnels almost speaks for itself,” said Jay H. Walder, MTA Chairman and CEO. “Jim’s experience, extraordinary management skills, and unique perspective on all aspects of bridge and tunnel operations more than qualify him to run one of the nation’s largest bridge and tunnel toll authorities.”

“I am very proud to be leading a workforce that moves more than a million people a day on crossings that are critical to the region’s economy,” said Ferrara.

Ferrara was previously Vice President for Operations. He began his career at the Authority in 1977 as a Bridge and Tunnel Officer. He came up through the ranks serving as a Sergeant and Lieutenant before entering management, and has served as General Manager of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. He has also worked at the R.F.K. (formerly Triborough) Bridge, the Henry Hudson Bridge, and the Rockaway Bridges.

As Operations Superintendent at the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, Ferrara was in charge the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center towers. He was widely praised for his response in assisting stranded motorists and pedestrians, expediting emergency vehicles and directing employees in the chaotic hours following the attack.

Ferrara, who was born in Brooklyn and now resides in Queens, is a graduate of Nyack College.

MTA Bridges and Tunnels’ facilities, which connect the five boroughs of New York City, are the R.F.K., Throgs Neck, Bronx-Whitestone, Henry Hudson, Verrazano-Narrows, Cross Bay Veterans Memorial and Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Bridges, and the Queens Midtown and Brooklyn-Battery Tunnels.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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