Q21 & Q53 Travel Advisory Update
Two days ago, I wrote about a travel advisory which would lead to intermittent delays on the Q21 & Q53. The maintenance work on the Cross Bay Memorial Bridge which was scheduled for today & tomorrow has been postponed. MTA NYC Transit & Bus Company have issued a press release with new times for the work:
Due to problems with equipment availability, MTA Bus officials announced that the maintenance work scheduled for Wednesday, February 3, Thursday, February 4 and Friday, February 5 on the Cross Bay Bridge is postponed.
The intermittent closures will now take place on Wednesday, February 10, Thursday, February 11 and Friday, February 12. All northbound lanes of the Cross Bay Bridge will be closed for 20 minute intervals between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on those three days. These closures will affect all traffic traveling to Broad Channel from the Rockaways. Q53 and Q21 customers should expect delays and plan accordingly.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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NYCT Continues Rollout Of Real Time Info Boards
Newly installed PA/CIS Board at the Middletown Road station. Photo courtesy of MTA New York City Transit.
On Christmas Eve, I wrote an entry about how MTA New York City Transit was rolling out real time information boards at some Bronx 6 line stations. Earlier today, they announced a continued rollout of these boards via a press release. Here are the complete details:
MTA New York City Transit officials today announced that real-time train arrival message screens are now operational and being tested in the Buhre Avenue and Middletown Road stations on the 6 line.
The Public Address Customer Information Screen (PA/CIS) provides train arrival messages in audio and video. The messages indicate when the next two trains are due to arrive at the station and their destinations. Though still in the testing phase, this marks an important milestone in the effort to provide MTA New York City Transit’s subway customers with up-to-date travel information employing 21st Century technology. It is also a major component of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s effort to substantially upgrade customer communications across its entire network.
Aside from train arrivals, the system also allows NYC Transit to provide both audio and visual messages to customers, keeping them fully informed about service delays or emergency situations. PA/CIS will be rolled out incrementally with 152 stations on the numbered lines operational by the first quarter of 2011. PA/CIS was first introduced along the Canarsie L line in January 2007.
The information distributed through the PA/CIS system originates from NYC Transit’s Rail Control Center (RCC). From the RCC, Customer Service Agents provide subway customers with service status and other information either as audio only, visual only, or as synchronized audio and visual information.
In addition to Buhre Avenue and Middletown Road stations, PA/CIS equipment is also operational in the Brook Avenue, Cypress Avenue, E.143rd Street-St. Mary’s Street, E. 149th Street and Longwood Avenue Stations, as well as all the stations on the L line. The system includes signs and speakers which are located on the platforms and in the fare control areas prior to entering the station. PA/CIS will be activated in more stations throughout the coming weeks.
The announcement of this is good timing as I have been meaning to write an entry about them. I took a visit to a station along the 6 recently to photograph them in action for Eye On Transit. I took a few photos & will share my thoughts later tonight.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Q21 & Q53 Travel Advisory
Earlier today, MTA NYC Transit & Bus Company issued a press release to announce a travel advisory for those who ride the Q21 & Q53. Here are the complete details:
MTA Bus officials announce that on Wednesday, February 3, Thursday, February 4 and Friday, February 5, the Q53 and Q21 will experience intermittent delays in order to accommodate maintenance work on the Cross Bay Bridge.
All northbound lanes of the Cross Bay Bridge will be closed for 20 minute intervals between 9 a.m. and 12:01 p.m. on those three days. These closures will affect all traffic traveling to Broad Channel from the Rockaways. Q53 and Q21 customers should expect delays and plan accordingly
xoxo Transit Blogger
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MTA Stimulus Funds Editorial
A big topic of late in the world of the MTA is what the agency should do with federal stimulus funds. Some feel the agency should plug their operating deficiencies with stimulus funds, while others feel this is not the best use of funds. Sunday’s print edition of the New York Daily News contained an editorial from NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, NYC Council Member James Vacca, & NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign Senior Attorney Gene Russianoff on the topic:
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is struggling with a whopping deficit.
The agency is looking for new efficiencies and administrative overhauls, but it also has proposed three awful steps in 2010. These include $62 million in drastic service cuts; $31 million from beginning the phaseout of student MetroCards; and $40 million in savings from reduced paratransit service.
Millions of subway, bus and commuter riders are the victims, virtually lashed to the tracks as a trainload of misery bears down on them.
We have proposed several reasonable actions to prevent these proposals and are urging the MTA to use federal stimulus funds and other operating money to prevent service cuts this year.
Here’s what should be done:
• Use up to $121 million in federal stimulus funds for service in 2010. Federal law permits up to 10% of its stimulus funds to be spent on operations. Transit systems around the country – including Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle and St. Louis – are facing the same financial crises and are using stimulus dollars.
• Reprogram for service up to $50 million in operating funds. Right now, the MTA is planning to spend $50 million in operating funds on capital projects. At a time when the operating budget is badly pinched, it makes no sense for the MTA to direct operating funds to capital and worsen service cuts.
It’s just not correct to say the first two steps are taking transit capital dollars to pay for operations, as the MTA has argued.
Federal law specifically allows a small portion of transportation stimulus money to pay to keep the system running. Congress and President Obama saw it was in the national interest to help maintain service in this troubled economy. Transit agencies around the country are using this option to maintain vital service and jobs.
There is a way out. The MTA can use the authority Congress gave it to spend federal stimulus funds for service. This temporary measure will buy the MTA a year to begin tackling the real and lasting reforms Chairman Jay Walder has already laid out in his recent report, “Making Every Dollar Count.” With our plan, the agency can act in the interest of the riding public, untie them from the tracks, and save them from these devastating cuts.Click here to read the complete editorial.
The 3 of them make a compelling case for the call of using a block of stimulus funds to fix holes in the MTA’s financial budget. However I am not sure this is the right way to go about doing things. As we saw during the whole battle over the “doomsday scenario“, & subsequent “rescue package“, politicians are always looking for quick fixes.
Using money tailored for future capital projects seems like a bad idea from where I sit. Although the argument can be made that a fiscally healthy MTA in the current day is just as important as a better developed system in the future, I worry about politicians not understanding what is needed for both to become a reality.
It seems anytime they can go for the quick fix to plug holes at the risk of the future they will. When the future becomes the present, the cycle repeats itself & so the story goes. What they need to understand is that going the quick fix route whether it be stimulus funds or anything else is not what they should be concerned with. They need to find a way to pony up the city & state’s fair share of funding on a regular basis. This is the real goal that should be on their minds today, tomorrow, & forever.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Track Work Disturbing Locals
Every couple of months I come across these kind of stories in the New York Daily News. The formula usually goes something like this, MTA NYC Transit is doing construction on a subway line. The construction leads to complaints from locals who feel the noise is ruining their lives in some ways. This is once again the case as some Bensonhurst locals are complaining about track work on the 
. Mike McLaughlin of the New York Daily News has more:
you hear something, say something.
Recent track work by the MTA on an elevated line in Bensonhurst has left locals covering their ears because of an ear-splitting, screech from overhead trains.
“I’ve been here 30 years. It used to be noisy, but livable. Now, it’s killing me,” said Hilna Motors owner Louis Gellman, whose auto repair shop is beneath the D train at 86th St. and Stillwell Ave.
“I can’t even talk to people outside. I have to bring my customers into my office,” added Gellman, who believes the racket has caused hearing loss.
The disturbance began last year when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority installed new tracks along the route.
A TA spokesman said the increased volume was a temporary headache because the track work required that they stop greasing the rails, which reduces the din.
After a series of noise complaints were lodged with the MTA, the agency inspected the site on Dec. 21, prompting the agency to add extra lubricant to the rails to fight the problem.
“These corrective measures have greatly reduced the noise level,” said TA spokesman Charles Seaton in a statement. “We expect further reduction as the new track wears in.”
Assemblyman William Colton (D-Brooklyn) said that noise is not just a public nuisance: It’s also a symbol of financial waste at the MTA.“Noise is not only something that’s detrimental to people’s lives and health, but it’s also detrimental to the system” he said.
Click here for the complete story.
Seriously I am starting to get sick of locals always finding something to complain about. Construction on a system 100+ years old is inevitable so noise is a natural part of the process. While it can be disturbing, it is just part of the pain you must endure for the better good of everyone.
If they had it their way, the construction would stop so the noise could go away. However we all know that these same people would be complaining about things not being fixed. Sorry, you can’t have it both ways so deal with it & find something else to worry about.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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