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LIRR Service Affected For A.M. Commute

Posted by
on November 24th, 2008 at 1:24 am

Late Sunday evening the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) sent out a press release via e-mail to alert the media that A.M. service would be affected due to the derailment that occurred earlier in the day. The affects will be seen in the form of delays, service cancellations & service reductions. Here are the complete details:

MTA Long Island Rail Road customers should anticipate significant schedule changes and possible delays tomorrow morning as a result of a derailment that occurred in Jamaica on Sunday.

LIRR crews are working overnight to try and repair damage to switches and track caused by the derailment, but it is likely that all the work will not be completed in time for the Monday morning rush hour service.

The cause of the derailment is under investigation; however this incident is not related to the train sideswipe that occurred in Jamaica on November 19.

The Monday AM Rush service plan includes cancellation of 12 westbound AM rush trains. As a result, there will be residual delays from added station stops and not all scheduled connections will be available at Jamaica Station to Penn Station, Flatbush Avenue-Brooklyn, Hunterspoint Avenue, and Long Island City. LIRR station personnel will be available at Jamaica to assist customers with service information. The modified plan also includes service changes for the eastbound AM Rush.

Westbound AM Peak Service:

The following westbound AM Rush trains will be canceled in the modified service plan:

• 6:25 AM train from Hicksville, scheduled to arrive in Penn Station at 7:11 AM

• 6:26 AM train from Massapequa Park, scheduled to arrive in Penn Station at 7:22 AM

• 6:57 AM train from Freeport, scheduled to arrive in Penn Station at 7:40 AM.

• 7:23 AM train from Hempstead, scheduled to arrive in Flatbush Avenue at 8:20 AM

• 7:29 AM train from Freeport, scheduled to arrive in Penn Station at 8:13 AM

• 7:40 AM train from Ronkonkoma, scheduled to arrive in Flatbush Avenue at 9:01 AM

• 7:43 AM train from Merrick, scheduled to arrive in Penn Station at 8:31 AM

• 8:03 AM train from Long Beach, scheduled to arrive in Penn Station at 8:54 AM

• 8:03 AM train from Valley Stream, scheduled to arrive in Penn Station at 8:42 AM

• 8:38 AM train from Long Beach, scheduled to arrive in Flatbush Avenue at 9:26 AM

The following trains will terminate in Jamaica:

• 7:12 AM train from Hempstead, scheduled to arrive in Penn Station at 8:03 AM

• 7:16 AM train from West Hempstead, scheduled to arrive in Flatbush Avenue at 8:03 AM

Eastbound (Reverse Peak) Service:

LIRR eastbound, reverse peak service from Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn will be extremely limited – with one passenger train departing the Brooklyn terminal per hour. Customers should consider using Penn Station reverse peak service, which is expected to operate at regularly scheduled times; however customers should anticipate delays en-route.

Service Updates:

The LIRR will continue to update this Service Advisory as track repairs are made. Customers should monitor news media reports and the LIRR’s website (at www.mta.inof/lirr) for updates to this AM modified service plan and information regarding PM train service.

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5

LIRR Derailment Just West Of The Jamaica Station

Posted by
on November 24th, 2008 at 1:18 am

In the previous entry I mentioned how I was having a telephone conversation with my sister. During this conversation, she asked if I had heard & subsequently blogged about the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) derailment that occurred west of the Jamaica station. I told her I did not so I decided to hit the net & see what happened. It turns out that a Huntington bound train jumped the tracks as it approached the Jamaica station. Newsday reporter Jennifer Maloney has more:A Long Island Rail Road train derailment that caused major damage to rails and switches at Jamaica Station yesterday will disrupt the morning rush hour , prompting 12 morning westbound train cancellations as crews scramble to make repairs at the railroad’s largest hub, railroad spokesman Joe Calderone said.

Federal Railroad Administration officials are investigating the derailment, which is the second accident at the same station in a week – and the third this year.

No one was hurt in yesterday’s derailment, which shut down railroad service in both directions for about 90 minutes.

“We were lucky,” said Gerry Bringmann, chairman of the LIRR Commuters Council. “Thank God this happened on a weekend. The fact that we have two [accidents] within four or five days – that’s scary stuff. We’re just hoping that this is a wake-up call for the railroad to fix what’s wrong.”

Yesterday’s accident occurred at 12:20 p.m., just west of the station, when a train bound for Huntington jumped its tracks as it approached the platform. The station has a speed limit of 15 mph.

The LIRR is still trying to determine what caused the incident, Calderone said. Part of the train reached the platform, and passengers from two derailed cars were able to walk through the train to exit onto the platform. But seven passengers from a third derailed car were forced to evacuate onto the tracks after power to the electrified third rail had been shut off, Calderone said.

LIRR officials said the derailment was not related to Wednesday’s collision.

Four of eight tracks at Jamaica were damaged, Calderone said.

Click here for the complete article.

I will repeat what I said 5 days ago when I blogged about the accident that occurred on Wednesday:

“This issue has to be looked into since this is the second known accident in the area this year.”

I need to now change that line to say this is the third known accident in the area this year. What the hell is going on that one accident after another is happening in & around the same area. This can’t be a coincidence can it? Something tells me it isn’t…….

xoxo Transit Blogger

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0

NYC Comptroller Proposes Plan To Help The MTA

Posted by
on November 24th, 2008 at 1:03 am

Yesterday afternoon New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. held a press conference outside of Grand Central Terminal. During the press conference he proposed an idea to help the MTA raise money. The proposal calls for raising the automobile registration fees of drivers who reside in the 12 counties that the MTA serves. According to the comptroller, the plan could raise approximate $1 billion dollars per year. Colin Moynihan of the New York Times has more in this report that will appear in today’s print edition:

The New York City comptroller, William C. Thompson Jr., said on Sunday that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s gaping budget deficits could be diminished by increasing automobile registration fees in 12 counties served by the authority’s trains and buses.

At a press conference outside Grand Central Terminal, Mr. Thompson said that drivers now pay $30 every two years to register a vehicle in New York City, though they also pay additional state fees.

He proposed adding an annual fee of $100 for drivers in the city and nearby counties who register vehicles weighing up to 2,300 pounds, with vehicles above that weight also being assessed an additional 9 cents per pound.

The fees, which Mr. Thompson said would go directly to the authority, could total about $1 billion per year, with some $350 million from New York City residents. The authority faces a $1.2 billion deficit next year, and it unveiled a budget on Thursday that called for a 23 percent increase in tolls and fares along with cutbacks in service and layoffs. Mr. Thompson, a Democratic candidate for mayor, said he feared that the proposed fare increases would make mass transit unaffordable for some riders.

Click here for the complete report.

This is a very interesting proposal. I first heard about it when my sister mentioned it to me in a telephone conversation. When she was describing it, I thought to myself that it seems a little unfair as it passes the buck on to drivers again. The other part of me also wondered how much anger would come out from the pro driving community.

There is a never ending battle between drivers & mass transit users. I want to keep an open mind to the proposal & hope to hear more about it over the coming days. I’m sure we will get more reports about this considering that the idea will be submitted to the Ravitch Commission later today.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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Riders Comment On Possible Route Eliminations

Posted by
on November 24th, 2008 at 12:48 am

If you have not been in a cave over the last few days, you have read or heard many details of the proposed 2009 MTA Budget. The proposal calls for massive fare hikes greater than originally anticipated along with service cuts across the board, some which would include the elimination of some bus routes. In a report that will appear in today’s New York Times print edition, Cara Buckley along with contributions from Ann Farmer, Mick Meenan and Nate Schweber get the pulse from riders of some of the potentially eliminated routes:

If ever there were a bus route that perfectly linked highbrow and lowbrow New York, the X28 may well be it. It starts, in Manhattan, in front of the Dior boutique on East 57th Street, and makes express stops to Coney Island’s Sea Gate Beach Club, which is painted with turquoise and white stripes and cartoons of green, grinning — and oddly toothless — sharks wearing sunglasses.

The X28 is also, for many riders, a lifeline .

Mitchell Verley has spent 21 of his 45 years driving New York City buses, and every Sunday he drives the X28. It is a comfortable bus, with soft, high-backed seats, footrests and tinted windows, and costs $5 a ride. Sundays are slow, and in the hour and 15 minutes that it takes Mr. Verley to drive one leg of the route, he might pick up only 10 or so passengers each way.

Among those passengers is Georgia Mitilineos, a Greek immigrant who lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and works as a weekend housekeeper at the St. Regis Hotel in Midtown.

“Without this bus, I would have to walk to the local bus, take it to 86th and Fourth, take the local R train to 36th Street, then take the N train to Fifth Avenue, then walk,” she said. Her current weekend commute is 45 minutes each way, she said, and the loss of the X28 would double her travel time, at least. “I’m not going to like it if they stopped this bus.”

The X28 is one of 29 weekend bus lines that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is proposing to cut in 2009, as part of its effort to plug an anticipated $1.2 billion budget shortfall next year. Every borough would be affected by the cuts, and a cursory survey of various routes this past weekend revealed that the hardest-hit passengers are the ones who live in remote neighborhoods and work on weekends, or those whose creaky limbs are ill suited for subway steps.

“This is the only transit line that goes down to Broadway — it’s a shopping area down there,” said Myrtis Williams, 69, who lives in the Marcy Houses in Brooklyn and rides the B57 bus most Saturdays to shops in Queens. Ms. Williams has peripheral artery disease and diabetes; walking to a subway stop was time consuming, she said, and descending the steps hurt. “It’s a physical problem,” she said.

Click here for the complete report.

I am torn as I can see both sides. The MTA’s finances are in bad shape right now & they need to find a way to save money where they can. It does not pay to run bus service along routes that get a limited amount of ridership. However the flip side is how can you put a price on the importance of the small ridership that depends on your service? It is a tough situation that could be avoided if the MTA was properly funded to begin with so they wouldn’t even have to consider service cuts due to finances.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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Cellphone Pictures Lead To An Arrest

Posted by
on November 24th, 2008 at 12:21 am

Early Friday evening Christine Hauser of the New York Times broke a story about how cell phone pictures led to an arrest of a 18 year old male. The 18 year old was photographed on an Astoria-Ditmars Blvd N Train train engaging in “scratchitti”. Scratchitti is a form of graffiti that’s made by etching and carving your tag on an object instead of using tools like marker ink or spray paint. Here is Christine’s report:

It was a crime in progress. A young man in a hooded sweatshirt and jeans sat on a gleaming subway seat, his face focused on the train window as he scratched something into the glass.

On Monday at 1 p.m. on a northbound N train, near the subway station at 30th Avenue in Astoria, Queens, an alert rider took out a cellphone and snapped a photograph of the young man, along with another image of him sitting slightly forward in his seat, the police said.

The commuter turned over the photos to the Crime Stoppers hot line, a relatively new innovation in reporting crime.

The images were scrutinized by the Police Department’s vandalism task force, which managed to identify the young man as Andrew Morello, 18, who officials said was already known to investigators as a “tagger.” He had been arrested in March on a graffiti charge after spray-painting the word “Shelly” on a parked commercial vehicle in Queens, according to court records.

On Friday, officers went to his house at 48-04 20th Avenue in East Elmhurst, and arrested him. (He struggled while he was being handcuffed, and one of the arresting officers was treated at a hospital for a wrist injury, the police said.)

Mr. Morello faces charges of criminal mischief, making graffiti, resisting arrest and possession of graffiti instruments, the police said.

Click here for the complete report.

The responses to this article has been a mix bag. Some are complaining about the “photographer” having no life & reporting the crime. Others took the opportunity to say this was the right thing to do as it costs the MTA money. This line of thinking led to a debate over the MTA’s finances. One last comment I observed was one that compared this story to the one of a 13 year old who died after being run over by a Long Island Rail Road train while he was spray painting with friends.

As far as I am concerned, I am glad the person took the time to report this crime. Forget the cost to the MTA in terms of having the scratchitti removed. I want to focus on why people feel the need to destroy the train cars millions depend on to get from point A to point B? Are people that bored in life that they have to do something destructive to property? I don’t think sending this person to jail will accomplish much but he should be responsible to pay for any damage he caused. I also feel he should have to do some sort of community service in which he would have to clean MTA property whether it be buses, train cars, stations, etc….

xoxo Transit Blogger

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