0

Staten Island Railway MLK 2016 Service Plan

Posted by
on January 12th, 2016 at 4:05 pm

The MTA Staten Island Railway has announced it will be running a regular weekday schedule for Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, January 18.

xoxo Transit Blogger

You might enjoy reading these related entries:
Staten Island Railway
0

LIRR Announces Passing Of 34th President

Posted by
on January 12th, 2016 at 4:03 pm

Yesterday afternoon, the MTA Long Island Rail Road announced the passing of the agency’s 34th president Charles W. Hoppe. Here is more via the official press release I received:

MTA Long Island Rail Road marks the passing on Dec. 22 of Charles W. Hoppe, who served as the LIRR’s 34th President, from April 2, 1990, to August 31, 1994. A memorial mass will be held at St Agnes Catholic Church in Arlington Va. on Friday, January 15, at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or the John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library.

Under Hoppe, the railroad became infused with a renewed sense of energy and direction. “Hoppe initiated strategic rethinking in a number of areas, from developing new growth opportunities, to rethinking the role of freight, to identifying improved types of cars and locomotives, right down to the language used to run the railroad on a day-to-day basis,” said MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas F. Prendergast, who in 1994 succeeded Hoppe as President of the LIRR. “The results of his efforts were both far-reaching and long term. He left the region with a railroad that was in far better shape than it had been.”

The short-term results spoke for themselves. The LIRR’s on-time performance increased four percentage points, to 93% as of 1994, from 89% in 1989, and ridership increased. Measures of train car reliability improved during his tenure. At the same time, the railroad gained a restored confidence from federal funding partners and embarked on a major rehabilitation of Harold Interlocking, the crucial complex of switches in Sunnyside, Queens, where the LIRR’s tracks merge with Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, and it undertook significant upgrades to its portion of Penn Station. The work at Penn included improvements to the LIRR’s passenger concourse on the lower level, modernizing the signal system in partnership with Amtrak and creating Penn Station Central Control, which directs the safe movements of more than 1,000 trains per day.

“Virtually every metric that we measure on a month-to-month basis improved under Chuck Hoppe,” Chairman Prendergast said. “But the most tangible of his improvements was the complete transformation of Penn Station. Chuck led the railroad through the difficult process of overcoming decades of neglect to modernize the appearance and functionality of the station. Those improvements helped start a ridership increase that has continued through to the present day, so much so that Penn Station is ready to be updated again.”

The LIRR also began working to stimulate freight traffic under Hoppe, a line of business that had been fairly dormant, but has proven popular under the auspices of an outside company, the New York & Atlantic Railway. Internally, Hoppe oversaw a reorganization of the management of the railroad that resulted in a reduction of overall headcount by 10% and the creation of individual Branch Line Managers responsible for each branch, a system that is still in use and was carried over through the MTA to New York City Transit.

“The Long Island has a lot of complexities to it, and probably is the most complex railroad in North America,” he said shortly after being appointed as president. “One of my goals is to get people thinking positively about the LIRR. It is a good railroad that can be better.”

With his belief that the railroad could build on its existing strengths, Hoppe launched customer service and market development initiatives, including an effort to encourage off-peak ridership that has been followed by a 52% increase in off-peak ridership.

In a similar vein, he also initiated a Network Strategy Study, a blueprint for the railroad’s growth to the present day. That study evaluated many options for replacing the railroad’s diesel fleet, eventually deciding on the combination of diesel and dual mode locomotives and today’s two-level coaches with the more comfortable 2 x 2 seating arrangement.

“A direct ride between Penn Station and destinations further east, such as Port Jefferson, Speonk, and now even Montauk, without the need to transfer between trains, was a direct outgrowth of the Network Strategy Study that Hoppe led,” said LIRR President Patrick Nowakowski. “We’re now in the early phases of updating the Network Strategy Study to guide the railroad in its post-East Side Access future.”

Hoppe, who was 80 at the time of his passing, insisted on high standards, and perhaps most emblematic of that was his belief that even the words used by staff were an important influence and reflection on the railroad’s culture. With that in mind, he mandated that all railroad officials refer to its users as “customers” as opposed to “riders” or “passengers” in order to emphasize the railroad’s responsibilities and duties to those it serves. That practice continues to this day at the LIRR and has become standard practice throughout the MTA family of agencies.

“He had a big heart and loved to ‘meet-and-greet’ with customers, both on the train and at Penn Station, and ask them how we could improve service,” said John Bennett, who was LIRR Vice President of Infrastructure under Hoppe.

Originally from Rocky River, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, Hoppe had a quarter century of experience in domestic and international railroad management and consulting at the time he was selected to lead the LIRR by MTA Chairman Robert R. Kiley. His work included time with the Cleveland Union Terminal Company, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, U.S. Army, Norfolk Southern Railway, and 14 years with Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc., where prior to joining the LIRR he directed a major investment strategy study for CityRail, a commuter railroad in Sydney, Australia.

Hoppe earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Purdue University in 1957 and an MBA from Harvard in 1961. In the mid-1970s, Hoppe worked for the United States Railway Association, developing a plan to reorganize various bankrupt northeast railroads into what became Conrail, the predecessor, among other things, to MTA Metro-North Railroad.

My condolences go out to the family & friends of Mr. Hoppe. May he rest in peace.

xoxo Transit Blogger

You might enjoy reading these related entries:
Death, LIRR
0

Service Diversions 01-08-16

Posted by
on January 8th, 2016 at 2:24 pm

I have just updated the Service Diversions for this weekend & through the end of next week.

Make sure to follow @TransitBlogger on Twitter as I am using it more often. Also if you are into indie music make sure to follow @IndMusicReview & @SurgeFM!

xoxo Transit Blogger

You might enjoy reading these related entries:
Service Diversions
1

Man Pushed Onto Subway Tracks By Urinator

Posted by
on January 8th, 2016 at 12:56 am

63 year old Zegnade Yiogo was minding his business waiting for an elevator at the 125th Street 4 Train, 5 Train & 6 Train station Saturday night when the doors opened & he saw Stefon Bowman urinating inside. Never did he think it would lead to what happened next. Rocco Parascandola, Andy Mai, John Annese of the NY Daily News has more:

A 63-year-old straphanger had a brush with death when a man he caught urinating in an elevator shoved him onto the tracks of an East Harlem subway station, according to police sources and the subway rider.

Luckily for both the victim and the alleged pusher, two cops were already on the scene and were able to avert tragedy, then called for back-up when a group of angry commuters surrounded the attacker, sources said.

Zegnade Yiogo said he was waiting for an elevator in the 125th St. station on Saturday night. When the doors opened, he came upon Stefon Bowman, 28, urinating inside.

“I said, ‘Why you do that?’ Yiogo said.

He decided not to take the elevator, but Bowman followed him anyway.

“He had something in his hand. I don’t know if it was a knife or lighter. That’s why I didn’t want to be close to him. I run back. Then he push me onto the track,” Yiogo recalled.

Two cops were nearby to see Bowman push Yiogo onto the No. 6 train tracks, sources said.

The cops rushed to the man’s aid and helped him up — and that’s when the crowd on the platform turned on Bowman.

Click here for the complete report.

Thankfully the cops were in the right place at the right time as it would have been a shame for anything tragic to have happened to Zegnade due to the actions of the worthless Stefon.

Hopefully Stefon pays a huge price for his actions as anything less would be completely unacceptable!

xoxo Transit Blogger

You might enjoy reading these related entries:
Crime, Manhattan, Subway
0

Paul Roper Pleads Not Guilty

Posted by
on January 8th, 2016 at 12:39 am

Back in the beginning of November, I blogged about the horrific accident that saw Carol Bell killed by a NYC Transit bus.

I had opined about how I was very curious as to the investigation results as the preliminary report had me questioning how the driver could not have known he hit someone. A mere few days later, the driver was not only identified (as 48 year old Paul Roper) but arrested for the incident.

Fast forward to yesterday when Mr. Roper’s attorney pleaded not guilty on his behalf yesterday. Christina Carrega Woodby of the New York Daily News has more:

The MTA bus driver accused of leaving the scene of an accident without reporting that he ran over an elderly disabled woman pleaded not guilty to all charges on Thursday.

Paul Roper was indicted in Brooklyn Supreme Court for leaving the scene of an accident without reporting serious physical injury or death and other charges.

Roper’s attorney Clifford Levin entered a “not guilty” plea on his behalf.

Roper, who is out on $25,000 bail, hit Bell with the B15 bus, paused for less than five seconds and then drove away, records show.

His next court date is March 23.

Click here for the complete report.

I am still very curious to hear his explanation of how he did not notice he hit a human being or what came into his mind if he thought he struck anyone or thing at all?

While I am sure Mr. Roper did not intend to run over & kill anyone, I don’t see his not guilty plea holding up especially with surveillance of the gory incident existing.

xoxo Transit Blogger

You might enjoy reading these related entries:
Accidents, Brooklyn, Crime, Death