New York City - Transit News

[mrsmartman]

This subway should have had a higher priority than projects like Hudson Yard.

[H-man]

well hudson yards is a private project so its not really the governments priorty

[mrnyc]

thoughts about the new metrocard friendly citywide ferry system?



ABOUT CITYWIDE FERRY BY HORNBLOWER

New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) is working with the Office of Mayor de Blasio to launch Citywide Ferry by Hornblower. The Hornblower Company has been selected as the operator of the new ferry system. The service will consist of five new ferry routes in addition to the existing East River Ferry Service, all charging a fare of $2.75 and allowing transfers between routes.


Citywide Ferry by Hornblower will further the Mayor’s goals of:

providing affordable and convenient transit for communities with limited transportation options;
supporting growing neighborhoods;
and increasing the resiliency and redundancy of our city’s transportation network.


When Citywide Ferry by Hornblower is fully operational in 2018, the six routes will carry an estimated 4.6 million passenger trips per year. Building on several years of ferry planning and operations experience, NYCEDC is building ten new ferry landings, renovating six others, and contracting with Hornblower to run the service.


For more information please visit:
http://www.nycedc.com/project/citywide-ferry-service


more:
http://ny.curbed.com/2017/1/30/14441...n-borough-hall

[chris08876]

• Video Link

[mrsmartman]

The scale of the river crossings in New York City is unseen in human history.

[mrsmartman]

Reopen the Forgotten Hilton Passageway

Originally Posted by Larry Penner

Many transit riders are disappointed that a proposal submitted by one of New York City’s premier developers to pay for construction to reopen the old Hilton Corridor was never approved by City Hall. The Vornado Realty Trust, had offered to do open the Hilton Corridor in exchange for a zoning variance to construct a high rise office building at 7th Avenue and 32nd Street.

Until some time in the 1970s, Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and New Jersey Transit (NJT) riders exiting east at Penn Station had a direct underground passageway known as the Hilton Corridor. It was also known as the Gimbels passageway. Gimbels was Macy’s chief competitor at Herald Square. The store closed in 1986. This passageway still stands dormant. It is a forgotten underground link between Penn Station and Herald Square. It was once a 800-foot pedestrian concourse providing an indoor connection to the 34th Street Herald Square IND and BMT subway, along with PATH station complex. Further, there was an adjoining nearby underground passageway starting at 34th street, which ran along 6th Avenue, going as far north as 42nd Street. Many avoided the rain and snow by way of this indoor path.

Both passageways were closed many decades ago, due to security issues. If reopened today, Amtrak riders and New Jersey Transit and LIRR commuters would have easy underground connections to the Broadway N, R & Q and 6th Avenue B,D, F & M subway lines along with PATH, rather than walking outside on the street exposed to both inclement weather and heavy vehicular traffic.

Source: http://observer.com/2014/01/reopen-t...on-passageway/

[scalziand]

I'm sure that whenever Vornado finally redevelops Hotel Pennsylvania, they will reopen the passage. No reason not to get the density bonus for the transit improvement.

[chris08876]

Pertaining to bridges.

==============

New city light display expected to be popular tourist attraction

A permanent light show coming to the city’s toll crossings is going to “blow people away” and could become the Big Apple’s newest tourist attraction, Gov. Cuomo boasted.

The bridges and tunnels operated by the MTA and Port Authority will get fitted with new multicolored, energy-efficient lighting over the next three years.

“This is very exciting. This project is going to blow people away,” Cuomo said during a Post editorial board meeting Feb. 2.

Cuomo gushed that the lighting at all the crossings could be coordinated and even choreographed with music for special events and holidays and become a tourist attraction.

The LED lights, which can be programmed to run different colors and patterns, will use between 40 and 80 percent less power than more traditional types of road lighting, MTA officials said.

The lights will also last up to six times as long without having to be changed.

Cuomo said the lights will be visible from miles away.

“If you’re in Queens, you can see the lights at the Throgs Neck and the Whitestone [bridges],” he said.

=========================
http://nypost.com/2017/02/06/new-cit...st-attraction/

[chris08876]

From October but an interesting presentation.

• Video Link

[chris08876]

Cuomo's LaGuardia AirTrain, Possibly NY’s Worst Transit Idea, Is Actually Happening

In theory, a rail connection to LaGuardia Airport is a no-brainer: 86 percent of passengers take cars to the airport, constantly battling construction and rush hour-related delays to have the opportunity to navigate LaGuardia’s battered and aging concourses (lucky for them, their flight is most likely delayed anyway). Still, it would be nice to have a way to get to the airport that doesn’t rest on the whims of the ever-mercurial Grand Central Parkway. Enter Governor Andrew Cuomo, a man committed to making New York “New York” again, a place where we can build “something big and [say], ‘Geez, that’s us, boy. That’s New York at its best.’”

As part of Cuomo’s plan to build a completely new LaGuardia airport that he unveiled last year, he briefly mentioned an AirTrain from Willets Point, of a similar build as the JFK AirTrain. Transit advocates laughed at the idea. Why would he build its terminal at Willets Point, which is even further from the city than the airport itself? For a while, Cuomo barely mentioned the AirTrain. Everyone thought it was dead. Then, the idea came back to life, and worse, it looks like it’s actually happening. Yesterday, the governor’s office issued an RFP for the design and engineering of the Willets Point to LaGuardia AirTrain. Brace yourself for a boondoggle.

To get a sense of what an unmitigated disaster Cuomo’s plan will be, you have to look at the history of a mythical rail connection to LaGuardia. Since at least the 1980’s, as New York City began its financial recovery, there’s been a strong push for a one-seat ride, preferably on the New York City subway itself. The N is the closest train to LaGuardia and the city, and it terminates at Ditmars Boulevard, just 2.5 miles away from the airport. In 1998, the MTA, Port Authority, and city decided to pool their money and connect the city’s two airports to the trains. LaGuardia would get an N train extension, and JFK, a monorail, dubbed an “AirTrain,” that would go 4.5 miles along the Van Wyck expressway to the international airport. The JFK AirTrain got built. The N Train extension did not.

[...]

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http://www.villagevoice.com/news/cuo...pening-9652923

[Busy Bee]

[ChargerCarl]

Cuomo is the worst. I feel for you NY bros.

[Speculator]

Originally Posted by ChargerCarl

Cuomo is the worst. I feel for you NY bros.

Total outside looking in here. From someone who doesn't live in NY it seems like Cuomo is pushing amazing things: LaGuardia, JFK, Lights to the City, New Penn Station, new Port Autority Bus (is that him?) and maybe more that I'm forgetting. What am I missing? These are amazing projects and more than what I see other cities doing.

[SpawnOfVulcan]

Originally Posted by Speculator

Total outside looking in here. From someone who doesn't live in NY it seems like Cuomo is pushing amazing things: LaGuardia, JFK, Lights to the City, New Penn Station, new Port Autority Bus (is that him?) and maybe more that I'm forgetting. What am I missing? These are amazing projects and more than what I see other cities doing.

To me, as an outsider that has ridden the 7 many times, I think that the reason people are unhappy about the Airtrain proposal is because of the subway station it links to. Riding a local train from Manhattan to Willets Point is like pulling teeth (and I only had to do it a few times). If the point of the new Airtrain is to streamline access to LaGuardia, why make people ride all the way out to the Willets Point station just to get on another train?!

Given the lengths people would have to take just to get to the Airtrain, the cost HARDLY seems worth it.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by tascalisa

If the point of the new Airtrain is to streamline access to LaGuardia, why make people ride all the way out to the Willets Point station just to get on another train?!

There is no other alternative. You can't extend the subway or LIRR directly to LGA (they actually tried this 15 years ago and intense community opposition stopped it) so an Airtrain link to the subway/LIRR is the next best thing.

It will be a 25 minute ride from LGA to Manhattan. That's hardly horrible. And keep in mind that this is also intended for airport workers, the vast majority of which aren't coming from Manhattan.

Personally, I think Cuomo is fine re. transit. He is probably the most pro-transit Governor in a generation. We're getting total rebuilds of both LGA and JFK, an LGA Airtrain, a direct JFK-Manhattan rail link, Second Avenue Subway, East Side Access, new Port Authority Terminal, new Penn Station, expanded ferry system, Brooklyn-Queens light rail, East Bronx Metro North line, more tracks and electrification for the LIRR, new Tappan Zee Bridge, new Gothals Bridge, BRT in the suburbs, and more.

Does this make up for 70 years of neglect? No. Is it remotely sufficient? No. But he clearly views transit and infrastructure as major priorities.

[BrownTown]

Originally Posted by Crawford

There is no other alternative. You can't extend the subway or LIRR directly to LGA (they actually tried this 15 years ago and intense community opposition stopped it) so an Airtrain link to the subway/LIRR is the next best thing.

You can extend it, you just need politicians with balls who won't cave to community opposition. Extending the subway directly to LGA is FAR FAR superior to the Airtrain idea. The current Airtrain proposal is slower than the express buses so what is even the point?

[Busy Bee]

There is an alternative.

It's one I've never seen analyzed.

Here it is:



Take a TBM and dig a tunnel branching off the Amtrak/future-MN Hell Gate approach running under the industrial area east of the tracks and the BQE, under St. Michaels Cemetery, under a short section of the Grand Central and into LGA to a subterranean station under the airport.

Presto. A one seat ride from LGA to Penn and in the future even GCT via ESA.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by BrownTown

You can extend it, you just need politicians with balls who won't cave to community opposition.

No, actually you can't. City councilpersons have veto power over such projects, so if the local city councilperson doesn't support a project, it wouldn't happen.

And it has nothing to do with "politicians with balls". They're elected to represent the will of their constituents. Their constituents don't want a giant, noisy elevated line running through their backyards (I don't blame them) and the swampy land means that tunneling would be incredibly expensive.

And the N train is currently at capacity, so you wouldn't even get additional service. That's why they're trying to connect to the Queens Blvd. lines, which have greater capacity.

Originally Posted by BrownTown

Extending the subway directly to LGA is FAR FAR superior to the Airtrain idea.

Yes, and building a 300mph train is FAR FAR superior to the subway. What's your point? Neither is happening.

Originally Posted by BrownTown

The current Airtrain proposal is slower than the express buses so what is even the point?

Wrong. The Airtain project will cut LGA-Midtown travel times from 45 minutes to 25 minutes. That's a substantial improvement over the current express buses, which don't, and can't, go to Midtown (one goes to Upper Manhattan, the other to the Queens Blvd. lines).

It will also provide inter-terminal rail connections, which currently don't exist. And most LGA employees live in Queens and Long Island, and will now have direct rail access to their jobs. And since it's an airport-specific project, unlike the subway, the airlines have to pay for it.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

There is an alternative.

It's one I've never seen analyzed.

Here it is:



Take a TBM and dig a tunnel branching off the Amtrak/future-MN Hell Gate approach running under the industrial area east of the tracks and the BQE, under St. Michaels Cemetery, under a short section of the Grand Central and into LGA to a subterranean station under the airport.

Presto. A one seat ride from LGA to Penn and in the future even GCT via ESA.

If you have $10 billion lying around for a deep underground tunnel connecting to an at-capacity rail line, requiring a transfer in Western Queens, then, yeah, go for it. If you really wanted a "one seat ride from LGA to Penn", you'll have to dig a new tunnel all the way to Penn. Figure $20 billion or so, at least.

I think you're right it's a somewhat better route for Manhattan-bound passengers. But it will screw over employees, won't solve the inter-terminal connection issue, doesn't have an LIRR connection, and would cost about 10x the current project.

[ChargerCarl]

In this case it looks like the "No build" option is the best one.