$2million for a study that determines the cost will be expensive to cap certain parts? Perhaps they can re-coop some money from the property above, but, I'd imagine affordable housing is what would be desired.

There was a promise to speed up CT's trains. What will it take to make it happen?

By John Moritz
CT Insider
Dec. 28, 2022


"NEW HAVEN — Departing Union Station at 5:09 in the morning, the fastest of Metro-North’s new “super express” trains into Grand Central Terminal makes the trip in as little as 99 minutes, the quickest commute between the two cities in years and the fulfillment of Gov. Ned Lamont’s promise to reduce travel times by at least 10 minutes by the end of this year.

But finding ways to shave another 15 minutes from the trip — part of Lamont’s longer-term vision for the state’s busiest rail line — will likely prove much more difficult and costly, according to experts and the state’s own planning documents.

The new express trains, which debuted in July, reduced peak-hour commutes by 10 to 12 minutes by slashing the number of stops between New Haven and New York from five to two on the quickest routes, according to a review of train schedules..."

https://www.ctinsider.com/connecticu...k-17664738.php

Some recent Subway photos of mine

https://photos.smugmug.com/Infrastru...DSC_2302-L.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/Infrastru...DSC_2412-L.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/Infrastru...SC_2208-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/Infrastru...SC_1158-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/Infrastru...SC_9391-XL.jpg

Nice.

the city car fleet goes electric -- now take their freaking free parking placards away !!! :haha:



Mayor says 925 electric vehicles will replace gas guzzlers in city fleet, backed by $10.1M federal grant

more:
https://www.amny.com/transit/925-ele...federal-grant/

So good you're back Nexis!

nexis back from da ded! :tup:

I shifted over to reddit , but i've decided to come back to SSP... Sadly SSC is a former shell of itself.

^ i dont look at city reddits very often, but i will try to remember to cash you ousside over there too! :cheers:


***


i posted this on another forum -- but i thought some here would find this topic interesting too:


i dont advocate jaywalking -- its dangerous, but i am certainly not against it and do it a lot, with care, i hope.

there is a serious and perpetual battle regarding who owns the streets and the history of jaywalking that is pretty interesting.

if you are into it here is more:

a brief jaywalking history:
https://gothamist.com/arts-entertain...walking-in-nyc

an informative jaywalking history in america podcast:
https://99percentinvisible.org/episo...modern-moloch/

My issue with many jaywalkers is that they do it so carelessly and unpredictably.

IMO (one that could be better informed, admittedly), traffic works well when all elements travel at a similar set speed and is predictable. That's why in traffic engineering theory, the highest Level of Service (LOS) on limited access freeways occurs when all cars travel around 45 mph. 45 mph allows the highest density of cars to travel through any one point on the highway. Faster speeds requires a further spread between cars due to physics and safety reasons, decreasing the LOS. Slower speeds means there are fewer cars traveling through any one point compared to at 45 mph, also decreasing the LOS.

Back on topic. My opinion is that many of the most reckless NYC jaywalkers have never driven a car extensively in the city. Because it they have driven in the city before, they would never do things like walk behind a parallel-parked car whose tail lights are on (even worse, whose braking or reversing lights are on). They would also walk behind a big truck unless they were very cautious and absolutely certain the truck wasn't backing up.

The sheer unpredictability of many pedestrians drives me (pun unintended) up the wall, as a pedestrian, driver, and cyclist/scooter rider. I hate to victim blame, but there are certain vehicle-pedestrian deaths that could have been avoided if the pedestrian was more aware of their surroundings.

At the same time, I am an advocate of heavily reducing our dependence of cars in NYC. The mathematics just doesn't make sense for cars in NYC. They require way too much space per-capita, and most of the time, they are sitting idle doing nothing. Why give up so much of our precious NYC real estate over to drivers for free (roads, on-street parking, shopping center parking lots)?

We would do much better in the city and the denser outer boro areas with drastically improved transit, more micromobility lanes (micromobility = bikes, scooters, other faster-than-pedestrian micro transport devices that aren't cars or trucks), and more pedestrian walkways and sidewalks. Cars and pedestrians don't mix particularly well in the city. Cars don't particularly mix well with anything, and it's best to reduce their dependence by making it easier and faster to travel between boroughs.

^ a major new problem is the steep rise in the use of e-bikes. i’m not against them, except because that completely asleep at the wheel moron diblasio legalized them without requiring them to make some of low clicking sound or noise. instead they come flying around corners at you completely silently and its dangerous as hell. i have seen people yelp and groceries literally flying in the air like a cartoon because of those dam things tootling around. not to mention the bootleg batteries starting apt fires.

I think that regulation, registration, and insurance should be required for bigger & faster e-bikes and e-scooters. Some of these things are ridiculously large and fast. The more powerful ones can weigh over 100 lbs and go as fast as 40-60 mph. To class the lighter and less-powerful ones with these monsters is dumb.

The big issue is that we all need to be aware and defensive of one another. This goes for car/bus/truck drivers, e-scooter and e-bike riders, normal bike riders, and pedestrians. I've seen pedestrians just walk into a bike lane or against the crossing light. I've seen car drivers make wide sweeping turns without looking for bicyclists or pedestrians. I've seen e-bike and e-scooter riders act as bullies to push pedestrians and slower e-bike/e-scooter/bike riders out of the way because they want to get somewhere faster.

It's dumb that these 100 lb e-bikes and e-scooters get to use the same lane as a slower bikes, e-bikes, and e-scooters. But if we push them into the normal traffic lane, then they feel vulnerable to getting run over by multi-ton cars and trucks. Guess what? They make slower bicyclists and e-riders feel the same way when they bully them out of the way.

We are on the path to delegating and designing better road infrastructure for both pedestrians and bike/e-riders, mainly by removing much of the infrastructure currently dedicated to grossly inefficient private cars. We shouldn't make it too onerous for people to own and operate e-vehicles since they are part of this big plan to democratize mobility. But we also need to define their weight & speed limits to properly legislate them and plan out our roads.

PS - the battery fire issue is due to bad quality batteries & chargers, mainly from cut-cost Chinese manufacturers. It's also due to civilians not understanding electrical limits of outlets and wiring, and charging near flammable objects. Most outlets are designed around 15 amp outlets (except in the kitchen and bathroom, which use 20 amp outlets, often with GFCI trippers). Higher amp charging = higher temperatures. The battery often acts as the spark, tinder, & fuel in fires, but the rest of an apartment or house also contains plenty of tinder and fuel to sustain a fire. Besides, we also have many other lithium-ion battery devices around the house, including in smartphones. Remember the Samsung fires?

The main issue is the Li-Ion fires are much harder to control, which is why getting high quality batteries and chargers that are UL-certified is important. And we also need to discourage people from continuing to use damaged batteries or chargers, or buying cheap replacement batteries from sketchy dealers.

just for comparison to our rail h8rin’ country, but china opens i think its 9 (!) more rail lines at the end of 2022:


China opens more metro lines as year comes to close

New lines include the 30.7km Line 4 in Qingdao.

January 6, 2023
Written by David Burroughs


CHINA continued its tradition of opening new metro lines and extensions at the turn of the year, with a number of projects entering service towards the end of 2022.


more:
https://www.railjournal.com/passenge...omes-to-close/

Just kill me

Fuck, the light rail option was chosen

Move Forward on Light Rail Option for the Interborough Express
https://mobile.twitter.com/2AvSagas/...79344518537217

Extremely disappointing. Extremely short sighted.

On the other hand it offers the ability to link up with HBLR in the future with a harbor tunnel, for a true orbital line. Ideally with a slight detour to St George.

That's already mostly the case. In the US it's only ebikes with motors no more powerful than 500w and with assist speeds limited to 20mph that can be classified as bicycles and avoid insurance or licensing. I don't believe there's a restriction on weight, however.

If you're not going to do heavy rail with the ridership they eventually project they really should consider a fully automated system that can sustain extremely high frequency.

Looking at the study, apparently the light rail option will cost $5.5 billion, while the heavy rail option would have cost $8.4 billion. These costs make no sense at all!

https://new.mta.info/document/103686

i would imagine light rail is also quicker to build out, so there is that. :shrug:

Per the study, the light rail line will leave the corridor near All Faiths Cemetery and run on the street for several blocks. Heavy rail can't do that. They'd be forced to rebuild or expand the current freight railroad tunnel.

The report's illustrations depict a 300-foot light rail train (four 75-foot vehicles). A 300-foot platform where passengers can walk across the tracks is a completely different animal than a 600+ foot heavy rail station with several elevators for ADA compliance.

The report mentions that the light rail option will require some complicated work around elevated subway lines. Building the IBX with 600-foot heavy rail station would probably cause more expensive conflicts with existing elevated lines.

Missing the point here I think…. The heavy rail option (mainline rail, not subway) should be cheaper because it offers the ability to share tracks with freight through the cemetery and East New York, the same way LIRR trains share track with freight in other places on the system. No new tunneling needed.

As for street running - the only other street running segment is in Jackson Heights. If you think you can add a surface light rail line into that traffic mess, you’re kidding yourself. Digging a (short, 2-block) subway there is worth every penny - otherwise any traffic delays in Jackson Hts will ripple across the entire IBX line.

^ Exactly. LIRR rolling stock is 10 feet wide, while the tunnels are 14 feet. That should be plenty of room for trains to operate. Even if the heavy rail option was forced to purchase new rolling stock, the light rail option needs to purchase new rolling stock anyway.

The price tag of $400 million per mile for the light rail option is laughable. There's no reason running a line on an already existing ROW should cost that much, unless they're spending ~$300 million for each station. This study raises more questions than answers.

now that i finally read the report - it’s interesting that light rail has more expensive annual operating costs than conventional rail.

this surprized me — they allege the four new mnrr stations in the bx won’t take as long as i thought — all done in 2027:


amNewYork Metro, in conjunction with the MTA, present “Ask the MTA,” a column where MTA officials answer your questions about transit service in New York City. If you have a question for the MTA about subways, buses, commuter rails and more, email askthemta[@]amny.com.

Q: With LIRR service coming to Grand Central Terminal, are there plans to bring Metro-North to Penn Station? – Sandy V.

A: Bringing Metro-North to Penn Station is finally happening after being talked about for a long time. The MTA broke ground last month on Penn Station Access, a multi-billion-dollar megaproject that will use Amtrak’s existing Hell Gate line to connect Metro-North’s New Haven Line to Penn Station, saving some passengers as much as 75 minutes on their commutes into Manhattan, as well as reverse commute destinations outside the City. The project will add four new railroad stations in the East Bronx – a major boost for transit equity – and build or rehabilitate 19 miles of track to ensure a quicker and more reliable ride. We expect to finish construction in 2027. – Catherine Rinaldi, President, Metro-North Railroad and Interim President, LIRR

mta goes for heavy usa trains vs lighter euro trains:


MTA set to pay nearly $3 billion for old, overweight LIRR, Metro-North cars

By Nolan Hicks
January 17, 2023


***
The MTA still wants to move ahead with another purchase of the steel dinosaurs even though federal authorities approved a massive regulatory overhaul in 2018 that now allows the agency to buy high-tech trains — common in Europe — that are dramatically faster, lighter and cheaper.


more:
https://nypost.com/2023/01/17/mta-op...more-analysis/

^^^ I usually don't link Post articles but like that, this LIRR one from yesterday is a must read:


"That means nearly half of the $1 billion the MTA hopes to generate through fares at both railroads in 2023 will be consumed employing individuals whose primary duty is collecting those tickets."...

...

"Probers from the State Comptroller obtained records from Richmond Hill that showed the LIRR paid 40 car repairmen for 9,449 hours of labor over the course of a month — even though the shop logs revealed just 1,244 hours of work were actually done."

^ yeah i know the post lol, but really its just a straight up comparison to the lighter, more modern euro trainsets.

as for your post article, well, i guess its nice to see exactly where the corruption is.

hopefully they or somebody follows up on these issues later.

Hopefully articles like these will force a culture change at the MTA.

When I toured the u/c Grand Central Madison last fall, we were shown all of the space that had originally been dedicated to ticket booths and pay phones, and how they had to come up with some other use for the space. They are still going to have ticket booths, but maybe half as many.

^ that’s easy — bring the drinks carts back. :cheers:

That is pretty incredible that a 208m M9 weighs 660t, compare that to a 243m Class 700/1 (used on Thameslink and shown in the NY Post article) which weighs 410t. That works out treble the weight by passenger capacity. Some of those excuses are just peculiar.

I’m off to New York in April so might see how the M9’s and other modern US rolling stock compares to its peers in Europe.

good stuff — all about the bqe here:



COMMUNITY & COMMERCE|Jan 17, 2023

VIDEO SHOWS HOW THE BQE CHANGED AN ENORMOUS SWATH OF BROOKLYN

A video posted by Segregation by Design demonstrates how construction of the expressway tore through a number of communities

By Gabe Friedman


Fresh off the news that a Brooklyn-to-Queens light rail system is now officially maybe in the works possibly, a video about another historic connection between the boroughs is making the rounds on Twitter.

An account called Segregation by Design — which uses “data and remastered/colorized historic photography to document the destruction of communities of color by redlining, urban renewal, and freeways” — posted an animation showing how the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway “cut a nearly 15-mile gash” throughout a huge chunk of Kings and Queens Counties.


more:
https://www.bkmag.com/2023/01/17/bqe-video/

Grand Central Madison / East Side Access service starts tomorrow.
https://new.mta.info/grandcentralmadison
As expected, just a Jamaica to Grand Central shuttle. First shuttle leaves Jamaica at 10:45 a.m. arriving at 11:07 p.m.

I realize they have to work with an already crowded Jamaica schedule and equipment shortages but hourly during peak times is actually kind of unbelievable, even just for this introductory service.

How many more months until LIRR non-shuttle service to the ESA? I say minimum 3.

Curious to see the actual trip times into and out of the caverns...

It'll be interesting to see if it gets overloaded with people curious to see it. Probably not inbound, but I can imagine that a lot of people will go over to Grand Central instead of Penn some night this week or next just to check it out, then transfer to their usual train at Jamaica.

I might cut over to Midtown to see this. I've been itching to ride this when it finally opens.

The media says 3 weeks but my money's on 6.

The LIRR will find a way to make the easy a challenge.

Don't get me wrong, this is great news. But it will take a bit for all the scheduling to work the kinks out.

finally its open as of today !!!!!


FINALLY! Grand Central Madison station opens after decades of planning and construction

By Ben BrachfeldPosted on January 24, 2023


The new Grand Central Madison train terminal is finally set to open to passengers Wednesday, bringing Long Island Rail Road service to the east side of Manhattan and putting the cherry on top of one of the largest, longest, and most expensive megaprojects in the city’s history.

The 750,000-square-foot terminal, situated 17 stories underneath Grand Central, is poised to boost train capacity on the LIRR by 40%. 


more:
https://www.amny.com/transit/grand-c...y-open-jan-25/

more grand central madison opening day news:



Grand Central Madison brings LIRR service to the East Side, realizing decades-old dream

A train arriving at Grand Central Madison.

By Stephen Nessen
Published Jan 25, 2023 at 1:21 p.m.
Modified Jan 25, 2023 at 2:06 p.m.


New York’s long-delayed plan to bring Long Island Rail Road trains to Grand Central Terminal was finally realized on Wednesday, capping a project that’s as old as the MTA itself.

Just after 11 a.m., Gov. Kathy Hochul and hundreds of riders arrived aboard the first passenger train into Grand Central Madison, a terminal located 150 feet beneath the rail hub.


more:
https://gothamist.com/news/grand-cen...ades-old-dream

renders of the new jfk terminal 1 -

The project broke ground in September 2022 and the first phase is slated to be finished in 2026.

more:
https://untappedcities.com/2023/01/1...rt-terminal-2/

https://untappedcities.com/wp-conten...-new-york3.jpg

I was watching some of the live streams this morning. Good to see a lot of enthusiastic people show up. Nothing much to reveal since we've seen pretty much the whole joint on the MTA flickr page and in other previews. It does look quite nice but the videos do a good job at really showing the bit of slog it takes to actually get down there. LOL at the temporary set of doors they had the install to "fix" their ventilation boner. That's so MTA.

^ i’m going over tomorrow. i mite ride the shuttle to jamaica, but really i just want to look around and see the yayoi kusama and kiki smith artwork:


https://www.forbes.com/sites/darrynk...h=1aca934751b6

Are those doors confirmed temporary? Really hope so, they look so out of place, laughably so.

The engineers are going to have to figure out how to balance the air pull of the ventilation. It's dragging air from the dining concourse down into the Madison concourse when it's not suppose to be. I have no idea whether or not the computer modeling they must have used when they engineered it was faulty. Janno Lieber made it crystal clear they're not paying a dime to fix the contractors screw up, so we'll see. Worst case scenario there's a handsome glass wall at the bottom of that escalator with some revolving doors. Hopefully it wont come to that.

I remember that Kiki Smith was scheduled to speak at my college 20~ years ago but she didn't make it because of...flash flooding.

The beach mosaic was the only one that was "aggressive" in its concept, but I didn't sense that it really worked when I saw it.

Visits from famous artists at colleges were always hilarious. The person was usually 50+ and a bit burnt-out and/or a complete asshole. I remember going to one where the guy (can't remember his name) played whale noises over the PA for the entire length of his talk.

The cavern well escalators have already begun to fail lol.

you were an art student in college? i should have guessed. :haha:

No they aren't. Some obnoxious teenage foamers were effing around and damaged something. They had it running a few hours later.