a few weeks ago....

http://www.amny.com/transit/mta-move...tem-1.11705675

MTA moves forward with mobile ticketing system
By Jason Shaltiel April 18, 2016


The MTA’s new mobile ticketing system that will replace railroad tickets and MetroCards will start to roll out in June of this year for the LIRR and Metro-North and begin on subways and buses in June 2017.

Using their smartphones, commuters will be able to purchase tickets through an app and use their phones to ride. Both Apple and Android phones will be able to run the app.

But mobile ticketing will only be available at selected LIRR and Metro-North stations until the end of this year.

For New York City subway and bus commuters,a non-swipe card system to replace Metrocards will start in June 2018, moved ahead from prior plans to begin in mid-2020.

The non-swipe cards will operate with a magnetic chip inside, similar to the SmartLink cards that are used at the PATH train.

In other MTA developments, construction of the 72nd Street subway station along the Second Avenue Subway line has fallen behind by three to four weeks and is at risk of impacting the date that the line will open.

The MTA requested that the contractor, Judlau, add more workers on the station project in order to accelerate progress at the station but the contractor has so far failed to comply.

Several members of the MTA board expressed frustration over Judlau’s design schedule at an MTA board meeting Monday. Michael Horodniceanu, the president of MTA Capital Construction, threatened that he and other MTA members would oppose awarding future contracts to Judlau if they fail to meet their target.
J
udlau, which is also contracted with other MTA projects, did not respond to a request for comment by reporting time.

The MTA also announced that it would increase service on the No. 2 line during the weekends due to substantial ridership growth.

The No. 2 line will get 31 extra round trips Saturdays and 18 additional round trips Sundays. The additional service is expected to serve riders of the No. 5 line, which shares many stops with the No. 2 in Bronx and Brooklyn but does run in Brooklyn on weekends.

“We always want to better serve our customers by strengthening service whenever we have sustainable resources to do so, but we also must balance providing that service with the critical maintenance work we need to run trains safely,” said MTA NYC Transit President Veronique “Ronnie” Hakim.

Talk about an increase in service

L train shutdown and repairs meetings

http://www.amny.com/transit/l-train-...urg-1.11768149

this year is the 40th anniversary of the r.i. tram:


Roosevelt Island Tram facts and figures

By Nicole Brown May 5, 2016

The Roosevelt Island Tram is unlike any other form of transportation in the city.

Connecting Manhattan, at 59th Street and Second Avenue, to Roosevelt Island, it serves both island residents and tourists alike.

Judith Berdy of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society said the tram, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, is known as a safe, clean and energy-efficient form of transportation.

"It's an icon of the island," she said.

Scroll down for some facts and figures of the tram.


http://cdn.newsday.com/polopoly_fs/1..._730/image.jpg



more:
http://www.amny.com/transit/roosevel...res-1.11764786

scary but necessary:


TRANSIT

Subway study sends harmless gas through subway stations to test possible impact of chemical attack

By Reuters May 9, 2016

U.S. authorities on Monday sent a harmless gas wafting through the New York subway to study how to deal with a toxic accident or attack in a test that both unsettled and reassured riders on the underground system.

A mix of odorless, inert gases and tracer materials were released in three of the busiest subway stations in the city: Grand Central Terminal, Times Square and Penn Station, U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials said.

Men and women in orange vests let off the gas inside areas cordoned off with yellow "caution" tape as commuters walked by and police stood guard.

With equipment set up at another 55 subway stations around Manhattan, researchers will take air samples every four hours to see how the gas spreads. They will repeat the process throughout the work week, the department said in a statement.

The test is part of a five-year program that began in 2012 to develop methods to protect urban transit systems in the event of an attack or accidental contamination. Previous tests were conducted in New York, Washington, D.C. and Boston.

"These tests are designed to gather data about how airborne material will travel through subway systems and the trains and how quickly they will move," said John Verrico, a spokesman for the department's Science and Technology Directorate, which sponsored the test along with the Office of Health Affairs.

New York subway riders had mixed feelings about the test, which may have stirred painful memories of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.

Amy Aziz, an artist from New Jersey, first learned of the study from her boyfriend.
"I've heard that they've done it in the past and it sounds like it should be very beneficial," she said.

Other riders said the test made them uneasy because it reminded them of the vulnerability of the country's largest subway system, with its complex stations and countless ventilation paths.

"It's something that we know is a possibility but we don't want to think about it because we don't want it to become a reality," said Doris Altman, a New York City subway commuter. "But it's really frightening.

http://www.amny.com/transit/subway-s...ack-1.11777696

Thinking about ReThink NYC

https://urbanramblesblog.wordpress.c...t-rethink-nyc/

I'm flattered he called me a Transit activist.. Worth a read about the RethinkNYC plan which has the Urbanist and Infrastructure community confused , giggling and angry...

welp i finally checked out the turnstile food hall in the columbus circle station this weekend. it really looks great, but everything is crazy expensive, like for example all the premade sandwiches are $10++. granted it was sunday, but i walked up and down it and there were no customers and i only saw one tourist family eating anything. good luck to them, but how about offering something for the 80% rest of us sheesh. :shrug:

http://i1340.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5nyysdfi.jpg

They give me a mountain of free food the around closing time that they were going to throw out...but even during rush hr it was empty compared to GCT's Food area or Manhattan Mall in terms volume of people...

millennial-ready busses? :shrug: oh kaay:


MTA introduces Millennial-friendly buses with Wi-Fi, USB charging ports in Queens


The bus of tomorrow is here.

Buses that have Wi-Fi and USB charging ports hit the streets Tuesday in Queens, sporting a New York-themed blue-and-yellow design.

These buses — seven already in service with 75 coming this summer — will let riders surf the web on their device while cruising the streets, all while staying charged with the USB ports.

Nearly all of the charging ports line the top of the bus, above the windows, so riders will need to make sure their cord is long enough to reach the port while seated.


more:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...icle-1.2640648

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopo...a18n-1-web.jpg
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopo...750/mtabus.jpg

SBS bus receives extra fancy paint job. News at 11.

reviewer says new mta busses are a bust:

http://nypost.com/2016/05/19/if-mtas...re-all-doomed/

http://www.mta.info/news-metro-north...ocurement-will

New Procurement Will Make Service Even Safer and More Reliable

May 13, 2016

http://www.mta.info/sites/default/fi...?itok=a9rfwQ51

http://7p3nq48zas72j674m34vzol1.wpen...brooklyn-1.jpg

The proposal

There’s a catch

What F train express proponents want:

What F train express critics want

http://7p3nq48zas72j674m34vzol1.wpen...n-brooklyn.jpg

Time saved and lost

===========================
http://www.brownstoner.com/brooklyn-...ss-subway-mta/

mta welcomes you to the weekend ! :haha:

a screenshot of the mta weekender app from just now.

yes its every line - including staten island :slob:

http://i1340.photobucket.com/albums/...psvklv33ka.png

subway facts & figures:

http://www.amny.com/transit/mta-fact...ore-1.11817716

Obviously a vision from hell depending on how you look at it. Although... it would be a cool ride.

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Could this futuristic bridge across the Hudson solve N.J.'s transit woes?

http://media.nj.com/traffic_impact/p...ed3151523b.png

http://image.nj.com/home/njo-media/w...607-mmmain.png

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http://www.nj.com/traffic/index.ssf/...nsit_woes.html

You know, I am actually surprised there isn't an express tunnel running underneath Manhattan connecting Jersey to the highway system in Queens to basically bypass the Manhattan streets.

Gov. Cuomo approves MTA’s $27B repair and upgrade plan

============================
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/poli...icle-1.2649021

the passageway from fulton center to wtc opens today:


The PATH not taken

EDITORIALS
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Thursday, May 26, 2016, 4:00 AM


As above, so below

A new attraction opens in New York on Thursday — a spectacular feat of gross excess that was years in the making and will be open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The city’s newest monument is an underground passageway that connects the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s $1.4 billion renovated Fulton St. subway complex, with its grandiose and unneeded entrance hall, to the Port Authority’s even more ridiculously over-the-top $4.4 billion World Trade Center PATH station.

Walk from one end to the other and you can witness insanely wasteful transit spending. As you do, consider this:

Rather than build a white marble station designed by Santiago Calatrava, an architect renowned for overpriced projects, the Port Authority could have used that $4.4 billion to provide free rides to all 100,000 daily PATH passengers for the next 25 years.

I am wondering what it would take to shift priorities to fixing improving existing infrastructure first instead of expensive ribbon cutting. The amount of money allocated on new fancy things is enough to improve existing service.