You don't make long term billion dollar decisions about capacity based on short term ridership - which is slowly recovering and will eventually reach pre-pandemic, even if that takes 5+ years.

i was worried about these — glad to see they finally got restored —


A place we can all call home’: City unveils restored medallions on Avenue of the Americas

Meaghan McGoldrick - Jan 31


more:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-...as/ar-AA16WNHl

^ This makes me so happy. It went way to long looking like crap. Shameful really as the city should have prioritized such a highly visible thing.

^ i know, right? :cheers:

via untapped --- and check out the link for more on medallion restoration:


INSIDE THE SIGN SHOP RESTORING NYC’S AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS MEDALLIONS

NICOLE SARANIERO


Something has been missing from the lampposts along the Avenue of the Americas for decades. Hanging from the street lights, passersby would have once seen 300 different medallions, or shields, representing the countries and territories of the Western Hemisphere. Only 22 remained as of 2016. This week, the New York City Department of Transportation completed the first phase of a restoration project that will bring back 45 of the lost Avenue of the Americas medallions from West 42nd to West 59th Streets.

more:
https://untappedcities.com/2023/02/0...as-medallions/

https://untappedcities.com/wp-conten...ew-york1-1.jpg

Thought this was pretty cool. Various rail lines superimposed to show where they are at.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FJdQ5WMX...pg&name=medium
Credit: Simon Kuestenmacher

I love how there's a bunch of canned soup on that desk back there.

^ well, you can't refabricate classic avenue of the americas signage without your soup!

Ahhh...Progresso.

re the essex-hudson greenway fka the nj transit boonton line:


On celebrated Essex-Hudson Greenway, some feeling buyers’ remorse

N.J. spent $65M to buy rail line and turn it into a state park

BY: DANA DIFILIPPO


Almost since the start, when train service stopped on the old Boonton rail line in 2002 and the weeds and wildlife began taking over, plans formed for what the narrow 9-mile tract snaking through Essex and Hudson counties could be.

Everyone from environmentalists to politicians envisioned a park that would serve as a sanctuary for residents of New Jersey’s most crowded region.


more:
https://newjerseymonitor.com/2023/02...uyers-remorse/

Senseless tragedy.

Maybe this will be the wake up call for these dumb-as-shit teenage thrill seekers to stop risking their lives for an instagram selfie.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/-wIAA...aY/s-l1600.jpg
_

Story: https://nypost.com/2023/02/21/nyc-te...msburg-bridge/

Related: https://nypost.com/2023/02/22/mta-te...urfing-videos/

MTA drops full length mezzanines
 

Second Ave Subway Phase 2

In some refreshing news that recently flew under the radar last week, the MTA is scaling back previously planned full length mezzanines for the next two stations in phase 2 of SAS. The affected stations are along the section of tunnel built cut and cover in the 1970s before the city went broke. Full length mezzanines have proven to be overboard to handle expected ridership in all but the busiest stations. They finally seem to be taking cost bloating due to over-engineering in relation to international subway design standards seriously.

Post article (sorry):

https://nypost.com/2023/02/16/mta-sh...nue-extension/

For example, MTA diagrams submitted to the feds show the 116th Street station will still end up being around 1,100 feet long — stretching from 115th Street to 120th Street. And the FTA signed off on changes to the stations in August 2020, according to documents quietly posted on the MTA’s website.


On the article's included drawing, the distance between the two stations appeared to be roughly the same as the length of the stations themselves.

I'd like to read a description of what it means to "halve" the size of the mezzanine. A mezzanine the length of the whole train enables many entry points to the station, which shortens walks and increases ridership. It also helps spread passengers between different cars on the trains.

The link in the article to the MTA revised PDF showed the excavation changes. The same PDF also shows the tweaks regarding entrances and crew spaces for the 125 St Station. They are sticking with the extra long tail tracks to west of Lenox which suggests they're at least in theory interested in a future 125 St extension. Seems logical at least. What kills me is they aren't just going to roll it into scope for phase 2 and just bore the tunnels to at least St. Nicholas.

As usual, the NY Post has the news wrong and is trying to paint a certain picture. The MTA has enough challenges without the Post fabricating issues to push their relentless "evil govt, lazy bureaucrats, transit is bad, blue states can't govern, fed outlays are wasteful" narrative.

There is one SAS station where the shorter mezzanine option is being used, but it isn't being "halved"; there were two options and they're using the shorter version, which is still longer than the platform level. The longer mezzanines usually make sense, but not in this location. The shorter version was always the intended version. As is typical, projects have menus of alternatives, but that doesn't mean there isn't a defined path where the alternatives are largely predetermined.

Also, the Post previously complained that SAS stations were overengineered and too big. Can't win.

Which is why I hesitate linking Post pieces - but I didnt see it anywhere else.

A 125th Street extension to Broadway would do so much for redundancy and cross-town travel. It would be huge.

I still think extending northward into the Bronx, along the Third Avenue corridor (the former Third Avenue El route) should be a higher priority, however. It's crazy to have this super dense Bronx corridor with no subway service since the 1970's.

Preaching to the choir Crawford, preaching to the choir.

Phase 2 will get its Bronx tunnel provisions at least but there really should also be a tunnel provision east of the 125 St station to create a possibility to run a service across 125th to Randalls Is and into Astoria and LGA. These "dreams" shouldn't have to be "dreams."

Prioritize the crosstown 125th, and focus on modifying the Harlem line to better serve the Bronx (bring down fares closer to the subway, increase frequency). A much better use of limited funds that will accomplish much of the same goals.

Also the crosstown probably will just get to 8th avenue, the subway needs tail tracks.

wouldn’t it all be nice, but practically speaking crosstown 125st service to st nicholas is by far a more important priority than going back up third ave. — and so is sas phase 3 and 4. i mean lets not forget we are far from done here with sas.

^ speaking of, ugh —



CityLabTransportation

How NYC’s Second Avenue Subway Became the World’s Most Expensive Line

The Manhattan transit expansion’s multibilllion-dollar price tag reflects the spiraling complexity of US construction practices, a team of NYU researchers says.

BySkylar Woodhouse+Follow
February 23, 2023 at 10:31 AM EST


New York City’s Second Avenue Subway, which opened in 2017 after a long and troubled genesis, was a transit milestone for the city — the first major subway expansion in 50 years, and a boon for those who lived on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. But behind its wide platforms and mosaic-lined stations is the world’s most expensive subway line — and it’s not even finished.

At $2.5 billion per mile, construction costs for the 1.8-mile Phase 1 of the Second Avenue Subway were 8 to 12 times more expensive than similar subway projects in Italy, Istanbul, Sweden, Paris, Berlin and Spain, according to a report from New York University’s Marron Institute of Urban Management.


more:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...truction-costs