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Perklol Nov 1, 2014 8:48 AM
http://www.mta.info/news/2014/10/31/...years-ago-week

63 St Subway Extension Opened 25 Years Ago this Week

October 31st, 2014

http://www.mta.info/sites/default/fi...?itok=M5cXKZfm

Quote:
The 63rd Street Line was opened for service on October 29, 1989 originally served by http://www.mta.info/sites/all/themes..._bullets/q.png trains on weekdays and http://www.mta.info/sites/all/themes..._bullets/b.png trains on weekends. The line reached a temporary terminus at the 21 St-Queensbridge station, but the three-station, 3.2 – mile route was extended 1,500 feet and, in 2001, connected to the busy Queens Boulevard corridor just south of the 36 St Station with the rerouting of http://www.mta.info/sites/all/themes..._bullets/f.png service at all times to 63rd Street.

The 63rd Street Line will play a vital role once the Second Av Subway is completed. The double-decked Lexington Av – 63 St Station will allow cross-platform interchange between the http://www.mta.info/sites/all/themes..._bullets/q.png and http://www.mta.info/sites/all/themes..._bullets/f.png As part of the Second Av Subway project, the station is being renovated to remove the walls on the platforms and open a new entrance on the Third Avenue side of the station. East-bound trains to Queens (and later Upper Manhattan) will use the lower level; south-bound trains to Midtown and Lower Manhattan will use the upper level.

The 63rd Street Tube is also the linchpin of the East Side Access Project and while one level supports Queens Boulevard Line subway trains, the second level was designed and built for Long Island Rail Road operation and in the future will serve trains traveling between Queens and a new LIRR Terminal at Grand Central.

When LIRR service is routed through the tube, the facility will be unique in the MTA’s operation as one that supports both commuter rail and subway service.

Perklol Nov 3, 2014 10:47 PM
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/201...tudy_says.html

How many riders would $1.5 billion PATH extension carry daily?

By Steve Strunsky
October 03, 2014 at 7:35 AM, updated October 03, 2014

http://imgick.nj.com/home/njo-media/...12335e832b.jpg

Quote:
NEWARK — A $1.5 billion extension of PATH service to Newark Liberty International Airport would serve about 6,000 riders a day, who would pay just over one-third of its annual operating costs in fares, according to a feasibility study for the project.

Daily ridership on the mile-long link between Newark Penn Station and the airport would top out at 6,072, according to a study led by the Morristown-based Louis Berger Group, which was first conducted in 2000 and last updated in 2010.

After decades of discussion and study by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the airport extension was included in the agency's $27.6 billion, 10-year capital plan adopted in February. **The Port Authority issued a request for proposals to manage the project last week that reflected the $1.5 billion construction cost, with a construction schedule beginning in early 2018 and ending in late 2023**.

The study estimated the annual operating cost of the service at $19 million, in 2010 dollars. Based on the PATH's $2 fare in place at the time, the estimated share of the operating cost paid for by riders would be 37 percent, a lower share than the 45 percent realized by the PATH system as a whole from 2002 though 2008.

....A 2012 analysis by the Regional Plan Association, a non-profit transportation research group that supports the project, put the immediate ridership figure 20 percent higher than Berger's projection, asserting it would be nearly double after 20 years.

Proponents also say the PATH extension would be used by low-wage airport workers commuting from from Hudson and Essex Counties, and that it would take thousands of cars off the region's congested roads every day that would otherwise be driven to the airport.

That's true, according to the Berger study, which projects that ridership would be divided almost equally between air passengers (51.4%) and airport workers (48.6%).

Innsertnamehere Nov 4, 2014 3:30 AM
what the hell is the point of spending $1.5 billion on a line that carries 6,000 people? Toronto is spending $450 million on an airport connection expected to carry 5,000 people and finance itself through premium fares, and people are still complaining. I can't imagine paying 1.5 billion for 6,000 daily riders and still have to subsidize them to a tune of over 60%.

Perklol Nov 4, 2014 4:12 AM
photos taken down on flickr.... will find another photo soon -- stay tuned!!!

ardecila Nov 4, 2014 4:23 AM
Better question is why it costs $1.5 billion. It's exactly 2 miles from Newark Penn to Newark International. Honolulu is building a fully elevated rail line for $265M per mile, so the PATH extension should only be $500M at these costs.

New York construction costs are expensive, but I'm comparing it to Hawaii - a chain of islands where virtually everything has to be shipped in.

Possibly the most expensive elevated rail line in the world:
http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/the-...newark-airport

Perklol Nov 4, 2014 4:33 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ardecila (Post 6793941)
Better question is why it costs $1.5 billion. It's exactly 2 miles from Newark Penn to Newark International. Honolulu is building a fully elevated rail line for $265M per mile, so the PATH extension should only be $500M at these costs.
More info. here

http://secondavenuesagas.com/2014/02...ath-ewr-plans/
Quote:
So for $1.5 billion, the Port Authority expects to extend PATH from Newark along a pre-existing right-of-way to the Newark Airport station. This isn’t, you’ll note, a pure one-seat ride to the airport, but more on that soon. As part of the work, the PA will construct new platforms and bolster “associated station passenger infrastructure” to improve connections to the AirTrain. The agency will have to replace the rail storage yard near the airport — a significant driver of costs. They’ll have to make modifications to Newark for bidirectional PATH train flow, and they may look to find private dollars for a garage for non-airport travelers near the new station. An interim stop between Newark and the airport is not currently in the works.

Nexis4Jersey Nov 4, 2014 4:44 AM
Why won't it have stops in the Southern Ironbound section? How does it cost 1.5 billion when most of line is already built....

Qubert Nov 4, 2014 2:00 PM
Just to pile on this PATH to EWR thing: Most sane people are *not* going to want to haul a whole bunch of baggage on a subway car. At least in DC their metro's cars are somewhat more comfortable. We have uber frequent NJT service already and that 1.5 billion could go towards a new bridge/tunnel under the Hudson or something else similarly useful.

Perklol Nov 5, 2014 4:48 AM
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/l...-use-of-funds-

Some question whether NYC to Newark Airport PATH train is best use of funds

OCTOBER 27, 2014 NJ SPOTLIGHT

http://www.newsworks.org/images/stor...tlight1200.jpg

Quote:
The Port Authority's capital plan for the next 10 years includes no money to build the critically needed Gateway rail tunnels or upgrade or replace the overcrowded Port Authority Bus Terminal, but it does include $1.5 billion to provide Manhattan residents with a low-cost, one-seat ride on a new PATH line to Newark Airport.

To New Jersey mass-transit advocates, the controversial PATH extension is not only a case of misplaced priorities in an era of scarce funding, but also is emblematic of how political deal-making took precedence over policy needs for too long at the Port Authority, which is the subject of at least six separate federal and state investigations.


..."I'm just not sure that a PATH extension to Newark Airport should take priority over other needs, given the transportation funding crisis that we are facing," Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) said last week. You can get on a train in Manhattan and get to Newark Airport now. We have other much more pressing needs to which that $1.5 billion could be devoted*

Perklol Nov 5, 2014 10:59 AM
article gone.

BrownTown Nov 5, 2014 11:56 PM
I don't have any problem with a PATH extension to Newark. What I have a problem with is the fact it costs 1.5 Billion dollars for something so basic. This is why it's so hard to support any sort of new transit improvements in the USA (and especially around NYC). They are all a good idea until you see that they cost 2-10 times as much as the exact same thing would cost in another country, or even in another part of this country. For 1.5 Billion I would definitely build something else, but the problem is that whatever else you build in NYC it's going to be just as absurdly overpriced.

Perklol Nov 6, 2014 4:50 PM
http://www.mta.info/news-new-york-ci...info-clear-and

MTA On The Go Network Offers Customers Up-to-Date Info in a Clear and Colorful Way

November 05th, 2014

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

Quote:
The colorful screens of MTA New York City Transit’s network of On the Go Travel Station kiosks are becoming more and more evident in subway stations. The growing customer information system is one of the largest transit based digital signage networks in the United States, and currently provides transit information to more than 1.2 million subway customers daily.

The six-foot tall, stainless steel kiosks featuring 47-inch interactive screens have been installed and activated in 30 stations in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, with a total of 153 on tap by year end. The network is made possible through a unique public-private partnership among NYC Transit, Outfront Media (formerly CBS Outdoor Americas Inc.) and Control Group NYC.

The On the Go Travel Station is an innovative electronic communications tool that provides subway customers with information about their complete trip, from planning and service status to information about nearby destinations.

The kiosks place an unprecedented amount of transit information at customers’ fingertips while they are in the system. In addition to customers pulling information, NYC Transit can push granular Service Advisory messages to network screens. More than 140 screens are located in fare-control areas, mezzanines and on platforms.

Each kiosk – whether hard wired to the NYC Transit network or part of a secure wireless network – is individually addressable.

“The On the Go Travel Station network is one of the most ambitious in-system customer information initiatives we’ve undertaken since the introduction of our subway countdown clocks,” said MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas F. Prendergast. “Having a digital platform for customers to obtain travel information, while simultaneously giving us the ability to communicate with them is a huge step forward in our efforts to provide timely information to customers at the point of transit decision making,” added Prendergast.

Perklol Nov 6, 2014 5:00 PM
Read more: http://www.city-journal.org/2014/eon1023ng.html

Savior of the Subways
As New York’s first MTA chairman, William Ronan helped start the city on its remarkable turnaround.

23 October 2014

http://www.city-journal.org/assets/i...0141023-ng.jpg

Quote:
William Ronan, the first chief of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, died last week at 101. During his nine-year tenure at the MTA and its predecessor, Ronan presided over a transit system in decline serving a city in decline. Yet he was at the helm when New York finally gave up on the private automobile as the engine of urban growth, a realization that eventually allowed Gotham to resurrect itself.

Robert Moses’s Triborough Bridge opened in 1936, minting huge toll profits that helped him become New York’s “master builder.” New York spent three decades building highways, bridges, and tunnels. Though intended to relieve traffic congestion, the new infrastructure actually encouraged people to drive more. Between 1940 and 1963, car and truck traffic into Manhattan increased by 59 percent. Subway traffic fell 10 percent and commuter-rail traffic dropped 14 percent. By the mid-sixties, after “30 years of do-nothingism in mass transportation,” as Ronan would later put it, it looked like the car had prevailed.

In 1964, Governor Nelson Rockefeller tapped Ronan, an NYU government professor and top administrator for Mayor Robert Wagner, to come up with a plan for the bankrupt private railroad that brought commuters from Long Island into Manhattan. A year later, the state took it over. Without that rescue, Ronan said, the Long Island Rail Road “wouldn’t have survived in any form.” Gotham’s subways, jointly controlled by the state and city, soon needed a bailout, too.

Ronan grasped two things before most people did. First, he understood that transit was the future, not the past. Ronan doggedly released what the New York Times called “a sweeping $2.9 billion blueprint” to build a Second Avenue subway, an LIRR link to the East Side of Manhattan, and a rapid commuter train to Kennedy Airport. Campaigning for a $2.5 billion bond in the summer of 1967, Ronan reminded New Yorkers that the city hadn’t built any subways since the Great Depression and hadn’t “done anything really significant for commuter railroads since 1913.” Voters approved the state bond, and Ronan got to work planning his new tunnels, noting that he was “little interested in stocking libraries with more studies.”

Ronan understood something else: transit was never going to pay for itself, but that didn’t mean it should die, as it had been gradually doing. “It’s time to stop talking about transit deficits,” he said. “We don’t talk about a police department deficit, but we need the subways as much as the police department.”

aquablue Nov 6, 2014 6:05 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrownTown (Post 6796649)
I don't have any problem with a PATH extension to Newark. What I have a problem with is the fact it costs 1.5 Billion dollars for something so basic. This is why it's so hard to support any sort of new transit improvements in the USA (and especially around NYC). They are all a good idea until you see that they cost 2-10 times as much as the exact same thing would cost in another country, or even in another part of this country. For 1.5 Billion I would definitely build something else, but the problem is that whatever else you build in NYC it's going to be just as absurdly overpriced.
You have to support them despite the cost otherwise drown in a sea of traffic pollution and sit in traffic for 3 hours every commute. I don't have a problem supporting it over a new bunch of missiles or wars. A lot of the cost is in building facilities to serve the trains and not just the track.

aquablue Nov 6, 2014 6:10 PM
We could do with that rapid JFK link right now mate. It's odd how it fell of the radar. We need the lower manhattan rail link or the midtown-JFK express.

BrownTown Nov 7, 2014 5:27 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by aquablue (Post 6797567)
You have to support them despite the cost otherwise drown in a sea of traffic pollution and sit in traffic for 3 hours every commute. I don't have a problem supporting it over a new bunch of missiles or wars. A lot of the cost is in building facilities to serve the trains and not just the track.
Just because they are needed doesn't mean we have to accept such absurdly high prices and long schedules. There is no technical reason why these projects need to cost so much, it's all in the red tape and excessive union wages. I get it's going to cost more to get stuff done here than in China, but why does it have to cost so much more than London and other European cities and why do some of these projects take decades to complete?

Perklol Nov 7, 2014 2:25 PM
http://www.gothamgazette.com/index.p...bway-now-quart

Complete the Full Second Avenue Subway Now

by Dan Quart, Aug 07, 2014

http://www.gothamgazette.com/images/...e-subway-1.jpg

Quote:
Ask a hundred people who live on the East Side what they love about their neighborhood and you'll hear a hundred different answers. Ask the same people what is their least favorite thing about where they live and you'll hear the same refrain over and over: it's too far from the subway!

New York neighborhoods live or die based on their proximity to public transit. The far East Side, from Third Avenue to East End Avenue, has always suffered due to its distance from the Lexington line, the only subway line operating in the 8 full avenue blocks between Central Park and the East River.The Lexington line serves an average of 1.3 million riders each day – more than the average daily ridership of any other entire transit system in the US.

The Second Avenue Subway offers the promise of public transit to the East Side to neighborhoods long isolated. When Phase 1 opens in 2016, the entire East Side will enjoy the same easy access to subways as the rest of Manhattan. New Yorkers who live and work on the far East Side will finally know what it's like to catch a train just a couple of blocks away.

Where, though, will that train take them?

As of 2016, not very far. The first phase of the Second Avenue Subway, opening in 2016, will only extend the Q line from 57th Street to 96th Street. While this will provide some much-needed relief on the Lexington line, it doesn't truly solve the problem: a dearth of subway access east of the entire length of Lexington Avenue.

Extending the Q train four stops only helps Upper East Siders travelling to destinations near Broadway (mostly on the West Side in midtown.); it does nothing to connect uptown and downtown on the East Side, the route where the need is most critical. True transportation equity requires a full build of the Second Avenue Subway, from 125th Street to Hanover Square.

It is unclear if the MTA is prepared to seamlessly move forward with construction. The MTA's Twenty-Year Capital Needs Assessment, released in October 2013, devotes only three paragraphs (out of 140 pages) to the Second Avenue Subway construction, noting that "[i]mplementation of future...phases will need to take into account MTA's ability to fund and plan each functional incremental stage." The decade old Environmental Impact Statement for the project has not yet been updated, one of the very first steps the MTA will have to take to plan for future phases. As of yet, no concrete steps have been taken to ensure that construction of the Second Avenue Subway will continue past Phase 1.

Perklol Nov 7, 2014 9:50 PM
http://www.yimbynews.com/2014/11/goo...e-station.html

Good Riddance: Questionable PATH Extension to Newark Liberty Won’t Leave the Station

BY: STEPHEN SMITH ON NOVEMBER 7TH 2014 AT 4:15 PM

http://www.yimbynews.com/wp-content/...rt_station.jpg
Existing New Jersey Transit station at Newark Liberty, image by Joseph Barillari from Wikimedia

Quote:
When word started circulating of a Port Authority push to extend the PATH rapid transit network from Newark’s Penn Station to the city’s big international airport, the Wall Street Journal’s Ted Mann reported that the extension appeared to be part of a quid-pro-quo deal between Governor Chris Christie’s administration and United Airlines.

As part of the governor’s longstanding attempt to revive Atlantic City (how’s that going, governor?), the Journal reported, Christie’s representatives offered United Airlines a shiny new PATH extension to Newark Liberty

International Airport (where United is the dominant carrier), in exchange for the airline flying into Atlantic City “International” Airport.
And now, a new report from Mann makes it clear that the PATH extension to Newark Liberty and United service to Atlantic City were, in fact, linked – and that with the demise of United’s Atlantic City service, the PATH extension is also in jeopardy:

United Airlines will halt its service to Atlantic City International Airport in December, pulling the plug on a seven-month experiment that surrogates of Gov. Chris Christie helped negotiate as part of the administration’s effort to revive that city’s sagging fortunes. [...]

This week, there have been signs that the PATH project won’t be moving ahead soon. On Nov. 3, the Port Authority canceled bidding requests for environmental and transportation planners for the project, with no notice when the bidding might resume.

While YIMBY is generally supportive of transit expansion throughout the region, this project was a highly questionable use of scarce resources, and we’re not shedding any tears over its demise.

Perklol Nov 7, 2014 11:46 PM
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/articl...r-buses-queens

City unveils ‘design concepts’ for better buses in Queens

By Dana Rubinstein 5:08 a.m. | Nov. 6, 2014

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/sites/...%20lanes_0.png
A design concept. (Capital)

Quote:
"Road space should be better allocated.”

So read a posterboard in the basement of an Ozone Park church on Wednesday evening, where the city for the first time presented its three "design concepts" for the future of Woodhaven and Cross Bay boulevards, the corridor where advocates hope the city will implement true bus rapid transit.

City officials and their consultants gave visitors guided tours past clusters of informational materials arrayed on easels set up around the basement.

The materials described, in as unbiased a fashion as possible, the three design concepts for the corridor, ranging from the timid species of bus rapid transit the city and the M.T.A. operate in places like First and Second avenues and 34th Street, to the more robust variety available in cities around the world.

The city's presentation took pains not to take sides.

"It's fair for us to not be the advocates," said Eric Beaton, director of transit development at the city transportation department. "It's fair for us to put information out there and get honest feedback."

But advocates, some of them major institutional players, have begun to harbor hopes the city will use Woodhaven and Cross Bay boulevards to demonstrate just how effective real bus rapid transit can be when fully implemented.

In that full-fledged form (which can be found in places like Bogota, Colombia, and Guangzhou, China) bus rapid transit can effectively serve as a ground-level subway system, with buses moving quickly and in rapid succession along bus lanes that are separated from traffic.

Starting in the Bloomberg administration, city officials began developing something called Select Bus Service, which was supposed to be New York's version of bus rapid transit, but which many found wanting. It had off-board fare payment and bus lanes painted separate colors, but cars drove in the bus lanes anyway. Bus speeds increased, but not by much.

.....

The city says that whichever option it chooses will be heavily informed by rider feedback from events like Wednesday's.

That process could take some time.

One tour guide estimated the project wouldn't be complete for more than three or four years.

According to Beaton, it's hard to say.

"If we’re on the right track and people are happy with what we are doing, we can move a lot faster," he said. "If we need to work through issues at a more detailed level, we want to take the time we need to do it right.”

NorthernDancer Nov 8, 2014 4:16 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Perklol (Post 6799593)
http://www.yimbynews.com/2014/11/goo...e-station.html

Good Riddance: Questionable PATH Extension to Newark Liberty Won’t Leave the Station

BY: STEPHEN SMITH ON NOVEMBER 7TH 2014 AT 4:15 PM

http://www.yimbynews.com/wp-content/...rt_station.jpg
Existing New Jersey Transit station at Newark Liberty, image by Joseph Barillari from Wikimedia

If they're not gonna extend PATH to the airport, they should at least greatly improve the service frequency of the NJ Transit trains. At times the headway between the NJT trains from Newark Airport to Manhattan is more than 45 minutes!


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