the path extension was approved for the pa's latest ten year planning, but it isn't funded. only $15M was set aside in 2018 for the estimated $1.7B two and a half mile extension project. and that was at the time, so likely the costs are a lot higher now and will be even more so as time goes on.

The PA is counting on about $700M in federal dollars via grant which hasn't been obtained yet. I wouldn't expect to hear much about this until after 2020 assuming a certain someone is no longer in office stopping up the works. Should they receive the money the PA ought to be able to bring the extension online by 2026.

LOL, ny should be compared with Paris, London, HK, Tokyo, not SF, Miami, St. Louis, Chicago, Dallas, etc. All of those alpha + cities have a decent one seat ride and ny has the airtrain.. it's a big embarrassment that a city with the global clout of a NY, a prime city of the world along with London and Tokyo, (America's face to the world) never ponied up for a proper rail link and went with half measures (air train).

A "one seat ride" very much depends on your destination. Odds are lots of people will have to use another form of local transit to reach their final destination.

JFK AirTrain isn't inherently bad IMO its just implemented poorly like so much else here. The subway transfers blow, the fare purchasing/collection is a nightmare, and the PA reduces frequency outside of what they consider rush on an automated system because reasons.

pretty sure the airtrain was a very purposeful plan to separate from local transit to help manage those transit rider folks access to the airports and to help counteract "the tehr" as that fake texan bush used to say.

its fine in and of itself, but the connections are turrble. :shrug:

Not to change the subject but what's the status of the double decker bus program?

^ good question. i think its still a pilot program with a bus from staten to manhattan:

https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs...-new-york-city

just a guess, but i bet adding more double decker busses are a bit on the backburner.

i think the mta has its hands full right now with the new fare payment system and putting in the card readers in the subway turnstyles and so you are able to enter from any bus door.

Hmm, I don't know, seems like they ought to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. I like the concept of DD on some routes, especially replacing some of the dopey MCI coaches on the express routes. I do have some criticisms though. In general I don't dislike the Alex Dennis buses, I think they look pretty slick but I don't think it's necessary at all to have these luxury liner looking buses operating express routes. I'd much rather prefer something a bit more modest in appearance and much less rockstar tour bus. I love the MAN double-deckers in Berlin, something like that would look fantastic. Also I think it would be brilliant to run double deckers on one or more of the Fifth Ave routes (M1-4), maybe even one in special livery to reflect the historic connection to the old Fifth Ave Coach. I could see it becomming a tourist thing giving the benefit to the MTA and away from the tour bus co's.

^ ha well yeah that's true. andy byford has certainly been ratcheting up a multi-pronged approach to modernize and speed things up.

bringing back double decker busses down fifth avenue is a great idea.

they would probably need a different model than the long distance model they have though, which is hard to get up and down on as there is only one stairway. like a london type bus with two sets of doors.

next up for the new 14th street busway are boarding platforms.

temporary at first, then permanent.

these will be great to have and speed things up even more. :tup:

https://ny.curbed.com/2019/11/6/2095...n-improvements


btw somebody with what looks like one of those corrosive russian military troll farmer accounts is whining in the comments there that 15st and 13st are now swamped with cars. not true.

funtime is over — ticketing on the way for 14st busway:


https://gothamist.com/news/bus-mount...offlaw-drivers

dubz

I was back in NY last week for a bit and walked 14th from Union Square to 9th Ave. The change is incredible. Trucks making deliveries easily, no traffic blocking pedestrian crossings, busses moved quickly. It was almost like a dream.

That the city doesn't immediately implement this on at least 34th and 42nd seems like a crime.

On a different subject why are sidewalk sheds slowly taking over the entirety of midtown even on buildings that clearly have no work being done or staged? I assume there is some very NY explanation for this. They are a real menace to pedestrian flow.

^ as someone who lives on the street i can highly confirm we are living the dream. it's like night and day. no noise, no schmutz in the windows. it's absolute peace and quiet on a major through street, who would have imagined?

i cannot wait for the boarding improvements, signage and this crackdown on the straggler cars.

much to my surprise i believe those midtown cross streets are next up for busway conversions (i would have guessed easier uptown cross streets like 110th or 116th would be next).

as for the midtown construction sheds, they certainly are a nuisance and often a menace for pedestrians and worse than ever. however, in their slight defense i do notice actual work on most of those sites these days as compared to the past when there would be nothing doing for like years. :shrug:

Yeah the sheds with construction versus no construction seemed like about 50/50. Some buildings were even sporting nicer white sheds with lighting. Just the sheer number of them overall is jarring coming from Chicago where they are only utilized during actual work and removed swiftly when done.

They just bottleneck walkers something fierce which is not great in midtown where pedestrian volume is high and a lot of sidewalks not especially wide except on the avenues.

There was a NYT article sometime ago that was the definitive explanation for the sidewalk shed phenomenon, I'll try to find it. To no ones surprise many are erected for litigation prevention purposes.

EDIT: Just google "nyt sidewalk sheds" and most of the relevant articles show up

^ yep its from last year i found it:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/14/r...ily-count.html


^ if you don't want to bother reading, basically it says there are 8k sheds across the city, with half in manhattan alone, and most in midtown, with almost all having been up less than a year (one has been up uptown for 12yrs+ lol).

so usually that just goes to show the amount of construction going on in hectic midtown, which also includes upkeep stuff like pointing, painting and renovations, as well as additions and conversions and the like.



yeah, for sure construction or reno work is intermittent sometimes.

usually visitors from chicago and other places are mostly shocked about trash day streets when they visit!

the complete idiocy of subway surfing is just sad:


https://nypost.com/2019/11/24/subway...ain-in-queens/

I'm used to it but that NYC refuses to solve the trash problem that cities the world over have dealt with is a very NYC thing. Greatest city in the world if you can peer at it around the giant mounds of sidewalk garbage bags.

I've seen some reports in other cities from different countries, and it seems that some of those subway surfers suffers from some mental health illness.

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