Results tagged “NYC Transit Authority”

The MTA's various fare hikes for the NYC subways and buses, as well as its railroads, went into effect this weekend. Today, subway and bus base fares still cost $2, but higher-value pay-per-ride Metrocards have less of a bonus discount while weekly and monthly unlimited ride Metrocards are more expensive.

The MTA's various fare hikes are starting to go into effect next month (aka tomorrow). Tomorrow, Long Island Railroad and Metro-North fares are going up. Bridge and tunnel tolls are going up on March 16. And the doozy will be the NYC Transit subway and bus fare hikes which go into effect on Sunday, March 2. Expect tons of confused riders and weary MTA workers on Monday and for the next few weeks.

The February edition of the MTA’s monthly television show, Transit Transit (Saturdays, 3:30 p.m., WNYE 25) , has a segment about Marvin Franklin, the NYC Transit Authority track inspector who was killed last year in an on the job accident in Brooklyn. The piece talks with some artists who knew Franklin and his co-workers and covers the opening of an exhibition of his work at the New York City Transit Museum in December.

The NYPD may have the anti-graffiti task force, but with many graffiti crimes perpetrated in the subway tunnels, the NYC Transit Authority has created its own anti-graffiti team. The Daily News tagged along with the Eagle Team, a "surveillance squad quietly formed three months ago."

After commuters on the L and B/D (as well as N/Q/R/W) lines had to deal with breakdowns and commuting delays last night, this evening's commute brings delays on the F, D, G and N lines. Apparently a signal problem at 4th Avenue-9th Street Station in Brooklyn is causing the F to be shut between West 4th Street-Washington Square Station and the Church Avenue Station in both directions. The F then runs on the D...

Riders were stranded on the platform and in subway cars when a Brooklyn-bound L train stalled under the East River just after 8PM. Reader tokyohanna, who took this photograph of people waiting, wrote at the time, "There is a train stalled between first and Bedford. They stopped trains in both directions. A sea of people is on the platform and we can barely walk." amNew York reports that the train had a mechanical failure close...

After a video of a man being harassed and beaten by a group of teens was publicized by The Smoking Gun, some wonder if the tape is real. The main reason why most people suspect it could be staged is because the teen who filmed the incident is an aspiring filmmaker. Seventeen-year-old Kadejra Holmes told The Smoking Gun she didn't have anything to do with the attack and then took the video off YouTube. Her...

The New York City Transit Authority, the MTA division that oversees the subways and buses, will be now split up the management of the subway lines and instead assign a manager to deal with a line or a number of lines. The NY Times spoke to NYC Transit president Howard Roberts Jr.:The goal, Mr. Roberts said, is to have 24 subway lines operating in many ways as 24 self-contained railroads. (The number may vary,...

Newsday reports that emergency track work at West 4th Street will be causing delays on the A, E, D and F lines. Apparently Brooklyn-bound F train will be running on the E between 36th Street Station in Queens and 42nd Street Times Square, and then the F will run on the A between Times Square and Jay Street-Borough Hall. And some other Brooklyn-bound F trains will "run on the D line from 47th-50th Street-Rockefeller Center...

Yesterday afternoon, an Access-A-Ride car crashed into a tree and light pole in Queens, killing an 80-year-old passenger and injuring the driver and two passengers. The car was on the Juniper Boulevard North near 62nd Avenue; the driver apparently swerved to avoid an oncoming car. One witness told WABC 7 the accident was "pretty bad," noting, "The whole top [of the car] is gone." The Access-A-Ride driver had a valid license and passed a Breathalyzer...

To the surprise of no one, New Yorkers are not in favor of the MTA's proposed fare-and-toll hikes. Residents, transit advocates and elected officials have been speaking at the MTA's public hearings all week, raising a number of questions about the MTA's service, the state's and city's contributions to the MTA, and effect it will have on riders. The Manhattan public hearing reminded of us Festivus, or at least its "public airing of grievances"...

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn gave a speech at an Association for a Better New York event yesterday that seemed to be a preview into Quinn's 2009 mayoral campaign. According to CityRoom, the speech "seemed to be steered toward showing Ms. Quinn to be a responsible, knowledgeable fiscal heavyweight who would be an effective watchdog of New York City’s financial health."

The NYC Transit Authority issued a report about separate incidents that led to two track worker fatalities in April. According to the NY Times, much of the blame is placed on an "organizational culture" where "critical safety rules were not practiced in day-to-day operations."

More updates below, but here's a summary so far (8:20PM): A steam explosion occurred on East 41st and Lexington Avenue (41st between Lex and Third) just before 6PM - right during the evening rush hour. The NYPD does not think it was a terrorist attack. It appears that there is a hole about 25' in diameter with a red tow truck in the center. One person has died (possibly from cardiac arrest) and there are at least 15 people injured. It is a six-alarm situation for the FDNY, which includes 24 engines and 13 ladders.

In non-report card 7 train news, the MTA is now offering express 7 service after Mets games during weeknight games. And the service will start after tomorrow's Mets-Cincinnati Reds game. Post-game express service will last an hour, with trains leaving Willets Point-Shea Stadium every six minutes. Trips to Queensboro Plaza will now take 13 minutes (from 19 when taking the local) and trips to Times Square will now take 25 minutes (from 31).

Yesterday, the NYC Transit Authority gave 7 train riders the chance to tell them what they think about the 7 line and service with the first ever subway/bus report cards. NYCTA president Howard Roberts Jr. hopes that eventually all subway and bus riders will be able to grade their lines so the agency can work with customers' suggestions.

The NYC Transit Authority may not be able to figure out which subway stations to paint after more than seven months, but it's taken only two months to launch the report card initiative! Back in May, NYCTA president Howard Roberts Jr. said that he wanted to know what subway and bus riders thought of their respective lines and announced that the 7 line's straphangers would get first crack at filling out report cards.

The most hilarious thing we read today was that the NYC Transit Authority has "loading guidelines" for passengers. In a story about how subways are extremely packed, the NY Times offered this gem:

Crowding is so bad that on the 4, 5, 6 and L lines, trains during the morning rush exceed the transit agency’s loading guidelines, which posit that every rider should have at least a three-square-foot space to stand in (that translates to a square patch of car floor 20 inches on each side).

With subway ridership at a new high in decades and many more riders on the way if the city's forecasts are true, the MTA has been thinking of ways to increase subway capacity. And Howard Roberts, president of the NYC Transit Authority which operates the subways and buses, says that one solution could be to extend subway platform and add two more train cars to the existing ten.

New NYC Transit Authority president Howard H. Roberts, who replaced Lawrence Reuter just a few weeks ago, is apparently a man who doesn't mind being raked over the coals. And by that, we mean he appreciates the public's opinion so much that he wants straphangers to grade the subways and buses. Eliciting complaints from New Yorkers might seem like an invitation to an avalanche of abuse, but in a NY Times article today, Roberts doesn't seem like a man afraid to get his hands dirty.

“I want to know what passengers want,” Mr. Roberts said yesterday during a wide-ranging interview that touched on topics as diverse as dirty subway cars and his affinity for the poetry of Robert Frost.

Continue reading "NYC Transit Wants You to Grade Subways and Buses"

The ProTran1 ProTracker Personal Pocket Device (PPD) Is a handheld R.F. transceiver designed to automatically send and receive digital commands to/from the ProTran1 ProTracker Train Unit. This unit will alert the user by an audible/vibrating alarm to an approaching train.ProTran1 co-developer Peter Bartek told the Post he started work on the Pro-Tracker "after a friend was killed while working on Boston's subway tracks."

The Brooklyn DA's office arrested four NYC Transit Authority workers for trying to bilk the Workers' Compensation system of thousands of dollars for "injuries they either never sustained or grossly exaggerated." For instance, there's Valerie Scroggins, a bus driver who said that she suffered a shoulder injury last September. Between September and January of this year, she received $13,348.98 in checks for her injury. But in November, she took a fateful trip to Europe.

The NYC Transit Authority, a division of the MTA, resumed all subway track and tunnel work starting today. All non-essential work was stopped after the second transit worker death in five days occurred on Sunday.

After two transit-worker deaths in five days, NYC Transit Authority President Howard Roberts wrote what the NY Times called an "emotional letter" to the thousands of transit workers.

Referring to his 20-year career in the United States Army, the transit president, Howard H. Roberts Jr., recalled the time he served as a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division, where staying alive was a matter of following safety rules.

Continue reading "Transit Chief Takes Recent Deaths "Personally""

The NYC Transit Authority continued its investigation of Sunday's fatal accident involving a track worker and an oncoming G train. "Non-essential" track work has been suspended as the agency looks at its safety protocol. NYC Transit Authority president Howard Roberts suggested work should have been suspended earlier, given that another transit worker was killed last week, "If I had any idea we would be here this afternoon on this subject, clearly we would have started the process we are in now last week."

A subway transit worker was killed and another was seriously injured when a G train hit them at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Station yesterday afternoon. It seems that Marvin Franklin, a 22-year-veteran, was fatally hit when he and 37-year-old Jeffrey Hill went to pick up a dolly on another track. The G train's operator did see the men, but could not brake in time; Franklin was dragged by the train, while Hill was hit but is now in stable condition at Bellevue. From the Daily News:

The ill-fated workers were performing maintenance jobs in the station while the busy A and C lines were shut down for major track work.

Continue reading "Subway Repair Work Suspended
After Death of 2nd Transit Worker in 5 Days"

The NY Times reports that a stalled train may have indirectly caused an MTA transit worker to be fatally struck by a train at the Columbus Circle station Tuesday night. Veteran worker Daniel Boggs had been in the downtown express tracks when a 3 train hit him, and some sources say the 3 train was diverted to the express tracks because another train uptown was stalled on the local tracks. From the Times:

If not for the stalled train, which was farther uptown, the train that struck Mr. Boggs, a veteran track worker, would have been on the local track because of the replacement of switches and rails that was scheduled for the express track at Columbus Circle, said the people familiar with the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry is incomplete.

Continue reading "Transit Worker's Death Investigated"

The State Appeals Court has found that the NYC Transit Authority - the NYC division of the MTA - is responsible for maintaining subway exits and entrances. The thing is, the MTA doesn't even own the exits and entrances. Still, the court found that the NYCTA is liable for injuries that a woman suffered while falling down steps at the Columbus Circle station back in 1995. Here's an excerpt of the opinion:

In the case before us, the evidence at trial was sufficient to establish that the stairway in question was used primarily as a means of access to and from the subway. Therefore, defendants had a duty to maintain the stairway or to warn patrons of any dangerous condition. So imperative is the duty to provide a safe means of access to and from the subway that such duty may not be delegated to another. Thus, even if the responsibility to maintain the stairway resides in another entity, defendants may not avoid their responsibility "to at least provide against injury to its passengers by erecting such barricades, or giving such warning, as [would] guard against accidents" (Schlessinger, 49 Misc at 506).

Yesterday, a man was fatally hit by a downtown 6 train at the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall stop. The victim was a 58 year homeless veteran named Jose Martinez. Martinez had probably stayed on the downtown 6 after its last stop, and the NY Sun reports that police believe that Martinez "may have been walking between cars to urinate [and] got stuck as the cars inched closer together rounding a sharp curve."