Do you know what the Metro-North has besides fancy new seats? An adorable conductor who plays the harmonica and shows off some literal hat tricks who says, "I was born to be clown, but I found this job instead." Check it out: more ›

The MTA's financial problems are well-known, so naturally it would want to take a tough line with the transit union, TWU Local 100. And naturally the union isn't happy with no raises for its 34,000 members, so its contract expired at midnight on Sunday without any resolution. However, the two sides are kindly continuing negotiations so we won't have to deal with a transit strike. more ›

BusTime, the MTA's open-source phone and web program for tracking how far your bus is from your stop, is expanding in a big way this month. After a successful trail run on the B63 in Brooklyn the Authority today flipped a switch and turned on BusTime for all of Staten Island today. The whole city should be on BusTime in 2013. more ›

Your sacred subway prewalking rituals may be paying off: according to numbers crunched by the MTA on F and L trains, the most crowded subway car is the the one in the front. The smelliest? Whichever one holds that person who uses the only six square inches of free space on the train to bust open a bag of McDonald's. more ›

Thieves have been targeting passengers on mass transit for their smartphones, and iPhones in particular are very popular. Lately, iPhone owners have been using apps to recover their phones: The police announced that a man whose iPhone was stolen on a B47 bus on Monday got his phone back by using "Find My iPhone." more ›

The Long Island Rail Road, home of pants-tearing seats as well as some enthusiastic partiers, has started a pilot program for quiet cars today. Due to customer demand, the last car of the four AM peak trains and the first car of the six PM peak trains are designated quiet cars. LIRR President Helena Williams said, "As more and more electronic devices enter our lives - smart phones, cell phones, DVD and music players, tablets - many of our customers have asked for some relief from the noise they can create during their commute to and from work and other activities. This pilot is meant to respond to customers who seek quiet during their travels on the LIRR and is part of our overall effort to improve customer service." more ›

If the point of the Port Authority's September toll hikes was to push more people to take mass transit, they've worked like a charm. Between September 19th and November 22nd, PATH ridership between Manhattan and New Jersey saw an uptick of about 560,000 riders (or 3.7 percent). Meanwhile 890,000 fewer cars and trucks used the Port Authority's bridges and tunnels in that period. Still, there is good news all around: The Port Authority is expecting to take in 20 percent more revenue than it did last year. more ›

HopStop, the ever-useful website that helps folks route their best subway and bus routes in various cities, has now rolled out an option for parents and caregivers—and anyone else hauling a stroller—to find the most stroller-friendly routes. You can check the box for "Stroller Friendly" (it's also "Wheelchair Accessible"), which means getting a route that involves more walking and fewer stairs and, if possible, more elevators. more ›

Earlier this year, NJ Transit riders had a fare hike. Of course, since then, there have been numerous problems plaguing the system, from power issues that leave passengers stranded in the tunnel near Penn Station to derailments. Today, a wire fell near Metuchen around 7:40 a.m., causing 30-60 minute delays. more ›

Yesterday it came out that the presumed dead plans to extend the 7 train to New Jersey were very much alive if very much in its infancy. And now the plan has gotten a vote of confidence from no-less than the man who killed the last big New York-New Jersey tunnel project, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. more ›

[Update Below] A direct MTA subway connection to New Jersey has been mankind's greatest dream ever since the founding bros first glimpsed the glory of the Meatpacking District from Hoboken. Now, rumor has it, Mayor Bloomberg is moving heaven and earth to make the dream a reality before the end of his third (and final?) term. You'll recall that the Bloomberg administration gave a quarter-million dollar no-bid contract to an engineering firm to study the feasibility of extending the 7 line to Secaucus. Now sources tell the Post that Bloomberg wants to get the project moving before he leaves office. more ›

Yesterday, a survey revealed the unsurprising news that customers are pretty unhappy with NJ Transit's customer service, rating the service a 4.2 on a scale of 0 to 10. Now, NJ Transit is telling its customers, "Northeast Corridor and North Jersey Coast Line trains are subject to 30-60 minute delays in/out of NY due to power problems in one Hudson River tunnel. Midtown Direct trains are operating to/from Hoboken. PATH cross honoring rail tickets/passes at Newark, Hoboken and 33rd St." D'oh! more ›

Senator Charles Schumer had his Sunday press conference decrying prescription drug price-gouging, but since this is Columbus Day, he's having ANOTHER one today about a Long Island Rail Road passengers' bill of rights, spurred by the September 29 lightning strike that made commuting a mess. His office said it would be "similar to a passenger's bill of rights established for the airline industry, to provide baseline protections for passengers of Long Island's commuter rail system." more ›

Yesterday afternoon, lightning hit Long Island Rail Road operations near Jamaica, causing a signal problem that then cascaded into service suspensions across LIRR as well as a temporary closure of Penn Station due to crowding. Service eventually came back later in the evening... only for it to be suspended again. However, today, the MTA believes that the LIRR morning commute—after crews worked all night to restore service— will "operate near-normal morning rush hour service... However, customers are advised that there will be some canceled trains and some delays." more ›

So how are the new Port Authority tolls working out? In short: Great for mass transit, bad for parking lots. The Post today does some anecdotal reporting and finds that the hike, which went into effect earlier this month, has been an immediate bummer for local businesses. "A lot of people are taking the train now," an attendant at a garage at Seventh Avenue and West 31st Street told the tabloid. "Before, we made about $2,500 a day. Now we make about $1,800." more ›

As one rider just Tweeted, "BITE MY LEFT NUT NJ TRANSIT!!!" NJ Transit just suspended service on the Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast Line and Midtown Direct lines due to "an Amtrak power supply problem" for the afternoon/evening commute. And it was just at 7:15 a.m. when NJ Transit had to suspend service due to Amtrak's power issues! more ›

Over the last three years, the state government has "stolen" some $260 million in dedicated funds from the MTA to cover gaps in the state’s budget. Public transit advocates say the raids are responsible for the extreme fare hikes and service cuts now hobbling the NYC transit system, and they partly explain why the MTA now faces a $10 billion shortfall. But yesterday the State Senate unanimously voted to take at least some of Albany's fingers out of the MTA's cookie jar, passing the Transit Funding Lockbox Act. more ›

We could use a handout like this underground; the Bold Italic has created an etiquette guide for the people of the San Francisco Muni... and it's easily translatable to our own mass transit system. They write, "People get bitch slapped on the bus everyday. To keep things relatively amicable, we've come up with an etiquette guide for all Muni riders. May the force be with you on your future commutes." They seem to have included it all: no fast food, no peeing on the seats, no nail clipping... no tickling. What did they miss? [via Laughing Squid] more ›

The MTA had a challenging morning, after basically a foot of snow fell, forcing the agency to suspend bus service citywide, suspend some subway lines, and make adjustments to the LIRR and Metro-North trains. Now the MTA gives an update for this evening's rush hour commute, "We're working hard to restore full service in the aftermath of a storm that dumped nineteen inches of snow on New York City and more than a foot of snow in other parts of the region. While we have restored service across the entire system, recovery efforts are ongoing and customers may still experience some delays and cancellations..." more ›

The PATH has been rolling out posters for its new Courtesy campaign via Twitter—and the transit agency is also using Twitter to gently scold passengers! Witness an exchange from this morning, when someone bragged, "Lmao at all these white people who keep changing there seat on the path train cause they can here my music from my beat headphones..." But PATHTweet caught wind of it! more ›

Commuter chaos! Last week New Jersey Transit expanded its "quiet commute" program, where the first and last cars are designated as quiet cars, and the change—though already popular—has apparently not been smooth. Because, really, how do you define quiet? more ›