In 1988, the Jackie Gleason Bus Depot was renamed in memory of the Brooklyn native whose most famous role was acerbic bus driver Ralph Kramden on the classic television show The Honeymooners. In fact the logo for the depot is based on the title sequence for the show. The depot takes up several blocks on 5th Avenue in Sunset Park, across 36th Street from Green-Wood Cemetery. It is one of five that serves Brooklyn... more ›

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... more ›

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... more ›

If you've been paying for Wifi at coffee shops between 42nd Street and Central Park South and between 8th and 6th Avenues, you can start saving up for more grande mocha lattes. CBS will be creating a "CBS Mobile Zone" with free wifi in midtown. In turn, CBS will lead users to an ad-supported homepage. CenterNetworks says that Citi and Salesgenie.com have already signed up. CBS, which owns CBS Outdoor, will wire billbards, MTA displays... more ›

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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 ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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." more ›

On Wednesday, NYC Transit Authority President Lawrence Reuter announced he would be leaving his post in February. Reuter will be headed to Florida engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff - and to be closer to his grandchildren. more ›

Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health says that your daily subway commute can be hazardous to your hearing. Dr. Robyn Gershon announced the findings of a study which found that noise from the platform and inside cars exceeds safe limits. We suppose that listening to intense jackhammering and construction while waiting for weekend subway service also puts us at risk. Here's some interesting news from the study:

Average and maximum noise measurements were made using a precision sound level meter on subway platforms located in the four New York boroughs with underground subways (Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens). The average maximum noise level on subway platforms measured was 94 decibels (dBA). The average maximum inside of subway cars was 95 dBA, and at bus stops, the average maximum was 84 dBA. For comparison, approximate levels of familiar sounds are: 45-60 dBA for normal conversation, 100 dBA for a chainsaw and 140 dBA for a gunblast. The logarithmic nature of decibels means that every 10 dBA equals a 10 fold increase in intensity. Thus a 90 dBA sound is 10 times as intense as an 80 dBA sound. more ›

Yesterday, Con Ed released the initial report on what happened with the Queens blackout. It's 107 pages, and it's mostly a chronology of the events that unfolded - the feeder cables going out, day after day, trying to prevent bigger outages, etc. Mayor Bloomberg isn't satisfied with the report so far - what happened to being BFF with Con Ed, Mike? Don't like 'em so much when you're all hot and sweaty now, huh? more ›

The Straphangers have released their annual Subway Shmutz survey for 2006, and the E and M lines have the dirtiest cars! If you remember last year's survey, the 1/9 was the worst, and the year before that, the C was grossest, so Gothamist can only imagine that the Subway Shmutz survey will cycle around to name all the lines the worst - at least the ones with the old subway cars. more ›

-90% subway cars with public address announcementsThe NYCTA tried to cover its butt by saying the study was only a partial study, but really, we think any commuter would be able to weigh in on how the PA system is just terrible - on the platform, on the train, everywhere. However, there are some riders who just don't pay attention to announcements - think iPod users. But this is a nice complement to the Straphanger's recent survey about how train announcements are pretty bad. more ›

Thank goodness for nosy reporters at the Daily News: They stumbled upon some new emergency exits in subway stations that the NYC Transit Authority has been testing out at the Lawrence Street station in Brooklyn. These exits have those "panic bars" you see on emergency exit doors, and the goal is to give riders a way out, since token booth clerks may no longer be in the booths and since those floor-to-ceiling turnstiles are more and more popular at unattended entrances (the DN says they have increased from 10 to 529). NYCTA President Lawrence Reuter says, "The idea is to [quickly] get you out of a station in any kind of emergency situation, be it a fire or smoke condition ... any reason we need to evacuate the system," but that the the current subway exits are still safe - these are just an "enhancement." Well, we just hope the MTA will clear up information signage pointing out which exits are the ones people should use in case of an emergency. Finding those locked gates is a bitch. more ›