Results tagged “subways”

In the first State of the MTA Address, MTA CEO and Executive Director Elliot Sander mentioned the agency would invest an additional $30 million in more subway service, new and extend bus service in the city and additional commuter trains for LIRR and Metro-North. Now the Daily News finds out the MTA probably won't be able to do so, thanks to the faltering economy.

A new website, Subway Crush, could mark the end of romantic quests like the one undertaken by Patrick Moberg last fall, when he created a website to find a cute girl he spotted on the subway. His efforts won him international fame, book and movie offers, and, yes, a date with the young lady. Oh, and plenty of derision.

The Regional Planning Association released a map of what service and capital improvements tri-state riders can expect, even in the absence of approval for a congestion pricing plan. NYC Transit riders have a lot to be unhappy about following a fare hike, followed by the announcement that promised service improvements were off the table, followed by the prospect of yet another fare hike and even more service cuts. If Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan doesn't pass, it's uncertain how the MTA will be able to afford major capital improvements to the system, although a $1.5 billion windfall from the sale of the Hudson Yards should help.

Last week we learned that all New York taxis will soon be held to higher fuel efficiency standards; starting next October new cabs must get at least 25 miles per gallon. But the cab changes don’t stop there – in addition to upcoming GPS and touch-screen video technology, the Taxi and Limousine Commission is considering selling an unlimited card for cab riders, which may feature “fare integration” with buses and subways. Over half the city’s 13,000+ cabs are equipped with credit card readers; the TLC expects all of them to take your plastic by spring ’08 – and Metrocards are being proposed as a next step.

The board of the MTA voted this morning in favor of increasing the cost of multiple-ride Metrocards. According to NY1, the outcome of the vote was a foregone conclusion following the public agreement between Gov. Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg that riders needed to pay more to ride subways and buses. The pair have effective control of ten of the 14 board members' votes.

the possibility of another large surplus next year without a fare hike. Despite projections that put the agency in the black, it says they face a deficit in 2009.

A Columbia grad student, Arun Wiita, and the New York Civil Liberties Union brought a lawsuit against the NYPD last Thursday. Over the summer, Wiita was photographing a subway station entrance and its surroundings at 207th Street and 10th Avenue as part of an ambitious 10-day photography project. He was detained by police, handcuffed and held for 30 minutes; now Wiita is "seeking compensatory damages and reimbursement of legal fees." He believes that his South...

Who needs a strip club when you can just ride the New York City subways? In March, four limber women took to the subway in a quest to win $10,000 from DareJunkies.com. The website offered the prize to the best public pole dance. The video features Laura Lee Anderson, Jessica Wu, Marissa Lupp, Isis Masoud, and regular subway riders as the four grind their way to the $10,000 prize. The scantily clad women were...

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,...

A report compiled by New York City Transit indicates that delays in on-time performance by subway trains have increased every since 2004. According to The New York Times, the delays are worst during the subway rush hour, when 8% of trains fail to perform according to schedule. The NYC Transit report cited track work as by far the largest cause of delays, as transit employees attempt to modernize or even repair the subway. But...

Dunh dunh DUNH! Governor Spitzer has announced that he is asking the MTA to hold off raising subway and bus fares! Spitzer, who has been smarting from widely hated policy proposals and low approval ratings, made a pre-Thanksgiving bid to show he's listening to his public and said, during a specially planned 9AM press conference, via CityRoom: As the M.T.A. budget forecasts, their balance sheets yielded another $220 million. Based on the current economic...

Should Bob Saget, John Stamos or … that other guy... decide to keep it real by riding the New York City subway, they’ll likely find themselves wondering whatever happened to predictability. That’s right; consider yourselves on notice Danny Tanner, Joey and Uncle Jesse. The Olsen twins are one thing, but our subways are full enough without you and your irreverent hi-jinks, thank you very much. Though we might consider an exception for Stamos if...

Tonight, the MTA will hold public hearings in Long Island and Queens about the proposed fare and toll hikes. And if Monday night's hearing in Brooklyn is any indication, things will probably be rollicking. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz earned applause when he said, "Ladies and gentleman, fuhgeddaboutit!" (the Post reported the agency reaction: "MTA board members sat stone-faced") while the Straphangers Campaign's Gene Russianoff brought a life-size cut-out of Governor Spitzer. Markowitz and Russianoff...

FAIR: The International vintage poster fair has arrived. It's time to take that ironic velvet Elvis off the wall and class up your joint. The fair will include "over 25 international dealers with more than 10,000 original vintage posters." More info here.

MUSIC: It's CMJ, check out one of the zillions of bands playing. Since trying to pick just one show is tough, we'll suggest one for you. Head over to Brooklyn tonight for Dirty on Purpose, A Place to Bury Strangers, Sisters, Coin Under Tongue and Indian Scout. They'll be taking the stage at Death by Audio.

The New York Times has an interesting profile of the Senior Vice President for subways at NYC Transit, Michael Lombardi, who will retire next month after 45 years with the agency. He began working for the city making $2.63 an hour as a machinist's helper in 1962 and at the age of 18. He feels, along with many others, that his greatest contribution during his career was the work done to pull the subway system out of the slump it had fallen into in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The hilarity never ends when talking about cell phone service in the subways. The City Council spoke to the MTA about the agency's upcoming cell phone service plans, and apparently some members suggested that there should be "quiet cars" on the subway. We cannot stop laughing!

Brooklyn Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D, 51st District) wants to ban alcohol ads on buses and subways. The ads provide just $3 to $5 million of the $100 million in revenue the Metropolitan Transportation Authority gets from ad sales and the MTA has not taken a position on the proposed legislation. The state’s Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services did express support for the legislation calling it "consistent with our strategy of preventing alcoholism across the state."

Mayor Bloomberg continued his Transatlantic trip, heading from Paris to a couple stops in Britain. And if you believe the billionaire isn't running for President, well, get a load of what he said while speaking to Britain's conservative party:

“The Conservative Party in the U.K. is much more fiscally conservative than many American politicians who call themselves conservative. Too many of our conservatives in the United States want to run up enormous deficits and hope that some way, somehow, someone else will pay for it. That’s not conservatism, that’s alchemy at best, or if you like, lunacy.”

A scary incident at a Penn Station subway station: A woman in a wheelchair rolled into a moving subway. The 50-something woman apparently lost control of her wheelchair; the Post reports that she hit an uptown 2 train "just as it began pulling out, and ricocheted into a pillar." Yikes!

We haven't checked in on Gossip Girl since the show was filming around town and the producer touted New York as a main character in each episode. To summarize: the show is like a New York-based version of The OC (in fact it's another Josh Schwartz creation), except the rich kids don't act like kids, they act like their parents. Meanwhile, the omniscient, omnipresent, anonymous oggler Gossip Girl blogs about it all.

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week!

It was originally named the 8th Avenue Subway, but the 'A' train turns 75 today, having opened September 10th, 1932. Officials are holding a ceremony at the line's northernmost station––Inwood/207th St.––and will be running six antique railcars from the 1930s during the day to commemorate the event. This is more than the Eighth Ave. Subway garnered on its opening day: Back in 1932, just before midnight, transit workers simply dropped chains blocking access to turnstiles up and down the line and riders were free to pay the five cent fare at any of the original 28 stations between 207th St. and Chambers St., a total distance of 12 miles.

Unfortunately, what happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas. Last night MTV took over the Strip and filled it with up and comers, the standard rock, rollers and rappers and of course...the token has beens.

Did you ever want to see an animated map of how the city's subways were built? Okay, probably not, but 2nd Avenue Sagas points us to a map someone made that shows the lines in the order they were built.

Starting with the Franklin St. Shuttle, remnants of the original Brooklyn El system, and the far reaches of the J line which contain the oldest surviving transit structures still in use in the city, the map moves on to the original IRT lines before extending through time. The subways and the city literally come to life as the map unfolds its stations and tunnels.

Mayor Bloomberg unveiled a new campaign, Just Ask The Locals, "the City's first-ever five-borough marketing and advertising campaign to make visitors feel more welcome, thank them for visiting, and help them navigate New York City." The Mayor made the announcement at the new American Airlines terminal at JFK and said, "New Yorkers have always been welcoming and friendly, but not enough people around the world know it. So now we're going the extra mile to make visitors feel even more at home by offering a helpful piece of advice, an insider's tip, or just a friendly smile as they explore and enjoy all the wonderful attractions here in our City."