The four officers accused of sodomizing a man with a radio antenna or baton after he resisted arrest in a Brooklyn subway station have been stripped of their guns and badges, an NYPD source tells the Post. The officers were ordered to report to the 71st Precinct station house in Brooklyn yesterday to be put on "modified duty." A lawyer for a fifth officer, who is believed to be supporting the victim's explosive allegation, reportedly......

Things are not looking good for the officers who have been accused of sodomizing Michael Mineo in the Prospect Park subway station on October 15th. The NY Post reports that three of the officers accused have had their police lockers removed. The paper says that the NYPD has also taken away the badge and gun Officer Alex Cruz, the cop whose radio and baton are currently being tested for forensic evidence to support Mineo's accusations.......

Sources in the NYPD say that a transit officer who participated in the arrest of Michael Mineo in a Brooklyn subway station earlier this month has broken ranks and will support Mineo's explosive sodomy allegation. One source tells the Daily News that the cop's version of the incident "is bad" for the NYPD: "He's not coming forward to say nothing happened." According to the Post, the unidentified officer will meet with the Brooklyn DA and......

A lawsuit against the MTA is about to go to trial surrounding the rape of a woman on a G train platform in Queens three years ago. And the victim, now 25, told the Daily News this weekend that she forgives her attacker ("I know he was sick in the head"), but not the token booth clerk at the 21st Street station, "I can't forgive those five seconds when I stared into his eyes, screaming......

Yesterday, Gothamist attended the 34th annual Atlantic Antic along Atlantic Avenue between Hicks Street and Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn. For the uninitiated, this not your typical New York "tube sock" street fair. Sure there are some of the typical food vendors (gyros, roasted corn and Mozzarepas, natch). But unlike most other street fairs, there is a strong neighborhood presence in both food (including freebees from the new kid on the block Trader Joe’s) and vendors,......

Google might have some geniuses at their desks, but the MTA is likely to somehow foil their goal of accuracy on their Transit maps. You may recall that earlier this year the company hadn't quite figured out the city's public transit system, but word is that this week they'll be announcing that their Transit option is now NYC-friendly, with full maps integration and a partnership with MTA (the feature has actually launched already). We......

Destined to be dubbed the Bonnie and Clyde of the graffiti world, Danielle Bremner (tags: Utah, Dani, Erin) and her boyfriend Jim Clay Harper (tag: Ether) were both arrested for causing $100,000 in damages to city transit facilities, Newsday reports. The Queens couple had reportedly fled to Europe for three months, "where they dined, partied - and tagged their way through 10 or so countries." So their legal problems aren't just in the city, allegedly......

LoveItMadly's Flickr. How has the summer been treating straphangers underground? Allegedly, the subway system's air conditioning is cooling everyone off...everyone except those taking the E train. The Daily News reports that "subway riders on the E line have the highest chance of getting stuck on a sweltering subway car because of faulty air conditioning." But their score, the lowest of them all, was still pretty good on paper--coming in at 83.3%, meaning that 16.7%......

Just think of how many more people could cram into each subway car if there were no seats! That's the idea behind the latest MTA plan which WNBC reports will bring flip-up seats underground. The seats will be unforgiving during rush hour, as they'll be locked in the up position. Hmm, this isn't going to help the different lines raise their grades! The pilot program will feature the seats in 4 of 10 cars,......

Beginning today, the New York Transit Museum (the only museum dedicated to public transportation in the nation!) will start showing off their goods. Their collection includes recent arrivals and "the best and most unusual of the Museum’s acquisitions," as well as the stories behind them. Ever wonder how they get their hands on these pieces of commuting collectibles?Collecting at the Transit Museum tends to be a bit different from the way most museums collect. Often......

Photograph of people waiting for the 6 train by Union Square by Unlisted Sightings on Flickr For everyone who waited too long for a subway in April--NYC Transit revealed that train delays were up 44% in April, which is the latest month with available data. The Post lists the top reasons: 1. Track work (delaying 4,117 trains; in April 2007, there were about half the number of delays due to track work) 2. Riders......

New York City bus riders could soon be commuting just like the tourists if the MTA follows through on their tall talk about bringing double-decker buses back into circulation. The Post reports that NYC Transit President Howard Roberts floated the idea before the MTA board yesterday; the double-deckers are appealing because they fit more passengers and, according to transit officials, actually cost less to maintain. And if the dream becomes reality, the city won’t have......

Starting today, teams of six NYPD officers will be patrolling the subway system in 12 hour shifts to thwart would-be terrorists. You’ll be able to easily identify the squads – called “Torch Teams” – by their rifles, MP5 submachine guns, handguns, body armor and bomb-sniffing dogs. The program is being paid for with $151 million from taxpayers nationwide, allocated through D.C. The Torch Teams will function like the similarly equipped NYPD “Hercules Teams” (pictured) above......

Coming up on April 29th is the latest Grand Theft Auto extravaganza. The game wreaks havoc on Liberty City, which is essentially a not-quite-gentrified New York City (though it takes place in the current year). The latest leak from the anticipated game is a city map (we spy Roosevelt Island) and a map of the subway system, which has everyone opining. How does the Rockstar Games version of our 722-mile, 468-station subway system with 22......

The Friends of Moynihan Station shared a rendering of what Moynihan Station will look like, according to NY State. According to FMS, the Empire State Development Corporation has been "reluctant" to share them, but FMS thinks "looks great," though there's a lot that needs to be explained. The Observer broke down what's in the rendering:In the bottom of the picture is the Farley Post Office with a new Madison Square Garden in the rear.......

Above images from WNBC 4, below right image from WCBS 2; bottom left image from Peter Haskell/WCBS 880 A building collapse at 124th Street and Park Avenue has prompted the MTA to shut down all train service in and out of Grand Central Terminal. Metro-North's Dan Brucker told WCBS 880, "We don't know how long the closure will last. We have been told by the police not to have any trains run through the......

Photograph of MTA CEO and Executive Director Lee Sander during the inaugural State of the MTA Address, courtesy of the MTA This morning, the first-ever State of the MTA Address was given, with MTA CEO and Executive Director Elliot Sander Sander emphasizing the MTA was born 40 years ago out of crisis and needed federal, state, and municipal cooperation to get things done (in other words, nothing changes!). Sander said he's committed to creating......

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......

Graphic explaining trend of train delays from the MTA's capital plan presentation The MTA unveiled its 2008-2013 Capital Plan, which explained almost $30 billion will be needed to improve mass transit and complete projects like the Second Avenue Subway, the East Side Access plan and more by 2030 (many of those projects will also be delayed). Though the current MTA capital plan doesn't expire until next year, the MTA presented this plan because the......

The snowy weather is causing the usual commute problems: The snow accumulation is around 4-6 inches in the city, with more to the north and a little less to the south, and visibility is low for drivers. There are a number of accidents on highways and roads, and more are sure to happen later on in the day when the snow is expected to turn into freezing rain and sleet. For some subway riders, there......

On Tuesday, the New York City Transit Museum opened a small exhibit dedicated to the 25th Anniversary of Metro-North Railroad in its Annex at Grand Central Terminal. It features some artifacts from both the pre-MTA takeover (which created Metro-North) days to today and provides a Cliffs Notes version on how the railroad that serves the northern suburbs and Connecticut operates. It also touches, albeit a bit too briefly, on how the railroad is like the......

Starting point map and destination point map viewed side by side on the MTA Trip Planner website. Anyone trying to plot the best subway route to serve their departure and destination points has long since given up on the MTA website, which for years has mostly confined itself to below-ground mapping and shown a remarkable disregard for how the subway actually corresponds with the street level. Sites such as Hopstop and OnNYturf have sprung......

Ooh, a fun update about the remake of The Taking of Pelham One-Two-Three. AMNY's Subway Tracker reports that location scouting is well under way, "Crews were at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station today...crews will be doing a camera test near Jerome and Tremont in the Bronx tomorrow some time (near the 4 line)." Transit officials even confirmed that crews were scouting today! Last September, the remake plans were announced, with Tony Scott directing and Denzel Washington reprising......

According to new NYPD statistics, graffiti complaints in Brooklyn rose 96% last year, with arrests in the borough increasing by 33%. Citywide, complaints almost doubled from 4,886 in 2006 to 8,866 in 2007, and total arrests rose from 2,962 to 3,786. Williamsburg leads the tagging trend with a total of 186 complaints. “It's so expensive here, yet it looks like a dump,” long-time Williamsburg resident Mel Costello, 63, declared to the Daily News. “It's......

2nd Avenue and 5th Street [Fixed] by Chung Chu at flickrToday on the Gothamist Newsmap: a partial facade collapse on East 148 St. in the Bronx, two pedestrians struck on 72nd St. and West End Ave. in Manhattan, a body found on Pioneer St. in Brooklyn. A developmentally disabled woman on Staten Island depends on Social Security benefits to survive, but the SSA keeps declaring her dead. A three alarm fire injured one person......

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. In case......

Get ready to groan: "I look forward to 'Phase Two' of the 'blinging up' of the Parachute Jump," said inveterate cornball Marty Markowitz during his recent State of the Borough speech. The 262-foot Coney Island landmark was retrofitted with a lighting system two years ago, but borough president Markowitz and others deemed the effect too subdued and “artsy.” Now the city is soliciting proposals from companies to create a flashier effect. $1.5 million has been......

Photograph of a Giants fan in Times Square by Johnia! on Flickr After the stunning Giants' Super Bowl win, people cheered like they hadn't seen a Super Bowl victory in 17 years! Throughout the city, folks were stumbling onto streets, chanting the names of players and even getting arrested. A thousand people flooded Times Square, reportedly jumping on cars and sitting on top of phone kiosks, but the Post says no one was arrested.......

Photograph of MTA police K9 team by Diane Bondareff/AP Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced New York City will receive $153 million - up from last year's $61 million - in transit security grants. Wow - all we can do is remember Chertoff's 2005 remark, when trying discussing how security funding would be allocated, "The truth of the matter is, a fully loaded airplane with jet fuel, a commercial airliner, has the......

An attempt by NYC Transit to communicate accurate bus arrival times has been partially abandoned out of concerns that it just was not feasible to accomplish by the MTA. A pilot program has been in place on six separate bus lines, but those notification services have been scrapped because the digital displays at bus stops were just not capable of providing accurate information to riders. While in the planning for a dozen years, the actual......