Transportation

If you’ve ever wanted to take an afternoon siesta on a patch of green grass right by Columbus Circle, today is your day, New Yorkers! Thank the fourth annual Park(ing) Day, a one-day global event where city parking spaces are transformed into oases.

The event, first held in San Francisco in 2005, was celebrated by 70 cities across the country. Transportation Alternatives, a reform-minded pedestrian advocacy group, sponsored the event in the city, and helped over 50 community groups, artists and businesses access permits for the festivities.

In the West Village, Community Boards 2 and 4 commandeered a parking space outside the gourmet supermarket Balducci’s, and were visited by virtually all of the area’s politicians, including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.  read more »

On Friday afternoon, Senator Hillary Clinton announced proposed legislation which includes $237 million in new funding for New York City's mass transit system. The bulk of the cash will go toward the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in an effort to prevent future fare increases.

"One of the best ways to save money, help the environment, end our dependence on foreign oil and free our roads up is mass transit," Senator Clinton said during a press conference in the middle of Grand Central Station.

She stressed the need to alleviate congestion, which she said costs the country $68 billion per year, and highlighted the efforts of countries like France and China, whose investments in mass transit dwarf those of the United States.  read more »

"The Q is a solid train. And Ditmas Park is our amazing, affordable, tree-lined little secret (shh!). But please don't let south Brooklyn turn into Williamsburg! It's lovely as it is without hordes of Facebook-addicted, angsty, post-college types in skinny jeans! Keep it quiet and nerdy--much better that way." ["Brooklyn, The Borough: Can the Q Be the Next L?"]

A congressional push is on to up funding for public transportation nationwide. And not a moment too soon, given rising oil prices. From this morning's Wall Street Journal:

Data being released Tuesday by the American Public Transportation Association show the number of riders on mass-transit systems is growing at an accelerating clip. After rising 2.5% in 2007 from 2006, public-transportation use increased 3.4% in the first quarter of 2008 from the same period a year earlier, and 5.2% in the April-to-June period.

I love the Q train. O.K., I love the B, too, but it's the Q that's stolen my heart.

When I moved back to Brooklyn in January, the biggest factor in finding an apartment was its proximity to this train line, and especially to the 7th Avenue station (a nice change of pace after riding the G train for three years). It's just far enough into Brooklyn that I am in a quiet, residential neighborhood, but also only the third stop into the borough, easily depositing me anywhere I need to go in Manhattan.

Like the L train of the early ‘00s, the neighborhoods along the Q/B line have seen new crops of people popping out of its stations along a path rumbling through central and southern Brooklyn, from Downtown, Park Slope, Midwood and Ditmas Park, through Sheepshead Bay and, via an expert right turn, Brighton Beach and Coney Island.  read more »

ST. PAUL--One of the more headline-grabbing stories involving Amtrak and New York of the past few months was a congressman's proposal for the federal government to take bids to create a two-hour train from New York City to Washington, D.C.

The far-off, years-long, multi-billion dollar idea, which has passed the House and awaits a final resolution with the Senate, came not from anyone in the city, or from the Northeast at all, but rather from a conservative Republican from northeastern Florida, Representative John Mica.

On Wednesday, I briefly caught up with Mr. Mica, who was speaking on a forum on transportation issues here at the University of Minnesota.  read more »

Even at the height of the Thursday morning rush, Roosevelt Islanders have time to stop and talk about transportation. That's because they're likely watching two or three or four F trains go by, packed to the doors with Manhattan-bound commuters.

As newcomers flock to Roosevelt Island, transportation on and off the 147-acre landmass is becoming increasingly challenging. The temporary suspension for upgrades of the island's iconic tram next spring will only exacerbate the situation.

"We're at capacity," said Jonathan Kalkin, who's on the board of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC), which manages the island. "Sometimes you do have to wait--especially in the morning--for another train, depending on how gutsy you are, how much New York is in you to push through.  read more »

The Chinese government plans to introduce by 2012 a new generation of bullet trains that run for long stretches at 236 miles per hour. That's about half the speed of your average passenger jet. More here in the British press.

Will the U.S., particularly its train-happy Northeast, ever produce such fast rail? You know the answer, but more here anyway.

"'Radical' compared to what? London and Paris, among other great cities, are way in front of New York City when it comes to reclaiming street space for pedestrians, public space, buses and bicyclists. People flock to live here, and raise families here, precisely because they do not have to drive everywhere. Commissioner Sadik-Khan should be applauded for finally letting New York be New York instead of trying to make it a Houston or Atlanta. It's nice to see NYC government aspire to be a world leader instead of laggard." ["Bloomberg's Street Fighter"]

From an interview in tomorrow's print Observer with Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives:

Last question: mayoral race. Are there any candidates that you guys are supporting?
First, let me say that the 2009 elections are going to be extremely important, and we are looking at the 2009 elections as the make-or-break year for sustainability solutions being expanded or being rolled back. Right now, we are talking to a number of candidates and educating them about not just continuing Mayor Bloomberg’s legacy but also expanding it. We like what we see from some of the candidates, but in the coming months we are going to ask them to be much more specific about what they are going to do to ensure that our transit system is brought to a state of repair, and that necessary expansion programs are done and done on time, and that the city’s investment in the M.

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Joe Biden may be the first presidential or vice presidential nominee ever of a major party to have been a daily Amtrak commuter.

The Delaware Democrat commutes daily on Amtak between Wilmington's train station and Washington's Union Station, a trip that usually takes no more than 90 minutes each way. His running mate, Barack Obama, referred to the commute during the duo's Saturday appearance, describing Mr. Biden as a "scrappy kid from Scranton who beat the odds, the dedicated family man and committed Catholic who knows every conductor on that Amtrak train to Wilmington."

Mr. Biden entered the Senate after his 1972 election.  read more »

I took Amtrak last week to meet with its president and chief executive, Alex Kummant, in his office in Washington's Union Station. We talked about Moynihan Station, the planned New Jersey Transit tunnel under the Hudson, the recent fare hikes, the many delays out of Penn, and the fact that a lot more Americans, in the Northeast and elsewhere, are taking trains.

We're in a different world today from a transportation point of view. We're seeing dramatic growth; we're seeing dramatic needs; we're seeing the airlines pull back in capacity. The country tends to react in these large issues in crisis; and, I think, yeah, we are in a transportation crisis. Will something happen overnight right now? Probably not.

Here's the long version of the interview. A shorter one will be in tomorrow's print Observer.

The Wall Street Journal this morning has a front-page story on how higher energy costs are curbing Americans' demand for oil and other fuels. It's simple economics, apparently--higher prices are slackening demand--and it's having far-reaching effects on real estate and retail:

U.S. households are making adjustments, too. David Pastor, who owns Fletcher's Appliance in Nashua, N.H., says three out of four washing machines he sells these day are energy-saving front loaders, up from one in four two years ago. "It's really gaining momentum," he says. During the first six months of this year, 55% of the washing machines, dishwashers and refrigerators shipped by appliance makers bore the government's Energy Star rating for high energy efficiency, up from 50% a year earlier, according to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers.

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Editor's note: A shorter version of this interview will run in the Aug. 13 print edition of The Observer.

LOCATION: Explain why Amtrak wants New Jersey Transit's planned ARC (Access to the Region's Core) tunnel under the Hudson River to connect with the Penn Station tracks.

Mr. Kummant: Basically, look, this goes back to a process we're leading, which is a process for the whole Northeast corridor. And, at the end of the day, we're in a completely different world, where capacity matters a great deal. You're looking at 2030 projections where commuter volume and Amtrak volume in total is almost doubling.  read more »

"Now that the recent rise in gas prices has everyone ditching their SUVs and running to mass transit, what will our government do to build off of the momentum? We are dumping billions of dollars into Iraq for, among other things, infrastructure, while the Iraqis pile up cash reserves (including in an account at the NY Federal Reserve) when our infrastructure at home is in shambles. If the Democrats want more government intervention in our fight against global warming and energy security, let's start with Amtrak. What is Congress going to do to take our mass transit system out of the dark ages and up to speed with our friends across the pond?" ["Amtrak Northeast Ridership, Challenges Way Up"]

Poor Greyhound -- it may have flaws, but this is just plain bad luck.

The bus company has pulled TV and print ads boasting, "There's a reason you've never heard of 'bus rage,'" after one bus passenger saw fit to behead and then eat scraps of another passenger, according to the AP (which saw fit to slug its article, "Greyhound scraps ads after Canada bus beheading"):

"Greyhound knows how important it is to get these removed and we are doing everything possible," Abby Wambaugh, a Greyhound spokeswoman, told the AP. "This is something that we immediately asked to be done last week, realizing that these could be offensive.

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Amtrak's Northeast ridership was up nearly 8 percent annually in July, following a national trend of increasing ridership on the passenger rail carrier. Amtrak is on pace to carry a record 28 million passengers nationwide in 2008, a jump from the previous record of 25.8 million set last year, according to this morning's Wall Street Journal.

But the ridership jumps are straining a decidedly creaky infrastructure. From the Journal:

On a recent Wednesday afternoon train, travelers boarding at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station toward Washington discovered passengers were already crammed together between cars. Crowding is also a problem on the higher-priced Acela Express service in the Northeast Corridor, which Amtrak launched in 2000.

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"Okay, so how many billions a week are we spending in Iraq? Last I heard it was about $5 billion per week. And we're having trouble coming up with $7 billion? Really?" ["Billions Down the Tunnel!"]

John F. Kennedy International Airport was the world's 13th busiest by passenger amount in 2007, according to a new report from the trade group Airports Council International. JFK was the only New York area airport to make the list (PDF) of the world's 30 busiest (see update below).

In 2007, 47,716,941 passengers passed through the airport on the edge of Queens, an 11.9 percent increase over 2006. Of that total number, 21,543,251 were international passengers, making JFK the 15th busiest in the world in terms of international passengers (list here as PDF).

Atlanta's Harstfield-Jackson was the world's busiest airport in 2007 in terms of total passengers. London's Heathrow was the busiest in terms of international passenger.

Update 8:16 p.m.

Newark's Liberty International did make the top 30 list of the world's busiest at No. 21, with 36,367,240 passengers in 2007.

The Straphangers Campaign today issued its 11th annual “State of the Subways” Report card, rating the L as the best of 22 subway lines, followed by the 7. Both of these lines are participating in a management pilot program and are run by Line General Managers who have been given a greater degree of independence, as well as accountability to the riders on these two lines.

"The L ranked highest because it performs best in the system on two measures—regularity of service and announcements—and well above average on three other measures: frequency of scheduled service, delays caused by mechanical breakdowns and the percentage of dirty cars," a statement released today by Straphangers said.  read more »

Key findings from the report released today by the nonprofit American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials on the condition of America's bridges. (This Friday will mark one year since the Minneapolis I-35W Bridge collapse that killed 13 people.)

• Age – Usually built to last 50 years, the average bridge in this country today is 43; almost 20 percent of these bridges are over 50 years old.
• Repair Costs – According to new data from the Federal Highway Administration, the cost to repair or modernize the country's bridges is $140 billion, assuming all the bridges were fixed immediately.
• Traffic Congestion – The top 10 highway interchange bottlenecks cause an average of 1.
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The estimated number of automobile miles logged in the Northeastern United States dropped 4.2 percent annually in May, according to federal stats reported in this morning's Wall Street Journal.

That decline in driving (and similar declines across the nation spurred by higher gas prices) have robbed the government of fuel taxes, which go toward infrastructure improvements for highways and mass transit systems.

In many areas, the ragged edges are already showing. About 25% of bridges in the U.S. are either "functionally obsolete" or "structurally deficient," like the Mississippi River bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis last August, killing 13 people.

Moreover, the pavement is rated "not acceptable" on one of every seven miles of the nation's roads, according to the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission.

When Peter Eide moved to Clinton Hill, he had a "fantastical" idea.

The sculptor had spent 12 years moving around the borough after arriving from Philadelphia: Greenpoint, Williamsburg, back to Clinton Hill. But Mr. Eide, now 37, never strayed far from the G train, the only subway line in the city that doesn't travel through Manhattan. And he never stopped thinking of that idea he had: to connect his neighborhood G train stop, Fulton Street, to the Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street transit hub, effectively linking the line to almost a dozen other routes.

The fantastical part? A 660-foot tunnel buried under Fort Greene.  read more »

The M.T.A. did not seem to notice the chorus of boos that erupted across the city from public officials and subway riders alike upon hearing news of a potential 8 percent fare hike next year, because today the agency went even further.

City Room reports that the M.T.A. will also request at its Friday board meeting an additional 5 percent increase to take effect by January 2011 — for a cumulative increase of 13.4 percent over 18 months.

The M.T.A. argues that raising fares is the only way to deal with a projected $900 million budget gap. Though dissenters at the "contentious" meeting today claimed that there's more fat to trim on the M.T.A.'s budget.

Stayed tuned for the outcome on Friday.

Ridership on Amtrak's Northeast corridor increased over 3.2 percent annually in June, from 878,671 passengers to 907,316, according to new figures from the national rail service.

A look at the most recent numbers for fiscal year 2008, which covers October through June, reveals an even sharper increase in ridership compared to the same nine months in 2007. From October through June, over 5.6 million passengers traveled the Northeast corridor, from Washington to Boston, versus 5 million during the same period last year, representing an 11 percent increase (and coming despite increased fares). Travel on Acela, the Northeast-only express service, increased by 8 percent, from 2.  read more »

"Jesus Christ, get over it. Transportation costs have gone up across the board for everyone, and every shipper. If you're bitching about $92, I wonder what you'll be saying two years from now when airfare to go anywhere domestic will start at $400, and the trains won't be far behind." ["Amtrak On Its Latest Fare Hike"]

Last week, I griped about Amtrak's latest fare increase, particularly in the Northeast. Amtrak got back to me today in an email. It turns out it's not just in the Northeast; and it is partly due to higher fuel costs. From the email:

On July 8th, we increased the fares on the following routes by 5%. This was done as a result of our recent labor agreements as well as the rising cost of fuel on those routes that are powered by diesel locomotives. Our fares are set by supply and demand so the continued high demand and constrained capacity we are experiencing were also factors in the increase.  read more »

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To celebrate the 60th birthday of JFK Airport on July 25, the Port Authority will offer travelers free rides on the airport's monorail system, the AirTrain. A one-way ticket's normally $5.

Release below:

THE PORT AUTHORITY THANKS ITS CUSTOMERS

AS KENNEDY AIRPORT TURNS 60

Travelers Encouraged to Leave Their Cars Home Next Friday

and Take a Free Ride on AirTrain JFK

The Port Authority will provide free AirTrain JFK rides on Friday, July 25, as a thank you to customers who have helped make John F. Kennedy International Airport the country’s premier international gateway, and one of the world’s most venerable aviation facilities.  read more »

Today's New York Times article about the increasing frequency of overnight airport stays, and the increasing callousness of airlines toward their marooned passengers, has a fascinating tidbit about something called a Mini Motel:

An unscheduled overnight stay at a German airport inspired one business traveler, Frank Giotto, the president of Fiber Instrument Sales in Oriskany, N.Y., to create the Mini Motel, a one-person tent complete with air mattress, pillow, reading light, alarm clock and pillow...

Asked what airports would think of a tent city of his Mini Motels, Mr. Giotto expressed confidence.

“People sleeping in chairs don’t seem to bother them,” he said.  read more »

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Just when higher gas prices are making air and car travel ever more expensive, the nation's intercity rail carrier has hiked its Northeast corridor fares. Amtrak some day very recently--we're waiting for an email back about the time details--raised its fares between New York's Penn Station and cities from Washington to at least Boston.

The cheapest ticket between Penn and Washington's Union Station is now $72, up from $69 as recently as a couple of weeks ago (full disclosure: I take Amtrak to D.C. at least once a month). The cheapest ticket between Penn and Boston's South Station is now $89, up from $70 or thereabouts only a year ago.  read more »

A panel of transportation advocates held on the Upper West Side on Thursday night reached a predictable consensus:

“The M.T.A. is in deep doo-doo right now and it’s only going to get worse," according to the Regional Plan Association's Jeffrey Zupan.

More on the panel from Em Whitney at The Politicker.

The board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted unanimously today to rescind the free E-ZPass privileges of former board members, their families, and the families of current board members.

"They can't exempt themselves from the very policies ... that they're asking the riders to bear," Gene Russianoff, attorney for transit advocacy group the Straphangers Campaign, said, referring to fare hikes.

The decision came after close to an hour and a half of deliberations behind closed doors. Fifty-two former board members and 34 current members will be affected.

And at least one of them is upset. Warren S.  read more »

Here are the subway stations (and the lines they service) where the M.T.A. has proposed delaying improvements:

• Four on the Pelham line (the 6 train)
• Four on the Sea Beach line that were to occur in late 2009 (the N train)
• 10 stations on the West End line (the D and M trains);
• The Smith-9th Street station on the Culver line (F and G trains)

The Times' Matthew Wald in a Saturday story reported that Amtrak ridership was increasing because of higher gasoline prices and other factors.

Amtrak set records in May, both for the number of passengers it carried and for ticket revenues — all the more remarkable because May is not usually a strong travel month... Want to take Amtrak’s daily Crescent train from New York to New Orleans? It is sold out on July 5, 6, 7 and 8. Seattle to Vancouver, British Columbia, on July 5? The train is sold out, but Amtrak will sell you a bus ticket.

(Now only if Amtrak would lower its Northeast fares.)

My colleague Lysandra Ohrstrom earlier this month reported that ridership on the Long Island Railroad route from New York City to the Hamptons was up by double-digit percentages this spring over spring 2007.

While most Americans are struggling to gas up their cars to get to work (or in New York bemoaning a possible M.T.A. fare hike), trophy yacht orders are up nearly 20 percent this year, according to a report out this week from the Luxury Institute and yacht broker Camper & Nicholsons International.

In 2007, 245 yachts over 130 feet were ordered--the average price tag of a motor yacht about 100 feet is $100 million--compared to only 134 in 2005. The increase is most likely fuelled by newly-minted moguls from Russia, the Middle East, and India, rather than from American tycoons who once dominated the trophy yacht market.  read more »

Advocates reacted with disappointment and worry to the news that the G train will not receive the service increases that the Metropolitan Transit Authority promised riders in February.

"The M.T.A. has done a grave injustice to G train riders and commuters in Brooklyn if it fails to enact service enhancements," said State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn. In May, Mr. Jeffries and others launched a campaign to pressure the M.T.A. to increase the G's frequency and to restore its four-car trains to six cars.

"The M.T.A. seems to be primarily in the business of broken promises," Teresa Toro of Save the G said today.  read more »

Not exactly. But close. The Times' William Neuman reports this morning that the perennially put-upon G Train will not be part of a round of scaled-back service improvements:

One line that had been scheduled for more service in the original proposal last December but was not included in this round of improvements was the G. Riders on the G often complain of long waits between trains. Officials said the G did not exceed the loading guidelines.

The M.T.A.'s decision will, of course, annoy many G Train riders, not least those who kicked off a campaign in May to improve service.

It only took three weeks for the MTA to “postpone” the service upgrades promised after the March fare hikes, so we were skeptical when officials told frustrated straphangers that the package might be approved in June if the MTA’s financial situation improved.

MTA Executive Director Lee Sander said Wednesday that the transportation authority faced an operating deficit of as much as $500 million to $700 million next year—mainly due to a dip in real estate tax revenue and the rising costs of fuel—and warned that if Albany did pitch in more money to fill the gap, the burden would fall on passengers.

But, according to a statement issued today by riders advocacy group the Straphangers Campaign, New Yorkers already pay 55 percent of the city's transit costs, giving them the highest fare burden in the nation. In other large transit networks, fares account for an average of 40 percent of operating budgets.  read more »

Traveling on I-95 on a summer weekend has never been pleasant, but this weekend you can expect it to be particularly rough.

Amtrak announced that its Accela and regional service between New York, Boston, and New Haven will be cancelled from June 14 to June 17 so the moveable span of the 90-year-old Thames River Bridge connecting Groton and New London, Conn., can be replaced.  read more »

In 2000, the Port Authority announced it would build a new, $37.4 million Battery Park ferry terminal to replace the “temporary” one installed in 1989, to transport 12,500 weekday commuters between New York and New Jersey, but September 11 thwarted the plan.

A lot of different Battery Park ferry terminal developments have happened in the past eight years, but the five-slip, upgraded terminal had yet to appear—until this weekend. A trio of tugboats will finally bring a permanent, “state-of-the-art,” terminal from Sunset Park, Brooklyn, to the Battery Park City promenade on Saturday morning where final installation will begin, the Port Authority announced today.  read more »

Mayor Bloomberg today gave his support to a push to make a higher-speed train line between New York and Washington, D.C., endorsing federal legislation that seeks to create a two-hour rail trip between the cities.

The Acela, Amtrak’s high-speed service launched less than 10 years ago, takes about 2 hours and 45 minutes between the two cities.

The bill, part of a reauthorization of Amtrak, would solicit preliminary bids from the private sector to build the service. It’s being pushed by Representative John Mica, a Florida Republican.  read more »

That perspiring, uncomfortable-looking Wall Streeter you sat next to on the subway this morning might have been a Morgan Stanley banker. Dealbreaker reports that as part of the firm's new "new cost-cutting initiative, taxi reimbursement will not be provided until after 10 pm."

Morgan Stanley posted its first-ever quarterly loss at the end of last year after taking a $9.4 billion dollar write-down on subprime mortgage investments.  read more »