Tag Archives: subway

Huh?: “The Many Flavors of Transit”

Article: The Many Flavors of Transit | Transportationist.

So the comments are off on the article and clicking the reblog button did … something (though I know not what) …  The Press This button at the bottom of the article failed too, but the one on my browser did not.

I get the point of the article – transit-oriented doesn’t just mean they have a good subway or a good bus system.  But the list I don’t get.  There are not 33 individual categories on the list!  Click above to the read the article and see the original list.

In fact, you could argue that there are only two categories of transit on the list here:  Scheduled and on-demand.  The first list below shows scheduled services and the second on-demand.  The third list is … I don’t know.  My guess is that some are scheduled and some are on-demand.

Without getting into the mode silos or trivia, there is little difference between PATH subways and MTA subways other than destination.  Likewise for the 3.5 commuter rail lines listed (and Amtrak) or the bus services.  Or the jitneys or the car services …

Two categories.  Not 33.

Scheduled

  • MTA subways
  • PATH subways
  • MTA buses
  • New Jersey Transit buses
  • Metro-North Rail Road
  • Long Island Rail Road
  • New Jersey Transit trains
  • Staten Island Ferry
  • Staten Island Rail Road
  • Commuter ferries (Five licensed operators)
  • Chinatown buses (intercity)
  • Low cost intercity buses (Bolt Bus, Mega Bus)
  • Conventional intercity buses (Greyhound, Peter Pan)
  • Company/corporate shuttles
  • University shuttles (Columbia University, New York University)
  • Roosevelt Island Tram (Gondola)
  • Roosevelt Island Red Bus (Publicly owned development corporation)
  • Amtrak

On-demand

  • Water taxis
  • Access-a-Ride (MTA and other transit provider contracts)
  • Yellow taxicabs (Medallion cabs)
  • Green taxicabs (Boro cabs)
  • Liveries for Hire (Uber, Lyft, Carmel, etc.)
  • Executive Limousines
  • Liveries (informal)
  • CitiBike bike share (public access for a fee)
  • University bike share programs (free access for a designated group)

Could be either – no idea

  • Apartment shuttles (CoSo, etc.)
  • Commuter vans (licensed and pre-arranged fares; e.g. Mario’s Transportation)
  • Dollar vans and local jitneys (informal immigrant services)
  • New Jersey commuter jitneys
  • Long Island commuter jitneys
  • Executive helicopters

$300M for a couple stairways into an old Post Office: “Once more unto the Moynihan Station morass”

Article: Once more unto the Moynihan Station morass :: Second Ave. Sagas.

I’ve said it before, at least once, and I’ll surely say it again:  It’s incredibly expensive to do anything in NYC, and especially, it seems, if it’s transportation related.

Here, The Powers That Be plan to spend $1,000,000,000 turning the old main post office (adjacent to NYC’s Pennsylvania Station for what should be obvious reasons) into what Mr Kabak (author of the story above) calls a new waiting room for Amtrak.  Like the PATH station at the World Trade Center, this project adds no new capacity to the transportation system.  None.

NYCTA Greenpoint Tubes Repair

For all the MTA’s  flaws — and they are legion — they have a pretty good video department that are good at describing, almost always in the words of the workers, what is being done on the system.

Got this via Second Avenue Sagas.

And yes, NYC is still recovering from Hurricane Sandy nearly two years later.

“MTA Wants to Keep Second Avenue Subway Momentum Going – WNYC”

Train to nowhere?

Article: MTA Wants to Keep Second Avenue Subway Momentum Going – WNYC.

Good news.  Phase II would take the line from 96th to 125th, where there would be a connection to the Lexington Ave Line.  At (roughly) 29 blocks vs Phase I’s 33 blocks Phase II is a little shorter but will make the line more useful given the new connection.  Plus, there are already tunnel segments from the aborted 1970s project.  Phases III and IV, far off in the distant future, would take it all the way down to Lower Manhattan.

All the project needs now is money.  Metric tons of money.