Subways are for sleeping: NYC Transit survival thread

let's make unemployment Joe's next fucking problem

https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/11/16/joe-lhotas-not-the-only-one-cursing-over-broken-subway-elevators/

shameful shit there

Lhota was actually sorta kinda ok in his last tenure in this role, but he's been a horrible hack during round 2.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/nyregion/new-york-subway-system-failure-delays.html

There's something that's been bugging me about The Times' article on the transit crisis. They mention Bear Stearns' role in creating the MTA debt bomb but don't connect the last dot. The person from Bear Stearns responsible for MTA debt is now the MTA CFO.

— Second Ave. Sagas (@2AvSagas) November 21, 2017

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8x53xb/meet-the-spreadsheet-that-can-solve-nyc-transit-and-the-man-who-made-it

god knows i support the congestion fee but if 15-17% of CBD vehicle trips suddenly stop happening, the subway will explode. it'll take the mta 20 years to add that much capacity, optimistically. be good for busses and bikes tho

the December weekend subway shit gets worse every year. I went to MoMA to see a rare Warhol film and it soooo wasn't worth it.

re: congestion: in theory, a coordinated master plan for fixing the system would use the regained surface capacity to make various routes bus-only and run continuous massive service enabling you to take more lines out of service for longer continuous stretches of repair, on the path back to regaining good service linewide. unfortunately every aspect of what i just described is either fiscally or politically unthinkable at present, good luck nyc

tbh i don't think the subway can be blamed for yr taste in film

I meant the tsuris of elbowing through the smelly tourist hordes and sitting on a nonmoving D, then standing all the way home on a Q (going over the R instead of the goddamn bridge) was not worth savoring the minor achievement of Loves of Ondine, dear mook.

i played it safe: one-seat J ride to essex and back for 'umbrellas of cherbourg.' in a bizarre inversion of the norm, this weekend jaunt went far, far more smoothly than any of my trips up to columbia this week which were just a cavalcade of stopping-in-tunnels, waiting-for-transfers, random stop skips, etc...

http://www.thecleverest.com/subway/

I will report back on my score after I'm done

― chinavision!, Friday, August 14, 2015 1:10 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ok it was 204

― chinavision!, Friday, August 14, 2015 1:28 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

123 but yeah i'm sure i'm missing at least a handful. too much head-scratching of "now where would i have gotten off that one time..." etc. cute though!

― Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Friday, August 14, 2015 1:58 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

two years later and i'm up to 171, maybe with some fudging. my rank is "New York Lifer." god help me.

watch the closing cell door!

stand clear of it, you mean

This fact from @nicolegelinas' latest on MTA governance makes me think NYCers should be rioting over MTA spending priorities. https://t.co/fU12VFlEQ9 pic.twitter.com/o5YzIqpCtD

— Second Ave. Sagas (@2AvSagas) December 4, 2017

Riders Alliance program next Wednesday

http://salsa.ridersny.org/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=96466

impressive that my commute took significantly longer today -- a day in which there is *not* a bomber -- than monday

Took the train to work today for first time in 9-10 months. It was shockingly okay! Partly I think because like 7 local stops on my line are closed for construction so the N goes straight to my station. Which sucks for all those other ppl.

Thinking about going to that Riders Alliance funding education program. It's on my calendar.

why do i have a membership to a museum in Queens? NQRW all fucked me up tonight. Deflating...

The eternal dilemma when headed back to Queens from downtown on the Eighth Avenue line: whether to switch to the 7 at 42nd Street and spend time walking the tunnel from Eighth to Seventh Avenue or to stay on the E and sit in the tunnel for a mini-eternity between Queens Plaza and Roosevelt.

The mayor of New York City everyone! pic.twitter.com/zCkXg0MgVR

— Second Ave. Sagas (@2AvSagas) December 19, 2017

so dumb. he's against congestion pricing cuz cuomo's for it.

also for banning e-bikes - why did i vote for this guy

speaking of Prince Andy

https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2017/12/19/cuomo-now-pins-subway-problems-on-the-state-legislature-154223

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-construction-costs.html

3-6x the cost of projects in rational metropolises, in a nutshell

i used to think, oh subways in asia are great because human labor is so cheap, worker exploitation etc. but the paris example really stands out.

so, this is getting bumped and commented mainly around the theme of union featherbedding etc. etc. the numbers in the article are eyebrow-raising for sure but then there is this passage, which doesn't really get the same kind of detailed followup in terms of counting up the dollars:

In other parts of the world, companies bidding on transit projects typically add 10 percent to their estimated costs to account for profit, overhead and change orders, contractors in five continents said. Final profit is usually less than 5 percent of the total project cost, which is sufficient given the size of the projects, the contractors said.

Things are much different in New York. In a series of interviews, dozens of M.T.A. contractors described how vendors routinely increase their estimated costs when bidding for work.

First, the contractors said, the vendors add between 15 and 25 percent as an “M.T.A. Factor” because of how hard it can be to work within the bureaucracy of the transit authority. Then they add 10 percent as a contingency for possible changes. And then they add another 10-12 percent on top of all that for profit and overhead.

like... holy shit! so added up that's... 35-47 percent?! versus 5? can that be right??! it'd be nice if the authors did the math for us, but it seems like that kind of creative estimate-padding would equal hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars (or bond dollars whose interest and principal will be paid by taxpayers down the line)... in pure gravy! for the shareholders of the vendor corporations! that seems like the biggest hugest scandal ever. but it doesn't really get followed up; we kind of rest with this lame statement from an industry person, claiming they barely make a profit. which isn't fact-checked like some other statements in the article (helpfully) are:

Denise Richardson, the executive director of the General Contractors Association, which represents construction companies on M.T.A. projects, said the surcharges are needed because the vendors assume huge risks on transit projects and often are forced to pay for mistakes made by the authority. At the end of the day, she said, the companies make a relatively small profit.

“It is profit, not covering costs, that allows a firm to hire more people, expand their administrative space and buy new equipment,” Ms. Richardson said. “Firms that only cover their costs do not stay in business.”

imo if there is going to be political movement here that breaks the impasse, it isn't going to just be from outrage over 'those greedy union workers,' nor should it be. something is deeply rotten in the entire system and it sounds like it starts with the bosses, not the workers, even if it would also be sensible policy and politics to look into putting pressure on some of those contract provisions. but if the bosses are ripping us off for a hundred and the workers are ripping us off for five, i know where i'd start in trying to get costs under control.

also holy cow at all that white-collar goldbricking and budget inflation. full time salaried teams finessing station openings, ten years before they're opening.

I'm sure the MTA, like any bureaucratic behemoth, is riddled with corruption and inefficiencies, but I was just talking to my dad over the holiday about working with large companies during his 30 years as an energy systems engineer, and he said for customers with difficult policies or personalities it's customary to add 20% for your trouble. Especially if they make you eat costs that arise during the project and they're so powerful that you can't push it back on them. I imagine the MTA is very much like that.

federalism, ain't it great!

"do you want to live in a world without pyramids?"

re https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/subway-station-booth-agents.html

Ok this obviously bothers me a lot. Let's talk a little about the American Cult of Innovation. pic.twitter.com/5AWybawRAI

— Michael T Sweeney (@mtsw) December 28, 2017

aka 'not invented here' aka the reason why we haven't replaced metrocards yet

we couldn't just... copy a system from elsewhere

we're moving to contactless! https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/23/nyregion/metrocard-subway-new-york.html

one of my local station's turnstile swipe units goes out about once every few weeks for a good day and there's generally a pile up until someone props the emergency gate open

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/magazine/subway-new-york-city-public-transportation-wealth-inequality.html

xxpost ... in 2023. for fun, read all entries marked 'metrocard' on second avenue sagas and see how long its replacement has been discussed and in so many forms.

http://secondavenuesagas.com/2008/01/31/the-end-of-the-metrocard-is-somewhat-near/

or in 2007, when it was lamented as a 13-year-old "nearly obsolete" technology!

i like obsolete technology, mostly

First great commute of the year this evening

that nyt link mookie posted is pretty good

Have you seen the 3 little arrows now appearing on the floor just in front of the doors of some cars, presumably meant to get the immobile dunces to move in? Isn't that DARLING?

so what the fuck happened today?

broken rail on the Manhattan Bridge

outstanding

Idk because luckily I was done w my commute by 8am thanks to a painfully early schedule this week. Was it gruesome?

xp oh jesus help us

my gf got caught in it and had to keep checking stations to figure out what was/wasn't moving. i deleted twitter and i suspect not having a real-time MTA feed will be the only great loss

officially a "rail CONDITION"

https://www.amny.com/transit/mta-subway-delays-1.16028518