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M.T.A. Says Subway Signs Will Take More Time and Money - City Room - Metro - New York Times Blog
September 24, 2008, 9:18 am

M.T.A. Says Subway Signs Will Take More Time and Money

By William Neuman

High-tech electronic signs on station platforms that announce how long riders will have to wait for the next train are still a distant dream in most of New York’s subway system.
And the wait just got longer.

New York City Transit, the arm of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that runs the subways, said this week that a system of computerized signs planned for 152 stations on the numbered subway lines would not be finished until 2011. That is two years later than a previous estimate and five years later than the original schedule.

Work on the project began in 2003 and was originally to be completed in 2006. The cost has also increased to $185 million, from an earlier estimate of $161 million.

The officials said that the project had been slowed by repeated software problems.

Siemens, the company that is responsible for the software, has twice made significant changes to the basic platform, similar to the operating system, that the software runs on, the officials said on Monday during a presentation to members of the authority’s board.

A separate system of information signs has already been installed on the L line, where it has been largely successful.

But the software used there is different and the numbered subway lines, with multiple intersecting sets of tracks, are more complex than the L.

Signs have been installed in about 50 stations on the numbered lines so far and some recent tests have been successful, the officials said.

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TalB

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/ny...l?ref=nyregion
Double-Decker Bus Makes Trial Run, Delighting Riders and Avoiding Branches

By MARTIN ESPINOZA
Published: September 27, 2008


Christian Hansen for The New York Times

Morning commuters from Staten Island getting off the double-decker bus at a stop in Manhattan.

Because of a height issue — which would seem to be a built-in obstacle — the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has had to put off its plans to test its double-decker bus on two routes, including one that traverses Fifth Avenue.

The reason? Tree branches on Riverside Drive and Fifth Avenue are in the way.

Instead, the authority is currently limiting the trial to one route, the X17J from Staten Island to Manhattan.

Even on a good day, it can take about an hour and 45 minutes to complete its journey, from Huguenot Avenue on Staten Island to East 57th Street in Midtown, during peak commuting hours.

One morning last week, Gabriella Pettinato got out of bed determined to track down that bus. As her husband drove, she watched for the 13-foot-tall, 45-foot-long behemoth.

She spotted it near the Staten Island Mall.

“We drove two stops ahead of it to make sure I made this bus,” said Mrs. Pettinato, an accountant, sitting on the upper level of the coach as it approached the Goethals Bridge. “Anything different is exciting.”

Most of the passengers who first boarded the bus headed straight for the upper level, lowering their heads as they walked up the narrow stairs. While the height clearance on the first level is 5 feet 11 inches, the upper level’s clearance is only 5 feet 7 inches.

Yara Lantigua, a planner for a New York media company, had no trouble making her way to the front seat on the upper level.

Ms. Lantigua, who is 5-foot-1, said she got up a little earlier to make sure she caught the bus, which started its run from Huguenot Avenue and Woodrow Road at 7:16 a.m.

A wide smile revealed her excitement as the bus rolled along the Staten Island Expressway.

“I like sitting in front,” Ms. Lantigua said, putting on her sunglasses. “It makes me feel in control. I like to see the traffic so I don’t get anxious. I like to know what is happening.”

The authority has high hopes for the double-decker as a way to save on fuel while moving more people.

Such buses, currently the domain of sightseeing tours, were common before the 1950s. The buses came back for a brief period during the 1970s.

The new double-decker coach, built and loaned to the transportation authority by the ABC Bus Company of Belgium, is sleek, quiet and powerful. Equipped with a 450-horsepower diesel engine, the $650,000 giant moves effortlessly through New Jersey’s and New York’s highway infrastructure.

A typical city bus has about 40 seats. The double-deckers seat 59 on the upper level and 22 on the lower level, where a portion of the rear is taken up by electrical boxes, a storage area, its fuel tank and a bathroom, which is locked during the trial run, and would be removed if the authority decides to buy the buses.

Andy Mieles, a 6-foot-tall accountant, tried to open the bathroom door after he carefully made his way down the rear stairs of the bus.

He did not need it, he said, but was “just curious.”

Most riders gave the bus positive reviews on one trip last week, though a few complained about the low ceilings. Transit advocates also welcomed the trial.

“Given the huge increase in ridership, it makes sense to try vehicles that can move more people,” said Gene Russianoff, staff lawyer for the Straphangers Campaign, an advocacy group for transit riders.

The transportation agency had planned to test the double-decker on two other lines, the M5 and the BxM3, an express route from Yonkers to Manhattan. But the bus would have run into branches on Riverside Drive, which is used by the M5, and on a stretch in Harlem along Fifth Avenue, which is used by the BxM3.

Charles Seaton, a spokesman for New York City Transit, said it was unclear whether the bus would be tried on another route during the one-month trial. “I would love to be able to put that bus on Fifth Avenue,” he said.

As the bus approached the Lincoln Tunnel last week from Weehawken, N.J., a G.P.S. signal triggered a valve in the coach’s air-suspension system, which lowered the bus by about two inches. That created a slightly more generous four inches of clearance between the roof of the bus and the ceiling of the tunnel.

By then, the novelty of the ride had mostly worn off. As is typical on the X17J route, many passengers had nodded off.

They began to come to around 9 a.m., rubbing their eyes and stretching their arms as Midtown traffic greeted the double-decker, its height proving no advantage in navigating through blocked intersections and honking taxis.

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Jehosaphat

er, am I aloud to post stuff here? Or is this a private thread

TalB

If it has something to do with the NYC transit system, then feel free to post it.

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I have respected your views, so I expect you to do the same for me.

TalB

Fulton Transit Center stuck in limbo
Volume 21, Number 22 | The Newspaper of Lower Manhattan | Oct. 10 - 16, 2008

Fulton Transit Center stuck in limbo

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority still does not know when the Fulton St. Transit Center will be complete or what the completed structure will look like, but Bill Wheeler, the agency’s planning director, promised City Councilmember Alan Gerson answers soon.

Wheeler spoke at a hearing Gerson held Monday focusing on the World Trade Center site, which will have an underground connection to the Fulton St. Transit Center, bringing together a total of 11 subway lines and the PATH trains. Like the W.T.C. projects, the Fulton hub is over budget and behind schedule, but unlike the Port Authority’s candid assessment of the W.T.C. site, the M.T.A. has yet to release a timetable for the transit center.

“They’ve been able to present milestones ahead of contracts being awarded,” Gerson said of the Port Authority, as he urged Wheeler to do the same.

“You’re right,” Wheeler said.

The M.T.A. had two alternatives when the construction estimate for the transit center came in at $298 million over budget last January: revise the design or look for additional funding. The M.T.A. decided on a combination of the two, though Wheeler would not say what funding sources the M.T.A. is considering or what the design changes will be.

In the wake of congestion pricing’s failure last spring, Gov. David Paterson appointed a commission led by former M.T.A. chairperson Richard Ravitch to examine ways of closing the M.T.A.’s capital budget deficit. The commission will issue a report by Dec. 5.

One redesign possibility for the station is a smaller above-ground structure with a flat skylight as opposed to the domed oculus featured in the original design.

The M.T.A. could see some automatic cost savings if the economy continues its downward spiral, since the overheated construction market may cool and the price of materials could drop, Wheeler said.

Work on the belowground portion of the station is moving forward, and Wheeler expects the construction on Dey St. to be complete in the next month. Reopening the Cortlandt St. R/W station, though, will take at least several more months, he said.

The M.T.A. plans to award the contract for the “mixing bowl,” the central belowground portion of the station, by the end of the year and the contract for the A/C and 4/5 platforms during 2009. The last contracts to be awarded — Wheeler wouldn’t say when — will be to build the aboveground station and restore the adjacent historic Corbin Building.

The Corbin Building could be one of the most expensive pieces of the project, because it will require specialty contractors and materials, Wheeler said.

“We don’t want to hold the rest of the project hostage to that,” Gerson said. “Given the economic climate, [couldn’t we] defer the full historic restoration to better times?”

Wheeler said he could not speculate on whether the M.T.A. is considering that option.

—Julie Shapiro

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