Buses in the Rosa Parks services

WMATA got out an old bus that I suppose they keep around for these purposes. See the Yahoo News slideshow. They say this is a 1950s bus, which is kind of interesting when one figures that Metro did not even exist in the 1950s.

I went last night to pay my respects; you can read my personal reflections at my blog.

More riders

Some news from the California Central Valley - Bay Area commute that people are giving up their cars and switching to transit because of high gas prices, and that it may be a longer-term trend.

"A September study released by GfK, a market research firm, showed some Americans altered their lifestyles by carpooling or riding public transit to save on gasoline when the price of fuel peaked at $2.50 per gallon."

SEPTA on Strike!

SEPTA is on strike, leaving about 400,000 riders without transit in Philadelphia. The regional rail system continues to operate.

The strike is, like all other strikes, over money, but one of the key contentions is whether union members have to pay an 5% of their health care insurance premium for complete health care coverage. GIven that, accordng to the terms of the bargain that was rejected, union workers would receive a 3% annual salary raise, a full pension plan, and have to pay only an average $5 a month for health insurance, I fear the union is getting a bit greedy here. The majority of U.S. workers have no pension plan and pay a lot more than that for health insurance. And this is the union's 9th strike since 1975.

I'm generally one to side with unions, especially when they're fighting large corporations, but we're talking about a transit system that habitually loses money, and is still offering to provide its workers with significantly better benefits than most employees get. Perhaps union members could use to take a look at the rest of the world?

Read more here, here, here, and here.

Rosa Parks

Probably the greatest bus rider of all time, Rosa Parks will lie in honor in the Capitol sometime in the next few days. I shall be there.

In other news, CTA takes comments on a proposed 25-cent fare increase...House committee approves WMATA funding bill...WMATA Riders Advisory Council gets 940 applications.

SF BRT

San Francisco is looking at bus rapid transit for Van Ness Avenue and possibly other "grand boulevards". San Francisco is the only major city in the country with a "transit first" policy.

And you think your bus is slow?

The New York City Straphangers Campaign released the results of their 2005 Pokeys awards, one of my local crosstown buses - the M34 - is the slowest in Manhattan at a whopping 3.4mph.

Happy Anniversary To Us

In the spirit of self-congratulations, we're proud to announce that today is the Second Anniversary of the Smorgasblog Media Empire. At some point, I'll post a Third Rail retrospective, but I've been too busy in my official capacity as Chief Smorgasblog Offshore Tech Bitch Monkey to get much writing done lately.

So thanks to all our loyal readers who've been with us since the beginning, back in the days when rj3 almost got fired for his personal blogging and decided that, in retaliation, we should create the "Venn diagram of group blogs". And Smorgasblog was born.

Since then, rj3 has resigned as DCSOB and moved on to the windy city, taking his blog with him. Zaf came along and started DCFUD. And the rest is, well, history.

So, congratulations to us, and thanks again to all the Third Rail writers who've joined us over the last two years -- cs, rj3, omari, and csa.

So thanks to all our loyal readers who've been with us since the beginning, back in the days when rj3 almost got fired for his personal blogging and decided that, in retaliation, we should create the "Venn diagram of group blogs". And Smorgasblog was born.

And in our continual spirit of slowly taking over an incredibly small corner of the blog-o-sphere, we're always interested in looking for more bloggers and group blogs. If you have an idea for a great group blog or are interested in joining as a writer for Third Rail or another blog, feel free to drop us a line. Direct emails to the livefromthethirdrail@gmail.com address, as we're too lazy to open another gmail account at the moment.

Haunted "El"

Heading up to Chicago for Halloween? If so, check out the Haunted El.

According to the press release:

The exterior of the Haunted ‘L’ train has been wrapped to look like a haunted mansion. Once on board, guests will be entertained by Quest Theatre Ensemble. Large-scale puppets from Quest Theatre Ensemble will perform stories based on the popular children’s book, “Where the Wild Things Are.”

The ride is free. It looks like they've even managed to one-up the WMATA Christmas-themed train, which, despite letting you ride with Santa Claus, doesn't include life performances -- except for the standard antics of WMATA train drivers.

Courtesy Chicagoist.

I'm on the wrong bus...

I want to ride with these people. There's also a bit about WMATA's new calculator that purports to compare the cost of driving and transit. The economist in me says that the calculator needs to distinguish fixed and variable costs. Most notably the calculator treats insurance as a variable cost, when for most folks it is fixed.

Even so I save a bundle by using transit, because I have no car at all...my apartment building charges something like $100 per month just for parking!

Newburgh-Beacon Ferry

There is new ferry service between Newburgh and Beacon across the Hudson River. It leads right to a stop on the Metro North Railroad, and also right to the excellent Dia Beacon.

Early Xmas Gift

The MTA has decided to use some of its $900 million surplus to give out fare discounts and bonuses during the holiday season. Maybe next year also. They are also going to pay off some pension obligations.

Update: Mobilizing The Region reports on one of the reasons for the fare rebate: "Part of the thinking behind the MTA’s proposal to offer a variety of significant fare discounts between Thanksgiving and the New Year is likely fear that political leaders will find ways to appropriate the build-up of transit operating funds for other purposes."

Blogrollin'

As you may have noticed, I've been a slacker and haven't updated the sidebar in, oh, about a year and a half. So, in the interest of the greater good, I'm reaching out to you, dear readers, to find out what you think are the best "transportation/transit/etc" related blogs & websites at the moment. Please leave your thoughts in the comments field. If possible, leave only one or two URLs per comment, because the spam filter will go nuts otherwise. You're also welcome to email them to livefromthethirdrail@gmail.com.

And, yes, you are allowed to recommend your own blog.

BART offers iPod maps; WMATA worker dies

A WMATA laborer who was working on tracks in Northern Virginia has died after being struck by a train. This is Metro's first worker fatality in eight years.

Also, after making threats to a man who ported the BART map to the iPod, BART is now offering such maps themselves.

Bright orange, hopefully

The Orange Line, a guided busway bus rapid transit line opening soon in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. Metro has a pretty fancy web site for the project, and the buses themselves look quite nice. Initial ridership projections are pretty low, and as the article says the positioning of the line might not be optimal to attract that many people. Looking at the overall Metro map though, it seems like a good extension, like Los Angeles is almost developing a decent transit infrastructure. I have a friend in Woodland Hills, so maybe I will get a chance to ride this someday.

Don't forget your wheelchair

Somehow, people leave BART trains and forget their wheelchairs.

WMATA Riders Advisory Council application deadline

If you're in the D.C. area, don't miss your chance to give the Metro board some real-world advice! The deadline for applications to the Riders Advisory Council is Monday. Apply online.

Facts & Figures

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics is just a wealth of information with a well organized and clear web site. I was doing some research today and came across an interesting publication from 2000, The Changing Face of Transportation. There must be at least 50 or so graphs and tables running the gamut, here are a few highlights:

Transit Ridership: 1975-99 (Annual totals)
Amtrak Passenger Rail System: 2000
Amtrak Ridership: 1975-99 (Annual totals)
Domestic Terrorist Incidents: 1990-97
Worldwide Violent Acts Against Transportation by Mode: 1998

New train service to New Orleans?

Some local groups in New Orleans and Baton Rouge are working with FEMA to try and set up rail service between the two cities for commuting workers. Sounds like a good idea.

But officer, the light was yellow!

Remember the Metra train that derailed recently, killing two people? Remember how it was going 69 in a 10 m.p.h. switching zone? Well, engineer Michael Smith and his clear consience spoke to reporters yesterday.

He was not using a cell phone nor was he reading the newspaper, he said. Passing through 53rd Street, he accelerated north and could see the 48th Street signal about 17 seconds in advance of it. Again, it signaled that he would not switch tracks, he said.

About 20 yards in advance of the crossover, he noticed the tracks were aligned for a switch, not to proceed straight. By the time he moved his hand from the throttle to the brake, he was in the 10 m.p.h. crossover, he said. Knowing what was going to happen, Smith braced himself in the control cab.

"It was a rocky ride," Smith said. "I will say that fear did not set in until after the train stopped."

Whoops!

I'm sure we all feel better knowing that he wasn't reading the paper, however.

Calling DC Railfans

The Smithsonian is running a rail-inspired event on Wednesday, November 2nd, called Dining by Rail: A Soot-to-Souffle Journey. The event involves a presentation of the evolution of rail-cuisine by author James D. Porterfield and dining on authentic rail fare prepared by guest chef Warren C. McLeod. I, unfortunately, won't be able to attend, but would love to hear reports from anyone who goes. More details are available on the Smithsonian website.

We're safe?

The mayor and various officials have decided to call off the high alert on the New York City subway system. Maybe they got tired of various federal agencies trying to undercut their pronouncements. Personally, given judicious use and some justification, I'd rather have the alert called. Information is good - it is better to know than not know.

Which way to the west side?

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is planning for a new line to go from downtown to the west side, and one of the more logical places to put it is through the Wilshire Boulevard corridor, which is congested and lined with shopping and businesses. But it would have to be an expensive subway line, and there is local opposition to the project. My guess would be the short-term construction impacts (which can be significant to a small businesses, which unfortunately often do not have the room in their budget to care about the greater future of the area) and the given the neighborhoods, some vague sense that they don't need transit, they have cars - even if they have to spend much time sitting in them in traffic.

So the MTA is looking at a light rail line shifted a bit south on some railroad right-of-way, in some not quite so densely populated neighborhoods. They say there is be enough ridership on this alternative route, and the future will bring even more riders to these other neighborhoods.

I'm not an expert on Los Angeles, I only lived in San Francisco for a while. This alternative routing sounds like it might be a good choice given the funding constraints. But what happens in the Wilshire Boulevard corridor in ten or twenty years as the congestion only gets worse? Maybe the development of this transit line will reduce some of the pressure on Wilshire. I guess we will find out eventually.

More on living with threats

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I had been in London. I was staying with a cousin in the Shepherds Bush neighborhood in West London. Turns out that the day of the initial bombings there, they found an unexploded bomb on the bridge over Uxbridge Road at the Shepherds Bush Station on the Hammersmith & City Line, a couple blocks from my cousin's apartment. He happens to work in the opposite direction, but he often walks by or uses that station to get downtown. It was a bit of a scare for him, but his attitude and that of the few other people I talked to it about was similar to the attitude of my fiance and other New Yorkers - you can't live your life in fear, the chances are probably small it will be you so you just get on with things. I certainly decided - and so did others - to visit London after the bombings had occurred.

Buses the Way of the Future, Says Confused British Government

Britian plans on replacing underutilized and defunt rail lines with dedicated bus lanes, including many outfitted with bus guideways, reports The Times. The article begins with one of the more amusing sentences I've read:

Tracks on branch railway lines are to be torn up and replaced with concrete channels, under plans to attract people out of cars by replacing trains with buses.

There's so much wrong with the statement that it's almost not worth the effort. We've established, time and time again, that bus lines do not draw the same amount of riders as rail lines, largely due to issues of comfort, speed, and the general mentality around bus use. And while BRT -- which is what, in effect, these new lines would be -- takes some steps to get around the problem, it doesn't solve many of the larger problems. The fact that these would be guideway-operated trains, meaning drivers wouldn't need to steer, seems largely irrelevant, as drivers would still be needed, so there would be no reduction in labor cost.

And you know you're in trouble when your chief spokesman has this to say:

"Bob Menzies, the head of the Cambridge busway project, said that the busway would not need any operating subsidy."

Can anyone else see people looking back in fifty years at this decision the same way they look back at the decisions to replace streetcar lines with bus lines all over the U.S.?

Living with a threat

My fiance and I discussed whether she should change her commute, the line from 23rd Street up to 57th Street right through midtown. Using my own logic that any terrorist attack was most likely during the morning commute and at some of the stations she was passing through, I suggested taking a 3rd Avenue bus uptown instead, and then the walking across town on 57th Street in the morning, and then taking the subway back in the evening. My fiance, a California transplant who is now a true New York City girl after three years, responded the way that the people interviewed in this New York Times article did - I'm going to continue taking the subway, because you just have to go on with your life. You can't live in fear. True grit.

New York Subway "Specific Threat"

A "specific threat" on the new york subwIt was the first specific threat against the city's subway system, Bloomberg said. No specific subways stations were mentioned.

Read more on CNN.com and The New York Times.

D.C. Circulator buses mostly empty

The Washington City Paper has a scathing piece about the new D.C. Circulator buses: they are mostly empty. "the Circulator buses are clean and new...nothing disrupts their sleek lines--including, on some runs, the shape of a single passenger." The buses average five passengers per trip, with average weekday ridership of 3745. Busy Metrobus routes such as the 70 series and the 30 series average over 15,000 riders a day.

I work near Chinatown and I regularly see both Circulator routes. Both are routinely empty in the area. Meanwhile, half- to completely-full 70 and 71 buses roll down 7th Street, a route that one of the Circulator routes duplicates (though the Circulator stops at the Convention Center; the 70 and 71 go to Silver Spring.) I did ride the Circulator to Georgetown one day; about seven people shared the bus with me going both ways.

A nonprofit group that helps underwrite the Circulator (most of the buses' $6 million budget, however, comes from taxpayers) admitted that the north-south line will not carry many passengers unless more Circulator routes come into being, which makes me wonder why they are running mostly empty buses on a route when they knew it would get few riders. But the article answers that question: the Circulator is partially intended for "challenging Metro and the region to improve the quality of bus service."

Why not work with Metro to improve the quality of bus service? I know the folks at Metro can be a bunch of knuckleheads, and it was D.C. businesses--not Metro--who finally put bus maps on D.C. shelters. But running a batallion of empty buses down 7th Street does not seem to help anything.

Circulator boosters also complain that Metro buses lack "curb appeal" and "friendliness." Uh, okay. Give those empty Circulator buses to Metro. They could use them on the S2 and S4, which can be too crowded to board during rush hour.

Often when I see empty Circulator buses, I figure they will get more riders during the next tourist season. By then, I figure, the Circulator will be described in the tourist books and more hoteliers will know about it. I hope this turns out to be the case, because right now the Circulator is rapidly turning into a joke.

Buses deserve more

Why do people like trains? Because buses and their passengers are unfortunately third class citizens in the transportation mix.

Tappan Zee Bridge transit?

New York State officials finally figured out the six final possibilities for the Tappan Zee Bridge, and three of them include transit. We will have to wait until the EIS is finished to see which one is selected, but it would be a shame for the growing areas of the Hudson Valley to not have some transit options along this heavily traveled east-west corridor. There seems to be some local support. Personally I think that dedicated bus lanes (for a bus rapid transit system) probably make more sense, but I am not averse to putting rail in.

Politicians discuss dedicated WMATA funding

They're working on it...

Restrooms

This man visited 29 of WMATA's stations and asked if there was a restroom. (There is supposed to be one for those who ask.) Predictably, he was told "no" most of the time. An amusing article.

Also, this past week I have received a number of small news bits, including:

• Bomb-sniffing dogs to ride Muni Metro, BART, CTA
• BART to seek private investors for line to Oakland airport

A wave of the hand

I spent about a week in London traveling around via tube, bus and the occasional taxi. On the plus side of having distance-based fares on the tube, the Oyster card - a proximity card - is a great little device, I don't actually have to remove it from my wallet, and the £21 for a week-long zones 1/2 pass is a pretty good deal for a tourist.