NJ Transit Plans and $$

NJ Transit announced they moved into final design of an 8-mile rail line going roughly east-west across northern NJ in Passaic county that would connect to its Main Line route and run along existing freight tracks. The line runs to downtown Hackensack and some other busy areas. The line could in the future connect to another of its routes, the Pascack Valley line. This is all interesting, and NJ Transit works to build the non-NYC-CBD directed parts of its rail transit system.

Also, NJ Transit announced its impending June 1 fare increase, the second in a couple years I think (?). The bulk of fares will go up about 10% to cover a $60M operating deficit. It's unfortunate that the state doesn't have the wisdom to fund these operating deficits at a time when mass transit is so important to air quality, congestion, energy, and New Jersey's country leading efforts at sprawl control.

Congestion Pricing in New York?

Michael Bloomberg, a mayor with a lot of ambition, is pushing forward with his radical project to transform New York City. His plans for a new Jets stadium on the West Side, the possibility of New York hosting the 2012 Olympics, and the development of the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn elicited a mountain of controversy when they were first proposed. But his newest plan, to use a congestion charge to reduce traffic in Manhattan, may be the most contentious yet.

Following the example of London and Stockholm, Bloomberg envisions a New York that charges anyone who enters Manhattan below 86th Street $8 per day (the charge zone is represented in the image to the right). Part of his wide-ranging PlaNYC 2030, a proposal to remake the city to accept the influx of more than one million more people in the next quarter century, the plan's transportation component focuses on reducing congestion and ensuring the quality of existing transportation infrastructure.

In both London and Stockholm, which instituted the charges in the centers of their respective metropolitan areas, the policy has resulted in fewer cars entering the charged zone during weekday working hours, an increase in public transit usage, and decreased travel times. Bloomberg's proposal suggests that similar changes in the nation's largest city would result in a similar transformation of its streets. But is the proposal reasonable? And is it even feasible?

Implementation of the project would rely on a grant of more than $200 million from the federal government, which would allow for the installation of the technology that could monitor this system. Mary Peters, the Secretary of the Department of Transportation, suggested that New York's idea was a viable and fundable one, so it seems likely that if the city and state approve the idea, it could be funded with federal dollars.

Enforcement would made by taking advantage of the existing E-Z Pass system and the installation of new cameras on the streets. Drivers with E-Z Passes (70% of drivers in the region) would simply have the $8 bill added to their existing accounts. Other drivers would have their license plates photographed and a bill would be mailed to them. The Mayor suggests that the system would raise $400 million a year, which would be transferred to a new independent authority (nicknamed "SMART"), which would then contribute to local transportation improvements, such as the Second Avenue Subway or the proposed JFK-Lower Manhattan Rail Link. SMART would also benefit from what Bloomberg has proposed would be $200 million a year from both the city and the state's budgets. This would represent a massive increase in mass transit financing.

Continue reading "Congestion Pricing in New York?"

Critical Mass in Rail Transit?

We keep hearing about new transit projects around the country - not just ideas but actual lines getting built and starting to operate. Ridership is going up on the lines that exist, some of the projects on the drawing board are to handle the new ridership. An article in Mass Transit Magazine discusses the idea of a critical mass in rail transit - that rail transit is becoming 'widespread' and there are more than a few people in this country with experience in building, managing, and operating it. Is transit on its way to becoming a first-class citizen in the transportation space?

"Foamer" Transit Blog Has Its Fifteen Minutes...

Live From the Third Rail has now officially had it's fifteen minutes of fame. We are cited in an article in the New York Times on designer Eddie Jabbour's "re-design" of the New York subway map and a meeting he had with the MTA. The Third Rail article in question was written back in May, 2004 by our own RJ3, and Eddie himself chimed in with a comment. Check it (and the New York Times) article out.

Mr. Jabbour's variations are up at www.kickmap.com. Check out his map, compared with the current MTA version, here.

CTA gets new boss; trains still slow, noisy

Former CTA Chief of Staff Ron Huberman is taking over the top spot as Chicago's top transit man. His job won't be easy:

To avoid fare hikes and service cuts, the CTA needs $110 million in operating funds. A pension funding mandate that takes effect in 2009 will require another $176 million a year.

Not to mention the 100+ year old infrastructure and the possibility of getting the Olympics in 2016. Yet, he has plans, including the Circle Line and lobbying Springfield for more funds. Best of luck, Ronnie.

Golden Shovels of the Apocalypse

Us East Siders are not particularly moved by the new ground-breaking for the Second Avenue Subway, since it has been promised since before nearly all of us were born. Then, it was promised again. And again. And again. In fact, we have been promised this dang line so many time that the groundbreakings can be used for economic forecasting:

An article in yesterday’s New York Post warned readers that they should be cautious about the future path of the stock market. Unlike the typical bearish arguments however (the falling dollar, rising deficit, geopolitical turmoil, slowing earnings growth, etc.), this article had a unique angle. The writer claims that investors should be wary because tomorrow morning, Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Spitzer will break ground on the long planned and long delayed Second Avenue Subway, and notes that “Previous ‘good news’ for the long postponed East Side line has always heralded a Wall Street downturn."

In order to test this argument, we did a news search dating back to 1925 of all times where either funds were approved or construction began on the Second Avenue line, and as the chart shows, more often than not, the periods coincided with short (or in some cases long) term peaks in the market.

While this is hardly a reason to go out and sell stocks, when you think about it, it makes some sense. If New York City is doing so good that it has the money to spend on a new subway line, then Wall Street must also be doing great (since NYC derives so much in revenue from Wall Street profits).

You can see the chart (which looks fairly convincing) by following the link. However, there are some differences between this year's groundbreaking and previous false starts. Primarily, the price of a gallon of gasoline did not figure into mass transit funding decisions in the 1920s, late 1940s or pre-embargo 1970s.

Even more proof that we're lazy these days

It looks as if old LFTTR buddies Transport Blog returned to the Internets almost a year ago, and we didn't even notice!

Like Home

Some interior decorators did a hit and run on a NYC subway train the other day, setting it up like a decorated room. They said it was because people spend so much time on the subway, they, um, live there. Quite true in NYC, really.

I often think that old subway cars would make great architectural spaces, in the way that people use shipping containers for the same purpose. Many of lettered line cars of the NYC subway are 75' long, probably 10' wide, and 7' high. The height isn't ideal, but rip out some of the interior stuff and you have a stainless steel shell that's damn strong. And it has windows, shipping containers don't.

And there's really fast

Alstom and the French National Railway Company (SNCF) set a new world speed record for trains last week - 357 mph (574.8 km/h). They broke their previous record of 320 mph set in 1990. We won't even mention the top speed of trains here in the US.

The extensive site about the record achievement and the train that was used has some interesting tidbits:

"The seats in future TGV trains will be adjustable in many ways. Imagine, for example, automatically adjustable seats based on the recording of passenger preferences on their tickets or even their mobile phones!"

Imagine American passenger rail service that not only ran on-time, but ran quickly (really quickly!), and had really nice amenities. Someday, perhaps...

First Contract for Dulles Rail Set

The Virginia Dept. of Rail and Public Transportation has negotiated a $1.6B design-build contract for the first part of the Dulles Corridor Project, and it includes the tunnel under Tyson's Corner. This is just one step in the process for getting the rail link built, but it at least means that the DRPT now has some control over the price of the project, expected to be in the $2.5B range for the extension to Tyson's Corner.

'El' in a handbasket

Today marks the beginning of a massive reconstruction of Chicago's Northside elevated lines, the Chicago Tribune reports:

for the duration of the $530 million Brown Line reconstruction project—which runs through late 2009—Red Line service will be reduced to 39 northbound trains during the evening rush, instead of 44, said Jack Hruby, chief of CTA rail operations. That's due to the elimination of one of the two northbound tracks at Fullerton and Belmont Avenues, Hruby said. Red, Brown and Purple Line trains will all share that one northbound track.

The CTA's capacity during the evening rush period, from 3 to at least 6:30 p.m., will be reduced by a total of 31 trains on the three rail lines.

It translates to no room on trains for 17,460 riders who normally rely on the service.

Transit customers able to crowd onto trains will encounter longer travel times because of trains making more complicated track-switching maneuvers, slower speeds traveling between stations and the extra time it will take for passengers to board and exit rail cars.

This comes on top of the ongoing CTA projects, which have been closing Brown and Red line stations on and off for a year. I took the El southbound from Belmont on Friday for the first time in a while (I usually ride the bus) and it was an utter disaster, with the train inching along as the swarm of workers on the track moved aside as the train entered the station, then periodically as it inched its way down to Fullerton. All told, the 20-minute ride to Chicago Avenue took about 45. While commuters may be angry at the delays, they will eventually create more capacity for the growing ridership in developing areas of the north and northwest sides, not to mention the capacity needed should Chicago get the Olympics in 2016.