Defend Photographic Rights on July 4th

Metrorail Air Tester

Back in mid-May I was wandering around a DC Metro station and found a random odd device. I took this photo of it, what turned out to be a Metrorail air tester, and I was promptly stopped by a Metrorail station manager.

She asked what I was doing and when I politely explained my interest in all things mass transit, that I am a transit foamer, she laughed and let me go about my WMATA photographing ways.

Just the other day, Chip Py was not so lucky. He was harassed when trying to take photos of downtown Silver Spring. Remembering my Metrorail photography moment, I now realize how close I was to being arrested for photography again and how lucky I was to be stopped by a sane Metro manager.

If you wander mass transit stations with a camera like I do, then you've had your share of close calls too. Harassment, legal and not, because you are a transit foamer.

And its time you share your desire to keep photographing buses, trains, and even funiculars with your full First Amendment rights intact by joining Free Our Streets in a declaration of photographic freedom on July 4th.

A Silver Spring Photo Walk to remind Americans that photography is NOT a crime. Even on the Metro.

The benefit of high gas prices is...

That the taxes on it can be used for transit. In the San Francisco bay area, a long running debt can be repaid to the San Mateo County Transit District (SamTrans) over money they gave to buy right of way for CalTrans back in the early 90s. The money is going to come from taxes on gas, and the coffers have been filling up due to high prices (especially in California and the bay area). So besides pushing more people onto transit, there are other positive outcomes also...

4,5,6 are Zeroes and it's not all about E,V

You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone:

Shortly before 4 p.m., power was knocked out to 136,700 customers in the Bronx and Manhattan and subway service was disrupted on several of the city’s busiest subway lines — the Nos. 4, 5 and 6 and E and V lines on the East Side and the D line in the Bronx.

Since the trains are on their own DC utility system, they can get to stations. However, the century-old signaling system is on AC, so they can't continue full service. Happy walking!

Crack is Wack

OMG! The Second Avenue Subway project is so real now - actual physical manifestations:

Just a note to let you know that I, a resident of 2nd Avenue between 93rd and 94th Sts., am the proud (owner/recipient) of a crack monitor designed to keep tabs on all of this exploratory work going on on 2nd Avenue, installed by an MTA subcontractor in my apartment, this very morning!

After a subway ride On The 6 this morning that was so crowded that I had to let the closing door jam my butt into the train, it's not a minute too soon.

JFK: No Way Out

(Originally posted on Thrown For A Loop)

Yesterday, I had brunch with some law school friends on Hudson Street. To get to brunch, I had to find my way around the Pride Parade, which was nearly impossible and required several turn-backs and the navigation of a maze surrounding the Christopher Street subway station.

After lunch, two members of our brunch party had to catch a flight from JFK back to Chicago, but had trouble finding the car they had called. The car service had trouble finding them. It was a near disaster all around, but they did eventually make it to the airport. As we tried to locate an opening through which we could cross 7th Avenue, I suggested that, if the car didn't make it or left the meet-up location before they found a way to get to it, they could take the LIRR to Jamaica and then the AirTrain down to JFK. I was met with considerable eye-rolling. Summer associates, after all, don't need to take three trains (subway, LIRR, AirTrain) when a nice Sikh man with a CB radio and a large trunk will do it for them for $50. Then again, not everybody has $50 to spend, and when enough people do, it can be bumper-to-bumper town cars and yellow cabs on the Van Wyck.

Then I remembered my trip last weekend to urban northern New Jersey. I thought of the pork wrapped in bacon I had at a Brazillian restaurant in Newark. Mmmm, bacon...

My mind eventually stopped wandering and I got back on point.

The World Trade Center PATH station is being considered as a terminus for an LIRR extension that would run trains from JFK through Jamaica and Flatbush Avenue and under the East River in a new tunnel. Meanwhile, plans have been floated to extend the PATH train to Newark Airport. Just to the east, the MTA is already working on a massive reworking of the Fulton Street Station, Which serves the 2, 3, 4, 5, A, C, J, M, Z, R and W trains. Jurisdictional issues between the Port Authority and MTA aside, how great would it be to have some sort of SuperPATH to allow for a single-seat ride between JFK and Jamaica, Hoboken terminal, Penn Station, Newark Airport, Downtown Brooklyn and the Financial District? How much better would it be to have a subway connection at Fulton Street rather than Penn Station, especially for East Siders and Brooklynites? Why would anyone who lives or stays anywhere near these areas ever take to the roads to get to JFK?

Sadly, there will be no one-seat solution, at least for Jerseyites. The JFK Airtrain uses Bombardier Advanced Rapid Transit technology, by which the train is powered by a central electrified rail. It's better for going around the airport because it has a steerable axle that allows for tighter turns, but it isn't third-rail powered, like PATH, LIRR or the MTA subway. Also, AirTrain cars are 10'6" wide and PATH cars are 9' 2 3/4" wide. Because of this interoperability problem, any scenario short of retrofitting the AirTrain would require either transferring at Jamaica or Howard Beach or laying new ART tracks alongside LIRR tracks all the way to WTC station. MTA proposes getting AirTrains into Manhattan somehow, but they offer few details and several dead links. I've sent an email to the MTA, but I don't anticipate hearing back any time soon.

When Robert Moses proposed a Lower Manhattan Expressway linking New Jersey to Long Island, he did it to ease the traffic burden on downtown New York by allowing people to pass through above local streets, albiet with the probable side-effect of destroying lower Manhattan. Finally, we have a solution in sight that could link several major subway lines with service to two airports all in one place, but the cobbled-together projects have created an expensive solution that is complicated enough to send all but the most hardened skinflints headed for the already-congested highways.

UPDATE: The MTA got back to me, and promptly, too!

Thank you for your query about the Lower Manhattan-Jamaica/JFK Transportation Project. As part of this study, the project staff is evaluating opportunities to link the proposed new rail line to the existing AirTrain system at Jamaica. The AirTrain was built to the same design profile as the NYC subway systems, and uses a similar power system. However, "hybrid" cars fully compatible with both systems may need to be designed and procured.

Fair enough. They will either have to retrofit or scrap the existing AirTrain fleet, but this expansion is so far in the future that they should be worn out by then anyway.

Transit Funding in Pennsylvania

Service cuts on the PATH begin today in Pittsburgh, which is in such bad financial shape that they will probably have to cut routes in September and increase fares at the end of the year. Meanwhile, at the other end of the state, SEPTA needs an additional $100M for its budget next year. Governor Rendell has proposed a petroleum business tax, and also floated the idea of privatizing the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Politicians in Pennsylvania are saying that transit agencies should have more local funding as opposed to state funding, but current Pennsylvania laws prohibit localities (and transit-related regions) from raising revenue for transit through fees or taxes. That leaves the state as pretty much the main source of funding. With transit ridership growing everywhere else, and gasoline prices near all-time highs, this doesn't really seem like the best time for Pennsylvania's politicians to use its transit agencies as punching bags, does it?

Problems at SF Muni

The SF Chronicle has a big article today about problems at the SF Muni. The recent opening of the T-Third service seems to have exacerbated problems with scheduling, staffing, equipment, and repairs throughout the system.

This, of course, has led to infighting among the SF politicos, mainly the mayor and the board of supervisors, about who isn't holding the torch high enough for the riders. A big problem, of course, is that the agency doesn't seem to have enough money to run itself properly - it needs more employees for basic operations, and that requires more money for salaries, for one thing. How the mayor's proposal for free fares would help that is beyond me...

Wake Me Up At...

Maybe the sign on the red construction hat (below) says something like these Wake Me Up At stickers designed for use on the London Underground.

Random Products

Maybe these pictures have appeared on this blog before or maybe you've seen them on some other site. Whatever, my sister sent me a bunch of odd but interesting Japanese product pictures in your standard email that had been forwarded several times - but these in particular were of interest to the transit geek. The standing device looks halfway to a torture device (maybe I don't have enough fat on my chin), and I would be interested to know what the sign on the helmet says...