Results tagged “newyorkcitysubway”

On the heels of the recent fare increase approval, it has come out that the MTA has spent about $2.5 million on changing the uniforms of New York City Subway token booth clerks, or as the MTA calls them "station agents". That breaks down to $738 per employee for white shirts, grey pants or skirts, grey and black ties or ascots, and a burgundy vest, sweater and coat.

Last week, the NY Sun mentioned Cully Long in an article about websites documenting people's thoughts about the subway. Long uses his commute between 125th Street and 59th Street along the A in Manhattan to sketch commuters he sees and posts the ballpoint pen sketches on his site, a child of atom.

A look at some noteworthy televison shows this week:

American Experience: New York Underground (Monday, 9:00 p.m. WNET 13) Channel Thirteen re-airs this 1997 documentary about the building of the New York City Subway.

“American dream” while upholding their ethnic traditions.You may also remember that he won a NY Times Magazine contest last year (here's the slideshow of his photographs) for his 7 line photos. What's cool is that QMA and Liao have been holding a contest for 7 line photos, with three winners getting $50 gift certificate to B&H and QMA memberships. The contest ends on July 27 - see the website for contest details.

The MTA will be paying for the additional police presence in the subways, according to Mayor Bloomberg. Police overtime to put one police officer on every train is costing the city $1.9 million a week, and Bloomberg said, "Let me give some credit to the MTA. They're willing to do this. They have some money. The governor has pushed them," even though he hasn't been happy about the MTA's footdragging on spending security funds. During his weekly radio talk, Mayor Bloomberg also said he "couldn't disagree more" with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's decision to focus on securing airline travel. Many of our commenters have questioned our anger at Chertoff's remarks, and there were quite a few valid points, but Gothamist thinks that this quote from the NY Times' Sewell Chan's Week in Review piece (which is a helpful overview of mass transit security) sums it up:

The United States mass transit system also lacks the aviation system's built-in security: limited accessibility, a ticketing system that requires identification and a single governing agency, the Federal Aviation Administration. By contrast, the Federal Transit Administration has little say over security policies. That's left to the country's 6,000 mass transit agencies.

Of course, whether or not the cities want the feds meddling more is another issue, but federal funding would be critical. Newsday looks at transit security across the country in Chicago (security cameras on buses), San Francisco (no more garbage cans underground), DC (chemical sensors), and Atlanta (bombproof trash cans ever since the 1996 Olympics) - and how NYC compares. And the police are now patrolling Amtrak train cars as well. Isn't Amtrak federally funded? We hope there are some federal funds coming to pay for the security!

While taking a look at NYC Subway, we noted that there was a new, "geographically correct" New York City Subway Route Map by SPUI. Gothamist likes the map, because it gives us a sense of how the city really looks (reminding us once again that Manhattan does not run North-South) and gives us ammo for the "We knew the train take a sharp turn at..." But in terms of day-to-day use, it doesn't really work as well, since there are too many colors. Now, if someone could design an interactive subway map - perhaps on a website - which would have alerts/service advisories pop up for each of the stations.

Oh, New York City Subway. Gothamist knows you are 100 years old, and you've been doing a great job. But it makes us so sad and frustrated when there's a subway derailment AND a broken rail in a given day. Yesterday, a B train derailed in the morning and then a broken rail was found at West 4th Street, which meant lots of service was suspended. The Daily News reports that "Four wheels on the seventh car of the southbound B train train went off the tracks in a tunnel leading to the DeKalb Ave. station at 8 a.m." Yikes, wheels coming off the train. The MTA will inspect the train and its route.

Randy Kennedy has been writing a new column in the Times called "Tunnel Vision," kind of a slice-of-slice look at the subways. Today's column is abouthow conductors try to get people to move into the cars. As a rush hour commuter who goes through both Times Square and Grand Central, people are insane, myself included. Even if it's only two inches of space left, I'll try to cram myself in, shoving people further in. But I'm not the dictator, who tells people from five feet outside the car to move in. I found an Observer piece a while back about the phenomena male and female voices on the new subways' PA system interesting too. And the Straphangers weigh in with subway car cleanliness. I hope Randy will write about the kids who sells candy on the subway cars next. For great photos of New York City subway cars, take a look at New York City Subway. For maps, go to the MTA. This picture is of the interior of one of the new subway cars, designed by those the amazing Masamichi and Sigi at Antenna Design.