New York's "Summer of Hell" (subway/rail repair)

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve been reading about this, and wondering how things are going for New Yorkers (and those in the general area). From what I’m reading it sounds like a major headache for commuters there, but I know next to nothing about subways and commuting in NY.

Is it really as bad as the news articles predicted?

Are any Dopers affected by this (or seeing the effects)?

Why did it get this bad before starting repairs? From my (admittedly) inexpert view, it seems really unwise to have major rework on both subways and commuter rail at the same time.

Just curious if anyone here has info about this. Seemed like a really big deal for the area. Apologies in advance if there’s already a thread on this (I didn’t find one).

2

Can’t tell you. I take the ferry.

3

The main problem is that it is the state, not the city, that runs the subway. And legislators from the likes of Rochester hate NYC and are unwilling to do anything to help. Never mind that it is the engine of the state’s economy. They are Republicans (well maybe not those actually from Rochester) and therefore not interested in those trinkets called “facts”.

One problem in NY State is that the legislators have permanently gerrymandered the state in such a way that the senate is invariably Republican and the Assembly invariably Democrat and they are both corrupt as hell. The only way they lose their seats is go to jail.

They need several billion dollars for preventative maintenance and, mainly, replace the 80 year old signalling system and what do they do? Spend $4B (I think it was) for three stops on the 2nd Ave. subway. Not that wouldn’t be a good thing, but it has to go far downtown. Meanwhile I have had the experience of not even being able to get down the platform of the Lex line during rush hour, it was so crowded. But new signals would allow them to decrease the headway at least.

4

I don’t do a daily commute but the few times I do commute out to my NJ office a month I bypass NY Penn Station altogether and take the PATH train out to Newark Penn and pickup my NJ Transit train there. The other train that goes direct to Penn station that I occasionally take was discontinued for the repair so I have to either transfer to the NY train at Newark Broad Street or go to Hoboken and take the PATH. Since the PATH terminal is about 100 feet from the subway that drops me off two blocks from my apartment it’s not that big a big deal.

The big savior in all this is the PATH system but from what I’ve read it seems unlikely it’ll benefit financially despite the huge spike in ridership.

The subway is always having problems, and sections are still recovering from Sandy five years later, so I don’t know if the subway issues are more of the same and being hyped because of the ‘Summer of Hell’ or if there really is a sharp increase in problems.

5

I try to stay right here in my Brooklyn neighborhood.

When I take the subway to Manhattan for Culture or to Buy Cheese, I don’t have a problem.

6

I don’t have a regular commute, but I’ve taken the subway more in the last few months than I have in the years beforehand and haven’t had any issues with it.

7

The fact you seemed to leave out is that it’s OWNED by the City of New York and it exclusively serves the city of New York. If it wasn’t for the commerce that moved through the state because of the Erie Canal and the transportation system that followed it wouldn’t be the city it is today.

8

Because the State of New York is a third-world banana republic with an entirely captive legislature under the control of a violently corrupt nepotist who makes Imelda Marcos look like Princess Diana.

Simultaneously, the State of New Jersey is an organized criminal enterprise which exists for the sole purpose of laundering political slush-fund money through the state’s gas stations. That’s why they don’t let you self-serve.

Amtrak, which owns Penn Station, has been chronically underfunded for decades by a federal legislature that throws untold hundreds of billions of dollars at highway and airport construction but is unwilling to subsidize the communist horror of intercity rail.

Add to that the huge population increase in New York City over the past 20 years, MTA’s chronic inability to complete any capital project for less than three times the cost-per-mile of similar projects in every other country, the unwillingness of Cuomo to devote a modicum of political capital to any infrastructure project that he can’t slap his smarmy mug on the side of, Christie’s bizarre, inexplicable, sudden, and seemingly vengeful cancellation of the ARC project in 2010, the Port Authority’s continued (and somewhat well-justified) lack of enthusiasm about running a fucking commuter railroad that they got stuck with in exchange for building a thing that got blown up by assholes in airplanes 16 years ago, the multi-jurisdictional, multi-agency, dick-waving, labor-racketeering, mafia-construction-profiteering, incessant bullshittery that is public transit in the northeastern United States, and you get infrastructure and services that are rapidly falling apart and starting to murder people.

Haven’t you? Or have your expectations of acceptable service just been lowered so much that you’re used to it?

We’re talking about an organization here that is so inept that despite 40 years of data to the contrary, they still think nobody wishes to ride the subway on the weekend. These are the people who, when closing off sections of track for desperately needed repairs, provide one bus as a substitute for a ten-car train.

MTA is so top-heavy with inept, inbred, genetically-deficient bureaucrats that it couldn’t successfully complete a project to find Joe Lhota’s asshole without writing a 9400-page contract and putting it out for bid to one qualified contractor. (By the way, did you know that it’s actually against the law for MTA to use design-build processes in its capital projects? True fact! I’ll give you three guesses why.)

I could write about 45 more paragraphs about the political insanity of unrepentant shitbags like Cuomo, the the mealy-mouthed impotence and self-serving of Bill de Blasio, the venal, corrupt, inexplicable psychopathy of Chris Christie, and more, but I’m currently enjoying a pleasant [del]vacation[/del] holiday in London, and reaping the benefits of a functioning urban mass transit system.

I mean, I don’t wanna get worked up or anything.

So listen to Ravitch.

9

I’m curious about public transit funding policy, particularly regarding who “should” pay for what. This is probably not the thread for it, but it appears some folks here may have opinions that I hope they’ll share if I get around to starting a new one. I’ve added “Why should you pay for my subway ride?” to my threads-to-start backlog.

10

Where is Robert Moses when you need him?

11

No one is ever going to have the level of authority and influence that Robert Moses had in his day.

12

I work in lower Manhattan and almost always went through Hoboken to the ferry or the PATH anyway. So, this summer has been fantastic for me. My train line has more trains going to Hoboken (many of the NY Penn-bound trains were changed to go to Hoboken for the past few months), my monthly ticket price was reduced by 50%, and I’m getting a free ride to the city, avoiding the $2.75 PATH or $6.00 ferry charge each way.

So, more commuting options, lower costs, and a free ferry ride has made this summer commuting heaven for me.

I’m not sure why people are mentioning the NYC subway – the summer of hell referred to the partial closure of Penn Station (or maybe just shutting down some tracks) and had nothing really to do with the subway. People who would go to Penn would normally just take the PATH to midtown or the temporary midtown ferry, so the effect on the subway should be minimal.

13

I don’t do that commute but have friends that do and most have said it hasn’t really been that bad over all. Just individual delays here and there. That has been my limited experience when traveling as well.

14

friedo:

I suppose it’s possible that low expectations are a part of it. But during this summer, I haven’t had to wait all that long (again - maybe low expectations? Who can say for sure?) for a train or bus, and I’m thrilled to have the 2nd Avenue subway - limited though it may be - operating, as most of my public transit trips have been to the east side of Manhattan.

15

People are mentioning the NYC subway because it has been a rolling disaster for years, and is falling apart and becoming less reliable at the exact time that it is expected to absorb some of the overflow from LIRR commuters who can no longer get to Penn.

16

Right! In my commuting bliss, I forgot about the LIRR side of it.

Yeah, the subways seem to be getting worse and worse. They should bring back that commuter tax and use that for the subways. I think it was like 0.25% or something tiny like that, but provided lots of money from all the people who live outside of NYC but worked there. Let us pay our share!