AMNY Subway Tracker

Talks with riders and transit workers this morning reveal that all the track work on the Nos. 4 and 5 didn’t screw up people’s morning commute as badly as feared. That said riders experienced up to 20 minute delays and their trains likely stopped numerous times in the tunnel between 86th Street and Bowling Green.

Nora Fantauzzi, the Grand Central Station downtown Nos. 4, 5, 6 platform conductor described it this way: “It’s like a conga line. As soon a train leaves 86th Street it creates a conga line of trains.”

-- Chuck Bennett

The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1001 in Denver is on strike. No commuter trains at all and just half the usual number of buses aren’t running. The Regional Transportation District provides about 275,000 rides a day during the work week.

Like here in the New York  there appears to be some discord between the union’s rank-and-file and its leadership. According to the AP, the union’s leaders recommended that they accept the RTD’s offer byt 55% of the workers rejected it and called the strike. No major traffic jams were reported -- I guess a lot of people just car pooled.

-- Chuck Bennett

Transport Workers Union Local 100 workers have been receiving notices today about the revote on its rejected post-strike contract. The final day of voting will be April 18 more than a week before the April MTA board meeting.

Unlike the first time around workers are not getting a copy of the Memorandum of Understanding but a brochure by union leadership explaining why they should vote yes. Like last vote, however, workers can say yes or no to the contract with paper ballots, telephone or Internet.

PIN numbers and official instructions will be mailed on April 6 by the American Arbitration Association.

Oddly, the TWU declined to comment.

-- Chuck Bennett

New Yorkers are skeptical but there are signs the long-awaited Second Avenue subway is moving along. This morning a contingent of MTA people were walking down Second Ave. between 96th and 94th Sts. with clipboards, maps and schematics pointing out where the entrances to the new station will likely be located.

But the neighborhood won’t change anytime soon, construction of just phase 1 of the long-awaited line
from 96th Street to 63rd Street isn’t scheduled until 2012.

ADDENUM: NY1 reports that some buildings can be destroyed as early 2008.

-- Chuck Bennett

Ainsley Stewart and his misleading math is the focus of two fliers being circulated by union leadership.
Stewart, the vocal contract foe and dissident union vice president, has often called the 1.5% health insurance premium 4.5% over three years.  Union prez Roger Toussaint has blamed Stewart and that faulty math for blaming a major role in the contract’s rejection.

One flier is a copy of a letter to the editor of The Chief by a man claiming to be a confused car inspector. Download chiefpdf.pdf

The other is a Tracker blog entry from last week.  Download am_ny_roger_is_right.pdf

Meanwhile, workers have until April 18 to get their second votes in.

-- Chuck Bennett

New York City subway ridership was up 2.3% in 2005 despite the “work stoppages,” according to stats compiled by the American Public Transportation Association. Philadelphia, which suffered through its own strike, also rose by 2.3%.

Nationwide APTA found public transportation use grew 25% over the past 10 years. The number of highway vehicle miles traveled grew 22.5%.

“Americans want transportation choices and will often leave their cars behind when quality public transit services are available,” said APTA president William Millar.

-- Chuck Bennett

Of all of the MTA’s big expansion plans, the one that least excites transit advocates and urban planners is the proposed rail link between lower Manhattan and JFK Airport.

But Mayor Bloomberg today said support for this project is proof of a politicians support for New York City. Today he outlined a plan to keep the city’s deep pocketed political donors — who give to politicians around the country — apprised of New York City’s needs. The rail link topped the list.

“Every other big city has a rail link to its airport. We do not. People usually talk about how important this would be as a shot in the arm for lower Manhattan’s continuing commercial revival, and no mistake about it, it certainly would. The rail link would move twice as many commuters from Long Island from to lower Manhattan as the Long Island Railroad now does, and cut their commuting times nearly in half,” he said.

He urged the well-heeled audience to cut off campaign contributions if their candidates do not support converting $2 billion in unused 9/11 tax credits for the project.

-- Chuck Bennett

Mayor Bloomberg says extending the No. 7 train to the west side is a bigger boon to the city than the Second Avenue subway.

Michael Harris, a Brooklyn College journalism student and advocate for the disabled, asked the mayor about the No. 7 extension today after his political donor announcement.

“It’s chugging along,” Bloomberg said. “It’s going to get done. ... The extension of the No. 7 line, by any professional analysis will have the biggest economic impact on this city.”

Bloomberg added, “The No. 7 extension opens up a whole new area. I’m not opposed to the Second Avenue Subway. But just when you do an economic analysis – a professional does it – those are the numbers. Now I’m sure that the elected officials will run and scream that they know better. But we’re spending billions of the dollars of the public’s money and conventional wisdom is not a way to do that.”

The city committed $2 billion to the No. 7 during the whole West Side Stadium saga. Since the stadium’s defeat it promised to go ahead with the project.

-- Chuck Bennett

UPDATE 11:30 a.m.

Long Island Rail Road service to Hollis and Queens Village has been restored, LIRR spokesman Sam Zambito said. Eastbound trains starting running again around 11 a.m. Delays from this morning’s collision are now about 15 to 20 minutes. Throughout the morning rush they were in the 30 minute range.

-- Chuck Bennett

The Long Island Rail Road is back in service after this morning’s collision.

“We are more or less back on schedule and anticipate a normal rush hour tonight,” says LIRR spokesman Brian Dolan.

-- Chuck Bennett

Staten Island wants to represent.

Two of the boroughs state legislators, Assemblyman Vincent Ignizio and Sen. Diane Savino, announced a bi-partisan bill to force the MTA board to reserve one seat for a Staten Island resident.

“This legislation will given Staten Island a stronger voice in the MTA. Our borough accounts for $246.3 million in revenue, just from the Verrazano Bridge alone. The MTA has been using us as a cash cow and the time has come to ensure that we always representation on the board.”

Currently Francis Powers, a Pataki appointee, is the lone Staten Island resident on the board.

New York City’s mayor appoint 4 of the 18 board members and three of the five governor’s appointees must be New York City residents.

-- Chuck Bennett

Better subway service to the new Shea -- which won’t be called Shea anymore -- will come with the new Mets stadium.

At a press conference announcing the project, Mayor Bloomberg said, “We’re going to expand the service that’s here. The No. 7 line comes out and hopefully we can get more trains running on it.”

The MTA declined to comment on the mayor’s announcement.

On Monday, the Tracker did get an irate call from a Mets fan claiming the trains were severely late making him miss the opening pitch. I’m sure he, like thousands others, would welcome more service.

Trains will be even more packed once construction begins -- thousands of parking spaces will be lost. The Mets is urging more people to take mass transit.

“Mass transit is going to be a very important option during the construction period over the next three seasons,” said Dave Howard, a Mets VP.

Construction could start as early as June, he added.

-- Chuck Bennett

From the LIRR largely internal daily communication log around 9 a.m. today: “Reports of No. 22 went through stop signal hit No. 710. Supervision on route.”

In other words, the initial report blames the engineer of the 7:49 Babylon-bound train for striking the 7:50 a.m Hempstead-bound train. Officially the investigation is ongoing. But Brian Dolan, a LIRR spokesman, says human error is being examined. The signals, he said, were working properly.

-- Chuck Bennett

Construction of the new $750 million Fulton Street Transit Center downtown is going to displace about 150 small businesses.

Yesterday, Rep. Jerry Nadler and Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer accused the MTA and its contractor of not doing enough to help those businesses to relocate. Federal law requires they provide relocate assistance.

The MTA, as expected, said it is going above and beyond what they are required to do.

With so many big projects on the books or underway -- Second Avenue subway, No. 7 extension, JFK Rail Link -- we should expect more complaints of displaced businesses and home owners.

Of course, the big subway news of the day is the transit union is back in court.

-- Chuck Bennett

Mass transit in Denver began rolling again today after a week-long strike.

The 1,750 members of the striking ATU Local 1001 already approved their new contract Friday -- same wage increases but with a larger initial raise.

No drama for them.

-- Chuck Bennett

The New York  Post devoted the most wood space to transit union president's Roger Toussaint's surprise jail sentence.

But, I expected them to photoshop a picture of him behind bars or play up something along the lines of a "caged rat" as they infamously called him on Dec. 22.  Kind of anti-climatic.

More testimony on the fines begins at 10 a.m. The MTA lawyer Neil Abramson -- who is outside counsel even though the authority has 400 lawyers on staff -- is cross examining Toussaint. He seems to be doing a good job of using the union's own slogans -- A deadline is a deadline, No contract no work -- against him.  He's making an easy case that Toussaint intended to violate the Taylor Law with all his strike talk.

-- Chuck Bennett

Could Toussaint's jail sentence feed then public's appetite for revenge and then allow Justice Jones to waive or lesson some of the crippling fines that could bankrupt the union?

The $3 million in fines and loss of automic dues collection would kill the union.  Jones seems to be considering this carefully. Yesterday he said, "The potential danger to the continued existence of the union rests fully with the adjudication of those fines."

-- Chuck Bennett

WNYC reported union Roger Toussaint was a star speaker at the massive immigration rally yesterday afternoon. He reportedly touted his jail sentence shortly after it was handed down.

Funny, because he told transit reporters after the trial, "We didn't do this for the [purpose] of celebrity."

-- Chuck Bennett

Suffering G and L train riders will get a chance to speak their minds tonight.
Brooklyn’s Community Board One in Greenpoint and Willamsburg is inviting G riders to vent their frustrations and offer suggestions this evening.

Now is the chance to complain about proposed cuts to the G, computer-controlled trains, crowding on the platforms, and all that weekend construction on the L.

TONIGHT, April 18
6:30 p.m.
Harry Van Arsdale High School Auditorium
257 North 6th Street (off Roebling St.)
Brooklyn
MAP

He may be the prosecutor who put transit union president Roger Toussaint in jail and won millions in fines but assistant state attorney general James Henly is also a committed subway rider.

Minutes after the Judge Theodore Jones handed down punishment Henly and a fellow state attorney shlepped oversized legal briefcases down the steps of the Borough Hall subway step to the platform of a Manhattan-bound 2/3 trains. Presumably they were headed back to the attorney general’s downtown offices.

His departure went unnoticed by the nearby gaggle of press who were surrounding Toussaint and Al Sharpton. The Reverend, by the way, said he would camp out in front of jail out of solidarity with Roger. The two are also planning a big rally on April 24 when Roger turns himself in to begin his jail sentence.

ADDENUM: Toussaint, according to the NY Post, drives his own union-issued SUV.

-- Chuck Bennett

The transit union has 30 days from tomorrow to pony up $2.5 million for its illegal strike or at least submit a payment plan.

If all 33,700 workers banded together to pay off the fine it would come to $74 a person.

Tommorow it may also lose its union dues check off which brings in $1.5 million a month -- although its unclear if an appeal would keep the automic deductions flowing. All dues will have to be collected individually.  Union members now have $22 deducted in every bi-weekly pay check for dues.

Also, if the union pays off the fine over the year -- as MTA and attorney general lawyers suggested -- it would come to $208,333 a month. The union has $500,000 cash on hand and $20 million in yearly revenues from its dues.

Union prez Roger Toussaint estimates only 12% of his members will volunatarily pay their dues. Of course, he could always set up a PayPal account, as MTA lawyer Neil Abramson suggested.

Even if the strike had won a lot of concessions from the MTA, economically would it have been worth it? In all, workers lost six days pay so far -- about $840 on average. But remember, the workers still don’t have a contract.

-- Chuck Bennett

Barely mentioned in today’s many stories about the transit union’s ratification of its contract the second time around were the reactions by the dissidents.

Union vice president Ainsley Stewart, who spearheaded the two Vote No campaigns, waited outside 80 West End Ave. to speak to reporters.

“This is what we call a tie,” he said. “The president in fairness should call a third vote. ... Yes, I’m serious.”

Fellow dissident and executive board member Marty Goodman was a bit more restrained. He blamed the passage on a “concerted fear campaign” by Toussaint. “We are fuming mad out here. We don’t want give backs shoved down our throat.”

-- Chuck Bennett

What bothers me about the evening subway stabbing of a pregnant women and her boyfriend yesterday is nobody -- I mean nobody --- bothered to help the couple, according to news reports. “Panicked straphangers fled to the other end of the car,” the NY Post reported. The victims themselve chased the stabber out of the station.

Why does it take something on the scale of a terror attack for New Yorkers to have the common decency to help their fellow man?

It all started with a “staring contest.” My mother always warned me never to make eye contact in the subway.

BTW -- There were 22 assaults in the subway in the first two months on the year, according to MTA statistics. More crime stats will be released next week at the MTA board meeting.

-- Chuck Bennett

The NY Post took a look at Judge Theodore Jones written decision for the transit union.

If the TWU promises not to strike again they could get the precious automatic dues check off restored in three months.  Of course, the union rejected the offer. Maybe they’ll go to the PayPal plan after all.

-- Chuck Bennett

For what it may be worth, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said the MTA should honor the union-ratified contract.

“The City of New York has gone too long without a contract between the MTA and the TWU. Now that the transit workers have voted in support of the contract offer, we cannot to let this opportunity pass. That's why I am calling on the MTA to join with the workers, accept the contact and focus on what all New Yorkers want them to do: provide safe, clean, timely public transportation services," she said.

Part of the public pressure plan of the union, I guess.

-- Chuck Bennett

It’s not PayPal, but as first reported in the Daily News, the transit union set up its own Web site to collect dues $22 in monthly dues via bank or credit card.

Let’s see if the union can beat the 12% of dues collected after the 1980 transit strike when -- like now -- it lost the ability to automatically deduct dues from its members pay checks.

-- Chuck Bennett

Can we call it Sharptonville?

Apparently, there could be a little tent city of Sharpton and Roger Toussaint supporters outside the Tombs for the next 10 days.

The Rev. Al Sharpton e-mailed this press release today:

REVEREND AL SHARPTON TO HOLD AN ALL NIGHT VIGIL ON TOUSSAINT'S FIRST NIGHT IN JAIL

TWO-WEEKS AFTER SIGNING UP OVER 100 NATIONAL ACTION MEMBERS TO DO ONE DAY OF TOUSSAINT'S TEN DAY SENTENCE, REVEREND SHARPTON WILL DO THE FIRST NIGHT OUTSIDE IN A TENT TO PROTEST THE INCARCERATION OF ROGER TOUSSAINT, SAYING THAT THE SENTENCE WAS AN IMMORAL ATTEMPT TO INTIMIDATE WORKERS FROM THE RIGHT TO ORGANIZE FOR PENSION FUNDS AND WAGES & THE CIVIL RIGHTS COMMUNITY MUST STAND BEHIND HIM

-- Chuck  Bennett

“By 2012 East (Side) Acess and the Second Avenue Subway will be achieved,” Gov. Pataki promised in a press release yesterday applauding the Federal Transit Adminstration for commiting $4 billion to the two megaprojects. It was a pretty bold promise given the MTA’s habit of completing big projects late and overbudget.

Of course, Pataki will long be out of the governor’s mansion by then.

-- Chuck Bennett

MTA spokesman Tom Kelly says today there is nothing about offering the transit union contract for ratification on the board meeting agenda. The full board meeting is tomorrow.

The transit union has been banking that all the public pressure from it’s successful revote of the contract, to rallies, to its march, and finally Toussaint’s jail sentence would create enough public pressure and force the MTA to cave and accept it.

“It is up to the MTA to decide if they want an agreement or further confrontation. They should recognize the fundamental fairness of of agreeing to their own offer or they can reopen a war that no one will win,” Toussaint said minutes before turning himself in yesterday.

But the MTA is sticking to binding arbirtration.

“I don’t expect, at least with my last conversations with the chairman, that there will be any change in the policy of the MTA which is that we are going to binding arbitration,” Barry Feinstein, an MTA board member and chair of the New York City Transit Committee, said Monday.

Asked about Toussaint’s jail sentence, Feinstein said, “It does not increase the pressure on us.”

-- Chuck Bennett

Transit and Metro-North union leaders aren’t praising Tony Bottalico, the MTA board member who prompted Kalikow’s outburst today.

Bottalico, who represents the only Metro-North workers union with a contract, asked Kalikow to restore a "reservoir of trust" and accept the contract that was initially rejected then approved by the TWU.

But the other nine unions working for Metro-North Railroad don’t look kindly at Bottalico and his Association of Commuter Rail Employees Local 77.

“They are for all intents and purposes part of management,” said Chris Silvera, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 808, which represents 550 Metro-North track workers. “When it was time to stand up years ago, they stood down.” 

The nine other Metro-North unions have been withot a contract for four years. Only ACRE Local 77, which broke from the United Transportation Union in 2000, has a contract. Silvera was careful to only impugn the union’s “scab” leaders not the workers.

Another Metro-North union leader said, Local 77 “has all the signs of an in-house company union” but nontheless said “I thought what Tony said today was pretty good, trust is very important in labor relations.”

Bottalico did not return a call for comment.

-- Chuck Bennett

Joke of the MTA board meeting today.

MTA vice chairman David Mack formally requested that the agency look into bring more service and improved LIRR to Willets Point to coincide with the new Mets stadium.

“I’m not a Mets fan, so I’m not sure,” quipped fellow board member Barry Feinsten.

The Yanks got a $40 million Metro-North station.

Mayor Bloomberg today on Toussaint:

“I don’t know why we want to make a hero out of anybody that breaks the law, no matter how much you believe in a cause, breaking the law is not something that our society is built around. Quite the contrary, we are a country of laws and I think everybody should obey and I see lots of people flocking to march across a bridge or stand in solidarity. Standing in solidarity with a lawbreaker somehow or other seems to me to send the wrong message to our children and to everybody.”

The mayor obviously doesn’t buy all the comparisons of Tousaint to civil rights leaders made Monday -- much less his that the strike was civil disobedieance.

For the record, Bloomberg does sometimes support breaking the rules.

"Fifty years ago, Rosa Parks stood up and said, 'Enough.' She made a difference,” Bloomberg said last year.

-- Chuck Bennett

As expected, Roger Toussaint’s first jail house interview went to the Daily News.

What did we learn? He misses his family and sits in a sits in a cell “his spirit unbowed and his fiery resolve unshaken.” The 4 a.m. wake-up calls do sound kind of rough, though.

“The MTA should not underestimate how volatile they can make this situation become.”  Toussaint says. How should we interpret that?

Also there is a detail that in 1999 a union representing Staten Island bus workers (ATU 726?) revoted their contract after a tie and it was accepted by the MTA.

MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow also elaborated on the MTA’s position. He said he is willing to “conduct parallel negotiations” as binding arbitration moves forward. He also says “labor relations with the rank and file are good. It is only the leadership we have problems with.”

What about the 15,000 disciplinary actions a year?

Kalikow also touts the MTA’s 4% attrition rate, but I guess few workers leave (and wait an average 3 years to get hired) because of the great pension and health benefits -- the ones he is trying to change.

The News edit board also tells Toussaint to go back to the table. The Time already told him to accept the revoted contrat.

-- Chuck Bennett

The New York Post  has two subway-related crime stories.

A 24-year-old “acid” tagger was busted by cops in Bensonhurst.

“He's known to us as the worst of the worst vandals, and he has a lot of newly painted graffiti across the city,” according to Sgt. James Gueric.

The MTA is studying how to stop the “scourge” of acid etching on the subway.

Also, a “groper” on the No. 6 train was busted for harassing a poor woman between 125th St. and 86th St. yesterday.

At least, New York City isn’t so bad we need pink-stickered “women only” trains to thwart the pervs like in Rio De Janeiro. The Tokyo subway is also  notorious for gropers.

-- Chuck Bennett

An editorial in the public employee/civil service newspaper The Chief speculated on the loss of dues check off for the transit union.

"It's not unrealistic to believe, given the experience a  quarter-century ago,  that Local 100 would be lucky to collect  25 cents on the dollar from its  rank and file, which would  amount to a loss of $3.6 million in dues income over  the next  three months. That would bring the total hit above $6 million  by the time the union could petition Justice Jones for relief."

Meanwhile, a lot of the people manning the vigil outside Toussaint's jail cell are being paid for their time.

-- Chuck Bennett   

From Bloomberg's weekly radio show last Friday:

"I think the thing here that people should be outraged about are the people that marched with Roger Toussaint across the bridge.  ... The good news is that not all labor leaders- some really classy ones said no. Breaking the law is not correct, it’s not right, it’s not good for our society."

Bloomberg again said the contract dispute should be handled through more negotiation, not arbitration.

Also, NY Post had interesting story about Toussaint's only spending four nights in jail for a 10-day sentence is an old lawyer's trick.

-- Chuck Bennett