AMNY Subway Tracker

Gothamist points SubwayBlogger's review of all the subway direction sites. HopStop wins. Check it out!

-- Chuck Bennett

John Samuelsen, the failed No. 2 candidate to oust Roger Toussaint on the Rail & Bus slate, sent a farewell e-mail to supporters over the weekend.

"I am no longer the chair of track division. As of January 1st I go back to track inspection in T2. It is the first time in 9 years I am going back to a regular picked job. I am content in doing so. ... I am confident that track is in better shape now then before I got here."

John is standing second from left, next to Barry Roberts, head of the Rail & Bus slate.

-- Chuck Bennett

MTA's new head honcho, Executive Director and CEO Elliot Sanders starts his first day at MTA headquarters Thursday. His picture is already up on the MTA's Web site, side by side, equal with chairman Peter Kalikow.

Also, check out the NY Post's story on Sander's agenda -- riding all the rails and crossing on the bridges.

-- Chuck Bennett

From NY1:

The L train service between Broadway Junction and Rockaway Parkway in Brooklyn resumed shortly after 9 a.m. this morning, after a truck crashed into a train overpass.

It happened shortly after 8 a.m. at Linden Boulevard and Junius Street in Brownsville; a small quantity of fuel spilled on Linden Boulevard.

Fire officials say there were no injuries.

Heck of a way to start the morning....

NYC Transit Prez Larry Reuter quit, effective February! He spent 10 years at the helm of the subways!

Streetsblog has an interesting list of issues Gov. Eliot Spitzer might want to examine to improve city transportation and livibility. Check it out.

-- Rolando Pujol

Subway Superman Wesley Autrey will be honored by the Mayor in City Hall Thurday.., about time. He deserves it.

It looks like one of the first official acts by Lee Sander, the new MTA chief, will be honoring Wesley Autrey with Mayor Bloomberg, at City Hall this afternoon.

Maybe he'll get a MetroCard for life.

-- Chuck Bennett

So today at City Hall, Lee Sander honored Wesley Autrey -- a year's supply of MetroCards and MTA knapsacks and other goodies for the kids.

Sander was accompanied by Paul Fleuranges, director of communications for New York City Transit.

This in unusual, because Fleuranges only used to accompany outgoing NYC Transit chief Larry Reuter for events. Anything to do with Peter Kalikow or the former exec director Katie Lapp, was the real of the MTA headquarters own press staff.

Neither Kalikow spoksman Tom Kelly, Lapp's former chief of staff turned Kalikow spokesman Tim O'Brien, or Mercedes Padilla, a former Pataki spokeswoman who acts as a liason to Spanish media, were there.

Instead, it was Fleuranges, who is highly regarded by transit reporters for his encyclopedic knowledge of subway.

Is this a promotion for him ?

UPDATE: Fleuranges denies a promotion. "Just so happened that we here at Transit have the MetroCards and we put together the goodie bags for Mr. Autrey and his children with assistance of the Transit Museum Gift Shop in Brooklyn. I’ll be content to keep the [job] I have."

-- Chuck Bennett

You know, I don’t know what any of us would have done if we were in the same situation. And this morning, when I was getting on the subway, as the express train on the Lex came into the platform, I was looking, seeing how much space there was between the rails, and I don’t know what I would have done. Nobody knows until they’re faced with that situation. ... The word hero, I think, we use much too frequently, but somebody like you, you really are (to Autrey). And I said to Wesley before, the guy whose life he saved should at least buy him a beer but we can do better than that. Anyway, congratulations.

A rider was struck by a train around 9:30 am at the Grant Ave. station along the A line. No information about his condition or whether it was an accident or suicide. Northbound service between Rockaway Blvd and Euclid Avenue is still out.

UPDATE: Preliminary reports indicate it was a "jumper" and was DOA when emergenct responders arrived.

-- Chuck Bennett

This time from the New York State Assembly. This from Assemblyman Keith Wright of Harlem who sponsored a state resolution to honor Autrey.

"While I know Mr. Autrey has expressed his disdain for the spotlight, I feel that Harlem has expressed their adoration of him. This honor is not only befitting a hero of his caliber but also simply a token of Harlem's appreciation. ... Ideally, we would like to invite Mr. Autrey and his family to Albany, if his boss will give him some more time off, to be recognized by the full body of the State Assembly in Chamber during an official pause from deliberations"

UPDATE: Autrey also gets lunch with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and possible face time with Gov. Spitzer on Tues, Jan. 16.
-- Chuck Bennett

Dept of Homeland Security just announced their latest counterterrorism grants.

Out of a $141 million pot for transit security, $61 million was set aside to be shared between New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.

So, is that enough? We're sure, Schumer and Weiner will soon let us know.

-- Chuck Bennett

Subchat has a lively discussion over the merits of Apple's iPhone as ideal for railfans to take video and pictures while underground.

-- Chuck Bennett

New York Obsever has an intersting comparison between subway ridership and Manhattan real estate. Both are demand driven and show no sign of letting up.

This time in the London Underground -- two teens killed while running from security after being spotted tagging.

From AFP:

Two young men were killed by a London underground train while fleeing security staff who allegedly saw them spraying graffiti, police said.

The two, aged 19 and 21, were hit by a westbound train at Barking station in east London around 11:00 pm (2300 GMT) Friday, but they might also have been struck by a second train, a British Transport Police (BTP) spokesman said.

"One train killed them but I believe they came into contact with another moving train," he said.

Two weeks ago, a 13-old-boy was killed by a LIRR train where he may have been painting graffiti.

-- Chuck Bennett

After a year of almost routine weekend service disruptions, the L train's new real-time information system was unveiled with little fanfare this weeked.

Subway Blogger points out that is still in the testing phase: "Unfortunately, the information displayed isn’t necessarily accurate yet."

But, on the whole, the new system seems to be warmly received. Even if it was more than six months late.

-- Chuck Bennett

Rep. Anthony Weiner (and likley 2009 mayoral candidate) had trains on his mind this weekend.

On Friday, the feisty congressman blasted the MTA for not installing bomb resistant trash cans in the subway system.

Then, on Sunday, he held a press conference about trucks clogging the roads and urged the construction of the cross harbor freight tunnel.

"We want New York City to grow and we want bustling commerce," said Rep. Weiner. "But at this rate, we are going to choke on our success."

-- Chuck Bennett

Gov. Spitzer named Brooklyn Justice Theodore Jones to the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court today.

Jones, of course, presided over all the court room drama between the MTA, the state, and the transit union before and after the strike. He is the man who ordered Roger Toussaint to jail.

“Justice Jones will bring his experience and unquestioned integrity to the Court of Appeals,” said Governor Spitzer. “He has earned the trust and respect of all those who have worked with him throughout his years of service. I know he will bring his deep respect for the law as well as his sense of duty to the public to this new role.”

The NY Law Journal has a comprehensive write-up here.

No statement from Toussaint, yet. And we are doubting there will be one.

-- Chuck Bennett

Disabled activist Michael Harris and the Disabled Riders Coalition called an "urgent" press conference today to blast the MTA for what he called an "epidemic" of out of service subway elevators.

He said 15 elevators were out of service this Sunday alone.

Outages today count in the double digits and include Stilwell Avenue (Bk), 161st Street – River Avenue (Bx), 125th Street at Lexington Avenue (Manhattan), 34th Street – Herald Square , (Manhattan) 14th Street – Union Square (Manhattan), Canal Street (Manhattan ), 21st Street (Qns) and Jamaica - Van Wyck (Qns).

-- Chuck Bennett

The MTA's new top boss, Lee Sander, was working on Sunday (I guess at $340,000 a year, the public is getting its money's worth).

"He stopped (by) a facility in the Bronx. Getting out and seeing folks who work for MTA operating units is very important," his spokesman said.

Last week, Sander told NY1 that he is working to avert a strike by MetroNorth workers.

But, right now, Sander is engaged on a "listening" tour systemwide to figure out how to best improve the system (and restore labor relatiosn).

UPDATE: Folks at Sub Chat approve.

-- Chuck Bennett

Shortly before 8 a.m., an apparently homeless man who was riding between the cars on the No. 6 train fell over and was crushed to death, police and transit officials said. The accident happened near the Brooklyn Bridge - City Hall station and service was affected until 10:15 a.m.

-- Chuck Bennett

A report by the American Public Transportation Association says mass transit saves the U.S. 1.4 billion gallons of gas a year.

"This should be a wake-up call as Congress and the President discuss how American can move towards energy independence," said APTA president William Millar.

-- Chuck Bennett

With just about two weeks to go before his he heads to sunny Florida, The Tracker spotted NYC Transit president Larry Reuter swiping his MetroCard with a herd of commuters around 9 a.m. this morning at Grand Central.

He gave the The Tracker a hearty hello.

-- Chuck Bennett

Tom Kelly, the colorful top spokesman for the MTA, quietly resigned two weeks ago, Mercedes Padilla, a fellow MTA spokeswoman confirmed today. Padilla, who is a former Pataki spokeswoman, is still on the job.

Meanwhile, the MTA's new top flack Ernest Tollerson, took an office on the 7th floor of 347 Madison Ave, closer to other MTA execs, where he will be both director of communications and MTA policy. The other MTA spokesmen are on the 5th floor where Kelly had a corner office.

-- Chuck Bennett

More on Tollerson after the jump

Michael Harris and the Disabled Riders Coalition continue their protest over broken subway elevators – this time over one busted at 161st Street station in the Bronx. There’ll be a presser at the station at 3 p.m.

“The outage in the elevator (NYCT Control# 131) from the IND mezzanine to the street at the busy 161 st – River Avenue, which ranks #1 on the Coalition's "serial offender" list it is particularly significant, as it is the only accessible Bronx station on the B or D lines with an elevator, thus forcing a disabled rider to have to turn around and go back to Manhattan just to get out of the system – and that assumes that the elevator from the platform is working. If it isn't, a disabled rider is literally stranded on the platform.

On Sunday, the Coalition formally declared a citywide epidemic of subway elevator outages and today the outages continued to remain in the double digits. Only 52 out of the City's 468 subway stations have elevators.

Outages today remain in the double digits and include such major stations as Borough Hall (Bk), DeKalb Avenue (Bk), Stilwell Avenue (Bk), 161st Street – River Avenue (Bx), (Manhattan) 14th Street – Union Square (Manhattan), 34th Street – Herald Square (Manhattan), 125th Street at Lexington Avenue (Manhattan), 61st Street – Woodside (Qns), Main Street (Qns), and Queens Plaza (Qns).”

Metro-North broke its record for on-time performance, officials said at the rail road’s monthly board meeting.

Trains were on time 97.8% percent of the time in 2006. Peter Cannito, president of Metro-North called it the “best ever.”

But, on the downside, there was a slight uptick in larcenies along the Metro-North last year. There were 398 larcenies in 2006 up from 362 in 2005 – an increase of nearly 10%.

James Sedore, chairman of the MTA’s Metro-North committee, said the number is “relatively low (because of) a tremendous amount of state trooper presence and dog presence because of high terror alerts (in 2005).”

When compared in 2004, 2003, and 2002, he said, the number is consistent. He added that many of larcenies were from sholifters at Grand Central, not aboard the trains or platforms.

-- Chuck Bennett

Check out this only in New York subway story -- a white rider in the Bronx says he suffered from racial discrimination after two black token clerks wrote Black Power on a dry erase board.

From 1010 Wins:

Anthony Sutherland, 33, who is white, says the workers, who were black, refused to serve him. He says he was standing at the token booth at the Nereid station on the 1 and 2 subway lines for nearly ten minutes.

Sutherland says he approached the booth at 8am Friday morning and noticed "Black Power!" written on a dry-erase board behind the ticket agents.

After he asked them to erase the sign because -he says- it offended him, they mocked and mimicked him and laughed.

Sutherland, however snapped some pictures of the offending sign.

And after telling a supervisor that he had proof, the supervisor promised "action" would be taken.

What else is there to say?

-- Chuck Bennett

You think you're commute is tough? The Washington Times shows what it is like to be a bus commuter in Baghdad. As you can imagine, it's not too pleasant.

Any journey can turn out like Ali Makki's recent commute to morning classes at Nahrain University, when his bus came upon the aftermath of a roadside bombing. The vehicle had to detour along the outskirts of the city, where it passed - without incident - a wandering gang of militants armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades.

On his trip home the same day, Mr. Makki survived a firefight between the Iraqi military and insurgents. Later, a masked Shi'ite militiaman boarded the bus at a fake checkpoint and led all the Sunni men off the bus to an unknown fate.

-- Chuck Bennett

A man was struck and possibly killed by a Long Island Rail Road train west of the Valley Streat station shortly before 10 a.m. The man, possibly an LIRR worker or contractor police say, was airlifted to University Medical Center. His condition is unknown.

So far this month, three people were struck and killed by subway trains. Another had his arm torn off. A 13-year-old was killed by the LIRR, and a 15-year-old was struck and killed by a New York-bound Acela train.

UPDATE: The man, a LIRR trackworker, expired. The last LIRR worker to die was iwas n 2004 from a track accident in East New York.

-- Chuck Bennett

Lee Sander is getting more in the public eye these days. In addition to his listening tour around MTA facilities, he’s granting more media interviews and receiving positive coverage.

He briefly dished on his lunch with Roger Toussaint, made an appearance on NPR and another on NY1’s The Call.

A big test will be later this month to see how he and Chairman Kalikow handle a gaggle of press after the January board meeting.

-- Chuck Bennett

The testing pool for Citigroup's mobile phone PayPass experiment on the Lexington Line turns out to be a bit smaller than The Tracker expected. Just 300 lucky riders got the new phones to use on the Tap N Go censors, according to Citi spokeswoman Allie Riley.

-- Chuck Bennett

Lee Sander, the new MTA chief, and William Wheeler, director of planning, in a serious “walk and talk” in Grand Central Terminal.

-- Chuck Bennett

Commenting on the lack of public speaks today at the Long Island Rail Road committee meeting today, David Mack the commitee chairman quipped: "They never love us, we feel bad."

-- Chuck Bennett

Marty Goodman isn't going anywhere. The station agent, who witnessed the horrific accident Monday that tore off a man's arm, said he's going to keep up his activism as MTA board meetings. Goodman, a diehard socialist, lost his seat on TWU's executive board in th election last month, but he won't be silenced.

"The contract is settled and they got a new guy in there (Lee Sander). I've got a lot to say about that," Goodman says. Expect him at the next MTA board meeting.

Goodman is famous for haranguing MTA board members during the public comment period of MTA meetings.

-- Chuck Bennett

Well here's the latest on what's been done about it -- document prepared by LIRR.

Download file

Michael Harris and Disabled Riders Coalition declare the "epidemic" of busted subway elevator is over,

While on Wednesday elevator outages remained in the double digits for the fourth straight day, as of 6 a.m . on Thursday the Transit Authority was only reporting three elevator outages.

"Unless something drastic changes during the course of the day, I believe that we can safely say that the epidemic of elevator outages is over. Today is a great day for all New York Straphangers and we praise the Transit Authority for acting expeditiously to resolve this major problem," declared Coalition campaign coordinator Michael A. Harris

A rank-and-file transit worker, who is also a dedicated railfan, e-mailed over what happens to the unfortunate subway train operators after they are at the helm of a train that kills a passanger.

Here is what happens after the police release the train and the person is removed from under the train and power is restored

1-Two supervisors arrive
2- One takes the train crew ( Train Operator and Conductor) for a drug and alcohol test
3- Second supervisor takes the train to the yard for inspection to see if the train had a mechanical problem
4- Train crew gets a mandatory three day paid leave after which hey have mandatory psychological counseling.

Many never go back to operating a train again-- Many are so stressed they retire. Many have flashbacks like the Vietnam vets even when no where near a train. One father and son team I know ( No relationship involved other than just coworkers) was impacted-- The Dad wound up retiring and the son is thinking about resigning. Some work in other areas. ...

I have been lucky and have never seen someone hit by a train and hope I never do. From what I am told, "It is not pretty".

A fight on the PATH train... can't everyone just behave? There's a lively discussion on SubChat about this. And be warned the language is rather course.