AMNY Subway Tracker

(via flickr's The_WB)

The No. 7 train’s “Mets Express” will likely return next season, zipping fans from Shea Stadium after weeknight games, and possibly on weekends as well, transit officials said Thursday.
“About 70 or 80 percent of the customers chose the express [after night games], and so the odds are that experiment will continue,” said transit senior director Larry Gould.
Gould said post-game weekend express service, which was not offered last season, is also possible. He offered the promising statements Thursday at a transportation committee hearing on how the MTA responds to events that significantly impact transit.
The agency added weeknight post-game express trains to the roster in July, capitalizing on an 18 percent jump in Mets fan ridership this year. Two months earlier, amNewYork ran a cover story describing fans’ unhappiness with the lack of express service. At the time, the MTA said technical limitations impeded express service.
The agency Thursday said would not give a start date for the service’s possible return, and said that game attendance would be a factor.
Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing), head of the transportation committee, asked for No. 7 express trains after U.S. Open matches. Gould said he’d look into the option, but said local service is already ramped up during such times. Adding express trains could prove difficult, he said, because several matches end at different times of day.
“I would just encourage you to take a look at the Mets experience,” Liu said. “It’s not that difficult to make the leap to the U.S. Open matches.”

Adding to the recent insults the MTA has thrown at Councilman John Liu, chairman of the council transportation committee, now an aide says, the agency isn't allowing him to spend the day as a transit worker.

Last August, Liu announced he would spend the day as a track worker to learn more about the life of every day New Yorkers. The idea -- from former Sen. Bob Graham -- would have Liu perform a different job once a week. But, Liu's aide says he was refused entry to the subway. The aide suspects he lost permission as soon as the authority realized Liu was a) working the TWU Local 100 b) going to invite the press. So, it doesn't look like John'll be working on the railroad any time soon.

-- Chuck Bennett amNY.com

Councilman John Liu, the chair of the council transportation committee, and constant critic of the MTA was dissed again by the agency.

Transit officials refused to testify at his hearing today on evacuation procedures. Last month they skipped his hearing about the Queens blackout and transit.

Does it kind of kill his "bully pulpit," a reporter, wondered if the MTA doesn't show up for a berating?

Oh, and Charles Seaton of MTA NYC Transit just said that his agency won't even be submitting written testimony about the evacuation procedures any time soon.

See Liu's press release after the jump. Also see an amNY article from June (no link available) on the same topic.

-- Chuck Bennett amNY.com

Not sure if this will get much coverage as its on the same day as the MTA board meeting and a CUNY symposium on the transit strike, but FYI:

Chairperson Liu will hold an oversight hearing on the MTA's emergency evacuation and communication failures during recent subway disruptions that stranded thousands of commuters and left them in the dark literally and figuratively. The hearing will take place at City Hall on Thursday September 28, 2006 at 10:00 am.

UPDATE:

The City Council oversight hearing on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's emergency evacuation and communication procedures, originally scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday, September 28, 2006), will now take place on Thursday, October 5, 2006 in City Hall.

Good idea.
-- Chuck Bennett amNY.com

The Times today has a profile on John Liu, the ambitious councilman who as chairman of the transportation committee is always weighing in on mass transit issues.

Few members of the City Council can mobilize news conferences as quickly and effectively as Mr. Liu, and few have shown his willingness to do so. In his five and a half years on the Council, that has become a hallmark of Mr. Liu and his seemingly tireless aides, who are known to send reporters as many as four news releases a day detailing Mr. Liu’s various undertakings.

-- Chuck Bennett amNY.com

The Fire Dept. is backing away from its theory that a homeless man caused yesterday’s track fire that trapped 4,000 riders yesterday.

But, no matter what the cause, Councilman John Liu, the chairman of the council’s transportation committee, says it could have been avoided.

"This major disruption – like many such disruptions suffered by New Yorkers in the past – could have been prevented if the MTA had stopped its decade-long policy of deferring maintenance in our transit system. Unfortunately, the MTA made the situation far worse: (1) through it's sheer inability to communicate with riders (the MTA even admitted in City Council testimony that communicating with the public is not a priority) and failure to upgrade the PA system. (2) Even if it has a plan on paper, the MTA has not provided transit workers with the necessary training and resources to handle the increasing number of disruptions on our transportation network."

“Customers usually complain. It’s [conductor updates] normally every two or three minutes but they [conductors] don’t want to get repetitious. .. But I guess they [riders] were wondering what is going on.”

-- Chuck Bennett amNY.com

Taking a page from from Sen. Bob Graham’s playbook, media-hungry councilman and constant MTA critic John Liu will start working an everyday job once a week, an aide says. Liu calls them Work Days, Graham called them Workdays.

First, he’ll sit in as a Family Court judge in Brooklyn. Will his decisions be binding? How does that work?

But, next week Liu could be standing in for a New York City Transit track worker and toil in the “hole.”

“He's going to do the track training next week, so he can work on the
subway tracks during the day,” an aide says.

At first, these kinds of stunts all seem more photo-op than anything else. But Graham always used to say they kept him grounded with everyday citizens.

Track work sounds pretty tough, so the Tracker is wishing him the best. And bring your own water!

-- Chuck Bennett amNY.com