On the newer trains (like the 2 train), they’ve added some more public service announcements.  They aren’t especially new, but they seem to be playing them a lot more, and they’re starting to piss SUBWAYblogger off.

For the longest time, you only had a couple basic announcements from the voice in the ceiling.

“Backpacks and other large containers are subject to random search by the police.”

“Please do not block the doors while the train is in the station.”

“If you see a suspicious package or activity, do not keep it to yourself.  Tell a police officer or an MTA employee.”

Those pretty much summed it up for years.

Now there’s these obnoxious ones that say, “If you see an elderly, pregnant, or handicap person near you offer your seat.  You’ll be standing up for what’s right (pun intended).  Courtesy is contagious and it starts with you.”

First of all, lay off the “jokes.”  Standing up for what’s right?  Hey here’s an idea.  You hire staff that knows how to speak English when using the PA system.  That sounds “right” to me.  It’s not to much to ask to be able to hear and understand the more critical announcements.

If you want to stand up so that Mrs. Preggers or Grandma can sit down, fine.  If you don’t, who cares.  That’s life.  We don’t need you’re little reminders.

It’s almost as infuriating as President Obama having to hold a press conference to remind people to wash their hands in order to avoid swine flu.

Gents, let’s just stick to running the trains.

Your thoughts?

The MTA released notice that they will be conducting public hearings regarding fare hikes around the New York.

The hearings will begin in mid January and continue through the first week of February.

This is the initial part of the announcement:

Hearings will be held on proposed changes in fares and crossing charges, levels of service and partial or complete closings of subway stations or of means of public access to stations. Proposed changes are summarized below and pertain, as applicable, to MTA New York City Transit (NYCT), the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MaBSTOA), MTA Staten Island Railway (SIR), MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), MTA Metro-North Railroad (MNR), MTA Bridges and Tunnels (B&T), MTA Long Island Bus (LI Bus) and MTA Bus.

Space limitations prevent newspaper publication of each proposed new fare or crossing charge [ohh how convenient] and of details of proposed changes at stations or in level of service. For more complete descriptions of these potential changes, please consult information posted at MTA stations and on the MTA website, www.mta.info or call 212-878-7483. Please note: other service adjustments and cost-reduction steps are under consideration that may also affect operation of subway, bus and rail lines, bridges and tunnels, staffing of stations and general provision of service. Although these possible changes do not require public hearing, they are described in informational material available on the MTA website.

You can read the entire PDF of the announcement here.

The announcement includes the boiled down details of the proposed fare hikes and service cuts.

• $2.50 Single Ride fares on Subways and Busses, but allowing for future increase to $3.00
• Upping the threshold for fare bonuses from $7 to $12.50
• $9.50 Unlimited One Day fare (I remember when this was $4.00!)
• $32.00 Unlimited Seven Day fare
• $105.00 Unlimited Monthly fare

Also, they plan to eliminate student discount fares on express buses, so I would expect to see more students riding the subway.There’s also a variety of service cuts and service changes.  The W train would be gone all together.  Otherwise, you may not notice a ton of service changes during weekdays while the sun is up.  Nights and weekends could get pretty rough.  You’ll have to take a look at the announcement or MTA website to see all the service cut details.

It will be interesting to see if the members of the MTA board actually show up at the hearings.  As you might recall from the last hearing, many didn’t even bother to attend the hearings!

Will there be shoes thrown?  One can only hope.

How much? Single rides would be $2.50.  The monthly unlimited Metrocard would jump to $104 at least (official source).   It could be more if the MTA picked the plan that had no service cuts.  However, it looks like there will be some service cuts in addition to the fare increase to keep the actual financial burden as low as possible.

So should I go buy 12 unlimited Metrocards right now while they are still just $81 ?  Will they be honored?  Technically, they don’t activate until their first use.

This transitional period is always tough when it comes to planning your outfits for the day.

The cold has finally started to come.  Yeah we had a quick cold snap earlier in the fall, but then it warmed back up again.  Now it seems to be finally settling in.

So when you are walking to the train, you’re all bundled up because it can get pretty nippy out.  Then as soon as you get underground you realize it is hot as b*lls.  You’ll just be standing still on the platform and break out in a sweat.

It all has to do with that two to three day turnaround SUBWAYblogger always talks about.  Once it is finally cold once and for all above ground, it takes about three days for it to cool down underground.  The opposite is also true in the spring.

So it’s SUBWAYblogger’s advice to wear things that you can easily peel off once you get to the subway, then put back on when you get to your stop.  Complicated coats with lots of buttons and fancy scarfs might need to wait a few more weeks.

Of course, if you’re over 65 years old, and have more than two grand children you’ve probably had your winter parka on for about 6 weeks already.  So these tips are not really for you.

Hat season?  We’re going with no.  Not yet.  Scarfs?  Ehhh maybe.  Gloves?  Suck it up you wuss.  Hat’s with ear flaps? Never ok.

We are offering a free, week long banner ad in our left sidebar (premium space!). You can pick any 7 days you like so it doesn’t have to be Mon-Sun.

If you are interested, just send an email to:

free [[at]] subwayblogger.com

You’ll get an email back with instructions within 5 minutes or less.

Once they are gone, they’re gone, but we will do it again next month.  They’ve been going faster and faster every month, so get going!

Click here to view the embedded video.

You know, they’re actually not bad.  Anyway…

The MTA released the results of a comprehensive study that found the subway is dirty.  Folks, I wish it was a joke.  The MTA’s advocacy group’s 61 page [gasp] report said the stations are dirty aaaaaand many of them are literally falling apart.

Read the report for yourself.

Honestly, why do we need to study this stuff?  Can we just take a weekend, ride around to all the stops, and identify the ones that need the most work?  Oh wait, that’s all of them.

In other news, the new MTA Headquarters fire emergency plan was released:

(STEP 1)  Deny the existence of the fire as long as possible.

(STEP 2)  Ignore the first 100 emergency phone calls (min) related to this “alleged” blaze.

(STEP 3)  Mount a task force headed by an MTA Board member.  Call it the “Matchstick Committee.”

(STEP 4)  Hold a press release to announce the results fire existence study.

(STEP 5)  Hold emergency budget meeting to discuss fire extinguisher purchases.  Turns out, the ones in the building from 1932 are filled with seltzer water.

(STEP 6)  Increase fares.  New fire extinguishers won’t pay for themselves.

(STEP 7)  Perish in blaze.  Luckily, no MTA board members were actually in the office.  They were off hiding their government issued EZ Passes.

Well, the NYPD is making sure you know about it with half takeover ads on the subway.  If you haven’t seen them already, they’ve released a big campaign to promote the new increased salary.

From NYPDRecruit.com.

No wonder other states are recruiting our officers out.  On the one hand, the NYPD is probably one of the most elite police forces in the world, but they are also grossly underpaid.  Seattle is willing to pay NYPD officers double what they start at in New York, plus give them $5,000 to cover moving expenses.

My problem with the low salary is the limiting effect it has on the recruitment pool.  New York is missing out on hiring better quality people who would command a better salary.  Instead, you are getting a bunch of people that just need the money, and a handful of people that want to be a cop no matter how little it pays.

Now sure, there’s a lot of great officers added to the force every year.  I’m just saying you could get more if it paid better.

DVD of When We Left Earth

I don’t know if they had to reactivate a car on my train today or what, but all the ads were out dated.

The first car I got in had no air conditioning (or passengers for that matter).  So I broke the law, and walked between the cars while the train was moving.  I know, I’m a bad ass.

In that car, the air was running but it was skinned in Discovery Channel ads for the “new” series, “When We Left Earth.” The ad says it premiers June 8th.

Ummm…it’s July now.

This thing had ads for this show on the ceiling and EVERY available ad position.  It was a complete takover.

Maybe this car had been sitting in the yard unused, so they didn’t bother swapping out the ads.  Then all of  a sudden, it was reactivated due to other cars breaking down.  Who knows.

It’s the only thing I could come up with to explain the month and a half old ads.

And how about those train cars you walk into without air conditioning.  It’s like walking into an oven.

At first you get in the heat car and you’re a little shocked.  Then you think to yourself, quick…switch cars!  Just then, the doors close.  Damn.

“Well, this isn’t too bad,” you think to yourself.

Then the panic sets in.  All you can think about is the mad dash you are going to make at the very next stop.

Finally, the train gets to the next stop, and you bolt out.  Hopefully you are spry enough to make it to the next car before the doors close again.

You know you are a rockstar when your concerts cause the New York City subway to reroute in advance.

Apparently, there won’t be any C trains running along the Upper West Side.  Concert entrances are at 72nd Street.  Your ticket says which side (Central Park West or 5th Ave) you have to enter.

You can only enter the concert on the side on your ticket.

Photo orangejuicy.  Story Gothamist.

Anyway, check out “Hero Reports.”

It’s by MIT about the people who “See Something, and Say Something.”

The idea is to track down the 1,944 people who “saw something” last year, and map out their instances of heroism.  It turns out, the stories of these can be pretty interesting.

Some of the stories are legitimately security related, but most are stories of kindness.  Strangers doing something to help other strangers.  It’s worth a look.

You can also post you own stories.  I have a feeling if SUBWAYblogger started posting stories there, the site would get overloaded.

Ever thought of just jumping the turnstile when your Metrocard stopped working for some unknown reason?  You know you have plenty of cash/rides left on it, so it must be something wrong with the machine.  So screw it, just jump over and move on with your life.

Well, that little maneuver is going to cost you a lot more if you get caught.  The price of bouncing over the bar is now one-hundo ($100), and the new price kicked in Monday.

It used to cost you $60, but apparently that was too affordable for the homeless guys and neighborhood teens that just jump over without even a hesitation.  So upping it to $100 ought to do the trick.

They even have a special division of court that handles fare jumpers, called the Transit Adjudication Bureau.  Aka TAB.

As a result, we plan to offer free ads every month from here on out.  Well make a post during the first week of every month announcing that we are taking complimentary orders.

Ads will then be available on a first come, first served basis until all of the free ads are taken.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Click here to view the embedded video.

(Yes, I know this isn’t NYC)

In preparation for the summer Olympic games, Beijing has started security checks at all of their subway stations.  No, they aren’t a joke like they are in the NYC subway system.

“It’s just as strict as the airport security checks.” [Source]

They have wands to scan passengers for weapons, and all large bags go through X-ray machines.  Liquids are checked unless the passenger takes a sip from the container.

Compare that to New York City’s methods…the same NYC that is daily terror target every day of the year.  In most cases, it could be weeks before you see any formal security procedures beyond an officer standing around the platform.

The bag inspection system is laughable.  Quick survey, out of the last 50 times you’ve walked by one of the NYPD inpection tables, how many times have you seen someone having their bag inspected?  Maybe 2 or 3? That’s what I thought.

Most of the time, the table is just there for show. They only inspect a handful of people.

After years of riding the subway and carrying a semi large computer bag, I’ve only been inspected once.  I started to open the the bag, and the cop said, “Nahh don’t worry about those [smaller pockets].  Just open the large compartment.”

Ohh…ok.  So those other pockets couldn’t possibly contain anything suspect because the terrorists would never think to hide a biological weapon in the smaller, hidden pockets.  They just use the big one.

Anyway, just another example where the US is falling behind other nations.

SUBWAYblogger.com would remain the New York City portal.  However we would create additional subsites.  For example:

dc.subwayblogger.com
boston.subwayblogger.com
london.subwayblogger.com
etc.

In essence, a network of SUBWAYblogger sites would be created, but you wouldn’t lose your local flavor.

There are some challenges, mostly having to do with money.  We wouldn’t be able to pay someone to run the other sites from a content point of view.  However, we could easily provide all of the hosting, technical space, coding, etc.

So we would probably want to find existing subway sites to absorb into SUBWAYblogger.  The publisher could still have complete control over content and advertisement revenue.

It would be nice to find, for example, some Blogger.com sites that wanted to make the jump to WordPress and become a more legit player in the space.

Perhaps the idea is a bit too ambitious.

Remember way back when the news came out that the MTA planned to invest some $30 million on service improvements? Remember when it was “delayed”? Well, now it’s just not going to plain happen.

It is all based on the slow economy, and the lack of income tax revenue that the MTA receives.

I smelled BS from the get-go.

Now that’s dedication.

(but I admit I am a little jealous)

And you thought that ditch between the rails was there to collect water and muck (pictured here).  Well, you should also know it is there to save your life.

An unidentified man fell onto the tracks today at Delancey Street while waiting for the F train.  Luckily he fell in a way which allowed his body to fall into the cutout ditch between the rails.  Lucky?  Definitely, because an F train was just seconds away and ran over his body.

He was not injured from the train itself even though 3 cars rolled over him.  He fit into that space in the tracks.

He was taken to Bellevue condition unknown but apparently alive.

There was no waiting whatsoever for me today. I got to work early, and got home ahead of schedule.

I’m always a little afraid when that happens because it usually means that the rest of the week there will be no trains at all.

If you are a webmaster, they would looooove to pay you 5% for all the sales traffic you send to transitmuseumstore.com.  That’s right, cash money for selling transit schwag.

Well, we weren’t especially impressed with the program, so you won’t be seeing ads for subway gear here any time soon. A 5% share for low end items and transactions is a bit weak.

Think about the transaction volume.  Let’s say someone gets a nifty subway map necktie for the low low price of $38.00.  That’s $1.90 for you.  Yeah…not that thrilling.  And how huge is the market for subway stuff?

It was nice to be be asked though.  Apparently they have to pay off the actual transit museum because the stuff is under licence.  So that’s the reason for the low commission rate.

Maybe if they had kicked me some snazzy subway cuff links or something, I would have joined.  Maybe.

This little gem is from the Toronto subway system, and I discovered it on this Canuck blog. In a recent advertising move, Ikea launched a campaign up there in Cana-dee-a.

They took over an entire train and decorated each car in “Ikea style” decor. You can see the pictures, if you can stomach it, by clicking here.

How long until that crap shows up on the S train?

Passengers on board had to be removed with a rescue train. Typically, this means a train that pulls up along side the stranded train. Then, gangways or ramps are used to transfer passengers from one train to the other. In the derailed cars, passengers would have been moved forwards or backwards into cars that were still on the tracks.

At this time, the MTA website is still reporting:

Due to an ongoing rail condition at the 57th Street-7th Avenue Station:

Bay Ridge-bound trains are running on the line between the 36th Street Station in Queens and the 34th Street- Herald Square Station.

There is no train service between the Queensboro Plaza Station and the Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard Station in both directions.

Shuttle trains are being provided between the Queensboro Plaza Station and the Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard Station.

Please expect delays in service on the and trains at this time.

I love how it gets played down to an “ongoing rail condition.”  I think it borders on dishonesty.  Just come right out and say that it was because of a train derailment.  Don’t try to be all secretive.

Also, it’s not really a huge shock.  I posted this video over a month ago about a section of track at 59th street that sags 6″ or more when the train passes over it.  It still has not been fixed.  I cannot believe that they don’t know about it.  If not, the inspector needs to be fired because this is obvious to all the passengers that wait on that platform.  Plus, with all the construction on that platform, surely a worker has seen what I did.

Anyway, I think it is safe to say that there could be some morning issues for the commute.  Even if everything gets fixed, it is likely that trains will run through the area slowly.

Check the MTA site for the latest updates.

Yep.  $3 Billion.  Oops.

“The [CAPITAL] program has some shortfalls in it,” Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Elliot Sander said at an agency board meeting. [AMNY]

Uhhh yeah, “shortfall” is an understatement.

While mega-projects like the Second Avenue subway are not affected, the “nitty-gritty” work of station repairs and upgrades, signal replacements, or purchase of new cars could suffer, said MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin. {AMNY]

You know, just the minor things like repairs, and track signals.  And really, how badly do we really need working brakes?