Haven’t been able to make it to any of the recent fare hike hearings?  Don’t worry, you’re not the only one.

Tomorrow night, you can participate in the next hearing, aka Public Engagement Workshop, from the comfort of your own home.  I suggest a you get a 6-pack, throw on your PJ pants, and dial in.  I think the questions could get quite “colorful” if people aren’t in front of a large group of people.

CLICK HERE to register on the MTA website for the webinar.  You’ll need to connect through your computer and dial in to a phone number to participate.  Not sure what they will be showing on the computer, but whatever.

Finally, a little business sense over at the MTA.  Today, they announced plans to make each subway line operate as it’s own, autonomous rail line.  Each line will have it’s own manager that can focus on the needs of that specific line.

Howard H. Roberts Jr., president of New York City Transit, will announce an overhaul today of how the subway system is run. The changes are designed to give individual subway lines a greater degree of autonomy by putting each one under the direction of a manager who will be responsible for almost everything that happens on the tracks, in the trains and in the stations. [NY Times]

Currently, there are single managers that handle multiple lines.

Of course, with everything the MTA does, there has to be a pilot.  Can’t just do it, we need to test it until the end of time.

So first guinea pigs will be the 7 line and L lines.  They were chosen because they are fairly self contained (unlike other lines that share tracks). 

The plan is to then release another batch of subway rider report cards to see if there was any improvement noticed by riders. 

Every weekend this month, the MTA Transit Museum is going to roll out some of the old “antique” trains for people to ride along the V line.

First of all, I think this is very cool.

Second, I think it would be hysterical to see the look on people’s faces when these trains pull up, and they have no idea what’s going on.  You have to figure that most people would know in advance that a pre 1970 train car is about to approach.

They even decorate them!  See the photo here on AMNY.  Boy, would people be pissed if one of these old clunkers broke down and caused delays.

SUBWAYblogger.com recently got our hands on some insider knowledge from sources within the transportation business.

First, the obvious, but not widely known.  Coming a year from now, New York City will host the 15th World Congress on Intelligent Transportation Systems.  This is hands down the absolute largest, most important expo for the entire transportation business.  Everyone who is anyone in the transport biz attends this show.  Manufacturers, builders, tech geeks, etc. all get in on the act.

So what does this mean for the everyday transit user?  Hopefully some quick improvements.

Our sources tell us that the upcoming World Congress is a regular topic of conversation for high level transportation officials in the city.  Why?  Because no host city wants to be embarrassed by the state of their transportation system. Part of the World Congress includes tours of facilities in the city.  During that week, NYC will be the world wide focus for the transportation business.  That’s a ton of pressure if you’re on the receiving end of that focus.  You want to be on top of your game.

So what will we see?  Well, it’s no coincidence that we have seen somewhat random program launches by the MTA like:  online escalator/elevator alerts, weekend service alerts via email, MTA trip planner, cellphone service in the subway, alternative payment methods, and most recently the SMS text message alert RFP.

So you should expect to see many of these new technology initiatives sprout up.  The more jewels the city has to show at the World Congress the better.  All those new hybrid buses…yeah…those will be looked at too.

It’s reasonable to assume we would have gotten all this stuff eventually even if the World Congress weren’t coming to town.  However, it probably wouldn’t be happening all at the same time (now!).

The new New Jersey 511 system is a perfect example.  (511 is a call in service for NJ traffic and transit alerts).  The NJ DOT had this technology 4 or 5 years ago already purchased.  However, we hear that they allegedly sat on it because of bureaucratic issues.  Then, all of a sudden, they caught wind that New York and Connecticut plan to launch a 511 system.  So they jumped to get theirs up.  Unfortunately, they are launching “new” 5 year old technology.  So when you call the number, you hear an ancient text-to-speech voice reading you traffic/transit alerts.  Pretty lame-0.  Read More »

Ever heard this one: “Because of a trouble, uptown/downtown _____ trains are running ______ ”

Ever wonder what the signal lights really mean?  It’s a little more complicated than a normal traffic light.  For example, when you really pay close attention, you might notice stacked sets of lights.  One might be green, and another might be yellow.  What the heck does that mean?

Well, I stumbled across a fabulous article on “How Stuff Works.”  Who knew?!  They have an article about how the subway works.  It covers more than just the lights and signals.  This is one of the many helpful illustrations they have.

So check it out.  Some pretty cool stuff I bet you didn’t know.