New post! Go inside East Side Access, 18 months before the new terminal opens. A gallery, thoughts and more: sas.nyc/3z61WwE
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Second Ave. Sagas
@2AvSagas
Subways, transit, NYC. The official account of what mayoral sources once called an obscure transportation blog. Tweets by . DMs open. DM for Signal.
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Also it’s funny how the closest the New York, Westchester and Boston Railway ever got to Boston was Port Chester.
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So much NYC transit history here and nicely restored.
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Always a treat to visit one of the best stations in the city.
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This is a great thread.
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last week i visited new york's newest train station: the lirr terminal at grand central.
but the journey to grand central begins—literally and historically—under archer av in jamaica.
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Meet the MTA’s new bendy R211.
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I actually know the answer to this, because we were hoping to get them on Witherspoon St in Princeton. We can't do it. Our engineers have said that it is basically impossible. Another basic technology that is beyond the USA.
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Does someone know why North America basically never utilizes retractable bollards? They are so useful in creating flexible car-free spaces!
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Bill de Blasio strikes again.
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Not sure what this predicts but Quebec’s groundhog Fred la Marmotte has died.
It was somewhat of a surprise - they had a whole event leading up to his prediction only for his death to be announced.
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No one remembers this but me, but this is how Cuomo/de Blasio thing went from petty beef to TOTAL WAR
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Mayor Adams isn’t into Hochul’s MTA bailout — or, at least the part that requires the city to put up another $500 million. twitter.com/CWEBCRUZER/sta…
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Am I allowed to say “told you so” here? I think I am.
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Eight years in, the marble slabs making up the floor of the World Trade Center Oculus are chipping and flaking. It didn’t have to be this way. @heybonanos reports on what's happening trib.al/u31iktJ
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There’s a Change dot org petition going around spreading fear about the bus network redesign. These are lies. Don’t sign it.
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😬
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Gotta love that the fate of operating New York City's subway will fall on whether or not we build those damn casinos. wsj.com/articles/kathy
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NYC is a living simulacrum of a wholly different 1880-1929 civilization, a lost way of life typical of even small US cities before 1920
That density-supported, car-free, "transit & walking way of being" is almost gone, except a handful of tracts in Boston, DC, Philly, SF
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Census tracts with a density greater than 40k / sq mi. NYC is on another planet compared to the rest of the US
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Through 1/29, the latest on crime vs. ridership. The increase in ridership has held (no Omicron wave this winter) while the decrease in crime has continued.
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This book has a ton of high contrast trains.
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Streetsblog faced major push back from the City Hall and DOT press offices when we reported that DOT was struggling to build new bus and bike lanes because of staff/resource shortages and political opposition. Now, the Preliminary Mayor’s Management Report says, well:
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In advance of all the potential takes that will happen today with Biden announcing the first major Hudson Tunnel Project construction grant:
Tunnel is good. Build Tunnel. If we want costs do go down and timelines to get shorter, we should build more tunnels more often.
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Paternity leave means indoctrination at an early age.
🚂 🚂 🚂
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lol
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Kathy Hochul is doing the new Penn Station spiel. Someone behind me just muttered “Jesus Christ”
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“The MTA’s program to replace elevators at three subway stations in Brooklyn and Manhattan is months behind an already extended deadline and spending almost double the original budget, agency documents show.”
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The entrapment-plagued elevators at the Clark Street station were installed as part of an elevator replacement program that's way late and way over its original budget, documents show -- nypost.com/2023/01/30/con
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Station agents to start leaving the booths officially this March, if all goes according to plan, NYC Transit chief says
There's a public hearing on this Feb. 1
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Also this is a big-time 🥴 statement.
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More and more people are asking.
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It's been about a year since the Port Authority began reviewing its plan to build an AirTrain to LaGuardia Airport – but what ever happened to that review? queenseagle.com/all/2023/1/30/
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It’s time to run the B train on weekends IMO.
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Much easier to just make the experience of waiting at a train station hostile to everyone rather than figure out a way to respond to the mere potential of a homeless New Yorker using a seat. And for the most part, New Yorkers just sigh and accept it.
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This is not a “fight” between the MTA and the communities we proudly serve, this is an opportunity for us to directly engage with each other and to reimagine decades-old bus routes that have not evolved with the community. 2/
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This is an extremely unfortunate characterization of the network redesign process. This is a customer/stakeholder driven process which has to start with a draft plan. It is just that, a draft. Nothing contained in it is permanent! 1/
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Here’s How Bay Ridge Council Member Outraged Over Cuts to Bus Services in Southern Brooklyn is Fighting Back dlvr.it/ShTpNG
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Didn't hear a ton on transit side (besides Open Streets and development), but a big check mark for the Mayor's commitment to creating a new Director of Public Realm in New York.
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One undercurrent to listen to in the mayor's speech today is how much actual policy will be applied to the New New York report, written w/the governor (who will be there). Rezoning Midtown is a piece of that, but what about a public realm director? Or any transit improvements?
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Hamilton Ave in Red Hook, Brooklyn, before-and-after the construction of the BQE. Designed by Robert Moses, the highway cut Red Hook in half along its central thoroughfares, Hamilton & Hicks, requiring the demolition of dozens of blocks and the forcible displacement of thousands.
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Color me impressed with the subtle usage of art and light for wayfinding in Grand Central Madison. Here's my collection of photos from opening day:
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This new LIRR terminal at Grand Central is deep
Just shy of 4 minutes from track to nearest street exit
Here’s a time lapse of that walk
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112 years without an expansion of the LIRR. That’s wild when you think about it.
112 years ago was 1911.
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All aboard! @GovKathyHochul taking the inaugural LIRR passenger train to Grand Central Madison — first expansion of the LIRR in 112 years
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Gotta pay a lot not just to build but also to maintain giant spaces. It very much feels like Grand Central.
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The East Side Access-nee-Grand Central Madison complex is massive. The hallways leading to the main concourse which leads to the escalator are football-sized.
(If you’re wondering how this became $11b, design choices like these played a role)
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Newsday // March 9, 1997 declares "Light at the End of the Tunnel" for East Side Access.
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I often think about the 2009 decision to close station booths and cut personnel. It “saved” the MTA about $52M/year but it was clear then that empty stations would cause other problems. Seems like that’s been borne out for a while now.
Cutting off your nose to spite your face.
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