Paul McCartney’s Wife Nancy Shevell Resigns From MTA Board
Nancy "Trucker Girl" Shevell has stepped down from her position as a board member for the M.T.A., reports AMNY. Read More
MTA
No Love For Williamsburg’s RoboTrain
The future is here and it's not as cool as you thought it would be. In fact, it's very much like the past, just with more delays. We are talking of course, about the fantastically named 'RoboTrain' next-gen subway system.
The only current 'RoboTrain' in the city is the hipster-clogged L train, which the MTA has been tweaking for so many years, we're no longer sure which came first, RoboCop or RoboTrain. Read More
The Apple of State Comptroller DiNapoli’s Eye?
With great fanfare, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced the other day that he will conduct an audit of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s ventures into real estate development. Specifically, the comptroller seems wary of a deal that the MTA cut with Apple, which is due to open a new store in Grand Central Terminal in the coming days.
Oversight of agencies like the MTA is always a good thing. The transit agency’s books have been the subject of endless controversy in recent years as great gaps appeared in its budgets. Mr. DiNapoli’s enthusiasm, then, is not such a bad thing.
But the comptroller should proceed with great care here. Read More
Why You Weren’t Able to Get Anywhere Last Night
The Rockefeller tree lighting ceremony. President Barack Obama's visit to town. Read More
Video
Footage From the Delancey Underground: Mole People Nowhere to Be Found In LES Abandoned Trolley Station (Video)
Two months ago, we were introduced to James Ramsey and Dan Barasch, the duo who were proposing to turn the abandoned Delancey trolly tunnel underneath Essex Street into an eco-friendly environment from the future called the Low Line.
Despite the very real chance that the Low Line won't get any public funding (making it near impossible to build), the media has picked up on this whimsical idea...mainly because we had no idea that every time we looked across the platform on the JMZ to Brooklyn, we were staring directly into a 108-year-old cavern. With signs of human life.
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Next Stop: Secaucus
Before long, the Manhattan terminus of the No. 7 train will move west, from Times Square to the Hudson Yards on the far West Side. That’s good, but renewed talk of extending the subway line under the Hudson River to Secaucus in New Jersey is even better. Read More
Straphangers Satisfied with Subways and Buses, According to the MTA, Anyway
Forget about getting annoyed at crazy weekend subway and bus schedules—apparently you're actually quite satisfied with subway and bus service! Straphangers across the city told the M.T.A. their rides were not as bad as one might think, according to the agency's 2011 Customer Satisfaction Survey, which was released today. Read More
Calling the Conductor: M.T.A. Launches 511 Hotline
While The Observer can't remember the last time we called the M.T.A. to complain—it seems as futile as waiting for a G on the weekends—it is now at least a little easier to contact the agency, which has just streamlined its 117 phone numbers throughout the region down to one: 511. In a move that seems a tad overdue, callers no longer have to jump from menu to menu, in order to get their questions answered. The system incorporates a plethora of new options through voice recognition, the phone technology that everyone loves!
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Subway Cell Service Proves “Everything’s Amazing and Nobody’s Happy” Theory
First the iPhone was only available to AT&T customers, forcing Verizon users to wait four whole years until they could play Angry Birds like the rest of the tech elite. But with the release of the Android and various other Smartphones using a variety of carriers, it no longer seemed necessary to pay the $200 cancellation fee to switch cell phone providers. Until now.
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Subway Text Party!: AT&T and T-Mobile to Provide Service to Select Stations Next Week
Finally: a way to tweet about how hot and crowded the L train platform is...while on the L train platform! An MTA official confirmed rumors to the New York Observer that starting Tuesday, AT&T and T-Mobile customers will be getting service underground. (Everyone on a different plan? Try borrowing your neighbors' phone.)
Because those 10 minutes you spent not on your cell phone every day were really getting irksome, weren't they?
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It’s the Life Aquatic on the Subway Today: Happy Rush Hour
The M.T.A. has reported a broken water main at 110th Street, causing "severe service disruptions" on the A,B,C and D Trains this evening. From the M.T.A.:
Both B and C trains are suspended from end to end. A train service is suspended between West 145th Street and Columbus Circle and D trains are not running Read More
How Trucker-Girl Nancy Shevell Became Lady McCartney
On a recent morning in the fifth-floor conference room of the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s brick and limestone Madison Avenue headquarters, a public meeting of the board was called to order. The various members representing the audit, governance, bridges and tunnels, finance, and other committees listened patiently as Mark Shotkin, a member of the transit-riding Read More
Governor Cuomo’s Congestion Pricing U-Turn
Transit wonks are hoping Governor Andrew Cuomo might still be their secret savior, and it's starting to look like he might be. Not only has the governor selected a crack team to replace outgoing M.T.A. chief Jay Walder, but he is even said to be considering the impossible—congestion pricing. Read More
M.T.A. to G Train Riders: Happy Weekend, Go F Yourself
The weekend is supposed to be a time of respite and relaxation. But it's not, because if you live in a rather large section of Brooklyn and try to see friends and relatives or go eat a taco in Park Slope, the MTA will actively thwart you at every attempt you make to remove Read More
Cuomo Drives Muscle Cars While M.T.A. Skids
We just got our first indication of how Conductor Cuomo might feel about raising new revenues for the M.T.A., and it's not promising. Read More
