Wednesday, January 17, 2018

NYCT still misinforms customers - - a suggestion

Before I start, newly minted NYCT President Andy Byford started this week - - I give him a warm welcome to the greatest transit system in the world. 

Now for some NYCT minformation

This week (and next week) - - the first FastTrack program of 2018 started on the 8th Ave A/C/E lines in Manhattan. Among the service changes, C service ends an hour earlier, while on a separate notification shows M service ending by 9 PM.


But nothing for the B line which also ends early, by 9:30 PM. This is because A trains are partially running on the B/D lines (in both directions) between 59th Street/Columbus Circle and 34th Street/6th Ave before using the F tracks to/from Jay St Brooklyn. With E trains already running on the F line between Manhattan and Queens, and the bottleneck switching of A trains north of 34th Street, it makes operationally sense to end B service earlier before FastTrack starts. Being that the B is a disposable line with alternate A/D/Q services available, I think it's a great move to cut service on lines like the B, C and M lines before a major shutdown on one line takes place.


I just disapprove of the way NYCT is mishandling the information which customers need to know - - why tell customers only 2/3rds of the story when you tell them C and M service ends early but nothing on the B. It's not the first time it happened - - on the week of December 18-21, B service ended early - - only between Atlantic Ave and Brighton Beach in Brooklyn - - nut there was no B service at all on the entire non-rush hour length - - between 145th Street and
Brighton Beach. But wait, it gets better, a false service notice showed northbound B (and C) trains ran express from 59th Street to 145th Street. No B trains were running after 9:30 PM











The MTA has an obligation in reporting every service change, no matter how trivial it may seem.   During winter storms, they tell us to monitor the MTA website for the "latest service changes".  Here is a YouTube video on their Cold Weather Plan.


"Latest" does not mean two hours after the fact.  Or nothing at all.

And it sure does not mean you have to use their MTA Subway Time app to find out if your train is running or not.   Here is a prime example of the week of Jan 5-8 - - and from Jan 3 when the storm was going to hit the NYC area,   After 6 PM, all 6 express service in the Bronx is suspended - - all trains run on the local track.   But the MTA website says "Good Service" on the 4/5/6






It was not posted until after 8 PM.  On January 8, when the 6 express service does not start until 8 AM, nothing was posted at all (although on the morning of Jan 4, they were actually spot on - - for once)

And if you want to find out if the B and W service ended early - - - nope, not at 8 PM. for the B and 9 PM for the W.



The weekend of January 5-8 they failed to post service changes on the A/E/F/2/3/Q lines which were affected by the remains of the Bomb Cyclone, a quick but brutal winter storm on .   The A was running local in Brooklyn, the E and F were also running local in Queens (in addition to the existing planned trackwork on the E and F between Roosevelt and 71st Aves), the 2 and 3 were running local in Manhattan (alongside with the existing scheduled 2 and 3 weekend diversions) and the Q was also running local in Manhattan.  In fact, it also pissed off Benjamin Kabak, a prominent transit blogger and website owner of his 2nd Ave Sagas website and Twitter accounts:





But I told NYCT on Twittter 36 hours ago about the Q local in Manhattan.  Ignorance is bliss.



When I asked about the B line - - NYCT responded (with a compliment, thank you)












However, it does not address the problem of not posting the service change about B service not running after 9:30 PM

But at the end of the day with some of the more disposable lines ending early than scheduled - - and now that most trackwork now starts at 10 PM instead of around midnight, it's time for NYCT to take a hard look at cutting service - - no not to cut service across the board, but to shorten the operating hours of the 5/B/C/M/W lines to have then cease running after 9 PM.   This makes it a lot easier on a set schedule basis instead of constantly posting service notices that the M ends at 8:30 PM.  The frequency of these nighttime service changes does warrant a more steady and permanent set of service changes.  When the L line shuts down in 2019, then the M will need to run 24/7 - - if not to Forest Hills then to 96th Street and 2nd Ave on the Q line.

Having a predictable schedule each night instead of variations in service makes it easier for customers to follow.   And less chances of posting wrong or missing information/

Update:  Seems like NYCT is getting better at these notifications the last week.  Let's hope this will be a long term process as when they do inform customers, they can do a great job if they put their effort into it.   Bravo (pun intended):








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Sunday, January 14, 2018

November 10, 2020 - - vote the $hithole out

A Commander-in-Chief is obligated to uphold the U.S. Constitution and respect people from all backgrounds, even if you disagree with some.

President Trump clearly is not.    In fact, he is the most racist President in United States history.  On top of it, he LIES about the racist remarks he made last week.

By now, you heard about President Trump calling the countries of Haiti and Africa "shitholes" during a White House meeting with his top lawmakers about immigration reform.   Granted Africa and Haiti are impoverished countries but he also added fuel to the fire by wondering why the United States is not accepting immigrants from countries like Norway.  Then he lies, saying he denies saying he never made that nefarious comment. 


Of course, Trump should know why people don't want to leave Norway for the United States, read these sobering health care statistical comparisons between Norway and the United States, particularly abortions and people with HIV/AIDS.     While the United States may have slightly better health care than Norway - - the life expectancy in Norway is higher than the United States.


Or maybe people in Norway are happy living there and they don't want to migrate to the U.S.

Whatever the case may be, Trump's racism clearly shows beneath the surface of his honoring of Rosa Parks 62nd anniversary of her willpower not to give up her right to sit anywhere in that bus.   We should also remember that Trump has still never apologized to the Central Park Five.     because he still insisted that the NYPD has done their job of investigating the horrific crime, even though DNA evidence clearly proved that Matias Reyes did it.   He has insulted Mexicans, women, blacks, various Middle Eastern countries and everyone else right here in this NY Times list (although MS-13 should not be on there because they ARE a vile gang of killers and rapists.).  And for the record, Trump has said things which are true, like Amazon not paying their fair share of taxes (but he gives millionaires a nice tax cut, which means they are not paying their fair share.) 


But his shithole comment on two countries was clearly outrageous - - if someone, said that at the workplace or on social media, they would be fired on the spot, no questions asked.  oh yea, let's not forget Charlottesville, VA when he said both sides (the racist KKK and the counter demonstrators) were "fine people on both sides".  

November 10, 2020 can't come fast enough to vote Trump out.
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Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Sen. Marty Golden - poster boy for fraud and corruption

Last month, there was a incident between Brian Howald and NY State Senate Marty Golden, involving Golden's alleged menacing and criminal impersonation of a police officer. Yet there is still no NY State investigation into Golden's alleged abuse of his NY State Official Business Placard, using it at Brian Howald as identifying himself as an NYPD officer. And NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio, in his usual self in saying a lot in press conferences but failing to follow through a lot on what he says (think the original and groundbreaking Placard Abuse on Twitter  and my own related page on Facebook  as well as the ongoing fake crackdown he "promised" in the Bronx)  has said that he will look into the incident .....only because when the issue came up, as his staff were following up on this matter ...which was 10 days after the incident took place.   




Let's go back to the evening of December 11th when according to Brian Howald was biking southbound in the 3rd Ave bike lane in Brooklyn when Golden's vehicle (plate T327TSD) purportedly obstructed Howald by driving in the bike lane. At one point, Golden used his NY State official business parking placard as an "NYPD shield" at Howald while threatening arrest. When Golden's vehicle drove off, Howald smelled a rat on that placard and chased the vehicle down, taking pictures of it,along with the plate and Golden (Howald initially didn't recognize Golden). As he took the pics, Golden's chauffeur drove off on northbound 3rd Ave, against traffic flow while running three red lights.


Golden told NY1 that he denied the allegations, noting that this was not the first time Howald has a run in with someone.





While it may be true that Howald's challenger to the bike lane issue was not his first time, there are questions to Golden's statements that he was threatened by Howald, First off, it was clear the Golden was sitting on front passenger side, with the window fully down. In 30 degree weather, and not wearing a hat?






Remember, the weather took a chill for the worst, dropping from 50 degrees in the afternoon, to about the 30's around the time this incident took place (it was freezing overnight). Additionally, if you really felt a bicyclist threatening you, you would NEVER have the windows down - - notice the rear passenger window was up. Also why didn't he call 911 for NYPD to show up, taking a police report? The 72nd Precinct was not far away on 4th Ave.  

Oh yea, did we forgot to mention that his chaffured driven vehicle was caught speeding through two school zones?





Also, his car was recently spotted blocking the crosswalk, while his NY State registration lapsed two weeks ago.




Of course the cat stole Golden's tongue - - or he pleaded the fifth, not saying anything about the blocked crosswalk incident.





 But wait a minute, Golden was spotted coming out from his gym to attend to his scofflaw vehicle ..... while collecting a full line of duty disability pension from the NYPD. Ugh, all these years he can go to the gym and still collect his disability pension?????  Fraud, criminal impersonation, and menacing - - these are serious allegations which call of ethics hearings in Albany about Sen. Marty Golden's conduct.   

As long as Golden keeps his city issued placard and abuses parking privileges - - he will be a cancer to the neighborhoods in Brooklyn which he was elected to serve.  Golden must resign from office.
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