Tag Archives: mass transit

The Daily Mail reports: Passengers spent 20 minutes stranded on a bus after its driver refused to board because of a gay rights message on the side. The unnamed driver would not get on the X78 from Rotherham to Sheffield because it bore a billboard for gay lobby group Stonewall, reading: ” Some people are gay. Get over it!” Passengers …

In the wake of widespread flooding to most of New York City’s subway and vehicle tunnels, Homeland Security has renewed testing of a giant inflatable plug. The Resilient Tunnel Plug has been years in development and testing, but it may be more relevant than ever: Superstorm Sandy sent a record 14-foot storm surge into New York Harbor, flooding subway tunnels …

From a photo montage posted to Flickr we learn that the MTA pumps out the flooding subway tunnels using special six-car trains containing massive hydraulics.  According to today’s MTA service advisory we learn that about 80% of 468 stations are back in service or will be some time today.  Gothamist has a short recap: You can go here to see …

Today’s service advisory from the Port Authority: Due to widespread flooding in the PATH tunnels and multiple stations, as well as power outages that have shut down signals and switches, PATH rail service continues to be suspended. PATH engineers, staff and third party contractors are working around-the-clock with the goal of resuming partial service between New Jersey and New York …

The MTA today announced a small resumption of service. Local, Limited-Stop and Express Bus service will operate as close to a normal weekday schedule as possible today, as NYC Transit and MTA Bus continue efforts to restore service following Hurricane Sandy. As was the case yesterday, bus service will operate on a fare-free basis. Subway service remains suspended on all …

We’ve some good news and some not so great news. Governor Andrew Cuomo says he expects JFK and Newark will reopen Wednesday, but that LaGuardia will remain closed because of storm-related damages. Rail service on AirTrain JFK and AirTrain Newark has been suspended until further notice. All East River Bridges are once again open to traffic. Additionally, all Port Authority …

Crackpot Pam Geller has announced that she has submitted the above image to Washington DC’s mass transit agency. Many will say that Deuteronomy and other Biblical books have violent passages as well. However, nowhere do the Jewish or Christian Scriptures tell all believers in general to wage war against unbelievers as such. Only the Qur’an contains such passages. Also, Islam, …

New York City’s public transit authority has voted unanimously to place disclaimers on ads such as the ones recently posted by anti-Islam activist Pam Geller. Similar disclaimers are already posted adjacent to Geller’s ads on San Francisco’s MUNI. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved new guidelines for advertisements on Thursday, prohibiting those that it “reasonably foresees would imminently incite or provoke …

Amtrak says that last night it began testing trains at 165mph on the northeast corridor. Two test locations — from Perryville, Md., to Wilmington, Del., and from Trenton to New Brunswick, N.J. — currently have a speed limit of 135 mph. The two others — in Rhode Island from Westerly to Cranston and in Massachusetts from South Attleboro to Readville …

The NYC subway system has seen a recent rash of masturbators, flashers, gropers, and up-skirt video pervs. Gothamist provides a suggested MTA warning poster after another such incident this weekend. (It looks like an old MUNI car in the photo. It’s definitely not MTA.)

Pam Geller’s anti-Islam ads on San Francisco’s mass transit system are now paired with the above message. And she is LIVID: “The city of San Francisco condemns calling any group savage. I say we buy the SFMTA a one-way ticket to Taliban country, eh?” Earlier this month Geller won a court battle to place the same message on New York …

After some MTA signage misidentified the B and C trains, the New York Times wondered how many people actually navigate by the colors of the lines rather than their letters and numbers. I do tell house guests just to look for the green line after a day of sightseeing: “Green is for ‘go’, as in ‘go home to Joe’s.'” That …

The New York Times reports today on the Second Avenue subway, whose excavation explosions still rattle my apartment daily after almost two years of work. In Manhattan, where street traffic tends to stall, only one subway runs the length of the East Side. Every weekday, 1.3 million passengers — more than are carried in 24 hours by the transit systems …

Infamous anti-Islam blogger Pam Geller has won the court battle to place the above ad on NYC public transit. Apparently Geller believes a lasting peace can be won by calling 700,000 New Yorkers “savages.” The ruling comes from U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. His decision said the …

In a narrow vote, the California Senate has allocated $8B for the beginning of a high-speed rail system. The vote was dramatic because it barely passed with just 21 votes, exactly the number needed, after some arm-twisting by Governor Brown and under pressure of losing $3.3 billion in federal funding. A number of Democratic senators, including three who served on …

A high-ranking MTA official has been accused of using her position to get her partner a job. The couple says the investigation is a witch-hunt because of their sexual orientation. Sherry Herrington, the $170,000 operations chief at Metro-North Railroad praised her partner’s qualifications in an email to the human resources department without revealing their relationship, according to the report by …

New York City’s cab fares may go up by 20% before the start of summer. The city Taxi & Limousine Commission will consider a proposal next week to boost taxi fares for the first time since allowing a 24% increase in 2006. “The fare hasn’t changed since 2006, so it is reasonable for taxi drivers and fleet owners to put …

While I’ve blabbed on and on about the Second Avenue subway, I’ve made scant mention of the nation’s other massive public works project, the extension of the Long Island Rail Road to a huge new station buried 15 stories under Grand Central. That project’s biggest challenge is constructing a system of escalators that can rapidly move tens of thousands of …

What could possibly go wrong? Here’s a stunning idea — arming transit workers with Tasers so they can zap bad guys who menace them. It’s the brainchild of state Sen. Eric Adams (D-Brooklyn), who wants bus drivers, subway conductors and other transit workers to be able to protect themselves and passengers from crazy riders, criminals and even would-be terrorists. Transport …