After a rough winter that saw significant snowfall, freezing cold temperatures, and a heightened amount of media coverage, the MTA announced this morning that all of the various MTA agencies will be simultaneously taking a day off sometime soon.
The news release, which popped up on a hidden corner of the MTA's website late last night, said that at 11:59pm one evening, every MTA train, bus, subway, toll booth, and capital construction project will come to a screeching halt and every engineer, conductor, driver, motorman, and toll collector will shut the lights and head home. The MTA will be essentially closed for 24 hours. At 11:59pm 24 hours later, everyone will go back to their trains, buses, subways, or toll booths and pickup right where they left off.
The news release did not say anything about when the 24-hour hiatus will occour, only that the free vacation day will come sometime before April 30th. (The MTA wants to "keep us on our toes.")
"We just don't feel like we're really appreciated anymore," said the news release, "Maybe a day without the MTA will show our customers that trying our best is better than no MTA services at all."
The decision comes following a rough couple months for all of the MTA agencies. Both the LIRR and Metro-North saw large decreases in on-time percentage figures due to the weather (weather incidents that the evil railroads themselves caused, of course), and the commuters riding Metro-North down from the Hudson Valley and Connecticut have been behaving very badly (especially those spurred on by a certain "commuter advocate"'s misleading and often blatantly incorrect headlines) since Metro-North was forced to rapidly implement a number of speed restrictions without having the time to adjust the schedules to accommodate the slightly longer running times.
And the non-stop crankiness doesn't just carry on out in the suburbs. Subway and bus riders have been whining a lot lately too, some of them even launching their cars on top of innocent Q trains. Drivers on the area bridges have also been complaining about the increased number of potholes, among other complaints, and nearly all of the MTA's Capital Constuction projects are months behind schedule, so another day wouldn't hurt.
"Eh, I don't really care what happens to the people who ride the MTA anyway," said Governor Andrew Cuomo when he found out about the upcoming random closure of the MTA. This comes just a day after the governor did all New York Metro commuters a big favor by only stealing $30 million in transit funds instead of the $40 million he planned. Senator Chuck Schumer declined to comment after the reporter told him they weren't going to put him on camera.
So it looks like there is a very rough day in our near future. One morning we'll wake up to train stations with no trains (and grade crossings with lights flashing and gates down), bridges and tunnels with large traffic cones placed in front of their on-ramps, and unattended buses (locked, of course) randomly sitting in the middle of roadways. Apparently the riding public has pushed the MTA too far this time, and they're out to "teach us a lesson." Hopefully it will be a sobering wake-up call for many!
(April fools!)
April Fool!!!!!
ReplyDeleteGod, I'm slacking.
ReplyDeleteVery cute
ReplyDeleteAside from April Fools, could something like this really be possible?
ReplyDeletePractically, not really. But technically, I suppose it could very well happen.
ReplyDeleteThe timetables do say that:
So technically, the LIRR can change the schedules to run 0 trains for the day without notice and there would be nothing technically wrong with that.
And while we're at it, should I mention that the Main Line will be extended to Massachusetts under the Long Island Sound?
ReplyDelete(Is that seriously even possible?)
One of Amtrak's alternative alignments for a new dedicated high speed line to Boston went via Ronkonkoma and a Sound tunnel. Obviously that alternative was scrapped pretty early on.
ReplyDeleteIt was actually around this time last year that the NEC FUTURE Preliminary Alternatives Report came out and it had a second dedicated high-speed NEC alignment run via Hicksville or Ronkonkoma.
ReplyDeleteUnder that plan, there would essentially be a whole new NEC constructed on Long Island, vaguely following the route of today's Main Line, but it wouldn't actually run on today's Main Line, as that is full enough with commuter trains. I wouldn't say it's impossible, or if it's even off the table, but it's certainly impractical given the current financial outlook.
I am reminded of Improv Everywhere's Frozen Grand Central flash mob, just one lasting 24 hours.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't the Denton County A-Train in North Texas use Stadler DMUs? I also thought the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield, MA commuter train is also supposed to be using DMUs, although they are getting old Budd RDCs initially. It doesn't seem like there are too many regulatory barriers to using DMUs, especially on trackage with little or no freight traffic. How much freight runs on the North Fork anyway?
ReplyDeleteThe NHHS will be running with the current SLE equipment once it starts. ConnDOT has a decent surplus of locomotives in their SLE pool and about half of the Mafersa coaches are still sitting in storage, so they are fine with equipment for NHHS.
ReplyDeleteFreight traffic on the Mainline has actually increased substantially in recent years. They are losing freight customers on the north and south shores, but carloads to the customers along the Mainline have increased ten-fold, especially now that the Brookhaven Rail Terminal is taking in a ton of cars, Pineaire Yard was recently expanded, and they finished a huge new siding at Calverton not too long ago.
No matter how much of a joke this may be, the line "quoting" Cuomo as not caring about what happens to the people that ride the MTA is too real to be a joke. He continuously steals from the MTA by either removing already-dedicated funds or by other means (lower Verrazano tolls for SI residents, which will end up piggy-backed on everyone else).
ReplyDeleteVery good point and it happens all the time with severe snowstorms or signal disruptions around Jamaica or hurricanes when the LIRR was closed for 3 or 4 days!
ReplyDelete