Metropolitan Transportation Authority

When the L train in Williamsburg stopped running mid-morning and the northern end of the neighborhood temporarily grinded to a halt, two things came to mind. First, Williamsburg residents are almost completely reliant on one subway line. Second, there really is a Williamsburg “type.”

At around 9:50--rush hour in the neighborhood populated by young professionals, artsy types, and those who appear to be perennially unemployed--an anonymous voice announced to passengers impatiently waiting inside a First Avenue-bound subway car parked at the Bedford Avenue stop that service to Manhattan would be suspended. Hapless, confused-looking 20- and 30-somethings spilled out onto Williamsburg’s main strip on their cell phones, trying to arrange transportation, myself included.  read more »

Did Jerry and Rob Speyer dive into a project too big for the real estate giants to handle?

When Tishman Speyer Properties was announced winner of the West Side rail yards development rights in late March, the scene was a cheery one, with the governor and mayor on hand at the yards to hail the Speyers as victors. Now, with the deal apparently dead, the mood has changed substantially [background on the deal collapse here].

In the weeks since the March announcement, Tishman Speyer appeared to grow unexpectedly wary. What was ultimately the sticking point in negotiations—the firm wanted to wait an extra year or so before closing on the eastern rail yard, until the western rail yard was rezoned—was a point that Tishman accepted a few weeks back when it was selected.  read more »

With the West Side rail yards development deal on very shaky ground, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky today announced a bill that would chart a new course for the 26-acre parcel west of Penn Station, bringing in a new authority to follow a Battery Park City model of piecemeal development.

“Instead of selling at the bottom of the market for a price that was never really what the property was worth in the long run,” Mr. Brodsky said, “we should do what we know works.”

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which owns the rail yards, has been trying to sell them to a private firm to develop, though yesterday talks broke down with selected developer Tishman Speyer, which had planned to pay the M.T.A. about $1 billion for the property.  read more »

The deal for billions of dollars worth of development over the West Side rail yards collapsed Thursday afternoon, with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Tishman Speyer hitting an impasse in negotiations. The failure to reach a deal came more than five weeks after the M.T.A. announced Tishman Speyer as the winner of the development rights, after a months-long bidding contest between six of the city’s largest development firms.

According to a statement from the M.T.A., the failure to complete the deal came as Tishman Speyer refused to close on the agreement for the eastern half of the rail yards until the western half was rezoned, a process that could easily take until late 2009, if not 2010. The accord reached in late March held that Tishman would close on the eastern half; then, after the western half was rezoned, they would close the deal on that section, completing the deal. The total deal was estimated to bring the M.T.A. about $1 billion from Tishman.

The collapse in talks came one day after the M.T.A. passed a self-imposed seven-day deadline to finish negotiations and sign a conditional letter of designation, a document that was not signed when Tishman won the bidding. Officials said at the time of that announcement, in late March, that they were highly confident a final deal would be reached, characterizing the designation letter as something of a formality.  read more »

Five weeks after Tishman Speyer was announced the winner of the West Side rail yards, negotiations are still unfinished between Tishman, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the city, an M.T.A. spokesman confirmed.

The parties yesterday missed a seven-day deadline set by the M.T.A. at its board meeting last week, with the final details of a conditional letter of designation yet to be finalized.  read more »

When we walk down Broadway in Manhattan, we sometimes forget that New York is virtually surrounded by water. In fact, the five boroughs have 578 miles of shoreline. If global warming ends up melting enough sea ice at the poles to cause the sea level to rise, New York City is in a world of trouble.  read more »

Metropolitan Transportation Authority executive director Lee Sander seems a bit uncertain about the $100 million that developer Forest City Ratner owes the agency for Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards project. He had this to say earlier this month in a capital program “webinar” (no, we don’t quite know what that word is either), responding to a question about the MTA’s current capital plan:

There is $100 million associated with the sale of Atlantic Yards, and many of you have read in the newspapers some of the difficulty Forest City is having with that development, so hopefully that will proceed, but we want to make sure that that happens—but we’re concerned about that.

 read more »

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Tishman Speyer have missed their first deadline in the project to develop the West Side rail yards, as the date for the MTA to officially designate Tishman Speyer as the developer has come and gone.  read more »

On Friday morning, I posted about transit activists’ attempts to pressure the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to move V cars to the G train. Friday afternoon, we received from Jim Trent of the Queens Civic Congress a copy of the note he sent to MTA chief executive Elliot Sander, and the eight-page letter he received in response.  read more »

A developer for the West Side rail yards could be selected as early as tonight, with Tishman Speyer and a venture between the Durst Organization and Vornado Realty Trust leading the field, according to two people familiar with discussions.  read more »

The directors of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey were not part of the mass of resignations requested by the Paterson administration.

The Times Union reported today that Governor Paterson’s staff has asked all directors and commissioners to put in their letters of resignation so as to give the new governor more flexibility in shaping his administration.  read more »

Responding to fears of exploding construction costs, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has finished a financial review of its major capital initiatives, finding projects to be hundreds of millions more than previous estimates. Missing from the list, however, was the planned West Side extension of the No. 7 line, which would bring the subway from Times Square to the base of the Javits Center.  read more »

In an apparent effort to bolster political support for congestion pricing, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority released a $29.5 billion five-year capital plan for all sorts of transit improvements and updates today, counting on $4.5 billion to come from the mayor’s controversial plan.

Included in the capital plan are hundreds of new train and subway cars, updated signaling systems, money for the Second Avenue Subway, and a rebirth of a grand entrance to the redone Fulton Street Transit Center downtown (the entrance was scrapped last month in the name of cost overruns).

The message from the state agency was clear: if the Legislature does not approve congestion pricing, the MTA will have to substantially scale back its ambitions.  read more »

Revised bids for the West Side rail yards were due today, and Brookfield Properties did not submit a response, leaving four of the city’s biggest developers in a battle for control of the 26-acre site west of Pennsylvania Station.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which owns the site, put out a statement a few minutes ago saying that the agency had received four revised proposals, with no bid from Brookfield. The timeline, which puts selection of a developer in April, remains the same, the MTA said.  read more »

Marvin Franklin, an M.T.A. track worker, was killed by a train last April, after 22 years of working the night shift. For the last ten of those years, he had boarded the F train in Jamaica every morning, after getting off work at 7 a.m., and sketched other passengers all the way to the Art Students League on 57th Street, where he produced watercolors, oils and etchings based on his sketches.  read more »

Residents on the West Side are charging that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Bloomberg administration are proceeding irresponsibly with the planned 1.5-mile extension of the No. 7 subway line by starting the project before settling numerous lingering financial questions.

Manhattan’s Community Board 4, the land use-savvy group that helped defeat the West Side stadium plan in 2005, sent a letter earlier this month to the MTA and the city outlining concerns about the finances of the project, particularly its potential for large overruns. The project has a budget of $2.1 billion; a $1.1 billion tunneling contract has already been awarded; and the community board feels overruns are inevitable given that the stated project budget hasn’t changed since 2003.

The letter comes on the heels of the announcement last month by the MTA that plans for a grand entrance at the Fulton Street Transit Center downtown will be scrapped in the name of major cost overruns. The agency received a bid of about $500 million more than was budgeted for the final phase of the Fulton Street project, and has been forced to scale back its plans.  read more »

Letting local development corporations issue lots of debt for major projects like Hudson Yards could end up sticking the city with a hefty bill, a former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority warned City Council members today.

Dick Ravitch, who brought in billions in capital financing for the MTA in the 1980's, cautioned that if the residential and commercial developments don't bring in as much money as projected, the city might be stuck with the debt.  read more »

The troubles of the credit world seem to be hitting the public sector, too, as the Port Authority and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority each got zero bidders on a $100 million set of bonds yesterday.

No bidders means no sale, and no sale means these public authorities aren’t getting the up-front money they want and need for capital projects. A lack of bidders on the state agencies’ bonds tends to be rare, finance experts say, as they tend to be rated high and reliable.  read more »

An addendum to my post yesterday on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s decision process at the West Side rail yards: Almost four months after the five development teams first submitted proposals (and spent millions of dollars to do so), it seems the MTA is nearly ready to narrow the field.

The MTA, which owns the 26-acre rail yards, has asked the development teams to send in “supplemental proposals” that give a detailed financial payment plan for a 99-year lease on the property.  read more »

Rare in the world of government-administered mega-development projects, the West Side rail yards actually seem to be running on schedule (well, the schedule set late last year).

In documents sent late last month to the five teams vying to develop the yards, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s schedule indicated it wants a developer conditionally designated for each of the two yards (the eastern rail yards and the western rail yards, each 13 acres in size) by April 1, with the team (or teams) going into contract on the deal on Sept. 1, 2008.

A few other nuggets from the documents:  read more »

The New York Times' Charles Bagli reported over the weekend that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has asked the five bidders for the West Side rail yards to submit a new round of bids. Apparently, the MTA would like to now lease for 99 years the 26 acres of rail yard rather than sell it. The MTA, the yards' landlord, would also like an "equity-type interest" in any project built on the site on the far West Side of Manhattan.

The new bids are due by Feb. 19.  read more »

Mayor Bloomberg, from China, sends his best for the proposed M.T.A. fare hike. From a press release that just came out:

Based on the information that my staff and I have received and reviewed over the past few weeks, I am now satisfied that the MTA budget is a responsible plan that includes important cost reductions. I agree with Governor Spitzer that this fare increase is necessary to maintain an adequate level of service and balance the needs and obligations of all who use this critical part of the region’s infrastructure.  read more »

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From today’s Post:

“There’s hardly any capacity on the 4 line,” said Srancoise Batrice, 61, who lives in Yonkers and works in Lower Manhattan.

“There was a fight on the train and the men couldn’t even punch each other. They had to finish it on another train.”

Now that's crowded.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority started soliciting bids today for a text messaging system that would alert riders about service disruptions and planned track work. The system, a reaction to the chaos that followed the Aug. 8 storm, is expected to serve a million riders and go into operation as early as next spring.

Press release after the jump.  read more »

City Room reports this afternoon that the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a $1.14 billion contract to dig the tunnels for an extenstion of the No. 7 train.

It will run, under current plans, from Times Square to the Jacob Javits Convention Center, with one new station, at 34th Street and 11th Avenue.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is expected to announce a deal today that would allow subway commuters to use cell phones on subway platforms.

Six subway stations will pilot the program over the next two years; ultimately 277 stations will be hooked up.

The deal has been years in the making. Most recently, in January of 2006, the M.T.A. received four bids from service providers, but negotiations had stalled.  read more »

Yesterday, New York's political class lined up to condemn the politically insulated MTA-whose members are in effect appointed by the governor-for the third rain-caused system-wide disruption of the nation's most heavily used subway system in the past seven months.

They were right to do so.  read more »

Today is the day Governor Spitzer has been waiting for: Peter Kalikow plans to announce that he is resigning as chairman of the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, according to a state official.

It was back in June that Mr. Spitzer, at the time simply the presumptive governor, vowed to replace Mr. Kalikow, a real-estate developer and former owner of the New York Post, even though he really would not have the power to do so. Mr. Kalikow, just reappointed to a six-year term, promised to stay on—at first he said for one or two years or more, then he said until projects he wanted had gotten off the ground, and then he said sometime in the spring.  read more »

New M.T.A. chief Lee Sander was a skeptic about the long-planned East Side subway. Now he’s in charge of completing 33 blocks by 2013.  read more »

The new head to run the city's subways and buses, as The Post predicted a couple of weeks back, is Howard Roberts, a transportation consultant who once supervised the man who will now supervise him: Elliot (Lee) Sander, MTA chief executive and executive director.

The two worked together in New York City Transit's surface transportation division in the mid-1990's, Mr. Roberts as the division's chief operating officer and Mr. Sander as head of the Manhattan bus department. Full release after the jump.  read more »

- Matthew Schuerman

8:30 a.m. Metropolitan Transportation Authority Executive Director and CEP Elliot Sander will discuss MTA's capital program and expansion plans at a New York Building Congress Forum at The Grand Hyatt, 109 East 42nd Street.

10 a.m. The JPMorgan Chase Foundation will present $20,000 to fund a Harlem student's trip to Yellowstone National Park at the Future Leaders Institute Charter School, 134 West 122nd Street, between Lenox Avenue and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard.  read more »

10:15 a.m. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz will declare "Protect our Kids from Tobacco Advertising Day" at John Dewey High School, 50 Avenue X, between Stillwell Avenue and West 11th Street in Brooklyn.

9:30 a.m. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani rings the NASDAQ opening bell and receives an endorsement for his presidential election at the NASDAQ MarketSite, 4 Times Square.

9:30 a.m. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will hold a board meeting at 347 Madison Avenue.  read more »

11 a.m. The Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes honors women achievers at a Women's History Month luncheon at Brooklyn District Attorney's boardroom, 350 Jay Street.

With Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff and The New York Times breathing down his neck with talk of financing problems, MTA Capital Construction President Mysore Nagaraja announced on Tuesday that the agency had signed its first construction contract for the Second Avenue Subway (albeit $17 million over budget). The groundbreaking is coming some time in April.

Full release after the jump.  read more »

- Matthew Schuerman

Wednesday morning's article in The New York Times on how high bids are imperiling the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's massive expansion program goosed everybody at today's monthly meeting of the agency, which happened to be the first full board meeting for Eliot "Lee" Sander, Governor Spitzer's new MTA chief executive.

Mr. Sander said he was putting together a blue-ribbon panel that would convene in two or three weeks.

"We are going to hopefully come up with measures that will increase competition for the number of bidders on these contracts, deal with other issues that relate to the cost of construction, risk mitigation and other technical areas," he said.

MTA's top priority, Mr. Sander said, will be basic maintenance, followed by normal equipment replacement and mega-projects like the Second Avenue subway and East Side Access.

- Matthew Schuerman

Some of the biggest real-estate names, locally and nationally, are drawing up plans for a 70-story h  read more »

Katie Lapp, executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, will leave at the end of the year, Crain's reports. - Matthew Schuerman

Ever since Peter Falk lit the opening cigarette in the 1971 Broadway version of The Prisoner of Seco  read more »

It’s going to happen quickly and quietly, and the victims, for the most part, will end up going ba  read more »

It’s going to happen quickly and quietly, and the victims, for the most part, will end up goin  read more »

Isn't it ironic that the city's MTA chairman, Mr. Pete Kalikow, has his own special form of transportation? From The New York Times:

Another of Pininfarina's one-of-a-kind projects was a car for Peter S. Kalikow, the New York developer and chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The car is a tweaked Ferrari 612 -- what Bill Gates might call Release 1.1 of the Scaglietti. Mr. Kalikow and Mr. Pininfarina call it the 612K...

Ferraris are as much legend as brand, and Mr. Kalikow's brief to the designers of his special 612 has already become legendary. The charge was to change the basic car only slightly -- so slightly, in fact, that only 10 percent of Ferrari owners would notice the difference.

10%, huh? Contratulations, Mr. Kalikow.

- Max Abelson

This morning, board members of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority took it for granted that Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff's No. 7 extension was going to cost more than its $2 billion estimate, even throwing around numbers as high as $3.5 billion.

What that means is that the developers' tax payments would no longer cover the cost of running the line out to 11th Avenue and down to 34th Street. Instead, the M.T.A.--and, indirectly, the poor schmucks who take it to work each day--will have to help out.  read more »

"I don't think they are going to give us a billion-and-a-half-dollar blank check if there is an overrun like that," M.T.A. Chairman Peter Kalikow told his board. "I clearly think there are some areas where we should be covered for some of the overruns."

Osama bin Laden has never articulated the grim calculus of terrorism as pithily as an anonymous spok  read more »

Speaker Quinn Talks Sense    read more »

As the labor dispute afflicting the city’s transit system trundles on—yes, the subways and buses  read more »

As the labor dispute afflicting the city’s transit system trundles on—yes, the subways a  read more »

It's time for John Liu's fourth media advisory of the week!

Transportation Committee to Investigate "Private Van Services: Vital Transportation Options or Accidents Waiting to Happen?"

Presumably it's a fact-finding mission. Oops, one fact is already in evidence! Here's the rest of the press release:

Council Members will announce a Transportation Committee hearing on the City's regulation and enforcement of private van services. Demand in areas of the City underserved by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has led to a proliferation of so-called "dollar vans" - many of which are unlicensed by the City. Jennifer Gibbons, a 56-year-old subway cleaner, was struck and critically injured - reportedly by a privately-operated van service - on March 4, 2006 while she walking home in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn.

Hmm. I think I know where this Investigation is headed. If they gather enough evidence, maybe they can get the dollar-van driver's to turn state's evidence against Kalikow's irresponsible M.T.A.!

Meanwhile--I need some dollar vans in my neighborhood--the B61 sucks, and so does the L.

- Tom McGeveran

Memo to M.T.A.: Meet Ray Kelly    read more »

Memo to M.T.A.: Meet Ray Kelly  read more »

Slow progress toward standardizing the payment method for travel throughout the region on ferries, buses, subways and commuter rail hit a turning point with the introduction at PATH stations of special cards that allow you to wave your wallet at the turnstile to get through.

Eventually, of course, the banks will get involved:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, another member of the consortium, plans to test a different payment system in 25 subway stations this spring. In that test, Citigroup and MasterCard International will fit turnstiles with readers that will accept Citibank MasterCard PayPass cards for payment. Those cards, already used at gas stations and grocery stores, are linked to the user's credit card or bank accounts.

- Tom McGeveran

Transit Union’s Toussaint: Time to Go Now that members of the Transit Workers Union have foolishl  read more »