July 25, 2018

Good morning, I’m Ellyn Shannon, PCAC Associate director, and I’m here to speak about the progress reports we heard last month from 2 of the MTA Board’s working groups. The update provided by Commissioner Moerdler highlights simplifying, streamlining, and expediting the procurement process – a key component of the Fast Forward plan. We are happy to hear, the group has set a significant goal, shortening the procurement timeline process from 278 days to 113, a nearly 60% reduction to the current timeline. Or the difference of a procurement taking 9 months vs 3.5 months. This would be game changing for the MTA’s ability to attract competitive bids.

Even more so when combined with the healthy recommendations from Commissioner Rechler’s group, which focused on the need to demonstrate that the MTA spends it Capital investment money wisely. They looked at driving costs down and also, increasing project bids. Problems that drive bidders away also drive costs up, such as, requiring contractors to assume all risks on a capital projects which leads to worst case scenario bidding folded into the price. We encourage, anyone interested in improving the MTA’s project costs, and timelines to watch these two presentations from the June MTA Board Meeting.

We applaud, Chairman Lhota for leveraging the deep skills that this volunteer MTA Board possess. We at the PCAC believe it is now time to create a public dashboard, using performance benchmarks to show MTA stakeholders, where the MTA is now, and let everyone watch as the MTA follows through on the recommendations being put forward from these working groups. Particularly important in light of the needs for the next Capital Program.

We look forward to today’s reports from Commissioner Vanterpool on Access A Ride, and Commissioner Greenberg on Transit Accessibility. We New Yorkers have an MTA Board to be proud of. Thank you.

Download here: 072518 PCAC MTA Board Working Groups

The post PCAC Statement – July 25, 2018 – MTA Board Working Groups appeared first on PCAC.

June 18, 2018

I’m Ellyn Shannon, the Associate Director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA. The Transit Riders Council has been in talks with Transit for several years regarding how delays are reported in the Transit Committee book. We very much appreciate the efforts and changes that have been made by President Byford and his team in recent months.

Its also great to see that you’ve been able to reduce the lag time for reporting several performance indicators so this month we can see May’s performance, rather than waiting until next month!

We are also happy to see many of your 12 month trend lines turning in the right direction:
• Weekday and Weekend major incidents down over the last 12 months.
• MDBF 12 month Up!
• Elevator/Escalator trending Up!
• Service Delivery for both Weekday and Weekend is improving, thank you for the greater schedule adherence! While schedule revisions were required to make this happen in the short term. We look forward to what is learned from the timer analysis to help improve the run times.

The system’s resiliency once an incident occurs is also a critical improvement we are watching for.

While avg. trains per incident remains a struggling area you have managed to decrease the time it takes to recover from an incident over the year and that is not insignificant, hopefully the trains per incident reductions will follow shortly.

Thank you for all the work NYC Transit has been doing to improve the passenger experience. It is still a long road ahead, and further Operational and Capital investments are critical to keep this momentum going.

Download here: 061818 NYCTRC NYCT Operations Report

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Good morning Chairman Lhota and Commissioners. I am Ellyn Shannon, the Associate Director of the PCAC. First I want to give great Kudos to the bus turn around coalition for their hard fought efforts, and to Darryl Irick, President Byford and Jonathan their team for the visionary bus plan put forward on Monday.

In the interest of furthering the surface transportation discussion two items remain an obstacles to full success. The desperate need for bus lane camera enforcement and congestion pricing. We at the New York Transit Riders Council are disappointed there is no clear congestion pricing proposal for the Board to get behind. We have a proposal that will make valuable inroads in the discussion.

We hear some elected officials talk about the burden of congestion pricing on drivers. But, the burden of congestion on MTA riders, is still only vaguely defined by the MTA. That is why we are proposing the MTA conduct an Economic Analysis of the cost of congestion on the MTA and its riders. Clear numbers from MTA need to be put out there. Let me explain a few of those costs we are talking about.

Running a slow system costs more than running a fast system. This applies to both buses and subways. Here are the costs you incur.

If every weekday, your run time during the peak is 30-40% longer than the off peak due to congestion, then you need to address several items:
Because it means:
a. You need more buses for the route
b. You need more mechanics
c. You need more depot space
d. You need more bus operators
e. You need more fuel
f. You lose revenue, as bus rider’s switch to Ubers or move to the subway and add to the overcrowding.

Today we’d like your support in advancing an Economic Impact analysis on the cost of congestion to the MTA and its riders. Because by reducing congestion you can run more frequent service and provide greater reliability of that service to the riders for the same amount of money.

Thank you

Download here:042518 NYCTRC MTA Board Cost of Congestion

The post NYCTRC Testimony – April 25, 2018 – The Cost of Congestion to NYCT appeared first on PCAC.

Good morning President Byford! It’s been two months, and we remain thankful that you have come south to our system! I am Ellyn Shannon, the Associate Director of the PCAC.

There is no small amount of press covering the issues on bus and subway concerns right now. However you have remained a steady, clear and thoughtful voice in every article. The voice of integrity, transparency, and a willingness to address areas of critical importance that have long gone unaddressed. While emotions are high, we also understand the high integrity of those running the system. And how hard those in the Department of Subways and Operations Planning are working on behalf of all the riders. While the press is also working hard to improve the system, this acknowledgment is missing from their coverage.

The most recent issue is that of the subway timers in the system that are causing track speeds to be slower than necessary in some areas. When the signal timer plan was first devised, it did not unduly affect operations, given the system was not at capacity and ridership was significantly lower. But now, slow track speeds are compromising the systems resiliency after an incident.

We appreciate that within the first few weeks of your arrival, you took the issue seriously, put a task force together to review this potential root cause. We appreciate your focus and drive to solve our problems. We also recognize that the ultimate answer is CBTC, across all our lines.

Today our greatest hope is that the leaders in Albany, NYC and this MTA board provides you with the solid support needed to improve the track speed deficiencies – thus improving the resiliency of the system after a major incident and decreasing travel times for our riders.

Thank you.

The post NYCTRC Statement – March 19, 2018 – Subway Signal Timer Delays appeared first on PCAC.

Good morning and welcome President Byford! It feels very good to be able to say that. I am Ellyn Shannon, the Associate Director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee (PCAC) to the MTA. Created in 1981 by the New York State Legislature, PCAC’s mission is to advise the MTA on behalf of its public transit users on items such as the formation and implementation of MTA policy and holding the MTA Board and management accountable to the riders.

As advocates, we believe that transparency is the best way to get stakeholders on-board for the work that must be done to turn the subway system around.

Our New York City Transit Riders Council has worked closely with New York City Transit staff to develop the recently released Subway Performance Dashboard; we love the end product. It serves as a great tool for understanding subway performance. We hope you’ll keep it in mind when you review the Elevator and Escalator report that will be presented to this Committee next month. Now we’d like to see Transit staff create an Elevator and Escalator dashboard as a means of improving transparency on this very important issue.

We pushed hard for creating some of the new metrics found in the dashboard, such as the major delay metric. Which is now allowing us to finally understand, which lines are most affected by major delays and these huge rider disruptions.

We are using these new metrics to assess the performance of the Subway Action Plan. We believe that the integrity of every metric NYC Transit reports plays a vital role in garnering the trust of the riders.

Our greatest hope is that you will be given the leeway to do the job you were brought here to do, which entails leading our remarkable subway and bus system back to being the pride for all New Yorkers.

Thank you and we look forward to working with you.

Download here: 012218 NYCTRC NYCT Committee Welcome Byford

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The Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA (PCAC) has long advocated for better subway performance metrics to reflect the true rider experience. In 2011, the PCAC produced a report called Minutes Matter, examining existing performance metrics and shedding light on the need to capture passenger-based metrics. Then in 2013 the PCAC embarked on another data-driven report entitled, The MTA in the Age of Big Data, calling for the application of data analytics and trend-based visualizations to improve performance reporting to the MTA Board and to both internal and external stakeholders. These reports helped to inform NYC Transit’s decision to include passenger-based metrics such as Additional Platform Time and Train Travel Time. Metrics such as these, gives riders and stakeholders information they can understand and care about, and decision-makers the ability to make more informed decisions when it comes to service, maintenance, and capital needs.

Understanding how much service is being provided by lines means that Transit is just one step away from adding a critical overcrowding metric. 

Some stations already reach dangerous levels of overcrowding when there is a subway delay. Having this public crowding metric will mean a better response to addressing overcrowding and possibly the political push that is needed to make investments that reduce crowding. That is high on our wish list now for the next dashboard iteration, as well as the crucial performance metrics for bus, Access-A-Ride and the Capital Program.

The dashboards role in planning for the MTA systems future is critical.  

In late 2018, the 20 Year Needs Assessment will come out. Its purpose is to inform the investments to be made in the 2020-2024 Capital Program. If the public wants a reliable system, it must learn more about the system. Not just how to get around on it, it must understand the cause of delays and push for the necessary system investments to keep it going.

The PCAC looks forward to working with the new information tools.

The PCAC thanks the skilled staff at NYC Transit for this innovative initiative. The dashboard’s success is dependent on its users, which is why the PCAC is committed to working closely with NYC Transit to refine these tools as improved data and analytical capabilities allow. These performance metrics provide an enhanced view of subway performance allowing us and others to tap into insights, take corrective actions, and push for the system’s success.

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