NEW YORK CITY TRANSIT RIDERS COUNCIL
MINUTES OF February 23, 2017
A meeting of the New York City Transit Riders Council (NYCTRC) was convened at 12:00 noon on February 23, 2017 in the 16th Floor Conference Room at 2 Broadway, New York City.
The following members were present:
Andrew Albert Christopher Greif
William K. Guild Sharon King Hoge
Trudy L. Mason Edith Prentiss
Burton M. Strauss, Jr.
The following members were absent:
Stuart Goldstein Marisol Halpern
Scott Nicholls
In addition, the following persons were present:
Ellyn Shannon PCAC Associate Director
Angela Bellisio PCAC Planning Manager
Bradley Brashears PCAC Transportation Planner
Karyl Cafiero PCAC Research Associate
Jason A. Pinero Concerned citizen
Kevin Zeng Concerned citizen
Troy Odendhal FTA
| Video 1 | |
| 00:30 | E. Shannon: Update on W. Henderson surgery- (within Chairs report). |
| 08:40 | T. Mason: Council discussion on reformatted minutes. M. Mason would like more time point information and has corrections for January minutes. |
| 13:12
15:14 20:38 |
C. Greif: Correction for January minutes. Suggests abbreviating YouTube links.
W. Guild: Suggests more narrative and reiterates this is a work in progress. A. Albert: Recommends approving January minutes in March. |
| 21:10 | Board Report |
| 23:00 | Discussion of proposed $67 million cut from MTA budget.
E. Shannon: Finance committee – the MTA reduced its budget by $67M in the out years also. Committee Chair L. Schwartz said Governors proposed budget is a one year budget, but provided no discussion of what happens in future years. |
| 28:03 | E. Shannon- there is a difference between actual service and scheduled service. |
| Video 2
00:25 |
A. Albert: the Board discussed service decline and the reported service indicators. There should be an Excess Travel Time metric. |
| 01:32 | T. Mason: Describes delays she had on her commute from 86th Street. |
| 03:50
|
A. Albert: Reports terminal OTP Committee discussion. If the train is late, crew doesn’t get a break. It’s possible trains are short turned – an effective service cut. |
| 05:50 | C. Greif: Reports waiting times on the N/D lines are terrible. |
| 07:07
|
S. King-Hoge: Asks why trains are stopping between stations.
E. Shannon: Explains Wait Assessment measures only platform wait times. |
| 08:36 | E. Shannon: National Transit Data Base (NTD) captures scheduled and actual miles on the system and is reviewing the data. |
| 11:30 | E. Shannon: It is difficult to capture platform crowding accurately and the number of times people need to pass up a train because it is full. |
| 14:04 | A. Albert: Two Board members advocate for platform doors but doors have many issues: multiple car types, doors in different places, slow to close. R211 car order has open gangway cars, but if someone blocks a door it is still blocked. |
| 18:30 | A. Albert: A procurement passed mandating cameras in M7 operator cabs. Bus cameras are only used to record accidents. The bill giving MTA the ability to use cameras for lane enforcement has sunset.
Action Item: Get bill number and sponsors |
| 22:00 | A. Albert: Discusses how the MTA should function as one system (i.e. Freedom Ticket). Explains that the LIRR doesn’t make announcements at Woodside about transit connections to the Q70 to LaGuardia. |
| 23:23
|
A. Albert: Discusses problems with getting in and out of LaGuardia airport and the introduction of the free airport bus. |
| 27:00 | A. Albert: The MTA Capital Plan Amendment was voted on by the MTA Board. Some items were pushed to next Capital Program due to the Governor’s Enhanced Station Initiative program (ESI). The stations added to the ESI include: 163rd St, 110th ST, 86th St. and 72ndstations on the 8Th Ave line. A vent plant construction will be moved to 2020-2024 Capital Plan. By moving projects to the next Capital Program they will cost more. |
| Video 3 | |
| 05:40 | A. Albert: Proposes service monitoring project. Describes report from 2000. |
| 07:30 | T. Mason: Suggests including service diversions. |
| 10:23 | T. Mason moves to delay stations report to work on subway delay report. |
| 12:44 | E. Shannon: Discussion of Department of Buses meeting. |
| 14:35 | T. Mason hands out information packet. She was contacted by 72nd Street Neighborhood Association on the need for a 72nd St. M15 SBS.
Action item: NYCTRC to write letter supporting adding the M15 72nd Street SBS stop. |
| 25:50 | E. Prentiss: Asks for clarity on co-located stops local vs SBS.
T. Mason: Stops are within the same block, but not at exactly the same location. |
| 28:20 | Action Item: Include in letter that M15 local buses should be increased. As we have previously stated we would also ask NYCT to look at the ratio between M15 SBS buses and M15 local buses. |
| 29:47 | A. Albert: Calls the question on a motion that NYCTRC ask that MTA again look at bus ratio. Send to Daryl Irick and Steve Vidal, and CC those NYCT staff that were in the bus meeting and CC Trudy. Motion passes by vote of members. |
| Video 4 | Old Business |
| 00:00 | S. King-Hoge: Nothing has been done about people sleeping on subway
A. Albert: Will bring up topic with Chief Monaghan. |
| 04:50 | E. Prentiss: Continued issues
1. B51 is it ever coming back? Can’t get from City Hall to BK. 2. Elevator outages @ Columbus Circle since Sun. 3. When will NYC Transit publish the large print maps? 4. Disparate signage on SAS @ 63 St. 5. No shuttle @ Dyckman when #1 not running on weekend. Only a night shuttle. 6. Bad wayfinding signs @ Fulton. |
| 11:00 | T. Mason: Bad signage at Fulton Center and at 63rd Street. |
| 13:40 | A. Albert: Will send something about Fulton station and 63rd Street signage. |
| 14:10 | Action Item: Send a letter asking MTA to publicize Bus Time |
| 14:40 | New Business |
| 14:42 | K. Cafiero: No new maps available at 3 Stone Street. |
| C. Grief: Transfer connections are not announced. Some conductors do, some don’t. | |
| 18:28 | T. Odenhal: Executive orders say sanctuary agencies won’t be eligible for Federal funding. MTA has not yet identified self as sanctuary agency. |
| 20:00 | Adjournment |
Meeting Videos
Video 1 of 4 Chairs Report, Board Report
Video 2 of 4 Board Report Cont.
Video 3 of 4 Discussion of Service Monitoring Report
Video 4 of 4 Old Business/ New Business
Action Items:
- Get bill number and sponsors
- The NYCTRC should write a letter to say they would like a 72nd Street SBS stop.
- Include in letter that M16 local buses should be increased.
- Send a letter asking MTA to publicize Bus Time
- Is NYCT printing updated large print map with new SAS stations?
Response: yes MTA is just starting the process and there is no date on when it will be released.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:00 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Ellyn Shannon
Associate Director