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MTA to city’s workforce: Just stay home


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MTA to city’s workforce: Just stay home

June 12, 2017 | 2:45pm | Updated

 
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Robert Miller

 

LIRR service is going to be so hellish this summer that the MTA is begging businesses to let their commuters work off hours — or better yet, let them not come into the city at all.

 

“This is really an all-hands-on-deck action plan,” said MTA Executive Director Ronnie Hakim as the agency grapples with the nightmarish scenario of upcoming track repairs at Penn Station.

“It’s going to be a long, hot summer.”

 

The unprecedented move is part of a new MTA “awareness campaign’’ to remind riders of the expected travel turmoil while Amtrak performs the repairs, agency officials said.

 

This week, the MTA will begin sending “letters to employers encouraging flexible work hours and locations” — like their homes — between July 10 and at least Sept. 1, Hakim said.

 

The agency wouldn’t say which businesses were going to receive the requests, but it didn’t matter to riders — who roundly accused the agency of going off the rails with the plan.

 

“They think they can just tell people when to go to work?” rider Lisa Gorden, 38, who lives near Valley Stream, LI, asked. “It doesn’t work like that!”

 

Lance Millionz added in a tweet, “Working ‘odd hours’ is an unacceptable solution for some parents.’’

Even City Hall thumbed its nose at the plan.

 

Asked whether the city would allow its workers to rearrange their schedules to avoid the LIRR during rush hours, spokesman Ben Sarle told The Post, “We don’t have any announcements coming up regarding remote work.”

 

“We are advising employees to adjust their commutes appropriately’’ given the expected train delays, he said in an e-mail.

 

“In the past, even in significant weather events, city employees are expected to report to work to make sure the city runs as smoothly as possible for the sake of all New Yorkers.”

 

The MTA plan was devised by a 15-member volunteer task force that included Joe Lhota, the agency’s former chairman.

 

Hakim said the MTA is also working on other ways to help commuters affected by Amtrak’s summer construction.

MTA is asking employers to tell their workers stay home or work odd hours. 

 What if our transportation system could work for us, as opposed to us arranging our lives around the screwups of our transportations system?

 

For example, the MTA plans to add new LIRR trains during rush hour, lengthen the existing trains and add bus and ferry services to and from Long Island, the agency said.

 

Three new Penn Station-bound trains will be added to the early part of the morning rush and two more to the evening rush, said MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan.

 

Still, two trains will be canceled during the morning rush and 13 will terminate at an earlier station. Seven will be canceled during the evening rush and 10 terminated elsewhere.

 

Three overnight trains between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. will be canceled, the agency said.

 

Meanwhile, two new ferry routes — one beginning in Glen Cove, LI, and the other in Long Island City, Queens — will accommodate about 2,400 commuters, the MTA said.

 

Eight park-and-ride buses also will run from 6 to 10 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. to bring passengers from various parts of Long Island to Midtown Manhattan, officials said.

 

The services will be free to LIRR monthly and weekly ticketholders. All ticketholders will also be granted free morning subway transfers.

 

Two derailments at Penn Station earlier this year severely hampered train traffic, especially for LIRR and NJ Transit customers.

 

Source: http://nypost.com/2017/06/12/this-might-be-the-mtas-dumbest-solution-for-summer-commuters/

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It seems like 2017 is the year the MTA goes to hell. Not 100% their fault but if they actually looked for non-half assed contractors I think it would be better.

The contractors is just the least of their problems.  They simply can't handle the commuters.  There hasn't been a day without some incident, and the problems have been quite severe.  Hudson Line was delayed 30 - 60 minutes this morning because of an "incident" at 138th street.  No more information given as to why people are delayed up to an hour.  Subways were a mess this morning too.  They need a contractor to teach them about PR because they've been horrible with doing things like keeping passengers abreast.  I have to think that if this situation doesn't improve soon, more and more people will start leaving NYC and moving elsewhere.  You can't rely on the (MTA) to get you anywhere anymore and people have to work.  Telling people to stay home and work from home as if we all have the luxury of doing that is just stupid. The people that can work from home already are.  They are costing commuters money... Paying additional monies just to get to and from work on top what the (MTA) is charging, and then on top of that they have the audacity to come up with this "campaign". 

 

The other thing that annoys me is them trying to encourage people to use service off hours.  Well that sounds great, but they don't want to provide enough service off hours to accommodate commuters, so there's another @ss backwards approach.

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The contractors is just the least of their problems.  They simply can't handle the commuters.  There hasn't been a day without some incident, and the problems have been quite severe.  Hudson Line was delayed 30 - 60 minutes this morning because of an "incident" at 138th street.  No more information given as to why people are delayed up to an hour.  Subways were a mess this morning too.  They need a contractor to teach them about PR because they've been horrible with doing things like keeping passengers abreast.  I have to think that if this situation doesn't improve soon, more and more people will start leaving NYC and moving elsewhere.  You can't rely on the (MTA) to get you anywhere anymore and people have to work.  Telling people to stay home and work from home as if we all have the luxury of doing that is just stupid. The people that can work from home already are.  They are costing commuters money... Paying additional monies just to get to and from work on top what the (MTA) is charging, and then on top of that they have the audacity to come up with this "campaign". 

 

The other thing that annoys me is them trying to encourage people to use service off hours.  Well that sounds great, but they don't want to provide enough service off hours to accommodate commuters, so there's another @ss backwards approach.

 

That Hudson Line thing was a suspicious package on an overpass.

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That Hudson Line thing was a suspicious package on an overpass.

I'm glad I opted for the express bus this morning.  I saw a train just sitting at the Morris Heights station while on the Deegan and was wondering what was going on and then checked the status page of the (MTA) which mentioned the delays. The night before, my train was almost 20 minutes late.  No idea why either, but it actually worked in my favor for once.

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The other thing that annoys me is them trying to encourage people to use service off hours. Well that sounds great, but they don't want to provide enough service off hours to accommodate commuters, so there's another @ss backwards approach.

True that the city is evolving without warning, and this is my main concern too. IMO I think there's not enough being done for the system in general. For starters, the weekend/long-term work on the subway is being half-assed, and they Cuomo just wants to focus on making transit look good and not really "fix" the main problems. I know the Penn station issue is out of LIRR's hands, but at the same time wasn't the East side access project originally supposed to be done by 2019?
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Would it not make more sense to reroute trains to LIC rather than to Hunterspoint Avenue? That way, they presumably could eliminate the need for a shuttle bus to the ferry terminal.

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True that the city is evolving without warning, and this is my main concern too. IMO I think there's not enough being done for the system in general. For starters, the weekend/long-term work on the subway is being half-assed, and they Cuomo just wants to focus on making transit look good and not really "fix" the main problems. I know the Penn station issue is out of LIRR's hands, but at the same time wasn't the East side access project originally supposed to be done by 2019?

No, the city has been evolving now for YEARS.  The (MTA) knows what's going on, but they clearly have no plan to deal with the people that need to use the system now, let alone in the future, and it's quite alarming.  I don't know where all of this leads.  What I have noticed, are more politicians doing studies about how transportation is hurting NYC economically and looking at potential fixes.  Lots of talk... Little action... Here's an example below from the Manhattan Borough President:

 

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2017-06-05%20Transportation%20Committee%

Would it not make more sense to reroute trains to LIC rather than to Hunterspoint Avenue? That way, they presumably could eliminate the need for a shuttle bus to the ferry terminal.

The idea isn't to eliminate options for commuters. They're supposed to give them MORE options because they're cutting so many trains. 

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The idea isn't to eliminate options for commuters. They're supposed to give them MORE options because they're cutting so many trains. 

No, that's not what I meant. The (MTA) plans to reroute trains to Hunterspoint Avenue, and provide a shuttle bus from there to the waterfront. I'm asking if it would make more sense to extend those trains one station further to Long Island City, and possibly eliminate the need for a shuttle bus. Nobody would lose any options as a result of this.

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No, that's not what I meant. The (MTA) plans to reroute trains to Hunterspoint Avenue, and provide a shuttle bus from there to the waterfront. I'm asking if it would make more sense to extend those trains one station further to Long Island City, and possibly eliminate the need for a shuttle bus. Nobody would lose any options as a result of this.

I would imagine they aren't doing that to prevent congestion.  Don't see any other reason quite frankly.

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No, that's not what I meant. The (MTA) plans to reroute trains to Hunterspoint Avenue, and provide a shuttle bus from there to the waterfront. I'm asking if it would make more sense to extend those trains one station further to Long Island City, and possibly eliminate the need for a shuttle bus. Nobody would lose any options as a result of this.

Long Island City station has very short platforms and doesn't have third rail on most of its tracks.

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All these problems make me think of the not so good old days in the 80s when Metro North (formed in 1983) first got started after taking over Conrail passenger trains and how badly out of shape everything was. Even with the NYC Subways. For all the effort made to turn things around in the 90s, things have horribly regressed.

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All these problems make me think of the not so good old days in the 80s when Metro North (formed in 1983) first got started after taking over Conrail passenger trains and how badly out of shape everything was. Even with the NYC Subways. For all the effort made to turn things around in the 90s, things have horribly regressed.

It still is getting better, just REALLY REALLY Slowly, the amount of ridership caused a tremondous amount of strain on the subway system. So much that doing work on Weekends and Late Nights is not enough. We need to start closing trunk lines in Manhattan for a temporary basis, go in do it, work on the next line.

Long Island City station has very short platforms and doesn't have third rail on most of its tracks.

Long Island City has third rail to its primary platforms I believe. However there is one really short platform at the edge of a railroad yard. The ferry is about 3 blocks from there. People still should consider taking the (7) however from Hunterspoint.
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I wonder what would be cheaper -- putting up a few temporary wooden platforms for the summer at LIC, or running the shuttle bus service from Hunterspoint Avenue?

 

However, this doesn't consider the state of electrification at LIC. If almost none of the tracks are electrified, that may be what makes running more service to LIC not feasible.

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Just stay home... :huh:.....In todays economy just stay home huh while work gets done. :wacko: ...Trust me if that was an option it will be the 1st ill use 

My boss doesn't like anyone working from home regularly and most bosses are the same.  Working from home isn't as lovely as it seems anyway.  You're expected to be available whenever you're needed and meetings via conference call can be rather annoying.  Quite frankly, I don't care for taking work home with me, so once I leave the office, e-mails aren't checked until the next business day, unless the client urgently needs something or I'm off/out of the office in meetings, and in such cases, I'll periodically check e-mails.  There's only certain positions that really allow you to work from home anyway.  I knew a lady that used to take the X16 with me.  She worked three days a week and worked from home Thursday and Friday.  Sounds sweet, but she was buried in work for those two days.

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It seems like 2017 is the year the MTA goes to hell. Not 100% their fault but if they actually looked for non-half assed contractors I think it would be better.

The MTA also seems unfazed by the criticisms that came from the Comptroller's office.

In my view, they were never meant to succeed.

They're the perfect shell company, designed to stall for time and avoid reality.

I wonder what would be cheaper -- putting up a few temporary wooden platforms for the summer at LIC, or running the shuttle bus service from Hunterspoint Avenue?

 

However, this doesn't consider the state of electrification at LIC. If almost none of the tracks are electrified, that may be what makes running more service to LIC not feasible.

What about that Triboro rail proposal I read about once?

Does Amtrak own those tracks? If so, do you think, given the dismal performance at Penn Station, that the MTA can exercise a clause in its lease that would allow them to run trains through them to alleviate congestion?

 

If I read the article correctly, it would utilize existing rail and connect to over a dozen dormant platforms throughout the NYC subway system.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So I'm hearing that Coach USA bus companies, Academy and North Fork will be providing substitute bus service to help out with the LIRR. Now among these Coach USA companies (to include Community Coach and Suburban Trails): Lenzner of Pennsylvania, and Dillon's in Maryland. I'd like to see how this is going to work

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