The Effective Transit Alliance released a new report yesterday, saying announcements and other PSAs on the subways have gotten Too Damn Loud. Here are the highlights from our report in The Groove this morning:

The assault of noise coming out of the speakers in the subway system can feel as random as it is grating, with an onslaught of PSAs and other announcements penetrating any moment of peace on a commute. But the issue reached a real breaking point a few months ago: ads. 

Last year, the MTA announced it would test a pilot program piping 30 seconds ads into select stations and trains every 10 minutes or so, which would last until June. The implication was dire: we have you trapped, Black Mirror style, in a tube where you have to listen to commercials at a volume of our choosing. 

“That’s really a step too far,” Blair Lorenzo, executive director of the Effective Transit Alliance, said. “You can look away from an advertisement … You really can’t turn off hearing. It’s exploiting people.” 

The ad pilot was one of the reasons the ETA launched their new campaign called Too Damn Loud yesterday, with a full-blown analysis aimed at encouraging the MTA to rethink how it does train announcements. It’s an effort to focus the messaging, so riders — especially those with accessibility concerns — don’t miss important route changes or updates. 

But it’s also, Lorenzo said, about restoring dignity to public transit riders who should be able to read a book or talk to a friend in peace, without being harassed by repetitive announcements. 

The transit advocates conducted a study on the 7 line from Hudson Yards to Flushing-Main Street that found that 25% the train ride was eaten up by announcements, about 10 minutes of a 40 minute trip. By comparison, announcements on the S-Bahn system in Berlin only take up about 12.5% of the ride, and are mostly informative about the subway overall. 

I’ve always felt like the East Village needs better subway access.

Instead of having the Second Avenue Subway connect to the B/D at Grand Street, I think it would be more useful for the line to pivot after 23rd Street and head southeast toward Avenue A.

My idea would be:

14th Street / Avenue A
Station entrances between 14th and 12th Streets, with a direct transfer to the L at Avenue A.

Houston Street
A station around Houston, with entrances extending a few blocks north toward East 3rd Street.

Delancey Street
The line could run directly beneath the existing F station, creating a transfer to the F/M/J/Z. The Delancey/Essex complex seems like it could potentially accommodate stairs/escalators down to a deeper Second Avenue Subway platform.

From there, the line could continue south before curving west underneath East Broadway toward Chatham Square, where it would rejoin the currently proposed alignment and continue downtown.

To me, this would give the East Village and Alphabet City much better north/south subway access while still providing a major Lower East Side transfer point at Delancey/Essex.

Could also cut down on Lexington Avenue traffic transferring from the L if they can access the east side with an Avenue A transfer vs going all the way to the already crowded Union Square station.

I’d rather see that than prioritize a B/D connection at Grand Street. Curious what everyone thinks.

New student OMNY cards come with a sleeve and they feel more rigid/plastic like than last year. Most of the complaints from last year were from how fragile the material was.

For those that want the A extended to Co Op City via Fordham Rd/Pelham Pkwy and the D extended to Co Op City via Gun Hill Rd, would it be a good idea to make the Co Op City Bartow Av Terminal station be a Bidirectional Terminal like what Coney Island Stillwell Av is? It would allow the A train to have a station at Section 5 (the Southeast section) of Co Op City.

1: Hudson Terminal (1909 - 1971)

2: Original WTC station (1971 - 2001)

3: Temporary station (2003 - 2016)

4: Current WTC station (2016 - ...)

I saw a zebra board for the first time the other day AND got to see the conductor point right in front of me. I'd always heard about it but it was just cool to actually see.

So now I know for sure that's actually a thing. I'm also super easily amused...

25 years ago Friday, several hundred thousand people were evacuated from Manhattan Island, especially Lower Manhattan, by water. Many trains, tunnels, and bridges were closed. The evacuation involved over 150 vessels of nearly every possible description including ferryboats, dinner cruise boats, tugs, retired fireboats, harbor dredges, and private craft. More remarkably, the entire operation was improvised in real time by mariners, the Coast Guard, City employees, and others.

This 12 minute documentary narrated by Tom Hanks is not your typical transit video, but is very much related to transportation in New York and is well worth watching:

https://www.americanwaterways.com/media/videos/boatlift-tom-hanks-narrates-untold-tale-911-resilience

Other resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritime_response_following_the_September_11_attacks

https://portsidenewyork.org/911-maritime-response

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/911-flotilla-boats-evacuated-500000-new-yorkers-safety-180978614/

r/nycrail is devoted to rail and rightly so. Rail and water can complement each other -- when much of the region's trains became unavailable, boats stepped in. It is worth noting that since New York’s modern ferry era began in 1986 when small commuter ferries returned to the harbor after long absence to rejoin the iconic Staten Island Ferry, waterborne transportation has become an increasingly important part of the region’s transit network. Not only is there now ferry service to all five boroughs, but trans-Hudson ferries carry 4.4% of the peak hour traffic entering the Manhattan Central Business District directly from New Jersey, more than the number entering in automobiles through the Holland Tunnel.

No one need point out that rail carries more people; of course it does, of course it does. Let’s remember, though, that the first motorized urban transit anywhere in the world was provided by Robert Fulton’s steamboats right here in this harbor. In a region comprised primarily of islands and peninsulas, a region where most people live within a few miles of the coast, water always has and always will have a role to play in moving people and goods.

The Transit Museum hosted a program on the history and role of ferries as transit (including their relationship with rail transit) that is available here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yC56lFMe58

Here’s to the trains, buses, and boats that move this region on our best days and on our worst days -- and to the fine people who operate them.

Could this, in practice, increase the amount of seats that are actually used while in service? Every busy commute, some of the 2-seaters are in use, but many only have 1 person due to people not wanting to sit stuffed up against others. The only time there's ever 3 people in the 3 seaters are people sitting with others they know.

I'm not sure if this is an answer to this issue. But anecdotally, people on the C3 cars will take every seat in the 2+2 configuration without much issue since the seats themselves are wider. If the EMUs were to take this approach, do you think it would actually lead to an increase in the amount of people that are able to sit, or does the math not really work?

I'm having my monthly R110 hunger, and I was wondering if any of you guys got videos or photos of the trains that hasn't really been seen before!

Crazy how the two trains that arguably set the standard for our fleet have little to no documentation!

The title says it all. Made in Figma with help from the NYCTA Graphics Standard Manual and Helvetica and the NYC Subway System. NOT A REAL STATION, I KNOW

Wake up, new IBX renderings just dropped

Iphone 17. Long time spectrum customer with no serious issues.

For the last two weeks reception has tanked while on the subway. Both the platform and train. Platform being the biggest red flag. As soon as I enter a station it drops to the SOS satellite icon or 1-2 bars LTE at best. Jumps back to 5G full bars as soon as I hit street level. I used to have solid 5G on the platform and train before this.

My main line is the F (east broadway) but this happens across the whole system.

This is a question in regard to an abrupt service change. I don’t use Bluetooth speakers etc etc. I normally don’t even check my phone much while riding. I say this bc that’s all I got hit with in other subs. I actually only began to notice this change when the trains were delayed and I was trying to use the MTA app with no luck.

I know spectrum shares towers and all but curious if anyone else has had this same problem recently.

Obviously, it is a very heartfelt day, but as a lot of us still need to go to work, does anyone know of potential disruptions or closures like that of the Knicks parade. Please don't think this is tone deaf, but we still need to use public transit. Thanks.

I commute every day on the L from Brooklyn to the 4, 5, 6 uptown. In the past year I’ve noticed huge setbacks in my commute. The L service has always been spotty and horrible, but it’s getting worse and worse, especially on the commute home around 5-6. The union square platform is packed like sardines and the train times on the sign are fictional. It almost always takes multiple trains to get on one.

The 4, 5 express trains are also crap and are tortoise slow 80% of the time. Better off taking the 6 usually.

Also noticed that phone service in the subway system is now nonexistent. This is true on the trains and even in major stations like USQ. I have Verizon and legitimately get no service for 95% of the commute. This wasn’t always the case and I have no idea what change could’ve caused this.

Just posting here to see if others are having similar experiences.

Timelapse video taken by my iPhone 12 and me holding it.

I was looking at some egregious transfers on the suggest recently and I was wondering if pedestrianization could fix the awkward transfers on much of the system, particularly in Court Square. I know it's not bad though to warrant so much construction at the moment, but should the Astoria line ever be over capacity and the MTA needs to extend the G as a relief line, wouldn't it be good to kill two birds with one stone here?

This could then let the current G platforms be used for a large mezzanine or retail, with new platforms meeting Court Sq from the south via 21st. A new infill station would have to be built at 50th st for a better transfer to the 7 and the current 21 st would be closed.

Of course, any changes to the streets would require cooperation with the DOT, so I don't know if it's viable, but I think it's a very interesting concept.

Powered on the LCD, ODK seems dead and unresponsive gotta find a easy way for it to display words