Public Transportation

Ads Calling Jihadists Uncivilized "Savages" To Appear in NYC Subways. What Could Go Wrong?

There's a reason you see an army of law-enforcement officials armed with semi-automatic weapons in New York City's subways: Public transportation in New York City is a prime target for terrorists who want to blow us up.So where better to place provocative ads insulting Muslim jihadists than New York ... More >>

Will Subway Stations Soon Have Wifi?

Subway fares might be going up, The MTA's capital plan might be funded by debt, and the city's mass transit lines might be overrun by rats but hey, commuting in New York might not be all bad. Boingo and Transit Wireless will start hooking up wifi in the city's subway stations over the next five yea ... More >>

Occupy Wall Street Affiliates Chain Subway Gates Open For Fare Strike

A group calling itself the "Rank and File Initiative" claimed credit yesterday for opening up more than 20 subway stations throughout the city for free entry. Chaining open emergency gates at stations on the F, L, R, Q, 3, and 6 lines during rush hour yesterday morning, the anonymous activists post ... More >>

MTA Plans 59 More Nights of Subway Closures This Year

Brace yourselves -- MTA plans at least 59 more nights of subway closures this year under its new FasTrack program. In total, that adds up to 413 hours of limited service on certain subway lines. Every month this year (except August and December) will see at least one major line shut down for repairs ... More >>

New York's Ugliest Rat Calls Seventh Avenue Station Home

via Rat Free Subways​Let's face it -- as New Yorkers, we have certainly seen our fair share of ugly rats. They're in the parks, in the subway, and if you're particularly unlucky, in your apartment building. But this rat -- this rat is the ugliest, at least according to the Transit Workers Un ... More >>

The NYC Subway from Birth to Now, in One Gif

It's been a good few days for subway nerdists -- earlier in the week we were all agawk over the "Lost Subways" map of NYC, which showed the subways that would have been but weren't. Yesterday we saw what happens when people stop being real and start being polite (even friendly!) on the subway. Today ... More >>

How Happy Is Your Subway Stop?

The L train = happy by day, happier at night. ​Making us happy today is a project called HappyStance, recent winner of Hack Day and "a mashup of Twitter geo-location API data and sentiment analysis research," reports the New York Times. Essentially, it's an app, created by Jeff Larson, Al Shaw ... More >>

World Trade Center Mega-Station Will Cost $3.44 Billion

via WTC.com​The World Trade Center Transportation Hub is set to be one of the City's most massive changes to New York's subway system. The building will have access to PATH trains, 13 subway lines and even the proposed JFK rail link. Sounds awesome, but how much will it cost taxpayers? The New ... More >>

The MTA Can Text...Sort of

​If you're a Metro-North commuter, the MTA will now text you train schedules and other important information as to the status of your ride. Well, not the MTA, exactly: A technology company named CooCoo is providing the service updates, which are already available for Long Island Rail Road cust ... More >>

Will Staten Islanders Finally Be Able To Leave the Island Easily?

​Jersey Shore's Angelina and other trapped Staten Islanders may be able to break out from their homes and travel the world soon. Right now, Staten Island residents have two ways to leave via public transportation: the Staten Island Ferry and express buses. Rumors of a Staten Island railway hav ... More >>

MTA to Put Fancy-ChiChi Stores in Subway Stations

​Now, here's an MTA scheme we can get behind! The transit authority is trying to get high-end retail stores to open up locations in subway stations, which could provide the double whammy of bringing in more rent money and making it easier to buy trinkets during your commute.

MTA Spending $34 Million This Year on Employee "Overtime" (Read: Vacation)

​These days, no news from the MTA is good news.Turns out the transit authority is spending $34 million this year on overtime for workers who aren't actually working, but are on vacation, out sick, etc.

The MTA PayPass Pilot Program Starts Today: Death of Metrocard Forthcoming

​Happy June 1st! If you didn't know, today is the magical day that the New York/New Jersey Port Authority and related transportation organizations with be experimenting with Mastercard's PayPass technology at certain MTA subway stops, buses, and on the NJ Transit. More importantly: in other wo ... More >>

Mass Transit Cuts Leave Passengers Stranded

Big wheels unmoved

April Fool's Prank Still on Subway Wall

​ Reader Rick Shur notes that an April 1st prank poster about extreme subway security measures, put up on the 110th Street downtown #1 subway wall, is still there! And the satirical poster involves all kinds of intrusive, invasive body searches that Homeland Security is allowed to do on passe ... More >>

MTA Wants High-Speed Wireless Internet on Metro-North and LIRR Trains

​According to the Post, the Metropolitan Transit Authority is asking for bids from service providers to make high-speed wireless internet available to riders on Metro-North and LIRR commuter trains serving Westchester, Connecticut and Long Island. The final plan may or may not be free to non- ... More >>

MTA Stocking Stuffer? May Shut M and Z Trains, "Dozens" of Bus Routes

This Christmas season, the MTA is planning a treat for all of us: service cuts! These were threatened during the last "Doomsday Budget" tsimmis, but relinquished when the fares went up. Now MTA is out of money again, and is considering the removal of "dozens of bus routes," and the W and Z subway l ... More >>

We Pay More for Trains Even If We Take Cabs, But At Least They're Not on Fire

​You think your commute is bad: In Philly SEPTA is on strike, which has screwed up transit especially much for the poorer folks who live furthest from their workplaces. Such trains as there are, are overcrowded, and this morning one of them caught fire; passengers panicked and kicked out the w ... More >>

City's Big Apps Contest Unlooses Public Data, But MTA Not On Board

You may recall that the Times reported the MTA was easing its grip on public information -- dropping their legal demands on the developer of the StationStops iPhone app and others who had been using their train schedules in technology -- and suggested that political pressure was part of the reason. ... More >>

Top Marks to 7 Train, Low Marks to C, in Largely Meaningless Subway Survey

The subway nudges of the Straphangers Campaign issued their annual State of the Subways report. The 7 train was their favorite, which in their MetroCard rating system means it's almost worth the price of a pre-fare-hike ride ($1.55); on the GCT-to-Flushing line you're more likely to get a train and ... More >>

MTA Ad Seller Blows $7.5 Target; Ad Rates Down

We thought we were seeing an awful lot of Poetry in Motions on the subways lately, and now the Times tells us that Titan Worldwide has failed to meet its $7.5 million target for selling ad space on New York's subways, buses and commuter trains. Another vendor, CBS Outdoor, says it has had no problem ... More >>

Chief Exec Sander Leaving MTA

Less than 24 hours after Albany passed its MTA bailout package, MTA chief executive Elliot "Lee" Sander has resigned. In an interview with WPIX, he did not dispute the assertion that Governor Paterson requested his resignation. The Governor told WNYC earlier that the MTA is in need of a shakeup. ("D ... More >>

Court: MTA Employees Not Required to Stop Rape

To all the ladies who stand alone on a subway platform late at night, hoping that being within eyeshot of a station agent will make you somewhat safer from harm: You're wrong. MTA employees have no responsibly to intervene if you happen to be attacked and raped right in front of them, a Queens j ... More >>

Vanguard of the Senate Revolution

When no one else will, Kruger and Espada battle on behalf of the people

State Senate MTA Plan Gets Cold Reception

As promised, the state senate Democrats presented their watered-down MTA budget proposal today and, as predicted, no one likes it. Well, senator Pedro Espada likes it -- "Today's a great day for Pedro Espada, the M.T.A. ridership and the State Senate," he told Politicker NY. But Transportation Alter ... More >>

Ridership on Crowded Subways Going Down, Service Getting Worse

How odd: yesterday Second Avenue Sagas told us that 2008 subway ridership reached a 59-year high -- but today the MTA tells us that its budget deficit may go as high as $650 million. The MTA cites a two percent drop in ridership this January compared to January of last year. A decline in employme ... More >>

Lousier Subways Predicted; Panic Ensues

State Comptroller: MTA Fucked; You, Too

Google Introduces NYC Transit Mapping Feature

Who's Zoomin' Who? City Not Paying Its Share of MTA Bills

Life's Unfare: The MTA's Fare Hikes Cause Outrage

What Will Bike Racks Become in NYC?

NYC Subway Cars Falling Into Ocean

MTA Bigwig Likes His Perks

Bloomberg Administration, Council Speaker Quinn on Congestion Pricing's Defeat

New Congestion Pricing Options as the Debate Continues

Spitzer Spikes MTA Base Fare Increase

A Sobering Plan to End Subway Alcohol Advertising

Brooklynites Rail Against Proposed MTA Fare Hike

It's Your Chance To Say No to a MTA Fare Hike

MTA Launches Green Initiative

Most New Yorkers Oppose Congestion Pricing: Poll

Congestion Pricing Panel Named

Closing the MTA Budget Gap

Exposing Sexual Harassment on the Subways

MTA Gets Set to Raise Fares

Ranking Your Subway Ride

Your Turn: MTA Leaving You Stranded?

The Fonz's Pitch

Open door policy

Strangeness on a Train

Annoyance over L train shutdowns, anxiety over what they're for