{"id":157,"date":"2012-01-14T02:32:25","date_gmt":"2012-01-14T07:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/?p=157"},"modified":"2012-01-14T02:32:25","modified_gmt":"2012-01-14T07:32:25","slug":"while-the-7-train-is-down-run-a-midtown-tunnel-bus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/2012\/01\/while-the-7-train-is-down-run-a-midtown-tunnel-bus\/","title":{"rendered":"While the #7 train is down – run a Midtown Tunnel bus!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I wrote about<\/a> the need to shut down the #7 line through the Steinway Tunnels between Queensboro Plaza and Times Square for eleven weekends from January to April, and for five weekends in the fall, as articulated by the MTA staff who attended a Town Hall organized by City Council member Jimmy Van Bramer.\u00a0 The MTA convinced me: they showed how the emergency weekend shutdowns allowed them to improve reliability on the line, and made an argument that Communications Based Train Control (CBTC) will improve train frequency and reliability.<\/p>\n

Okay, so what do we do in the meantime?\u00a0 For years, every time they have to shut down the Steinway Tunnels, the MTA planners’ response has been the same: run shuttle buses from the bypassed stations to Court Square and Queensboro Plaza.\u00a0 This turns a ten-minute ride from Vernon-Jackson to Grand Central into a 45-minute odyssey.\u00a0 There is a better way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Map: Cap'n Transit. According to Google Maps, these lines are ten minutes from Penn Station.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2009, Cap’n Transit observed<\/a> that according to Google Maps, a car driven from Penn Station through the Queens-Midtown Tunnel could get to Broadway and 21st Street in Astoria, the 39th Avenue station in Astoria, the 46th-Bliss Street station in Sunnyside or the Greenpoint Avenue station in Greenpoint in ten minutes without traffic, or thirty minutes with traffic.\u00a0 Following a similar suggestion for Red Hook in 2007, he suggested that the MTA run shuttle buses through the tunnel and along 34th Street instead of – or in addition to – up Jackson Avenue to Queensboro Plaza.<\/p>\n

Last year I suggested to Jimmy that he ask the MTA.\u00a0 He did<\/a>, with support from Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan, Council Speaker Christine Qunn and State Senator Mike Gianaris.\u00a0 The MTA gave a lame response and that was the end of it.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday night, I asked the MTA staff directly for a tunnel bus.\u00a0 Jimmy again supported my request and offered to contribute city money for it.\u00a0\u00a0 I was heartened to hear several other residents echoing my request.\u00a0 Peter Cafiero, Chief of Operations Planning, said that they had looked at the issue, the bus would get stuck in traffic, and it would cost $50,000 a weekend to run buses through the tunnel every ten minutes.\u00a0 Their usual solution is to run buses to the nearest station, and that’s what they plan to do this time.<\/p>\n

To me this sounds like an excuse to avoid trying something different.\u00a0 Jimmy (I’m pretty sure it was him, although it might have been one of the other town-hall speakers) said that it was a failure of imagination, which pretty much sums it up.\u00a0 The planners have no incentive to do anything beyond a shuttle bus, so they’re not going to try and make things any easier for residents.<\/p>\n

Here’s why I don’t think the tunnel buses would have to cost so much or get stuck in traffic.\u00a0 The request that Jimmy made last year was for a bus to Grand Central.\u00a0 It kinda makes sense to run a bus to Grand Central since that’s the next stop on the #7 train, but to do that they’d have to run four blocks west on 39th Street, three blocks north on Madison Avenue, five blocks east on 42nd Street and six blocks south on Second Avenue, all in mixed traffic.\u00a0 Yes, that would make them slow and unreliable.<\/p>\n

If instead the buses ran west on 34th Street to Penn Station, around the block on 35th Street and back on 34th, they could travel the entire way on exclusive bus lanes.\u00a0 True, sometimes the lanes are blocked, but they’re a lot quicker than fighting with cars and trucks on Madison Avenue and 42nd Street.\u00a0 This would allow riders to transfer to the subways at Park Avenue, Herald Square and Penn Station.\u00a0 Grand Central, Times Square and Bryant Park are a one-stop subway ride or a short walk away.<\/p>\n

I hope that Cafiero and his staff will consider 34th Street and not Grand Central as the logical route for the tunnel buses.\u00a0 If they do, I expect that they will find the buses to be cheaper and more reliable on that route.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I wrote about the need to shut down the #7 line through the Steinway Tunnels between Queensboro Plaza and Times Square for eleven weekends<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,19,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-better-buses","category-commentary","category-queens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160,"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions\/160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grieve-smith.com\/ftn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}