A reality show about the New York subway and its workers has, like so many N trains, been delayed.

Reports the NY Times:

The series, commissioned by the A&E network, would follow an ensemble cast of train conductors, station agents and other subway workers as they handle track fires, angry customers and the grind of running the country’s biggest mass transit system.

But as with many of the authority’s major projects, the show is now facing a delay. Citing hard financial times, transit officials said they were halting work on the show, even though shooting had started last month for a 15-minute sample episode — the first step toward a pilot and potentially a full season.

The MTA thought such a show would help with public relations, as viewers would see the people behind the system and presumably be more tolerant of the MTA’s ills.

The concept for the show came from Ross Breitenbach, a veteran producer of reality television who supervised “The Simple Life 2” with Paris Hilton and “Sober House,” a VH1 series about celebrities in rehab.

Inspired by his children’s Thomas the Tank Engine toys, Mr. Breitenbach approached the transportation authority last year about an animated children’s show focused on the subway. But the conversation quickly shifted to something more vérité.

“The plan is to follow these guys wherever they go,” Mr. Breitenbach said. “The M.T.A. has been interested in letting us tell real stories, not a sanitized commercial.”

The idea of a documentary series also appealed to the authority’s marketing department, which had struggled to showcase the human side of an often-demonized system. Tight budgets have prevented in-house television projects in the past.

A&E set about casting for the untitled program by interviewing transit workers in Grand Central earlier this year.

A&E has tapped transit for reality programs in the past. Parking Wars looks at ticket agents in Philly, and Airline filmed Southwest Airlines employees.

“Thousands” of students were expected to show up at the Governor’s Executive Chambers in midtown yesterday to tell Governor Paterson not to cut their free or discounted bus and train rides to school, according to a press release issued prior to the event.

Well, the event turned out to be more of a non-event. Organizer Tony Herbert said all of two students (and their parents!) made it out to Paterson’s office. “It really didn’t happen,” he concedes. “It didn’t have the same amount of steam as previous student protests.”

It having been Martin Luther King Day and all–ya know, he of the public transit boycott in Alabama back in ‘55 and all–one might’ve hoped for a little more fighting spirit from the kids of New York.  

Herbert says the unseasonably warm temps might have prompted some students to find more enjoyable uses for their day off.

Herbert says the governor did not mention the student MetroCard issue during his budget outline today.

Unbowed, Herbert says he’ll continue to mobilize students to fight for their freebie transit passes, and is considered a “stay-out” in case the state signs off on the MTA’s proposed budget, which includes nixing the free rides. “We might keep kids home from school a couple days,” he says.  

The MTA has revamped its website, reports the NY Times, with the new site debuting tomorrow. Maps, fares and directions are just a click or two away, not buried in the nether regions of the site.

Service alerts also get a much more prominent spot on the site. Reports the Times:

Real-time updates on delays and service changes might prevent that trip to Brooklyn from becoming an all-night odyssey.

“We’re not cutting-edge; let’s not kid ourselves. But we’re getting closer,” said Jay H. Walder, the new chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, who said he ordered a revamp last fall on his first day on the job.

A quick glance at the home page suggests a site designed for users, not for transit bureaucrats.

I first saw the stack of suitcases just before Christmas.

It was a Starbucks on my walk to Grand Central, Park Ave South and, oh, 39th, or so. Two large ’70s style suitcases and a smaller valise, stacked outside Starbucks, next to the door.

My first thought was, thanks to the heavy promotion of the MTA’s If You See Something, Say Something campaign, to call the cops. My second–and prevailing–thought was, let’s make that 5:46.

I saw the suitcase mountain again when I worked a lone day last week, and again earlier this week.

I also saw the owner of the cases: a homeless man–40, black, grimy–sitting at a table inside the Starbucks.

I saw the man there on multiple occasions. Maybe he helped open the door for people. Surely he appreciated staying out of the 20 degree cold.

Yesterday, he–and his luggage–were gone.

Say what you want about Starbucks–overpriced coffee, annoyingly P.C. philosophy (enough of the “Fair-Trade” talk, OK?), even more annoying customers. And, lest we forget, that annoying memoir about how Starbucks can change you from a pampered white guy to a pampered white guy who actually works alongside minorities.

But I’d counter with this: This particular Starbucks let a homeless guy–and, frankly, a dirty one–hang out in the store and keep his luggage parked out front–for at least a few weeks. They let him occupy a table in a Starbucks where tables are as scarce as rent-stabilized apartments on East 5th Street.

Maybe they eventually kicked him out, or he left on his own. I don’t know. But how many businesses would’ve let the guy stay for a few weeks?

Our Metro-North blogging brethren StationStops, who’s gotten considerable ink/face time for his spat with the MTA over his iPhone app offering real-time schedule information, says the row continues. At the heart of the issue is whether or not the MTA owns its schedule information, and whether an independent blogger/app creator can make money by formatting and selling such information.

StationStops mastermind Chris Schoenfeld says the MTA is holding out for a 10% cut of his royalties garnered between the app’s launch date and the time Schoenfeld and the MTA commenced a licensing discussion with the railroad–about $170.

Chris writes:

StationStops for iPhone is in compliance with a newly-released MTA licensing policy document. In the document, developers who collect the schedule data themselves and put an MTA-approved disclaimer on their app do not need to have a license with MTA or pay royalties. StationStops has identified this to MTA and requested that the MTA retract the cease and desist to Apple in writing so Apple will return StationStops to the iTunes store. MTA has told StationStops that they will only retract the cease and desist when StationStops agrees to pay 10% of StationStops sales between the time it launched (Oct. 21, 2008), and the time MTA first entered into licensing discussions with StationStops (Dec. 18, 2008).  Their argument is that, during that sales period, the existing disclaimer language for the application: ‘Not affiliated with MTA’ Was insufficient, and StationStops needs to pay royalties during that sales period. Although StationStops has always expressed willingness to change disclaimer language in good faith with MTA – and has done so – it rejects the claim that our original disclaimer was insufficient, and has not to date paid the royalty amount in question, which is approximately $170. 

In addition, that claim by MTA is not what is asserted in MTA’s cease and desist to Apple, which is now invalid, and StationStops has requested that the cease and desist be retracted in writing, with the $170 being a completely unrelated discussion.

Metro-North is moving ahead on a plan to route both New Haven and Hudson Line trains into Penn Station.

 According to the railroad, ”For each line, one alternative would have provided service in all time periods and included the construction of new stations in New York City in areas not currently served by regional rail service. The second alternative involved providing service only during off-peak and weekend periods with no new stations.”

Metro-North continues:

“While still under consideration for implementation, the off-peak and weekend service alternatives will no longer be included in the federal environmental review.  It was determined that the off-peak and weekend services, without new stations, could be implemented using existing equipment and infrastructure without the need for federal funding.” Metro-North is moving forward on a plan to route the Hudson Line to Penn Station during all time periods via Amtrak’s Empire Connection, with two new stations on Manhattan’s west side in the vicinity of West 125th and the Upper West Side. Also green-lighted is  New Haven LinesService to Penn during all time periods via the Hell Gate Line, with three new stations in the east Bronx in the vicinity of Co-op City, Parkchester and Hunts Point.

Don’t hold your breath — these things take years and years. Metro-North will next prepare an Environmental Assessment, which is expected to be complete in 2011. 

Salt and Pepper

There’s a poster above me.

It’s hot outside, cool inside. The AC in this car is working. It’s too crowded to be able to read and I’m tired, swaying a little with the motion of the car.

We’re somewhere under the East River, just past Roosevelt Island. I’m on my way in to work.

The poster says:

Assaulting MTA NYC Transit Subway Personnel is a felony punishable by up to 7 years in prison. NYS Penal Code 120.05

The first word, Assaulting, is twice the size of the rest of the words. The number 7 is in red. The Penal Code information is in smaller print.

You’d think this wouldn’t have to be stated. Isn’t it obvious that assaulting anyone would be a bad thing? I guess the MTA personnel need some extra protection. As if they’re saying, “In case you didn’t know, assaulting this guy over here, in the booth, behind the bullet proof, inch thick plexi-glass, is simply not okay.”

Seven’s the lucky number – or up to seven is. Perhaps swinging and missing only gets you six months but connecting and battering get’s you the full seven. I’m not a lawyer so I don’t know what the parameters are. So… get pissed off at the MTA folks, whether they’re in the booth giving you your subway card, driving the train, or putting rat poison on the tracks – but don’t assault them. Or assault them and don’t get caught. Or get caught and pay the price.

I guess those are your only three options — if you were thinking about assaulting an MTA official.

I wasn’t, but now I am. And just what does that mean with regard to the effectiveness of this poster in preventing assault?

This is when you know it’s time to put the ear buds in and think of something else.

–Joe Lunievicz

Let’s start charging subway riders extra fees for hauling suitcases, bicycles and refrigerators on the trains, argues Clyde Haberman.

Before we discuss this we have to establish who Clyde Haberman is and how he thinks. Clyde Haberman seems to have made a career out of scolding people on public transit who do not act exactly like him, which involves sitting with your knees clenched, reading a NY Times folded vertically into quarters, uttering nary a word, and making sure the legs of your seersucker suit don’t mistakenly creep over the line separating your seat from the seat next to it.

For a long list of Haberman’s grievances against mass transit litter, mass transit NY Times reading, and mass transit cellphone use, click on this link.

Is Clyde Haberman riding the same subway as you and me? He writes:

An underground system that was designed to transport people, and only people, looks more like a network of freight trains at times.

Some passengers board the trains carrying suitcases the size of steamer trunks. The phenomenon is especially acute on summer weekends, when many New Yorkers head for the hills or the beaches schlepping more stuff than wartime refugees.

Routinely, riders haul enormous boxes containing appliances and other goods. Several months ago, I saw a man using a dolly to wheel a refrigerator onto a train. One day last week, no fewer than 13 baby strollers filled an entire car of a No. 1 train.

I’ve got a lot of complaints about the subway, but I can’t say that people lugging heavy cargo on board is among the top 25.

Clyde Haberman says the MTA should adopt an airline-style approach to customers with large bags, seeing as the airlines do such a tremendous job of preventing people from bringing giant suitcases on board, and charging for bags has been such a public relations boon.

Subway stations could easily be equipped with metal devices similar to those that are used at airports to delineate the limits for carry-on bags. Any oversize item would lead to a surcharge.

Surely, an extra buck or so would not bankrupt anyone taking home a 52-inch plasma screen television or heading to the Hamptons for the weekend. Just as surely, the transit system is in no position to turn up its nose at any dollar falling its way.

But more important than money is the possibility that a surcharge might make some people think twice about what they bring with them into the subways. Those outsize objects slow things down. They get in the way of passengers entering and leaving trains, and they clog subway station stairwells. Inevitably, they contribute to slowdowns…

Seriously, the guy should lay off the Haterade.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority will install surveillance cameras throughout an as-yet unidentified subway train later this year, reports the NY Times. The Authority hopes the cameras will deter crime, and may also help it avoid some lawsuits from those who claim they were injured on the subway.

It’s just a test, and the MTA does not actually have the money to fund such a security program.

No one will be watching real-time monitors showing what the cameras see; the footage can be reviewed if the MTA thinks there’s a reason to, such as a crime that’s been committed.

Before you get up in arms about being watched underground, the Times says, there are thousands of cameras already operating in the subway stations.

Currently, about 2,500 cameras are installed throughout the subway system, including passenger identification cameras, which snap photographs of riders as they pass in and out of turnstiles at more than 100 stations. But there are no cameras on the trains.

Still, this will not be the first time that the agency has experimented with filming the interiors of trains. In the 1990s, cameras were installed on the so-called Redbird trains, the old-fashioned, maroon-tinted subway cars (and perennial victims of graffiti artists) that were retired in 2003.

The NY Post, which broke the story yesterday, says the cameras will be installed on a “letter line” of the subwy system, such as the F. Every inch of the train will be viewed by the cams.

Pay phones.

Those big, clunky boxes affixed to public urinals (or were they called “phone booths”?) around the city in recent decades. Broken gray handsets, coin slots mucked up with gum.

Those phones are still to be found in subway stations, reports NYPIRG’s Straphangers Campaign, but don’t do much good anymore.  

In fact, one in four station pay phones’ sole purpose is to collect dust–or at least a few discarded MetroCards on its top. A study from the Straphangers Campaign found that 26% of 921 pay phones at 100 randomly selected stations was deemed “non-functioning”–meaning ”the handset was missing or unusable; there was no dial tone; surveyors were unable to connect a call to a 1-800 number; the coin slot was blocked; coins deposited did not register; or the telephone would not return a coin.”

The phones at least did better than two years ago, when 29% were of the non-functioning variety.

Around 24% of the malfunctioning phones had no dial tone, 23% would not return a coin, 18% wouldn’t take the coin in the first place, and 16% had a bum handset.

Contrary to the urban myth, 0% had needles filled with heroin or LSD in the coin slot.

Verizon handles the pay phones for the MTA. NYPIRG says previous contracts called for 95% to be “fully operative and in service at all times”, while the current contract says Verizon only has to “exercise good-faith effort to clear 95% of all known troubles within 24 hours.” 

The study was conducted by Straphangers Campaign field organizer Jason Chin-Fatt. (You think we’re going to make fun of his name. We’re not. Grow up.) Chin-Fatt says NYPIRG’s findings don’t exactly jibe with the MTA’s own pay phone study, which found 93% to be working just fine. According to the Straphangers, the MTA’s “surveyors do not perform a coin drop to test the phones, rating telephones as functioning if the surveyor notes an undamaged handset and is able to contact a specific 1-800 test number.”