Tired of the fake word “app” yet? Me too, and I wish William Safire was around to make fun of it.

Speaking of apps, the app-spat between commuter advocacy site StationStops.com and the MTA over StationStops’ iPhone app has reached detente, says StationStops auteur/app-master Chris Schoenfeld.

Reads a StationStops press release:

Apple reinstated the app this week in response to a priority request from the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) which retracted its previous intellectual property claims against the application.

The MTA had claimed that outside parties making money off its schedule information was an infringement of its copyright, and ordered the removal of the app from the iTunes store in August. StationStops saw it differently. The case was being followed carefully by the media, including the blogosphere, and the legal community.

Schoenfeld suggests the railroad work with him, not against him:

“MTA has publicly stated that it wishes to reconsider its approach to mobile application development and I applaud them for this turnaround. This has been accompanied by additional gestures of meaningful action, but there is still much more to be done. The MTA is a massive transit service with serious budgetary concerns and, as incoming CEO Jay Walder has identified, is sorely lacking in real-time information delivery to its customers. By simply publishing their existing schedule database and other information online, as other major transit agencies have done, outside developers have the ability to fill massive gaps in real-time customer information for MTA at little or no cost - in a timeframe MTA could never realize internally.”

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.

StationStops, one of the very, very few Metro-North related blogs that are updated with any sort of regularity, is butting heads big-time with the MTA over some copyright issues.

Far as I can tell, an MTA lawyer contacted StationStops, whose primary revenue source is a $5.99 iPhone app with Metro-North timetables, and said StationStops, run by Chris Schoenfeld, was guilty of copyright infringement. According to SS, the MTA subsequently asked Apple to remove Schoenfeld’s Metro-North app from its iTunes store.

Schoenfeld’s case was on the news a few days ago, as WTNH in New Haven sent a reporter to talk with him. According to the report, Metro-North issued a cease and desist letter to StationStops after Schoenfeld refused to share his app profits with the railroad. The MTA says schedules are its own intellectual property; Schoenfeld says it’s public information.

Readers of StationStops know that Schoenfeld sometimes takes issue with authority, such as the time(s) an MTA staffer has told him not to shoot photos inside Grand Central.

So it’s not a huge surprise that he would run afoul with an authority that actually has Authority in its name.

He writes:

I should not be calling intellectual property lawyers about what is MTA intellectual property and what is not - MTA should observing the corporate responsibility of knowing exactly what their intellectual property consists of and what it does not, and not have its lawyers misrepresenting what it does and does not own in order to dispose of small business.

Hot stuff in the small world of Metro-North blogging, folks.

Some enterprising fellows have developed a new Blackberry app offering train, bus and ferry times for the New York City area.  

Writes developer Alex:

I got so frustrated having to look up my train schedules on my Blackberry’s mobile browser that I decided to make my own application to solve this problem. NYC Transit gives people their train, bus, and ferry schedules to get in and out of NYC (Metro North, NJ Transit train and bus, and NY Waterway ferry).

The app costs $4.95, can be deployed on any Blackberry with an OS 4.2 or higher, and can be found on Blackberry’s App World under the travel category, or at www.getnyctransit.com.

NJ Transit riders such as JerseyJim are encouraged to tack on an hour and 40 minutes to any Jersey-bound evening train.

In terms of the iPhone, our blogging brethren StationStops has done a brisk business with his Metro-North app. It sells for $5.99 and is described thusly:

StationStops is an iPhone Application which allows to riders check the regular schedule for trains coming into and out of Grand Central, *with or without an internet connection.*

Our Metro-North blogger compadre StationStops has revealed his master plan–an iPhone application that, according to SS, “keeps the Metro-North Grand Central Terminal timetable stored on your iPhone, and allows you to quickly find your next train to or from Grand Central, without an internet connection.”

StationStops is selling the app on iTunes for $5.99. Reviews are thus far favorable.

Writes StationStops:

Just tap your station, weekday or weekend schedule, to or from Grand Central, and you get a list of all regularly scheduled trains for the day. You can scroll through the trains to find the one you want, or, even better, just tap any train, and the app will automatically scroll to the next regularly scheduled departure based on the current time!

A Bridgeport woman was arrested for stabbing her husband in the buttocks (is there a funnier word than “buttocks”?) over the weekend, following a long day of (presumably) drinking.

StationStops says:

Cheryl Madison of Bridgeport was arrested on charges of second-degree assault and second-degree breach of peace for stabbing her husband on the South Norwalk Metro-North platform Saturday night.

Witnesses said the husband had been lambasting the wife for her behavior at a block party they had attended earlier, and that Madison had made a thrusting motion towards her husbands buttocks.

The so-called City That Works will have to work a little harder to stay productive in 2010. Yes, the already tight parking situation at the massive Metro-North stop in Stamford just got a bit tigher, reports StationStops, as a building project to commence in 2010 will see 800 spots get shut down for two years.

That was Topic A at the Connecticut Commuter Rail Council meeting last night.

SS reports:

In general, the theme of how Stamford commuters should prepare to deal with this situation was to look for parking at Greenwich and Glenbrook (!!?) (sorry that last line just made me spit-take coffee all over my keyboard!)

I love how the three photos offered on Stamford’s Wikipedia page depict the following:

1. Stamford’s Metro-North station

2. Stamford’s Metro-North station

3. World Wrestling headquarters

StationStops offers some intriguing video–and commentary–on the Generation Xbox pastime of jumping from train platform to train platform, over the tracks and the dreaded third rail. The video appears to have been shot along the 7 line in Queens.

SS writes:

What really makes me mad about platform jumping is that if you don’t make it, and you break your leg and are stuck on the tracks, someone is going to have to go down there and help you get out, then you both get killed. How fun.

NYC Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges addressed the issue with an email to AMNY Subway Tracker: It goes without saying the conduct seen on this video is blatantly unsafe and we strongly advise this young man, or anybody else so inclined, to refrain from jumping on or over subway tracks. Not only is this unsafe, but it is probably a violation of the Rules of Conduct and subject to summons, fine or worse.

Putting bruises and broken bones aside, there are 600 volts of electricity flowing through a live 3rd rail – more then enough to kill these young men or anybody else who comes in contact with it.

In other news, the X Games announced they’ll debut station platform jumping as an exhibition sport in 2010.

The Connecticut Rail Commuter Council holds its “Meet the Railroad/Meet the Commuter” day tomorrow from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. at South Norwalk station.

The Council, a volunteer group of commuters who meet with Metro-North on behalf of all Connecticut riders, will be there, along with reps from Metro-North, the CT Dept of Transportation, and various others.

“The Meet The Commuter event will take place on the platforms and in the waiting room where commuters can informally meet face to face with railroad officials to discuss train service,” says the Council.

I fully expect StationStops will have a full story on it, along with high def video, and a detailed account of his run-ins with South Norwalk station security personnel.

A reporter and camera man from Hartford TV station WFSB were arrested late last week by MTA police while filming a piece on a new train station in West Haven, Connecticut, reports the New Haven Register.

Leon Collins and his photographer face criminal trespassing charges for entering and area that was marked “Employees Only.”

The TV station says they were filming a segment on the new train station, but some wondered if the reporter was doing an investigative bit about lax security in the train station.

I guess StationStops is lucky he shot this video without ending up in some Nutmeg State gulag.