The project that Christie killed yesterday is a second rail tunnel under the Hudson River. It would add capacity to the badly overcrowded and economically vital Northeast Corridor. I ride this route often and I’m surely not the only one tired of sitting in Secaucus going nowhere while we wait for a train ahead to clear the only existing tunnel—built in 1910. Construction began on the new tunnel earlier this year, with funding by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Port Authority, and the state of New Jersey. Yet Christie determined he had the power to shut it down. “The ARC project will be terminated and staff will immediately begin an expeditious and orderly shutdown of the project,” the governor declared.

What else has the governor been up to?

Here’s Gov. Christie earlier this week at a campaign event in Wisconsin. (This picture is from a video.) On the right is Scott Walker, Republican candidate for governor of Wisconsin. Walker’s campaign runs a web site at www.notrain.com, in which he protests an $810 million federal project to fund a passenger rail project in his state. Walker wants none of it. His campaign commercial calls the unbuilt rail project a “boondoggle.” “We’ll stop this train,” Walker says.

Next, here’s Christie campaigning last month with John Kasich, the Republican candidate for governor of Ohio. In August, Kasich was asked his opinion about a rail system in Ohio that’s being funded with $400 million in federal money. He said, “It’s not going to happen when I become governor, OK?… If you want that train, I hope you can get over that and vote for me anyway, but you’re not going to get that train.”

And here’s a picture of Christie with Meg Whitman, candidate for governor of California, on September 22, from Whitman’s web site. Whitman also opposes a major passenger rail project in her state that’s been decades in the making. Her campaign position was highlighted in a New York Times article this week about state-level politicians opposing federal rail projects.

What the hell is going on? Opposition to trains is not some kind of Tea Party platform. You aren’t hearing anybody talk about it on Fox News or AM radio. There’s little if any populist rage against trains. Rail improvements have bipartisan support at the federal level. Trains make sense and have a proven record of helping boost local economies; they’re pork projects in the best sense of the word. Christie, especially, serves a constituency in New Jersey that depends on trains to get around every day. Additionally, in my experience, state politicians are deeply reluctant to kill projects that divert federal funds to local construction companies. And even if trains aren’t your favorite thing, and even if you think they require too much taxpayer money, they’re certainly cheaper than highways.

Could it be these candidates oppose trains simply because the Obama administration likes them? Could it be to make Democrats look like uncool weenies by forcing them to talk about how great trains are? That seems like a risky strategy. It’s rare to reject cash out of simple political spite.

I wonder if, instead, we’re seeing a replay of the Great American Streetcar Scandal scenario, in which automotive interests conspired to kill our streetcar systems. This time it might not be Detroit, exactly, since the big U.S. auto companies are in too politically sensitive of a situation right now (especially with G.M. basically controlled by the government). But oil companies wield political influence. So do car dealerships and their associations. Are there people who actually think trains could be so successful they reduce the number of cars on the road and the amount of gasoline consumed?

Whatever the case, Christie is the thread that connects the anti-train candidates, and he’s spreading his franchise nationwide.

This post first appeared on the History Eraser Button blog.

RTD Light Rail

Union Station, Denver

Union Station, Denver

MallRide, the popular free shuttle bus on the 16th Street pedestrian mall

The train between concourses at Denver International Airport (“the only major airport to be built in the United States in the last 25 years”).

This post first appeared on the History Eraser Button blog.

1. not only do people get arrested for eating candy on the metro but they get tickets for carrying their Starbucks cup down the escalator while looking for a trash can to throw it out.
2. bench seating on the subway beats the two-seaters on the metro
3. the metro conductors sometimes have to start/stop and inch their way up to platform the train
4. some of those escalators are just too damn steep for anyone with a fear of heights
5. and…the zone system (just as annoying as having to swipe your ticket to get out)

Holly:

-NYers don’t have to worry about the escaloator breaking down because, well, we don’t have many and our subways aren’t that deep anyway.

Cindy:

Where else can you hear a Jehovah Witness trying to convert someone but instead gets a talking to about how to not limit their definition of God and Jesus? Honestly–I took notes, and the lady across the aisle from me gave me the smiling look of “I was listening too” look and wasn’t that fun–without saying a word.

This post first appeared on the History Eraser Button blog.

From Washington, D.C., Gerritt sends this photo of a Metro poster. It says:

“Unlike some subway systems (which will remain nameless), you don’t see rats the size of house cats roaming Metro.”

Them’s fightin’ words.

First of all: You gotta problem with our rats?

Now, what else? Let’s see. Unlike some subway systems (which will remain nameless)…

• We don’t have to swipe on the way out.
• Our trains run all night, so they won’t leave you stranded, drunk and helpless at 3 a.m.
• Our transit cops don’t arrest people for eating candy.
• We have this amazing invention called express service.
• There are so many tracks that when one of our lines gets shut down, there’s always a workaround.
• Our trains are filled with hip, weird, fashionable, messy, crazy, confident people. Loafer-wearing bureaucrats and terrified interns, not so much.
• You can instantly tell one station from another because they’re all painted different colors.
• Where else do you get to hear announcements like, “A crowded subway is no excuse for improper sexual conduct?”
• We have the Manhattan Bridge, the best view in mass transit.
• Randomly and without warning, a mariachi band will appear.

Got another reason the New York City subway is superior to the Washington Metro? Send it to me using the Feedback tab on the left-hand side of your screen and maybe I’ll use it in a future post.

This post first appeared on the History Eraser Button blog.

This evening I saw for the first time the MTA subway train which Target paid to have wrapped in ads, promoting a new store in Manhattan. This is the first time the MTA has covered an entire 10-car train with ads. The train is running on the 6 line.

How much? The reported cost of the ad is $250,000, though that might not be accurate. (It sounds high to me.) At any rate, the campaign is supposed to last 6 weeks and has been generally well-received by New Yorkers, who want the MTA to have more money and who find Target tolerable.

Here are some photos of the train:

What’s interesting is how much the red Target train car looks like the old redbird subway trains, which were decommissioned in 2003.

Though this is the first full train to be wrapped, the small Times Square Shuttle trains occasionally get wrapped for ad campaigns, and there have been some small exterior ads pasted on the 1, 2, 3 and 7 trains.

This post first appeared on the History Eraser Button blog.

Because of budget cuts, the New York City MTA canceled two subway lines on June 25, 2010. This video shows the party that subway fans threw on the last V Train, which departed 2nd Avenue at 11:33 p.m. on June 25.

This post first appeared on the History Eraser Button blog.

Tonight there are dueling transit funerals in the New York subway.

• The V: Levy’s, a tour company that has organized farewell paries in the past for the Q Diamond and the 9, is throwing a farewell party for the V train. It leaves 2nd Avenue at 11:33 p.m. sharp and heads to Forest Hills. The whole ride should take about 38 minutes.
• The W: People on Facebook are organizing a rally for the final W train. This party leaves Astoria at 10:17 p.m., exits at Union Square, crosses the platform, and boards a Queens-bound W train at 11:02 p.m. for the final run back to Astoria.

I’m with the V party. The W plan is too complicated and requires two trips to Astoria and back—no thanks. And if a transit funeral is a celebration of the absurd, the V train is the more absurd of the two choices. It’s the youngest train in the system and beloved by no one.

But a loss is a loss, and we must commemorate it. I’ll see you at the back of the 2nd Avenue platform at 11:33 tonight.

This post first appeared on the History Eraser Button blog.

Because of budget cuts, two lines are going away later this month. (I hope to attend one of the transit funerals for the V or W train! Anybody with me?)

A currently unused stretch of track—the Chrystie Street Connection—will be reopened to make way for the rerouted M.

All kinds of bus routes are being changed.

And in a strange move, this week the MTA accidentally posted a monument to Internet woe when it labeled the 14th Street/6th Avenue station with FML (“fuck my life”) signs.

The new routes take effect June 27, but new subway maps are already up in some stations, including Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street in Brooklyn.

What’s new about the map? The most obvious change is that the color of the land has been adjusted from beige to an earthy khaki color. The designers have tried to make the map simpler, eliminating some confusing and seldom-used information about bus connections and which lines operate at which hours.

Here’s the new map:

Of the changes, the only one I don’t like is the addition of solid grey shadows behind the subway lines.

New map:

Old map:

Another weird change I noticed is the the new map drops the name of the designer, Michael Hertz Associates, from the copyright line.

New map:

Old map:

This post first appeared on the History Eraser Button blog.

So much for the B67. This sign says it all:

Among the lines being cut are my B67, which will still run, just on a reduced schedule. The MTA is also merging several subway lines (goodbye to the W and V designations) and increasing overnight spacing of trains.

Honestly, I will be fine. I can bike, walk, plan, improvise, flag down a gypsy cab, or do whatever I must do to get around. But not everyone can. Transit cuts disproportionally hurt the poor, as well as the elderly and other people who might have trouble walking long distances. In Brooklyn, bus routes form a fine mesh that fills in the gaps between subway stations. (If you don’t live here and you’ve never seen it before, you might enjoy viewing the shocklingly complex Brooklyn bus map.) Buses enable the people who can’t afford cars, who work in outer-borough neighborhoods, to get to and from their jobs and appointments. It’s not their fault tax revenue is down and the state is cutting the MTA’s funding. Budget cuts hurt the wrong people.

This post first appeared on the History Eraser Button blog.

Then I got an e-mail from a reader named Amanda pointing out an error in one of my recent posts about subway signage. Based on a book I read, I have been calling the New York City Subway font Akzidenz-Grotesk. In fact, Akzidenz-Grotesk has been all-but-phased out in favor of a custom version of Helvetica. Some of the “buttons” (those colorful circles that represent the subway lines) are still set in Akzidenz-Grotesk, but most of the signage has been upgraded. Amanda even attached a graphic showing the difference between the two fonts…

Helvetica is on the top line and on the left button; Akzidenz-Grotesk on the bottom line and the right button. Note the differences in the cuts on the C and the e. Neat.

Anyway, this feedback convinced me that I’m not the only one who cares about subway signs. And so I dug up the blog post I had deleted earlier. Here it is:

* * * *

The Flatbush Avenue Long Island Railroad Station, under construction for most of the decade, has finally opened. Recently I walked through it on my way to run an errand (a few days before they opened the staircase, seen above). It looks mostly fine, and will plug a hole in the streetscape around the busy Atlantic Avenue intersection. But I have a bone to pick. They’re using the wrong font on the subway signs.

Do you see it? Compare the two sets of subway icons below (the top one from the new LIRR terminal, bottom from elsewhere in the same subway station). It’s very close, but the width of the letters, especially the M, is obviously incorrect on the new sign.

A logo set in the wrong font is like the Van Halen cover of “You Really Got Me,” the 1998 remake of Psycho, or Hunt’s ketchup. It’s not just off, it’s wrong. Even people who don’t care about fonts will register this typographic lapse somewhere in their subconscious. They’re being imprinted with a message: “There’s something chintzy about this train station.” Multiply that by 30,000 riders a day and it reflects poorly on mass transit, and poorly on Brooklyn.

Sadly, this lack of attention to detail is typical of the Brooklyn construction projects overseen by developer Bruce Ratner and his company Forest City. (The LIRR station is attached to Forest City’s Atlantic Terminal shopping mall). In concept, there’s nothing wrong with projects like the Atlantic Terminal, Atlantic Center, the Metrotech office complex, the Lowe’s in Gowanus, or even the proposed Atlantic Yards mega-development. (I don’t count myself among the neighborhood activists who oppose Atlantic Yards on principle.) Big buildings belong in the city, and the designs make sense on paper.

But when you go to any of these buildings, they aren’t enjoyable places to be. They feel half-assed. For example, anybody who’s ever walked down from Park Slope to the Lowe’s can tell you the building is obviously facing the wrong way. (The front doors face a fetid canal and a gravel factory, and the loading docks face the neighborhood.)

At other developments, like in the Atlantic Avenue malls, it’s harder to explain what’s wrong. If you live in Brooklyn, next time you go there, look around. Pedestrians’ eyes don’t seem to be focused on anything in particular. There’s no balance or sense of space. People get confused; no one walks with confidence. Take a few minutes and try to walk from Target to Pathmark through the indoor passageway. I can think of only one way to describe it: Habitrail.

Designs like this fail to respect the hard-core individualism of New Yorkers. They fall short of great New York shopping spaces such as Rockefeller Center, the Time Warner Center, or the gold standard, Grand Central Terminal.

All three of those places, by the way, use the proper font for their subway signs.

This post first appeared on the History Eraser Button blog.