The New York Transit Authority in the 1. The graffiti epidemic displayed in full swing on this IRT train on the Dyre Avenue Line, September 1. Photo by Steve Zabel, collection of Joe Testagrose. By Mark S. Feinman. Introduction. 19. When it was settled, a large operating deficit was forecast and the threat of a fare increase was raised to pay for it. Warning Any places listed in the Haunted Places requires permission to visit or investigate. Many of the places are patrolled by the authorities, trespassers will be prosecuted. IS BALL-LIGHTNING DANGEROUS? One of the first scientists to experiment with thunderstorm electricity (even before Ben Franklin) was killed by BL. In 1752, Georg Wilhelm Reichmann attempted to reproduce one of Franklin's. ALICE COOPER lyrics - 310 song lyrics sorted by album, including 'No Tricks', 'It Rained All Night', 'No Time For Tears'. Sound familiar? The 1. As the decade began, it had the filthiest trains, the craziest graffiti, the noisiest wheels, and the weirdest passengers. By the end of the decade, it had cleaner trains, no graffiti, quieter wheels - - and the weirdest passengers. Decades of deferred maintenance, going back to Subway Unification in 1. From Unification, through the Board of Transportation era, from the day the New York City Transit Authority was born in 1. MTA's birth in 1. In the first half of the 1. The Fantasy Golf Report is going into partial hibernation until January but, for any weeks where DraftKings offers us a chance to turn $3 into $20,000, we're going to take a shot and post our favorites. There was no preventative maintenance - components were fixed as they failed - which was often. Breakdowns occurred an average of every 6,2. Signage was very poor, or unreadable due to the graffiti. By early 1. 98. 1, one quarter of the trains were out of service, and thirty minute commutes ballooned to one and a half hours. Richard Ravitch took over the MTA late in 1.
Just three weeks after he took over, the LIRR went on strike. Just a few months after that, both the subway and the LIRR again went out on strike. Ravitch would inherit a $2. Ravitch worked very hard to get the capital improvement programs started. In 1. 98. 1 through 1. In 1. 98. 2, the first year of the program, the MTA signed contracts for nearly $3 billion in improvements - - more than what it spent in the entire period between 1. Reconstruction work at the major yards at 2. Street and Coney Island began. Contracts valued at $1. Subway station renovation would start late due to disagreements on making stations accessible to the handicapped, but the renovations did get going. Ravitch laid the groundwork for the system's turnaround, but would retire in 1. David Gunn took over as TA president and Richard Kiley took over as MTA Chairman after Ravitch retired from the MTA in 1. While they may have received the most accolades for improving the subway so much in the late 1. Ravitch who started the capital improvement programs and got the funding to turn the poor state of affairs around. In the second half of the 1. New stainless steel subway cars, the R- 6. A)s for the IRT and the R- 6. A)s for the BMT/IND Divisions, began running. After a so- so start, they have proven themselves very reliable. The IRT Redbirds, from class R- 2. GOH) and were retrofitted with new components, a new paint job, and air conditioning. The existing BMT/IND equipment at the time, from car class R- 3. GOH program, and those cars that were originally manufactured without air conditioning were retrofitted with it. The R- 3. 0s were given a light overhaul, but did not receive air conditioning, because they would have become too heavy. The MTA embarked on the first of what became many capital plans in November of 1. Mean distance between failures (MDBF) measurements began to improve markedly, and continue to improve to this day. Graffiti was finally eradicated from all subway cars by the end of the decade (though it has been replaced by . This document will examine the state of the Transit Authority and its subway system in the 1. It will wrap up with a list of incidents and accidents that were newsworthy during the 1. Governor Hugh Carey made an . The fee would be collected when motorists registered their vehicles, though no specific fee was suggested. Richard Ravitch, the chairman of the MTA at that time, opposed this user fee, preferring an . This was the sum total of the overtime needed to inspect cracks on the trucks as well as the cost of repairing equipment that was breaking down at increasing rates. In another effort to save money, the MTA also proposed to eliminate the special half fare program for the elderly during peak hours, and the Sunday half- fare program for all riders. Hundreds protested this proposal. The MTA planned to save $4. The Sunday Half Fare Program ended on May 1st, 1. MTA board members privately forecast a subway fare increase of 1. May 1. 98. 0 due to the need to bring the infrastructure to a state of good repair, increases in operating costs, and fuel and labor costs which the Federal government was no longer subsidizing. And in a transit message to the New York State Assembly, Governor Carey proposed that the commuter rail lines should bear more of a share of any transit increases than the subways. In March, Carey softened his position somewhat, proposing new taxes on gasoline and petroleum products, but not guaranteeing that the 5. The transit contract with the Transport Workers Union Local 1. April 1. 98. 0. Contract negotiations started on February 4th, with the TWU's opening demands including a 3. Michael J. Quill. The contract would run 2. TWU president John Lawe justified the 3. March 1. 97. 4, and transit workers required pay raises of 2. Ravitch indicated that these demands could not be met, and if they were, subway and bus fares would need to double. This set the tone for labor negotiations over the next two months, which were primarily confrontational in nature. Since the MTA is a state agency, the responsibility for finding the money to pay for a transit settlement fell on Governor Carey, who pledged to hold the 5. New York City Mayor Edward I. Koch, showing his usual feisty style, said the only thing he would contribute to help settle the negotiations was . When this MTA counteroffer was made, the first transit strike since 1. The 1. 98. 0 Transit Strike. Negotiations failed to come up with an agreement, and The Strike was called. Transport Workers Union Local 1. April 1st, 1. 98. It was no April Fool's Joke. For every day of the strike, the Taylor Law would collect two days pay from each striking worker, and severe fines and penalties could still be levied. The Union could lose the right to automatically deduct its dues from workers' paychecks. The initial offering by the MTA was 6% the first year and 6% the second year with no cost of living adjustment; around midnight it was rejected. Talk then focused on 7% for the first year, 7% for the second year and a cost of living adjustment. That, too, was rejected. The mediators recommended 8% for the first year, 8% in the second year, and other items, but that, too, was not agreed upon. The union was looking to make up lost ground from the 1. New York City's fiscal crisis, where increases were negligible. The City, on the other hand, just beginning to recover from the fiscal crisis, was thinking very conservatively and was not looking to give away the store as was done in the 1. Mayor Koch did not want to get involved initially. His position was that Chairman Ravitch was the chief negotiator for the MTA, not him, and Koch would therefore keep himself a low profile in transit matters. Unlike the threatened strikes in 1. City Hall was very noisy and threatened legal action and astronomical fines, it was relatively quiet in the early days of the 1. How did the New York City subway and bus systems shut down in an orderly fashion once the strike was called? The last subway and bus runs were those that started before 1. Once the subway or bus reached the end of its line, it would run light back to its home terminal. All manually operated signals would be forced to red by leaving towermen. An occasional rail polisher train would run each day of the strike to keep the rails shiny and deter vandalism. Newspapers were filled with stories and pictures of the sea of humanity crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, with cheerleader Koch at the Manhattan end shouting . Primary roadways and river crossings were limited to two or three passengers per vehicle in the morning rush. Police Officers acted as car pool coordinators at tunnel crossings; pedestrians who showed up were usually able to find room in someone else's car or truck for the trip into Manhattan. Your author recalls bicycling to high school in Brooklyn, marveling that the leisurely bike trip took about . Schools were off; it was the Passover / Easter break. LIRR employees also went out on strike, but then did an about face at the request of a Federal mediator and went back to work on Thursday April 3rd. The Port Authority - - Trans Hudson (PATH) lines and Conrail (now today's Metro- North) offered additional services to accommodate additional passengers during the strike. The Long Island Railroad was unable to handle the additional capacity required to accommodate displaced Queens subway riders, and ended up closing its Queens stations, as well as several in Brooklyn, for the duration of the strike. The Staten Island Rapid Transit continued running during the strike, and Brooklyn riders drove to SIRT stations, and took the SIRT to the Staten Island Ferry to get to work. The strike cost the city about $2 million a day in lost taxes and another $1 million a day in overtime expenses for city employees. The private sector was losing $1. The strike was finally settled on April 1. The TWU won a contract calling for a 9% raise in the first year and 8% in the second year along with a cost of living adjustment (expected to be at about 2. The TA obtained some minor givebacks. The City was not pleased with the settlement, calling it too expensive. To offset the new labor agreement, and to make up for a huge operating deficit, the subway fare was raised to 6. July 1st, 1. 98. 0. However, in the first weeks of the increase, if you were able to get your hands on the Russian three- kopek coin (worth about a nickel in 1. It didn't affect as many people as the subway strike, but Strike Fever spread to the PATH system, too. On June 1. 2th, 1. Brotherhood of Railway Car Men went on strike, which lasted for months. The union was looking for a 3. Port Authority was offering 3. There were also pension differences that needed to be ironed out. The strike lasted nearly the entire summer, ending finally on August 2.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2017
Categories |