BMT-Lines.com

I am taking the liberty of posting this email I received from Branford. I made a contribution and plan on contributing more as I can. Please help save the collection

Dear Members and Friends of the Museum:

We know that you care about the museum and are concerned about the impact of Hurricane Irene, which struck our area of Connecticut with great force. That is why we are writing to you now. We have assessed the damage and here is what we have found.

First the good news: There is only minimal damage to the car barns.
Sprague station and its contents are fine. Most of the railway line is undamaged, however track wash-outs will prevent us from being able to operate all the way to Short Beach for possibly quite some time.

Although Irene made landfall more than 70 miles to our west, and was downgraded to a tropical storm as it did so, it had already whipped the waters of Long Island Sound to a frenzy. The timing was unfortunate:
this storm occurred at new moon, when tides run higher than average.
The placement of the storm to our west meant strong winds out of the east, piling up the tide in the Sound, and the passage of the storm almost exactly at the time of high tide (11 AM in New Haven) brought strong southerly winds driving water on-shore and inland at the worst possible moment.

The result was the worst tidal flood in the museum’s history. Water levels peaked at 8.3 feet above mean sea level, exceeding the December
1992 nor’easter by about half a foot. The depth of water on the shop floor was 19-20 inches, in barn 1 12-15″, and in barn 3, where tracks had been raised after the 1992 incident to be above that level, 5-6″. Parts of barns
4 and 6 received almost two feet of water. Water levels in barns 2 and 7 were 12 inches or greater, and in barn 5 varied from 6 to 14 inches.
Flood waters receded by 2PM, but significant damage had already been done.

Thanks to the efforts of a number of volunteers who worked long hours in the days before the storm, cars were moved to higher tracks where possible.
Because of the high winds forecast and the number of trees surrounding our line, options were limited. Cars 948, 850 and 357 are the only ones known to have completely escaped flooding and will be operational once electrical power has been restored to East Haven. All other cars in the collection were flooded to some degree by the salt water. Their operational status will depend on how the water affected the traction motors, which are only a few inches above the rail. All of these cars (over 90) are considered out of service until they can be inspected and their motor insulation tested.

This process will take several weeks. Some of these cars may be operational, or may be brought back to operational status with a few days of effort, but we can expect that the majority of the cars will require complete traction motor disassembly and cleaning.

We value each and every vehicle in the collection for the important history it holds, and hope to see each one repaired in time.
Please be aware that every car that we have inspected is repairable, but it will take a significant amount of work. As you may know, repairing one single car with a flooded motor can readily take 500 hours of skilled labor. Our efforts to combat the effects of this flood will last for years to come.

Yet as much as we value each car individually, we must think of the entire collection and the museum as whole. As we develop the plan to repair our cars as quickly and efficiently as possible, our first efforts are focused on re-opening the museum to the public. We anticipate re-opening before Labor Day, using the three trolleys that were not flooded, and operating over a shortened line. Thus our efforts right now are focused on clearing and inspecting the line.

The damage that we have sustained at the Museum is devastating and yet manageable, shocking but also expected. It was devastating to see so many cars flooded, living history potentially destroyed, and many thousands of hours of restoration work wiped out over a weekend. But the damage is manageable with your help. We are coming together to repair was has been hurt and rescue the history that would be otherwise lost.

It was shocking to see 100-year-old antiques sitting in pools of water, knowing that every minute was further damaging their valuable and irreplaceable motors. While looking at serious damage is always hard, it was expected, even predictable – it’s happened before and we always knew it would happen again. And what is even more sobering is that when it does happen again, it may be worse, much worse. The infamous September 1938 hurricane brought water levels to 12 feet above sea level in our area. That is 4 feet higher than what we experienced this weekend.

For over 65 years the museum has been in this cycle of damage and repair. We must break out. And we have a plan to do so.

This year we began efforts to put a stop to this cycle by taking action to move our collection to higher ground. We began a Capital Campaign, “Elevating the Collection”, which is raising $2M to build two new car buildings at an elevation of 13 feet above mean sea level .

If the new buildings had been in place this weekend the cars inside would have suffered no damage from Hurricane Irene and would have been protected.

We have already secured $156K toward this goal and are in conversation with a significant group of prospective donors who are considering support.

When our Campaign is successful and the new buildings are completed, we will never again have to repair our cars knowing that we will have to do it all over again after the next flood and the one after that. We will never again follow news of severe storms with the same sense of dread as we did this weekend. And we will rest assured that our collection will be enjoyed by generations to come. Now is the time to recognize our pressing need for higher ground and make every effort to ensure the safety of our collection. As we begin to clean up the mess, we must redouble our work to ensure we are protected in the future.

At this critical moment, we need the support of every member, every person who has visited our museum, and trolley lovers around the world.

Would you consider please meeting with us privately about giving to
Elevating the Collection? By giving to the campaign, you will be
doing the best thing possible to ensure that the cars you love the most will ultimately be taken care of and preserved in perpetuity.

Please contact us at office@ShoreLineTrolley.org or (203) 467-6927 to find out how you can help. And be sure to visit www.ElevatingTheCollection.org to learn more about the campaign.

Jeff Hakner,
Board Chairperson

Wayne Sandford,
General Manager.

P.S. a copy of this message, along with a few photos, is at the
museum’s web site www.ShoreLineTrolley.org/irene.html

While we can understand the delay in restoring Metro North and LIRR since SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) also has not restored its regional rail services, we do not understand why the MTA has not restored at least some subway service and does not plan to do so in time for the morning commute.

Both SEPTA and WMATA (Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority) have fully restored bus, trolley (SEPTA) and subway services as of the time of the writing of this post.

UPDATE: The MTA managed to restore most subway service by 5am on Monday, however they left people uncertain as to whether or not they would be able to get to work by refusing to even declare a time frame as late as 9pm on Sunday evening even though other transit systems were already running

In an unprecedented move the MTA is shutting down the subway system for the first time in its 107 year history for a reason other than strikes. It is a part of a complete shutdown of all public transit in the New York City area in anticipation of Hurricane Irene. This has never happened before, while parts of the system may have failed and/or experienced severe delays there has never been a complete shut down.

The Federal Transit Administration is reporting that the MTA is behind schedule and overbudget on two key projects: East Side Access and the Second Avenue Subway. We are not surprised in the least and fully expect that the cost overruns and delays will only get worse.

Meanwhile according to AM New York

Although the MTA maintains that East Side Access and the Second Avenue subway will be done by September 2016 and December 2016, respectively, the FTA puts their opening dates at April 2018 and February 2018. It would be “quite difficult” for the East Side Access project to finish on time, the feds said, adding that costs could balloon from $7.3 billion to $8.1 billion. While the MTA projects the Second Ave. subway will cost $4.4 billion, the FTA puts the price tag at $4.8 billion.

Today was the 11th Annual Kustom Kills & Hot-Rod Thrills Rumblers Car Show. Here are some pictures I took at the event.

[Show as slideshow]

The MTA has been criticized for its policy of heavily fining bus riders on the new “Select Bus Service” Routes whose only offense was that they were either unfamiliar with the system or worse yet, that the MTA’s fare machines were BROKEN.

According to this report on NY1

When Aaron Goldberg rode the M15 without a ticket because both machines at his stop were broken, he got a summons during a random check, even though he has a monthly unlimited-ride MetroCard.
“I am upset, because as a paying MTA customer, I should not be subjected to a $100 summons when I have proof I didn’t steal services that I’m being accused of stealing,” said Goldberg.
Judy Finkelstein said the machines were also out at 88th and Second Avenue, where she boarded last week, and she also got hit with a summons.

This article in Sheepsheadbites summarizes it best when it says:

Now some are wondering if the summonses are nothing more than a cash cow for the MTA, with $1.4 million in tickets issued on the M15 SBS only in the first four months of operation. This is just another example how the MTA values reducing their deficit more than it values fairness or customer service.

As shown by its removal of seats on buses and its utter disregard for passengers comfort and convenience the MTA is proving once again that customer service does not matter.

On Saturday, July 16th, Eastern State Penitentiary was holding a block party in honor of Bastille Day. It included a “re-enactment” of the storming of the Bastille. Can anyone think of a better place in the Eastern United States to hold this event? The site looks like a medieval castle!

Getting there was half the fun. I decided to park in Metropark (Iselin), NJ and take the New Jersey Transit to Trenton, switching to SEPTA for the rest of the trip to Philadelphia. The combination NJT/SEPTA fare is a lot cheaper than Amtrak, albeit a bit slower. I arrived in Metropark a few minutes late and I missed the 10:57 New Jersey Transit train. I had some time to kill so I took a few pictures of the various trains that pass through that station

[Show as slideshow]

After arriving in Philadelphia I went to Eastern State Pen, took the public tour and then came out to watch the party and the events. Notice that they took a bit of poetic license liberties with historical accuracy – Darth Vader and Stormtroopers were protecting the Queen

Of course this being Philadelphia – “Let them eat cake” meant “Shower them with TASTYKAKE”

[Show as slideshow]

12►

According to this report on NY1 and a corresponding story in the Daily News the MTA has quietly reduced service

The MTA cut back the number of peak and off-peak trains on the 1 and 6 lines on July 1 without telling riders or holding public hearings. A spokesperson said the impact on riders is small

According to the Daily News article passengers are reporting overcrowded conditions on the platforms trains arriving with no room for addtional passengers. Two trains per hour have been dropped from the schedule increasing headways on the 1 and 6 lines.

The MTA spokeswoman Dierdre Parker confirmed in that article that the MTA does NOT give priority to passenger comfort and convenience:
According to Parker:

“…customer impact is small and there are multiple benefits, including operating more cost-effectively, reducing our energy use which has an added environmental benefit…”

How can she say customer impact is small when people are left on the platform unable to board overcrowded trains. Why is the MTA once again lying to cover up its error in judgement particularly in light of the fact that the 6 line is one of the most overcrowded lines on the System. This due to the repeated failure of the City to complete the Second Avenue subway, leaving the Lexington avenue line as the ONLY subway that covers the entire East Side of Manhattan.

MTA: The Public Be Damned!

Here are some more pictures I took from the East River Ferry. I rode it on Saturday June 25th for the second time to see if the ridership is still strong on the first day of paid operation. The free rides are over and the riders are still coming – hopefully that is a good sign for the viability of the service.

[Show as slideshow]

12►

New York Waterways has returned to East River service bigger and better than before. In the late 1990′s I worked on the East Side of Manhattan and I used the ferry which operated between 34th Street and Long Island City. It was very convenient for me since I could effectively have the best of both worlds. I could park my car in the lot on the Queens side and ride the boat to work without having to worry about the crowds in the subway or having to navigate stairs with torn cartilages in my knees (not a pleasant experience). Unfortunately there were only a few riders and the service was cancelled in the early half of the 2000 decade. It was revived for a while by New York Water Taxi, but low ridership kept headways long and the lack of a midtown bus connection made it unattractive.

Well New York Waterways is back – with 20 minute headways during rush hour, more stops and bigger boats. The service is being heavily promoted this time and a city subsidy of $9 million should help with start up costs in the first three years. I went for a ride during the free promotional period and here are some pictures of and from the boat.

[Show as slideshow]

12►

If you are looking for a civilized commute, and an alternative to the MTA monopoly, this service may very well be for you.