Today’s Headlines

First sets of badly designed bollards are in on the Hudson River Greenway at 40th and 42nd (?) streets.

I’m glad the Governor realized that $55 billion is a lot of money even if his generation wouldn’t pay it. Too bad that generation didn’t think that way about anything else.

Here is the MTA funding mechanism that might pass. A large “fairest city” surcharge on the income NYC residents alone — excluding those who work for the government AND those born before 1958. To call it a $millionaire’s tax, it could be pointed out that if those with incomes of $50,000 or more were willing to live in poverty, they would be able to accumulate $1 million in assets after 50 years of work.

The surcharge would be used to fund the entire MTA capital plan — including all the investments for the suburban railroads. Because people in the suburbs think they should pay less or nothing and get more, whereas politicians in the city think city residents should pay more and/or get less. It would also be used to fund the state’s $500 million a year municipal aid program, which every part of the state — even rich localities in the Hamptons — gets EXCEPT for New York City.

What could be more fair than that? According to the people in charge.

“That’s the last part of this,” said South Nyack Mayor Bonnie Christian, whose village mounted a fight against the Thruway Authority to reconfigure the path’s western end. “Our village would like it for dawn to dusk … I know the bicyclists are lobbying for 24/7.”

Hey Bonnie, let’s say someone living Nyack decides they want to commute to NYC by bicycling over the bridge and then picking up MetroNorth in Tarrytown. What would their December work hours be like if your village got its way?

Gothamist reports on abandoned M3 train cars once used by the LIRR on their way to the scrapyard.

http://gothamist.com/2018/06/29/lirr_abandoned_train_party.php#photo-1

It shows how everyone pays for the graft on the LIRR. These cars are from the mid-1980s. They are perhaps 35 years old. But since LIRR workers don’t do the maintenance they are supposed to do, they are a wreck.

This is exactly the scenario described in the book Gravy Train — a prior set of cars that didn’t last as long as it should have.

Meanwhile on the subway, the R32s are pushing 55 years old, with the much-maligned R46s heading for 45 years old.

It’s the same mindset that leads to the absurdity that you can take a car over the George Washington Bridge at any hour, but you cannot take a bicycle during the overnight hours.

I don’t get this at all. These cars had a far easier life than the R32s and R46s. The track on the LIRR is in much better shape, there are far fewer starts and stops. If we can make a subway car last 50 years, the M3s should have lasted 75 years.

The NJT Arrow IIIs are still going strong after over 40 years in service.

A bike on the bridge at 4 am?
That’s dangerous, because….. terrorism!
But that box truck? Go nuts.