Welcome again to The Transportation Roundup, an occasional series I’m writing on all things transportation. A few items caught my eye this week.
WASHINGTON METRO SHUTDOWN NEEDED
I’ve written about the embarrassing state of our capital city’s subway network in the past. It’s killed several people in accidents over the years, accidents that should not occur. Evacuations due to smoke seem to be an almost weekly occurrence.
WMATA recently hired a new general manager and he’s really taken the ball with this. And now, WMATA has a plan that will mean a year of pain, but it will fix many of the major problems the system has due to its age and decades of deferred maintenance.
Metro will conduct extensive track work over a months-long timetable on all lines except for new portions of the Silver Line, in a major rehabilitation program general manager Paul Wiedefeld will unveil on Friday, according to transit authority sources familiar with the plan. The program may begin as early as June.
For days or, in some locations, weeks, segments of track — covering two to three stations at a time — will undergo either around-the-clock single-tracking or complete closures including during the work week, sources said. The work — described as surges — will take place along stretches of track both inside and outside the downtown core, which sources said are among the oldest in the system and in most need of urgent repair. The officials spoke on condition anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly divulge details of the plan.
WMATA has tried some maintenance---and they’ve spent a lot of money doing so since 2010, but it’s clearly not enough. The system is broken. So now for these drastic measures.
Other cities have done full shutdowns in the past. Chicago shut down the Red Line, completely, and rebuilt it. Philadelphia did the same for the Market-Frankford El from its 44th Street portal to the end of the line at 69th Street. Passengers on both were transferred to buses. Americans for a number of reasons look down on buses but I predict many WMATA commuters will simply shift to Uber and Lyft (I already know people who have been doing this for some years because they simply won’t ride the Metro anymore).
But the shutdown is absolutely necessary. Off-hours work just won’t cut it. And that leads us to the next part.
ONE OF NYC’S BUSIEST LINES HAS TO BE SHUT DOWN
Why? Hurricane Sandy is why.
The Canarsie tunnels, which carry the L line from Brooklyn into Manhattan beneath the East River, flooded to their roofs during Hurricane Sandy. The hurricane’s storm surge swamped much of New York City’s underground subway network.
There’s really no good way to fix the damage. They can limit the amount of trains through, doing night and weekend work, or they can shut the line down entirely. It will take 7 years, apparently, if they do option one. It will take 18 months if they do option two.
This is a video the MTA posted of the inspections done shortly after the hurricane in 2012. It actually has no audio, but for those who are like me and are wary of video I’ll describe what it shows. Conditions are pretty bad. The saltwater eroded and damaged much of the tunnel linings and corroded much of the electrical systems. The tunnels themselves are structurally sound and are in no danger of collapse, but the eroded and damaged lining could cause a derailment and beneath the river, this is a dangerous and poorly accessible place to be.
The L Line has become NYC’s fastest growing line. It serves some truly popular neighborhoods in Brooklyn, including Williamsburg. But the only solution to fix it right is shut it down.
Lots of people are going to be introduced to the bus in two cities. Here’s the thing—buses are fine and it’s about time Americans stopped being so weird about them. Let’s hope there is coordination in both Washington DC and New York City. If temporary “bus only” streets can be implemented to ensure the buses don’t get stuck in traffic, do that.
But as we can see Deferred Maintenance has consequences, and the consequences will disrupt travel within our nation’s capital for some time to come. This is just one city—lots of places have deferred maintenance because there’s no money available for it because noone wants to step up and write the check, and pretty soon it’s all going to come crumbling down. The “No-Build” alternative so frequently seen in planning documents around the country does not mean “no-cost.”
As for New York City, let us hope there are no hurricanes striking the reason at the angle Sandy did until after the repairs, which would push a storm surge into the city. MTA learned a lot of lessons from last time but I doubt they’re ready for the next hurricane.