Hi, NYC.

I’m transitioning back from several weeks of maternity leave, but I know the team has been busy in my absence. While we completed several of our Q3 commitments in early October and are still working on a few more, we accomplished some great things the last few months:

We completed an extensive overhaul of the track bed along Fourth Ave in Brooklyn (N, R) and infrastructure that supports it, so that this section is resilient for years to come.

Thanks to NYCDOT, more and more streets are designed for moving more people on buses.

We reopened a newly ADA-accessible station complex at New Utrecht Av/62 St in Brooklyn.

And we reached as many of you as possible to take your feedback and make sure you’re aware of the impact of all the work we’re doing to improve.

Of course, we have a lot of work ahead, with the passing of our largest Capital Program in history. It makes me excited for the future of this city, if we can keep the momentum of this awesome investment in transit infrastructure.

Our Q3 report is just as much about how seriously we take accountability to progress and transparency in our efforts as it is the tangible improvements we made. Read it at the link, and see what we’re working on to close out 2019 below.

Let's keep going,

Sarah Meyer
Chief Customer Officer, New York City Transit

Subway 

✔️ Increase speed limits at another 40 locations throughout the system.

• We increased speed limits in 43 locations, in the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn.

✔️ Reopen Astoria Blvd (N, W) after we completely rebuild the station mezzanine and platform, raising portions of the station to prevent trucks from hitting the structure.

• Astoria Blvd is back! We completed extensive structural renovations, including lifting the entire mezzanine. There’s more good to come, which means construction is ongoing as we continue installation of four elevators and more. Get all the info in the System Modernization section of new.mta.info.

❌ Restore service at two stations after we make critical platform repairs at:

• The Flatbush Av-bound platform at Sterling St (2/5) — complete!
• The Pelham Bay Park platform at Longwood Av (6) — We couldn’t fit Longwood Av into our planned work schedule but anticipate opening the northbound platform in early 2020.

✔️ Open new entrances to the 1 Av L station at Avenue A, increasing the community’s access to the subway system as the L Project moves forward, on budget and ahead of schedule.

• Done! The new 1 Av Brooklyn-bound entrance at Avenue A is open — but, the work still continues. Stay in the know on weekly L project updates through the newsletter.

✔️ Replace four switches near Prospect Park to improve reliability of B and Q service.

• The replacement of these switches increases the reliability on the B and Q lines and gives us more flexibility to keep you moving during disruptions. We took advantage of the track access to do some extra switch and track work, too.

✔️ Deep clean three stations:

• Feeling a little bright and shiny? We power washed station floors, walls, ceilings, and stairs, and cleaned and polished light fixtures, turnstiles, and station booths.
  • 7 Av (B, D, E)
  • Bowling Green (4, 5)
  • Wall Street (4, 5)

Bus

✔️ Implement NYC’s first dedicated busway on 14th St in Manhattan, a huge step to prioritize transit, thanks to the hard work of NYCDOT.

• The results are in — M14 service is moving faster than ever! Thanks to SBS service and that beautiful busway, ridership is up, and travel times are down. We’ve also installed forward-facing camera technology on M14 buses. The message is clear: Stay out of our bus lanes!

✔️ Kick off the Brooklyn bus redesign — an effort to reimagine the modern bus service that Brooklyn wants.

• Our community engagement teams held several open houses and pop-up events throughout Brooklyn. If you missed them, it’s not too late to submit feedback online.

✔️ Install bus lane enforcement cameras on 100 buses, which keep bus lanes clear of single-occupancy cars, on three routes.

• We’ve deployed bus-mounted cameras on 123 buses serving the M15-SBS, B44-SBS and M14-SBS routes. Keeping our bus lanes clear = faster rides for everyone.

✔️ Purchase our first all-electric, articulated buses. Fewer emissions = a win for New York and the environment.

• The next generation of MTA buses are here!

✔️ More bus lanes coming your way: NYCDOT will install or upgrade bus lanes on three critical bus corridors.

• In the last three months of 2019, NYCDOT:
  • Installed raised boarding platforms on 14th St to help speed bus pick-ups and drop-offs, making access easier and safer from the sidewalk to the bus.
  • Added a protected bus lane on Rockaway Beach Blvd from Beach 73rd St to Beach 116th St.
  • Extended and upgraded existing bus lanes on 42nd St.

✔️ Add route-level data to our bus performance dashboard, in an effort to increase transparency and accountability to improving your service. Pro tip: Use this tool when providing input on your borough’s bus network redesign.

• Compare route-by-route bus speeds, percentage of trips completed within five minutes of their schedule, and more at busdashboard.mta.info.

✔️ Expand the M15-SBS showcase route by installing signal priority technology at over 100 intersections, led by NYCDOT.

• We’ve cut red light time at 98 more intersections along the M15-SBS route.

Accessibility

✔️ Test more than a dozen new accessibility features at Jay St-MetroTech, our Accessible Station Lab. Features include tactile guideways, floor decals and signage for the accessible path of travel, and five free wayfinding apps designed to make subway travel more accessible for riders of all abilities.

• We’ve received feedback from hundreds of customers and 30 community groups. We're starting to evaluate all of the data and feedback collected during the pilot and will report back with our findings later this year.

✔️ Open a new elevator at the 8 Av N station, making the northbound platform ADA-accessible. Note: We are also installing an elevator to the southbound platform. More details to come.

• The 8 Av (N) station northbound platform elevator opened in early November, providing yet another accessible station option in south Brooklyn. Work on the southbound platform elevator is on-going.

✔️ Publish a new version of our Accessible Travel Guide to help customers with a range of disabilities navigate our system.

• The new guide is now available on our website; let us know what you think.

✔️ Install new courtesy signage on buses to encourage customers to give their seats to riders who might benefit from a seat.

• Complete! But don’t wait for a sign to do the right thing: Give your seat to someone who may need it more, if you can.

✔️ Launch enhanced broker Access-A-Ride service on Staten Island, giving you the option to book your advanced reservation trips online, track your trip through the MYmta app, request door-to-door service when you need it, and increasing the availability of wheelchair-accessible trips.

• Done, and we’re clocking hundreds of trips a day.

Customer Service

✔️ Install PA systems at the only remaining subway stations that do not currently have them. Once complete, every subway station will finally be equipped to make audio announcements.

• Can you hear us now? All subway stations now have access to audio announcements!

✔️ Reconfigure fare areas at five subway stations to improve passenger flow and make it easier to enter and exit the system.

• This was completed at: Woodhaven Blvd (M, R); Chambers St (J, Z); Grand Central (4, 5, 6, 7 S); Astoria Blvd (N, W); Canarsie-Rockaway Pkwy (L)

✔️ Begin communicating planned work impacts at JFK AirTrain stations to get you information about service changes before leaving the airport.

• Port Authority is now posting alerts about planned work impacting connecting subway stations in-terminal, at AirTrain stations, and online.

✔️ Introduce new designs on station screens to better communicate train arrival predictions and improve wayfinding.

• We've launched line maps that help travelers and New Yorkers alike determine where arriving trains are headed and when.

✔️ Bring the speed and ease of boarding transit with OMNY to more locations, as we prepare for you to tap and go throughout NYC in 2020.

• As of December, OMNY was available at major transfer points like Penn Station, Times Sq, and 149 St-Grand Concourse, and growing: We’ve already hit 5 million taps! Get rollout details at omny.info/system-rollout.

❌ Improve MYmta’s offline map functionality so you can access crucial trip planning information, even underground. 

• We decided to package this update into a larger release, which should come out in the coming weeks.