Transit Talk Tuesday No.2 | MTA NYCT NEWS, POLITICS AND MORE!

hello and what's up political Peeps and Transit yappers alike welcome back to Transit talk Tuesday here today on another fine Tuesday August 20th of 2024 and today we're going to do it a little differently than we did last time instead of thr a couple big Transit topics we're going to break down a couple other Transit Transit news related items uh going over some graphic some stuff from the MTA and other Transportation authorities tying Transit into politics and then WRA up with a super cool Fair anomaly coming from New Jersey Transit so you guys let us know in the comment section below uh if you guys like this format if you prefer the bigger topics or just me talking here with some graphics like here and there or you like the slideshow kind of piece by piece format so please do let us know uh your opinion on that front so like I said it's a big episode here on Transit talk Tuesday presented by the geopolitical before we begin please be sure to follow us on all platforms LinkedIn check us out at RVA Kapur to get some more updates about my life uh other things that I do uh relating to geography politics and public transportation check out our substack for Publications every so often on my blog and Etc please be sure to check out our website at www.the geopolitical Donnet for more information concerning all of my works and of course links to my YouTube channel which can be found at the geopolitical d22 and of course my Spotify where all of the podcasts are are posted all the way back to October of 2022 which can be found at the geopolitical itself so our first topic of news for this episode of Transit talk Tuesday the G train shutdown from the MTA continues no GT train service during this phase three of the pro process is running between Bedford norn Avenues and Church Avenue on the train in Brooklyn service will run every 8 minutes from Court Square in Queens to Bedford norston Avenues in Brooklyn and then shuttle bus service will connect Bedford nor Avenue to J Street Metrotech making that extra stop at J Street Metrotech even though the G typically doesn't it typically goes from hoit G horn and into lines with the F to Bergen Street down to Church Avenue and then as this uh Renovations and other stuff H takes place along the G line the shuttle bus can drop people off the Dre Street Metro Tex or when it interlines with the G Going uh into two downtown Brooklyn and then following from Bergen Street to Carol Street to Smith and 9th Street through 4th Avenue 9th Street uh making a couple more stops including Fort Hamilton Parkway and then finally reaching Church Avenue on the G so now with that here is a video published by the MTA kind of with an update I know we posted one uh short of video on the last episode of TR to talk Tuesday but here was an update on the G train mization a quick video we're getting ready to wrap up phase two of the gtrain signal modernization project on August 12th here are some highlights of the work we've completed [Music] phase 3 begins August 12th and continues through September 3rd [Music] 2024 thanks for riding with us [Music] so yeah G train service is being replaced but as you can see a lot of crucial things and process has been made those cables that upold will allow for the cbtc which will allow more frequent trains on this crucial VN queens crot downline and if you want to learn more about why this is so crucial Link in the description to last week's Transit talk Tuesday episode this is truly one of the most crucial lines in the New York City subway and that's why being able to bring these trains closer together uh and run them in a safer fashion is very beneficial now courtz Square was mentioned and by the way that video was posted a couple weeks ago during phase two but now of course you know we've made it through phase three phase three's visual is on the left of your screen as we speak but court square has important connection to very dense neighborhoods and Queens on the seven as well as Manhattan on the seven enm trains and then the Broadway Station provides a vital connection which is typically not there but um is being implemented because of the G train shut down with the connection to the j&z which go down to lower Manhattan and the financial district the connection to the six which takes you up to all the big places Grand Central Terminal Etc as well as the M which is a crucial access point to Middle Village or Metropolitan Avenue in Queens and other parts of Manhattan running along 6th Avenue in addition to that J Street Metro Tech which was mentioned in the video on the screen has connection to the AC fnr trains which do connect to Manhattan on all of the trains as as well as the rockaways on the a fin and the financial district on the r as well as qbl on the fnr which is a line that runs along Queens bulevard thus Queens Boulevard line uh connecting many dense neighborhoods throughout Queens all the way up to Jamaica 179th street now moving on from the G train shutdown please check out the other video for more MTA is still continuing the work on pen access if you're not sure exactly how it works please see the graphic right here as you can see the Helm Lane bridge is approximately where New Haven line trains split from amtr Northeast Corridor which is coexisting with new the New Haven line corridor from the pmland bridge or where new new relle is and Newell yard all the way up to New Haven Union Station but the New Haven line trains who are set to go into Penn Station will be branching off onto Amtrak trackage and going down the Northeast Corridor up until Penn Station and you can see this plans to create many new stations along this line including at Co-op City in the Bronx Morris Parks Pok Chester Van Nest Etc on top of this the MTA has released many renderings for these stations here are some of the renderings from the MTA that they have released concerning this so this is the park just Van Nest station a little cool and modern I have to say especially for you know MTA New York City Transit uh it looks a little bit uh fancier than a typical you know modern day commuta rail North American northeast station and I I like it honestly the bright uh see transparent Windows going down onto track level and it looks like a cool overpass I I'm just concerned on you know how this will be maintain because this looks beautiful from the rendering now the Co-op City station looks a little bit more like like a typical you know commuter station a nice fly over overpass and you can kind of see the theme of the new new New York State branding here hunt Point Station again a little more typical but with a cool overhanging and then the entrance to the station does look nice in this rendering and then finally the Morris Park station which is extremely similar to the co-op City if you compare them I think they're almost identical B excluding the uh naming so both of those are extremely similar but regardless of that these renderings look great and now the main work that's being done is the bronxdale avenue bridge as of the May of 2024 newsletter that was released by The Metropolitan Transportation Authority uh because now this line the Amtrak line in some parts is very old on this Northeast Corridor and only has two tracks so they need to improve these two tracks put up to four tracks on some areas because having an entire new railroad running on these tracks is a lot of work and thus will take a lot more strain on the tracks and so everything needs to be revitalized and new tracks have to be added in some areas moving on from that one Metro New York is continuing its rise among the New York City Community now open loop Payment Systems versus closed loop Payment Systems is the main reason why this is being implemented now for example going into new city you're coming on like for example off the plane off you know a JFK Airport in New York the MTA wants you to take public transportation but the thing is you go up to pay for the air TR how do you have to pay up until a couple months ago you have to get a metro card so you have to go standing line in metro card machine you would have to look at the different fairs and then there would be a screen that would come up it's like you want to pay for 30-day limited 7-Day unlimited payer ride single ride pass there's so many different options it's confusing for tourist right who's never been to New York maybe doesn't even speak English fluently it's becomes very extremely hard and that's a block for people using public transportation when you can just hop in a cab and pay them you know 50 60 bucks to get back into Midtown Manhattan now with Omni that's totally skipped we can just tap with a credit card onto the Omni Vos using NE field connection AKA NFC and boom we're in it could either be the JFK air TR now that has also been implemented upon the Roosevelt Island Tram the beine bus the nice buses and the Hudson link I recently had a great experience with the Ros Island Tram while using Omni to pay and it totally skips the step of having to go and you know get the credit card set up and before the main block for Omni was number one what if you have to pay cash and you don't have a credit card because a lot of people aren't fortunate enough you know have a credit or debit card that's why these Army vending machines are coming into play you can can now cap an omni card and take one out now for a limited time they're only costing $1 but they will soon cost $5 before you could only get these at convenience stores now you can get them at a variety of stations throughout the system and you can literally just tap with the Omni card and then boom you're in to the system and then this Omni card also implements something called Fair capping so it doesn't completely eliminate the whole 30-day metro card thing or 7-Day metro card thing that we had going on with the metro card and here is a quick video from the MTA on how this Fair capping Works although it is kind of a complex system you get the same deal as the 7-Day Fair cing how does fair capping work with Omni Fair capping works for all New York City Transit Subway and local limited and select buses just tap and go with the same credit or debit card with the contactless symbol smart device or Omni card pay for 12 trips in a 7-Day period and you'll automatically receive unlim limited free rides for the rest of that week start any day and $34 is the most you'll pay until the cap resets in 7 days you only pay for the rides you take without The Upfront cost just make sure you use the same payment method for all of your trips everything you tap has its own cap so even if your smartphone and wearable are connected to the same credit or debit card each payment method builds towards its own unique Fair cap and the trips can't be combined the 7-Day Fair cap only only works for paid Omni trips so your free transfers don't count if you want to track your progress towards reaching the fair cap you can sign up for a secure and free Omni account at Omni doino simply link your fair payment method to your Omni account to find out more visit mta.info slave thanks for riding with [Music] us this is making it much simp and like they mentioned in the video without The Upfront cost of having to pay the $34 at a metro card machine if you use only 11 rides you only have to pay for 11 rides instead of the full $34 but you could easily take advantage of that uh 12 ride trip if you're going uh seven days a week if you're working or even if you're working six days a week round trip that's 12 trips so you're already you know breaking even there and then if you go out for you know Sunday if you're espe particularly if you're a New York City resident or even if you're vacationing and taking the subway multiple times a day this open Loof payment system make means that you don't have to worry about buying a metro card you can just go in and out now another blocker has been student Omni cards and reduce spare Omni cards thankfully just two weeks ago when you're seeing this video the new student Omni card has been piloted by the MTA hey New York City students welcome to Omni just tap and go with your student student Omni card at any Subway Turn Style or bus it's that easy and now you can travel all day long not just during certain hours you get four free rides every day of the year including weekends and during the summer one card lasts the whole year thank you for riding with us so now this student block thing is not a component anymore and not an aspect in this Omni battle to phase out the metro card up ultimately and drive more people towards public transportation because some people unfortunately haven't realized that arm is a thing yet and are still relying on the Metro card but because of that the metro card is expected to be phased out by the end of 2025 although that date has been set you know a couple times by the MTA and they don't necessarily uphold that every time but given that Omni vending machines have been rolled out consistently across the system it is a possibility to have the 2025 end goal for the removal of the metro card now in addition to this a great thing that could happen with Omni is that to be implemented into the two railroads that the MTA operates the Metro North Railroad as well as Long Island Railroad the only hindrance to doing so has been the reason that all the other Fair methods that Omni has been implemented into have used a flat red across the board the flat red may be fluctuating but it has been a flat red rate although railroads use Zone based rates so because of that it's very hard to program Omni in the proper way especially even if you're doing a tap in and a Tap Out system that you tap in to get on the commuter rail and tap out how will that work with families Etc so that is currently being worked around like a way to implement Omni into railroads it's a big week for New New Jersey residents and people who use New Jersey Transit on for the Daily M with they're going on vacation New Jersey governor Phil Murphy guess what Fair holiday nobody riding New York New New Jersey Transit will have to be fair pay fair at all from August 26th to September 2nd the government even went as far as saying that if you paid for an August Fair monthly package already they will give you 25% off your September one to make up for the lack of free week now this applies to all New Jersey transed buses all New Jersey Transit commu ra the henb light ra all other New Jersey light ra even the river line which has been at the heart of these issues that are prompting the agency to initiate this free Fair holiday given that on the northeast coridor signals and with along with Amtrak have been a huge hindrance to proper service on the New Jersey Transit Northeast Corridor line as well as the river line given its age Etc New Jersey resident don't have to pay fair at all they don't have to scan a ticket they don't have to validate any ID or whatsoever they just hop on the trends and hop off for that entire week just keep in mind this does not apply to like the New York Liberty International Airport Air train the Port Authority trans Hudson the path the pathco buses or trains or anything of that sort this only applies to New Jersey transit services and for our last topic of today the 2024 election will be very very crucial for public transit Advocates across the world World given the $550 billion Transportation infrastructure act that was signed by US President Joe Biden in the year 2021 but that will expire in 2026 which will be uh well into the new presidency so that means that the future president and this presidential election is crucial for the funding required for public transportation across the country now in the past KLA Harris the presidential candidate for the Democratic party has pushed for electrified buses Across the Nation as and in addition to that the running vice president for the Democratic party along with KLA Harris Tim wal was part of the Congressional byel highspeed and Inter City passenger rail caucus which promoted other inter city whale means and high-speed whale platforms Etc including the am Trella Express in addition to this Justin bck the program director at climate change advocacy group The Evergreen action noted that a future president in Donald Trump and you know his running bit JD Vance as Vice President are going to be actively hostile to mass transit which would not look good for the community it is truly a possibility given past given past given the lack of Interest president Trump has show to public transportation in the past years especially compared to his Democratic counterparts and with that thank you so much for listening or watching today's episode of Transit talk Tuesday please be sure to check out and follow us on all of the other platforms that we listed at the beginning of the episode and they are all right here just in case you missed that earlier on please be sure to follow like subscribe and all other of those kind of jazz on whatever platform you guys are listening or watching to and with that you guys know the drill I'll catch you guys next Tuesday peace out trans at the yaers