Op-Ed: NYC City and Regional Transit Reforms.

                                                                                                                                Published: 10/30/2014 - 10:45AM.

By: Kevin Wang. 

I have been asked this question many times, the question in a collective statement is how can we overhaul the NYC In-City and Regional Transit Network. I have thought about it Long and Hard. And I have came to the conclusion that we need to make it more manageable to each respective regions and balance out each transit agency's powers. In ways, I have been inspired by transit agencies across the Nation, Canada and Europe. I believe we need better leverage power to each transit agency and not let one power over the other. Especially sort of like how transit agencies in California work. I however emphasize on a better system of operations, more streamlined and cost-efficient. We need a more a-la-carte system. 

New York City & Long Island Bus and Subway Network:

For the Bus Networks, I've researched and looked at maps, I believe we should enhance Inter-County Lines, make sure MTA NYC, Nassau Inter-County Express BUS, Suffolk County Transit Bus (Consolidate Nassau and Suffolk's bus system into one company called "Long Island Inter-County Transit Systems") and Westchester County Bee-Line Bus gets a fair shot and in ways benefit from one another. Allow some Local Bronx Buses into Westchester, and allow some Bee-Line Buses into the Bronx and Upper Manhattan. Allow more buses onto the highway networks when possible. Merge some of the Nassau and Suffolk County Bus Lines (thus through the LIICTS) and remove redundancy routes, streamline across the board. Make the Default Payment Card a joint-entity between the MTA NYC, LIICTS, and WCBLB. Explore payment streamlining to Rockland Co. and CT Transit. This way, the bus network communicates and melts into one another flawlessly and in ways, gives less redundancy when not needed, especially short routes that doesn't make a lot of sense to be it's own line. 

We should also explore enhanced service for Queens, and Long Island. The only part of the region that is always left out when it comes to innovative transit thinkings. If NYC could build an elevated Busway or Light Rail Line over the LIE, and have stations for some of the buses, it would be amazing! Let all MTA Express Buses use that corridor! Have a MTA NYC/LIICTS Joint Operations Bus Route that serves: Midtown Manhattan (34th St. between 5th and Madison) - Grand Ave. (Maspeth) - Queens Center Mall (Rego Park) - Main St. (Flushing) - 188th St. (Fresh Meadows) - Bell Blvd. (Bayside South) - Marathon Parkway (Little Neck South) - New Hyde Park Road. (New Hyde Park) - Mineola Ave. (Roslyn). - Glen Cove Road. (Old Westbury) - Jericho Metro MegaPark & Ride/Route 25/Jericho Turnpike (Jericho-Hicksville) - Route 135 (South Oyster Bay) - Melville Metro MegaPark & Ride/Route 110/Broad Hollow Road (Melville) ///leaves LIE alignment/// Huntington Square Mall (Dix Hill-Commack) - Landing Ave. (Smithtown Town Center) - Smith Haven Mall (Nesconset-Lake Grove). This would create a better corridor for a true Semi-Express experience for Long Islanders. The Park and Ride + Bus Rapid Transit Articulated (Accordion/Bendy) Buses w/ Coach Style Seating would work seamlessly and innovate Long Island's transit system. This would also create another corridor that would remove more cars off the road. 

The NYC Subway System would be still under the MTA NYC System and WILL NOT be affected by any of this overhaul. 

New York City & Long Island, Connecticut & Hudson Valley Railroads:

For the Long Island Railroad, I have always believed it should be enhanced, I have always believed each section of the network should be two tracked, other than the Greenport Branch. I think we should double track each and every section of the entire Long Island Railroad system other than the Greenport. We should maintain electrification and expand electrification of the rail network to as far as Port Jefferson Station on the Port Jefferson Branch, maintain electrification to Ronkonkoma on the Main Line, explore possible electrification up to Riverhead by the Outlets and create a new station over there called "Riverhead West" to serve the Tanger Outlets at Riverhead and the other shopping places like Costco and Walmart and let electrified trains end there, also electrify all the way to Patchogue or Speonk, this way, the Long Island Railroad can cut down on Diesel trains and enhance through service. Also, all Diesels that serve places between Ronkonkoma (or Riverhead West) and Greenport and the Patchogue or Speonk and Montauk should be strictly Semi-Express however, I should note that the Diesel Service should start at a reasonable stop, like Hicksville, or Babylon even it provides some redundancy, it helps interconnect the region. The new Long Island Railroad system would be a joint service just like my suggested Long Island Expressway BRT between the LIICTS and MTA NYC however LIICTS gains the majority of the operations as the LIE BRT has a MTA NYC majority. 

The joint entity would have the name of LITES (Long Island Transport Express Services). This three joint entities would power NYC and Long Island like never before, and it would empathize on giving customers better communications, make the entire network of bus, subway and railroad work seamlessly and provide better inter-connections. The use of I and T and S in LIICTS and LITES reflects the need of better customer service and Inter-connecTivity in the System of transport lines. The three entities would be powered by NYC's City Hall and Long Island's Suffolk County Seat. There would be one joint oversight board, and NYC would select 4 board members (one by Manhattan and Bronx borough president, one by Queens and Brooklyn borough president, one by Staten Island borough president, one by the mayor), Nassau County would select 4 (one per Town, one by the County Executive) board members, and Suffolk County would select 4 (by joint-town selections of towns in Western Suffolk, Central Suffolk, the East End Forks + Islands and one by the County Executive) board members. The end result of the new operations would be a board consisting of all Joint Selected staff by Albany, City Hall, Mineola and Hauppague. There will obviously be a company board consisting of a CEO/Chair, a MTA NYC Bus Operations Chief, 5 Bus Operations Managers by Borough, a MTA NYC Subway Operations Chief, an A Division+Yard Manager, a B Division Manager, a C Division+Capitols Program Manager, a Long Island Railroad Chief, Branch Line Managers, Nassau Countywide Bus Manager, Suffolk Western-Central Bus Manager and Suffolk Eastern-Central Bus Manager and eliminations of excess managers, consolidate without impacting any operations. 

The MOST MAJOR of the overhauls come on the Metro-North side of things, For the Metro-North Railroad should be broken up. I suggest giving West of the Hudson Line Operations in FULL to the NJTransit other than ownership of properties. The Pascack Valley Line should be owned by NJTransit in FULL. The Port Jervis Line north of Suffern (I assume a MTA MNR owned property should be transferred to the NYS DOT with NJTransit being the operator. The New Haven Line should be transferred to Amtrak and the trackage given to ConnDOT in full, the Hudson Line and Harlem Lines should be transferred to a joint CSX-Amtrak operation. Amtrak Shore Line East trains will be merged with Amtrak New Haven Line Services to streamline operations. Ticketing in the West of Hudson Lines will be in consistent with NJTransit ticketing, as for Port Jervis, it will be a joint decision, Pascack will be under NJTransit in FULL. The fares for Amtrak-CSX Hudson and Harlem Lines would be in consistent with what NYSDOT and the Amtrak-CSX joint venture would recommend and streamline. Allow an enhanced ticketing so travelling between NYC and Albany would be possible without going through booking windows. Amtrak New Haven Line (Connecticut Services) fares would be what Amtrak and ConnDOT says. 

The operations would fall under a new started service called the Connecticut and Hudson Railroad (CHRR) with Amtrak-CSX-NYSDOT-ConnDOT- being the oversighters/operators. The West of Hudson would be fully under NJTransit's board with Port Jevis Line under a joint oversight/operations of NJTransit- NYSDOT. The East of Hudson service would require a new local board. A Co-President, one selected by Albany and one selected by Hartford, a Hudson Line Manager, a Harlem Line Manager, a New Haven Line Manager (West of South Norwalk (New Haven & New Canaan)), a New Haven Line Manager (East of South Norwalk (New Haven+SLE, Danbury and Waterbury), a Grand Central Station Manager/Master and a main office in Stamford, CT or White Plains, NY. There would also be a joint oversight board, selected by the Westchester County Executive, Putnam County Executive, Dutchess County Executive, the Mayor of Stamford, the Mayor of Bridgeport, the Mayor of New Haven. 

I believe this comprehensive reform would benefit each respective regions very well, it would also create a world class transit network that services Long Island and New York City in a connected manner, Hudson Valley and Connecticut in a connected manner and also give each region a better leverage of how their own rail and transport networks performs. I am not for implementing a Public-Private joint rail network for this region due to the fact that it carries millions of commuters each day, it is too far of a gamble to do it. I believe this is the best way to go for the future and beyond, where there is a balance of power and control, where streamlining is emphasized and where each region gets the benefits they deserve. So in short NYC and Long Island has their own new overhauled Bus and Railroad network, and Hudson Valley and Connecticut has their own new overhauled railroad network with some bus enhancements as well. I fully recognize this is fantasy right now, but it is a concept worth considering! 

New LIRR JFK Line - Explained.

Posted 10/15/2014 By Kevin

Photo Source: Wikipedia.org

Queens is facing a transportation crisis and dilemma. We have a NYC with a well built transportation network however, when we look at the maps, the main rail corridors are in the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn. The focus is always to build more reliever routes in Manhattan, still it fails to address Queens. Most planned lines and extension concepts address only the Bronx and Brooklyn. 

You do have Queens with an okay set of subway network but, it just cannot handle 21st Century loads. The (E), (F), (M) and (R) may seem like 4 lines but, it is very much 1 line that splits into 4 as it approaches Manhattan, the (A), (J) and (Z) may seem like reliever routes for SouthEastern Queens, it just doesn't help much because of the lengthy commute time. It turns away a lot of people who can't deal with such lengths. The (7) does have a LIRR Parallel, but both see heavy ridership and frequently exceed capacity, especially during events in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. You have the (N) but it just doesn't address 90+% of Queens, rather only relieve the (7) when it really passed the majority of it's route. Then you look at the roads... Northern Blvd. (NY-25A), Queens Blvd. (NY-25), the Interstate Highway System (I-295/I-495/I-278/I-678) and the Parkway system pretty much have a load of commuters traveling to and from Long Island and it doesn't help when you have intraborough, interborough and intercounty commuters all around... On top of the local traffic, you have people traveling to and from two of the most major regional airports, one being a huge international player, John F. Kennedy International (JFK) Airport... The minor one being LaGuardia (LGA) Airport... 

When you add population growth and other factors into it, you are facing an impending chronic transportation crisis in the County (borough) of Queens... Our borough like many other major cities around the Northeast need additional public transportation routes. Some may say add bike lanes, or bike paths and walkways (Queensway) but, when you think about it, no one will use these as the main way to access Manhattan, and those who will use it is only a handful... Now, you may think, what is the best way to reduce the effects of this impending chronic transportation crisis? We need to identify some major corridors. 

Fortunately, one of them has an open space, not taken just yet! That one is the Woodhaven Blvd. Corridor! Then you may question, where is this said open space? If you look at Google Maps, you see a green tree filled line running roughly parallel to Woodhaven Blvd. You might even have saw it when you are in the area! It is that mysterious bridge and small hill with a wall of trees on it! The history of that corridor on the small hill is the Long Island Railroad used to have a line that runs to the Rockaways using that specific line, (read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockaway_Beach_Branch ) it got abandoned in 1962, read more into it in the linked Wikipedia article if you wish. 

The tricky part of this is this particular corridor is facing a dilemma, whether or not to continue letting Woodhaven Blvd. feel the jam by building the Queensway (a Bike/Pedestrian Path) or reduce congestion on the Blvd. by building a rail line. For me, the answer is very clear, the Queensway will not help Queens at all, that is only a liability and waste of money, it could even damage or destroy existing bird, possum and raccoon residencies by unnecessary human activities. On top of that, the Queensway would require police patrols overnight to maintain there are no backyard peepers/tresspassers that may harm nearby residences. The railline prevents or reduces both, normally birds, possums and raccoons will not be effected by raillines too much, especially when I look at places like in New Jersey and Long Island. So basically, I say, build the future LIRR Rockaway Beach Branch, this time renaming it to the LIRR JFK Line! 

Now, you may question me, why not a Bus Rapid Transit? Why not a Light Rail Line? Why not the Subway? Why not do a BRT or LRT on Woodhaven Blvd.? It is a matter of Right of Way and a matter of If it could be done. I myself know there are opposition in the Forest Hills and Rego Park area. The addition requirement today to build a tunnel portal and tunnel in the Forest Hills/Rego Park Area is going to probably stall this more, it is only going to give momentum to the Queensway support. The LIRR answers it because the only requirement is the necessary clearing of trees and building the infrastructure required to run a commuter railroad, including a simple, not-to-complex junction around the Rego Park area. You might not even notice it being built using this method, a fairly quiet community-friendly method. 

For the Stops, I suggest one around Metropolitan Ave. (with elevated parallel walk paths to Union Turnpike and Yellowstone Blvd.), another one at Jamaica Ave. (connections to the (J)/(Z) and elevated walk paths to Park Lane South), another one at Atlantic Ave., another one at Liberty Ave./Rockaway Blvd. (connections to the (A) Ozone Park), and then one more at Aqueduct Racetrack/Casino, and the last stop being at JFK Airport-Howard Beach.  

For the Fare Structure, I suggest a hybrid SIRTOA Tompkinsville/St. George-like Fare Gate Structure along with free transfers to the Subway with a LIRR Zone 1 Off-Peak Fare Cost or LIRR CityTicket Fare Cost. There will also be timed transfers at Howard Beach-JFK so people don't have to worry about the cold or heat, or have to wait for long. The transfers has to be seamless for the not disabled and disabled. It Just Works!   

This proposal has to happen, it is in no way going to solve the entire Borough of Queens's Transport Dilemma, it will solve a part of it, and a major part of it. An area that needs better and faster transportation into Manhattan. That is SouthEastern Queens...  

Archives /// Op-Ed: Agreeing with Rob Astorino

Published on 04/30/2014 - 09:30AM. 
Opinion Editorial by Kevin Wang.

I wholeheartedly agree with Rob Astorino, there is nothing racist about it.

I myself is in the minority and I experienced racism toward me but this housing thing, it is not racist and never racist. I frankly think building Affordable Housing that targets the poor may not be the best. I understand there are people who wish to be in safer places, I understand. But, the problem is, if there are housing built in such areas, you may be moving away from a bad area, but the next thing you know, another person who is trouble is living right next door to you. As much as I wish to have fair and square zip codes across the NYC area and Suburban Counties, please legalize conceal carry with heavy background checks including identifying friend and family before putting affordable housing in my area in Queens. I have seen too many crazies and heard a rise in gun shots lately, this is apparently because these activists keep on playing class cards and race cards that the good areas are racist when it isn't and now these areas are inching closer to the ghetto. Folks in Jamaica is coming to Forest Hills to do their crime, Folks in East New York are going to Park Slope to do their crime, folks in Harlem go to Midtown to commit a crime. 
I understand you want equality, but this is not how to achieve it, nor pulling more money out of the rich would work because all you are doing is make more people loose jobs because the wealthier can't pay their workers enough, especially small/family businesses. And some of the mediums too. In fact the areas these criminals target are normally middle class areas where the richey rich folks actually don't live in, they think it is the 1% but there may be non 1%'er living here. The middle class is always on the bad end of the stick and typically criticized more because of their fears about crime that may happen which drains out money and makes donations less possible because these criminals drain up tax resources during prosecution and imprisonment and the money to replace stolen properties was going to donations. 

I frankly think the tax should be level and affordable housing should only be built with local voter approval and by local is the area covering .75 miles of where said housing is being built and for the wealthy aka 1%'er they should be asked by the government to donate a set amount to charity per tax year to make sure they don't have to pay a non-donation tax surcharge, and this should only be applicable to folks making $4.75 million or more because $250,000-$4.50 million earners can't do much because almost 1/3 of their income is going to taxes anyways so the remaining costs are for house care and hiring if other people, normally the needy, so the liberal idealism really needs a big fix because a community is a community and forcing something down it's throat and if they oppose, claiming it being racist and playing the class card and race card is another socialist idealism and forcing stuff down one's throat seems like something a Communist nation would do *cough*SovietRussia*cough* *cough*MaoZeDongChina*cough*. 

Keep in mind I am an Asian, even if I am black or Latino, I would say the exact same because I like to speak independently and neutrally but I couldn't because I seen stuff go downhill after these political agendas played out which should never have, especially Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson should be kept out of the arena because now crime is spread out, instead of being focused in isolated areas, and it would be a whole lotta trouble dealing with this, especially since I used to not feel the need for a concealed gun, but now I feel the need for one because of the proximity of gun shots heard in the night hours, I just don't feel safe anymore, as much as it saddens me to not have a more fair and square zip codes around the nation, I just can't tolerate it because some human are just not good regardless of class and race but, it is really unfortunate more of these violent folks are causing the rest of the poor, and sadly good blacks and latinos hardships. So instead of pushing affordable housing in areas the communities don't want it, how about making better schools in poorer areas? Better schools with better curriculum and extra-curricular activities would mean better people, however I would still vote no for these housing projects. Rather, open up slots in the area schools to balance and diversify a school. It doesn't have to increase violence and crime in good areas to achieve better goals.

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS SOLEY MY OWN (KEVIN WANG'S) OPINION! MY OPINIONS DO NOT REFLECT ROB ASTORINO AND THE REST OF THE NYS GOP AND/OR CONSERVATIVE OPINIONS!

The Video I am agreeing on:
http://vimeo.com/9330301

Archives /// Op-Ed - New York State of the State Address for 2014.

Published: 01/15/2014 - 7:15AM.
Opinion Editorial by Kevin Wang.

Between the Rockstar Chris Christie is, even so the BridgeGate Scandal, and the Gun Controlling Andrew Cuomo. I personally find myself more agreeing with Cuomo than with Christie, as a person who is a Conservative Republican, even so I STRONGLY disagree with his NY SAFE act, but I don't find myself having a battle of opinions with him anytime soon. I think the reason I won't have a beef is because Cuomo is a forward thinking person who has the right social liberal mindset and right conservative financial mindset and I personally like his ways of governing based on giving Upstate NY and Downstate NY a fair balance. Western NY and North Country definitely need the attention and the plans for those areas are amazing! I also like how Buffalo is getting a revitalization, I think we should have our OWN Charlotte, NC. Buffalo, NY shall rise! 

After watching the rest of the State of State 2014 Address, I give Governor Andrew Cuomo a positive rating and outlook. I also hope Albany gives more control over NYC since it would also help NYC continue become world class. I also see NYS gets more solid outlooks in places like Long Island, Westchester and the Hudson Valley, unfortunately I haven't seen NYS beyond the Downstate so I couldn't give a full review. However news seems positive in the Upstate Regions as well, especially since the only town I went to in "true" Upstate - Kingston, NY seems like they have added many new businesses and it's great to see businesses grow in this great State.

I also see that there are plans laid out for reasonable Local Government Consolidation, this is definitely needed since it will help communities and local businesses grow and attract more people AWAY from Ohio, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, currently Upstate is not attracting enough people, but this will change. In addition, I cannot wait to see LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy Airport to modernize. I have seen San Francisco International, I have seen Chicago O'Hare, I have seen Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, Toronto Pearson, Boston Logan and much more and this will help revitalize beyond just the airport but it's locality as well. This may indeed get my vote for Gov. Cuomo next time around since I think he know what he is doing, and this growth will help this state step into the next decades to come.

Watch the New York State of the State Address for 2014 [Youtube User: Mountain Lakes PBS].

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6FGyfadqU8