Siu Ling Ko, a 34-year veteran of MTA New York City Transit’s Subway Car Equipment division, has been named Vice President and Chief Mechanical Officer of the division, which is responsible for maintaining and overhauling the agency’s massive rapid transit car fleet and track maintenance vehicles. She is the first woman in this position.
Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) in North Carolina is adding a new LYNX Blue Line station. In addition, Denver (Colo.) Regional Transportation District (RTD) is seeking consultant support for a system-wide fare study and equity analysis; Toronto-area regional transit agency Metrolinx has reported that its pedestrian bridge set a world record, and released a “first look” at construction of Eglinton Crosstown stations; and MTA New York City Transit (NYCT) has completed a security camera installation project.
Longtime New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) executives Craig Cipriano and Demetrius Crichlow have been promoted to Interim President of New York City Transit (NYCT) and Senior Vice President of NYCT’s Department of Subways, respectively.
MTA New York City Transit (NYCT) has taken delivery of the first five of 535 Kawasaki R211 rapid transit cars; they will begin qualification testing in the coming weeks.
MTA New York City Transit (NYCT) subway and bus riders can now communicate with the agency’s customer service department via iMessage, the proprietary texting system of Apple iOS devices.
MTA New York City Transit (NYCT) started returning its Bombardier R179 fleet to revenue service Sept. 23.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has begun preparatory work on the next phase of the Culver (F) Line Signal Modernization project in Southern Brooklyn. The $253 million project, which had its original late March start date pushed back in the aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak, will replace 70-year-old technology between Church Ave. and Coney Island with a Communications Based Train Control (CBTC) system.
New York has long been known as the “City That Never Sleeps,” partly because its subway system has, with very few exceptions (Superstorm Sandy and 9/11 among them) continuously operated 24/7 since it opened in 1904. That will soon change, as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has announced that the system—plagued with homeless people who have turned it into a trash-strewn shelter—will shut down for four hours, between 1:00 and 5:00 a.m., every night, beginning in the early hours of Wednesday, May 6, for cleaning. As well, the MTA has instituted new rules implemented new rules to restrict those who have been camping on the system.
Following the controversial departure of Andy Byford as MTA New York City Transit on Feb. 21, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority has appointed former Federal Railroad Administrator and MTA board member and Transit Committee Chair Sarah E. Feinberg as his interim replacement. Feinberg will oversee NYCT subway, bus and paratransit services and the Staten Island Railway, operated by a 48,000-person workforce.
On Jan. 23, following two years of service that saw major improvements to New York City’s 116-year-old rapid transit system, MTA New York City Transit President Andy Byford resigned.
