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| Re: Boost in Ridership Leaves New York’s Penn Station Platforms Packed (1430740) | |||
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Re: Boost in Ridership Leaves New York’s Penn Station Platforms Packed |
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Posted by Dave on Tue Mar 21 07:24:10 2017, in response to Boost in Ridership Leaves New York’s Penn Station Platforms Packed, posted by Dave on Tue Mar 21 07:22:59 2017. The morning rush has become the morning crush for some NJ Transit commuters arriving at New York Penn Station.The scene plays out like this: When a train pulls in, commuters queue up for the doors and arrive on a platform that is both narrow and jammed, people shoved together elbow to elbow. To exit from the platform, commuters sometimes encounter an onslaught of passengers trying to catch another train or a crush of passengers from an arriving train. Sometimes the escalator is going down instead of up, the narrow stairwells are packed single file or, in a truly frustrating situation, a new stairwell is gated. The morning commute for thousands already ends at the much maligned Penn Station. Now, some say, the escape from Penn Station is worse, with platforms more jammed than ever as the number of commuters increases. In 2016, average weekday boardings at Penn Station numbered 94,859 people, up from 92,314 in 2015 and 87,130 in 2014, according to Nancy Snyder, a NJ Transit spokeswoman. Each weekday, about 57,000 NJ Transit customers use Penn Station platforms between the hours of 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., according to Nancy Snyder. Compounding the frustration: Several sets of closed stairwells connecting the platforms with the concourse are gated shut, not yet ready to open. On many mornings, platforms are so crowded that commuters line up inside the trains, waiting to step out. Amtrak owns the platforms, stairs and tracks in Penn Station and holds lease agreements with the rail lines. Amtrak routes its trains, Long Island Rail Road and NJ Transit trains onto 21 tracks, most of them shared. Some tracks are longer than others, and not every train can use every track. Some platforms are wider than others, too. Ms. Snyder said that in the longer term, NJ Transit is working with Amtrak on a project to create additional egress from the platforms. Passengers recently exited a New Jersey Transit train at Penn Station in New York City. Train buddies—Justin Simonich, a 44-year-old production manager, and Lacey Mason, 33, a graphic artist, commute from Maplewood, N.J.—experience the bottleneck most weekday mornings. Ms. Mason recalled pulling out her cellphone to check the time, only to be bumped in the crush of people hurrying to their destinations. Her phone went flying and landed in the tracks. “Mostly it’s a people problem with everyone trying to jam into one exit,” Ms. Mason said. According to multiple people familiar with Penn Station operations, Amtrak sometimes makes last-minute decisions affecting track assignments. Those decisions could be in response to avoiding a train with a malfunction, or a platform where there is a sick passenger. When those last-minute changes occur, a train sometimes will land at a platform where there is an escalator going the wrong direction, giving NJ Transit staff insufficient time to switch its direction. NJ Transit operates the escalators from the platform to the concourse. Passengers sometimes push the stop button on an escalator to walk up the stairs. When that happens, NJ Transit staff need to bring a key to unlock the escalator, according to people familiar with the process, and then wait until the escalator is clear to reverse the direction. Jeff Zupan, a senior fellow at the New York-based Regional Plan Association, a policy and advocacy group, said that if there is always queuing on a train platform it’s a signal that the capacity on the stairwells and escalators is insufficient. Mr. Zupan said that 2.5 square-feet per person, standing stationary, is about the right comfort level for people, and is commonly used for elevator sizing. On a subway platform, he said, a good standard is five square-feet per person. “Once you’ve gotten below five square-feet per person, people can’t maneuver to get out of a claustrophobic situation, to move to a different escalator or stairway,” he said. “That becomes mentally stressful.” Robert Paaswell, a professor of civil engineering at the City College, said that crowding in Penn Station “is symptomatic of the needs of modernization of all our infrastructure.” “If you are touching another person, it’s overcrowded,” he said. Construction of the new $147 million West End Concourse, being built by Empire State Development Corp. as part of the larger Moynihan Train Hall project across Eighth Avenue from Penn Station, affects tracks 5 through 21 and all three rail operators. Several sets of closed stairwells lead from the platform to the new concourse, which are a particular nuisance to NJ Transit riders who could otherwise get to a concourse and then easily out to the street. A person familiar with the project said the construction of the first phase of the Moynihan project largely was completed about six months ago, but its opening was delayed by additional improvements that were ordered. This person didn’t immediately know who called for the late changes, which include the installation of monitors. For safety and logistical reasons, it isn’t possible to open up only the stairwells, this person said. “You need to open the whole thing at once,” this person said. Amy Varghese, a spokeswoman for Empire State Development, said, “We’re moving forward with opening the West End Concourse in spring 2017.” In September, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the $1.5 billion Moynihan Train Hall would open in 2020. |
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