Transit Briefs: Amtrak, LIRR/Metro-North, LA Metro, TTC

(Amtrak photo)

Amtrak’s public art program unveils a new digital video installation at Moynihan Train Hall. Also, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announces record ridership on the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and Metro-North; an LA Metro committee approves a nearly $9 billion budget for the coming year; and the union representing Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) workers takes a “final step” towards possible job action.

Amtrak

Amtrak is continuing its Art at Amtrak public art program with a new video installation at Moynihan Train Hall, We Are Made of Time by artists Tin & Ed. The piece will be live until Monday, July 15, and is featured on the station’s 160-foot-wide, state-of-the-art 4mm LED digital screens.

For the first time in program history, the video installation will also run on the station’s digital advertising display boards. We Are Made of Time performs a “temporal magic trick,” compressing 4.5 billion years of Earth’s geological change into a symphonic moment.

“By investing in artwork and continuing to produce new installations like We Are Made of Time, Amtrak stations now double as art galleries,” said Art at Amtrak Director Sharon Tepper. “Amtrak continues to enhance our customer experience through Art at Amtrak, and via Tin & Ed’s new video, we have added a unique and educational adventure to their trip.”

Like a cabinet of curiosity, Tin and Ed’s film “layers time scales together—cosmic, geological and biological—revealing loops, patterns and connections, at once ancient and beyond our lifetime,” according to Art at Amtrak. Viewers are invited to see time as non-linear, considering how geological events millions of years ago still connect to us. Using procedural modeling software, Tin & Ed have generated rocks, minerals, 3D sculpted fossils and scanned elements, including Tennessee Marble used in the construction of Moynihan Train Hall and the original Penn Station. “These items are placed into a fluid constantly shifting panoramic landscape—one unmoored from linear time.”

From childhood, Tin & Ed were avid rock collectors, searching the earth for precious finds, scouring their surfaces for clues about our world. As adults, they were drawn to formalized arrangements of rocks and minerals: natural history museums and cabinets of curiosities. We Are Made of Time, Art at Amtrak says, “urges viewers to step outside this structure, to consider how geological events millions of years ago connect to us now, how present happenings will echo into the vast expanse of what’s to come.” Additional images of We Are Made of Time are available here.

Amtrak launched Art at Amtrak in June 2022 in New York Penn Station and has since expanded to Moynihan Train Hall, William H. Gray III 30th Street Station and Washington Union Station. More information about Art at Amtrak and a complete list of artists can be found here.

LIRR/Metro-North

The New York MTA on May 15 announced record ridership on its two commuter railroads, the LIRR and Metro-North. According to the agency, LIRR carried 260,745 riders on Tuesday, May 14, the highest ridership for a single weekday since the pandemic.

The ridership record, MTA says, coincided with a Grand Central Madison record—41% of riders traveled to Grand Central Madison on Tuesday, the highest split with Penn Station since the terminal opened for full service last February.

According to MTA, the LIRR record comes just one day after Metro-North had its best Monday since the pandemic, carrying 209,795 riders. Combined with Tuesday, Metro-North has carried nearly half a million riders through the first two days of the week. This record comes following strong ridership last week, with an average of 212,466 riders each day, the best weekday average since the pandemic. The average ridership for Tuesday through Thursday of that week was 222,244 riders, also a post-pandemic record.

Through the first three months of 2024, LIRR and Metro-North have each celebrated strong on-time performance and ridership, with each carrying approximately 1.4 million riders last week, according to the agency, Building off a strong 2023 in which both LIRR and Metro-North saw non-commutation surpass 2019 levels, both railroads are currently carrying an average of 200,000 riders.

For four consecutive months, the LIRR’s systemwide on-time performance has exceeded 94%. On weekdays, the LIRR has consistently carried more than 200,000 riders since the opening of Grand Central Madison with a current weekday average of at least 230,000 riders.

Metro-North’s record week, for the week of May 6, is the first time since the pandemic the railroad has averaged more than 200,000 riders for a week, surpassing that total six of the last seven weekdays. The ridership highs come in the midst of record on-time performance. In addition to its historic on-time performance of 98.8% in 2024, Metro-North’s on-time performance has been at least 97% the last four years, according to MTA.

“MTA commuter rail service has never been stronger,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber. “LIRR ridership keeps climbing, especially the number of commuters using Grand Central Madison. LIRR ridership inside the city—especially from historically disadvantaged neighborhoods—is up 28%, and Metro-North on-time performance has been nearly perfect this year—99%! We still have capacity to accommodate even more riders, who now know taking the LIRR and Metro-North will get them to and from the city faster than ever.”

LA Metro

An LA Metro committee on May 15 approved the agency’s nearly $9 billion budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year, which officials say will “finalize infrastructure projects, boost ridership and bolster safety,” according to a Los Angeles Daily News report.

According to the report, LA Metro’s Finance, Budget and Audit Committee “unanimously voted in favor of moving the proposed budget forward for consideration” by the agency’s Board of Directors at its meeting later this month. The spending plan must be adopted before the July 1 start of the 2024-25 fiscal year.

The proposed $8.9 billion budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year is 4.3% lower, or a reduction of some $400 million, compared to the $9.3 billion budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year, according to the Los Angeles Daily News report.

LA Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins “attributed the reduction to a $198 million decrease in revenues, and a decrease in grant funding coming to the agency.” Additionally, bond proceeds and carryover funds are expected to drop in the coming fiscal year.

Highlights of the spending plan include:

• $255.4 million for cleaning, a 14.4% or $32.1 million increase compared to the 2023-24 fiscal year.
• $354.1 million for public safety resource deployment, an 11% or $35 million increase compared to the 2023-24 fiscal year.
• $2.7 billion for transit operations for bus, rail and Metro Micro, a 11.4% or $272.4 million increase over the 2023-24 fiscal year.
• $2.2 billion for various improvements to the bus system, including increasing frequency of service, an increase of 17.5% compared to the 2023-24 fiscal year.
• $2 billion for Transit Infrastructure Development, representing a reduction of about 21% in this area compared to the 2023-24 fiscal year.
• $2.1 billion to cities to cover costs related to transit programs and services, along with funding for toll grants and open streets programs, a .03% reduction compared to the 2023-24 fiscal year.

In the coming fiscal year, the Los Angeles Daily News reports that LA Metro is expected to complete the Airport Metro connector in the fall, connecting the C and K Lines. The budget will also support testing and pre-revenue service on the D (Purple Line) Subway Extension Phase 1 and the Foothill A Line Extension to Pomona.

In a bid to “create a stronger sense of security,” LA Metro will hire 53 more Transit Security Officers and look to make permanent its Ambassador Program.

LA Metro, according to the report, will look to hire 165 more custodians and facilities maintenance employees, and up to 50 part-time custodians through its Room-to-Work Program, which is geared to providing unhoused riders and other individuals with jobs in the agency.

Another area of focus, the Los Angeles Daily News reports is addressing safety and cleanliness at specific stations, including Pershing Square, Compton, Firestone, Harbor Freeway, Lake, Norwalk and Pico. LA Metro made improvements at the Westlake/MacArthur Park station that is says led to a “decrease in crime and fare evasion that officials would like to see at other stations.”

TTC

Amalgamated Transit Union (ATC) Local 113, which represents 12,000 transit workers who operate and maintain the TTC, requested on May 14 that the Ministry of Labor issue a no-board report, saying it’s the “final step towards a possible work stoppage for the first time in more than a decade,” according to a CTV News report.

“We have been at the bargaining table since early February,” said ATU Local 113 President Marvin Alfred in a statement. “We were hoping to reach a fair agreement with the employer. The request for a no-board report is our final step towards our union’s ability to legally strike.”

According to the CTV News report, last month, a conciliator was appointed after contract talks stalled. Since then, the union, which has been without a contract since April 1, said the TTC “has not addressed key issues like job security, wages and benefits.”

Once the no-board is granted, it starts a 17-day countdown to the union being in a legal job action, according to the report.

More than two weeks ago, ATU Local 113 members voted “overwhelmingly” in support of a strike mandate.

If no agreement is reached, CTV News reports that “it will be the first time in 13 years that unionized TTC workers can legally strike after a court ruling last year struck down Ontario’s designation of the TTC as an essential service.”

The last time ATU Local 113 went on strike was in 2008.

“There has been no no-board issued at this time. We remain in bargaining,” said a TTC spokesperson via email.