Transit Briefs: Amtrak, NYMTA, PANY/NJ, TriMet
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
Amtrak recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of accessibility upgrades worth $3.5 million at the Newbern-Dyersburg Station in west Tennessee. (Amtrak Photograph)
Amtrak debuts station accessibility upgrades in west Tennessee and an updated Cafe Acela menu. Also, New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) marks progress on the reduction of subway fare evasion; Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s (PANY/NJ) PATH tap-and-go fare payment system is now available systemwide; and Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet) adopts a $1.84 billion budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025.
Amtrak
Accessibility upgrades worth $3.5 million have been completed at the Newbern-Dyersburg Station in west Tennessee, Amtrak reported May 22. The Amtrak City of New Orleans stops twice daily while traveling between Chicago, via Carbondale, Ill., and New Orleans, La., via Memphis and Jackson, Miss.
Amtrak said it installed a new 350-foot platform with “historically inclusive features” integrating key elements of the 104-year-old station, which includes the Newbern Depot & Railroad Museum, an Amtrak waiting room, and a room for public functions with the surrounding community. Other improvements include new accessible parking; public right-of-way access with sloped accessible walkways and safety barriers; energy-efficient LED light fixtures providing full-coverage lighting along the pathways and at the platform; a new wheelchair lift with secure enclosure; and new signage. Local sub-contractors performed much of the work.
Amtrak said that since 2011, it has made more than $870 million in accessibility upgrades at 123 stations across the country. Another 30 stations are targeted for completion this fiscal year, according to “America’s Railroad,” which is working toward 100% completion by 2029.
“With construction, renovation, repair, and upgrade projects at stations across the country, station accessibility is a priority we’re actively pursuing with funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,” said Dr. David Handera, Amtrak Vice President, Accessibility, Stations and Facilities, who recently attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the west Tennessee station with state tourism commissioner Mark Ezell and Newbern Mayor Pam Mabry.
Also on May 22, Amtrak reported that a new Cafe Acela menu is available, featuring more “gourmet and artisan products from sustainably sourced, health-conscious, and local brands.” Additional upgrades include redesigned physical menus and menu posters, and upgraded, more sustainable packaging, it said.
Some of the new menu items include:
- Breakfast: Overnight oats, egg frittata, and pastries from local bakeries in Boston, New York City and Washington, D.C.
- Lunch/Dinner: Mediterranean salad, peppered turkey sandwich, and chicken and mozzarella pesto sandwich.
- Snacks: Artisan cheese and fruit tray, and a charcuterie plate.
- Wine: Daou chardonnay and Banshee pinot noir.
The new items will be available exclusively onboard Acela trains, and Amtrak said they will “form the basis for the signature menu” for its new Acela fleet, set to debut this year.
“Customers riding on our premium Acela trains expect the very best and thus, it’s essential we continue to evolve our premium offerings and amenities to meet their needs and provide an enhanced experience,” Amtrak Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Eliot Hamlisch said.
MTA on May 22 reported that it has advanced a host of initiatives outlined in the 2023 Blue Ribbon Panel report on reducing fare evasion.
Convened in the spring of 2022, the Blue-Ribbon Panel, comprising education, social justice, business and law enforcement experts, was given a mandate to investigate the root causes of fare and toll evasion and develop a comprehensive strategy to combat it.
“According to the report, the situation has reached crisis levels, with the MTA losing an estimated $690 million in unpaid fares and tolls in 2022, threatening the economics of mass transit in the New York metropolitan area and tearing at the social fabric of the city and region,” MTA said. “To drive down evasion, the panel proposed a refreshed, 360-degree strategy, which moves away from a sole focus on enforcement and, instead, responds to the root causes of fare and toll evasion through the four ‘E’s’ of Education, Equity, Environment and Enforcement.”
In the year since the report was issued, MTA has pursued the following initiatives:
• Education and Equity: MTA said it has created 15 Customer Service Centers that will be integrated with enrollment in Fair Fares, the City of New York’s program to provide eligible New Yorkers with half-fare MetroCards and OMNY accounts. The MTA has also expanded marketing for Fair Fares across the subway and buses.
Additionally, MTA is launching a student rewards program to encourage student MetroCard usage this spring, and is coordinating with the New York City Department of Education to focus on student fare compliance during the transition away from MetroCard during the 2024-2025 school year.
• ‘Strategic Deployment of Enforcement’: NYPD officers have doubled their enforcement activity, issuing 43,000 summonses adjudicable by the Transit Adjudication Board in 2024 through Week 18, a 50% increase over the same time period in 2019, according to MTA. Additionally, MTA has deployed unarmed gate guards at 50 subway stations; it pointed out that in the initial targeted stations with guards or delayed egress, there is an estimated a 20%-30% decrease in fare evasion levels. “New York City Transit has committed to increasing the number of gate guards with approximately 40 additional Gate Guards added each week towards the goal of 1,000 in the system,” reported MTA, noting that guards are deployed based on data on the frequency and prevalence of fare evasion.
• Improving the Fare Control Environment: MTA said it has taken steps to tackle evasion tactics at the turnstiles by upgrading 1,400 turnstiles at more than 100 stations to prevent back-cocking and is on target to reach the goal of modifications at 60% of turnstiles by the end of the year. Turnstiles with those modifications, it said, have seen an 80% reduction in back-cocking. MTA said it has also installed turnstile fins at four pilot stations and observed a decrease in jumping by more than 20% there. A rollout of fins at 10 more stations is planned for the upcoming months.
MTA has piloted delaying the opening of emergency exit gates by 15 seconds at three stations and said there has been a 38% decrease in evasion through the gate and a 7% decrease in evasion overall at those fare control areas. It will expand the delayed egress pilot at new stations over the upcoming months, as well, and launch a system-wide study to analyze stations and implement delayed egress where it said it is safe to do so.
Traditional emergency exit gates have been replaced with new, accessible wide-aisle gates at Atlantic Av-Barclays Center, 34 St A, C, E and Astoria Blvd N, W; and a new full array has been introduced at Sutphin Blvd-Archer Av E, J, Z, where fare payment increased by 20% compared to 2023, according to MTA. MTA announced May 22 that the pilot will expand “with improved design features like higher paddles and more sophisticated sensors” to at least 15 stations in 2024.
• Long-Term Investments: “The new gates are a first step toward modernizing the fare control area,” MTA said. “In December 2023, the MTA released an RFI [Request for Information] to qualify the next generation of secure, accessible, and modern fare gates. After receiving and evaluating 12 responses from gate vendors, the MTA will begin in-lab testing of promising gate technology in summer 2024 and in-system testing in 2025.”
MTA is also launching a Fare Evasion Lab, which it described as a “test bed for new fare compliance technologies, including modern fare gates that will be evaluated as part of the MTA’s RFI.”
PANY/NJ
PATH’s new contactless fare payment system, TAPP (Total Access PATH Payment), is now available at all stations in both New York and New Jersey with the activation of new TAPP readers at the Christopher St and 9 St stations in New York, PANY/NJ reported May 22. As PATH adds more TAPP readers, the agency said turnstiles at all stations will continue to accept TAPP, SmartLink and MetroCards as fare payment.
Riders can now pay for PATH rides using any contactless credit/debit card or a digital wallet on their smartphones. PANY/NJ said TAPP readers were installed at the 14 St and 23 St stations in New York earlier this month, and all PATH stations in New Jersey were outfitted in April.
TAPP is described as “an open-loop contactless payment system,” allowing riders to use their own preferred method of contactless payment instead of a specific PATH-issued SmartLink card or a pay-per-ride MetroCard. Existing PATH discounts for SmartLink users remain in effect, and will be available when PATH issues a TAPP fare card, according to PANY/NJ.
PATH debuted the new contactless fare system in December 2023 during a pilot program at the Journal Square and 33 St stations. Today, almost 120 PATH turnstiles now are TAPP-enabled, and so far, riders have TAPPed into the system nearly 5 million times, with an average of nearly 70,000 weekday riders and more than 40,000 weekend riders using TAPP, according to PANY/NJ. The system has a total of 341 active turnstiles.
“This milestone underscores our commitment to improving travel for all of our riders,” PATH Director/General Manager Clarelle DeGraffe said. “As anyone already using TAPP knows, the new fare payment option offers a smoother and more accessible experience for our customers.”
TriMet
The TriMet Board of Directors has adopted the transit agency’s $1.84 billion budget for FY 2025 (see above), which runs from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025. It is said to support TriMet’s goals “to restore ridership to pre-pandemic levels and beyond” along the system that covers 533 square miles across Oregon’s Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties.
The budget includes $508 million for operations; $229 million for general and administrative costs; $200 million for capital and operating projects; and $903 million for contingency, debt service, fund balance, other non-operating requirements and other post-employment benefits.
According to TriMet, when the Multnomah County Tax and Supervision Conservation Committee (TSCC) approved the transit agency’s FY 2025 budget in April, it confirmed all estimates “to be reasonable and in compliance with Oregon Local Budget Law.” Following TSCC’s certification, TriMet said it revised some budget totals based on updated financial performance and internal reports. Altogether, the changes increased expenditures by approximately $89 million, an amount which falls within limits allowed by state law, TriMet said. (TriMet in March proposed a $1.75 billion FY 2025 budget.)
Funding Priorities
According to TriMet, the budget provides for the continued operation and maintenance of the system, and accounts for plans to expand and improve bus service with the Forward Together service concept; continue expanding investments in safety, security and cleaning; invest in capital and operating projects that improve the rider experience; and advance the transition to a 100% zero-emissions bus fleet. Additionally, the budget is said to provide a framework for TriMet’s “reorganization and strategic planning, including the creation of two new divisions to align agency initiatives and priorities to grow ridership.” TriMet reported that it is “working to address operator and mechanic shortages,” but expects staffing challenges to continue through the next fiscal year.
Funding Resources
TriMet said its primary funding resources include $83 million in operating revenue, $540 million in tax revenues, and $170 million in federal funding. Additional resources include the Statewide Transportation Investment Fund (STIF), which the transit agency said is “a vital resource for service and fare programs.”
The FY 2025 budget incorporates the first full year of the fare increase that began in January 2024. “The base fare increase was our first in more than a decade, but TriMet minimized the impact, especially for frequent riders, by choosing not to increase monthly rates for Adult, Honored Citizen and Youth riders,” it said. “One hundred percent of the funds that TriMet receives from fares go toward our transit service.”
