Transit Briefs: MARTA, NYMTA, Amtrak
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
The six-week closure of MARTA’s Airport Station for concourse and platform renovations reduced overall construction time by 17 months. (MARTA Photograph)
Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) reopens its Airport Station following a six-week renovation project. Also, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) highlights upcoming milestones in its transition from MetroCard to OMNY, the contactless fare payment system; and Amtrak seasonal service to Old Orchard Beach, Maine, resumes.
MARTA
MARTA has completed concourse and platform renovations at its Airport Station that required a six-week temporary closure (April 8-May 19). The station reopened May 20 with new terrazzo flooring in the concourse, as well as new platform pavers; completed repairs, sealing, and painting of track and concourse walls; and preparation work done for the installation of a new canopy.
During the closure, MARTA provided bus shuttle service between College Park Station and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport 22 hours per day. According to the transit agency, shuttle ridership was approximately 320,000 over the 42-day period; Airport Station serves on average 11,000 customers daily.
“This was an incredibly successful project and I want to thank our customers for bearing with us while we completed this necessary work,” MARTA General Manager and CEO Collie Greenwood said. “Temporarily closing the station significantly reduced the overall construction time by 17 months and ensured the safety of workers and customers. A big thank you to the project and construction teams, and MTI Limo and Shuttle Services for working around the clock to get this work done and make sure customers and airport employees still had a reliable connection to the airport.”
The Airport Station Project is part of MARTA’s approximately $1 billion multi-year Station Rehabilitation Program and primarily paid for with State of Good Repair Funds in the Capital budget.
MARTA began station rehab work at Airport Station in June 2022. Prior to this most recent round of construction, teams completed structural work in preparation for the new elevator installation, replaced the south vestibule and progressed electrical upgrades, according to the transit agency. Other planned improvements include the replacement of ceilings and lighting, a new RideStore, full rehabilitation of the existing elevator, a public art installation, replacement of all signage, and full renovation of employee spaces. The total project cost is $55 million.
MARTA said it has also upgraded digital sign content at Airport Station and at all 38 rail stations systemwide to display more service information, including real-time train arrivals and scheduled train arrivals up to 30 minutes out.
NYMTA
New York MTA on May 20 announced what it is calling “major upcoming milestones” in the transition from MetroCard to contactless fare payment system OMNY, with a push to expand the reach of OMNY to include all customer groups by the end of 2024 and to substantially complete the rollout across subway, bus, and paratransit services by the end of 2025. The rollout, the agency said, will also include upgrades and integrations with its TrainTime application for railroad ticketing and the implementation of new ticket vending machines for MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and MTA Metro-North Railroad, which will be substantially completed in early 2026.
According to MTA, all New York City school students will receive student specific OMNY cards instead of MetroCards at the start of the 2024-25 school year in September. OMNY pilots have also been launched for select paratransit and pre-tax commuter benefit customers with a wide rollout to both customer bases expected by the end of 2024. All existing Reduced-Fare MetroCard customers, totaling more than 1.5 million customers, will receive an OMNY card via mail by end of this year.
On LIRR and Metro-North, new ticket vending machines will be introduced by contractor Scheidt & Bachmann, with TrainTime continuing to service customers for contactless digital payment through contractor Masabi, according to MTA.
“By treating OMNY as the megaproject that it is, we have turned a corner on delivering its benefits to all categories of customers,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said. “The new approach is going to give users the sense of interoperability they expect, while limiting MTA’s contractor risk and saving millions of dollars. Congratulations to the project management team.”
“Since taking the reins, we’ve accelerated the pace of the OMNY program and kept it on budget,” MTA Construction & Development President Jamie Torres-Springer said.
According to a May 20 Streetsblog NYC report, OMNI contractor Cubic is no longer at the throttle. “Another contractor, Masabi, will instead oversee the incorporation of bus, subway, and commuter rail fares and schedules into the LIRR and Metro-North’s popular trip planning and ticketing app MTA TrainTime, with the commuter rails running their own back-end software for fare collection, officials said,” Streetsblog NYC reported.
“‘This is the best way to get this done as quickly as possible so that we don’t have any interruption in the quality of our ticketing service,’ MTA Construction and Development President Jamie Torres-Springer said in an exclusive interview.
“‘We’re announcing a full plan to implement a revised vision … to finish OMNY, make it available to essentially all the users by the end of this year, and then fully complete it with all the bells and whistles by the end of next year,’ Torres-Springer said.”
According to Streetsblog NYC, “The 2017 OMNY contract ballooned from an initial $573 million to $772 million as the company changed ownership and, along with the MTA, faced significant turnover. The increase is partly due to an $85 million in change orders that Cubic was allowed to do under the original contract, while the remainder came from the MTA side, a company spokesperson said.
“The firm did not plan to bring the commuter rail into OMNY until 2027 — six years behind schedule. Under the revised plan officials will present to the MTA board this week [week of May 19], Cubic will also lose its contract to build new commuter rail ticket vending machines to Scheidt & Bachmann, which built the existing ticket kiosks for the two railroads.
“Cubic will refund the MTA $36 million to cover the cost of the two new contracts, pending approval by the board.”
Streetsblog NYC contacted Cubic and said its spokesperson “chalked up OMNY delays to the Covid-19 pandemic”; the transit agency’s “focus on a weekly fare cap also led to the de-prioritization of deploying the new fare tech for students and pre-tax passes, a spokesperson said.”
“Building and innovating transit technology to scale in a region as vast as New York is always a challenge even under the best conditions, but it’s one our team loves,” the Cubic spokesperson Cory Shields told the media outlet. “Alongside our partners at the MTA we believe the OMNY program is an incredible success story and we are fully committed to continue building on it to meet the needs of every New Yorker.”
Amtrak
The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority (NNEPRA) announced that the Amtrak Downeaster seasonal service to Old Orchard Beach, Maine, resumed May 20. Service to the platform, which is within walking distance to beaches and amusement parks, will run through October.
Also effective May 20, Downeaster Trains 689/699/1689 will operate as L stops at all stations north of Woburn. An L-Stop allows the train to leave stations north of Woburn up to 10 minutes early if there are no reserved passengers expected, NNEPRA said.
The Amtrak Downeaster has had a 38% increase in ridership to the Old Orchard Beach station since 2020 and a 148% increase since Downeaster service began to Old Orchard Beach in 2002, according to NNEPRA.
