Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

To date, 222 of the new railcars have been delivered and 200 of them have successfully completed acceptance testing and have been placed into service. Deliveries continue at the rate of about 10 railcars per month.

The need for additional revenue, which had been assumed in MTA budget forecasts beginning in 2009, was confirmed in July 2012. The MTA announced specific fare and toll increase proposals last October.

LIRR and Metro-North are seeking proposals from companies that can develop an app that will let customers buy tickets right on their mobile devices and display their tickets on screen for visual inspection by conductors and/or barcode verification. Responses are due by March 15.

Boasts a consistent on-time performance of better than 97%, a customer satisfaction rating of 93% and annual ridership of about 84 million. In 1983 system-wide on-time performance was hovering at 80.5% and annual ridership was 42 million and dropping.

At an estimated cost of $67 million, the installation is part of the railroad's ongoing effort to bring its entire infrastructure into a state of good repair.

To encourage the use of public transit as the region slowly recovers from the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy, NYC Subway and Bus network, Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad, and Access-a-Ride services will be free for Thursday and Friday.

Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad are back in operation in some areas. Thousands of MTA workers are still out across the entire 5,000 square mile service region inspecting and repairing the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.

The job was advertised Friday and a construction contract will be awarded this fall for the replacement of all the original cables that lift the two, 330-foot-long main spans of the Harlem River Lift Bridge, located about 4.5 miles north of Grand Central.

In December 2010 the MTA abbreviated the validity periods to reduce revenue loss from uncollected tickets and imposed a refund fee of $10 to partially cover the actual cost of processing the refund.

Equipment that keeps the terminal cool in the summer, warm in the winter and flushed with fresh air all year round is being upgraded though a $22 million partnership between NYPA and MTA Metro-North Railroad. The project will conserve energy and save an estimated $3 million a year.