Passenger Boarding at Hudson Yards during Javits Events?

Running trains to event venues does not seem to be a winning proposition in general unless the station has other ridership. NJT is certainly losing money any time they run shuttles to the Meadowlands. I believe the same is true for the MBTA and the shuttles to Foxboro on the game/event dates. I do not know for sure, but I suspect that LIRR loses money on the Belmont shuttles too. Barclays Center is at a station with large non-event ridership, so it is different as is MSG. While no public transportation agency makes profit in the US (and I do not claim that they should), providing an occasional money losing service to event venues is not the core mission of any such agency. These are all vanity projects targeted to appease a few politicians and their donors. Same will be true for any passenger facility at the Hudson Yards. From public policy perspective these projects are a waste of scarce capital and operating funds.

CentralValleyRail wrote:Good, most of the people who attend that convention are pretty weird. It's a convention of social rejects. Saw them walking thru Secaucus and it was like WTF are you kidding me? Yeah sure you have a few hotties mixed in but wow just wow.

are you kidding me? these people literally went to a convention to be social with each other. Can you be less judgemental? Also, "hotties" really shows how much you're focused on objectifying the women going to these events .

Good, most of the people who attend that convention are pretty weird. It's a convention of social rejects. Saw them walking thru Secaucus and it was like WTF are you kidding me? Yeah sure you have a few hotties mixed in but wow just wow.

Says the person on an internet fourm dedicated to Railways in a board dedicated to a Commuter Railway, who has made 268 posts about another railway.

Don't throw rocks in glass houses. No need to scream at other people's fun because you're a smartass.

ADMIN NOTE
Thread closed until Frank can do cleanup

Okay, let's keep it to the possibility of the platform, not the appearance of Comic Con fans. No harm, no foul, move on please.

On the topic; there is absolutely no way that they'd allow a cleaning platform to be used for boarding.

EuroStar wrote:Running trains to event venues does not seem to be a winning proposition in general unless the station has other ridership. NJT is certainly losing money any time they run shuttles to the Meadowlands. I believe the same is true for the MBTA and the shuttles to Foxboro on the game/event dates. I do not know for sure, but I suspect that LIRR loses money on the Belmont shuttles too. Barclays Center is at a station with large non-event ridership, so it is different as is MSG. While no public transportation agency makes profit in the US (and I do not claim that they should), providing an occasional money losing service to event venues is not the core mission of any such agency. These are all vanity projects targeted to appease a few politicians and their donors. Same will be true for any passenger facility at the Hudson Yards. From public policy perspective these projects are a waste of scarce capital and operating funds.

Other than the fact that even with fare gates not all fares are collected for Meadowlands trains why do you say that NJT is "certainly losing money"? They only run trains for events at the stadium with expected attendance in excess of 50,000 (I recall hearing the number 70,000 but I don't know for certain). Any time I have ever used the service it has been standing room only and still a much better option for me than driving would have been. The 7 train to Mets-Willets Point is similarly packed for all Mets games regardless of attendance which leads me to believe that their core base is as much or more transit riders as drivers. I don't know what the LIRR service to mets games is like.

Let's keep the conversation civil and without attacking other people's thoughts and ideas, just because you disagree with them. Otherwise, threads with interesting topics will be locked and that takes away intent of this Board.

andegold wrote:Other than the fact that even with fare gates not all fares are collected for Meadowlands trains why do you say that NJT is "certainly losing money"? They only run trains for events at the stadium with expected attendance in excess of 50,000 (I recall hearing the number 70,000 but I don't know for certain). Any time I have ever used the service it has been standing room only and still a much better option for me than driving would have been. The 7 train to Mets-Willets Point is similarly packed for all Mets games regardless of attendance which leads me to believe that their core base is as much or more transit riders as drivers. I don't know what the LIRR service to mets games is like.

The tickets do the Meadowlands get canceled when the passengers pass through the fare gates (I am sure some have found a way around it, but those are probably the few bad apples that are always guaranteed to exist), so the need to collect them is less clear. NJT loses money on the shuttles because the total fares collected do not cover the wages/benefits earned by the employees operating those trains and the extra employees needed to direct the crowds at Secaucus. The trains might be well utilized as you have observed, but that does not mean that they pay for themselves. NJT is still in effect subsidizing the private venue operators by providing below cost transportation to the fans.

EuroStar wrote:NJT is still in effect subsidizing the private venue operators by providing below cost transportation to the fans.

That’s one perspective. Not one I agree with however. NJT is providing a below cost service to a public ridership that is utilizing public transportation, keeping some cars off the road. Which is why states took on the money losing business of moving people.

Still, given the stadiums that get built for them with public funds, the team owners could afford to kick in something to NJT -- just build it into the ticket price and let all the spectators make their contribution in that way.

Interesting stuff... is there a topic in the NJT forum that deals with Meadowlands service and cost? If you want me to split that out, I can.

Passenger carrying trains are occasionally routed down to WSY when PENN is in the crapper, or one of the East River Tunnels is down. Crews back down a loaded train-say from 15 track in Penn- into one of the middle yard tracks. WSY tower can then re-route that train out the to high side of the station. After the big signal hut fire a few years ago-it was being done daily.