Like all MTA Capital Programs, the 2005-2009 plan addresses both visible (rolling stock, stations, bridges, tunnels) and invisible infrastructure needs (signals, track, viaducts, fiber-optic cables, power) in order to ensure that customer inconveniences are minimized. Investments in the MTA core ensures that every visible and invisible component of the system does its job. The failure of any one of thousands of components can mean delays for tens of thousands of customers.
MTA subways, buses, and railroads move 2.4 billion New Yorkers a year, about one in every three users of mass transit in the United States and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders. MTA bridges and tunnels carry nearly 300 million vehicles annually — more than any bridge and tunnel authority in the nation. This vast transportation network — North America's largest — serves a population of 14.6 million people in the 5,000-square-mile area fanning out from New York City through Long Island, southeastern New York State, and Connecticut. The MTA network links the diverse parts of New York, enabling residents and visitors to get where they want to go swiftly and at reasonable cost. MTA services offer the region efficient, environmentally sound travel alternatives to gridlocked streets and highways. And the mobility provided by the MTA helps ensure New York's place as a world center of finance, commerce, culture, and entertainment.
While nearly 85% of the nation's workers need automobiles to get to their jobs, four of every five rush-hour commuters to New York City's central business district avoid traffic congestion by taking transit services, most of it operated by the MTA. MTA customers travel on America's largest bus fleet and on more trains than all the rest of the country's subways and commuter railroads combined.
It is impossible to place a dollar figure on the MTA's land, equipment, and facilities, located on or under some of the world's most expensive real estate. But the greatest value of the MTA lies in its beneficial impact on the New York region's economy and quality of life. New York ranks near the top among the nation's best cities for business, says Fortune magazine, because it has "what every city desires, a workable mass transit system."
Since 1982 the MTA has been carrying out the largest public works rebuilding project in the country. Funded by federal, state, and local government and by the issuance of debt, the MTA’s most recent capital program has generated an average 31,760 private-sector jobs, $1.3 billion in wages, $100 million in state and local tax revenues, and $3.52 billion in economic activity annually.
MetroCard® and E-ZPass™ revolutionized fare and toll payment on subways, buses, bridges, and tunnels. MetroCard automated fare collection has brought free transfers between subways and buses; multiride bonuses; and weekly, monthly, and daily transit passes, reducing the cost of public transportation for the first time. E-ZPass electronic toll collection has transformed local and regional highway travel, speeding the trips of millions of MTA customers while reducing traffic congestion and pollution.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
PCC CAR – Presidents' Conference Committee streetcar is a streetcar or tram design that was first built in the 1930s. The unusual name comes from the fact that the car was designed by a committee, first formed in 1929, representing various electric street railways. The Electric Railway Presidents' Conference Committee, or ERPCC, was tasked with producing a new type of streetcar that would help fend off competition from buses and automobiles. The committee produced a high-performance design that was very commonly used in the following decades. The cars were popular because of their distinctive streamlined design and smooth acceleration.
PARATRANSIT – An alternative mode of passenger transportation that does not follow fixed routes or schedules, like a bus line. Typically vans or mini-buses are used to provide paratransit service.
OMNIBUSES – Latin word meaning "for all people" which is a vehicle for transporting large numbers of people.
CATENARY – The shape of a hanging flexible chain or cable when supported at its ends and acted upon by a uniform gravitational force (its own weight). The chain is almost vertical near the points of suspension because this part of the chain has the most weight pulling down on it. Toward the bottom, the slope of the chain decreases because the chain is supporting less and less weight.
GRIPMAN – A person responsible for the grip that engaged with the cable, towing trailer cars.
LRT 1 – a fully elevated north-south route opened 1 Dec. 1984 (7 km) and June 1985 (8 km). It runs along Rizal and Taft Avenues (15 km, 18 stations). The capacity of the line was increased in 1998. The line runs on a precast concrete structure 7 m above the street, designed to withstand earthquakes. It has 1435 mm gauge and 750 V overhead power supply. Average station distance is 825 m, stations are only accessible via stairs, there are no elevators or escalators. Central, Monumento (northern terminal) and Baclaran (southern terminal) function as transfer station to buses and jeepneys. Trains operate in 2-4 car units (one unit 29.3 m long, 2.5 m wide), which have roof ventilation. A 12 km southern extension will be built by SNC-Lavalin (Canada) (Oct.2000).
LRT 2 (Megatren or Purple Line) – runs from Manila in the west via Quezon City to Pasig in the east. The line is elevated except for Katipunan station, which is underground. Construction of this line started in 1998 and it runs along Recto Ave, Magsaysay Blvd and Aurora Blvd. The full length from Santolan to Recto Ave. is 13.8 km with 11 stations. Although called LRT, this line uses heavy rail metro vehicles. A footbridge linking the Purple Line to the Yellow Line eventually opened in March 2005.
MRT3 – either as Mass Rapid Transit or Metro Rail Transit but it is safe to simply call it MRT3 or by its popular name Metrostar. It runs along the median of EDSA or Epifanio de los Santos Avenue from North Triangle in Quezon City in the north to Taft Avenue Pasay City in the south. MRT3 takes advantaged of EDSA’s undulating ground surface, there are elevated surface and underground sections that helps the tracks past obstacles. But mostly the tracks are elevated, except the part going to Buendia up to Ayala.
Long Island Rail Road – The LIRR is both the largest commuter railroad and the oldest railroad in America operating under its original name. Chartered in 1834, it extends from three major New York City terminals — Penn Station, Atlantic Terminal/Flatbush Avenue, and Hunterspoint Avenue — through a major transfer hub at Jamaica to the easternmost tip of Long Island.
Metro-North Railroad – Proud old names in the history of railroading in New York Central and New York, New Haven & Hartford among them are the lineage of Metro-North, the second largest commuter railroad in the nation. Metro-North's main lines are in Hudson, Harlem, and New Haven which run northward out of Grand Central Terminal, a Beaux-Arts Manhattan landmark, into suburban New York and Connecticut. Grand Central Terminal has been completely restored and redeveloped as a retail hub which is a destination in its own right.
Bridges and Tunnels – Created in 1933 by master builder Robert Moses, MTA Bridges and Tunnels serves more than a million people daily. It carries more traffic than any other bridge and tunnel authority in the nation. Surplus revenues from the authority's tolls help support MTA transit services.
Interborough Rapid Transit(IRT) – opened in 1904. The city contracted construction of the line to the IRT Company, ownership was always held by the city. The IRT built, equipped, and operated the line under a lease from the city.
Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit(BMT) – was the rapid transit company which built, bought, or assumed control of the Brooklyn elevated lines (the Culver, West End, Lexington, Myrtle, Broadway, Fulton St and Fifth Ave Els, of which the Culver, West End, Broadway and part of the Myrtle still exist, and the ground-level extensions to southern Brooklyn, of which the Sea Beach and Brighton Beach were rebuilt for subway service. A portion of the Fulton Street El also remains as it was rebuilt as an extension of IND A train service to the Rockaways in the 1950s.
Independent Subway (IND) – was formed by the City in the 1920s as an "independent" system that was not connected to the IRT or BMT lines. When no private operator could be found, the City's Board of Transportation began operation itself.
III
Methods of Research
RESEARCH DESIGN
This research is a descriptive study designed to determine the difference between the train system in the Philippines and in New York. This research gave a brief description of the two kinds of train system. It also delved into the history of urban transportations of both countries and how it evolved.
RESEARCH LOCALE
Primarily, this research focused on the urban transit system in Manila and New York. The scope of this study was based on the train system that is currently being used by both cities. What the routes and destinations of each transport system, it covers. This research concentrated more on the urban areas because the researcher used the urban transit systems of the Metro Manila and New York.
RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS CONSTRUCTION AND VALIDATION
DATA COLLECTION
DATA PROCESSING AND ANALYSIS
With the help of research materials and reading instruments, the researcher managed to process and analyze the data’s well and accurately. Time and focus were needed to accomplish this paper. This study was done in order for the people to learn more about the types of urban transit system. the data gathered from books and related articles were analyzed to produce a research that will be helpful to the readers.
End Matters
PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Black, Alan. (1995). Urban mass transportation. Singapore: McGraw-Hill international editions.
“The Philippines Department of Transport Figures.” (2004). 11 December, 2004: http://motorcyclephilippines.com/pages/DOT.php
Bayron, Heda. “Philippines Train Wreck Leaves Dozens Injured.” (2004). 11 December, 2004: http://www.voanews.com/english/2004-11-12-voa17.cfm
Bantay Usok. “2,258 vehicles reported to date”. (2002). 11 December, 2004: http://www.lto.gov.ph/news082302.html
Schwandl, Robert. “Manila Philippines” (2004). 11 December, 2004: http://www.urbanrail.net/as/mani/manila.htm.
“Transport system of Metro Manila.” (2003). 4 December, 2004: http://www.travelmart.net/philippines/transport.htm TravelMart Network Group, Inc.
“Social Viability.” (2004). 4 December, 2004: http://www.jica.go.jp/english/publication/network/net_vol14/03main03.html
Satre, Gary L. (1998). “New Urban Transit Systems
The Metro Manila LRT System— A Historical Perspective.” 4 December, 2004: http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr16/f33_satre.html.
“Manila light rail extension.” (2003). 4 December, 2004: http://www.railway-technology,com/project_printable.asp?ProjectID=165
Battino, Clarissa S. (2004). “15% power rate discount for MRT-3, LRT sought.” 4 December, 2004: http://www.inq7.net/met/2004/jul/28/met_6-1.htm
Monitoring, Sky patrol. (2004). “MRT needs to be improved.” 4 December, 2004: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?section=MOTORING&oid=62737
On-line staff. (2004). “MRT lacks insurance coverage.” 4 December, 2004: http://www.tapik.com/newsfeature.asp?news Num=737
On-line staff. (2004). “Repairs to follow MRT breakdowns.” 4 December, 2004: http://www.tapik.com/newsfeature.asp?news Num=735
On-line staff. (2004). “MRT owes over P4 Billion in taxes.” 4 December, 2004: http://www.tapik.com/newsfeature.asp?news Num=736
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