NEW YORK: Innocent Commuters Trapped On City Bus With Screaming Preacher

"Evangelist Tamesha Morgan preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the NYC Transit. A Must See! Thank you Yeshua." Including speaking in tongues.

(Tipped by JMG reader Kent)

Pam Geller Sues DC Metro

Via the right wing Daily Caller:

Activist and blogger Pamela Geller is suing the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority after the agency refused to run her ads with a drawing of the prophet Muhammad on public transportation in the District of Columbia. On May 20, Geller submitted her ad to WMATA to be placed on buses and in train stations throughout the city, but about a week later the agency announced it would no longer accept “issue-oriented advertising.” At the time, a spokesman for WMATA told The Daily Caller News Foundation the decision to ban issue-oriented ads was not related to any particular organization, but Geller believes it was an attempt to block her right to speak freely. “It’s an end run around the first amendment,” Geller said in an email. “… [and] Public safety has been thrown in for good measure as if these craven quislings know what is conducive to the public good.” In the lawsuit, Geller, along with her non-profit organization American Freedom Defense Initiative, claims WMATA violated her First Amendment rights by refusing to run her ad.

Geller has fought similar battles against transit agencies in New York City, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Chicago.

London Gets Rainbow Train For Pride

Pink News reports:

London’s transport authority has introduced a number of high-profile rainbow stunts – last year rolling out a rainbow crossing for Pride in London. TfL later expanded its efforts, showing its pride earlier this year by making over a London bus and a traditional black taxi. Ahead of this week’s Pride parade, it has gone even further – making over a Docklands Light Railway train in rainbow colours, with sponsorship from Barclays. The new train will be in service today on the Canary Wharf to Stratford route, until later this year. DLR Director Rory O’Neill said: “We are delighted to have this iconic artwork on our trains. It has taken a great deal of collaboration with our operator, KeolisAmey Docklands to get it done but it is well worth the effort.”

Homocon Guy Benson Backs Pam Geller

Fox News' right-hand-homocon is ever so pissed that Pam Geller won't be able to incite bombings on DC public transit. From the Hot Air piece he links to:

She’s forcing the state to admit that the threat of violence is so great that, as a matter of pure public safety, they’d rather give up easy revenue than take the chance of insulting “the prophet.” And, thanks to D.C.’s new policy, she’s gotten the state to spread the cost of censorship to other would-be issue-advertisers, which drives home the point to the wider public that the slippery slope on “hate speech” might be more slippery than the lefties who disdain her tend to assume.

Benson is also tweeting a link to win his new book over at the viciously anti-gay Townhall, where he is the political editor.

Pam Geller Announces Plan To Advertise Mohammed Cartoon On DC Transit

"Because the media and the cultural and political elites continue to self-enforce the Sharia without the consent of the American people by refusing to show any depictions of Muhammad or showing what it was in Texas that had jihadists opening fire, we are running an ad featuring the winning cartoon by former Muslim Bosch Fawstin from our Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest in Garland, Texas. Let the American people see what the cowardly press is censoring in accordance with the blasphemy laws under the sharia (Islamic law). The ad campaign has been submitted to the Washington DC MTA to run on buses and train dioramas in the Foggy Bottom, Capitol South, Bethesda, L’Enfant Plaza, Shady Grove stations." - Pam Geller, writing for her blog.

Amtrak Train Derails In Philadelphia

A New York City-bound ten-car Amtrak train out of Washington DC derailed tonight in the Port Richmond neighborhood of Philadelphia. On board was former US Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA), who is assisting the injured. No fatalities are being reported at this writing. The top photo above was taken by Murphy, who estimates that the train was "traveling 60-70 mph" at the time of the crash. This is just the latest in a rash of commuter rail disasters in the northeast in recent months. I'll update this post when more is known. Philadelphia's NBC affiliate is reporting live from the scene.

UPDATE: The number of fatalities now stands at six.

New WTC Hub For PATH Train Opens

The long-delayed PATH train hub at World Trade Center partially opens today.

At the center is the Oculus, which from the outside looks like the spine peeled out of a fish. Below, with half of the glass installed, light shines through its ribs, the longest one reaching 202 feet in the sky. “It’s awesome and I mean that in the actual sense of the word ‘awesome.’ It induces awe,” said Jessica Lappin, director of the Downtown Alliance. PATH riders can get a view of the Oculus in the coming weeks when the temporary PATH station that went up after the 9/11 attacks gets dismantled. The platform is the third part of the Port Authority’s WTC hub that sprawls beneath the 16-acre site where the Twin Towers once stood. It has earned the reputation of the world’s most expensive train station, over budget at $3.9 billion. For that price tag, transit riders and visitors get a facility decked out in white marble that is spacious, without any corners — all cured and sleek. It is well lit and bright, in stark contrast to the city subway system’s dank stations nearby.

Breitbart Headline Of The Day

Pam Geller is very unhappy:

A century of free speech in New York’s most public square — the streets, the buses, the subways — came to a screeching halt last Wednesday when the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) voted to ban all issue and political advertising, solely in order to silence me. Baltimore burning is “free speech.” But our ads get banned. Got it? We are marching to totalitarianism. New York City is the capital of the free world. The world looks to us. What message did the MTA send Wednesday? Every city will follow suit. It was a dark day for freedom but have no fear. But this is not over. Not by a long shot. We have already begun to pursue this legally; our lawyers David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise have already written to the MTA asking that our ads be put up forthwith, as they are not political. The rich and powerful trumped our unalienable rights in New York City, April 29, 2015. But rewarding savagery with capitulation and fear will only bring more bloodshed and more terror. You haven’t seen anything yet.

NYC Transit To Ban All Political Ads Just To Stop Pam Geller's "Killing Jews" Campaign

Via CBS New York:

The nation's largest mass transit system is preparing to ban all political advertising on its subways and buses after a judge ruled that a pro-Israel group was allowed to display an advertisement containing the phrase "Hamas Killing Jews" on New York City buses. The resolution is expected to pass Wednesday at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's board meeting after the finance committee approved it earlier in the week. The cash-strapped agency says such advertising only accounts for less than $1 million of its annual advertising revenue of $138 million. "Advertisements expressing viewpoint messages, regardless of the viewpoint being expressed, would no longer be accepted," the MTA's general counsel, Jerome Page, told the committee on Monday. New York is following in the footsteps of cities including Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia, which already have banned political ads on public transit, Page said. Philadelphia banned political ads after a federal court judge last month sided with a New Hampshire based non-profit on its claim that it has a first amendment right to run bus ads linking Muslims to Hitler.

(Tipped by JMG reader Todd)

NEW YORK CITY: Pam Geller Wins "Killing Jews" Transit Ads Battle With MTA

Via the New York Times:

A federal judge in Manhattan on Tuesday ordered the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to display an ad from a pro-Israel group on buses after the agency declined to run it last year. The group, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, sued the authority in October, saying it had infringed on the group’s First Amendment rights by rejecting the ad. The authority had argued that the ad could be seen as a call to violence against Jews. The ad shows a man with a scarf across his face next to the words, “Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close to Allah,” attributed to “Hamas MTV.” Below that, it reads: “That’s his Jihad. What’s yours?” The judge, John G. Koeltl, of United States District Court, ruled that the ad qualified as protected speech and granted a preliminary injunction ordering the transportation authority to run the ad. He said the order would not take effect for 30 days so the agency could consider whether it would appeal the decision.

In 2012 Geller first prevailed over the MTA and was allowed to post subway platform messages that called Muslims "savages." Geller has won similar court cases against transit agencies in San Francisco, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

JAPAN: Mag-Lev Train Sets New Record

The BBC reports:

A Japanese magnetic levitation train has broken its own world speed record, hitting 603km/h (374mph) in a test run near Mount Fuji. The train beat the 590km/h speed it had set last week in another test. Mag-lev trains use electrically charged magnets to lift and move carriages above the rail tracks. Central Japan Railway (JR Central), which owns the trains, wants to introduce the service between Tokyo and the central city of Nagoya by 2027. The 280km journey would take only about 40 minutes, less than half the current time. Construction costs are estimated at nearly $100bn (£67bn) just for the stretch to Nagoya, with more than 80% of the route expected to go through costly tunnels, AFP news agency reports. By 2045, mag-lev trains are expected to link Tokyo and Osaka in just one hour, slashing the journey time in half. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is visiting the US on Sunday where he is expected to pitch for a role in building a new high-speed rail line between New York and Washington.

NYC Subway Ridership At 65-Year High

Via the Wall Street Journal:

New York City’s subway system carried 1.75 billion customers last year, as ridership grew by the highest annual amount in more than 65 years, according to new figures released Monday. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority data show ridership grew 2.6% in 2014—some 5.6 million customers rode the system on an average weekday and six million people rode it on the average weekend. Not that riders need a reminder, but the increased numbers aboard the city’s subway system are a direct reflection of new residential development, redevelopment and growth in certain population areas, according to the MTA’s New York City Transit division. Weekday ridership has risen by more than 500,000 over the last five years, the MTA said, with weekday ridership up systemwide by an average 132,000 last year alone.

Ranked by average daily ridership, these are the five busiest stations in the NYC system.

PHILADELPHIA: Pam Geller Wins Battle To Place Anti-Islam Ads On Public Transit

Crackpot Pam Geller has won yet another court battle, this time against Philadelphia's public transit system.

Last June, SEPTA rejected the ads from New Hampshire-based American Freedom Defense Initiative by pointing to the transportation authority's "anti-disparagement standard," rules attempting to limit inflammatory messages. But the American Freedom Defense Initiative, a pro-Israel group headed by conservative blogger Pam Geller, challenged SEPTA's rejection in court. And she did so with momentum in her stride, as her group has fought and won similar battles from San Francisco to New York. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Mitchell Goldberg sided with Geller, calling SEPTA's ad restriction "certainty laudable," but "such aspirations do not, unfortunately, cure First Amendment violations." In an email, Geller called the decision "another historic AFDI victory."

(Tipped by JMG reader Rudy)

Ice Shuts Down NYC Ferry Service

The wind chill this morning was a record-setting -15.

De Blasio Announces New Ferry Service

Via Gothamist:

The East River ferry, launched by de Blasio's predecessor, currently shuttles passengers to a limited number of stops in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan along the East River, for $4 a ticket on weekdays and $6 on weekends. The new ferry service will be cheaper—Blasio promised yesterday that "new ferry rides will be priced the same as a MetroCard fare." The service will be operated by private companies receiving government subsidies. De Blasio said he plans to allocate an initial $55 million in capital investment for the first five routes (excluding the Stapleton/Coney Island routes), and anticipates an annual city subsidy between $10-$20 million to keep the whole thing afloat. If completed as envisioned, the expansion would likely be the largest municipal ferry service in the United States, in terms of passenger use.

According to a city study, there was an 8% increase in property values for locations within walking distance of the East River ferry stops created by Bloomberg, yielding $24M in new annual tax revenue for the city. Annual ridership for New York City's private ferry companies currently stands at about 10 million. The Staten Island Ferry, which is run by the city, has an annual ridership of 27 million.

Deadly Crash Closes Metro-North Line

Service on Metro-North's Harlem line is suspended this morning following a deadly Westchester County crash that killed seven late yesterday afternoon.

The train out of Grand Central Terminal was going northbound on the Harlem line when it struck a Jeep Cherokee at the Commerce Street crossing in Valhalla at about 6:30 p.m., officials said. The Jeep was stopped on the tracks when the railroad crossing gates came down on top of it, according to MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan. The driver got out to look at the back of the car, then got back in and drove forward when the train struck the Jeep, pushing it about 10 train-car lengths up the track. The Jeep driver and six passengers on the train were killed in the crash, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a news conference Tuesday night. The crash is the deadliest in the history of the Metro-North Railroad. Six hundred and fifty people were on board train No. 659, which departed Grand Central at 5:45 p.m. The train made one stop at 125th Street in Harlem before it proceeded express toward Chappaqua, the MTA said.

Some passengers were forced to smash train doors and windows to escape the flames. Federal investigators are on the scene. Metro-North's last fatal incident took place just over a year ago when four were killed after the engineer fell asleep at the controls.

All NYC Mass Transit To Close At 11PM

This includes subways, buses, ferries, PATH, Metro-North, Long Island Railroad, and (perhaps obviously) AirTrain. New Jersey Transit will suspend all rail service until Thursday at 8PM tonight. No re-start time for the MTA has yet been announced. Wherever you are at 11PM, you'll likely be there for 36-48 hours.

UPDATE: Gov. Cuomo has also declared a ban on all non-emergency vehicular traffic beginning at 11PM, warning that those caught on the roads will be ticketed and fined $300.

Cuomo Proposes Rail Link To LGA

During his State Of The State address, yesterday New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed connecting LaGuardia Airport to New York City's rail system via a new AirTrain line. Adding rail service to LGA is an idea that has been pitched and abandoned several times in recent decades.

Cuomo’s plan involves a 1.5 mile long LGA AirTrain running over the Grand Central Parkway, connecting with MTA’s 7 subway line, as well as the Long Island Rail Road’s Port Washington branch at the Mets-Willets Point station. A typical ride from Grand Central Terminal to Willets Point is about 30 minutes via the subway, while the Long Island Rail Road currently only stops at the station during sporting events at Citi Field or Arthur Ashe Stadium. The AirTrain plan was just a small portion of a larger speech given by Governor Cuomo on Tuesday morning, with only a few details set in stone as of yet. The joint Port Authority and MTA project is initially estimated to cost $450 million, and construction could be completed within five years after all approvals are granted, according to a short statement released by the Port Authority.

Cuomo did not elaborate on a source of funding for the project. Next week the MTA is expected to authorize a subway and bus fare increase, raising the single-ride price to $2.75 and the price of a monthly pass to $116.50. Cash tolls on the Verrazano Bridge will rise to $16.00. (The Port Authority operates the bridges and tunnels to Jersey.)

RELATED: AirTrain service to JFK launched in December 2003 after five years of construction that ended up costing nearly $2B. That line, however, is much longer than the one proposed for LGA.

Pam Geller Money Begs On DDos Site Attack From "Islamic Jew Haters"

Anti-Islam blogger Pam Geller's site has been offline for 24 hours in what she appears to attribute to a DDos attack from "Islamic Jew haters" who might be angry about her new mass transit campaign in San Francisco, which compares Muslims to Nazis. Therefore, send her more money. Geller has sued transit agencies in several major cities in order to force them to display her ads.

Passenger Sings Willy Wonka To Drown Out Homophobic Subway Preacher

(Tipped by JMG reader Kent)