Bart’s blog

I have always laughed at the idea of showing up at a retail store at 5 am and then waiting in a long line to pick up something which I could have done without anyway. But this time, with better half in tow, I actually decided to participate in the black Friday madness. And madness is just what it is. 

After a 3 month hiatus (when I was on a project outside New York), I am back to being a regular on the"E" (For those who are not familiar with what I am referring to, The New York E Subway Line is what I mean). I do the WTC - 7Av/53rd street stretch daily. The E trainset composition is now all R160 - which is great. That conversion of trainsets was well underway even before my travel. The other change I noticed was that, in off-peak hours, they open only one door per car when the trains wait at WTC. I am guessing this is for energy conservation ans seems like a sensible move. The only catch is that, if you choose to walk past a car to the next one, you have to recalibrate your judgement - for you cannot just hop into the next door.

7Av/53rd Street is unique in that you can seemingly head off in opposite directions while actually going the same way. So, on the upper level, you have the "E" going one way and the "B" and "D" going the other way but you can take either and still get to, say, W4 street.

The USS New York - a battleship that has 7 tons of steel from WTC recycled into its hull - sailed into New York on the Hudson river yesterday (Nov 2). It was quite a spectacle. It was about 8am on a gloomy morning. The all grey USS New York almost blended in the background and the photos look like they are black and white!

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I think all concerned should pause and reflect on the events on NW flight188 a little bit. I think suspending the pilots' FAA license was premature. Yes - the incident was quite shocking though not completely unprecendented. No harm was done though alarm bells had gone off and there were red faces all around. Apparently Northwest allowed pilots to use laptops (like passengers can), though Delta does not. There was a stiff tailwind which got the airplane to the Minneapolis area a little earlier than usual. An unusual sequence of events led to pilots missing some of the earlier messages (stewardess came in and was talking to the first officer while the pilot went for a restroom break). Both pilots apparently had spotless records. It doesn't excuse their preoccupation with laptops and they do need to face disciplinary action. But, given the combination of events, I don't think ending their flying career is right - at least not yet. Can other forms of penalties not do? Just the negative publicity in the media is severe, if not sufficient, punishment. Do the FAA and Delta need to be seen taking extraordinarily stern action given how far things had gone - jets being scrambled, White House being informed etc.? The incident of a Delta flight landing on a taxiway in Atlanta seems more serious to me - but that somehow didn't get the same level of attention.

Circle Line and the LSC


Originally uploaded by bharat_s_rao

Last Sunday (Oct 25) was a very nice fall day - close to perfect from a photographer's point of view. As we approached sunset, multicolored hues took over the sky. Pink gave way to amber, orange, yellow and red. Ferries and boats docked at the Liberty Marina glistened and the canal shimmered. All in all, a pretty picture.

More specifically, thank you to the Delta agent who was manning gate D5 at Minneapolis airport on Sep 11, '09 at around 4.30 pm or so. Didn't get his name, unfortunately. As I said in my previous post, this is an account of Continental leaving me in the lurch while Delta came to my rescue. It was a somewhat bad weather day in New Jersey and Continental had cancelled the 6.25 pm flight to Newark - on which I was booked. The Continental call center and the airport agents basically said I'd need to come back next morning - and that they were only trying to accommodate passengers with connections onto Delta and other flights to the NYC area airports. I was in no mood to wait overnight, so I called Orbitz for business (our official travel facilitator) and got myself a one way ticket  to La Guardia (LGA) on a Delta flight for over $600. I then noticed that the 4pm Delta flight to Newark had still not left and decided to try my luck on that one (becase Newark works better for me than LGA).

So I sauntered to gate D5 where the Delta agent heard me out and I casually also mentioned that I was from the cancelled Continental flight. He saw that there were a few seats on the Newark flight. Instead of just transferring me from the Delta LGA flight onto it, he called Continental on his own, verified my details and got them to transfer me onto the Delta flight. This meant that my new Delta ticket was redundant. He further reminded me that Delta/Northwest had a policy allowing cancellation of a ticket within 24 hours with no penalty. Sure enough, I was able to cancel the ticket with no trouble and travel to Newark on Delta on the Continental ticket. In essence, the Delta agent did for me what the Continental guys didn't. And he saved me (or, in this case, my company) $600 and the trouble of traveling home from LGA. Now that was customer service that made a difference.

To be fair, Continental has been reasonably reliable and they do a pretty good job of updating flight status, their online experience is good and, yes, they do serve meaningful (free) food on their flights. But I don't particularly like the tiny Embraer 145s that they operate on EWR-MSP (Delta flies bigger Embraer 190 or Airbus) and, on this occasion, Delta beat Continental on the ground as well.

It is not hard to come to the conclusion that flying domestic in the US is a pretty plain vanilla affair and there isn't much to choose from among the airlines. Yet, when you fly frequently, you begin to discern differences as the laws of probablity kick in and events such as cancellations, aircraft changes, bad weather etc. occur. I have been flying between New York (Mostly from Newark) to Minneapolis on work for the last 12 weeks or so. I mostly fly Continental but have taken a few flights on Northwest/Delta.

When I started, Continental was using Boeing 737s on the early morning (from EWR) and late evening (from MSP) flights but they then abruptly switched to the Embraer 145 - a much smaller aircraft. With 2-1 seating and a very tiny overhead bin, this aircraft invariably requires me to check in my cabin bag at the gate - and reclaim at the gate on arrival. This adds about 10 minutes before you can be on your way, which matters when you fly every week. It is also a single class configuration, so there's no question of upgrades. Being "Elite" doesn't confer any significant advantange on this type of aircraft.

A bigger issue is that Continental seems to cancel flights at the drop of a hat when there are weather induced delays at Newark. They often cancel the originating flight, which means the return flight from Minneapolis is cancelled too. It is infuriating to see Northwest/Delta flights take off (albeit with delays) to the 3 New York area airports while Continental seemingly refuses to even try. This has happened twice in the recent past (will write another post on this and how Delta rescued me when Continental abdicated). NWA uses an Embraer 190 on the sector - which is more comfortable, can accommodate larger cabin bags and has a two class configuration.

The good thing about Continental is they actually supply some meaningful food complimentary. Cereal on the morning flight and a snack box with cheese, crackers, chocolates etc. on the evening one. 

So there it is - it isn't all plain vanilla. The "coffee, tea or me" days are long gone, but there is scope for differentiation still.

Tribute in Light


Originally uploaded by bharat_s_rao

The traditional twin beams which make up the "Tribute in Light" went up on the night of 9/11. It was a rainy day and I bore the brunt of it on a much delayed flight from Minneapolis. I landed past 12 am (so technically 9/12) and could see the tops of the beams on way from Newark airport on the Pulaski Skyway. This is a very dignified, yet poignant, way to remember 9/11. As far as I can recall, the tribute in light used to run for about a week until Sep 11 but this time it was only a day. The beams go up to the south of the original site and disperse among the clouds creating a bit of a halo. For those of us that saw the whole chain of events unfold on that fateful Tue morning, watching this tribute strikes a chord. 

Sunset at Highline

The best views of the New Jersey side seem to be in the first few park blocks (14-16th streets). There are a couple of other spots near 20th where you get good views as well.The first pic in the strip below was taken near 20th Street. The one on the right in the strip as well as the larger one were taken near 15th Street. Lighting in the park is subtle and at floor level except in the covered part where they have gone in for bright blue fluroescent lighting (see centre pic below). A late evening visit is recommended!