Riders on Metro-North’s Hudson Line will see some schedule changes July 13 because of track work. Temporary changes that had been in effect since April 5 will end.

If you ride the Harlem Line or the main New Haven Line, don’t worry. No changes Read more of this entry »

Here’s a statement from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Monday’s horrific Metro train crash in Washington D.C.:

“The heartfelt thoughts and prayers of all MTA employees go out to Read more of this entry »

People who ride the Pascack Valley line on weekends can hop on express trains starting July 12.

Metro-North Railroad said the new expresses will leave Spring Valley for Hoboken at 9:27 a.m. and 11:37 a.m., saving riders 23 minutes from the current trip.

There will be two express departures from Hoboken to Spring Valley at 3:20 p.m. and 7:22 p.m.

In addition to Spring Valley, trains on NJ Transit’s 31-mile Pascack Valley line stop in Nanuet and Pearl River. They will no longer stop in New Jersey except at Secaucus Junction and Hoboken.

Read more about this story tomorrow in The Journal News.

Severe thunderstorms are causing havoc and flooding in northern New Jersey.

As a result, there will be only bus service tonight on Pascack Valley line between Oradell and Spring Valley.

UPDATED AT 5:37 p.m.: PVL service is temporarily suspended at Emerson due to severe flooding. A bus bridge is being established between Westwood and Oradell stations.

Commuters heading home on NJ Transit’s Pascack Valley line are experiencing to 30 to 60 minute delays in both directions due to flooding, the transit agency reported shortly after 5 p.m.

The problem is due to flooding in Emerson.

NJ Transit bus 165 and Red & Tan Coaches are cross-honoring tickets from Port Authority Bus Terminal.

The team in charge of replacing the Tappan Zee Bridge today said it wants to create a new committee to get input from Rockland and Westchester residents about how to pay for the $16 billion project.

There is currently no funding in place for the project, which has three components: a new bridge ($6.4 billion); a 30-mile high-speed bus network from Suffern to Port Chester ($2.9 billion); an east-west rail line from Suffern to Tarrytown, where it would link up with Metro-North Railroad’s Hudson line, providing a direct ride from Rockland into Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan ($6.7 billion).

State officials have said it will likely be funded through a combination of public and private funds.

The citizens committee on finance will be formed this month, making it the fifth Stakeholder Advisory Working Group to work with the project team. The other four have had their own focus — bridge design, environment, traffic-transit and land use — and been in place for almost two years.

“Throughout the project development process ahead, we will continue to engage the public,” acting state Department of Transportation Commissioner Stanley Gee said in a press release. “The new Stakeholder Advisory Working Group on Finance is yet another way we are reaching out to local communities, providing public feedback and incorporating public input as the project goes forward.”

The DOT, the project team’s lead agency, recently hired Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., of New York City to serve as the project’s financial advisor.

The project team, made up of the DOT, state Thruway Authority and Metro-North Railroad, today also released the “Scoping Summary Report,” which finalizes last year’s recommendations and encompasses public comments that were received last year. This formally marks the start of the Draft Environmental Impact Study phase, which will involve detailed environmental analysis.

The 236-page summary report is available at http://tzbsite.com/.

Read more about this story tomorrow in The Journal News and LoHud.com.

I have a story in today’s paper about NJ Transit shutting down the Pascack Valley line this weekend.

Buses will serve all of the line’s stops, which include Spring Valley, Nanuet and Pearl River so construction can be done.

Here’s the special schedule that will be in effect this weekend. Train service resumes Monday morning with the 4:56 a.m. departure out of Spring Valley.

If you’ve never been on the line, here’s a great video of the 31-mile ride posted on YouTube by someone who clearly has excellent access.

NEWBURGH — Connecting Stewart International Airport in Orange County and New York City via mass transit will be discussed at an open house in June.

A study team commissioned by Metro-North Railroad and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, have narrowed down the options from 80 alternatives.

The team also is looking at the best way to get Orange County commuters to and from Manhattan.

“They have been winnowed down to about 22 options,” said Metro-North spokeswoman Marjorie Anders, who did not know what the final alternatives were.

They will come from a broad group of categories that have been considered, such as extending Metro-North’s commuter rail line, adding bus rapid transit, high-speed ferries and express buses.

The open house will take place on June 1, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn located at 15 Crossroads Court, Newburgh.

Question-and-answer sessions will follow the presentations.

Additional information about the project is available through the project Web site.

Those needing more information or wishing to comment on the project can call 800-897-0302.

Read more about this story tomorrow in The Journal News.

Rockland Coaches plans to scale back service to and from Rockland, as well as raise fares, starting June 1.

Five lines — 9, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49 — will see some service reductions during the morning or evening rush hour, or both.

But bus officials said riders will be able to catch buses that operate 10 to 15 minutes within the times being eliminated.

The company says there are two primary reasons for the change: Rockland Coaches ridership has been dropping for years and it provides some service too close together.

Company and county officials said this is the first service reduction in at least a decade.

Regarding the fare hike, riders will pay 3 percent more to travel between Rockland and New York City on Rockland Coaches. It will cost 10 cents more to travel between Rockland and Bergen County, N.J.

Read more about this story tomorrow in The Journal News and LoHud.com.

Lawyers representing the parts of the Northeast, including Rockland, are in federal appeals court today to oppose a plan that redirects air traffic over our area.

The lawyers are appearing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Rockland County and 11 governments and organizations from Delaware to Connecticut are suing to prevent the FAA from implementing its New York-New Jersey-Philadelphia Metropolitan Area Airspace Redesign project.

The Federal Aviation Administration successfully sought to have the 12 cases heard together in one court.

The FAA has said congested airspace above New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Delaware must be changed to accommodate the growing number of planes in the skies, for safety reasons and to reduce delays.

Starting in July 2012, more than 11,000 residents in Orangetown and Ramapo could hear more noise from the 300 to 400 planes preparing to land at Newark Liberty International Airport each day. The busiest days could have as many as 600 planes flying about a mile above the county.

Larry Liebesman, the attorney representing Rockland, will argue that the FAA did not properly follow National Environmental Policy Act procedures.

Other plan critics claim the FAA did not properly air pollution and traffic levels into account.

Connecticut state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal also is presenting an oral argument, citing the FAA’s failure to consider the impact of increased noise on residents and state parks. Those same impacts would also be felt in Pound Ridge, on the Connecticut border in the northeast corner of Westchester.

Read more about this story tomorrow in The Journal News and LoHud.com.

Elliott “Lee” Sander, chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, is stepping down, but the agency says it’s not because of the controversy over the payroll tax Albany just approved on employers in the New York City area.

That tax — 34 cents per $100 of payroll — will be levied on businesses, hospitals, governments and non-profit agencies in the 12-county area served by the MTA, including us here in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam.

The MTA says Sander’s exit has been in the works for a while. Here’s the entire Read more of this entry »

The state Department of Motor Vehicles today said that some of its 2010 inspection stickers and registration stickers are not sticking to vehicle windshields.

The DMV’s common sense solution: Reaffix any defective sticker to the vehicle with tape or other adhesive.

Several customers complained to the DMV about the problem.

The agency notes “only a fraction of stickers have the potential to fail and not all are susceptible to not adhering.”

“We recognize the issue of inspection and registration stickers failing to adhere to vehicles is an inconvenience to our customers,” DMV Commissioner David Swarts said in a statement. “We have notified law enforcement agencies that may come across loose or taped stickers to use their discretion whenever possible. We have also made the process of obtaining a new sticker, should one be required, as easy as possible for our customers.”

Customers may obtain a replacement sticker at no cost.

For complete information, visit the DMV web site.

The $2 fee normally charged by the DMV will be waived for customers who report that their inspection safety sticker has fallen off.

The $3 fee will be waived by the DMV for customers who report that their registration sticker has fallen off or become defective.

The DMV said it has been working with the vendors of both products to “identify the deficiencies and receive an appropriate restitution” and is removing defective stickers from its inventory.

You’ve probably noticed that gas prices have been slowly climbing since the beginning of the year.

But they likely won’t reach the $4-a-gallon levels we’ve seen during the past few summers.

Yesterday, the average gallon of regular gas was selling for $2.20 in New York state.

This summer, drivers can expect to pay about $2.50 a gallon for regular gas, says Doug MacIntyre, a senior oil market analyst with the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

“Unlike the last several years, we don’t see a major price spike in the cards,” MacIntyre said. “We could see prices go up another 20 cents or so.”

Read more about this story tomorrow in The Journal News and LoHud.com.

Seventy years ago today, cars began crossing the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge.

At the opening ceremony, on April 29, 1939, Robert Moses proclaimed it “The finest suspension bridge of them all.” That was a bold claim, considering, Read more of this entry »

The incandescent bulb is gone from Grand Central Terminal.

Opened in 1913, the station was designed to show off how many bulbs it used — a point of pride when electricity was a novelty, but not the greatest attribute now that conservation is the goal.

So today, electricians Read more of this entry »