At an Election Day eve party at a bowling alley in Williamsburg on Monday night, Gov. Kathy Hochul laid out her dream scenario for the midterms. The event, headlined by the statewide Democratic ticket, predicted a blue wave of voter unrest that would catapult two New Yorkers to the top of the House and the
This is an anti-Trump election. This is not necessarily an endorsement of Democrats’ policies in New York State. There’s some of that at play, but this is an anti-Trump election in New York and beyond. Max Politics host Ben Max joined FAQ NYC’s Christina Greer and Harry Siegel hours after the polls closed to discuss
In a sweep, all five proposals on the back of New Yorkers’ ballots passed by a large margin Tuesday evening, giving a boost to Mayor Zohran Mamdani in his first year in office. With nearly all precincts reporting, each ballot proposal received at least 61% of the vote. The questions, drawn up by the Mamdani
Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul locked down a second full term as the leader of New York State with a defeat of Republican Bruce Blakeman, the challenger backed by President Donald Trump, in a contest centered on affordability. The Associated Press called the race for Hochul minutes after polls closed on Tuesday night…
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters. Education officials are proposing to shutter two of New York City’s smallest schools, the first formal closure plans this academic year as Mayor Zohran Mamdani grapples with a growing number of underenrolled…
Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul won a second full term as the leader of New York State with a double-digit defeat of Republican Bruce Blakeman, the challenger backed by President Donald Trump, in a contest centered on affordability. Explore how your election district voted and where the candidates won big in the five…
New York City voters head to the polls Tuesday after a surge in early voting, capping a high-stakes campaign where affordability was one of the defining issues. More than 690,000 voters had cast their ballots in New York City since early voting opened Oct. 24, up from more than 432,000 in the 2022 governor’s race.
This story was originally published by Healthbeat. Sign up for their public health newsletters at healthbeat.org/newsletters. Leaders from New York City’s public hospital system anticipate a crisis of coverage as federal healthcare policies force hundreds of thousands residents to lose their Medicaid plans. Drs. Ted…
For the first time, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration used a new law to intervene on behalf of a Brooklyn family facing an eviction they say stems from deed fraud. But the move may not have worked. A city lawyer filed papers Friday to try to prevent the impending eviction of a family in order to
I think Haley Stevens’ implosion complicates the future of Chuck Schumer because that was his girl. He went hard in the paint in the primary for her. And now there are a lot of folks who are like, ‘Hey, Chuck, is this your person? This is who you thought should be the senator for Michigan?’
The nation’s two most important buyers of mortgage loans have imposed new rules for New York City’s rent-regulated buildings in the wake of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rent freeze that are making it impossible or extremely difficult for landlords to get financing. Government-backed Fannie Mae, which has become the lender…
A Kings County Hospital Center nurse practitioner who claims she was suspended in retaliation for union organizing was ordered to report back to work after three weeks away from the bedside, after the city hospital’s system apparently decided to put its misconduct investigation on ice. The nurse, Sarah Dowd, and her…
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat and is the third story in a three-part series. Read parts one and two here. And keep Chalkbeat’s valuable education coverage at the top of your feeds by clicking here and checking the box next to their name. Nearly a year into his administration, Mayor Zohran Mamdani…
As soon as social media seized on the story, it was turned into a kind of intellectual junk food: Daniel Penny is either a hero or a vigilante. You have to pick. Jordan Neely is either a career criminal who was finally put down or a victim of every systemic injustice in American life. You
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters Applying to high school in New York City is daunting: Eighth graders can choose from 700 programs in 400 schools across the five boroughs. Last year, of roughly 68,000 eighth graders who submitted applications, 58%…
In 2023, after several e-bike battery fires erupted inside New York City Housing Authority apartments, including a blaze that killed a 5-year-old girl and a 36-year-old woman, NYCHA considered banning the devices entirely from authority property. But opposition emerged from those arguing that some NYCHA residents rely…
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. This is part two of a three-part series. Here’s the first story. And sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free email newsletter to be the first to know when the next story is published. As a parent leader for more than a decade, Johanna Bjorken has heard plenty of
So-called “management fees.” Listed apartments already rented. Off-market exclusives dangled like bait. These are among what some apartment-seekers saw as they searched for rentals in the wake of the 2025 FARE Act, which in almost all cases bans brokers from charging fees to tenants. And those practices all violate…
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. this week sent letters to Mayor Zohran Mamdani and two government agencies demanding they intervene to transform a parking lot built on top of an African burial ground into a respectful memorial commemorating the sacred ground. Richards, joined by eight Queens elected…
Scores of adjunct professors at the City University of New York aren’t getting paid on time, CUNY officials acknowledged, in an ongoing problem that has frustrated the university’s part-time teaching workforce for several years. Some CUNY adjuncts are owed sums north of $10,000. “First paychecks don’t come through for…
A few blocks off the Belt Parkway in Gravesend, Brooklyn, a playground bathroom has been closed so long its doors no longer have handles. A rusted latch box is bolted to the graffiti-tagged doors of the cube-like structure, which city records show has been shut since at least 2018 — three mayors ago. One local
The MTA is looking to significantly boost the number of buses in its fleet that alert drivers about would-be hazards while they’re behind the wheel. With the number of collisions between buses and bicycles this year down 16% from the same time period in 2025, according to MTA data, the transportation authority plans…
When the playground at St. Vartan Park closed for renovations this spring, parents in Murray Hill rallied around one question: Where will the children go to play? “We thought, well, at least we have the field next to it,” said Rebecca Webber, a 51-year-old mother from the neighborhood. “And every evening we would get…
The city is dragging its feet on a requirement for all city agencies to upload records requests and data to an online public portal, further delaying transparency from city agencies, good-government advocates said. The bill, which was passed in the City Council last November, requires every municipal agency to opt…
Fundamentally, the commission’s goal was to put forth proposals that would allow government to keep pace with New Yorkers and make the bureaucracy less painful… COGE Commissioner Emma Wolfe and Executive Director Ann Cheng visit the podcast to explain the questions on the back of every NYC ballot and make the case for…
Despite inflation that has pushed up prices in the New York area by 4% in the last year, low-wage workers won’t see an expected increase in the city’s $17 an hour minimum wage on Jan. 1 because of a quirk in the 2023 state law that indexed the minimum wage to the consumer price index.
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters. Days before the school year started, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced new restrictions on student-facing artificial intelligence tools used in hundreds of New York City public schools. “We will fully discontinue or…
Sunnyside Yard burst into the headlines in February when Mayor Zohran Mamdani went to Washington to meet President Donald Trump, armed with a mock Daily News front page that read “Trump to City: Let’s Build” and a pitch that the two of them could erect an enormous housing project over the Queens railyard. Trump, the
Will New York be on its own when disaster strikes? That may be the future after the next Superstorm Sandy or Hurricane Ida, according to recent remarks from the leader of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Administrator Cameron Hamilton. At an annual meeting for state emergency managers on Tuesday, Hamilton…
Talking to brand new immigrants to New York City, it reminds you of what an amazing place this is. They want to come here because of what it stands for. Having been a local reporter in this town for as long as I have, I know how grinding the bureaucracy is and how difficult it
Oscar Belgal, the man shot by an ICE agent in Marble Hill earlier this month, will remain in custody after a federal judge in Brooklyn denied his request for release. In a ruling Friday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Hector Gonzalez found that the 28-year-old Dominican father of two had received adequate medical care…
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters. New York City is considering closing a small Harlem high school, the first in what could be a growing number of school merger and closure proposals this school year as the nation’s largest school system grapples…
The New York State Nurses Association has filed a complaint with a state labor board after it says a nurse practitioner was suspended without pay at Kings County Hospital Center in retaliation for union organizing. NYC Health + Hospitals, which administers the city’s public hospitals, suspended ICU nurse practitioner…
Mayor Zohran Mamdani says the city government’s top lawyer is personally looking into allegations revealed by The City Reporter that top officials at the agency overseeing city purchasing and properties regularly used personal emails and texting to discuss official business. City employees are required to communicate…
Calling all New Yorkers: It’s time to choose your Congress members, governor and state legislators — and decide the fate of five ballot proposals backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Whom you can vote for and where you can vote depends on where you live. All registered voters in New York City will have the gubernatorial,
Just months after the MTA installed five new elevators at the 161st Street-Yankee Stadium subway station, several were sidelined during baseball season, transit authority data shows — and one lift is expected to remain out of service until winter 2027 because of power problems. The elevators at the busiest station in…
One of the largest industrial warehouse managers in the country is eyeing a massive, once-public vacant building steps from the South Bronx waterfront — raising concerns with locals who say the area is already overrun with similar businesses. The nearly 400,000-square-foot facility at 900 E. 132nd St. served as the…
Did New York’s landmark program to give eviction help to low-income people cause a dip in emergency room visits? That’s what a new study points to, studying millions of ER visits in the first neighborhoods where the legal program rolled out. The research, published Wednesday in the Journal of General Internal…
The city’s former parks commissioner had serious concerns about the proposed Metropolitan Park casino in Queens before it was approved by the state, noting the potential to increase flooding in the area and restrict parks access, documents shared with The City Reporter show. Sue Donoghue, who left the Parks Department…
Neighbors stunned by the closure of a local newspaper in The Bronx are rallying behind an effort to relaunch the community mainstay, with or without help from its former owner — the borough’s largest employer. In August, the owners of the Norwood News — Mosholu Preservation Corp., an umbrella organization of…
It was the beginning of her first year at Hostos Community College, and Shannon needed help. The Bronx mother of two was excited to be in school, but right as she started her public health classes, she was stunned by a notice alleging she owed nearly $50,000 in arrears on her apartment. Shannon, who’s been
This story was originally published by Healthbeat. Sign up for their public health newsletters at healthbeat.org/newsletters. As new Medicaid work requirements are set to take effect in January, approximately 200,000 Bronx residents could get a reprieve. Because of the borough’s high unemployment rate, Bronx residents…
After a twelve-hour shift, most people would undergo a bleary-eyed commute home, enjoy whatever show they’re currently binging, and go to bed before doing it all over again the next day. But not Alex Gomez. Gomez, a 31-year veteran of the city’s Emergency Medical Services, lives in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, a…
When the New York Knicks took home the NBA championship title for the first time in 53 years this summer, fans joked that a Knicks-inspired baby name trend may be nigh. Would someone name their newborn daughter “Anna Nobey” after forward OG Anunoby, who famously tipped in a game-winning shot to complete a 29-point…
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters. As New York City’s free childcare program is on track to reach 12,000 2-year-olds next year, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul revealed Monday which new neighborhoods will get the program. The expansion…
New York City is poised to finally pass a carriage horse ban after more than a decade of talk about that — but it’s far from clear what will actually happens after that. Hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel discuss and much more, including the court records that led to Katie’s story on the
A Brutalist-style city office building in Lower Manhattan is slated for a transformation — the likes of which New York City has never seen. The city Economic Development Corporation is teaming up with a developer GFP Real Estate to demolish the building at 100 Gold St. and replace it with a supersized development at a
Back in the good old days of “honest graft,” William “Boss” Tweed didn’t mess around when it came to enriching himself at the expense of New York City taxpayers. Take the Tweed Courthouse, the opulent Italianate marble edifice next to City Hall that now houses the Department of Education headquarters. Originally…
There are mountains of data available online about New York City public schools if you know where to look. But for many parents, finding that data, deciding which parts are important, and figuring out what they tell you is overwhelming — especially when there are so many schools to choose from. That’s why Chalkbeat…
Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed Liz Vladeck, the Department of Education’s top lawyer, to lead his Office of Labor Relations — a crucial role tasked with representing the city in collective bargaining with unions representing hundreds of thousands of teachers, law enforcement, first responders and other civil servants…
A block-by-block tracking app formerly known as WalkNYC is now called Sidewalk, after the city alleged trademark infringement and demanded a name change. The app, which tracks walking routes around New York City, changed its name Thursday. The switch comes after the city’s Department of Transportation in July sent a…
In the 1800s, a journalist using the pen name Lisle Lester left her childhood home in Wisconsin and set off to create a life of adventure and travel typically unheard of for a woman at that time. She launched the first magazine in Wisconsin, The Badger State Monthly, and later hired and organized the first
Enrollment in a city-run program designed to provide health access to New Yorkers ineligible for insurance, including undocumented residents, continues to decline. The number of people signed up for NYC Care decreased 12% from 140,222 patients in fiscal 2025 to 123,124 in fiscal 2026, according to the latest Mayor’s…
Here’s a sign of what congestion pricing is bankrolling. The MTA has begun slapping “Made Possible by Congestion Pricing” seals on transit upgrades funded by the Manhattan vehicle-tolling program that launched last year. Four elevators being installed at the 42nd Street–Bryant Park/Fifth Avenue subway complex on…
Last week Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch was forced to admit the NYPD had mistakenly allowed a police officer to retire before he could face pending disciplinary charges for the death of a Queens teenager experiencing a mental health crisis. What Tisch did not mention was that the department had also failed for…
The Dominican man shot by an immigration agent in Marble Hill was arrested without a valid warrant and is being held in solitary confinement without proper medical care, according to a new court filing submitted by his attorneys Wednesday afternoon. Oscar Belgal had just picked up his son from school then taken him to…
A couple hundred CUNY community college students who were due to receive critical state financial aid got an email last week saying their funds would be delayed until further notice, just as officials expanded the affected scholarship program. The scholarship funding is the state component of the CUNY Reconnect…
Senior managers in the agency that handles government purchasing and leases tried to hide their discussions about hot-button issues from the public by communicating via personal text messages, emails and hand-delivered written memos, an investigation by The City Reporter has found. The conversations involve high-level…
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters. Will state officials soon allow New York City to return to paper-and-pencil standardized tests in grades 3-8? The state Education Department isn’t ruling it out after more than half of New York City Council members…
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters. New York will participate in the new federal scholarship tax credit in hopes of generating millions in new dollars for public school students, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday. Hochul becomes the second Democrat —…
City officials on Tuesday will kick off a new program to claw back up to $25 million in unpaid tickets, clearing some of the interest for debtors so they can pay the original fine. The program, dubbed “Debt Demolisher,” is for homeowners and small businesses who’ve racked up Environmental Control Board judgements for…
The man from the Dominican Republic shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Marble Hill still has a bullet lodged in his neck, four days after the shooting, and is being held in solitary confinement at a federal jail, without access to adequate medical care, his attorneys said in a statement Sunday…
Election Day is approaching, but Mayor Zohran Mamdani—who won’t be on the ballot—was once again the main character in city politics, facing what co-host Christina Greer calls “probably the roughest week of his mayoralty.” Christina and Harry Siegel dig into Mamdani’s response to the Marble Hill ICE shooting and how it…
Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday announced a series of reforms for the NYPD, including a “comprehensive review” of the department’s use-of-force policies and a series of changes designed to “strengthen accountability when police officers are accused of serious misconduct.” The announcement marks the mayor’s first major…
Juan Morales was watering his tomato plants on his apartment roof when he heard screams coming from below his perch above Jacobus Place in Marble Hill. Moments later, a helicopter buzzed over the neighborhood. Morales, 56, who walks with a cane, made his way down to the street and into what he described as a
The fate of a beloved local movie theater is playing out with some silver-screen melodrama on the East Side: Does the Kips Bay AMC want to stay or go? The health behemoth slated to take over the space, NYU Langone, says the movie chain wanted out of the neighborhood years ago, according to local elected
A federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fired at least seven shots on a crowded Marble Hill street Thursday afternoon, sending passersby ducking for cover. In the chaotic aftermath, a man slumped outside his dented car, bleeding from his neck and fading in and out of consciousness, eyewitnesses said…
In a series of phone calls between Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security made clear that it wanted the NYPD to arrest Oscar Belgal, the man who had just been shot in Marble Hill by an ICE agent. But city officials refused, saying that the NYPD can’t arrest someone
Last October, 10 days out from his historic victory in the 2025 mayoral election, Zohran Mamdani made his final pitch to members and delegates of the city’s largest municipal union. District Council 37 had supported the democratic socialist upstart in the dramatic Democratic primary that summer, and Mamdani would…
A cop facing misconduct charges in the 2024 death of a Queens teenager experiencing a mental health crisis will dodge a disciplinary trial because the NYPD failed to notify the police oversight panel he had put in his papers to retire. Police Officer Salvatore Alongi is one of two cops the Civilian Complaint Review…
A federal immigration officer shot a man Thursday afternoon in New York’s Marble Hill neighborhood, according to police, eyewitnesses and the Department of Homeland Security, in an incident that drew swift rebuke from elected officials and a crowd of spontaneous protesters late Thursday night. The man was treated at a…
This story was originally published by Healthbeat. Sign up for their public health newsletters at healthbeat.org/newsletters. New York City’s bodegas have long been hailed as good neighbors, small mom-and-pop institutions that provide basic food items, like milk and eggs, in a pinch. They’re often vital community…
It’s become a ritual for many New York City teachers: Head to a 35,000-square-foot warehouse on Northern Boulevard in Queens, take the elevator to the third floor, grab a shopping cart and don’t leave until it’s filled to the brim with classroom supplies — all for free. Every first Thursday of the month, the city’s
Martin Soto, the Peruvian immigrant whose wife became the face of protests outside Delaney Hall last summer, was released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention late Tuesday night, following a federal judge’s order. Dramatic video showed Gabriela Soto and her two young children racing to Martin as he…
If you’re enjoying the skyline as the subway takes off from Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue one day in the future, the neighborhood’s tall red tower might read, “Will you marry me?” The city Parks Department announced in a bulletin Friday that it’s looking for a business to manage and maintain the famous Parachute Jump…
Unlike most other places in the nation, New York City families have to apply for schools at every level of their education, starting in kindergarten. The choices can be overwhelming. The nation’s largest school system has about 670 elementary and 140 K-8 schools, roughly 250 standalone middle schools and nearly 90…
The Mamdani administration has again extended the deadline to seek an exemption from the city’s new pied-à-terre tax, moving it from Tuesday to Oct. 13 as officials released data showing more than half the exemption requests sought by property owners so far have been granted. As of Tuesday around 9,300 applications…
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters. For the first time in more than a year, New York City will begin issuing childcare vouchers to thousands of children sitting on a ballooning waitlist for the popular program, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Monday…
In the late 1990s, hundreds of internet companies suddenly appeared in New York City, many of them finding a home in Midtown South. Wall Street boomed, taking companies like Amazon.com and Pets.com public as their stocks soared. But it didn’t last. When investors realized that the tech boom was a bubble, they…
Representatives for some of the country’s AI giants were on the digital hot seat Monday, answering sometimes hostile questions from the City Council about artificial intelligence hacking the government, leaking data, misleading consumers and fomenting extremism. Representatives for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta…
Former Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn and her allies announced they’d picked a new party chair at a late-night Zoom vote Sunday evening that appears to be in violation of multiple court orders. Just 13 of 42 district leaders elected during the June primary voted to support the party’s…
Everyone wants a perfect victim in these situations, and I think we would benefit as a society if we realized that there are no such thing as perfect victims. Hosts Katie Honan, Christina Greer and Harry Siegel look at Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision to appoint Attorney General Letitia James as a special prosecutor…
A group of Queens elected officials say they’re determined to find funding for the city to purchase the Elmhurst site of a historic Black cemetery and turn it into a memorial to the freed slaves buried there. Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. recently called on the administration of Mayor Zohran Mamdani to…
This article was published in partnership with Documented. A house cleaner, a certified nurse’s assistant, a hair braider and a home health aid. These are some of the women who have been called into 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan in recent weeks and arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according…
David Clarke estimates it will take him three to five years to clean up every forgotten tree bed, underpass and planter in New York City. After that, he says, he’ll have to find something else to do. The 24-year-old Washington Heights resident has already made a big dent in his own neighborhood, making it his
The City Council is set to grill officials from some of the biggest tech companies on Monday on the dangers of artificial intelligence, and ways they could rein them in amid increasingly dire warnings from industry leaders and others of rogue robots and malevolent online agents. One city official warned that New York…
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters. Parents at several schools across New York City last spring were outraged when they lost beloved after-school providers in a contract overhaul overseen by the Department of Youth and Community Development. Many…
Two City Council members entered a homeless veterans shelter in Queens against the staff’s orders Thursday as they and other lawmakers ramped up pressure on the Mamdani administration to explain why it rejected federal funding for beds at the facility. “We have the legal authority to enter to provide oversight” of…
Thousands of New Yorkers were at risk of losing their homes when federal funding for their rental vouchers began drying up this spring — years ahead of schedule. But now millions of federal dollars are coming to New York City to help keep those people housed. More than $600 million in congressionally appropriated…
For the elderly artists who’ve lived for decades on the upper floors of a 19th century cast-iron SoHo loft building on Mercer Street, the last six years have been a physical and emotional nightmare with a singular cause: their landlord banned them from the building’s sole elevator in 2019. But getting the city to do
What do the Upper East Side, Maspeth and the middle of Staten Island all have in common? They’re three of the 12 community districts the city has officially designated as having the worst affordable housing droughts in New York City. By city officials’ count, those areas have in the past five years produced the least
MTA officials warned Wednesday that “high and unpredictable” tariffs brought on by the Trump administration could jack up the cost of new trains and buses by $1 billion by the end of this decade. The hit on the thousands of components used to build trains and buses — including electronics, wheels, axles and vehicle…
The City Council is set to hold a rare all-Council meeting on Oct. 5 to discuss the “potentially catastrophic risks” of artificial intelligence and debate a package of oversight legislation, including protections for AI whistleblowers and requirements for third-party validators of AI systems. Attorney General Letitia…
You might soon be able to ride a Ferris wheel or win a plushie on your way through Herald Square. The organization in charge of Herald Square Plaza and Greeley Square, 34th Street Partnership, has put out a bid for a business to turn the outdoor spaces into a carnival park, complete with “amusement rides,
A State Supreme Court judge has blocked a hotly anticipated vote of the Brooklyn Democratic Party to select a new party chair planned for Tuesday evening, until another judge can clarify what rules will govern that vote. Judge Lisa Lewis signed a temporary restraining order Tuesday afternoon, hours after a state…
A Staten Island judge on Tuesday ordered the Mamdani administration to cancel thousands of notices sent to property owners warning them that they faced a second-home surcharge and to restart the vetting process that erroneously listed primary residences of thousands of New Yorkers as subject to the tax. After sending…
A new report by the CUNY School of Public Health and the Workers Justice Project, first obtained by The City Reporter, zeroes in on the issue of deactivation and reveals the vast physical and mental toll of delivery work on the city’s estimated 70,000 deliveristas. The CUNY research team polled 561 delivery workers…
What’s about to happen with agents is not just lowering the friction. The friction goes to zero. These systems could file an essentially unlimited number of any one of these types of requests to government, and we have no systems on our side to handle it, because we still have a person who’s cutting and
Now comes the boring part. A years-long campaign to build the first new Hudson River rail tunnel in more than a century took a sizable step forward Monday with the launch of the first 1,700-ton machine that will bore through rock beneath the New Jersey Palisades en route to carving out a new two-tube rail