Church Avenue Subway Repairs Are Not On Track
Repairs on the Kensington subway station were expected to be done in August of 2014. It is now June 2017 and the MTA needs extra time.
And by “extra time” we mean an additional four years.
According to a letter from Independent Budget Office Director Ronnie Lowenstein, “it is not unusual for individual projects and their related spendings to stretch past a plan period.”
The letter states that repairs will be completed by 2021.
In 2014, we reported on the horrible conditions of the subway station that included leaky ceilings and peeling paint. At the time, Church Avenue Business Improvement District Director Lauren Collins testified at the 2015-19 MTA capital plan hearing, urging the MTA to fix the “serious disrepair.”
But as of 2017, not much has been done.
The MTA has been facing a lot of heat from straphangers especially following the F Train meltdown that hit national news last week. And New Yorkers won’t let public officials off the hook. Yesterday, Governor Cuomo tweeted about an Audi that performed NY’s first autonomous vehicle demonstration, but his twitter followers took the opportunity to push back on the #MTAwoes
FIX THE SUBWAYS! Stop spending money on a new AirTrain to LGA just FIX THE SUBWAY
— BenVC (@BenVC) June 14, 2017
FIX THE SUBWAY. Another alphabet soup commute, another day late home to my kids.
— Matt Watkins (@didacticmatt) June 14, 2017
The subway is a mess, the city we love is becoming unlivable, and it's your fault. Fix the subway. #FixTheSubway FIX THE SUBWAY.
— Travis R. Eby (@travis_robert) June 14, 2017
“Fix the subways” — can it be done?