The Commute: We Wait, And Wait, And Wait…

THE COMMUTE: New Yorkers must wait until 2023 for the completion of East Side Access, a project that will improve LIRR access to Manhattan, free up trackage at Penn Station to improve rail service to the Northeast Bronx, but degrade LIRR service for Brooklynites. It is a project first conceived in the 1950s and will have taken 70 years to complete by the time it opens. Its budget, originally $4.3 billion, now exceeds $10.8 billion. The scaled back Fulton Transit Center, a project costing $4.2 billion $1.4 billion is also way behind schedule and should finally be fully completed in December of this year.

The one-stop extension to the Number 7 line began in 2007. This $2 billion project conceived under the Bloomberg Administration is also years behind schedule due to a plethora of problems. Although a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held in 2013 while Bloomberg was still in office, the start of service has been delayed until February 2015.

Likewise, we must wait at least another two years just for the first three stops of the Second Avenue subway (Phase 1, which cost just under $4.5 billion) to be completed. We will have waited about 75 years and it will be another 25 years more if funding ever becomes available for the entire project.

The recently completed transfer to the uptown #6 at Bleecker Street in 2012 from Broadway Lafayette, should have been thought of and constructed when the IRT platform was extended southward in 1957, when the connection from the IND to the southbound #6 was made. However, New Yorkers waited 55 years for the full transfer to be completed. (It only cost $135 million — originally planned at $50 million.)

For the past three years, I’ve written about how New Yorkers have waited 70 years and are continuing to wait for needed bus route improvements. The MTA is less than 50 years old, so the problem of waiting clearly goes beyond the MTA. While inadequate funding is the usual culprit, when it comes to changing bus routes, it is more a problem of will, seeing the need, and the parochial attitude of the MTA in not seeing the big picture, when it comes to good planning.

That is why, in 1974, the Department of City Planning undertook a bus study of Brooklyn bus routes, which I headed, because the MTA was not properly planning its bus routes. After a long delay, that agency is once again focusing on bus route changes in a recently released report that considers other aspects such as the economy, jobs and housing in transportation planning. The MTA’s planning focus merely revolves around additional operating costs related to its budget, neglecting to consider the greater good for the city.

Improvements to the economy also are not considered when it comes to reactivating little or unused rail lines, which could do wonders to improving our transportation infrastructure. We have several. The Staten Island North Shore Line, the Bay Ridge Division of the Long Island Railroad, the Rockaway connection north of Liberty Avenue abandoned in 1962, among others. The latter would cut commute times for Rockaway residents from about an hour and a half to 40 minutes, but has been only given lip service in the MTA’s future plans. Instead we spent our scarce funding on continually increasing funding for East Side Access, which would only cut travel times for Long Islanders by 20 minutes. As project costs increase and progress drags on, somehow those time savings have now become 40 minutes without any explanation. In keeping with the MTA only presenting one side of the story as they have done with Select Bus Service, there are no estimates on how much time users of Atlantic Terminal will lose when the project opens and Brooklyn passengers will have to change at Jamaica for all LIRR service via an inconvenient up and down transfer.

The State Comptroller’s Report

Although the Brighton line renovation was recently completed, according to a report by the State Comptroller, summarized in Second Avenue Sagas, we might be waiting forever for all stations to be in a state of good repair. The MTA abandoned its attempts to have all stations in good repair by 2022 and only 51 of the 468 stations are free from defects, although 241 stations have been renovated.

What Have We Not Waited For?

Well, restoration of subway service through the Montague Street Tunnel, after repairing the damage from Superstorm Sandy, took less than two years and was competed ahead of schedule. Repairs to the G tunnel took only six weeks and have also been completed. Both projects were accomplished by full closure of the tunnels. MTA Chairman Tom Prendergast stated that closing the Montague Street Tunnel only on weekends and nights would have delayed its reopening until 2018, and that was clearly unacceptable. The MTA deserves much credit for completing a project as massive as the Montague Street Tunnel restoration ahead of schedule. However, that is the exception rather than the rule.

We Are Tired Of Waiting

There are other places where you can read about the history of the Second Avenue subway, its conception, and delays caused by the Great Depression and World War II. You can also read about the two bond issues approved by voters in the 1950s and 1970s that promised the new subway, and the politics that stalled it, stopped it, and began the process again. There also is the real estate development that promises of the new subway resulted in further straining the existing infrastructure. I can still remember Water Street prior to the 1970s, before it was widened and was lined by four story structures. Now there is a skyscraper on virtually every parcel because of the Second Avenue subway, which may never be completed.

It is about time that some attention is paid to the outer boroughs when it comes to massive capital projects. New subway lines, while costly, would not be as expensive in the outer boroughs as the Second Avenue subway, which is used as an excuse for not extending any more subway lines and concentrating instead on Select Bus Service. Even more efficient is utilizing existing right of ways previously mentioned. The possibility also exists to build new elevated lines such as the Airtrain.

Linden Boulevard in East New York is mostly all industrial. Why can’t an attractive elevated line on a concrete viaduct be built in the median to connect with the abandoned Bay Ridge Division of the LIRR, which would transfer to each subway line it crosses? The line could terminate in Howard Beach and connect to AirTrain. A spur could operate to Broadway Junction for connections to the LIRR and many other subway lines. Has anyone analyzed the job opportunities, economic good and reductions in travel time such needed connections would provide, or have they been summarily dismissed as just costing too much?

Conclusion

While funding is the usual culprit for not making needed improvements, what about low cost solutions, such as reopening closed station entrances that would greatly reduce access time to many subway stations? Finally, we are also waiting for the announcement of what the 2015 fare increase will be. Notice how there will not be a word in the media about this until after the gubernatorial election next month.

The Commute is a weekly feature highlighting news and information about the city’s mass transit system and transportation infrastructure. It is written by Allan Rosen, a Manhattan Beach resident and former Director of MTA/NYC Transit Bus Planning (1981).

Disclaimer: The above is an opinion column and may not represent the thoughts or position of Sheepshead Bites. Based upon their expertise in their respective fields, our columnists are responsible for fact-checking their own work, and their submissions are edited only for length, grammar and clarity. If you would like to submit an opinion piece or become a regularly featured contributor, please e-mail nberke [at] sheepsheadbites [dot] com.

Correction (October 23 at 3:10pm): The original version of this article stated that the cost of the Fulton Transit Center project is $4.2 billion. The actual number is $1.4 billion, and the article has been amended to reflect that. We regret any confusion this may have caused.