Passenger Trains > DiBlasio and Cuomo: wild rail fantasies?

Manhattan Institute writer Nicole Gelinas has an op-ed in the NY Post about the  desire of NY politicians to build new projects, while ignoring the half-done, long over budget projects still underway.

Last week, Mayor DiBlasio announced plans for a new subway down Utica Avenue in Brooklyn. This subway would give access to many people in an under served area of Brooklyn. However, he offered no money, suggesting that even the ten million dollar study should be funded by the Governor's MTA.

The Governor immediately counter attacked, calling attention to his own plan to open new rail stations in the under served East Bronx, with train service into Penn Station. That requires the completion of the Pataki-D'Amato-Bloomberg-Guiliani East Side Access project, which is years behind schedule (estimated 2009, now projected 2022), and billions over budget. Now that the Second Avenue subway has reached the edges of the wealthy Upper East Side, nobody is offering odds on the line reaching Harlem anytime soon.

The two have tangled over developing Sunnyside Yard (Mayor - yes, Governor - fugedddabatit) and on many other topics.

Wild Transit Fantasies

King Andrew also has a rather stupid LGA Airtrain in mind.

Most importantly, billion$$$ are being "transited" to the well-connected.

Lurch_in_ABQ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Most importantly, billion$$$ are being "transited"
> to the well-connected.

That's pretty much the game in NY / NJ public construction.  You get solid engineering analysis. Eliminate all possibilities that might raise costs. Select the best possible combination of things that might happen, chop a few dollars and years off that.  Issue a contract, then see all the "change orders" and "unexpected" findings come in.

When Christie cancelled the ARC tunnel, which was already over budget, just weeks into construction, the feds wouldn't agree to share the over charges. Even now, Amtrak's estimate is much higher than the ARC tunnel's original estimate.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:

> When Christie cancelled the ARC tunnel, which was
> already over budget, just weeks into construction,
> the feds wouldn't agree to share the over charges.
> Even now, Amtrak's estimate is much higher than
> the ARC tunnel's original estimate.

It is a bit apples-oranges comparison though. ARC was for just the tunnel and station. Did not even include the Portal Bridge. Gateway essentially covers everything east of Swift, so naturally the pricetag is about a third higher, of course not conting the devaluation of the dollar in the meantime in the natural course of things either.

In all fairness, Utica Avenue subway, and many others, have been official proposal for 80 years for IND System II and System III.
None, except portion of 2nd Ave Subway, will ever happen.

If DiBlasio wanted to do something productive for rapid transit, he'd resurrect the Rockaway Beach Branch (RBB), and put to sleep the Woodhaven Blvd SBS nonsense, which is designed to be a distraction for the benefit of the RBB NIMBY's in Forest Hills and Richmond Hill.

Mayor DiBlasio took the subway yesterday, which is unusual for him  He normally has a three SUV caravan with police escort for his trips.  Unfortunately for him, his train didn't arrive, and he was upset about the lack of information.  His entourage had already left the station, presumably to meet him at his destination in Brooklyn.

So he upbraided the head of the (Governor's) MTA, demanding improvements in the subway....

Link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/06/nyregion/mayor-de-blasio-is-irked-by-a-subway-delay.html
 

Since he neither uses the subway, unlike Bloomberg, nor has the City subsidized the Subways in many years, then he has no skin in the game.