Second Ave. Sagas

Jul

Feds see possible $5.7B SAS completed in 2018

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (12) ·

While on Monday the MTA warned that the Second Ave. Subway may not be open until 2017, the Federal Transit Authority is far more pessimistic. In fact, the Feds’ worst-case scenario has Phase I of the new subway line wrapping up in mid-2018 and for a cost of over $5.7 billion, a potential 30 percent increase over the MTA’s current budget projections.

Yesterday morning, the MTA Board’s capital construction committee met to discuss the state of the authority’s current big-ticket items. Foremost on the agenda was the oft-delayed Second Ave. Subway, and the news was not good. In a presentation of a yearlong study focusing on the Second Ave. Subway, the MTA had determined that the project has been mismanaged and under-projected. In a similar study, the FTA believed that the MTA’s adjusted projections could be far too optimistic.

The graph above — click here to enlarge — tell the story. Heather Haddon of amNew York first sent it to me when I e-mailed her about her story. Michael Grynbaum and The Times has made the full eight-page presentation avaliable on Scribd.

The story is simple: The MTA has been unable to meet any of its self-imposed deadlines, and it now faces the prospects of massive cost overruns and a six-year delay in delivering Phase I of the Second Ave. Subway. Original plans called for the entire line to be constructed by 2020. That is but a pipe dream right now.

The FTA numbers are alarming. The MTA is budgeting for an expected cost of $4.451 billion with a high end of $4.775 billion. The FTA believes a low budget estimate to be $4.978 billion with an August 2017 completion date. The federal government’s high end is $5.728 billion — over $1 billion more than the current MTA estimate — with a June 2018 opening date.

Michael Horodniceanu, the president of MTA Capital Construction, grew defensive during Wednesday’s meeting. He claimed that the federal government had “made different assumptions,” but as you can see, these high FTA estimates as presented by the MTA were already scrubbed of the potential rolling stock costs. He also claims, as Pete Donohue reported, that “the latest delay is partly because the MTA broke up large construction tasks into smaller projects to foster more competition among contractors and lower authority expenses.”

In addressing the board, Horodniceanu made a few bold promises he probably can’t keep. “Our original schedules were extremely optimistic,” he said, later adding, “We will deliver. You can hold me accountable to our numbers.”

In June, Horodniceanu made a similar claim with regards to the Fulton St. Hub. It will, he said of that long-delayed project, be open by 2014, seven years beyond its original schedule but in line with the MTA’s estimates in 2009.

Meanwhile, the vultures are circling. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer wants an investigation into the delays. “I call on the MTA Inspector General to open an immediate investigation of what has caused this latest delay,” he said in a statement. “The people and businesses of our city deserve not an endless list of excuses and rising costs, but an actual subway that will reduce crowding on the Lexington Avenue lines and provide service to East Side residents who have not had trains for decades.”

As time moves on, though, Stringer’s words will be forgotten. The Second Ave. Subway, funded and under construction for not the first time in its tortured history, marches further into the future. As we turn calendar pages, these completion dates come not closer but ever more distant. When will this subway arrive? When will someone take responsibility for this monumental disaster, a boondoggle on the Upper East Side?

Categories : Second Avenue Subway

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FTA: MTA timeline, budget for SAS wildly optimistic · According to a report presented at the MTA Board’s capital construction committee meeting this morning, the Federal Transit Administrative believes the MTA’s timeline and budget for the Second Ave. Subway to be overly aggressive. I’ll have a full report on this development later tonight, but the FTA believes that Phase I of the new subway line won’t be completed until 2018 and could cost nearly $6 billion. The MTA is sticking with its estimated completion date of late 2016 or mid 2017 and a budget under $5 billion. · (5)

Jul

Albany-enforced oversight, but is it what the MTA needs?

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (1) ·

With little fanfare last week, the State Senate and New York Assembly passed a bill to reform the way New York State Authorities — including the MTA — do business. Ostensibly, the purpose of the bill is to create an independent budget office with a variety of powers over authorities, but I have to wonder if it’s the right type of oversight for the MTA.

Currently, the bill is sitting on Gov. David Paterson’s desk, awaiting action, and as The Times’ Danny Hakim reports, his approval is no sure thing. Governors, after all, can exercise significant power over state authorities, and the state’s top executives have been loathe to hand over any of their power to the (dysfunctional) legislative branch.

For now, though, the bill’s fate is neither here nor there. Let’s instead take a look at how this act — full text available here — will impact the MTA. Hakim writes:

The legislation would create an independent budget office with an array of powers over authorities, including the ability to issue subpoenas as part of investigations. Authorities would also be required to turn over financial records to the budget office.

Contracts awarded by authorities over $1 million would have to be reviewed by the state comptroller. New limits would be placed on the ability of authorities to issue debt, a major area of concern among financial watchdogs.

The legislation makes clear that those who serve on authority boards have a fiduciary responsibility to the authority and its mission. Spelling out this duty holds directors to a defined standard of conduct and is aimed at curbing favoritism and corruption.

The Straphangers Campaign issued a press release late last week praising the Senate and Assembly for passing this measure. The PIRG also explained some of the logistics:

The bill (Assembly bill 2209 and Senate bill 1537) would create a new Public Authorities Budget Office directly responsible for monitoring and reporting on the State’s public authorities. A similar agency in New York City (the Independent Budget Office) has helped hold City government accountable. In many cases, its agreement with the City has enhanced the City’s credibility. The director of the State Public Authorities Budget Office would be appointed by the Governor and served for a fixed four-year term.

If anything, this act sounds as though it would simply create another layer of red tape for the MTA and similar public authorities. I don’t have enough knowledge of the city’s IBO and its impact to assess how a similar body on a state level would function, but I believe the MTA needs a greater level of oversight than that offered up by this act.

As I mentioned earlier today, the MTA needs to be held accountable for its failures. That public undertaking needs to extend far beyond a rubber stamp for high contracts and a symbolic slap on the wrist by yet another state organization. How that potential MTA oversight board will look is frankly outside the scope of my expertise, but this state Public Authorities Budget Office doesn’t sound as though it will do the job.

Categories : MTA Politics

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Under Bloomberg’s thumb, Senate GOP kills Second Ave. tax abatement · As the Second Ave. Subway construction threatens to drag on for another eight years, business along the torn-up avenue are facing hard times. Construction zones limit access to the sidewalks, and foot traffic has all but dried up. In an effort to ease the financial burdens on these business owners, Assembly Member Micah Kellner sponsored a bill to create a property tax abatement for those inside the MTA-defined construction zone. It was a generally harmless piece of legislation that should have been allowed to pass.

But Mayor Bloomberg had other plans. Taking advantage of the turmoil in the State Senate brought on by the four Senate hold outs, Bloomberg asked the State Republicans to quash this bill, and the GOP, beholden to Bloomberg’s support and money, obliged. As Republicans threatened to vote it down, the bill was yanked from the legislative agenda last week, put on the backburner for a day when the Democrats’ 32-member majority is in place.

Dan Rivoli of Our Town, an Upper East Side community paper, reports on the fallout from the bill’s failure. Kellner and the Upper East Side business owners are angry at the Mayor. Meanwhile, the State GOP and Bloomberg claim they still support businesses impacted by the construction but claim the city cannot afford tax abatements for everyone and want to be able to control the zone of impact. What a mess. · (4)

Jul

Scapegoating the SAS delays

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (12) ·

Four years ago in 2005, then-MTA Chair Peter Kalikow promised a Second Ave. Subway — or at least part of one — by 2012. Right away, that target date seemed optimistic, and as time wore on, it became clear that the new subway extension wouldn’t become a reality until 2015 at the earliest.

As the last four years have gone by, this Phase I completion date has stretched on and on. The tunnel-boring machines have yet to arrive, and the dates just kept receding further into the distant. Early 2015, late 2015, early 2016, late 2016.

When the news broke yesterday afternoon that the Second Ave. Subway could be delayed until 2017, the city gave it a collective shrug. Media members and transit advocates seemed to express their fair share of outrage, but even Gene Russianoff, the supposed go-to guy for all things transit, excused the MTA. “It will not come as shock to the American people that the Second Ave. subway is behind schedule,” Russianoff said. “It’s a big complicated project. I think part of this is bowing to the economic realities of what money is available and when.”

Except Russianoff’s statement doesn’t jibe with reality. As The Post reported, these constant delays are the result of an overly ambitious original schedule. Tom Namako reported that “installing reinforcement walls along the Second Avenue line was taking twice as long as expected, and a contractor on the East Side Access project was defaulted for not performing the work as promised.”

Of those who went on the record yesterday, only Bill Henderson of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA really had anything blunt to say. “Time is money,” he said to The Post “Just stretching the project out, you have construction supervision you pay for and construction inspection. There’s costs to all of that.”

What we don’t hear are mea culpas, explanations and apologies. We get our news delivered to us based upon reports that Daily News and Post reporters have gotten through sources. We don’t hear anyone at the MTA standing up and admitting that they were overly-ambitious half a decade ago. We don’t hear anyone at the MTA explaining how, in five years, other nations built entire subway lines when we can’t even build a 30-block subway extension. We don’t hear promises for reform or accountability, and it’s time we did.

Last month, in taking about the Fulton St. Hub, another long-delayed MTA construction boondoggle, Capital Construction President Michael Horodniceanu promised a 2014 delivery date for the project. Considering that the hub was supposed to be done two years ago from today, his promise — “What I present today, I stand by. I expect you to hold me accountable to it.” — hardly seems headline-worthy. And yet because someone from the MTA had the audacity to take responsibility, it was.

Today, we deserve another session with Horodniceanu. We need to hear Jay Walder promise a thorough investigation into the causes of this delay, and we need to hear him threaten to clean house if the MTA can’t complete projects on time — or at least more on time than five years too late. A new era of accountability has to begin before politicians and the straphanging New Yorkers begin to trust the MTA. The Second Ave. Subway, a metaphor for all things wrong with New York City, will continue to serve as a stark reminder of the obstacles facing transit in the city.

Categories : Second Avenue Subway

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Jul

More expensive Phase I of SAS may not open until 2017

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (23) ·

The MTA started running a series of SubTalk ads last October designed to promote the Second Ave. Subway. “Starting in 2015,” these ads read, “the new Second Avenue Subway will help relieve overcrowding on the Lexington Avenue lines. Overdue, but excellent news.”

That was a very bold statement to put onto paper, as as we learned in April, the MTA wasn’t going to be able to fulfill that promise. A little less than three months ago, the Daily News reported on an internal preliminary MTA study proclaiming a delayed 2016 opening for the Second Ave. Subway. Today, the news gets a little worse, as the preliminary study turns finals and concludes that the new subway line may not be ready until the middle of 2017. It will also cost approximately $100 million more than last expected.

Pete Donohue of the Daily News has more on this dismaying, but not unexpected, turn of events:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has finished an in-depth analysis of the work schedule, budget and potential hurdles for the long-awaited addition to the system, sources told the News. The conclusion: the official completion date for phase one of the project should be pushed from June 2015 to December 2016, with possible future delays placing the opening in the summer of 2017, the sources said…

The original schedule for the first phase projected a 2012 completion date but MTA officials have pushed the date back several times over the years – most recently in March 2008. Officials then cited higher than expected construction costs, which required design and planning changes. Officials also have said the earlier projections were overly optimistic…

The Second Ave. budget is revised upwards slightly to $4.4 billion from about $4.3 billion.

So since this project began, the completion date for Phase I, featuring just three subway stations and a segment of tunnel just 30 blocks long, has been pushed back by five years. The new line won’t open until nearly a full decade after the groundbreaking.

For now, work will continue on Phase I because the Federal Transit Administration is footing a significant portion of the bill, and the Feds want results. Beyond that, it’s all up in the air. Phase II should be relatively easy because some of the tunnel is already in place from previous failed Second Ave. subway efforts. It will be decades though before the Second Ave. Subway reaches south of 63rd St. The Q will just be making its lonely ride north of 57th St. along Second Ave. by itself with nary a T train in sight.

The Daily News article — which also notes a 17-month delay to Sept. 2016 for the opening of the East Side Access tunnel — features a poll that speaks volumes of public faith in the MTA. “When do you predict the line will ever be completed?” the paper asks. Just one percent of respondents chose “I believe what the MTA tells me, so 2016″ while 28 percent went with “At least 5 years longer than whatever the MTA says.” A whopping 71 percent though chose “when pigs fly” as the completion date for Phase I of the Second Ave. Subway.

Someday, we may get the drive to expand the subways. Someday, politicians and power brokers will realize the importance of additional capacity. For now, as the price creeps up, as the opening day recedes into the distant future, as the marginal returns for this subway diminish, we’ll just have to wait for the Second Ave. Subway, an 80-year promise for New York City, unfulfilled forever.

Categories : Second Avenue Subway

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For the 19th straight month, toll traffic declines · The MTA released the May numbers for its bridges and tunnels division yesterday, and for the 19th straight month, toll volume has declined. According to the most recent numbers, May 2009 saw 799,890 tolled trips per day, down from a high of 837,537 per day in October 2007. Comparing years, May 2008 saw 200,000 more drivers than did May 2009, and overall toll traffic is down 3.1 percent from 2008 through the first five months of the year.

Bill Henderson, member of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, told The Post’s Tom Namako that the slumping economy and ongoing job losses are the culprits behind the declining toll traffic. I like to think commuters are being more economically and environmentally responsible by heading to the subways while eschewing driving. As the MTA raised the rolls on its bridges and tunnels just nine days ago, it will be interesting to see if those increases cause an even bigger slump in toll volume for July. · (1)

Jul

Waiting for Walder

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (2) ·

One week ago, Gov. David Paterson officially named Jay Walder as the next MTA Chair. During the introductory press conference, Walder made clear his knowledge of the severity of the MTA’s financial situation. He pledged a fully-funded capital plan and noted the uphill battle the man at the top of the MTA must face.

In the wake of the nomination, the city’s papers were full of praise for Paterson, a rare occurrence indeed. Newsday said that Walder had “the right resume and the right attitude.” The Daily News called him “a highly credible candidate.”

Beyond the praise, though, these endorsements were notable for their warning. Newsday’s editorial staff expressed its concern for the process. “Get started now on Walder’s confirmation,” they wrote following a note of dismay:

Let’s get the public hearings started to make sure he is the right person for the job. But State Senate Democrats are threatening to delay his confirmation. Brooklyn Sen. Carl Kruger, chairman of the Finance Committee, says the process could take months. These so-called leaders seem to be playing politics to exact revenge on Paterson for making them work two weekends. How petty.

The News fingered the Fare Hike Four. The four obstructionist Senators were on the verge of holding Paterson’s nominee hostage for no good reason:

It’s now up to the state Senate to vote yes or no on confirming Jay Walder to a post that is critical to delivering 8.5 million rides every weekday. Which leaves New Yorkers in the hands of the same muscle-flexing, shortsighted, wrongheaded bunch that took the Senate hostage, consequences be damned. This is bad. Very bad.

Senate President Malcolm Smith, Majority Leader Pedro Espada, Conference Leader John Sampson and Finance Committee Chairman Carl Kruger yesterday began holding Walder’s appointment for ransom while exacting revenge on Paterson for trying to force them back to work.

Rather than expeditiously convening a hearing and voting on his qualifications, the quartet announced that they would hold conclaves in the MTA service region before someday getting around to his appointment. It could take months, Kruger said. This time, Smith, Espada, Sampson and Kruger are putting personal agendas over the interests of straphangers.

Seven days later, nothing has happened. A very qualified candidate with a realistic idea of what he has to do sits in limbo. Meanwhile, Kruger, Espada, Hiram Monserrate and Ruben Diaz, are being called “the laughingstock of the city” by Albany watchers.

It shouldn’t be like this. Transit is waiting on the edge of a financial crisis. The MTA is teetering on the brink, and the State Senate is playing petty revenge with this city’s lifeblood. One day, we’ll have to exact electoral justice on the Fare Hike Four. For now, just confirm Walder and give the MTA the leadership it needs.

Categories : MTA Politics

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The B62 to ease B61 congestion · Currently, the B61 is one of the city’s longest and slowest bus rides. It heads from the Ikea in Red Hook to Queens Plaza in Long Island City. Its route is a zany, meandering one that ambles through Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Downtown Brooklyn, Fort Greene, Williamsburg and Greenpoint before reaching its northern terminus. Now, in an effort to ease congestion along the route, NYC Transit is considering splitting the route into two this January. Based on the preliminary plan, the B62 would head from Downtown Brooklyn to Long Island City, and the B61 would go from Downtown Brooklyn to the Ikea in Red Hook.

As amNew York’s Heather Haddon notes, some riders may find the split and Downtown Brooklyn transfer inconvenient. Most riders in the northern parts of Brooklyn, however, use the bus route to deliver them to the 7 or L trains in Long Island City or Williamsburg. This break-up will, according to Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges, create “more consistent and efficient service.” If approved by the MTA Board, it will go into effect in January. · (11)

Jul

The noisy, noisy subways

By Benjamin Kabak · Comments (15) ·

Every day, my morning commute exposes me to countless noises. According to a recent study, those noises could be very damaging to everyone’s ears.

My commute starts out at 7th Ave. on the BMT Brighton Line in Brooklyn. If I have to wait, inevitably a Coney Island- or Bright Beach-bound train will idle in the station with its air conditioner humming. When my ride arrives, the brakes squeal as the train pulls into the station. As the train heads north to Manhattan, it rumbles through tunnels at various speeds, and after leaving Atlantic Ave., the train curves its way to De Kalb Ave. with metal-on-metal screeching through the tunnel.

This noise doesn’t even count the various on-car noises. The PA systems on the B train are in a terrible state. Constant high-pitched feedback has become the norm, and on-board announcements run the gamut from inaudible to deafening. Personally, I don’t listen to my iPod in the morning, but plenty of people do. I know this because I can hear the loud, loud music leaking out through shoddy headphones. In the end, that’s a lot of noise.

Just to drive home the point, though, a bunch of academics have verified that, yes, the subways are very loud. A survey conducted last month by a bunch of students at the University of Washington and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health founds that subway rides expose us all to “high enough to potentially increase the risk of noise induced hearing loss.”

The release about the study had more:

Using sensitive noise dosimeters, the team of researchers…conducted hundreds of measurements of noise levels at platforms and stations, as well as inside of vehicles on New York City subways (MTA and PATH), buses (MTA), ferries (Staten Island), commuter railways (LIRR, SIRR and Metro North), and the Roosevelt Island tramway.

The scientists found that on average, the MTA subways had the highest noise levels, at 80.4 decibels (dBA), followed by the Path trains, at 79.4 dBA, and the tram, at 77.0 dBA. The lowest average levels measured, 74.9 dBA and 75.1 dBA, were obtained from the LIRR and Metro-North trains, respectively. The very highest levels measured in the study were found on an MTA subway platform (102.1dBA) and at a bus stop (101.6 dBA).

In contrast, the noise level of a whisper is 30 dBA, normal conversation is 60 to 70 dBA, a chainsaw is 100 dBA, and gunfire is 140 dBA.

In general, noise levels were significantly higher at platforms compared to inside vehicles for all forms of mass transit, except for ferries and the tram. The borough with the highest mass transit noise levels was Manhattan, followed by Queens and the Bronx. Major hubs were noisier than local stops and underground trains and stations were significantly louder than those aboveground.

The researchers warned that their findings were alarming. “At some of the highest noise levels we obtained, 102.1 dBA on the subway platforms, as little as two minutes of exposure per day would be expected to cause hearing loss in some people with frequent ridership, based upon the International Organization for Standardization models for predicting hearing impairment from noise,” Robyn Gershon, a Columbia scientists, said.

Experts have urged New Yorkers to use ear muffs and ear plugs, but the vast majority of commuters do not. As the MTA replaces its rolling stock, the more modern cars are quieter with better brake technology. As the ancient track beds are modernized, the MTA is trying to implement infrastructure that will dampen the noise.

Still, though, are commutes are loud. As we wait for trains in the morning and bury ourselves in newspapers, books and iPods, the trains fade into the backgrounds. But the truth remains: That is one very loud background.

Categories : View from Underground

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