December’s groundbreaking ceremony for the 7 Extension may have been a bit premature. (AP Photos)
Ah, remember those glorious days in December when hope sprang eternal and the City and MTA broke ground on the 7 Line Extension?
Let the nostalgia wash over you because here comes the bad news: That 7 Line Extension project — and the Hudson Yards — development is in financial jeopardy. Surprise!
In a lengthy piece on the future of Moynihan Station and the Far West Side, Daily News reporter Brian Kates drops in this five-paragraph bombshell:
In his State of the City address last month, Mayor Bloomberg said the No. 7 extension was so crucial that the city “refused to wait for the MTA” and in December “broke ground on the first new mile of subway track the city has funded since the 1950s.”
That’s the rhetoric. The reality is less optimistic.
To begin with, the city puts the cost of the expansion at a deceptively low $2.1 billion – a figure it set in 2003 and hasn’t budged from despite skyrocketing construction costs. The MTA, which considers the proposed Second Ave. subway line a greater priority, has refused to pick up the tab.
A $1.1 billion tunneling contract has been awarded, but to save an estimated $450 million, the city abandoned plans to put a station at 41st St. and 10th Ave.
That means the line will run from Times Square to 34th St. and 11th Ave. without a stop – a decision that “puts at risk several million square feet of potential commercial and residential development” in the Hudson Yards, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “Development follows mass transit.”
For a while, I’ve defended the MTA from a monetarily focused City. The City wants this 7 Line Extension; the City offered to pay for it; and then the City reneged on its promise. Considering the cost and the practical value of the extension, the MTA can spend its billions of dollars elsewhere for projects that would benefit more New Yorkers.
But the news gets a little worse if we dig deeper. In a weekend Subchat post about planned renovations at the Shea Stadium 7 stop, a Subchatter noted that steel prices are at all-time highs. He says that New Yorkers should “expect cost over runs and cut backs on all [construction] projects.”
So the cost of materials is skyrocketing, and the MTA and City are still using budget projections generated during our economy’s rosier days. Forget the 7 line; I want to know how this will impact the Second Ave. subway. The future cannot be bright for that project either.
To bring this all back home, congestion pricing seems more important than ever to the MTA. While we can — and have been — debating the traffic-calming aspect of the congestion plans, the MTA will draw in much-needed revenue from a congestion pricing plan, and right now, they need the revenue. They need the revenue for operations; they need the revenue for capital projects. And as the tales of the 7 Line Extension show, transit is very closely related to the development of New York’s last frontiers. The future of the city — and the subways — is hanging in the balance.
6 comments
The MTA has not budged from the 3.8B price tag they put on the 2nd Ave. Subway back in 2002. When will some responsible public official or journalist find out how much the 30 block stubway is actually going to cost? And don’t be gulled. There is no chance, none, that the MTA will build any more than 30 blocks in the lifetimes of anyone over 40. This is a one shot deal. And even this puny 30 block thing won’t get built for another 8 years at least. Remember they have four stations and 30 blocks of subway to build, and yet after one year they are only halfway through moving the utilities. It is a farce that is being ignored for some reason. Why?
Although construction costs are rising significantly, I think a good chunk of the SAS is being federally funded by the DOT and some earmarks brought back by local politicians. Who says pork-barrel politics is bad? Anyways, I think the MTA will have sufficient money to complete Phase I of the project (though maybe not by 2014). As for the rest of the line, who knows at this point.
I dare say that maybe waiting will be helpful. If all the construction costs are at all times highs then maybe waiting for the recession to really kick in will allow the MTA and the City to pay for the materials and other necessities.
I think the second ave subway should be built, but it is not as important as the 7 line extension (with its 2 stops). here me out as to why: simply put, if the congestion pricing comes into play, buses would easily move huge numbers of people up and down 2 avenue because their would be almost no traffic. Also, the 7 line with its 2 stops will set up the west side of 34 street to be a mecca of convention, hotels, condos, and sport arenas. The tax money alone would pay for the extension after 20 years
Well, that my opinion (it is also the reason why the Nets WILL move to brooklyn and Ratner WILL get his project built… billions and billions of dollars in yearly tax revenue from the condos, businesses and a huge tourist attraction in the biggest media market on the planet… and possibly Lebron James too?)
NYC needs its subways system more than ever. I never seen in my lifetime how improvements in service actually effect prices of homes above ground and population growth like it does today. We need the funding to turn the 1970’s mistakes into a 21 century machine that will LITERALLY make NY more profitable, livable, sociable and workable. We need these improvements and we need them before those 1.2 million people start getting born/moving in. the trains are crowded now, imagine more people in the mix, the effects on business and overall lifestyle of NYers.
I think Secret Conductor needs a history lesson. The problems of the subway aren’t due to 1970s mistakes, but to mistakes in the 1930s, ’40s, ’50s and ’60s — the period when neglect and under-funding were at their worst.
The idea that congestion pricing would leave Second Avenue with “almost no traffic” is a pipe dream.
Who says pork-barrel politics is bad?
The $93 billion New York metro bleeds to the rest of the country every year does. New York State has two Senators to direct pork to its 19 million people. Montana has two Senators to direct pork to its 1 million people. Mix in the fact that unlike Iowa or Ohio, New York has no special political value, and you have the federal government doling out city money to corn farms and obsolete factories.
This will not work and is a complete joke. This won’t solve the problems, just increase them. SIGH