While Phase I of the Second Ave. Subway may not be on schedule or at budget, the project seems safe for now simply because the Feds keep sending money its way. As NY1 reported late last week, Sen. Schumer is one step closer to securing more funds for the project, and while looked at how looming cuts could impact MTA expansion projects, the consensus seems to be that the LIRR Third Track project will draw the short straw. Too much work and too much money has already been put into the SAS, the 7 Line Extension and the East Side Access project to can them now while the Third Track is still just in the planning stages.
SAS safe from cuts, for now
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The #7 line extension should be the project put on hold. The LIRR Third Track would serve existing people going from existing homes to existing jobs. The #7 extension would serve developments that may or may not happen, and the city doesn’t have enough money to do it right anyway.
Did they say that the third track won’t be operational until 2019? And it could now be pushed back further?! I want the 7 train extension to happen, but man that LIRR project needs to be fast-tracked now! And at only $1.5 billion? Just fund that sucker and get it running near the ESA completion date.
The 7 line extension can wait, there’s ways to get around that. The “T” train really needs to assauge some of the traffic on the 4/5/6 lines quickly. Passengers are increasingly at odds with each other on those lines. The LIRR is also a priority that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
If we would abandon the idiotic 7-extension to an area that is mostly unpopulated, and is essentially a give-away to real estate speculators/developers then we’d have a lot more money freed up for the rest of the system and for the speedy completion of the Second Ave subway, which will serve hundreds of thousands of residents in the Bronx and the East side of Manhattan (which is not mostly populated by rich people who only take cabs!!!!)
Also, I spoke with a track worker who works on the SAS project, asked him some questions about delays. He told me that the delays were at the beginning due to problems with the tunneling machine. But now it has been working great. I asked him if it’s true that the Phase I won’t be completed until 2015/16 and he told me that it is realistically on track again for 2012/13. He also told me that the rumors the public officials make about lacking funding are not true (and were basically being made to try to bribe the public into clamoring for Congestion Pricing.) He told me there’s a $6 billion fund that’s kept secret for the SAS project. Hopefully this is all true. At least I know I’m not making this up.