Waiting for the JFK Rail Link, or at least $2 billion

One day, my train to the plane may come. (Photo courtesy of NYCSubway.org)

When we last checked in on New York’s ambitious plans to build a one-seat rail link from Lower Manhattan to JFK Airport, it was 2007. In April of that year, Senator Chuck Schumer was on the verge of securing a $2 billion federal grant for the rail link, but transit advocates didn’t see the $6 billion project as feasible or a true priority at the time. A few weeks later, the city killed hopes for funding for the potential rail link when they announced that congestion pricing revenue would go to the MTA.

Both congestion pricing and the plans for the JFK Rail Link have since fallen by the wayside. The mayor’s congestion pricing died an inglorious death in the New York State Assembly, and that $2 billion in federal money never materialized. It remains tied up in the Senate because Republican Senators Judd Gregg and Jim DeMint believe it is a prime example of federal spending run amok, and the Rail Link plans simply haven’t materialized.

Recently, Eliot Brown of The Observer checked in on the dormant tunnel from nowhere. Brown secured a new engineering statement for the project. In Dec. 2008, the MTA cost estimates for the rail link were between $8.6 billion and $9.9 billion. Those figures, however, are based on 2006 costs. The true cost is significantly higher today. The Rail Link, it seems, is a plan for another day, another year, another time.

But what of the $2 billion, asks Brown? It could still be ours, he writes, if it ever makes it out of the Senate:

The language of the failed bills makes the funding applicable to “any transportation infrastructure project, including highways, mass transit systems, railroads, airports, ports and waterways, in or connecting with [Lower Manhattan].”

“Right now, the political will needs to be to get the $2 billion allocated to the City of New York,” said Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, which continues to push for the rail link.

In a statement, a spokesman for Mr. Schumer suggested the senator will continue to try to get the funding secured in Congress, through he did not specifically mention the rail link. “Senator Schumer is committed to securing the federal funding promised to New York for Lower Manhattan transportation projects on the next appropriate legislative vehicle,” the spokesman, Joshua Vlasto, said.

I first started Second Ave. Sagas in 2006 because Schumer had pledge more federal money for the city’s subways. He has been instrumental in funneling money toward New York, and if he could do it again, the Second Ave. Subway, among other projects, is sure to benefit. The Republicans in the Senate, however, are not too keen on releasing those tax credits.

The Rail Link is dead. Never officially killed, the project no longer makes fiscal sense for the city. The only time it ever did was when Robert Moses built the roads to then-Idlewild and opted against included a right-of-way for mass transit. But there is hope yet for the money.

“This is money that was promised New York to help make it whole after the terrorist attack,” Robert Gottheim, a spokesman for Rep. Jerrold Nadler, said. “We’re going to use it for legitimate transportation.”

And if Nadler can’t get it, Schumer can always step back into the fight. As the RPA’s Bob Yaro said to The Observer, “I’m sure he’ll find a way of doing it if there is a way of doing so. He’s very persistent about these things.”