Since New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie canceled the ARC Tunnel and sacrificed over $3 billion in federal money, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has been working furiously with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to ensure that at least some of these dollars find their way to the city. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday evening that LaHood has all but assured Gillibrand of the money. “He thought there could be a decision in the next 30 days or so and that New York is well-positioned to get some of the funding,” the state’s junior senator said in a statement.
So towards what will the money go? Over the last few weeks, I’ve written about likely destinations for the ARC Tunnel money, and I’ll stand by what I’ve said. Ensuring that the 7 line extension stops at 10th Ave. and 41st St. should be the top priority, and any additional funds New York can secure should go toward the Second Ave. Subway and East Side Access. Considering that the 10th Ave. station along the 7 should cost between $500 and $800 million, there’s plenty of money for everything.
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I know your blog is very nyc centric by design, but has the double track between Albany and Schenectady been funded yet? That should be a priority as well.
I’m not sure if the money can be used for intercity rail. I think it can only be used on rail within a city/metro area.
How about the PTC and signal improvements on Metro-North territory (Hudson Line)?
Maybe a subway tunnel to Staten Island to benefit 500,000 NYC residents vs a few thousand condo owners in the vicinity of 41st and 10th?
That should get funded too, but the thing about that project is that it’s nowhere near a reality. The 7 line extension is under construction now, and the money can be used to correct an egregious political mistake. A subway tunnel to Staten Island from Manhattan or Brooklyn would be at least 15 years out if we started the planning process tomorrow, and the Feds want the money to go to projects currently under construction.
The longest journey starts with the first step…:)
I believe so. According to the press release:
New York – Albany – Buffalo: The 468-mile Empire Corridor connects all of New York’s largest cities. The vision for the corridor is to increase speeds to 110mph and add daily round trips, with one of the largest investments being the construction of a third track between Albany and Buffalo.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-.....-northeast
no. the money that went to new york is being used for a 11 mile third track close to buffalo
The Albany-Schenectady second track was funded in round 2 of the high-speed rail money. Still no funding for the 4th Albany station track or the 2nd Syracuse station track, though.
Do the first phase of the SAS and the ESA need additional funding? I was under the impression that they both were fully funded.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed on funding for the 10th Avenue Station, which is easily the best use of this money.
1. When did LaHood get the authority to appropriate money?
2. There are other NJ projects that could use that funding, and which could be fully funded by the application of $3 billion. These include the replaceemnt of the Portal bridge as well as PATH capacity enhancement projects, specifically the platform extensions / station rennovations that would facilitate expanding PATH trains from 8 to 10 cars from Newark to WTC.
1. Administrative law. The federal money comes from grants from the FTA, and that’s his domain. How do you think New Jersey got the money for ARC in the first place?
2. Do you really think the feds want to do any favors for New Jersey right now with this money? Christie just canceled the largest federal works project in the country in order to fund those other transit projects you cite. Don’t expect the $3 billion from the feds to remain in state. That’s politics for you.
There is NO way NJ should get a penny of this.
Agreed. They shouldn’t get a dime. In fact, I don’t think they should get any federal transportation money until Christie is out of office.
But NJ still gets to pay the federal gas tax, right?
Yep. So did the other states that were originally passed over in favor of ARC.
“Do the first phase of the SAS and the ESA need additional funding? I was under the impression that they both were fully funded.”
Because cost over-runs are allowed they are not fully funded, but because the FTA has a full funding agreement, no additional federal fund can go there. The new Governor should pursue some of the Port Authority money that was to go to ARC for this purpose.
Possible destinations for the FTA money include the Flushing Extension, for which the feds didn’t put up a dime, MetroNorth to Penn, the second phase of the SAS, and high speed rail upstate. One possibility is money for the Tappen Zee Bridge, with transit money combined with highway money.
Metro-North and HSR are controlled by the FRA, not the FTA. And done right, the cost of connecting Metro-North to Penn would be negative – the initial capital expenditure required is trivial, and operating costs for both Metro-North and NJT would decrease dramatically.
Sorry, let’s pretend I didn’t write the first sentence. Can we pretend I’m not an idiot who forgets that NJT is also FRA-regulated?
Just by the NYCDOT website, and instead of rolling out a new SBS route every 2 years, use the money to rollout 2 SBS routes per year. given that SBS is ‘low cost’, this $ should pay for lots of SBS routes.
Additionally, the 10/41 station already mentioned.
How about guaranteeing at least Phase 2 of SAS?
The LIRR Third Track project.
Also at least a portion of the Triboro RX that’s was identified as a need are in the same DOT presentation I was looking at.
Lastly, can this money be used to get congestion pricing off the ground?
All projects listed here are at some phase of planning/ready for deployment and thus should qualify for the funding if that is indeed a criterion.
“10th Av – Chris Christie Station”
It has a nice ring to it. They could even spend sone of the money on a little plaque.
Why not? Hell, Ohio’s naming a high school after him.
And now the New York Times is reporting that there’s a plan afoot to extend the 7 train to Secaucus as a replacement for the ARC tunnel.
here’s the link – http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11.....38;emc=rss
what a great idea that’ll never happen.
It’s not even that great of an idea. It’s better than building a cavern, but it offers very little advantage over Alt G, or even No Build. People can already walk off the Erie lines, go up, pass through faregates, go back down, and connect to a train that may or may not show up. The advantage of using commuter rail is that it permits doing away with the faregates (which is possible and desirable even under No Build) and possibly timing the connection better; if Erie Line trains have nowhere to go south of Secaucus, they can be redirected to Penn, as in the official plan but without the loop.