MTA Construction

The Times diagrams a subway tunnel suspended in midair. Click to enlarge.

About two weeks ago, The Times checked in on the Ground Zero construction and the rebuilding of the IRT subway tunnel that skirts the former World Trade Center site. While at the time, I didn’t have a chance to write about it, the article, still timely, warrants a look. It’s a fun little piece of engineering reporting about a unique stretch of the subway tunnel.

David Dunlap’s piece focuses around the engineering challenges facing work crews as they work in, around and even under the IRT tunnel. Dunlap tells us about the work:

The people don’t always ride in a hole in the ground. Those aboard the No. 1 train in Lower Manhattan are now riding part of the way through the air.

There is no view to admire. The trains are still well below street level, on tracks running within a box-shaped concrete tunnel that bisects the World Trade Center site. But instead of soil, the south half of that 975-foot stretch of subway rests on a newly built network of brawny steel beams atop a forest of minipiles reaching down to bedrock.

And in recent weeks, workers have dug out so much soil from around those minipiles that they have created an underpass beneath the subway large enough for construction machinery to pass through. In the reconstruction of the trade center, it is a significant milestone of east meeting west.

Eventually, as Dunlap tells us, the entire subway box for the 1 train will be resting on minipiles and will last as such while the construction crews fill in the gaps around it with various parts of a subterranean structure.

Now, I’m no engineer, but I love reading stories like this. There are so many unique aspects to the subways and the veritable city that exists under ground. Millions of riders on the 1 won’t ever know or notice that their trains are traveling over the ground while under the ground, but for those that do, it’s just another quirk in the New York City subways. And that, despite all of their problems, is what makes the subway so great.

During his State of the MTA speech on Monday, Elliot Sander, MTA CEO and executive director, gave a nod to an idea whose time has come. “We need to take a close look at the Regional Plan Association’s circumferential subway line, which would convert the lightly used Bay Ridge freight line into a subway service that would run in an arc from southern Brooklyn to Queens to the Bronx,” he said.

As the population in the City’s outer boroughs continues to explode, the Manhattan-centric limitations of the New York City Subway system are exposed for all to see. Work at LaGuardia but live in the Bronx? The commute involves packed buses or a subway trip into Manhattan and a bus to the airport. Live in Flatbush with family in the Bronx? Take a 75-minute, three-borough subway ride just to get there.

Of course, most of these travelers eschew the subway for the relative convenience of an automobile ride. With the City’s preparing to crack down on auto use, circumstances are ripe for a circumferential subway route to connect Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx while leaving Manhattan to its wiles. For those in the know, this plan — referred to as the Triboro RX — is not new. In fact, the Regional Plan Association has been discussing it since its Third Regional Plan published in 1996.

Last summer, Michael Frumin fleshed out the idea and his work — available in this detailed Frumination post — shows how the city could usher in this rail line by using pre-existing rail rights of way and freight lines that don’t see much traffic. The route would swing through heavily underserved section of the city and connect with up to 20 other subway lines. As Frumin models it, at least 76,000 riders a day would use this line with nearly 45 percent of that total coming from people who do not currently use the subway. In other words, in this conservative model, this circumferential line could get a lot of cars off the road.

While the nitty gritty — the Bay Ridge freight line, existing rights of way through Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx — are important (and viewable here in picture form), the fun stuff is of course a map detailing the potential station stops and reach of what Frumin and the RPA have termed the X train. The train would start in Bay Ridge tracking west with the N line to 62nd St. Next, the line would head WNW, providing connections with the F, Q, 2 and 5 before making stops in Marine Park and Mill Basin East Flatbush and Brownsville, two areas sorely in need of a subway.

In Canarsie, the X would meet up with the L to Broadway Junction. The train would then track the M to Metropolitan Ave. and head north through the underserved areas between Metropolitan Ave. and Jackson Heights in Queens. Heading northeast, the train would run through Astoria, across Randall’s Island and into the Bronx where it would cross the 6 and terminate with the 4, D and B at Yankee Stadium.

For more of the technical challenges this route poses, you can check out Frumin’s overview and the alignment details. But engineering demands aside, this line could be a reality with less of a headache than anyone in New York would believe.

Sure, there are challenges, and the MTA’s track record on recent construction projects is fairly terrible right now. But this line, more than the 7 extension, more than the Fulton Hub, more than just about any other capital construction project, would do wonders for the reach of the New York City Subway system.

Right now, it’s a dream, but with a little initiative, this project could easily become a reality and a much-needed one at that.

The MTA, on Wednesday, unveiled a $29.554 billion capital plan designed to cover maintenance, upkeep and system-wide expansions from 2009-2014. The plan, as I noted yesterday, is substantially similar to the broad one the MTA presented to the public in November and would allow for a wide transit expansion in and around the New York Metropolitan.

While presenting the package yesterday, MTA CEO and Executive Director Lee Sander called attention to the need for the congestion fee. “This proposed Capital Program will ensure that our transportation network is both maintained and expanded to support the region’s economic growth,” Sander said. “A fully-funded Program is critical to encourage transit use, to improve our customers’ experience and to keep pace with global competitors like London and Shanghai, where billions are being invested in transit each year. We won’t be able to get there without a robust funding package that includes congestion pricing.”

In broad strokes, the MTA is planning a three-tiered approach to system improvements. The first tier involves “state of good repair, normal replacement and system improvement” including station renovations and the purchase of new rolling stock. The second tier focuses around the completion of current projections such as Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway, the pesky Fulton St. transportation hub and the East Side Access project. The final tier revolves around system expansion and includes communications-based train control system, Phase 2 of the Second Ave. Subway and the Metro-North Penn Station access plan.

The capital plan also allows for system upgrades that would be enacted if the congestion fee is approved. These include more bus routes and buses; more service on the 1, E and F trains; and longer C trains. This is, of course, the most expendable part of the capital plan.

For those of you with a taste for government documents, the entire 237-page plan is available as a PDF on the MTA’s Website. I’m going to take a look at what I consider to be some of the more interesting and tangible benefits.

New Cars

As part of its ongoing effort to maintain and upgrade its rolling stock, the MTA plans to invest nearly $1.5 billion in new cars over the next five years. The agency hopes to replace 500 cars and add 90 new ones to the system, all in the B division. Most interesting to rail fans is the announcement of the R179s. The MTA plans to purchase 208 R179s to replace the R44s currently in service as A trains. Discussion of the R179s has generated a six-page rumor thread on the NYC Transit Forums.

Station Rehabilitation Plans

Outside of the rolling stock, station rehabilitation plans are the most visible aspect of any capital program. The flagship plan is probably the Bleecker St./Broadway & Lafayette renovation. The MTA will finally connect the uptown IRT stop to the rest of the complex. The agency also plans to make the Grand Central stop on the IRT a little more rider-friendly with more staircases and better access points. The moving platforms at Union Square are in line for replacement as well.

Additionally, the MTA is planning on overhauling 44 stations. Most of them — 41 — are above-ground stops in the outer boroughs. Nine stations along the Sea Beach line, 10 along the West End line, six in Far Rockaway, six in Rockaway, three along the Myrtle line and seven along the New Lots line are set for renovations. The MTA also plans to work on the 205th St. and 182-183rd Sts. stations in the Bronx and the IRT’s 14th St. stop in Manhattan.

Technology Upgrades

The MTA plans to bring communications-based train control to the Flushing and Queens Boulevard line. This represents the first expansion of the technological upgrades currently in testing along the L line. These upgrades should allow the MTA to increase service along high-demand train lines in Queens.

Second Ave. Subway

In the plan, the MTA admits that the budget for Phase 1 of the Second Ave. subway will exceed the initial, four-year-old estimates by a substantial amount. The new budget is set at $4.437 billion. The target completion date is also being pushed back to 2015 due to market forces and a weak economy. At the same time, the MTA is already planning for Phase 2, a good sign for those of us who don’t really expect to see a subway line heading up Second Ave. ever.

What’s Missing

In this ambitious, expensive and necessary plan, the aspect that jumps out at me is the utter lack of discussion about the future of the MetroCard. The document notes that “the current MetroCard system is still performing well.” However, with newer and better technologies available, I’d like to see the MTA consider a change to something more flexible than the MetroCard. Smart-card technologies really do speed up passengers at the point of entry.

Back in November, during the MTA’s public engagement workshop in anticipation of the fare hike, Linda Kleinbaum, the MTA deputy executive director for administration, and Ernest Tollerson, the MTA director of policy and media relations, spoke at length about the MTA’s capital future. Today, the MTA will publicly unveil a final version of the plan Tollerson and Kleinbaum detailed to us a few months ago. The price tag is, in a word, shocking.

The five-year plan, covering 2009-2014 and incorporating routine upkeep and maintenance as well as big ticket items, could cost as much as $28 billion, according to a report by the Daily News’ Pete Donohue. This new total represents an increase of around $6 billion since the MTA issued its preliminary capital plan at the workshop in November. I’m sure the cost will rise again.

The plan encompasses a wide range of projects covering various MTA agencies. Included in it in November were financing plans for the completion of Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway and the start of Phase 2; a third track on the main LIRR line; Metro-North tracks on the Tappan Zee Bridge; Penn Station access for Metro-North; a Stewart Airport rail connection and the long-delayed computer-based train management system. My thoughts on this suburban-centric plan remain as I expressed them in November; I would rather see more of an investment in City-based transit expansion.

But what’s done is done, and now the MTA faces an uphill battle to cobble up $28 billion over five years. Donohue has more on this ambitious effort:

Details of the five-year construction and maintenance plan were still shifting, but the sources said the final price tag would fall in the $28 billion range.

Some transportation officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, expressed serious skepticism the Metropolitan Transportation Authority could secure enough city, state and federal funding for such an ambitious program.

But two groups launched a major media campaign Monday to persuade state and city legislators to approve congestion pricing, which supporters say would quickly result in a federal grant of $354 million and generate $500 million annually.

The timing of this announcement probably couldn’t be worse. The MTA, set to raise fares in less than five days, is forging ahead with an expensive plan that needs funding about is badly as it needs implementation, which is to say very badly. But over the last month, we’ve heard rumblings that the MTA may pare down and delay some projects while others are facing a host of financial issues.

Meanwhile, as a few commenters have noted on Second Ave. Sagas, a lot of the budget projections for the Second Ave. Subway haven’t been updated in three or four years. Final price tags are bound to be higher than reported simply because construction costs have skyrocketed while our nation’s economy has tanked.

In this atmosphere, the MTA is unveiling a capital campaign that will require massive investments by the state, city and federal government as well as the anticipated congestion pricing revenues, as Donohue explains. The region needs this capital plan; the MTA needs a lot of money. Where this will all lead is anyone’s guess.