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Second Avenue Subway

Congestion fee to go to Second Ave. subway instead of JFK Raillink

by Benjamin Kabak May 21, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on May 21, 2007

The Train to the Plane has long gone the way of the Dodo. (Photo by Doug Grotjahn. Courtesy of NYCSubway.org)

Oh, the tortured history of the JFK Raillink. When last we saw this ill-fated raillink in April, the plan seemed to be hanging on precariously to life support. Now, any high-speed train to the plane is all but dead, according to the latest reports.

The New York Sun notes today that Mayor Bloomberg, long a proponent of the Lower Manhattan-JFK Raillink, has decided to compromise on this project in order to gain support for his congestion pricing plan. Elliot Sander, the MTA CEO, and Sheldon Silver, influential New York State Assembly speaker, have said they will warm up to the congestion pricing plan if more of the money goes toward financing the Second Ave. subway instead of a raillink that most transit advocates feel would be a waste of $6 billion.

In direct negotiations between Messrs. Bloomberg and Spitzer, as well as a series of discussions between city and state officials over the past week intended to hammer out a bill on congestion pricing before Memorial Day, talk has turned to omitting some transit improvements that were included in the city’s original 2030 plan, according to multiple sources close to the negotiations.

The $3.75 billion that was earmarked in the city’s sustainability plan for a rail link that would provide a direct connection between Lower Manhattan and John F. Kennedy International Airport, instead could help pay for the completion of the Second Avenue Subway, currently under construction but not yet fully funded … The East Side subway line, which would serve Mr. Silver’s district in Lower Manhattan if completed, has long been one of the speaker’s favored projects, as well as a priority for Mr. Spitzer.

According to The Sun, support from Silver and Sander would go a long way toward legitimizing Bloomberg’s plans in the eyes of the federal government. And with the approval of the federal government comes more money for transportation in New York City.

The money itself was be funneled to the Second Ave. subway through the proposed SMART authority, a topic I will touch upon later this week. Meanwhile, transit advocates are pleased to hear that the City is narrowing its focus to a few major construction projects that have a higher chance of being completed instead of many minor projected that never seem to move forward.

This plan, in my idea, is the missing piece of the NYC2030 plan. It ensures that the Second Ave. subway has a dedicated source of funding and allays concerns that The Line That Almost Never Was will still be just a figment of our imagination. Furthermore, it all but kills the JFK Raillink, a rapid transit line that would affect far fewer people than the Second Ave. subway will. It’s good to see some common-sense economics emerging from the cooperation between the City, State and MTA.

May 21, 2007 5 comments

MTA Economics Second Avenue Subway

Hey, where is the money?

by Benjamin Kabak April 16, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on April 16, 2007

With apologies to Nelly for the pun-derful headline, money was on the mind last week at the Second Ave. subway groundbreaking. For starters, there isn’t enough of it yet for this new subway line, and officials with the Transit Chapter of the Civil Service Technical Guild don’t think the money the MTA has is being spent wisely. Who woulda thunk it?

We start with the issue of funding, as reported by Reuters. According to the wire service’s reports, the MTA is still $800 million short, and Federal Transit Administration Administrator James Simpson called for some public-private partnerships. Not everyone was too thrilled with this idea, Joan Gralla reported.

Spitzer reacted noncommittally to Simpson’s proposal. Asked if New York should use public-private partnerships like Texas, which has the biggest U.S. program, Spitzer said: “Nobody is talking about that for the New York City subway.”

Chicago two years ago spurred states and cites to explore these partnerships — which are common overseas — when it got $1.83 billion by leasing its Skyway commuter toll bridge. But some fiscal monitors have bashed Chicago’s model, saying the city got too little for its 99-year lease, and gave up its right to share any extra tolls with the two companies — MIG, run by Australia’s investment bank, Macquarie Bank Ltd, and Cintra, part of Spanish construction giant Ferrovial.

In the same article, Mysore Nagaraja, the head of MTA Captial Construction, noted that the project would be finished in 2021 if funding held up. Wait a second, Mysore. I thought the the original end date was set for 2020. So we’re already a year behind schedule and nothing has happened yet. Uh oh.

Meanwhile, People’s Weekly World, a Union newspaper descended from the Daily Worker, questions the MTA’s decision to contract out some of the work for the construction of the Second Ave. subway.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority-NYC Transit contract calls for the private firm to do engineering work on the planned Second Avenue subway line, work that the union contends could be done more efficiently by in-house engineers.

It is estimated that some $384 million of the project’s anticipated $3.8 billion budget would be absorbed by this contract. This amounts to approximately $51 million for each year of the seven-year project. Union leaders report that their members could do the same work for only $8 million per year, resulting in a savings of more then $300 million over the life of the project.

Right now, I’m in no position to comment on the validity of the arguments set forth by the Civil Service Technical Guild as reported by PWW. But if the claims are accurate, I think I just found some of that missing $800 million for Phase 1 of this four-tiered project.

Sounds like we’re in for a fun ride over the next few years as the MTA gets to juggle a multi-billion-dollar public works program with a tortured history. Hold on, folks.

April 16, 2007 1 comment

MTA Construction Second Avenue Subway

MTA unveils designs for ostentatious Second Ave. entrances

by Benjamin Kabak April 16, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on April 16, 2007

One of the nicer aspects of the New York City subway stops are the way they blend into the city. The entrances are clearly marked with the tell-tale green/red light globes and a familiar-looking staircase. Whether you’re in Park Slope or near Central Park West, the subways look the same.

Now along comes this interloper. It’s a new fancy-shmancy subway line, and the MTA wants to make it look ostentatiously ridiculous. These new entrances, as shown above, really announce the subway. Instead of fitting in with the densely-populated residential neighborhoods on the East Side, that entrance — a sample mock-up of a planned Second Ave. subway entry — announce themselves in a loud and practically obnoxious way.

In fact, this entrance looks amazingly similar to the new entry canopies recently installed in Washington, D.C. (pictures opens in new window). When I lived in D.C. in 2005-2006, these canopies were just being installed, and they are, to put it kindly, hideous. They obscure the neighborhoods in which they are installed and are a huge eye-sore. While they are designed as weather protection for the escalators in the Metro, as visual components to a public works system, they simply do not work.

Meanwhile, some critics of the New York City subway system may appreciate these new entrances. After all, if you don’t know where the subway entrance is, it’s nearly impossible to find it in some neighborhoods. Ever try locating that Spring St. stop on the C or E? These entrances sure do announce themselves.

Not everyone is as opposed to these entry behemoths as I am. SUBWAYblogger seems to disagree, but he does raise some valid questions. Why is the MTA releasing these photos five to ten years before the stations actually open? Why would they spend so much on an aspect of the project that’s purely for show?

Personally, I do not endorse these preliminary designs, but the MTA works in mysterious ways sometimes. And hey, 2013 is a ways off. Maybe the designs can change for the better.

For more pictures of the planned designs, click the more link below or click here for a bigger view. (Opens in a new window.)

April 16, 2007 10 comments

MTA Absurdity MTA Politics Second Avenue Subway

In Their Own Words: The (fourth) Second Ave. groundbreaking ceremony

by Benjamin Kabak April 13, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on April 13, 2007

Dignitaries head to a groundbreaking inside the tunnel for which ground was supposed to be broken. Or something like that. (Jeremy M. Lange for The New York Times).

So is it still a groundbreaking ceremony on the fourth try? Should we celebrate and pat ourselves in the back? Well, of course, we should! This is New York. This city lives on glitz and self-congratulatory ceremonies.

In other news, today was the groundbreaking ceremony for the fourth attempt at building the Second Ave. subway. If you haven’t already read about this here, here, here or here, well, then all of this is new to you. (If you’ve already read about it, just pretend, ok? Make me feel good. And check back later for some pictures of planned station entrances.)

So on a rainy Thursday morning, a veritable Who’s Who of New York politics marched their way downstairs to a tunnel that has sat largely abandoned for thirty years to kick off what should be the first successful attempt to build the Second Ave. subway. The politicians patted each other on their respective backs and promised Big Things to Come for the residents of the East Side who will, in MTA time, soon be enjoying a new subway line.

The MTA bigwigs certainly were proud of themselves. “This time it’s for real. At long last, we will build the Second Avenue Subway,” said MTA Executive Director and CEO Elliot “Lee” Sander. “Second Avenue is the most important mass transit project in the United States. It is critical to support the region’s economic growth and environmental health for the next generation.”

“Today’s groundbreaking is a salute to the many people who have fought for the Second Avenue Subway over the years,” said at-some-point-outgoing MTA Chairman Peter S. Kalikow. “This day was hard to imagine ten or twenty years ago, but the start of this project highlights the rebirth of the region and the resilience of the great State and City of New York.”

Never before have so many politicians said so much and yet so little. These quotations, as provided by the MTA’s press shop, illuminate the pageantry and shallowness behind a groundbreaking ceremony.

April 13, 2007 0 comment

MTA Absurdity Second Avenue Subway

Second Ave. groundbreaking – live on TV – arrives. Again.

by Benjamin Kabak April 12, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on April 12, 2007

How do you break ground when it’s already been broken? (Courtesy of The New York Times)

I know. I know. We’ve beaten this topic to death lately. But hey, this is after all Second Ave. Sagas. I can’t just ignore the Groundbreaking as the ceremony is just a few hours away.

So today’s the day. Part of me is surprised. I grew up in the City in an age when the subways were unsafe and dirty. No one dreamed of expanding the subways because New York didn’t even have the money to maintain their current maze of subway lines and stations.

But by the time I was in high school, taking the 1 (or the now-defunct 9) back and forth to the Bronx ten times a week, times had changed for the New York City subways. They were graffiti-free and safe. While no one will ever mistake the subways for clean, their current level of grubbiness is indicative of widespread use and popularity. It’s hard to clean a system that never sleeps.

In November, when I started this blog, I had a feeling that we would be seeing the Second Ave. subway sooner rather than later. While my dad — a lifelong New Yorker — will not accept the reality of this new subway line until he actually rides on it, guardedly, I can now say that we will have the long-awaited line running down Manhattan’s East Side. It’s not a line that runs from Brooklyn through Manhattan and up to the Bronx, but it’s a start.

And we’re just getting started here. In the city that depends on the subway for so much of its transportation needs, not a day goes by without MTA news. So stick around for the ride. We’re in for the long haul.

Meanwhile, if you’re interested in watching the fourth groundbreaking ceremony for the Second Ave. subway, you’re in luck; NY1 will carry the ceremony live at 10:30 a.m. today.

“The groundbreaking for Second Avenue Subway is a historic moment in the life of New York City, and we’re thrilled that everyone will be able to see it live,” said MTA Executive Director and CEO Elliot G. Sander. “I hope that many people will join us at MTA headquarters for this special day.”

At some point, we’ll have to stop having ceremonies honoring a subway line that should have been built decades ago. But I’ll take it. It’s a much-needed sign of progressing for the albatross that’s been hanging around the subway’s neck since the 1930s. Next stop: 2nd Avenue.

April 12, 2007 2 comments

MTA Construction Second Avenue Subway

Second Ave. residents fret as subway groundbreaking draws near

by Benjamin Kabak April 10, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on April 10, 2007

We’re just two days away from the Second Ave. subway’s third groundbreaking ceremony. While those of us rooting for another subway line are celebrating, those living in the path of the MTA’s plans are facing eviction. Needless to say, these New Yorkers are unhappy campers.

Over the weekend, The Daily News caught up with some of the residents who will be eminent-domained out of their Upper East Side apartments.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority informed [the retired Giorgio]Costa and his neighbors of the plan in 2004. They were greatly concerned but the panic was tempered by the knowledge that politicians and transit types had been promising to create the new subway line for decades without success.

The reality has finally sunk in.

Costa pays $605 a month in rent – far below the market rate in the neighborhood, where an influx of young professionals has driven rents beyond what most retirees can afford. MTA officials said Costa’s five-story building on the corner of E. 69th St. and Second Ave. must be demolished to make room for station exits and equipment. Thirty buildings will be knocked down for the $17 billion project, the MTA said.

Tamer El-Ghobashy’s article is fairly grim. While the MTA has acknowledged that, under federal law, it must find comparable replacement apartments, nearly everyone in New York knows just how tough the real estate market is. One representative from the Corcoran Group says the MTA won’t be too successful replacing these 400 units unless they can find “friendly landlords” which to me sounds something like a New York City oxymoron.

While some of the tenants facing eviction plan to move from Manhattan, a part of me has to wonder about the East Siders’ complacency. The MTA told them in 2004 that this subway line would be built this time; it’s been pretty much a reality since then. These residents chose not to find housing on their own and are now up a creek without a paddle. I’m sympathetic to their plight, but at the same time, they had three years to find suitable housing.

Later today, I’ll check in with Queens where some Sunnyside residents are less than happy with the East Side Access plans. It’s been a rough week as the MTA has learned that, in your efforts to please some of the people all the time, you’ll offend others all the time too.

April 10, 2007 3 comments

MTA Absurdity Second Avenue Subway

Papers get nostaligic as groundbreaking nears

by Benjamin Kabak April 9, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on April 9, 2007

This groundbreaking for the Second Ave. Subway took place in 1972. It was the first of what will be at least three such ceremonies for this ill-fated line. (Courtesy of Neal Boenzi/The New York Times)

Thursday is fast approaching, and those of us eagerly expecting the Second Ave. Subway can rejoice for Thursday is Groundbreaking Day. Or the third groundbreaking day, if historical accuracy is your thing.

So with this momentous day for the city’s subway system fast approaching, the newspapers are starting to get all nostalgic on us with retrospectives on the other groundbreaking ceremonies for the Second Ave. Subway line.

The Times started things off today with a giant A1 article on the history of the line and the groundbreaking ceremonies. It’s a must-read if you want a succinct history of the Line That Almost Never Was. The best part is a tongue-in-cheek take on this week’s ceremony:

Gov. Eliot Spitzer and a host of dignitaries will descend through a sidewalk hatch at Second Avenue and 102nd Street, a block south of the spot where Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller and Mayor John V. Lindsay held a groundbreaking in October 1972. They will go into a never-used section of a three-decade old subway tunnel, stretching from 105th Street to 99th Street. The governor will give a speech, hoist a pickax and take a few cracks at the concrete wall, symbolically beginning the construction where it left off in the 1970s.

As Times reporter William Neuman notes that the project may actually be completed this time, former Mayor Ed Koch shared the best quotation of the day. “I have no recollection of that day,” Koch said. “I do have a recollection that the Second Avenue subway — the first shovel went into the ground when God created the earth.”

Over in the tabloids, The Daily News investigated the remnants of the first attempt at building this subway line. A five-hundred-yard stretch of tunnel from 99th to 105th Streets has lain dormant and forgotten since the early 1970s, but soon, it will again see life. As Pete Donohue wrote:

All but forgotten for two decades, the 99th St. tunnel had fallen into disrepair in the early 1990s because of a lack of ventilation and water damage. The MTA has spent about $15million to rehab the tunnel and install ventilation systems.

So as we look back with nostalgia on a project barely started and never completed, feelings of optimism are permeating the air. It’s an exciting time for subway buffs and transportation wonks.

But don’t worry: Politicians will still be politicians. And as with any ceremony bathed in pomp, the people that don’t get invited will complain and make a big stink. New Yorkers wouldn’t have it any other way.

April 9, 2007 1 comment

MTA Absurdity Second Avenue Subway

Glass walls for Second Ave. subway could keep passengers, air, trash in

by Benjamin Kabak April 5, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on April 5, 2007

You can’t really make the train come faster by peering down the tracks if there’s a glass wall in the way, now, can you? (Courtesy of flickr user j&c)

The Peer is a time-honored New York City subway tradition. As the train never shows up, frustrated would-be straphangers peer into the darkness of the tunnel for a glimpse – any glimpse – of the tell-tale signs of headlights from an approaching train. According to legend, peering into the tunnel actually makes the trains come faster as well.

But the MTA wants to do away with the open tracks of the current subway system. Instead, they want the city subway’s to become AirTrain-like platforms encased in glass with sliding doors that will open when the trains arrive. William Neuman, The Times’ MTA reporter, has more:

The doors, set into a wall of glass or metal, would create a floor-to-ceiling barrier, sealing off the track and tunnel area from the platforms and altering forever the daily experience of waiting passengers. Gone would be the rush of air and thunder, gone the visceral thrill as many tons of steel hurtle by at high speed, just inches away, all replaced by the hygienic interface of technology…

The doors, he said, could allow substantial energy savings in the station cooling systems, which would use cold water to chill air blown into the stations and reduce temperatures by about 10 degrees. With open platforms, the hot air from the tunnels would mix with the cooled air in the stations. With doors on the platform edge, the heat from the tunnels would be at least partly blocked and the cooling system could operate more efficiently.

Ernest Tollerson, the MTA’s policy director, talks a lot about the environmental benefits of these doors. Additionally, as The Times’ Empire Blog notes, the doors would prevent riders from rat-observing, trash-tossing and wallet-retrieving as well. (Of course, you wouldn’t be able to drop your wallet with the doors closed, but that’s besides the point.)

On the surface, it seems like a good idea. Saving energy is a desirable goal and keeping the tracks clean is a benefit too. But all is not well.

First, how long would it take for scratchiti to overtake these doors? Second, from what I’ve read so far in the Second Ave. Subway environmental impact statement, the trains may not all be the same length. Will they have doors spaced appropriately to accommodate both the 60-foot- and 75-foot-long cars? That sounds like an engineering nightmare to me.

And how about that bugaboo of any MTA project, the cost? Mysore Nagaraja, the head of capital construction for the MTA, is tight-lipped about the dollars, saying the doors would just be added to the project’s total budget.

But former MTA head Lawrence Reuter shared his views on the doors, and it’s not a favorable one. “I definitely discouraged it because it’s a cost item and it’s a maintenance item,” Reuter said. “It’s only going to apply in a few stations. What good is it going to do if you can’t adapt it to the rest of the system? I didn’t see any benefit, plus it’s going to cost extra money to maintain them.”

April 5, 2007 13 comments

MTA Politics Second Avenue Subway

Kalikow not quite ready to leave MTA post

by Benjamin Kabak March 29, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on March 29, 2007

Remember away back in November when MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow announced he would step down? It sure does seem like a long time.

Four months ago, Kalikow was ready to step down “by the second quarter of 2007,” according to the reports. The new Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer clearly wanted someone in the MTA chairmanship with whom he could work well, and Kalikow was amenable to leaving as long he could secure funds for the Second Ave. subway and the LIRR-East Side rail link.

Now, with the Second Ave. subway groundbreaking set for April 12, Kalikow is in no hurry to leave. Metro New York has more:

Speculation has returned over when Kalikow will step down. He had previously said that might come as soon as the second quarter of this year. But yesterday Kalikow was in no hurry to leave. “Not yet,” he said. “I have not spoken to the governor about it. It’s on my mind.”

Of course, no one likes to leave his position or power, but it’s probably in the best interests of the MTA if the governor and the chairman of the state’s transportation authority got along well.

Meanwhile, within the same article, word comes that the tunnel at 99th St. in “pristine condition,” according to Elliot Lee Sander, MTA CEO. I for one am glad to hear that a decades-old tunnel left abandoned since funds ran out on the project last time is still in great shape. Skepticism, anyone?

March 29, 2007 3 comments

MTA Absurdity Second Avenue Subway

MTA entering the real estate biz for Second Ave. residents

by Benjamin Kabak March 29, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on March 29, 2007

Hopefully, you won’t end up in that when the MTA can’t find you anything on Craigslist.

So last summer, when I moved back home to NYC after a few months away, I had to go through the joys of finding affordable housing in a city in which the vacancy rate is less than 1 percent. Now, less than 1 percent of a few million is still a significant number, and it’s not impossible to find somewhere to live. Just try finding a rent controlled apartment.

Ok, ok. Funny joke. Rent-controlled apartment. Ha ha ha. Stop laughing now because that’s just what the MTA has to do for those unfortunate souls living in the path of the Second Ave. subway. What makes this difficult task — finding affordable and comparable housing on the Upper East Side — even harder are the 60 rent-controlled apartments set to be demolished to make way for the new subway line. NY1’s transit reporter Bobby Cuza has more:

That’s right, the MTA is going apartment-hunting, trying to score cheap housing on the Upper East Side, the idea being to hold the apartments, then eventually hand over the keys to residents being displaced by the Second Avenue Subway.

“We are obligated to relocate most of these tenants – in fact all of the tenants,” said MTA Director of Real Estate Roco Krsulic. “We have to find them replacement housing. The rules are rather specific, that we have to find them comparable housing, and preferably in the same community board.”

Well, as a veteran of this process, I must suggest that the MTA start looking here on Craigslist but beware those finders fees. Another good place is The Times’ Real Estate listings, and this time, look out for photos and places that seem too good to be true. It’s a trap.

All joking aside, Krsulic’s department faces a daunting task. Metro’s coverage of this news was decidedly pessimistic. “Given the paucity of affordable housing in Manhattan, and especially on the Upper East Side, the Real Estate Department and our relocation consultants will be seeking potential replacement dwellings,” Krsulic said. “The possibility is we may not be able to find any.”

And that spells doom for a smooth start to this long and arduous subway construction plan.

March 29, 2007 3 comments

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