None of the speakers opposed the MTA's big project to link the Long Island Railroad to Grand Central Terminal. Instead, they spotlighted the additional transit problems the LIRR-Grand Central connection would create on the east side in the absence of the Second Avenue line.

Testimony submitted by the Straphangers Campaign urged the MTA to pursue the LIRR-GCT project and the Second Avenue Subway in tandem. "The projects are inextricably linked...another 12,000 riders a day will be dumped onto the 4, 5 and 6 lines when the LIRR-Grand Central project is completed...the Lexington Avenue line is operating far above its capacity, while enormous numbers of M15 bus riders move slowly in traffic along 1st and 2nd Avenues."

The big financing issue is accompanied by an equally large dispute over the extent of a new Second Avenue line. MTA studies project a new tunnel between 125th and 63rd Streets. South of 63rd Street, 2nd Ave. trains would use the Broadway line's express tracks. Regional Plan and others insist it is foolish not to extend the 2nd Ave. line the length of Manhattan, through Midtown to the downtown business district.

State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, whose district is in Manhattan's Lower East Side, is interested in the full-length version. Silver has reportedly told the MTA he will not support a capital program that does not include the project.

That gets back to the funding issue. 2nd Ave. work was not on a list of projects the MTA is seeking federal aid for next year, although the MTA's part of the draft NYC 2000-2004 Transportation Improvement Program calls for unspecified "new route design and engineering" funding totaling $94 million.

Funding projected by the MTA for the LIRR-Grand Central connection during the same period is $2.4 billion.

Regional Plan Association's Jeff Zupan said the $94 million, even if all for 2nd Ave. engineering, is "peanuts." "They're telling New Yorkers that there's no commitment to build a Second Avenue Subway anytime soon," Zupan told the NY Post.

Still, there's only so much money from existing revenue sources to go around, given the MTA's need to continue upgrading existing transit, and the cost of LIRR East Side access.

For the MTA to secure sufficient funding to pursue East Side Access and a full-length Second Avenue Subway together, it may require an historic step similar to creation of the MTA in the 1960s, when revenues from the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority were harnessed to subways, buses and commuter railroads.

The common wisdom is that new revenues are political poison in 1999. On the other hand, Governor Pataki has repeatedly shown a willingness to take major strides forward on transit policy issues and has a keen interest in some potential sources of new transit funding, like Port Authority revenue.