At a press conference last Tuesday, Brooklyn and Manhattan Borough Presidents Marty Markowitz and Virginia Fields joined the Straphangers Campaign and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign to oppose the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation’s proposal — first proposed by Brookfield Properties, the owners of the World Financial Center — to hijack A/C subway tracks for Long Island Rail Road service to lower Manhattan.

The Brookfield plan was included in the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation’s preliminary rebuilding outline, issued in April (MTR #361).The plan would route C or A trains running between Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan to the F line to make room for LIRR trains, displacing over 100,000 subway riders and overburdening 6th Avenue service. 

“Simply put, the numbers do not come close to justifying the massive disruption this suggestion will cause if implemented,” said Ms. Fields. “Moreover, a new LIRR tunnel from Brooklyn would expend critical resources that are needed to build the Second Avenue Subway.”

The Campaign made a statement supporting the borough presidents’ opposition , saying “The LMDC plan would provide a first-class suburban commute by compressing already crowded city subway riders into fewer trains and tunnels.  For Brooklynites, that is a plan with no light at the end of the tunnel.”

The Straphangers Campaign also urged the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. to include the Second Avenue Subway and said, “If the downtown real estate interests talk the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation into this proposal, it will be nothing less than a case of grand-theft subway. We urge Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg — who control LMDC — to put a stop to it.”

After the press conference, representatives from the borough presidents’ office handed out flyers to A and C subway riders, urging them to write to the LMDC and the MTA to oppose the Brookfield plan and to ask for Second Avenue Subway project. 

Markowitz also sent a letter urging LMDC Chairman John Whitehead not to consider any proposal for using subway tracks for Long Island Railroad Service, writing, “A full-length Second Avenue subway that extends to Brooklyn’s Atlantic Terminal is a much better alternative for improving lower Manhattan commuter access.”

According to New York City Transit, the plan to run LIRR trains on subway tracks may not be feasible. “We cannot comment without seeing a plan,” said an agency spokesman, “But as it stands now, LIRR cars would not physically fit into the Eighth Ave. subway tunnel.”

Initial Downtown Report a Grab-bag
(April 15, 2002)

Downtown LIRR Advocates Take Aim at Subway Tunnel (March 4, 2002)

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