Even as the JFK AirTrain and Secaucus station came on line, battles over the future direction of New York’s transit system seemed to heat up:

· Responding to the NYC Partnership’s call for the MTA to re-think its Second Avenue subway project (see MTR #440), elected officials including State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, Representatives Charles Rangel and Carolyn Maloney convened a press conference Friday to reaffirm their support for full construction of a new east side line from 125th Street to lower Manhattan. In a recent letter to the NY Post, Silver said the Partnership’s Second Avenue subway analysis found substantial transportation benefits even without considering the system-wide effects the line would have once it is connected into the entire subway network. He wrote that east side transit would become unworkable if the LIRR-Grand Central connection is built without additional subway capacity to distribute the Long Island commuters once they reach Manhattan, and that the Second Avenue line would improve access and economic recovery downtown.

· Crain’s NY Business seemed to weigh in on the side of the Partnership, issuing a dire warning that a too-long list of big transit projects would put New York in a poor position to compete for federal money. But the paper ended its Dec. 15 editorial by calling on Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki to convene an expert panel to prioritize the list of big projects.

Both Crain’s and the Partnership appear to approach the list as if transit capital programs are a blank slate, and that all things are equal going forward. But in fact, there is a discernable project queue. Both the Long Island Railroad-Grand Central connection and the Second Avenue subway are part of the MTA’s capital program. For the two projects, real money is already being spent on design and, in the case of LIRR-Grand Central, construction. The lower Manhattan transit hub will happen because it needs to as part of downtown’s recovery from the September 11 attacks. Funding for it is available. Likewise, the Farley Building Penn Station project has been slated to go for some time, but has been held up mainly by the U.S. Postal Service’s delaying action. A reference in a recent Port Authority press release suggested that Governor Pataki will apply the $250 million NY State was allotted as free cash from the Port Authority toll increase in 2000 (see MTR # 398) to the Penn Station work.

· Unless the business community is intent on disrupting the Second Avenue projects, and wins key officials over to that view, that leaves only a few outstanding question marks. One is the #7 extension to the far West Side. The Bloomberg administration has vowed for years that it has a workable tax-increment financing plan for the project, but has never described it in a convincing way. Another is a second commuter rail tunnel from NJ to Manhattan. For now, New Jersey is doing the lifting to find the money for that.

The project most trying to elbow its way into the list is the downtown business community’s call for a new East River tunnel (or for appropriation of part of the A/C subway tunnel) to bring Long Island Railroad trains directly to lower Manhattan. After the Regional Plan Association debunked the notion that such a tunnel would serve an appreciable number of Long Island commuters, or save them any time (MTR #393), boosters changed the rationale to a direct downtown-JFK Airport link.

Backers of the scheme received a boost this week when U.S. Senator Charles Schumer announced his plan to use most of the nearly $5 billion of the remaining 9/11 funds to construct a direct rail link from Lower Manhattan to JFK.

The direct rail link is estimated to cost $3-4 billion. Schumer said $1.7 would come from the remaining 9/11 transportation funding and $1.2 billion would come from 9/11 economic development funds. If the project ran over $3 billion, the Senator suggested tapping tax credit revenue.

Although Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki have supported the concept in general ways, both seemed to pour cold water on the idea of immediately funding it. A Bloomberg aide told the NY Post that " while the mayor likes the idea...on a conceptual level, there are a host of other worthy projects for which the money could be used." Pataki traded press barbs with the senator, telling reporters during the JFK AirTrain opening that Schumer should butt out of project planning and work on finding more federal money for the state. Pataki said his office was studying the downtown rail link.

Schumer has evidently been discussing transit priorities with downtown business leaders and no one else. Certainly, New York should see how the current AirTrain performs before it begins planning another one, and focus on completing the LIRR-Grand Central link before starting on a third Manhattan terminal for the railroad. Regional planners note that Long Island commuting to NYC has leveled off in the last decade, thanks largely to booming job growth on Long Island and a static population in Nassau County. 

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