The Regional Plan Association released a report recently on the progress of Lower Manhattan’s redevelopment. Notable transportation items in the report include:

• The Coalition of 9/11 Families filed suit last month to stop construction of the new PATH station, opposing the overlap of the WTC footprint by transit infrastructure.

• RPA questioned whether an $81 million north-south underground pedestrian tunnel should be built from the PATH station to the Liberty Plaza area, in addition to the major east-west concourse that is planned. No north-south concourse existed in the original World Trade Center site, and RPA suggests that too much underground retail may negatively impact the surface street environment.

• Construction of the $750 million Fulton Street Transit Hub, a project to untangle subways lines that run through the Broadway-Nassau-Fulton Street complex and to give mass transit a street presence, is supposed to start at the end of 2004, running to 2007. The South Ferry subway station renovation is also slated to be done in 2007. The terminal should eventually link to the Staten Island ferry terminal, also under renovation.

• The most cost effective alternative for West Street is construction of an at-grade road, rather than the highly contested and expensive tunnel. Official support for the latter seems to be waning.

• RPA recommends that any $6 billion LIRR link from downtown to JFK benefit Brooklyn subway riders and be designed to eventually accommodate the 2^nd Ave subway. However, getting these projects in synch will be a significant challenge, since RPA also notes that it is likely to take 20 years for the Second Avenue line to reach Lower Manhattan. $400 million is slated for LIRR downtown link in the MTA’s proposed 2005-2009 capital program.

• An NYCDOT street management study is currently underway to analyze parking policies, the pedestrian environment, and truck idling. Still undecided is how to accommodate buses in the downtown area. For the full report, see www.rpa.org.

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