No. 7 train expansion sidetracked

Plans for the extension of the No. 7 train to the West Side of Manhattan may have hit a snag as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and city grapple over who would pay possible overrun costs on the $2.1 billion project.
Last September, the city and MTA agreed on a plan to extend the No. 7 line to the Javits Convention Center with the city contributing the $2.1 billion for the project, but the MTA taking responsibility for construction of the project.
“While the MTA shares the city’s expectation that the project can be completed within budget it is the MTA’s position that we are under no legal obligation to absorb any additional costs or overruns,” MTA Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Elliot Sander wrote in a letter to Assemblymember Richard Brodsky.
Brodsky is the chair of the Committee on Corporations, Commissions and Authorities that oversees the MTA for the Assembly.
Recently, Sander said he would not hand out any construction contracts until he met with the city to iron out details about who would be responsible for potential overlay costs on the project. The MTA said if they were going to absorb the additional costs, they would have needed their Capital Program Review Board to approve the additional costs in their budget.
However, according to published reports, representatives from Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration have said publicly that a “a deal is a deal,” and that the MTA should be the ones responsible for paying costs if they exceed the $2.1 billion the city agreed to contribute.
Both MTA and city officials have agreed to discuss this matter and expressed optimism that the project would continue.
Queens City Councilmember John Liu, who is chair of the Transportation Committee, said he hopes that the expansion would happen, but expressed some frustration with the two sides discussing the cost overruns now.
“That issue should have been better laid out concretely, whereas now there is some uncertainty over who is responsible for footing that additional bill,” Liu said.
Although he is in favor of the extension, Liu also said from a Queens point of view, he would have liked to see some of the money the city allocated to this project, spent on improving and increasing bus service in the borough.