By Larry Penner
City Councilwoman Elizabeth “Crowley to introduce light rail train idea to City Planning” (Aug. 16) sounds great on paper. As always, the devil in the details that don’t exist. There has been no planning feasibility studies, environmental documents or preliminary design and engineering efforts necessary to validate any basic estimates for construction costs. Ms. Crowley’s belief that it would cost well under $100 million doesn’t add up. New Jersey Transit’s Hudson Bergen Light Rail cost $1.2 billion and Newark Elizabeth Light Rail cost $694 million 15 years ago. Clearly costs would be far greater in today’s dollars.
There are no dollars programmed to support any work for advance of this project contained with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s original $32 billion Five Year 2015-2019 Five Year Capital Plan. Ditto for the revised $28 billion version or the $78 billion 2015-2016 municipal budget. Cost estimates would have to be refined as progress proceeds beyond the planning and environmental phases into real and final design efforts. History has shown that estimated costs for construction usually trend upwards as projects mature toward the 100 percent final design. Progression of final design refines the detailed scope of work necessary to support construction. The anticipated final potential cost would never be known until completion.
The proposed route will traverse several neighborhoods, impacting thousands of people living nearby. How will they react to potential noise and visual impacts? There are serious legal and operational issues to be resolved with the Federal Railroad Administration. They have regulatory jurisdiction over significant portions of the proposed route, which would run on existing active freight tracks. You have to deal with light rail and freight trains co-existing on the same narrow corridor. There is no available project budget to justify key project component costs. They would have to cover a series of new stations. These will have to meet the Americans with Disabilities Act access standards; grade crossing, signal and safety improvements, new light-rail rolling stock, land acquisition, potential business relocation along with construction of a new maintenance, operations and storage yard to support any light rail car fleet. Crowley’s belief that “the cost of light rail cars is about the same as a City bus” is incorrect. The average cost of a standard 40-foot transit bus is $500,000 while the cost of a new Light Rail car averages $2 million.
Other Queens elected officials, transit riders and transit advocacy groups all have their own transportation priority projects, which may conflict with this proposal.
The MTA conducted a feasibility study during the 1980s to convert this LIRR branch to a subway on the ground. Intense, vocal local community opposition killed this project before it progressed beyond a planning study. The same community opposition may also come out against any active light rail as well.
Rather than spend several hundred million dollars to build a Light Rail system which could take a decade or more, why not ask the LIRR to resume service on this corridor? They could run a two-car scoot service reconnecting Long Island City, Glendale and Middle Village with other communities, including Richmond Hill and other intermediate stops to Jamaica. The LIRR could use existing equipment, which would afford far earlier implementation of service versus Light Rail. This would provide connections eastbound to the J/Z and E subway lines, Kennedy Airport via Train to Plane and Jamaica LIRR Station. Queens residents traveling to jobs and colleges in Nassau and Suffolk counties would have access to all LIRR branches except the Port Washington line. Ditto for those traveling to the Barclays Center and downtown Brooklyn via the LIRR Atlantic Avenue branch.
Larry Penner
Great Neck
