By Philip Newman
U.S. Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-Astoria) and Charles Rangel (D-Harlem) have expressed anger over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s plan for billions of dollars in cuts that will further delay completion of Phase Two of the Second Avenue subway to East Harlem.
“While we are delighted that the state and city were able to reach an agreement to move the MTA Capital plan forward, we are deeply concerned that roughly one half of the reduction in the cost of plan (total reduction is $3 billion) is coming from the Second Avenue subway, most of which will be spent for preliminary engineering and design as opposed to the $1.5 billion originally proposed,” said Rangel and Maloney, one of the new subway’s most staunch supporters.
Phase two of the subway to 125th Street and Second Avenue was to have been completed by December 2019. The Harlem extension will now be delayed until at least 2020.
”The MTA has also dropped its assumption that it would receive New Starts federal funding for the subway during this capital plan,” they said in a joint statement.
“New Yorkers have been promised a full build Second Avenue subway since the 1920s,” the lawmakers said. “Based on the current schedule, 100 years will have passed and we will still be waiting. This ‘go slow’ approach to the Second Avenue subway is a huge mistake”
The subway project is on track to open service from 96th Street to 63rd Street in December 2016 with stops at three new stations: 96th Street, 86th Street and 72nd Street.
The Second Avenue subway is expected to bring much-needed relief to riders of the Lexington line, which carries more than 40 percent of all straphangers in the overburdened subway system.
The New York Times said the news of the cuts was “buried inside the revised 237-page capital proposal” and were not discussed before the MTA board unanimously voted to approve the plan.
