April 27, 2004
Second Avenue Subway: The T Line
The expectation is that the MTA will approve that RFPs for the Second Avenue Subway can be issued tomorrow. In other words, the call to construction for the first phase of the project will go out, making the new T line a very real possibility. NY1 has the about the project: MTA board member Barry Feinstein said, “We were building the Second Avenue subway before. It didn't get built because they ran out of money, or the money was not continued to be made available. But hopefully that will not be the case this time." Hopefully? Please, MTA, it's gotta be more than hopefully when you start to rip up parts of Second Avenue. Try not to cook the books and screw it up, okay?
The new line's cost will be about $16.8 billion dollars, with $3.8 billion of it for the first segment, between 96th and 63rd Streets. The Times notes that the first segment of the line would benefit the most riders immediately - 202,000 - while the whole line would expect to carry just over half a million riders a day. The Post reports on what the new station will be like - "sleek, brightly lit stations equipped with climate-control ventilation and built with no columns along the platform." MTA Capital Construction president Mysore Nagaraja said, "These will be 21st century stations. There will be no columns, which will provide for better circulation of riders [on and off trains]." Besides Gothamist wondering if there would be anything besides a 21st century station in 2005, Gothamist has to agree that a columnless subway platform would be easier. Think the London Underground, DC Metro, or Hong Kong MTR.
Related subway-wise: The Times looked at the terrorism training MTA employees are going through: A manual suggest, "Keeping customers informed of the problem, using a clear, authoritative voice and timely announcements will help keep panic to a minimum."
The MTA on the Second Avenue Subway and Gothamist's posts on the SAS.
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No columns? What do you lean against while you're waiting?
No columns? There would be nothing to hide behind if someone is shooting at you.
DC's Metro doesn't have columns, but the pillars for the platform air conditioning are handy for leaning purposes.
So, wait... what happened to the other part of the 2nd ave line, further downtown? The part that was started ages ago, but ran out of money? What's going to happen to that?
"The new line's cost will be about $16.8 billion dollars."
Ya right, remember the Big Dig? (bigdig.com)It started out as a 10.8 billion dollar project and quickly turned into a 14.6 billion dollar catastrophe (or possibly even more). During the peak of construction (1999 through 2002), about $3 million was spent each day.
I think this line will cost WAY more than they anticipate -- which is probably why they're building it in sections rather than all at once, such a project would never be approved all at once.
The Big Dig was hardly a catastrophe. When you dig underground, you never know what you will find, and it's expected that construction costs will escalate. But politicians need fall guys, and an expensive public construction project is a tantalizing candidate, so the Big Dig conveniently took the blame.
But it is a boon to the city, in terms of quality of public life and even private investment. Just watch the real estate values along the former corridor go through the roof.
This sort of infrastructure is a public investment, no doubt expensive, but it will be well worth the investment in the long-term.
It's kind of a shame that this first leg won't necessarily get East SIders where they want to go. It will meet up with the F at the 63rd street stop, and from there you can only go west. If it linked up with 59th Street that would be much better. In fact, the F (used to be Q) should have linked up at 59th instead of creating a new stop at 63rd.
And by the way, does anyone know why city bus stops are arranged so that they are usually blocks away from subway stops? It is very inconvenient!