Nitty Gritty on the Fulton Street

The MTA has officially admitted that budget issues will reduce the scope of the Fulton Street Transit Center's renovations. The Fulton Street Transit Center is supposed to link six different subway stations, not to mention help bring people to the World Trade Center in a fashion like Grand Central Terminal, but there are some major differenes: Its glass dome will be smaller, there will be no connection between the World Trade Center E and the Cortlandt Street R/W, and some of the tunnels will be narrowed. The MTA hasn't updated its information page about the project, so you can see what it was supposed to be here; this cutaway of the proposed changes is pretty cool. The MTA says that the transit center will open in December 2008, since the project is a year behind schedule; why they just aren't saying they'll open in January 2009 is beyond us. And Gothamist has realized that we mark time by subway renovation projects: We realize that a lot of time has passed when we remember a subway passageway has closed and when it opens up a year and a half later.