Are the MTA and NJ Transit Going Too Far By Going So Deep?

Five different riders' groups - the Straphangers Campaign, the Empire State Passengers Association, the Institute for Rational Urban Mobility in New York, the New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers and the Lackawanna Coalition in New Jersey - sent a letter to NYC officials citing concerns that plans for railways and a commuter terminal are dangerous. The MTA and NJ Transit are planning new tunnels and a station that are 100-150 feet underground, and the natural worry is that it will take too long to evacuate people in an emergency. The MTA's East Side Access plan, which would make the Long Island Rail Road available from Grand Central, would have passengers takes "16 high-speed escalators" that would take them 150 feet below, while NJ Transit is planning for new tunnels (can't trust Amtrak's!) under Herald Square. The NY Times reports that the groups made the letter public after they got a cursory response from the NYPD - they sent the letter to Commissioner Ray Kelly, who had one of his people send a letter to MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow to "[take] any action you deem appropriate."

The MTA's response is to point out other stations with particularly long descents, as well as ones from overseas, but critics retort that those stations were designed well before September 11. The NYPD and FDNY say they have been consulted on the MTA's East Side Access plan, but the Straphangers' Gene Russianoff said, "If they are going to ask 150,000 LIRR riders a day to go through a deep cavern 150 feet below ground, then Ray Kelly and Nick Scoppetta owe us their personal assurance that is safe to do so in this age of terrorism." The Straphangers, though, do support the East Side Access Plan conceptually.

When you're at stations that require long escalator or elevator rides, do you worry about what you would do in case of a fire? Or do you think the MTA and NJ transit will sufficiently account for those emergencies?