MTA Releases Schedule of $8.8B in Work to Begin Construction in 2020 from Prior Capital Plans By Michael V. Cusenza The Metropolitan Transportation Authority recently released a schedule of ongoing construction projects from the 2010-2014 and 2015-19 capital plans slated to begin in 2020 and 2021. According to the embattled agency, the announcement “underscores the pace at which MTA construction work is ramping up on these programs” at the same time that work is commencing under the record $51.5 billion 2020-2024 Capital Program. The schedule, which MTA Chief Development Officer Janno Lieber presented at the MTA Board meeting last month, was submitted to the State Legislature as MTA executives testified at a joint budget hearing of the State Senate and Assembly last Tuesday. The MTA indicated that it anticipates committing $6.5 billion worth of prior plan capital program work in 2020 and $2.3 billion in 2021, which will effectively exhaust all resources from the 2010-2014 and 2015-2019 plans. These will continue major priority efforts for the agency, including signal modernization, new rolling stock and track repair work,
$1,323.9 million Metro-North Penn Station Access ADA accessibility at three stations 68 St-Hunter College 6 Line Bay Ridge-95 St R Line Court Square G Line New substation at Canal St / 8 Av Second Avenue Subway Phase II (initial commitment) 45 new electric buses and electrification of six bus depots Sandy resiliency at West Side 2020 Third Quarter: Yard and East River Tunnel $1,670,500,000 ADA accessibility at six sta2021: $2,293,300,000 Photo Courtesy of Marc Hermann/MTA NYC Transit tions: Second Avenue Subway Phase 6 Av L Line II: Civil Work for new stations at 8 Av N Line(southbound) increasing access and capacity at Bridge 106th, 116th and 125th Streets 14 St F,M Line Penn Station, and investments in Purchase 25 standard buses 14 St 1,2,3 Line 2020 Second Quarter: sorely needed ADA accessibility Planning for Metro-North Queensboro Plaza 7,N,W lines $2,546,200,000 projects across the system. Harlem Line Third Track Woodhaven Blvd J,Z Line Penn Station-33rd Street CorMajor commitments schedLIRR Jamaica Capacity ImStructural repairs on ridor, Phase 2 uled for this year include: provements design support the 7 Line, including renewals at ADA accessibility at four staSandy Mitigation: Long Island seven stations 2020 First Quarter: $964.3 tions in the Bronx Sandy Repairs: rehabilitation City Yard Perimeter Protection 149 St-Grand Concourse 4 million of F Line’s East River Tunnel Line Signal modernization “We have a very aggressive (Rutgers Tube) 149 St-Grand Concourse 2, on A,C,E Line schedule for 2020, and anticipate LIRR signal modernization, 5 Line Penn Station-33 St Corridor, we will have committed more Babylon to Patchogue Tremont Av B, D Line Phase 1 than 90 percent of funds from past Four station renewals on Westchester Square-East ADA accessibility at Livonia capital programs by the end of the J,Z Line Tremont Av. 6 Line Av L Line this calendar year,” Lieber added. 2020 Fourth Quarter: Elevator and escalator imMetro-North Harlem River provements at 11 stations Infrastructure repairs on the 2,3,4,5 Line in Brooklyn New Elmont LIRR station New rolling stock LIRR train cars and service locomotives Work hybrid locomotives for NYCT Improvements to overhead rail power wires in western Queens in support of East Side Access and regional rail
MTA New York City Transit Adds More Public Feedback Opportunities for Bus Network Redesign Plan • Wednesday, Feb. 12, 6:308:30 p.m. (presentation) PS/IS 49 Borough residents will have 63-60 80th St., Middle Village even more opportunities to tell the Metropolitan Transporta• Wednesday, Feb. 19, 6:30tion Authority how they truly feel about the draft plan of the 8:30 p.m. (presentation) Queens College Queens Bus Network Redesign— 65-30 Kissena Blvd., Flushing wildly unpopular in these parts, thanks to its proposal to eliminate • Thursday, March 12, 6:30the Q53, among other drastic ideas—as the beleaguered agency 8:30 p.m. (workshop) August Martin High School has added more public outreach 156-10 Baisley Blvd., Jamaica events to its itinerary. Some of the new community In December, the MTA remeeting dates include: leased a draft plan to “dramati• Tuesday, Feb. 11, 6-8 p.m. cally” redraw the Queens Bus Network for the first time in 100 (presentation) York College, Faculty Dining years. Apparently, it is in desperate Room 94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd., need of a thorough makeover. The current sluggish system is comJamaica posed of 77 routes within a wide• Wednesday, Feb. 12, 7 p.m. spread network that has three centers in downtown Flushing, (presentation) Kew Gardens Community downtown Jamaica, and Long Island City. The average bus speed Center in The World’s Borough is 8.7 80-02 Kew Gardens Rd. miles per hour, continuing an Ste. #202, Kew Gardens By Michael V. Cusenza
The Queens Bus Network Redesign calls for the elimination of the Q53.
overall borough-wide slowdown since 2015, according to MTA New York City Transit. Roughly 52 percent of Queens’ 2.3 million residents rely on public transit for their daily commutes; 11 percent of those commuters rely solely on buses. More than 94 percent of Queens residents live within a five-minute walk of a bus stop. Bus stops in the borough are spaced very close together, leading to frequent bus stopping and longer commutes, MTA officials noted.
File Photo
Many stops are 500 to 1,000 feet apart, which, according to the MTA, is shorter than the average bus stop spacing system-wide and far closer than peer transit systems worldwide. The sweeping 432-page draft proposal, according to MTA officials, seeks to completely redraw the bus routes, which were mostly unchanged since they were converted from old trolley lines from the turn of the 20th century or consolidated from private bus
companies that began serving Queens in the 1910s. Many of those companies served three central hubs in Queens, leading to three separate spoke-and-wheel networks to Flushing, Jamaica, and Long Island City that severely limited the coverage area. The draft plan takes into consideration the service performance of each bus route, the speed, ridership and reliability on key corridors, and how individual routes contribute to the larger network. Recommendations were developed in collaboration with the City Department of Transportation, with focus given to identifying key corridors where roadway treatments and traffic signal improvements can be implemented to expand bus priority and better support sustainable, all-day bus service. The details of DOT’s proposed bus priority plan for Queens are included in the draft plan. For more information on the proposal, visit new.mta.info/ queensbusredesign.
THE FORUM NEWSGROUP • VOL. 20 • Number 6 • FEBRUARY 6, 2020 | 3