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The Not-So-Grand Central Station
January 29th, 2008

The proposed Fulton Street Transit Center was once touted as the new Grand Central Station of Lower Manhattan. The plan called for overhauled subway tunnels under a 50 foot high glass-dome and 23,000 feet of new retail space. But now transit officials say the project is $320 over budget - with a total price tag of more than $1 billion - and so they are reassessing the plan.

Who – or what - is to blame?

The MTA says rising construction costs have made the original plan too expensive.

WNYC’s reporter Matt Schumerman notes that it cost the MTA $100 million more than expected to acquire properties in the area.

An editorial in the New York Post points the finger at elected officials. “Had former Gov. George Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Spitzer forced a quicker pace, the job might have been done - as planned - before the price-hikes hit home,” the Post writes.

And discussion on the blog Second Avenue Sagas has questioned if the MTA had overly ambitious expectations from the beginning. “If these projects were designed to be functional and somewhat visually attractive, but not cathedral-like, the MTA could save a boatload of money,” wrote one reader.

By Mark Berkey-Gerard on January 29, 2008, 9:13 am
In category: Transportation
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One Response to “The Not-So-Grand Central Station”

  1. George N. Spitz Says:
    January 29th, 2008 at 5:43 pm

    The westward extension of the No.7 subway line and the first leg, of the Second Avenue subway are designed to fill critical transit needs. Their projected costs, excessive at best, $2.1 billion for the 1 mile one station No.7 and $4.55 billion for the first leg, 1.7 mile Second Avenue subway, now appear virtually prohibitive.

    A far better and substantially less costly solution for both projects exists if Mayor Bloomberg is willing to revise the misguided transportation section of PlaNYC with the author’s and presumably the mayor’s stubborn refusal to consider state of art, nonpolluting, street level boarding light rail for any section of New York City. Bloomberg’s anti-light rail policy is counterproductive. Better options than subways exist. Replacing and extending the No.7 extension with River to River, 16 station, light rail at a cost of approximately $500 million is one alternative. Halting Second Avenue subway construction, which will take at least seven years to finish, is another alternative. Light rail on 1st 2nd and 3rd avenues, can be completed in less than two years and transport significantly more people at a similar cost of about $500 million. Pursuing such savings will enable Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC to reverse currently ignored focus on essential transit requirements in Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten Island.

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