Plan for High-Speed Rail to Kennedy Airport
High-Speed Rail Plan Set For Unveiling
By Errol A. Cockfield Jr. and Joshua Robin
Staff Writers
February 3, 2004, 10:23 PM EST
Officials Wednesday are expected to release a plan for linking lower Manhattan and Kennedy Airport via high-speed rail.
Building on a connection from Jamaica to Kennedy that was established in December with the opening of the Air Train, the project would extend the Air Train route to the Long Island Rail Road terminal in Downtown Brooklyn.
From there, four alternatives are being considered, ranging from running the AirTrain from Brooklyn to Manhattan through the A and C subway tunnel, to jetting commuters through a new tunnel under the East River.
State and city officials are slated this afternoon to announce the plans, which could cost as much as $6 billion, but a final option will not be chosen until April.
The proposal has been on the drawing board for months and has triggered a range of reaction in a city that has a lengthy list of unfunded transportation priorities.
Business interests that back improved access to lower Manhattan say the district needs the link to tap into the labor pool on Long Island.
"If you made it easier for people to get to lower Manhattan from Long Island they would accept jobs," said Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York.
But community groups and fiscal watchdogs argue the plan is a waste of money because commuters can already get to lower Manhattan in minutes after leaving the LIRR at Pennsylvania Station or the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn.
There are no commuter rails to lower Manhattan, but 11 subway lines stop south of City Hall. Officials also are planning ferry routes across the East River and expanded rail access to Manhattan's East Side via Grand Central Terminal.
Additionally, the Port Authority has said it wants to run ferries from lower Manhattan to Kennedy Airport by 2005. Service to LaGuardia is slated to begin by the end of the year.
It remains unclear whether any of the rail plans would offer a one-seat ride because doing so would require AirTrain cars to travel on both subway and LIRR tracks.
Early details about the competing proposals also have drawn criticism from city transit activists who worry that the new commuter train would displace subway riders by forcing them to transfer more frequently because of links to the new service.
"If you're reading a book or a Bible or a newspaper, you really don't want to get up and start in the Darwinian struggle on a new train," said Gene Russianoff, staff attorney of the Straphangers Campaign.
There is also concern that the project will tap into and possibly exhaust federal funds set aside for economic development in lower Manhattan. While business groups say improved transit is a top priority, community groups say officials should funnel money into affordable housing, job growth and neighborhood revitalization.
"If people are not able to get jobs and there is no place for people to live ... that will be a real waste of money," said Margaret Fung, a member of Community Board 1.
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.
What they need is a direct line from teh airports to lower Manhattan.
ALL THREE AIRPORTS!
Make the WTC a transit link where you can stop, or zip through to get over to the boroughs without clogging NYC streets.
I, for one, would welcome the increased accessability of certain areas in Brooklyn to my humble Jersey wanderings....
PATH Train to Newark, ferry to LaGuardia along with the prospect of an N train extension, ferry and LIRR to JFK.
February 5, 2004
Four Options Presented for Airport Rail Link
By MICHAEL LUO
In a presentation that was high in lofty ambitions but short on important details, officials unveiled four options yesterday for a rail link to connect Lower Manhattan to Kennedy Airport and Long Island.
The release of the proposals at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, coupled with the declaration that a final design would be picked in April, may help catapult the commuter rail, once seen as a pipe dream of a few powerful downtown landlords, to near the top of a long list of proposed transportation megaprojects for the region that are competing for money and attention.
But few details were shared yesterday about how much the project would cost and how it would be paid for. Officials said they would address the financing issue when the final design is selected.
"We think we can do all the projects we're talking about," Peter S. Kalikow, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said yesterday.
Mr. Kalikow said the authority was prepared to make a "significant contribution" from its next capital plan, scheduled for 2005 to 2009. Others, however, wondered how the authority could afford it while also pursuing its two main priorities: connecting the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal and building a Second Avenue subway.
"It's not at all clear where the next capital plan is coming from, how much it's going to be," said Andrew B. Albert, a nonvoting member of the transportation authority board and president of the Transit Riders Council, a group that represents passengers. "And there's a lot of big, important projects in the hopper right now." Many, he added, would serve far more riders than the airport link.
Politicians have suggested various ways to pay for the project, including using money left over from the $4.55 billion in federal aid set aside for transportation needs after 9/11 and raiding the coffers of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff mentioned yesterday that as part of its new lease agreement with the city for Kennedy and La Guardia Airports, the Port Authority had promised to put up $560 million toward a downtown airport access project.
In each proposal, trains would run from the AirTrain station in Jamaica, Queens, along existing L.I.R.R. tracks. But they differ in how they would get under the East River. The first option, undoubtedly the most expensive, is to dig a new tunnel.Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg first suggested this possibility last year, citing a $4 billion price tag, but officials said yesterday that more study was needed to determine an accurate figure.
A second option is one promoted soon after 9/11 by the Downtown Alliance and Brookfield Financial Properties, downtown's biggest landlord. It involves appropriating the Cranberry Street tunnel used by the A and C subway lines, but it would require rerouting the C line to the F line tunnel, a prospect that has upset commuter groups. Brookfield quoted a $1.9 billion cost at the time.
A third option would be to use the Montague Street tunnel that now serves the M, N and R subway lines.
The final option is to use both the Cranberry and Montague Street tunnels, borrowing one for commuter service from Long Island and the other for service from Kennedy.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
Next Step in Rail Commuting
Linking Jamaica, Manhattan
By Errol A. Cockfield, Jr.
Staff Writer
February 4, 2004, 9:21 PM EST
Map of the proposed plan for a train from downtown Manhattan to JFK Airport Wednesday.
State and city officials Wednesday unveiled four alternate plans for direct, one-seat rail access to Lower Manhattan from the Long Island Rail Road's Jamaica Station and Kennedy Airport, calling it the top economic development priority for Lower Manhattan.
The options -- designed to bolster the economy by easily shuttling thousands of workers downtown -- build on the Air Train service established in December that takes riders directly from Jamaica Station to Kennedy. State and city officials will jointly choose a plan in April.
Under the alternatives, which could cost up to $6 billion, passengers would board trains at Kennedy or Long Island Rail Road's Jamaica Station and ride through Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn. The plans differ in how riders would be sped from Brooklyn to Manhattan. They include building and enhancing tunnels under the East River:Improving rail links from Long Island and Kennedy to Lower Manhattan, the third-largest business district in the country, has long been a goal of business groups, who say lengthy, circuitous commutes limit economic growth in Lower Manhattan.
- The construction of a new East River tunnel.
The use of the Montague Street Tunnel which now serves the M, N, and R subway lines.
The use of the Cranberry Street Tunnel which serves the A and C subway lines.
Combined use of Cranberry and Montague depending on capacity.
"Transportation has been the biggest detraction," said Kathryn Wylde, president and chief executive of the Partnership for New York City, a business group.
Critics however, say the plan would only improve commuting times by minutes, at a time when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is working on projects to add more East River ferry service and an LIRR link to Grand Central Terminal.
Lower Manhattan Development Corp. President Kevin Rampe said the rail link "will ensure that Lower Manhattan will have easy access to the Long Island labor pool."
But Mitch Pally, vice president for government affairs of the Long Island Association business group, said the Island faces more important priorities than a new rail link, including an LIRR link to Grand Central Station, a third track on the LIRR's main line for freight, and the redevelopment of the Nassau Hub area.
"The Long Islanders that work in the city already have the LIRR," he said. "We just think it's misguided to spend billions of dollars to provide any additional access."
At a news conference Wednesday in Lower Manhattan by representatives from the city, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the MTA, and the Port Authority, officials said they would release the initiative's possible cost when they decide on a single option.
For now, the various agencies said they will study how many people would use the new service and what effects it might have on current subway ridership. The only disruption in the four plans would be a diversion of the C train to another tunnel, but officials were unable to say if it would slow that line.
Gene Russianoff, staff attorney of the Straphangers Campaign, said the new service will have to be justified against other pressing transportation initiatives, including a new Second Avenue subway line.
"No one's going to build a $7 billion line that only moves 5,000 people during rush hour if that's what the numbers show," Russianoff said.
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.
March 21, 2004
Grants and Rails, and the Debate in Between
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
There is only $1,163,955,348.58 left.
Though that sounds like a lot, it is not enough to cover the many claims on the federal grants for rebuilding Lower Manhattan.
These competing claims expose something of a divide between the established downtown, an unalloyed business hub, and the emerging downtown, with its residential overlay. It is not that businesses and residents disagree on the broad goal of creating a lively mixed-use area. But they may struggle over the spending needed to get there.
As the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation decides how to allocate the rest of the federal community development block grants in coming months, perhaps the biggest battle will involve a proposed rail link from downtown, along the tracks of the Long Island Rail Road, to Kennedy International Airport and Long Island.
"This project must be treated as priority one," said Thomas A. Renyi, chairman and chief executive of the Bank of New York, which has been in Lower Manhattan for 220 years. In a speech on Wednesday to the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association, he said the link would open downtown to a "most underserved" pool of potential workers on Long Island.
But 51 percent of 646 Lower Manhattan residents surveyed three weeks ago by the Pace Poll at Pace University said they opposed construction of a rail link between downtown and Kennedy Airport if it used up all the federal grants. (The question did not mention the rest of Long Island.) Forty-two percent agreed with supporters.
And the rail link emerged as priority No. 5 in an informal poll of 150 New Yorkers at a meeting on Tuesday sponsored by the Regional Plan Association and the Fiscal Policy Institute. Those who attended put housing at the top of their lists.
"There is clearly a consensus forming in Lower Manhattan that the remaining rebuilding funds should support neighborhood projects, not a rail link to the airport," said David Dyssegaard Kallick, senior fellow at the institute, which assesses city and state budgets and economic issues.
Lower Manhattan is not alone in wrestling with the potential costs and benefits of ambitious transportation projects. Others under debate include the Second Avenue subway line, the westward extension of the No. 7 subway line and the opening of Grand Central Terminal to L.I.R.R. trains.
In the case of the Long Island-Lower Manhattan rail link, much depends on a study to be released next month that will recommend an actual route, which will in turn suggest the cost. Choices include digging a new tunnel under the East River or using the existing subway tunnels.
The issue downtown is not so much opposition to the link as it is a question of whether that project should be financed, even in part, by a block grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation was awarded $2.783 billion in grants, of which, the corporation said, it has now allocated $1,619,044,651.42.
That leaves the $1,163,955,348.58 in unallocated grants. A $50 million housing subsidy plan is currently going through public review. Aside from that, the rest of the money is not yet earmarked.
Without commenting specifically on any potential use for the money, Kevin M. Rampe, president of the development corporation, said Friday, "Our overall philosophy has certainly been that if you use public dollars to build infrastructure, that will lead to a growth in private development that will be critical in moving Lower Manhattan forward."
"Obviously," Mr. Rampe said, "we're not going to solve all of Lower Manhattan's problems with the $1 billion we have left."
Customarily, community development block grants are used to provide decent housing and economic opportunities for people with low or moderate incomes, to eliminate blight or to meet recent threats to a community's health or welfare.
But the language of the appropriation act for Lower Manhattan confers broader discretion. It said the money was being awarded for "assistance for properties and businesses damaged by, and for economic revitalization related to, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City, for the affected area of New York City."
Gov. George E. Pataki said through a spokeswoman on Friday that "both short-term initiatives and long-term projects are critical to rebuilding Lower Manhattan as a central business district that is also a vibrant, 24-hour mixed-use community."
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's vision for Lower Manhattan includes improving Fulton Street and the East River waterfront and encouraging the development of cultural institutions. "We still believe that L.I.R.R.-airport access, enhancing the connectivity to Lower Manhattan, is absolutely critical to maximize the potential of Lower Manhattan," Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff said on Friday. "But in addition, there are other investments that have to be made, truly creating the 24/7 community."
After the meeting Tuesday, Jeremy Soffin, the public affairs director of the Regional Plan Association, wrote in the association's newsletter, "The great irony here is that the best way to secure Lower Manhattan's place as a thriving business district may be to invest C.D.B.G. funds in creating nonbusiness activities - by investing in local economic development, civic amenities and arts and culture."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
May 4, 2004
Rail Tunnel Is Considered for L.I. Link to Manhattan
By DAVID W. DUNLAP and AL BAKER
Searching for a rail link from Lower Manhattan to Kennedy Airport and Long Island, the Pataki administration is poised to choose between building a new tunnel or using the existing Montague Street tunnel on the M, N and R subway lines.
The cost of a Long Island-Lower Manhattan link using the Montague Street tunnel has been put by officials and business executives at $5 billion to $5.5 billion. A new tunnel might add $1 billion to the cost.
Gov. George E. Pataki may declare the choice tomorrow in his semiannual progress report on downtown reconstruction. In these speeches, he typically lists recent accomplishments, makes several announcements and sets timetables for pending projects.
Often, such matters are in flux until the last minute, so the reluctance of state officials to discuss the rail link yesterday could reflect either genuine indecision or their concern about pre-empting the governor.
All that Lynn Rasic, a spokeswoman for the governor, would say was that Mr. Pataki will "announce new initiatives that will help revitalize downtown."
Mr. Pataki may simply disclose the winnowing of choices for an East River crossing to bring trains into Lower Manhattan from Long Island, through Jamaica in Queens and Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn. Using a new tunnel or the Montague Street tunnel would eliminate the idea, central to two alternatives, of sharing the Cranberry Street Tunnel on the A and C lines.
Four plans have been under study since February by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the city Economic Development Corporation. They had said they would announce their choice and a financing plan by the end of last month.
The State Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Democrat who represents much of Lower Manhattan, does not know which tunnel idea is favored, said a spokeswoman, Eileen Larrabee. But she added he had been pushing the governor, a Republican, for such a link to Long Island, "knowing it will be a real boost to rebuilding efforts."
Gene Russianoff, staff attorney of the New York Public Interest Research Group Straphangers Campaign, said, "It looks like the governor is leaning toward building a new under-river tunnel, but would not rule out using the existing tunnel." He said his group questioned the cost and benefit of a new tunnel, and opposed using the Montague Street tunnel because it would compromise subway service.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
http://www.newsday.com/
Pataki to support new LIRR tunnel
By Errol A. Cockfield and Joshua Robin
Staff Writer
May 3, 2004, 10:48 PM EDT
Gov. George Pataki in a speech Wednesday is expected to throw his support behind a $7 billion plan to build a new tunnel under the East River to bring Long Island Rail Road trains into lower Manhattan.
Pataki intends to make the announcement during remarks before a luncheon sponsored by the Association for a Better New York, a business and civic organization, at The Ritz-Carlton New York, sources familiar with the project said Monday.
Pataki also is expected to offer an alternative $5.8-billion plan that calls for LIRR trains to run through the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Montague Street tunnel, which now serves the M and R subway lines, sources said. Pataki is looking at a combination of federal and state funding, sources said.
But MTA officials favor building the new tunnel because such a project would prove less disruptive for existing service, the sources said.
If a new tunnel is created, it would be the authority's first underwater tunnel built since the 63rd Street tunnel was completed in 1989. That tunnel, which now carries subways, is slated to be a conduit for the East Side Access project, which will bring LIRR trains to Grand Central Terminal. .
People in "downtown Manhattan have complained about having a lack of commuter rail access since Grand Central Terminal opened in 1913," said one person briefed on Pataki's plan.
MTA spokesman, John McCarthy, declined to comment. Long Island Rail Road officials referred questions to the MTA.
A Pataki spokeswoman, Lynn Rasic, said, "No final decision has been made" about the governor's selected route.
Pataki's decision whittles down the options for linking the Island with lower Manhattan from four proposals to two. Originally, the governor proposed building a new tunnel, using the Montague Street tunnel, using the Cranberry Street tunnel now serving the A and C subway lines, or another option in which both the Montague and Cranberry street tunnels would be used.
The goal of the proposals is to provide a one-seat ride to lower Manhattan from Kennedy Airport as well as from the Jamaica Long Island Rail Road terminal.
Lower Manhattan business leaders have aggressively pushed for the rail link, arguing it is crucial for them to tap into the Long Island labor market through a proposed connection at Jamaica station.
"This project must be treated as priority one," Bank of New York chairman and chief executive Thomas Renyi told the Downtown Lower Manhattan Association in March.
But the proposal has drawn fire from critics who argue it could draw funding away from other important transportation initiatives, such as the Second Avenue Subway line and the East Side Access plan.
During his speech, Pataki also is expected to address the status of efforts to fund the building of a memorial at the World Trade Center site.
There will be a two-pronged effort to raise money for the memorial and other related activities. While a foundation will raise money to build the site, September's Mission, a victims family group, has been leading the 9/11 Campaign, to raise money for cultural programming.
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.
I wish they would consider tunneling across the east river at the end of Atlantic Avenue. There's already an old freight tunnel under the avenue, and I believe it ends up pretty close to the LIRR Flatbush Ave station.
And as a bonus, maybe they will be able to build an elevator from this new east river tunnel to Govenor's Island, giving folks some access to the island at last.
Perhaps the old freight tunnel is being considered as part of the cross-harbor project.
The old freight tunnel is not much of anything... it's the one Diamond planned on using in one of the stages of his trolley project. It's like 3 blocks longand might not be suitable for modern use (it was the first subway tunnel in the city)
May 6, 2004
Pataki Backs New Tunnel Under the East River
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
Gov. George E. Pataki threw his political weight yesterday behind a plan to dig a new tunnel under the East River as part of a $6 billion rail link from downtown to Kennedy Airport and points east along the Long Island Rail Road.
Mr. Pataki said the rail link would offer travelers a "one-seat ride to their terminal at J.F.K. in just 36 minutes" from Lower Manhattan. As an economic and political matter, the link would be even more important as the downtown gateway for up to 100,000 Long Island commuters, greatly expanding the capacity of businesses in the financial district to attract suburban workers who now live at least two train rides away.
In his semiannual progress report on Lower Manhattan, the governor set July 4 for groundbreaking at the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site. He said he and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg would create a Lower Manhattan construction command center next month to lessen what is sure to be a decade's worth of disruption.
Mr. Pataki told the Association for a Better New York in a lunchtime speech at the Ritz-Carlton New York in Battery Park City that the design of the new Fulton Street Transit Center would be unveiled May 26, that a pedestrian promenade would be constructed along West Street and that he hoped that a downtown community center could be created under the operation of the 92nd Street Y.
The governor then joined the developer Larry A. Silverstein for a tour of the 13th floor of 7 World Trade Center, which Mr. Silverstein is now building across Vesey Street from ground zero. It amounted to a demonstration of solidarity 219 feet in the sky.
Mr. Silverstein has lost a series of legal battles with his insurers that have reduced by about a third the $7.1 billion he had hoped to receive on the main trade center site, where he holds a 99-year lease. His setbacks have raised doubts about his ability to complete all six trade center office buildings.
But the governor said, "Larry's been a great partner from the beginning."
Barely audible over the din of work on the open steel structure, Mr. Pataki continued: "We're not going to let the vagaries and uncertainties of the court litigation process determine the future of the site. We're going to continue to move forward."
Mr. Silverstein added, "With the governor by my side, we'll get this done." He also allowed that it would take a "feat of financial engineering."
The highlight of the governor's speech was his embrace of a proposal for a new tunnel between Manhattan and Brooklyn to link Long Island and the city. An alternative being studied by state officials would be to use the existing Montague Street subway tunnel, through which M and R trains run.
Under the project favored by the governor, to be completed in 2013, travelers headed downtown from Kennedy would begin their journey on the existing AirTrain tracks that loop around the central terminal area and then along a viaduct in the middle of the Van Wyck Expressway to Jamaica, Queens.
There, a new 1,500-foot elevated connector would carry the train from the AirTrain tracks to the existing tracks of the L.I.R.R. Atlantic Branch, permitting the journey to continue almost as far as Atlantic Terminal on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn.
Just shy of the existing Atlantic Terminal, and joined to it through a new underground station, the three-mile tunnel would begin. It would burrow under Brooklyn and the East River into Lower Manhattan about 100 feet below ground. The tunnel would come close to Hanover Square, the intended terminus of the Second Avenue subway, and the World Trade Center, the existing terminus of the E train.
"The boring of this tunnel will create the capacity to extend additional rail lines - such as the Second Avenue subway and existing services such as the E train - across the East River from their endpoints in Lower Manhattan to Brooklyn and beyond," Mr. Pataki said.
Holding out something for subway riders whose journeys begin and end in Manhattan or the Bronx, the governor said that direct Long Island Rail Road service to downtown would reduce congestion on the No. 2 and No. 3 lines between Pennsylvania Station and the financial district.
Mr. Pataki said that both the new tunnel and the Montague Street tunnel options would be thoroughly analyzed in an environmental review process beginning this summer and that by the time the review was finished, "we will have secured the financing necessary to begin construction."
That would include at least $560 million from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; unspecified amounts from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, through its federal community development block grant, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority; and what may be as much as $2.5 billion in unused tax credits from the federal relief package for New York.
Senator Charles E. Schumer, who told the Regional Plan Association last month that he would fight to obtain transportation financing from unused tax benefits, said yesterday that he thought the cost estimates for the tunnel projects were high.
The association itself withheld an endorsement until there are more details but did say in a statement, "We are gratified that the favored alternative will utilize a new tunnel and not impact subway riders or existing service."
The New York Public Interest Research Group Straphangers Campaign said the new tunnel "makes sense only if it moves enough riders to be worth its high price tag" and called the ridership projections "weak or questionable."
The Labor Community Advocacy Network to Rebuild New York said community development grants intended to create jobs and housing "should not be sucked into a tunnel that, if it makes sense at all, needs a real comprehensive financing plan."
Mayor Bloomberg endorsed the idea of a new tunnel in December 2002. "To make Lower Manhattan a global center," he said at the time, "our first priority must be direct, one-seat airport access."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
A surprising but refreshing example of thinking big and long-term.
May 9, 2004
Seeing One Tunnel Too Many
By VIVIAN S. TOY
MARK HUDAK is an insurance defense lawyer from Uniondale who travels to Lower Manhattan at least three times a week for court appearances.
Like many commuters, he has tested different railroad and subway combinations to try to shave as many minutes as possible from his travel time. His current favored option takes about 70 minutes and involves changing trains at Jamaica and switching to a subway at the Long Island Rail Road's Atlantic/Flatbush terminal in Brooklyn.
Even though the last leg of his morning journey is the shortest, he said, "waiting for the subway is when I consider my work day beginning, because it's the toughest part of the trip. The rest is more relaxed and predictable."
So, like other commuters destined for Lower Manhattan who were interviewed last week at the Mineola train station, Mr. Hudak said he welcomed a plan proposed by Governor Pataki on Wednesday that would finally create a one-seat ride from Lower Manhattan to Kennedy Airport and the Jamaica terminal of the Long Island Rail Road.
"Anything that takes us anywhere near downtown without having to switch to a subway would make perfect sense," Mr. Hudak said. He added, though, that he would reserve final judgment until he determined how much time and money he would save from the proposed train link.
Mr. Pataki proposed a $6 billion plan to build a new tunnel under the East River that would link Lower Manhattan to Kennedy Airport and Long Island. He said the new rail link could cut 15 minutes from a Long Islander's commute to downtown Manhattan and could handle up to 100,000 passengers a day.
"Long Islanders as well as Queens and Brooklyn commuters will experience a more direct and more comfortable trip to Lower Manhattan," Mr. Pataki said. He said the new link would reduce congestion on subways that carry Long Island riders from Penn Station or the Atlantic Terminal and would also strengthen the competitiveness of the airport by giving air travelers a 36-minute connection from Kennedy to Manhattan.
The plan would allow riders to get to Lower Manhattan from the airport and the Jamaica railroad terminal in Queens in a newly designed hybrid vehicle that would travel on the tracks of the AirTrain and altered tracks of the Long Island Rail Road. The new train would travel from the airport, through Jamaica and Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn and then through the new tunnel into Manhattan.
The proposal is also supported by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but perhaps the loudest and most persistent lobbyists for the new connection have been downtown business leaders, who feel that Lower Manhattan has for too long been at a competitive disadvantage to Midtown because it lacks one-seat access to the suburbs.
But there has been no corresponding clamor for the rail link from Long Islanders. Indeed, business leaders, transit advocates and planning experts have questioned the need for the project, particularly when limited transportation dollars are needed for other projects they deem more pressing, particularly the East Side Access plan to connect the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal.
Transit advocates said last week that they were skeptical of the estimate that the downtown link would cut a commute by 15 minutes, and noted that only those Long Islanders who are headed to the World Trade Center area, where the train would stop, would actually achieve those savings. Others who work farther downtown or uptown would still have to walk or take a subway to get to their jobs, reducing any time savings.
"The downtown link is not the highest priority for Long Island, from our perspective," said Mitchell H. Pally, the vice president for government affairs at the Long Island Association, the Island's largest business group. "We're not opposed to it, but there are more important projects that we want to make sure are implemented and finished."
Beverly Dolinsky, executive director of the Long Island Rail Road Commuter's Council, agreed. "We don't support downtown access because it's very, very expensive and the case has not been made that enough people would use it and we're dealing with scarce dollars," she said. The Regional Plan Association, a nonprofit agency that focuses on 31 counties in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, estimated that only 5,000 to 8,000 riders might use the new link during peak hours, based on current ridership figures. The association did its analysis prior to the governor's announcement, which relied on recommendations made in a joint study done by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the city Economic Development Corporation.
"In terms of cost benefit and the number of riders it would benefit, it just doesn't make sense," Ms. Dolinsky said. "You're going to spend $6 billion for 5,000 riders at rush hour?" Estimates for the proposed $17 billion Second Avenue subway anticipate 220,000 riders on its first day.
Mr. Pataki said last week that the Port Authority had already committed $560 million for the downtown rail link and that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation would also kick in some funding. There also is an estimated $2.8 billion left from the $21 billion federal relief package designated for Lower Manhattan after Sept. 11 that could be tapped.
But opponents of the downtown link fear that the governor ultimately will also have to seek federal transportation dollars, and the downtown link will then come in direct competition with other Long Island transportation projects, particularly given the governor's timetable for the new tunnel. Mr. Pataki said he expected to begin the formal environmental review process for the downtown rail link this summer. He said he hoped to see construction begin in 2006 and have service begin in 2013.
Senator Charles E. Schumer said he supports the idea of a rail link to downtown, but only if the federal relief package for Lower Manhattan can cover the bulk of its cost. "I think this is a good idea for downtown and for Long Island, but we should not use transit bill money to build it," he said. "That money should go to East Side Access and other transportation projects."
Mr. Pally said that other Long Island railroad projects that should have higher priority include the East Side Access project, which is scheduled for completion in 2012, and a third track on the railroad's Main Line, which would allow a significant expansion of service between Bellerose and Hicksville and is supposed to be completed in 2016. Even longer-range projects like transportation alternatives in the Nassau Hub, the expansion of Route 347 on the North Shore of Suffolk County and the building of a new freight tunnel under New York Harbor, which would reduce truck traffic on Long Island, should take precedence, he added.
"All these projects would impact more people and provide additional options for Long Islanders," Mr. Pally said. "With the limited amount of state and federal funding that's out there, these other projects should definitely take priority."
Gene Russianoff, staff attorney of the New York Public Interest Research Group Straphangers Campaign, said the M.T.A. and the federal government would be hard-pressed to come up with additional funding to help pay the $6 billion price tag for the downtown rail link. "How do you do that while still progressing the Second Avenue subway and East Side Access, which in our view are the region's top priorities?" he asked. "The M.T.A. already has big capital needs to fix and maintain the existing system and is already challenged to find resources for new projects."
Jon Orcutt, an associate director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a nonprofit transit advocacy group, said he was pleased that the governor last week expressed a clear preference for a new tunnel over proposals to use existing subway tunnels. "That takes away the political problem of having to battle subway riders and disrupting their service," he said. "But then it just becomes another one of these big-ticket projects in search of funding."
He and other transit advocates warned that while planning for East Side Access is complete, the $6.3 billion needed to finish the project has not yet been secured. "The Long Island Rail Road's entire network strategy for the 21st century revolves around it," Mr. Orcutt said. "And it's already unclear how they're going to pay for it."
Planning for the East Side Access project began about 30 years ago. A two-level tunnel connecting Manhattan to Queens at 63rd Street was completed in 1989, but it only extends to Second Avenue in Manhattan and does not connect to existing rail lines in Queens. The subway system has been using the upper level of the tunnel for the last decade, but the lower level was intended for the Long Island Rail Road and has never been used.
John McCarthy, a spokesman for the M.T.A., said work to finally connect the empty tunnel to the railroad began last winter, including the building of a rail yard in Long Island City and the opening of a hole in Sunnyside to eventually complete the tunnel connection. The project involves building 3.5 more miles of tunnel and a new station that would go beneath the existing Grand Central concourse. The M.T.A. so far has committed $1.5 billion to the project and M.T.A. officials hope to have the federal government foot half of the total $6.3 billion cost.
The Regional Plan Association has long been an advocate for East Side Access, because some 60,000 Long Island commuters would save up to 22 minutes in travel time each way once Long Island Rail Road trains can stop at Grand Central. "It would strengthen the economy of Long Island by making it a much more attractive place to live for commuters who work in the city," said Jeffrey Zupan, a transportation expert with the association.
But the group has been more circumspect about the downtown rail link because it would end at the World Trade Center transportation center, and does not offer other stops in Lower Manhattan. The group has also recommended that any new tunnel be connected to the proposed Second Avenue subway, which then could be extended into Brooklyn. "The tunnel then would have a huge value for people in Brooklyn who now have very limited options for getting into the East Side of Manhattan," Mr. Zupan said. "The only way for a new tunnel to make sense is to connect it to the rest of the system."
Last week, Mr. Pataki stressed that while the proposed downtown link would end at the World Trade Center Transportation Center, it eventually could be extended to the Second Avenue subway or other existing subway lines. He and other proponents for the new tunnel said they did not believe it would compete for federal dollars with East Side Access or other projects.
"East Side Access is moving ahead as it should," said Carl Weisbrod, president of the Alliance for Downtown New York. "And the downtown rail link is a project that complements and supports East Side Access because it will strengthen the Long Island labor market and the Long Island economy's connection to the New York City region."
Mr. Weisbrod played down estimates for ridership on the new link that are based on current commuter statistics. "This is a different kind of transportation project and you have to view this more as an economic development project," he said.
The estimated 5,000 Long Island commuters who now come into Lower Manhattan during each peak travel hour "are hardy souls who make a very, very difficult commute to Lower Manhattan," Mr. Weisbrod said. New Jersey residents, on the other hand, have a much easier trip and as a result make up 25 percent of the downtown workforce, he added.
"Long Island ridership will increase dramatically once the opportunity for a much easier commute is available," he said. "That's why we have to view this project not just from the viewpoint of how it serves existing riders, but as a way of creating opportunity for the region as a whole."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
It's not just about Long Islanders coming downtown, a direct link to JFK would be equally about the thousands of people coming through the airport. They never mention those numbers.
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