The New York city metro area transit authority relies disproportionately on its riders for funding, compared to other major cities around the country. As evidenced once again by a fare increase this past week. Given the extremely positive environmental impact of increased transit use, making our country's best transit system even more effective is worth some serious attention from federal and state government in coming years. Two thirds of the country's rail users ride on New York MTA systems. In the hopes that more funding will appear, MTA director Elliot Sander has proposed an ambitious expansion plan that could greatly expand ridership and reduce automobile use in the NYC area in coming decades.
The question is - can they get the money, and can they actually get it done? The MTA has had ambitious plans before that have simply been left on the shelf. The Second Avenue Subway has been discussed since 1929, but only finally saw realistic construction begin last year.
The following were the specific ideas outlined by Director Sander's recent talk, as noted on the NY Times blog:
He proposed extending the Second Avenue subway to Lower Manhattan, where the line would then travel under the East River and on to Downtown Brooklyn and Jamaica, Queens, via the Long Island Rail Road’s Atlantic Avenue branch, with a connection to the AirTrain to Kennedy International Airport. The Second Avenue subway could connect to new tracks on land owned by the L.I.R.R. in Queens. Tracks on Rockaway Beach could be used to provide new rail access to southern Queens. The Regional Plan Association’s circumferential subway line, meanwhile, would convert a lightly used Bay Ridge freight line into a subway service that would run in an arc from southern Brooklyn to Queens to the Bronx.
Mr. Sander also envisioned expanding Metro-North service to Co-op City, Parkchester and Hunts Point in the Bronx. Also in the Bronx, he discussed the possibility of extending the D train north and east to connect with the No. 2 and 5 subway stations at Gun Hill Road for more direct connections between the central Bronx and Manhattan’s West Side. The Metro-North Williams Bridge station nearby could be part of a new subway and train hub.
On Staten Island, the northern and western shores could be "excellent candidates for bus rapid transit and light-rail efforts.
Mr. Sander mentioned the possibility of expanding the use of shuttle trains on Long Island; allowing Metro-North trains to travel over the Tappan Zee bridge to Orange and Rockland Counties; and developing a second AirTrain service, to La Guardia Airport, by building a new link from the L.I.R.R. station at Woodside, Queens, along or above existing rail and highway rights-of-way.
I fly out of LaGuardia far more than JFK, so I'd love the AirTrain link there. But more importantly, the list of projects just goes to show that even in the most heavily transit-oriented region of the US, there's tons of room for improvement. The story is surely even more true in Chicago, Washington DC, in the west coast cities and down south. Hundreds of billions of dollars could fruitfully be spent on making public transit more abundant around the nation. In the era of $104+-dollar oil, with hundreds of thousands of people out of work, doesn't this seem like a no-brainer? Let's get on it, congress!!!