East Side Access is what the New York City transportation gurus call the line by which trains from the Long Island Railroad will be able to go to Grand Central Terminal instead of Penn Station. The estimate is that 160,000 riders would use such a line each day. Sounds great, doesn't it? People commuting from Long Island to the east side of Midtown Manhattan would have their commutes shortened by up to half an hour. The problem is, however, that while this sounds great, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been unable to complete the project.
Years ago, I used to represent the Long Island Railroad as an attorney. In the 1990's they were busy preparing for the day when the East Side Access line was built. It took seemingly forever to get the work going, but in 2007, the work finally began. All that had to be constructed was two tunnels and tracks: one under Manhattan and one in Queens. The tunnel under the East River was already in place; it had been completed in the 1970s ready for future use. The total length of the tunnels that needed to be built was a little over one mile long. The construction also required making some changes to Grand Central Terminal so that there would be adequate tracks for the new trains.
Thirteen years later, the project still hasn't opened. In fact, it is now scheduled to open three years from now in December of 2022. This is about ten years behind the original schedule. The original budget was for a project to cost a little over 3 billion dollars, an extremely expensive project. The current expected cost is about 4 times that amount, and it rises every year.
East Side Access is proof of just how incompetent government can be, especially in a place like New York City.
But it gets worse. There's also connecting the trains from Connecticut and Westchester County to Penn Station. You see, if East Side Access is ever completed, there will be room at Penn Station to bring trains from north of the city into that hub. The tracks already exist to carry those trains. The city insists, however, that if the trains use that line, there must be new stations built in the Bronx so that riders there can also use these trains. That makes sense. What doesn't make sense is that the budget for those stations is now approaching $2 billion. Three small train stations for two billion dollars. No doubt, when they get built, the cost will go up to 5 or 10 billion dollars. And remember, those trains could actually be running today, just without those three stations.
Sometimes you see signs that say "your tax dollars at work". When it comes to this project, maybe "your tax dollars wasted" would make more sense.
Years ago, I used to represent the Long Island Railroad as an attorney. In the 1990's they were busy preparing for the day when the East Side Access line was built. It took seemingly forever to get the work going, but in 2007, the work finally began. All that had to be constructed was two tunnels and tracks: one under Manhattan and one in Queens. The tunnel under the East River was already in place; it had been completed in the 1970s ready for future use. The total length of the tunnels that needed to be built was a little over one mile long. The construction also required making some changes to Grand Central Terminal so that there would be adequate tracks for the new trains.
Thirteen years later, the project still hasn't opened. In fact, it is now scheduled to open three years from now in December of 2022. This is about ten years behind the original schedule. The original budget was for a project to cost a little over 3 billion dollars, an extremely expensive project. The current expected cost is about 4 times that amount, and it rises every year.
East Side Access is proof of just how incompetent government can be, especially in a place like New York City.
But it gets worse. There's also connecting the trains from Connecticut and Westchester County to Penn Station. You see, if East Side Access is ever completed, there will be room at Penn Station to bring trains from north of the city into that hub. The tracks already exist to carry those trains. The city insists, however, that if the trains use that line, there must be new stations built in the Bronx so that riders there can also use these trains. That makes sense. What doesn't make sense is that the budget for those stations is now approaching $2 billion. Three small train stations for two billion dollars. No doubt, when they get built, the cost will go up to 5 or 10 billion dollars. And remember, those trains could actually be running today, just without those three stations.
Sometimes you see signs that say "your tax dollars at work". When it comes to this project, maybe "your tax dollars wasted" would make more sense.
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