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MTA: Big delay for Second Avenue subway

By Marlene Naanes and Steve Ritea | mnaanes@am-ny.com

February 28, 2008

NEW YORK - The Second Avenue Subway will be delayed yet again, nearly a century after it was first proposed. Rising construction costs have pushed back the long-awaited companion to the overcrowded Lexington Avenue line until June 2015, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Wednesday.

Commuters on the packed downtown platform at the 51st and Lexington station were in no mood to sympathize during the Wednesday's evening rush hour. "It's bordering on incompetence at this point," said Max Chee, 35, who was trying to get home to Park Slope. "By the time it's eventually ready I'll be retired."

The one-year delay - the second such postponement in recent months - affects the first stage of the Second Avenue line that will connect 96th Street to 63rd Street.

David Guin, a lawyer who lives in the West Village, sat on a bench watching the shiny metal No. 6 trains that resembled sardine cans rumble past.

"I wait for at least one or two, sometimes three trains to go by before I get on," Guin said. "Anything that would relieve the congestion on this line would do a lot."

MTA Chief Elliot Sander said after a board meeting Wednesday that delaying completion of the Second Avenue line and other projects would allow the agency to save money by signing smaller contracts for each job.

The increased costs of construction also put the brakes on plans to connect the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal. The East Side Access plan to ease crowding in Penn Station will not debut until February 2015, about seven months later than the previously estimated.

The delays were revealed in the MTA's 2008-2013 Capital Plan that the authority will submit to the state legislature for approval. The $29.5 billion capital budget depends on $4.5 billion in revenues from congestion pricing, which would charge motorists $8 to drive below 60th street in Manhattan during peak hours. The state legislature and city council must act on congestion pricing before a March 31 deadline or risk losing $354.5 million in federal funds for mass transit.

With roughly one million more people expected to live in the city by 2030, "these investments are crucial to that growth," Sander said.

Approval by the Legislature is vital, he said, noting after the meeting: "I think the stakes are about as high as they could be."

In a statement Wednesday, Gov. Eliot Spitzer called it "a well-considered plan for critical investments" that "also reflects the challenging fiscal times." For riders on the Lexington line, the immediate challenge last night was to get home.

Jonas Katzoff, 28, took the news of a delay to the Second Avenue plan in stride as he headed home to Murray Hill. "You just kind of just laugh at it at this point."

Steve Ritea is a Newsday staff writer. Matthew Sweeney and the Associated Press contributed to this story.