Text size:

Ferries and free buses top transit 'wish list'

By Marlene Naanes, amNewYork Staff Writer
More stories | MNaanes@am-ny.com

October 17, 2008

A subway line across 125th Street, a Manhattan-bound ferry from Bay Ridge and free cross-town buses are all part of a blueprint for the future transit system released Thursday.

Regional Plan Association, a transit and planning think tank, suggested new train, bus and ferry services that stretch into parts of New York that are poor, densely populated and do not have adequate access to transit. The report comes on the heels of local elected and transit officials calling on the federal government to invest in transit as part of an economic recovery package.

"In every recent recession, government has invested in transit and infrastructure to spur recovery," said Thomas K. Wright, executive director of the association. "Today we lay out a roadmap for what these priority transit investments should be."

Some fixes include lower-cost ideas like adding another entrance to the First Avenue L train station. Others involve costly new subway lines that build onto delayed, large projects, such as the Second Avenue Subway.

The Regional Plan Association's ideas are only suggestions. It's unclear what if anything could be done given the MTA's ballooning future deficits and already stalled expansion projects.

"This report makes clear that investment in transit is critical to the region's economy, environment and mobility," MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin said. "It is especially important that we continue to invest in hard times [and] never stop planning for the future."

Some of the suggestions include:
-Bringing the Second Avenue Subway in Manhattan up 3rd Avenue in the Bronx.

-Extending the No. 2 and 5 lines to Kings Highway in Brooklyn.

-Constructing a 125th Street subway from the Second Avenue Subway to the west side.

-Connecting Queensborough Plaza, Queens Plaza and the E, F, G and V lines at Court Square.

-Establishing ferry services from southern Staten Island and Bay Ridge.

-No-fare rides on the 34th, 42nd, and 50th Street crosstown buses.

Transit advocates backed the report.