Giuliani Restores $250 Million to MTA Capital Program

NYC Budget Director and MTA Board member Abe Lackman announced November 14 that the Giuliani Administration would restore $250 million of the $750 million it had cut from the MTA's five-year rebuilding program. The announcement came as the MTA was preparing to approve

a list of the station rehabilitations and other capital projects it would defer as a result of Giuliani's cuts. Following the announcement, the MTA removed the Main Street-Flushing Station (#7 train) in Queens from the deferral list. Lackman denied that the Mayor had struck a deal with the MTA

over the station, but transit officials told the NY Times that the restoration of funds was a quid pro quo for keeping Main Street-Flushing in the capital program. The widely held view was that the substantial support received by the Mayor in Flushing in the 1993 election led the station project to

become an Administration priority. Because the deferral list the MTA will approve next week only accounts for the first $500 million in City cuts, other projects totalling the $39 million slated for Main Street Flushing will still have to be identified and removed from the capital plan.

NY Newsday challenged Mayor Giuliani to restore the other $500 million in capital program cuts in a Nov 16 editorial, and offered support for MTA board member Bernard Beal's proposal to recycle the Transit Authority's current operating surplus into the capital fund. The Mayor wants to cut the

City's contribution to the operating fund by the amount of the TA surplus.

Meanwhile, Upper West Side politicians threatened to ask the National Transportation Safety Board to examine conditions at the Broadway-72nd Street station, whose reconstruction was recently postponed by the MTA. Assembly Member Scott Stringer and State Senator Manfred Ohrenstein

discussed working with U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler to begin an investigation into severe rush hour platform crowding at the station.

At present, the MTA's proposed NYC transit project deferral list is as follows:

Project (subway line) Cost ($ millions)

161st Street-Concourse 10

Line (C/D)

Pelham Parkway (2/5) 20

Eastern Parkway (J/Z) 17

Lorimer Street (L) 10

Broadway Junction (L) 8

Atlantic 49

Avenue/Pacific St.

Complex

(2/3/4/5/B/D/M/N/R/Q)

Broadway-East New York 14

(A/C)

Metropolitan Avenue 8

(G)

Utica Avenue (3/4) 17

34th Street (A/C/E) 41

Roosevelt Avenue 47

(E/F/G/R)

74th Street-Broadway 14

(7)

Queensboro Plaza (7/N) 14

Staten Island Railway:

St. George,

Tompkinsville,

Stapleton, Richmond

Valley, New Dorp,

Tottenville stations

Franklin Avenue 80

Shuttle

126th Street Parking 8

Structure

Station Lighting 44

Transit Police and 19

Rapid Transit

Operations Offices

East 180th Street 21

Yards Signals

Telecom Cable 7

Equipment

Modernization

3 Pumps: Flushing Line 9

Total $461 million

The MTA Board will meet Tuesday, November 22 at 9:30 am at the MTA headquarters at 347 Madison Avenue, Manhattan, to amend its capital plan to incorporate the project deferrals listed above. The Coalition to Save the Franklin Avenue Shuttle will turn out for the meeting, and requests

that Tri-State Transportation Campaign groups attend and speak in favor of restoring funding for the Brooklyn line. The start of the meeting includes a public speaking period -- two minutes for each speaker. The Coalition argues that the Shuttle is in imminent danger of collapse. The

Straphangers Campaign and the NYC Transit Riders Council have compiled a list of projects valued at several times the estimated cost of refurbishing the Shuttle. The groups argue that some of these projects should be deferred in favor of getting reconstruction work underway on the central

Brooklyn Shuttle during the MTA's 3rd Capital Plan. Contact the Straphangers Campaign, 212-349-6460.