MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber warned at a recent Civic Conversation transportation forum sponsored by the Citizens Union that failure to start congestion pricing would delay many capital projects, including the $6.9 billion Second Avenue Subway Phase 2, and was nothing new.
I have previously written for several years that the MTA’s $51 billion 2020-2024 Five Year Capital Plan’s financial dependency on $15 billion in revenue generated by tolls was never realistic. I also pointed out that safety and state of good repair projects along with increasing the number of NYC Transit’s 473 subway stations to be ADA-accessible was always a higher priority than any system expansion projects, such as the $6.9 billion Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 and $2.6 billion Metro North New Haven Line, Bronx East, Penn Station Access projects.
The previous MTA Chairman Pat Foye always blamed President Trump along with his management team at the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Transit Administration for delays in implementation of congestion pricing. Current MTA Chairman Janno Lieber, by comparison, doesn’t offer the same criticism of President Biden, DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg or FTA Administrator Nuria Fernandez for the same lack of progress.
The FTA will never agree to offer the MTA a $6.9 billion Full Funding Grant Agreement, which would include $3.4 billion in federal funding to pay for the Second Avenue Subway Phase 2, until the MTA can provide documentation that it actually has $3.5 billion in local funding. This is a legal requirement to obtain the federal dollars.
It is time for Lieber to admit that the $6.9 billion Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 project needs to be postponed until the next MTA 2025 – 2029 Five Year Capital Plan.
Since November 2019, then New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo delayed announcing his appointments to the MTA Traffic Mobility Review Board. Even former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio filled his one seat in July 2021. Since taking office New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has never made it one of her transit-related priorities to fill her five seats.
Lieber claims Hochul is a big supporter of congestion pricing. He is strangely silent in not holding Hochul also accountable for her delays, which contributed to the lack of progress for implementation of congestion pricing.
Larry Penner
Great Neck
(Larry Penner — transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously worked for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 New York Office. This included the development, review, approval and oversight for billions in capital projects and programs for the MTA, NYC Transit, Long Island & Metro North Rail Roads MTA Bus, NYC DOT, New Jersey Transit along with 30 other transit agencies in NY & NJ).
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