In NYC, Throwing Good Infrastructure Money After Bad
Ten billion dollars — for a bus station. And if other projects are any guide, this price tag for a Port Authority Bus Terminal replacement is only going up from there.
That's after we've committed: $4.2 billion at the PATH World Trade Center station; $1.4 billion for the Fulton St. subway station; $11 billion for the East Side Access project; $4.5 billion for just two miles of the Second Ave. Subway, and $2.3 billion for a single station extension of the 7-train.
Having grown numb to multi-billion price tags for building almost anything, New Yorkers might not know just how messed up all this is. In any other American city, even just one of these fiascoes might well have sunk the entire town.
For example, former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley attempted to construct an underground “superstation” in the middle of downtown for an express train he hoped to build to O'Hare Airport. Mothballed when the shell was complete after blowing the budget, this was one of his biggest boondoggles. But it still only cost his city $200 million — lemonade-stand money by New York standards.
New York even looks bad in a worst-case comparison with London's $22 billion Crossrail project. For that money, London is getting a 73-mile train line, including 26 miles of new tunnels, and service at 40 stations, including 10 brand new ones.
Why do New York's projects cost so much? Disturbingly, no one actually knows.
We know some of the possible culprits. A combination of factors such as Buy American rules, union featherbedding, unique rail standards, excessive environmental review requirements for transit and our litigious culture all play a role. Fragmented governance and a lack of accountability may be keys as well.
None of this has stopped our leaders from promising more and more big transportation projects, often based on shoddy research. Facing a $15-billion, five-year hole in the MTA capital plan, Gov. Cuomo out of the blue announced a dubious LaGuardia airtrain nobody was asking for.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie flushing $600 million down the drain before he unilaterally pulled the plug on badly needed new rail tunnels under the Hudson. Not only was that project overpriced, it wouldn't have connected to existing rail lines but instead dumped passengers at a deep new station 180 feet under 34th St.
Also unable to work and play well with others, the LIRR is building its own deep station underneath Grand Central for its East Side Access project, this one 140 feet (about 12 stories) below ground.
How does New York get away with this level of foolishness?
Money covers a multitude of sins. Gotham's powerhouse economy spins off oceans of cash. This makes it all too easy for politicians to pretend to fix immediate problems by throwing more money at them.
New York is also so desirable that people are willing to put up with a lot to live and do business here. That includes overcrowded trains and subpar airports, not just high rents and taxes.
But not even this region can make bad decisions forever without reaping the consequences. New Jersey commuters face two years of pain to repair Hurricane Sandy damage to the lone pair of Hudson rail tunnels. The MTA has a huge hole in its capital plan and troubling levels of debt. Declining subway service levels and over-packed trains are a reality today.
Make no mistake, New York needs to spend money on its transit system — especially to keep basic service at a high level. But wasting billions upon billions of dollars on a half-dozen high-profile projects gets us no closer to that crucial goal.
Mayor de Blasio just went to Boston to join other mayors in calling for more federal transportation spending. But how can New York demand Congress do its job if the city and region won't take care of its own by doing its part to stop this insanity?
This piece originally appeared in New York Daily News
This piece originally appeared in New York Daily News