More money slated for transit system.

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Author: McGregor, Susan E.1

Of four proposals that will appear on the ballot this year, the one whose effects city voters may feel most directly is the Transportation Bond Act, which would allow the state to take on $2.9 billion in debt to maintain and expand transportation all over the state.

That money, half of which would go to New York City, would provide hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain and upgrade current city transportation services. It would also provide funding for major capital improvements, such as the expansion of LIRE service to include Grand Central and the creation of a Second Avenue subway line.

Supporters argue that the Bond Act is critical to ensuring continued modernization of the city's transit system, and that without the funding provided by the Bond Act, the MTA would have to take out loans that could lead to future fare hikes.

Moreover, passage of the Bond Act would guarantee an additional $4 billion in federal matching funds for expansion projects, according to Mercedes Padilla, a spokeswoman for the MTA. Critics of the act charge that the state can ill-afford to incur new debt.

Some of the expansion projects, which would account for $1 billion of the city's $1.45 billion share of the Bond Act funding, are already underway. The East Side Access (ESA) project, currently in its sixth year of development, would receive $450 million. Major components of the ESA include a new LIRE station in Sunnyside, Queens, that would connect the Main and Port Washington lines to a new terminal at Grand Central. The MTA projects that this will decrease morning congestion on lines between Grand Central and Penn stations, as "well as provide an alternative route to the east side from Queens and reduce commute times for LIER passengers.

Also in progress is the Second Avenue subway line, which would run from 125th Street down Second Avenue to just below Wall Street, sharing stops with the Broadway express line until 72nd Street. Accounting for another $450 million in the Bond Act budget, the line would help relieve congestion on the Lexington Avenue line, whose current overcrowding would be compounded by completion of the ESA. The project entered its final design phase in 2004.

The Bond Act would also provide $100 million for preliminary development of a possible Lower Manhattan/JFK rail link, which would consist of a new tunnel connecting Lower Manhattan to Jamaica and the existing JFK Airtran via the Atlantic Branch of the LIRE with a single stop in downtown Brooklyn.

Additional funding for these projects will come from an anticipated $350 million annually, provided by a 1/8% sales tax increase and higher fees for both registering vehicles and recording mortgages contained in the state budget. However, without the Bond Act funding, the MTA would have to "revisit the capital program" in order to determine the future of both the ESA and the Second Avenue subway.

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By Susan E. McGregor, Special to the AmNews