Posted Jun 30, 2010, 10:56 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Borough of Jersey
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http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100630/FREE/100639981#
Stand by for a No. 7 stop at 41st and 10th Ave.
City figures out how to accommodate a second stop on MTA's extension of the No.7 line from Times Square to the far West Side. The catch? There are no plans to build it.
By Erik Engquist
June 30, 2010
Quote:
A Tenth Avenue station for the No. 7 subway line extension might be possible after all, the Bloomberg administration has discovered.
While there are no plans to build the station, the administration now believes its ongoing project to extend the No. 7 to 11th Avenue and 33rd Street from Times Square will not preclude the construction of a midpoint station in the future, or add to its anticipated cost of $500 million.
However, for the Tenth Avenue station to be built at that price, it would have to have separate entrances for the eastbound and westbound platforms. It has been decades since the Metropolitan Transportation Authority built stations that way, but the MTA has agreed to the concept in this instance. The Bloomberg administration is applying for a $3 million federal grant for an engineering study to see if such a design is feasible.
The news brought cheers from elected officials and real estate interests, who had been advocating for the station at Tenth Avenue between 41st and 42nd streets, and had been told previously that it would be prohibitively expensive if the design of the tunnel were not changed. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, whose district includes the West Side, said a midpoint station is “far beyond a convenience” for residents and businesses in the area.
“We had been at a spot where the train looked derailed,” Ms. Quinn said. “The train is back on the track. All of us on the West Side are very grateful that the mayor has taken this step.”
Construction of the station is, at best, years away, because the cash-strapped MTA cannot spare $500 million. “But without this action, and without this redesign, there would not even be hope that a station could be built,” said Mary Ann Tighe, chairwoman of the Real Estate Board of New York, in a statement. “Now the residents and businesses located in this area, and those still to come to the Far West Side, will know that a station is still possible.”
Ms. Tighe had led the private sector's lobbying to preserve the possibility of a 10th Avenue station.
The city, in an unusual arrangement, is paying more than $2 billion for the MTA's extension of the line but has its own budget constraints and is not willing to pony up another half-billion dollars. The mayor's office had also refused to delay or add costs to the extension project to accommodate a Tenth Avenue station directly above the tunnel.
Strong advocacy from elected officials and real estate executives for the $3 million grant to study the idea makes it likely that New York will get it from Washington.
“This funding is an important first step in fulfilling the promise made to thousands of residents and businesses who moved to the Far West Side because they believed they would have convenient transportation built in the near future,” REBNY President Steven Spinola said in a statement.
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