NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Wednesday released a 20-year assessment of the transit system’s needs over the next 20 years, calling it an “unconstrainted view of the MTA’s needs, rather than constraining it to meet an arbitrary budget target.”
The resulting document, entitled “The Future Rides With Us,” is available here. (A detailed appendix, including a full accounting of the agency’s assets, is available here.) The report, developed over a two-year period, will be used to help form the agency’s 2025-29 capital spending plan, as well as assessing potential long-term expansion projects.
The report details assets including 8,747 railcars, 1,907 miles of track, 704 passenger stations, 101 maintenance shops, and 68 rail yards. Among the projects it calls for are:
— For New York City Transit, replacement of aging electrical substations and installation of Communications Based Train Control for 90% of trips by 2045;
— For Metro-North Railroad, reconstruction of the Grand Central Train Shed, Park Avenue Tunnel and Park Avenue Viaduct; additional measures to address flooding from sea-level rise and heavy rain on the Hudson Line; and the need to replace platforms at 19 stations on the Harlem Line because of deteriorating conditions;
— For the Long Island Rail Road, structural rehabilitation and improvement of the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel; replacement or rehabilitation of 60 to 100 bridges and 11 to 23 viaducts; upgrading of 50 miles of signal systems, particularly on five branch lines; and completion of Centralized Train Control.
“The MTA has never undertaken a 20-Year Needs Assessment fed by this level of comprehensive data and analysis,” MTA CEO Janno Lieber said at a Wednesday press conference. “… This detailed evaluation tells the whole story, laying bare the urgent need for renewal and improvement of the system’s existing infrastructure and to prepare for climate change.” MTA Construction and Development President Jamie Torres Springer said the agency “is a $1.5 trillion asset and keeping it running is critical to the New York region,” adding that the assessment “will serve as a blueprint for how we can tackle the challenges we face and deliver the future our riders deserve.”
Regarding electification of the LIRR in the so called farm country. The Oyster Bay branch is the only branch that is non electrified in Nassau County and many years ago the LIRR was planning to convert that line to electri and only got as far as East Williston before the snobby and high minded residents that live north of Williston and along the Oyster Bay fought against electrification and carried on a very spirited and instense campaign to prevent the LIRR from ging forward with their plan amid concerns that it spur overgrowth and development. Well so many years later nothing has changed and service on the Oyster Bay branch except for rush hour is miminal and for a time the LIRR was terminating the Oyster Bay trains at Mineola during the day with transfer and connections to the electric trains going into Jamaica and the city. The LIRR even experimented using a battery operated set of converted MU cars to run direct trains to Oyster Bay thus avoiding any change at Jamaica or Mineola but the tests failed and that idea was scrapped. To this day the Oyster Bay line is still no electrified and is served by diesel trains and most likely will stay that way for the foreseeable future. Otherwise all other diesel trains run into and serve Suffolk County Port Jefferson, Greenport and the Hamptons and Montauk
Joseph C. Markfelder
Like I said in my previous post The quality and workmanship is no longer there and the more technology and gadgets and gizmos you put in the new equipment doesn’t improve the durability and relability of thes new cars and locomotives. Look at the old BMT Standard subway cars, the IRT Low Voltage cars and BMT Triplex equipment and also a mention to the first subway cars built for the IND , the R1 through R9 series. Maybe the equipment wasn’t fancy or equiped with today’s technology but those cars were rugged and performed and did the job they were built for. After all people weren’t going into outer space or going deep sea exploring but just taveling to and from home to work, schools and shopping and just wanted dependable on time service and subway cars that got them to where they needed to go. Today everybody wants technology and fancy gizmos and are not concerned with durability or reliability. Today things cost more to make and manufacture but the value and dependability is no longer there. Of course there is a hidden agenda in all this Manufacturers make things to wear out quicker so that the need is always there to keep replacing every few years and make a nice profit for themselves and pad their pockets with that money made form continous building and replacing every few years. Equipment that lasts for 30 years or even 50 years doesnt make money for manufacturers or builders when things last that long and no need to replace every few years.
Joseph C. Markfelder
I remember when LIRR upgrade signals at Jamaica; not long after a storm took out the new system and its backup. How much of this is rebuilding signal systems already rebuilt in the hope that this time they work, or is some of it actually replacing old systems?
Once again, LIRR is making it clear that diesel country is still ‘farm’ country, AKA 2nd class territory. They say not enough people ride the Port Jeff branch to justify electrification, let alone double tracking (some parts would be hard, some not), but the super slow, unreliable and infrequent service out here encourages many to find other ways to get to work – like driving. LIRR’s idea of a fast train to my stop, 40 miles from Penn, takes over 60 minutes on a good day, and there is zero direct service to GCT-LIRR, and if LIRR has its way, there never will be, because it would take either electrification or dual mode hauled trains that could fit in the tunnels to GCT, something they chose to NOT do back in the 1990’s. It’s kind of like the classic example of the defendant, begging for mercy for killing a parent because he’s now an orphan. Lousy service, not so many ride, excuse for continued bad service.
Understand the approaches to GCT needing replacement, Past mention of the viaduct’s various weight limitations when EMU at crush load. Park Avenue= Might only take a point overload to collapse one or more beams onto tracks.
Great plan with high hopes and expectations but will half of these proposed projects and improvements actually happen or be at least undertaken? The MTA is a political bureaucracy run by folks who have a terrible record of managing money and resources and like Amtrak have bumblers and political hacks who don’t know the first thing about transit, trains or operations. When they do get good knowledgble people like David Gunn and Andy Byford in the past to run the system and make improvements, they either quit in digust or get run off by political pressure and hacks. And of course the MTA’s solution to ease their constant financial problems is to keep raising fares on the very people who depend on the trains and buses to get them to and from work, school, shopping and home. At this rate people in New York might just be paying $20 fares or maybe even $75 on the LIRR and Metro North by 2040. We shall see if any of these great plans ever come to completion. Some things might be accomplished but not all. Defintely new buses since buses have an average operating life of 10 to 15 years. NEw subway cars also. The current fleet of the hi tech subay cars presently operating are nearing the middle age of life and the way things are built today wont last like the old subway cars that ran over 60 years. All these plans take money and good management something that the MTA is not good at managing or using wisely and of course all those money wasting and useless surveys and studies that go nowhere except sit filed away and the money spent on them goes into either a politican’s pocket or a survey or consultant firm.
Joseph C. Markfelder
Trenchant comments. However, a question: And why don’t the cars last 60 years any more — or even half that? Same for the engines.