TZ conference irks task force - Westfair Communications

Some members of the business community advocating for an efficient rapid-transit system across the Interstate-287 corridor, and a new Tappan Zee Bridge, are growing increasingly concerned with a perceived lack of progress on the project.

Members of the Tappan Zee project team, which comprises representatives of the state Department of Transportation, Thruway Authority and Metro-North Railroad, in February presented six different options for the future of the bridge. The project team conducted two public hearings the following month.

“We are very concerned with the progress, or lack thereof, on the project,” said Marsha Gordon, president of The Business Council of Westchester and co-chairwoman of the Westchester-Rockland Tappan Zee Futures Task Force. The task force was formed by Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef and Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano.

“The project is behind schedule, it doesn”™t seem to be moving forward as hoped, and this is of concern to the task force,” she said.

Gordon also took issue with a June 8 conference at the Westchester County Center in White Plains being planned by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign (TSTC), a New York-based nonprofit planning organization.

The conference will focus solely on one of the options that was presented by the project team, the bus rapid transit (BRT) option. The Business Council favors a mass-transit system featuring a commuter rail line.

“The TSTC, from the initial stages of the project, have clearly been advocating for one solution (The BRT), which clearly does not meet the goals of relieving congestion of (the) corridor,” she said. “In holding this conference to only focus on one option, it clearly shows where their priorities are. They are an organization that only represents a small portion of people.”

Maureen Morgan, a board member of the Federated Conservationists of Westchester who has been a longtime participant in I-287 corridor talks, said the commuter rail option is the only solution for the region in easing congestion on the corridor. (Morgan also writes a monthly environmental column for the Business Journal.)

“This is the opportunity to unify the region, preparing us for a very uncertain future,” Morgan said. “It is our last chance to get it right. We must create a state-of-the-art rail network.”

Morgan said it is “astonishingly arrogant” for the TSTC conference to only focus on one option. “They are trying to shove BRT right down our throats,” she said.

Kate Slevin, the associate director of the TSTC, said the organization is simply trying to shed light on an option they think has not been addressed properly.

“Everyone knows what commuter rail looks like, no one knows what BRT looks like. We don”™t have a (BRT) system in the region to look at,” she said.

She said the TSTC is not endorsing any one option at this point.

“We”™re going to wait and see what”™s out there, but given the land use in the corridor we think the BRT is the best option. The data shows BRT is the way to go,” she said.

Morgan said in addition to being a better commuting option, the commuter rail is more environmentally sound, since it would produce less carbon emissions than by putting more vehicles, in this case buses, on the road.

Slevin said the TSTC “is not opposed to rail, but BRT may be the best option.”