During the first-ever “state of the MTA” speech last week, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Executive Director and CEO Elliot Sander showed the Hudson Valley will not be forgotten on the long-range planning of the agency.
Sander discussed his vision for transit in the New York metropolitan area, and while much of it was centered on New York City-based services, he also talked about the importance of rail links between regions.
To that end, Sander mentioned several projects in Westchester County and the Hudson Valley that are important to the MTA”™s future.
Sander discussed the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project and floated the idea of a Metro-North rail link over the bridge.
The state is exploring several different transit options for the corridor, including bus, light rail, or a multimodal mass transit system. A decision on which option the state will pursue is expected by May. Design alternatives and alignments will be narrowed and put out for additional public review and comment during the summer.
Depending on what option is chosen, estimates range from $12 billion to $15 billion to complete the project, the state said last year.
Marsha Gordon, president of the Business Council of Westchester and co-chair of the Westchester-Rockland Tappan Zee Futures Task Force, said she was pleased to hear the MTA recognize the importance of regional transit linking the Hudson Valley.
“It”™s not just a Westchester-Rockland project, it”™s a project for the whole Northeast and the U.S.,” she said.
Gordon and other members of the task force met with state Department of Transportation Commissioner Astrid Glynn last week in Albany, who also expressed the regional importance of the Tappan Zee project.
“(Commissioner Glynn) agreed on the regional focus of the project,” Gordon said. “This is one of the most integral transit corridors in the country.”
Sander also discussed conducting a study to determine the feasibility of building a rail spur from the village of Washingtonville in Orange County to Stewart International Airport.
Jonathan Drapkin, executive director of the regional planning and land-use concern Mid-Hudson Pattern for Progress, said the group has long advocated for a regional transit system that links the Hudson Valley and its major transportation hubs, such as Stewart Airport and the Tappan Zee Bridge.
“Connecting the region in a far broader vision than what we have today is imperative to the region”™s growth,” Drapkin said. “The integration of rail, bus rapid transit and also road bridge improvements, is critical to how the valley grows over the next 50 years.”
Funding will be the key.
“The part that will be difficult for all of us will be how to fund it,” Drapkin said.
Sander said many of the MTA’s current needs are riding on the state”™s approval of a $29.5-billion capital plan to fund MTA operations and projects through 2013.
Drapkin said as these projects move forward and more and more people begin using public transportation, the MTA cannot forget about another critical component: ample parking for commuters at bus and rail stations.
“It is critical that agencies like Metro-North think of where the next set of parking is going to come from,” he said.
Meanwhile, Westchester County Association President William Mooney Jr. last week said that the WCA has reached out to a number of Wall Street firms that have started “infrastructure funds” to explore the idea of privatization of the Tappan Zee Bridge.
Mooney cited a recent assertion from state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli that the state could not afford to pay the estimated $14 billion for the replacement project and should pursue a public-private partnership.
“The burden of maintaining and repairing infrastructure elements such as the Tappan Zee Bridge that was built in the 1950s is becoming financially prohibitive for government entities,” Mooney said in a statement. “This arguably is the single most crucial element in our regional infrastructure and it would be irresponsible to not explore all alternatives to financing reconstruction.”
Mooney noted that in October the WCA”™s Property Tax Reform Commission recommended that privatization be considered to address the county”™s infrastructure problems, notably the Tappan Zee Bridge
“With state and local leaders scrambling for cash to solve fiscal problems, conditions are now ripe to put privatization on the table for our commission members to probe further,” he said.
