Dear friends of regional rail:
Instead of our regular monthly meeting in May we are asking that all
members of the Regional Rail Working Group (RRWG) to attend and
participate in the following event:
May 17, 2006, 6pm
Public Hearing
Environmental Assessment -- Proposed 50th Street Facility
LIRR East Side Access Project
MTA Headquarters
347 Madison Avenue, 5th Floor Conference Room
New York, NY
Doors will open at 5pm. Those wishing to speak must register by 7pm.
The 50th Street Facility is a massive ventilating plant for MTA's
proposed LIRR East Side Access Project. This facility is needed to
support the "deep cavern" terminal station proposed for the LIRR. In
2004 MTA proposed a tall structure which included many features that were
opposed by neighboring real estate interests. MTA has subsequently
scaled down the size (and scaled up the cost) of this facility.
The RRWG has gone on record opposing the "deep cavern" terminal station
which is proposed to be built some 150 feet below Park Avenue, and has
called for a plan that uses existing track and platforms in Grand Central
Terminal -- the world's largest railway station. The RRWG has argued
that this would greatly reduce cost and provide easier access for LIRR
passengers. Recently, concerns have been raised about the safety and
security of this "deep cavern" terminal station, and also a similar one
proposed by NJ Transit under 34th Street and Macy's. In this age of
terrorism, many transit advocates and fire safety professionals have
raised questions about the safe egress from such terminal which might
have as many as 8,000 trapped deep below the street. While MTA has cited
a few examples of deep subway stations that exist today, none of these
are terminals with the very large number of passengers that might
accumulate, if trains are delayed before an attack. Several organizations
that participate with the RRWG have requested that an independent
assessment of the fire safety of this facility be commissioned by public
officials charged with this responsibility.
In 1996, the Committee for Better Transit (CBT) proposed the Apple
Corridor plan, which called for the LIRR to use the five platform tracks
that lead to the Upper Level loop at Grand Central, as well as the
Rockaway Cut-off in Central Queens for direct one-seat rail service to
Kennedy Airport. In 2004, the real estate interests that opposed to the
MTA's original design for the 50th Street Facility engaged a major
Canadian engineering firm, the Delcan Corporation, to develop the
Manhattan end of this plan in greater detail. They called this plan the
Upper Level Loop Alternative (ULLA) and asked that the Institute for
Rational Urban Mobility (IRUM) be included as the sponsor of this effort
. (The Delcan report, MTA's objections and IRUM's rebuttal are posted on
www.irum.org ). The Delcan study found that ULLA would save $1.2
billion in construction cost, speed completion by three years and save
LIRR commuters three to four minutes pre trip, each way.
Even though the interests that funded the plan have withdrawn their
opposition to the redesigned 50th Street Facility, MTA has chosen to
include an analysis of ULLA in Appendix B of the Environmental
Assessment.
The full document including this Appendix are posted on MTA's website:
www.mta.info (click 'Capital Construction', 'East Side Access'
Appendix B restates many of the objections MTA has raised about ULLA in
the past.
MTA claims the five-track loop station cannot adequately accommodate
future LIRR demand because speed on the loop tracks cannot exceed 4 mph.
This is because of "possible" dynamic clearance problems operating LIRR
cars around the loop. MTA has not specified where these problems occur or
whether they can be overcome by minor structural changes. The second
major limitation cited by MTA is the inability of existing passenger
concourses at Grand Central to handle the additional flow of LIRR
commuters. No specifics are discussed.
Impacts on Metro-North operations are claimed to be catastrophic.
All of these objections have been challenged by material posted on the
IRUM website.
For those RRWG members wish to speak at the hearing it will be necessary
to keep comments to three minutes.
I hope your will attend and raise your objection to MTA's "deep cavern"
plan.
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The next regular monthly meeting of the Regional Rail Working Group
sponsored by:
Empire State Passengers Association
NJ Association of Railroad Passengers
Lackawanna Coalition
Committee for Better Transit
Institute for Rational Urban Mobility
will be:
Wednesday, June 21, 2006 6-8pm (meeting will start promptly at 6pm)
Conference Room, NYPD Downtown Center
104 Washington Street (just north of Rector Street), Lower Manhattan.
The purpose of the working group is to develop and advance plans for
converting the region's commuter rail lines into a regional rail system,
with fast, frequent service and affordable, integrated fares. The Penn
Station Metro-Hub plan sets the stage for doing this. Subsequent steps
are access to Lower Manhattan and the Penn Station-Grand Central link.
The group also considers changes to rapid transit and light rail transit
that are "regional" in scale.
Regional Rail issues are discussed on our website: www.rrwg.org
Between now and the June meeting we hope to have three sub-committee
meetings:
1. Rockaway Cut-off
2. Penn Station Through-running
3. Lower Manhattan
If you are interested in serving on one of these sub-committees please
contact me as soon as possible.
Hope to see you at the MTA Hearing next Wednesday!
geo
George Haikalis
Chair, Regional Working Group
One Washington Square Village, Apt. 5D
New York, NY 10012 phone: 212-475-3394 fax:212-475-5051
geohaikalis www.irum.org www.auto-free.org
