New lines.

What is the status of the Second Ave Line and East Side Long Island Railroad connection?

vanshnookenraggen wrote:What is the status of the Second Ave Line and East Side Long Island Railroad connection?

In a coma.

ESA: currently in early planning and preparation stages, with the LIRR Yard A being reconfigured and excavation being done in Long Island City

SAS: not even off the drawing board

7 Train wrote:SAS: not even off the drawing board

It was in the 70/60's(?), but then the MTA's financial problems pulled into a halt.

4 Express wrote:

7 Train wrote:SAS: not even off the drawing board

It was in the 70/60's(?), but then the MTA's financial problems pulled into a halt.

According to new plans, they were supposed to start digging in 2004, with the SAS (stations all planned out and finished) making its debut in 2015 or so. But I guess they still haven't started digging yet.

A few sections of the SAS were built in the early 70s, but never completed or linked.

vanshnookenraggen wrote:What is the status of the Second Ave Line and East Side Long Island Railroad connection?

Apparently (most or all of the) funding for the SAS is included in the Transportation Bond Act, which will be up for a statewide vote on November 8th. If this referendum is turned down, the SAS project could be delayed for years, or even decades once again.

Up here in Central New York (Syracuse/Utica) there hasn't been a lot of discussion about the act, but the little bit I've heard is from people questioning the way the proposal includes a ton of money for the NYC area, but not as much for upstate. However, when given the chance, I like to note to people that the act does include money for lots of projects throughout the entire state, not just in the city.

Personally, I don't care to see Metro-North get into Penn Station, but I would like to see the SAS built, I would like to see the Second Ave Subway built, and a Metro-North station at Yankee Stadium would be pretty neat too. And yes, there's tons of projects planned for my neck of the woods should this all be approved.

It may be a tough sell for most upstate voters, but if voter turnout in and around the city is strong; and if most in and around the city say yes, it should outweigh any naysayers up here.

Getting the TBA to pass is the first hurdle... making sure MTA doesn't reallocate the SAS money elsewhere is the second hurdle. According to posters in other forums on this site, money earmarked for SAS construction has been "re-earmarked" over to other projects more than once in the past.

Some of the outer boroughs need more comprehensive subway service more than Manhattan needs yet another subway line. In my home borough of Queens I can think of a couple of more worthwhile projects than the SAS. Extending the E, F, 7 and A to city limits would be a good start. A Jewel Avenue spur going northwest to serve the large area in between the #7 and F is another idea that would get heavy usage (and reduce pollution from feeder buses). A spur to LaGuardia Airport, and maybe a few others to underserved areas would round everything out. The idea here is that most of the people in the outer boroughs should be within easy walking distance (i.e. 1 mile or less) of a subway. Queens and Brooklyn rely far too much of feeder buses. Thanks to heavy traffic and more installed traffic lights these bus lines are getting slower and slower. In my own case the bus line which used to take 10 to 12 minutes to get to Forest Hills when I moved here 28 years ago now takes 20 minutes on a good day, and 30+ minutes during rush hours. When it snows, forget it. It makes me glad I work at home but I feel for the people who don't. A Jewel Avenue spur would make the same trip as the bus in about 8 minutes with a few intermediate stops. A lot of north and west Queens is in the same boat. There are a few underserved areas of Brooklyn also, but it's nowhere near as bad as Queens. Considering that Queens is the fastest expanding borough, it's time most of the transit money for new projects was spent here. That's why this bond issue isn't getting my vote. The SAS might be needed, but there are other parts of the city needing new subways a lot more.

Extending the 7 line deeper into Queens would have been great and would have taken alot of buses off the road. But unfortunetly, when they did work at Main Street a few years ago they made future expansion all but impossible. The east end of the platforms is now a station for ADA access.