Not quite that far but they are building a new underground in-system transfer linking GC with Bryant Park so people can walk between GC and the IND 6th Ave line services. Supposed to be done in 2022.

Edit: Somehow my brain remembered this as a GC connection when it is Times Square. Think there is still a walking gap between GC and Bryant that the MTA doesn't plan, yet, to fill.

grand central food court recently


http://i1340.photobucket.com/albums/...pslubnboia.jpg

The MTA has a Flickr account that posts construction pics every couple weeks or so, mostly of the ESA and related projects.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mtacc-esa/

Worth a look in on every once in a while. They've got a ways to go still.

^ There is a weekly ESA photo update, though much of the photos tend to be of little interest to the "big picture" like men installing wire conduits and prepping for urinals. That said i check it every week.

city folk to get a little discount love from mta for lirr & mnrr:


https://nypost.com/2020/02/21/mta-to...o-north-trips/

many more bike lanes coming on 6th avenue in midtown and more:


https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2020/02/...tan-this-year/

trump likely to say no congestion pricing for you nyc!



https://www.wsj.com/articles/cuomo-s...an-11582242598

Cuomo saying that no 2nd Ave subway expansion money from the feds and they will block congestion pricing. Punches a huge hole into MTA's capital plans.

there was a commuter tax until 1999. its a shame it got axed. i never agreed with that and thought it was stupid and totally unfair thing to do.

also, there is currently a mini 'mobility tax' since 2009 against commuters. the money is supposed to go to mta, but i think it just goes to cuomo's general fund trough for his people to feast on. not sure.

so regardless legally speaking the commuter tax does have a solid case history.

i say they just build in the toll booths and get started and dare that coward trump to say no or try to withhold road $$$ based on that. :tup:

I think the city and state retain control of all river crossings except for the ones under the PA so while you might not be able to cordon at 60th St you could still theoretically cordon the island. Notwithstanding the traditionally free nature of the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg, and Queensboro bridges there is nothing legally, I think, preventing them from being tolled without the Fed's say so.

^ just a guess, but i think the interstate highways are the big fed issue. so anything with the holland and midtown midtown tunnels and gwb could be sticky.


****


ugh --- f train rutgers tunnel is next for sandy tunnel repairs:


The tunnel that carries F train riders between Manhattan and Brooklyn will undergo up to $100 million worth of nights-and-weekends repairs next year — nearly a decade after being swamped by Superstorm Sandy, THE CITY has learned.

The Rutgers Tube, which took on 1.5 million gallons of saltwater during the October 2012 storm, will become the last of the MTA’s nine Sandy-damaged subway tunnels to be renovated.


more:
https://www.amny.com/transit/f-train...dy-damage-fix/




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aaaaannnddd .... we're not done for maintaining the status quo with big bucks yet --- rebuilding the bqe:


The bypass tunnel plan comes at an estimate of $11 billion, while the deck proposal will cost taxpayers $3 billion.


more:
https://www.amny.com/transit/cant-we...-city-council/

Just close it and see what happens over a period of a few months. Then reevaluate.

The PA controls the tolling for all Hudson crossings and MTA Bridges and Tunnels controls the East River. All the tunnels are tolled already. The only free crossings are the east river bridges which, AFAIK, nothing prohibits the MTA from tolling.

The traffic they insist won't disappear would disappear lol.

thats the only thing i could imagine where the feds might have a leg to stand on or throw a monkey wrench at, being interstate commerce and all, but yeah its pa money and actually another strike against the feds blocking tolling or commuter taxing as established case law.

mta is cutting almost 2k jobs in 2020:


https://www.amny.com/transit/mta-pla...ll-get-the-ax/

I hope they block congestion pricing. One of the dumbest ideas I have ever heard.

NYC needs to go back to expanding roads. Any congestion pricing should be on a ring road system built through Manhattan similar to Tokyo's but make it two way and toll it. Use monies from that to expand subway infrastructure along with infrastructure build reform rethinking environmental and union labor laws.

Are you the reanimated corpse of some micentury transportation planner?

*glances sideways at the BQE debacle*

Sure buddy. Who’s going to build it the Loch Ness Monster and it’s team of unicorns?

Shall the roads be named after Moses? While we're doing this, let's make sure all of the overpasses have too little vertical clearance for buses...