[k1052]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Obviously, yes. Chatalet isn't even an intercity station, and has nothing to do with what we're talking about. Chatalet would be analogous to Times Square, Herald Square or Union Square. RER numbers at Chatalet are nowhere close to Penn (or Gare du Nord or countless other stations).

The RER does 500k a day there.

Not true, Gateway already has more than $2 billion in secured funding commitments.

The entirely of Gateway is $30B. The new Hudson Tunnels alone and rehabbing the existing is about $13B of that.

And I have no idea what any of these means. Because an idiot is in the White House, NYC should destroy itself?

Obviously local agencies will continue to push for improvements to Penn and other transit systems, even if the feds are presently hostile. These projects take years and you don't just throw up your hands and do nothing because there's an idiot in office, especially because states and localities can do a lot on their own. There will probably be five more Presidents before everything gets wrapped up with the Empire Station complex.

Construction costs will continue to escalate in the interim. It will probably cost double current estimates if they actually get started in 10 years time the way things are going.

Again, what is your point? You're just saying random things about transit projects not getting completed by their initial dates, as if this is unexpected, rare or relevant. We know that big transit projects are delayed by years/decades, and over budget, worldwide . That doesn't mean you do nothing.

It is, at least, 13 years late and 300% over budget. This is absolutely not common outside of the US. Are they even done in Harold yet?

No. Totaly nonsense. In your weird, irrelevent hypothetical, ESA would have provided massive new capacity by offering eight new platforms at Grand Central, and a new East River tunnel, where there was previously none. The LI track expansions are primarily useful for reverse commuting, and provide slightly more inbound rush hour capacity, but will not make much of a difference with overall ESA ridership. Only 2 of 9 lines are affected.

The main line segment carries LIRR's busiest service and its saturated at rush The extra track also provides redundancy for corridor issues. If they can't get trains into the city they can be turned and sent back out again or reallocated to other branches if need be so the effects of any disruption compound.