Mayor Giuliani has quietly scuttled plans for a trolley on 42nd Street, The Post has learned.
The $150 million project, which looked as though it was finally on track after decades of debate, “is dormant,” said City Planning Commission Chairman Joseph Rose.
“It’s not something at the top of the city’s transportation agenda.
“It was never something that would handle the volume of passengers that would put it at the top of the transportation agenda,” he added.
Proponents see a light-rail trolley line as a faster and cleaner way to shuttle riders between the United Nations and the Javits Center.
But Rose said inadequate financing and other hurdles have kept it on the drawing boards – and off the tracks.
Earlier this year, the mayor proposed extending the No. 7 train that runs along 42nd Street to 11th Avenue and 33rd Street as part of his plan to build a football stadium near the Javits Center.
The proposed trolley appears to clash with that plan.
The news comes on the heels of a consultant’s proposal for a trolley system on First or Second avenue to meet longstanding transit needs on Manhattan’s East Side.
The plan for a light-rail line on 42nd Street has been kicked around since the 1970s but gained momentum when it was given land-review clearance by the City Planning Commission and the City Council in 1994.
Since then, the proposal has been mired in disputes over costs and electrical wiring.
The 42nd Street Development Corp. – a chief sponsor of the project – has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on studies to prove its viability.
The plan calls for 15 trolleys to replace 45 city buses on 42nd Street, cutting travel time in half, according to supporters.
Eastbound auto traffic would be eliminated.
The plan is popular with Times Square business people.
“It’s a wonderful idea. The electronic trolleys are environmentally perfect. Diesel buses are a blot on the landscape,” said developer Larry Silverstein, who is building a 40-story apartment complex at 12th Avenue and 42nd Street.
But where proponents see street cars, the city sees problems.
Rose said the project initially was to be financed privately and through the farebox. But escalating cost estimates raised the specter of a city subsidy.