NJ lawsuit challenging NY’s congestion toll will delay upgrades on A/C train lines: MTA
New Jersey’s lawsuit challenging New York’s soon-to-launch congestion toll will delay the $1.3 billion program to overhaul and upgrade signals on the delay-plagued A and C lines through Brooklyn, MTA officials said Wednesday.
Officials now project the contract to replace the breakdown-prone mechanical system that uses stop lights and timers — some of which are 90 years old — to control trains along the Fulton Street subway with a new computerized system that’s far more reliable and allows the subways to run more quickly won’t be issued until sometime in 2024.
The money generated from the toll had been expected to fund roughly a quarter — $15 billion — of the agency’s mammoth $55 billion budget to repair stations and tracks, upgrade signals, buy new subways, trains and buses, and to expand its railroads and transit system.
“Congestion pricing is foundational to the capital program,” said the MTA’s construction chief, Jamie Torres-Springer, said late Wednesday. “With the lawsuit from New Jersey, it is at risk.”
“We can’t award contracts that would be paid for by congestion pricing until the funding is fully secured,” Torres-Springer added.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and other Garden State officials allege the federal government improperly allowed the MTA to an expedited review of the potential environmental and economic costs of the toll.
New York and MTA officials retort that the expedited environmental review still took more than two years to complete and spans more than 4,000 pages.
Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-Manhattan) went so far as to accuse the Jersey pols of attempting to hold the MTA and its construction budget “hostage” in a recent editorial.
MTA chairman Janno Lieber has said he expects the toll to kick in this May and the agency has already installed much of the needed infrastructure.
Officials have pledged to provide discounts to drivers using the Hudson and East River tunnels, that the toll would only be charged once per day and that taxis and ride-hail drivers would be exempt from the fee, which would be tagged onto the bill charged to their customers.
However, the board that is supposed to set the toll — which includes appointees from the governor and the mayor — has yet to announce how much the base toll will be to drive in Manhattan south of 60th Street. The range they can pick from is as little as $9 or as much as $23.
The toll must generate at least $1 billion in revenue annually for the MTA under the law passed by Albany authorizing the program.
The MTA says the money will finance its longstanding push to computerize the subway system’s ancient signal system, which was one of the signature initiatives launched during the high-profile tenure of Andy Byford.
The high-tech train controls, known as CBTC, were a key part of his ‘FastForward’ plan to rescue the system after the ‘Summer from Hell.’ Replacing the current system, which dates back to the opening of the IND lines in many places, he argued, would be essential to ensuring the long-term reliability of the system.
He was iced out by disgraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo for getting too much credit for improving the on-time rating of the subway system and quit in 2020.
But the MTA has pushed ahead with the initiative.
Currently, CBTC powers two subway lines, the No. 7 and the L, which are the most reliable in the system — posting on-time rates north of 90% while the overall average is about 83%.
The A and the C are among the most delayed lines in the system with on-time percentages in the low 70s, in part because the lines must merge together in downtown Brooklyn before heading under the East River and crossing into Manhattan.
However, installation is costly and requires significant track work, which means that frequent service disruptions or suspensions at nights and over weekends are needed to get the system installed and up and running.
