MTA’s ‘reckless spending spree’ needs extra $1B for non-pedestrian expansions as drivers face congestion fee
The MTA plans to build its new Second Avenue subway stations twice as large as needed — bloating construction costs as the transit agency calls on drivers to help finance the project through the controversial new congestion pricing scheme, according to experts and data obtained by The Post.
The planned subway expansion into East Harlem is set to cost straphangers and taxpayers $1 billion more than necessary thanks to station designs from consultants which include tens of thousands of square feet of extra space that will be largely sealed from the public’s use, according to an analysis of station plans and a federal budget review of the project.
The findings raise new questions about the MTA’s ability to design and manage major projects as it prepares to impose the $15 daily toll to drive south of 60th Street in Manhattan.
“This is yet another example of the MTA’s consistent financial mismanagement and yet another reason why [MTA] Chairman Janno Lieber is whacking hardworking Jersey commuters to pay for his reckless spending spree,” Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), a longtime vocal critic of the congestion pricing plan, told The Post.
“Congress should immediately investigate the MTA’s spending and misuse of taxpayer dollars.”
The bloated new Q-line stations in East Harlem will be at least 200 feet longer than the much-criticized design used at the now open and operating new Second Avenue line station on 86th Street, a Post review of station schematics showed.
Much of that space wouldn’t even be seen by straphangers, as it would be used simply for things such as storage, break rooms and to run cables.
Experts said much of that fat could easily be trimmed — as other subway systems use much less space for the same functions.
“It’s striking that the Second Avenue work could be more streamlined since the MTA is telling folks in Brooklyn and Queens they may have to wait to get passenger service on an existing rail line because there isn’t enough money,” said Jon Orcutt, a former Department of Transportation executive.
“Your statements should match up with what you’re doing.”
The Post also found the agency plans to spend more than $400 million on consultants for the Second Avenue project, including $191 million on an outside firm to oversee construction and manage the project, according to the Federal Transit Authority’s 2022 oversight report on the project.
The need to shell out for consultants has been attributed in the past to the MTA’s failure to hire enough in-house staff.
The outside firms often return pricy and oversized plans, which overstretched MTA staffers struggle to trim back.
“How do you deliver an important mega-project when you’re short-staffed?,” said NYU professor Eric Goldwyn, who has analyzed the MTA’s Upper East Side train expansion.
“When you talk to people in Europe — in Italy, in Spain, in the U.K. — you don’t have consultants managing consultants.”
The MTA’s overspending is being revealed the same week its board voted nine to one to advance the congestion pricing plan — and as Gov. Hochul touted the new fee, saying it will finally give the MTA “the resources to invest in our system, a 110-year old system.”
There was no talk of finding savings, however, as Lieber in a press conference with the governor ripped critics, especially those from New Jersey, as people who “never lifted a finger for mass transit.”
The MTA is currently $47 billion in debt — a figure they hope to alleviate with the projected $1 billion in tolls per year from congestion pricing.
But savings could be found to close that gap and fund capital projects with common sense cuts, Goldwyn said.
“For Phase 1 [of the area’s train expansion project] 77% of the construction costs were in the stations. If you want to find cost savings, that’s the first place you should look,” he said.
“The lesson from Phase 1 is that if you want to reduce costs and build more transit, the way to do that is to economize our stations.”
Combined, the three new Harlem-area Second Avenue stations — which will be at 106th Street, 116th Street and 125th Street-Lexington Avenue — are expected to cost an astonishing $3.4 billion, the federal data shows.
The current high cost comes after the MTA already cut $1 billion from the project by scaling back station mezzanines and reusing tunnel that was laid down in the 1970s.
The 86th Street station, the smallest of the trio, has 76,000 square feet of space dedicated to ancillary functions, the post found.
The designs for the 106th Street station, meanwhile, call for an underground station more than 1,200 feet long — which is more than 200 feet longer than the 86th Street station.
The station set for 125th Street-Lexington Avenue is also some 1,200 feet long and will likely cost more than $1 billion to build.
But federal station design guidelines reviewed by The Post show that other subway stations require just 7,000 square feet of space for their ancillaries.
Those designs — modeled after stations commonly found European capitals and the Washington Metro — would cost just $2.3-2.5 billion, The Post’s analysis found.
“We want comfortable spaces, we want functional spaces, but we also need them to be efficient,” Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski (D-Rockland), who chairs the committee in the Assembly that oversees the MTA.
“I believe there is a range, but I can’t believe it’s a 10-fold difference,” he added.
As for the cost of consultants, the FTA report says they “strengthen” the MTA’s “Management Capacity and Capability.”
But a series of stories in The Post this year revealed how the agency’s major projects division is undermanned, putting consultants in the driver’s seat when making key early decisions about size.
The outside firms return pricy and oversized plans, which overstretched MTA staffers struggle to trim back.
“How do you deliver an important mega-project when you’re short-staffed?,” said Goldwyn. “When you talk to people in Europe — in Italy, in Spain, in the U.K. — you don’t have consultants managing consultants.”
The MTA promised in March to review the station designs following previous Post reporting about the cost and said late Friday that work is ongoing.
“We’re being vigilant about the second phase of the Second Avenue Subway,” Jamie Torres-Springer, the chief of the MTA’s construction and major projects agency said in response to requests for comment.
“We have these past issues with the early scoping of projects and the early planning of projects being out of control and we’ve brought them under control — and we’re seeing the results of it.”
