VIRTUE SIGNALING
MTA to modernize three Brooklyn subway signal systems
in fifi ve-year capital plan
A-OK: The A train is one of three Brooklyn lines that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to upgrade with new signaling systems as part of its massive $51 billion capital
plan. Photo by Kevin Duggan
COURIER LIFE, SEPT. 20-26, 2019 3
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
City transit offi cials are sending
out signals!
The Metropolitan Transportation
Authority will modernize
decades-old signaling systems
serving sections of three
Brooklyn subway lines as part
of a record-breaking fi ve-year
capital plan announced earlier
this week.
Transit honchos committed
to replacing the manual
signaling system — which in
some cases dates back to the
1930s — in favor of a computercontrolled
system that will ensure
speedier service by 2024 as
part of the authority’s $51.5 billion
plan — the costliest in the
agency’s history, according to
its chief.
“This proposed 2020-2024
Capital Program – the most
ambitious capital plan in the
agency’s history – builds on the
success of the Subway Action
Plan, and with new tools such
as Design-Build and the reorganization
that is underway we’re
certain we can deliver for our
customers,” said the agency’s
chairman and chief executive
offi cer Patrick Foye. “This plan
expands service, increases reliability,
speeds up the system,
and delivers the world’s largest
ever investment in accessibility,
for both NYC Transit and
the MTA’s commuter railroads,
and at the end of this fi ve-year
period, New Yorkers will see
a revitalized and modern system
for the 21st century and beyond.”
The plan will set aside $40
billion for the agency’s Five
Borough transit arm and $7.1
billion specifi cally to upgrade
the signaling system of six subway
lines across the city, including
the following fi ve trains going
along three Kings County
lines:
• The A and C lines between
Jay Street-MetroTech in Downtown
Brooklyn and Euclid Avenue
in East New York.
• The G train between Hoyt-
Schermerhorn in Downtown
Brooklyn to Court Square in
Queens.
• The 4 and 5 lines between
from the Bronx, down through
Manhattan and to Nevins Street
on the border of Downtown
Brooklyn and Fort Greene.
The agency has so far installed
that new system on the
L train and the Queens-Manhattan
7-train.
To support the new system,
transit workers plan to build
new power substations and contact
rail, and the signaling upgrade
work will reportedly necessitate
closures, according to
the chief of the agency’s New
York City operation.
“We will need to make great
use, extensive use, of weekends,”
Andy Byford told the
New York Daily News . “We’re
not ruling out line closures.”
The agency will borrow
half of the money for the plan
— some $25 billion — through
bonds, which it plans to pay off
with revenues from the state’s
planned congestion pricing and
its recently-enacted legislature
to collect a so-called mansion
tax, in addition to the expected
windfall from closing a sales
tax loophole for online retail
platforms like Amazon.
The plan also relies on $10.7
billion from Uncle Sam along
with $3 billion each from the
city and state, along with almost
$10 billion of the agency’s
own bonds.
In addition to the signal
modernization, the agency will
also make 66 new subway stations
accessible for people with
disabilities and fast-track four
current accessibility upgrades
by the end of this year, but the
agency’s spokespeople could not
specify which stations would be
affected in Brooklyn.
Transit offi cials will also
build new approaches to the
Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge
and widen two miles of the eastbound
Belt Parkway.
For the entire city transit
system, the Authority seeks to
buy 1,900 subway cars and 2,400
new buses, replacing 2,200 of
its oldest buses and growing its
fl eet by 175.
Some 500 of those buses
will be electric and the agency
wants to spend $1.1 billion to
modify its bus depots for electric
bus operations.
The plan still needs approval
by the agency’s board,
which is likely to vote on it at its
next general board meeting on
Sept. 25, before submitting it for
review by a board of representatives
of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s
and Governor Andrew Cuomo’s
offi ces, along with reps from
both state legislative chambers
on Oct. 1, who have another 90
days to approve it.