14 THE QUEENS COURIER • FEBRUARY 7, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Queens pols to MTA: We don’t trust you on congestion pricing funds
BY MARK HALLUM
mhallum@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Queens elected offi cials who are both
for and against Governor Andrew
Cuomo’s congestion pricing plan gather
in Jamaica Station’s AirTrain concourse
on Feb. 1 to draw attention to the lack
of concrete details about the proposal or
fi nancial framework aft er a budget hearing
devoid of those items.
State Senator John Liu said the Jan. 30
budget hearing was a frustrating dialogue
with that dragged on with for hours with
no defi nitive answers regarding how the
congestion pricing plan will be deployed
despite Cuomo announcing its inclusion
in the 2020 executive budget.
“We showed up at the budget hearing
this year fully expecting to hear some
details about what this congestion pricing
plan would do, how much would people
get charged, how much revenue does the
MTA actually expect and how much congestion
will we be relieved of?” Liu said. “I
certainly went expecting the MTA just to
tell us, I didn’t think we’d have to be there
for fi ve hours asking the MTA question
aft er question aft er question and getting
no answers whatsoever.”
Recent fi gures have been revealed that
congestion pricing could levy up $15 billion
for the MTA to fund systemwide
improvements for bus and subway transit
infrastructure, but details have been
paltry.
In January 2018, Cuomo’s FixNYC
panel release a proposal that called for
an $11 toll on cars entering Manhattan
below 60th Street during weekdays,
despite using free East River Bridges, and
$25 toll on trucks.
“Worse yet, the MTA hasn’t even told
us what they’re even going to use the
money for apart from a blanket statement
about improving buses and subways,” Liu
continued. “Th is is probably the worst we
have seen from the MTA ever. Th e MTA
is telling us ‘just trust the MTA.’ Hate to
say it, but the last people on earth who
should just be saying ‘just trust us’ to the
public is the MTA.”
Liu suggested that what the MTA really
needs is a “lock-box” of funds from a
dedicated source, but claimed that there
are already about $6 billion in taxes going
directly toward the agency, such as the
regional mobility tax.
Assemblyman David Weprin has taken
the lead on opposing congestion pricing
in the borough claiming that not only
does his district have very little public
transportation options to begin with, his
constituents would be among the most
drastically aff ected.
“Th is plan is probably worse than previous
plans, including one by Mayor
Bloomberg which really started the whole
congestion pricing debate,” Weprin said.
A study from the Tri-State
Transportation Campaign following the
release of the FixNYC panel proposal
for the launch of congestion pricing in
January 2018 showed that about 4 percent
of people who live in eastern Queens
would pay the toll on a regular basis.
About 3.6 percent of people in
Weprin’s district would be impacted,
while Assemblyman Edward Braunstein’s
neighboring district pay be hardest hit in
Queens with 5.7 percent of the population
commuting into Manhattan by car.
Assemblyman Daniel Rosenthal did
not say whether or not he favored congestion
pricing or not, but said the root
of the current problem is that “there is
no plan.”
“We’ve heard nothing and we know
nothing, the MTA is trying to throw this
into the state budget with no accountability,”
Rosenthal said. “Th ere is no doubt
that there is a crisis going on … Right
now we’re calling it a plan, that’s giving
them too much credit because there literally
is no plan, just a way to tax people
more who have the least and the worst
access to that transportation.”
Gianaris calls lack of subway access for disabled ‘embarrassing’
BY MARK HALLUM
mhallum@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Days aft er a mother carrying a stroller
down the steps of a subway station died
aft er taking a fall, Queens state Senator
Michael Gianaris is pushing for greater
accessibility through the installation of
elevators, which only 25 percent of stations
have, according to a study conducted
by his offi ce.
Malaysia Goodson, 22, died aft er
descending fi ve fl ights of stairs at the
7th Avenue-53rd Street station in
Manhattan on Jan. 29. Th e Metropolitan
Transportation Authority said the railings
and steps were in good condition.
“It is unacceptable and embarrassing
for New York to be the worst in the nation
in subway accessibility. We now have a
tragedy that could have been avoided if
better choices were made by the MTA,”
Gianaris said. “For New York to thrive, it
must have an MTA for all, where everyone
can access the subway system to get to
work, school and around our city.”
Gianaris used statistics from the
National Transit Administration to compare
New York City Transit to other agencies.
Th e PATH train and Philadelphia’s
PATCO were the only systems that were
less accessible. By contrast, Washington
D.C.’s WMATA is 100 percent Americans
with Disabilities Act compliant.
WMATA has only 91 stations compared
to NYC Transit’s 472 stations along
27 train lines.
While 118 stations are accessible and 26
more already funded, the cost of renovating
a station to make it ADA compliant
can be heavy.
In June 2018, the MTA awarded a $17
million contract for builders to install elevators
in the 86th Street Bay Ridge station
and has poured up $5 billion into making
stations across the system more accessible,
including $1.4 billion in the 2015-19
MTA capital program.
About $479 million from the same capital
program has been allocated for the
replacement of 42 existing elevators and
27 escalators, according to the MTA.
However, as part of NYC Transit
President Andy Byford’s Fast Forward
plan, New Yorkers can expect to be no
farther than two subway stops from an
ADA-accessible station within the next
fi ve years and 100 percent accessibility in
15. Fast Forward may cost up to $40 billion
and lawmakers are still weighting the
options to raise these funds, including
congestion pricing.
“Th is is an absolutely heartbreaking
incident. While the ultimate cause of the
event is being investigated by the MTA,
medical examiner and the NYPD, we
know how important it is to improve
accessibility in our system,” an MTA
spokesman said. “Th e Fast Forward Plan
acknowledges and prioritizes this work
as one of four key priorities, and aims to
ensure that riders will never be more than
two stops away from a station with an elevator.
Th is will be accomplished through
the addition of up to 50 elevators over the
next fi ve years.”
A preliminary investigation by the MTA
of the scene where Goodson died showed
that the stairs, railing, fl oor were in good
condition and the station has two escalators,
both of which go up, the agency said.
queens-lawmaker-calls-accessibility-at-subway-stations-unacceptable-and-embarassing
and-vows-to-take-action01,QN,PRINT_ONLY,CMYK.jpg
Photo: Mark Hallum/THE COURIER
State Senator John Liu (center) called for details and transparency in the state’s congestion pricing
proposal.
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