After all the time it's taken, I really don't care if it's a couple of months late. Cuomo pushed the MTA to finish 2nd Ave by an arbitrary date and they skipped a lot of important check list items. So much so that if you go there today the stations are starting to fall apart. Do the job right, get it done when it's done.

I think a west side access for Metro North would be nice. And extending Metro North to Wall Street would also be a good idea. LIRR to Wall Street should also be considered.

> extending Metro North to Wall Street

How could this be done?

Penn Access is in the very early stages

>"I really don't care if it's a couple of months late"

lol it was supposed to open in 2009

That's what I mean. What are a couple more months on top of 13 years?

Aren't you afraid it's never going to open?

Of course not. I've been down there and seen it with my own eyes. It's basically done, just waiting on some permits.

It’s possible - the city is full of abandoned projects

This will never be done

Agreed. It was just so off the wall that maybe it's a thing I haven't heard of.

None of which got this far lol

MTA and LIRR should be embarrassed, but they don’t care. Just like the report in Newsday today saying their new payment system won’t be available until 2025. No one in these organizations are concerned. No one is ever held accountable. No one ever loses a job over it.

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Why should they care? Mta is just another arm of a corrupt city and state.

Would almost be impossible given that almost every street down there has a subway line running through it. Would need to go along the east side maybe terminating at Hanover square…but that’s technically the terminus planned for the future phases of 2 Ave line.

Pipe dream. They can just take the 4 and MTA gets to charge double fairs for the to do it. Best believe if there was a shuttle or train that already went from grand central to penn we wouldn't need to build ESA

>new payment system won’t be available until 2025

yeah .... 2025 must be a typo. There's no way theyre rolling out OMNY for the LIRR from 0% to 100% in 2 years

Do you even need it? The train app is basically what conductors recommend you use now.

would reduce the need for conductors I guess.

OMNY as in the whole OMNY infrastructure, not just the app.

Gotta keep milking that OT

I like having the conductors there, honestly.

I think Chambers St originally allowed for LIRR access many years ago. It would be amazing if they could bring that back.

Same way the 2nd Ave subway was built, you cut a tunnel and build a station. It would cost about the same per mile.

Maybe extending Metro North would be the better idea. The subway lines do get pretty dense down there but I think they can fit the extension.

Mass transit is about reducing the time and effort for moving people. Reducing people commute by even twenty minutes one way would improve their lives.

Things are pretty busy down there already. You'd need to tunnel quite deep, right? And I'm not sure that's as simple in Lower Manhattan as it was for SAS Phase 1 which was mostly solid rock. I know they're already worried about working in soft soil for SAS Phase 3/4. Lot of additional concerns about water intrusion, for one.

There is the PATH line from PENN station that goes further down. Don’t know if the LIRR could make use of it.

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At the cost of decades and tens of billions when there’s already a subway system that goes directly from Grand Central to Wall Street in less than 15 minutes? It’s 4 stops, 11 minutes to be exact. No one is doing this.

We need to bring transit to areas that lack it. Not save folks coming in from their suburban neighborhoods the 5 minute walk to the 4 train at GC. Please.

What a dumb thing to say.

It did, but that was a century ago and that was done by running Atlantic Branch trains over the Williamsburg Bridge. The track connection for that was physically severed long ago.

To improve our discussion, you should say why it is a dumb idea.

What makes you think it can fit an expansion?