NYC interests: Give us ARC funds for subway

New York City, claiming fiscal constraints, declined to contribute to the $8.7 billion Access to the Region’s Core project designed to increase trans-Hudson passenger rail capacity between New York and New Jersey. But city real estate interests have made it clear they’ll accept $3.3 billion in federal funds once targeted for the ARC project, now canceled by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, for the city’s own subway construction needs in (or under) the same literal neighborhood.

“[Some of] that money should be deployed in New York,” said Mary Ann Tighe, chair of the Real Estate Board of New York, an industry lobbying group, specifically to build a stop in Manhattan at 41st Street and 10th Avenue, originally planned for the extension of the city’s No. 7 subway line to Manhattan’s West Side. Construction of the extension is ongoing, but the station stop, expected to cost $800 million, was omitted in a cost-cutting decision.

The idea to capture federal funds targeted for the ARC project comes after New York failed in its effort to secure a $3 million grant to revive plans to build the subway station. The station needs to be redesigned so it can be built after the No. 7 line opens, slated for 2013, most likely with platforms on each side of the new tunnels, instead of center-platform construction originally envisioned.

New York State also has made clear its willingness to receive federal funds originally targeted for other projects, though it has specifically identified money targeted to higher speed rail (HrSR) projects in Ohio and Wisconsin. New York State, like New York City, declined to commit any funding to the ARC project over the concept’s 17-year lifespan.