The MTA is holding an emergency L train public meeting Tuesday at noon to discuss the new plans regarding the non-shutdown of the Canarsie tunnel between Manhattan and Brooklyn. The meeting will be live streamed.
Cuomo’s announcement two weeks ago rocked the Brooklyn universe and understandably upset the renters and business owners who already relocated, not to mention the community leaders who worked for three years on mitigation plans and questioned the announcements’ lack of specifics.
The L train was scheduled to see 15 – 18 months of major service disruptions beginning in April, but as the story goes, a distraught Brooklyn man pulled Cuomo’s lapel, inspiring the Governor to assemble an engineering team of experts to visit the Canarsie tunnel.
Losing L service for more than a year was a big, disruptive deal. But there was no way around it — or so the public had been told, over and over. Now, it seems almost certain, that was a mistake https://t.co/z0h1w7clss by @jimdwyernyt
— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) January 13, 2019
In an article entitled ‘The Transcendent Incompetence of the L Train Fiasco,’ the NY Times looks at the new engineering plan’s integrity and found many questions from the people who worked on the original plan.
Their approach has been criticized in general terms by two former officials of the agency who had roles in the first plan, saying that the new one would be neither as safe nor as built to last as the original. They have identified no specific risks, and when you drill into the details, it is hard to see where the latest plan falls short.
Local politicians including Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams are now seeking specifics on the new partial shutdown schedule according to a joint statement, but the MTA board will not be voting on the final plan tomorrow.
We truly hope this new plan will be a way forward, to alleviate what would otherwise be a far worse 15 months of transit pain for residents and businesses alike. However, we must ensure that this new plan will meet the same goals as the previous plan and properly address the infrastructure present in the Canarsie Tunnel.