MTA Can Pay For Upgrading The B, D, N & Q Train Stations
Did you know that the MTA has no plans to upgrade the 70 year old DeKalb Interlocking. This critical asset serves the B,D,N & Q trains operating over the Manhattan Bridge. (Source: “What is this, the 1950’s, Well, yes; at a key B’klyn junction, 70-year old tech delays trains” (NY Daily News by Clayton Guse — May 8).
Why wasn’t this project included within the MTA $51 billion 2020 – 2024 Five Year Capital Program? Will it be included in the next 2025 – 2029 Five Year Capital Program or long overdue MTA 2020 – 2040 Twenty Year Capital Needs Plan? (This was originally promised to be released in December 2019.) You also have to ask plans for upgrading The Rogers Avenue Interlocking, just east of Franklin Avenue in Brooklyn. This serves the IRT#5 (Flatbush Avenue) trains which share the same track as the IRT#2, #3 and #4 trains Upgrading other NYC Transit signal and interlockings have been previously paid for out of $1.5 billion annual Federal Transit Administration formula funding.
This FTA program will grow to $2 billion annually in coming years. Upgrading the DeKalb Interlocking would benefit several hundred thousand of the 5 million pre-COVID 19 ridership. Any fair cost benefit analysis would tell you it is a better investment than Governor Hochuls proposed new Brooklyn Queens Interboro Subway Connector. This could cost up to $9 billion dollars and only benefit 80,000 daily riders. When will MTA Chairman Janno Lieber and NYC Transit President Richard Davey make upgrading the DeKalb Interlocking a priority?