REP. MALONEY HAILS FUNDING FOR SECOND AVE. SUBWAY, EAST SIDE ACCESS

New York, NY – Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan & Queens) today hailed the inclusion of $197 million for the Second Avenue Subway and $215 million for East Side Access in the Obama Administration’s proposed Fiscal Year 2011 Federal Transit Administration budget. Congresswoman Maloney has long championed the transit projects, which are both located almost entirely within New York’s 14th Congressional District that she represents.

“I am gratified that the Second Avenue Subway and East Side Access
remain at the top of the Federal Transit Administration’s funding
priorities. I am proud that two of the largest mass transit projects in
construction are both in the 14th Congressional District, and pleased
that they are continuing to advance with help from the federal
government,” said Congresswoman Maloney.

“Starting on Day One of their operation, these two projects will move
tens of thousands of riders, more than the entire mass transit capacity
of most cities in America,” she added.

Last fall, Congresswoman Maloney issued a report outlining the jobs and
other economic benefits created by the construction of the Second
Avenue Subway and East Side Access. Please click here for a full copy
of Maloney’s report.

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Background:

In November 2007, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the MTA
signed a full-funding grant agreement for the Second Avenue Subway,
which will provide $1.3 billion in federal funds to build the subway’s
first leg. In February 2009, Congress passed an omnibus appropriations
bill that included a $277.7 million funding installment for the subway.

In December 2006, the FTA and the MTA signed a full-funding grant
agreement for East Side Access, which will provide $2.6 billion in
federal funds for the project. February’s appropriations bill also
included $209.6 million for East Side Access.

Full-funding grant agreements are commitments by the federal government
to provide a total amount of funding, delivered in installments, over
the life of a project.

In the mid-1990s, Rep. Maloney began a campaign to resuscitate the
Second Avenue Subway after the project had lain dormant for decades.
The subway project, as planned, would run primarily through the 14th
Congressional District, which Maloney represents.
The full-length Second Avenue Subway will be an 8 ½ mile two-track line
beginning at 125th street and ending in Hanover Square in lower
Manhattan. The subway’s first segment will include stops at 96th, 86th
and 72nd Streets, and tunnels from 99th to 62nd Streets. At 63rd
Street, the new subway line will link onto the existing Q-line tracks,
providing a one-seat ride from the Upper East Side to Times Square,
Wall Street, and Brooklyn.

Construction of the full-length subway has
been divided into four phases.
Once completed, the first subway phase will carry more than 200,000
riders each day and relieve massive congestion on the most overcrowded
subway routes in the nation: the 4, 5, and 6 Lexington Avenue IRT
trains on Manhattan's East Side.
East Side Access will bring the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central
Terminal, carrying approximately 163,000 average weekday boardings.