NYC: 7 train to Secaucus?

[randomness]

From http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/nyregion/17tunnel.html:

Ever since Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey killed an expensive plan for a new commuter rail tunnel to Manhattan, the Bloomberg administration has been working on an alternative: run the No. 7 subway train under the Hudson River.

The plan envisions the No. 7 stretching from 34th Street on the Far West Side of Manhattan to Secaucus, N.J., where there is a connection to New Jersey Transit trains. It would extend the New York City subway outside the city for the first time, giving New Jersey commuters direct access to Times Square, Grand Central Terminal and Queens, and to almost every line in the system.

Like the project scuttled by Mr. Christie, this proposed tunnel would expand a regional transportation system already operating at capacity and would double the number of trains traveling between the two states during peak hours. It would do so at about half the cost, an estimated $5.3 billion, according to a closely guarded, four-page memorandum circulated by the city’s Hudson Yards Development Corporation.

Unlike the old project, the new plan does not require costly condemnation proceedings or extensive tunneling in Manhattan, because the city is already building a No. 7 station at 34th Street and 11th Avenue, roughly one block from the waterfront. In July, a massive 110-ton tunnel boring machine completed drilling for the city’s $2.1 billion extension of the No. 7 line from Times Square to the new station.

The plan Governor Christie cancelled, and Wikipedia article.

The existing plan for the extension of the 7 line to 11th Avenue and 34th Street, with Wikipedia article.

Comments

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

This is actually a brilliant idea.

Of course, by the time it gets put together, it'll take twice as long and cost twice as much as the trans-hudson tunnel, but I salute the ingenuity.

[orewashinanai.livejournal.com]

That seems like it would be pretty cool. I only worry that the 7 train's reputation for being quick and frequent would take a hit....

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

Wow. Way to work around New Jersey's recalcitrance.

They finished the boring already for the extension of the 7? I had no idea! I thought that wouldn't be done until... oh, right.

I forget sometimes that I'm living in the future....

[allessindra.livejournal.com]

New Jersey's recalcitrance was due to two things:

A) NY was putting NO MONEY into the project. Because, supposedly, they didn't have any.

B) According to the proposal as it stood, the only financial entity that would have been responsible for any cost overruns would have been New Jersey.

For all that I support funding mass transit, I support the rejection of that proposal. Make it more even handed, more reasonable, and I'd run with it. Not as it was written.

[nathanjw]

For those of us without particular local knowledge, what are the downsides of this plan compared to the previous one?

[holmes-iv.livejournal.com]

Off the top of my head, the 7 extension would allow for a one-seat ride from Secaucus to Queens, which is better than the ARC plan, but would not allow one-seat rides from elsewhere in NJ to midtown Manhattan, which is worse. Since the 7 is an IRT-spec train with 9' loading gauge, no other trains could be run on those tracks (at least, not without gauntlet tracks or separate platforms), so the flexibility provided would be less.

I tend to agree with the view that through-running NJT to the Metro-North and LIRR (and vise-versa) is a better plan than building a new deep-cavern station and forcing more transfers in midtown, so I prefer the idea of building a new interstate/commuter rail tunnel that increases the traffic capacity (and redundancy) across the Hudson, but doing this for commuter transit, and a more high-speed-oriented tunnel for Amtrak at a later date, would be totally fine with me. Also, I'd like $20 billion worth of ponies.