The completion of Phase 1 of Second Avenue Subway in 2017 was the MTA’s most significant system expansion in decades. Yet, the rush to complete it came at a significant cost to service and maintenance projects in the years that followed.
In his new book, Last Subway: The Long Wait for the Next Train in New York City, Philip Plotch reveals the dramatic saga behind New York’s struggle to build the Second Avenue Subway. The story examines how every generation must make difficult choices between maintaining, upgrading, and expanding the transit system.
Building the Second Avenue Subway caused all sorts of disruptions at the MTA when times were good. Given that the agency is now struggling to stay afloat, how should it balance future system expansion with basic needs like maintenance, accessibility, and signals? Will New York ever build any new subway lines, given how long they take to complete and how much they cost?
Join TransitCenter and Open House New York for a discussion about the choices we’ll likely need to make between expanding and maintaining our transit system.
Panelists:
Nicole Gelinas, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute
Mysore Nagaraja, Co-Founder and Chairman, Spartan Solutions LLC
Philip Plotch, PhD, Associate Professor, Saint Peter’s University
Moderator:
Jose Martinez, Senior Reporter, THE CITY
Please note: This is a webinar on Zoom. For security purposes, only registered Zoom users will be able to RSVP for the event.
This event is co-sponsored by TransitCenter and Open House New York.
Photo credit: Metropolitan Transportation Authority