OP-ED: Is there really a Utica Avenue Brooklyn subway in your future?

After serving 40 years in Washington as a Congressmember and Senator, why is Charles Schumer calling for construction of the Utica Avenue subway in Brooklyn? Despite his influence as Senate Majority Leader, the Utica Avenue subway may never leave the station.

Let's take a trip down memory lane to explain why. Planning may have actually begun between 1915 and 1918, when the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) company built a branch along Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. The Utica Avenue station was constructed with capacity to accommodate a future Utica Avenue subway. There have been a number of proposals for the Utica Avenue subway going back decades.

NYC Mayor Hyland proposed it in 1922. Many years before NYC took over the two private subway operators - Brooklyn Manhattan Transit and IRT to join the NYC's own independent subway and unify the system, there was a plan to incorporate a Utica Avenue line into the IRT system. One idea in 1929 was to create a Utica Avenue subway as part of the municipal independent subway system. Construction of the original A & C Fulton Street subway line running in Brooklyn included room at the Utica Avenue station to accommodate a future Utica Avenue line. A Utica Avenue subway was also considered in 1939 prior to World War II. After 1945, other transportation projects were always given a higher priority. Mayor-elect John Lindsay proposed a Utica Avenue subway line as part of his 1965 campaign and again in 1968 under his own master city-wide transportation improvement program.

At the request of NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) allocated $5 million in funding under the $32 billion MTA 2015 - 2019 Five Year Capital Program to initiate a feasibility study for this proposal to build a Utica Avenue subway extension. In 2017, the Regional Planning Association released its fourth annual master plan, which included calling for construction of the Utica Avenue subway.

Five years later, the MTA finally issued a Request for Proposals to an engineering consulting firm to perform this study. Work began on the study in 2020. Procrastinating for five years is a clear sign that the MTA is not interested in pursuing this project.

The MTA has both Five Year 2020 - 2024 and Twenty Year Long Range Capital Plans 2020 - 2040, which are periodically updated. Both documents clearly outline what capital funding is needed to maintain both a State of Good Repair for existing equipment, facilities and services along with safety, security and any future system expansion projects and programs. Specific costs and individual MTA operating agencies are also identified for both projects and programs. The Utica Avenue subway is not included in the MTA's current five year capital plan. There is no indication that this project has been included in the proposed MTA 2020 - 2040 Twenty Year Capital Needs Assessment Plan. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the MTA promised to release this document in December 2019. Fifteen months later, riders, transit advocate, taxpayers and elected officials are still waiting for this critical document to see the light of day.

Most concepts for the Utica Avenue subway called for construction of extensions for both the IRT subway lines #3 and #4 in Brooklyn. It would be built along Utica Avenue from Eastern Parkway to Avenue U. A critical challenge for construction of any below ground subway line along Utica Avenue will be dealing with a high water table and sandy soil. Any cost estimate for construction of a Utica Avenue subway will require far more than just the ongoing planning feasibility study.

Preliminary, final design and engineering, as well as a detailed below ground survey along the route would be needed - and don't forget completing the federal National Environmental Protection Act process. As to funding, the project would have to be admitted into the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) New Starts competitive national discretionary capital projects program. Any approved FTA Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) would leave MTA on the hook for cost overruns. The FFGA would place a cap on the amount of federal dollars available to finance the project. Costs for both the first phase of the $4.5 billion Second Avenue and $2.4 billion #7 subway line extension from Times Square to Hudson Yards averaged $2 billion per mile. The $5-billion cost estimate today could easily double to $10 billion by the time construction actually is initiated for the Utica Avenue subway.

More than 100 years later, ground has still not been broken for the Utica Avenue Subway. Too many transportation studies just like this one championed by numerous elected officials are nothing more than placebos designed to placate demagogues, who are not regular users of the numerous public transportation alternatives that have been available for decades.

The real problem is finding money to make things happen. All too often funding for many studies would have been better spent on real capital and operating service improvements instead of lining the pockets of consultants. How many studies end up on the shelf of planners just collecting dust? How many times do we end up with a series of press conferences and news releases designed to provide free publicity for elected officials to assist them in greasing the wheels of future elections. These same elected officials promise a bright future but leave riders holding an empty bag.

About 100 years have passed since the Utica Avenue subway was first proposed. Don't count riding any Utica Avenue subway in the next 100 years.

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Larry Penner is a transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously worked for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 NY Office. This included the development, review, approval and oversight for billions of dollars in grants which provided funding for capital projects and programs to the NY MTA, NYC Transit, Long Island and Metro North Rail Roads, MTA Bus, NYC DOT, NJ Transit and more than 30 transit agencies in New York and New Jersey.