Supporters of a new Tappan Zee Bridge met again today to draw public support and push the debate up a notch. Al Samuels, president of the Rockland Business Association, had some heated words for people who want mass transit on the bridge on Day 1.
My colleague, Khurram Saeed, has the latest:
Anyone who wants to add to the cost of that bridge is an obstructionist,” Samuels said. “I don’t care if it’s a political figure. I don’t care if it’s a community activist organization. I don’t care if it’s an organization that says they are champions of mass transit. It’s pure obstructionism. The money isn’t there. We’ve got to get the basic crossing built.”What do you think? Should mass transit, including bus rapid transit, be part of the new bridge right away?
(Al Samuels, president of the Rockland Business Association. Photo credit: Carucha Meuse, The Journal News/LoHud.com.)
3 Comments
The federal government has declined the state’s request to apply for a $2 billion low-interest loan to help fund the project. With no alternative source of funding for that piece of the estimated $5 billion cost, the new crossing isn’t being built any time in the foreseeable future. That being the case, isn’t a debate about mass transit on the new bridge pretty much academic?
I have commuted across the Tappan-Zee for more than a decade and while commuter options to/from Westchester have improved in that time, they are no where near where they should be. The community has been demanding some sort mass transit solution and continues to demand it. At a time when gas it at $4.15 a gallon, you could bet your life I would consider public transport over driving my car, just as I take public transport when I need to go to Manhattan rather than drive. I don’t believe demanding what has been asked for all along is obstructionist, it is realistic. If there can’t be rail, let there be light rail, if there can’t be light rail have bus lanes.
ned is right, but notice that 60 million by the same process becomes 600 million not 6 billion, thats for fifty years from now, which is about when the unfinanced bridge to nowhere will be dropped in favor of the tunnel.