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Yet again, the price tag for many MTA improvement projects has soared, this time even before the agency has decided to start any actual work.
This means, yet again, New Yorkers will be paying more, getting less — or both.
On Wednesday, an MTA assessment of expected transit upgrades over the next 20 years cited higher costs — as much as 50% higher — for several projects.
A new 7-line station on 10th Avenue would weigh in at $1.9 billion, up $600 million, or 45%, from its original price tag.
Extending the Second Avenue Subway to Houston Street would set the agency back $13.5 billion, a 40% spike from the inflation-adjusted original budgeted cost.
Talk about money pits!
Only a few months ago, the MTA was facing monster shortfalls in its operating budget.
You can blame the pandemic- and crime-spike ridership plunge, but the MTA hauled in a whopping $15 billion in federal pandemic bailout money.
Albany raced to the agency’s rescue by socking businesses with payroll-based tax hikes to bring in $1.1 billion a year for the system.
It also gave it a one-time handout of $300 million, another $165 million for two years, and some of the revenue from downstate casinos that don’t yet exist.
Fares and tolls shot up, too.
Yet financial crises plague the agency every few years, and it’s clearly not because of a lack of revenue — the agency hoovers up $20 billion a year.
No, it’s out-of-control, wasteful spending.
Just this summer we flagged a crazy $5 million MTA outlay for workers to roam a bus depot checking for flames, in lieu of a broken sprinkler system.
But it’s ever-more-pricey construction projects, like those cited Wednesday, that seriously rocket up costs.
A Post series this year detailed how union work rules, larger-than-necessary projects, overreliance on expensive consultants, and other factors drive up costs.
It showed how other major cities — Rome, Paris, London — all do similar projects for a fraction of the cost, echoing a New York Times report years back showing outlays here are seven times as much per track mile as the world average.
MTA construction chief Jamie Torres-Springer says his team isn’t “committing to any of these investments” cited in Wednesday’s assessment.
Good. Because unless he can squeeze out a lot more value for the rider’s buck, it’s beyond insane to launch the Second Avenue Subway extension, the 7-line station, or any big new project — including the lunatic idea of burning cash on an utterly useless Eighth Avenue “grand entrance” to Penn Station.
Stick to essential repairs, maintenance, and upgrades.
Maybe harden the system against flooding.
It’s tragic that New Yorkers can’t have many nice things when it comes to their transit system.
But they’ve parted with enough of their hard-earned cash for the system already.
The MTA needs to lower construction costs — or lower its sights.
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