The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will end up $91 million over budget on a project to modernize a portion of the subway system, a new report said — but officials said everything’s going to plan even though it may be years behind schedule.
The project for the crosstown train, or G line, could be as much as two years behind schedule as the beleaguered Big Apple transit system works to upgrade its signal system across numerous routes that even include newer trains.
The latest 5G technology for the communication-based train control (CBTC) would provide faster and more dependable service, MTA officials have said – as riders face a possible fare hike next year.
“Not every project that we’ve done in the last five years has been on time and on budget,” MTA chief Janno Lieber said during a press conference Wednesday about the possible additional expenses and delays.
Costs attached to the G line could balloon to as high as $715 million instead of the $624 million pegged by the MTA, an independent engineering consultant stated in a report delivered to the MTA board Monday.
But that estimation from the IEC is in sharp contrast with the MTA’s own internal projections, which still has it running on budget.
The Queens Boulevard line project could also blow past the planned budget by tens of millions of dollars, though the MTA’s own numbers show it’s within budget.
The independent consultant also stated all of the revamped lines won’t be wrapped up on schedule.
The G line could be done by 2029 instead of 2027 with MTA construction head Jamie Torres-Springer stating any extended timeline can be attributed to the CBTC technology that needs to replace 4G tech that are even on newer trains.
“While all of the physical work to outfit the G train is going smoothly and is on time, a new technology that we need to adopt for CBTC across all of our subway lines,” he said, “not just for the G train, but starting with the G train, it’s a 5G radio that would be on subway cars to replace obsolete radio equipment, and that will take longer than the work that we’re doing on the G itself.”
Work on the G line has led to some travel headaches for commuters this summer after disruptions were even worse last year, though further outages were not expected to handle the signal swap, Torres-Springer.
The F line in Brooklyn would be done by September 2025 – three years later than the initial completion date while the A, C, E lines on Eighth Avenue will be finished by 2027 and the Queens Blvd line won’t be done before 2028 – that would make both projects two-years late, according to the report.
Lieber, in his Wednesday press conference, said the agency was not shying away from the delays while stressing the pushing out the projects will lead to more benefits.
“But we own every time we run late or we run over budget, we’ll always highlight the fact that we’ve made a lot of progress on big projects on that,” the MTA chief said in response to the independent report.
“And we will continue to push forward on these projects that are really important. And you see, we funded a lot more signal work in the coming capital plan.”
