New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority is seeking up to $300 million in federal funding for infrastructure improvements for the L subway line, which runs from Manhattan to the Canarsie section of Brooklyn through neighborhoods that have experienced the largest increases in population in New York City.
More than 300,000 customers use the Canarsie L line on an average weekday, an increase of 98% since 1998, an MTA spokesman said late Friday. Average weekday entries at the Bedford Avenue station, the busiest station on the line, have increased by 250%.
To advance the improvements, the MTA will request funding through the Federal Transit Administration's new core capacity grant program. Work on the Canarsie improvements is expected to take several years, with construction on the new station entrance at 1st Avenue to start first.
Partial funding for the Canarsie improvements has been included in the MTA's proposed 2015-2019 capital program, which is pending a state review panel. MTA officials said $50 million for project development was previously included in the 2010-2014 capital program.
The authority is one of the largest municipal issuers, with roughly $34 billion of debt.
The MTA's request for core capacity funding is limited to power and vertical circulation improvements that will increase capacity on the L line. The application for federal funds is expected to take several years, and the FTA must conduct additional reviews before a making a funding recommendation.
The line has experienced a 27% increase in ridership since New York City Transit installed Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC) in 2007, a new signal system that increased New York City Transit's ability to run more trains each hour. NYC Transit is an MTA division.
Proposed infrastructure improvements include adding three power substations to allow for two additional trains per hour, a 10% increase in service, which could carry 2,200 additional customers per hour.
Other elements include installing elevators at the 1st Avenue and Bedford Avenue stations to make them fully compliant with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, and adding new street-level entrances at both stations to alleviate platform crowding.
Work on the infrastructure improvements will be coordinated with planned repairs to the Canarsie tube, flooded by Hurricane Sandy. Those repairs include work on tracks, signals, tunnel lighting, cables, pump facilities, duct banks and other equipment required for reliable service through the tube.
MTA officials will determine a schedule later for Sandy-related repairs to the tunnel, which connects Manhattan and Brooklyn under the East River.
The Transportation Reinvention Commission, a 24-member panel of transit experts that Gov. Andrew Cuomo convened, urged the MTA last month to consider changing commuter patterns in the city's outer boroughs in its long-range planning.
