MTA moving ahead with scaled-back capital plan

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to move forward with a scaled-back, five-year capital plan that includes several important infrastructure projects on the Long Island Rail Road, despite only having the money to pay for the first two years of the plan, transit officials said Friday.

The MTA's revised $26.3-billion capital plan, which covers 2010 through 2014, is $2 billion less than the one originally proposed in October, and achieves much of its savings by downsizing planned projects and purchases throughout the agency.

The MTA remains nearly $10 billion short of being able to pay for the entire plan, usually funded by a combination of MTA, New York City, state and federal dollars. Even so, MTA chief executive and chairman Jay Walder said the budget will be voted on Wednesday by the agency's board of directors and sent to the five-member Capital Plan Review Board for final approval.

"We've looked at our program. We've cut costs in our program. We've tightened up our program. We need to get on with doing this now," said Walder, who said the MTA is better off revisiting the outstanding cost of the plan in two years, by which time its financial footing may have improved.

Projects begun in the first two years will be fully funded, he said, so there is no risk of starting a project and then running out of money to finish it.

Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington), who sits on the review board and has veto power on the plan, commended the MTA for scaling back, but said he remains "concerned" that the MTA cannot pay for the capital plan's last three years. He said he has introduced legislation that would allow the MTA to have a two-year capital plan, rather than a five-year one, as required by state law.

As expected, the biggest change from the original plan for the LIRR is the elimination of funding to begin construction on a second track along the 17.9-mile stretch between the Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma stations. The original capital plan earmarked $137 million for the project's design and the start of construction. The revised plan includes just $30 million for design of the second track.

MTA officials already had said they would have to delay the project if they were forced to comply with an unfunded federal mandate to install a new $350-million "positive train control" crash avoidance system on trains by 2015.

Throughout the MTA, several originally proposed capital projects have been scaled back. A plan to spend $164.7 million to build two new LIRR rail yards in Suffolk has been replaced with $79 million to build one yard. Similarly, subway stations pegged for top-to-bottom overhauls instead will see smaller improvements, such as fresh coats of paint.

Rather than shoot for ideal improvements that are costly and could take a long time to accomplish, Walder said his revised capital plan aims for a "less expensive and quicker way to get things done.""The perfect is the enemy of the good," said Walder, who counted among the new efficiencies plans to have the LIRR share some maintenance facilities with Metro-North Railroad, instead of building separate facilities for each of the commuter rails.