Letter: East Side Access tunnel requires will
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's proposed $32 billion capital program, which was vetoed Thursday but remains under review, includes funding to complete its East Side Access project to link the LIRR to Grand Central Terminal by 2022. Contractors work on the project below midtown Manhattan on Jan. 29, 2013. Credit: Charles Eckert
Starting infrastructure projects is easy ["East Side rail work comes into view," News, Nov. 11]. Finishing them is hard. Newsday's reports on the East Side Access tunnel remind us that these transformative projects require sustained political will and an iron-clad commitment to long-term funding if we are to maintain the region's economic leadership through a viable mass transit system.
It was not lost on the Long Island Rail Road commuter how much political jockeying took place between the governor and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio before they compromised on the $29 billion earmarked for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's capital program. Our region's infrastructure can't be held hostage.
Marc Herbst, Hauppauge
Editor's note: The writer is the director of the Long Island Contractors' Association.
