By Philip Newman
The East Side Access project envisions Long Island Rail Road trains arriving in Grand Central Terminal and now a study is to be conducted on whether it is feasible to similarly connect Jamaica and Wall Street.
Brookfield Financial Properties, downtown Manhattan’s largest landlord, plans to produce a study on the project, the fruition of which could make Jamaica an even greater transit center and boost business in southeast Queens.
A Brookfield spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the project’s cost was estimated at $1.9 billion and would require no new tunnel beneath the East River. Instead it would make use of an existing tunnel located under the river beneath other subway tunnels on the east side of Lower Manhattan.
“With new, rapid-boring equipment and operating so far below, it would not be disruptive — in fact, practically nobody would know the work was going on,” the spokesman said.
The route would take trains from the Jamaica Long Island Rail Road station to the Brooklyn MetroTech center and through a tunnel used by the A and C subway lines. C trains would move to the under-used F train tunnel into Lower Manhattan.
Questions have been asked whether the new linkup would be a one-seat trip or require switching from the Long Island Rail Road to the subway.
“We are planning a one-seat ride,” the Brookfield spokesman said.
He said although tracks of both the LIRR and the subway system are of the same track gauge so that both subway and LIRR cars would fit them, using both for the new line would not work.
“You run into all sorts of regulations and problems, both state, federal and labor laws against running cars of different weights on different tracks,” the spokesman said.
As a result, the plan would be for a dedicated track, used exclusively by the Jamaica-Lower Manhattan line.
“We might come up with a rapid transit car perhaps resembling some aspects of both an LIRR car and a New York City subway car for the route,” the spokesman said.
Plans call for trains to cover the 11 miles from the Jamaica LIRR station to the proposed new Lower Manhattan Transportation Center in under 25 minutes.
Some reports have suggested the new route was to be a joint project of Brookfield and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority but MTA spokesman Tom Kelly said the MTA’s role was only to provide expertise and information for the feasibility study.
“We are not paying for the study,” Kelly said.
Although the proposed Jamaica-Lower Manhattan project would also link a part of Queens with a part of Manhattan, the present cost estimate for the route from Jamaica to Lower Manhattan is about half the $4 billion cost of the East Side Access project.
“In any case, this study is to determine whether this concept for a direct link from Jamaica to Lower Manhattan makes sense,” the spokesman said. “We answer with a resounding ‘yes!”
“Jamaica Center already is a regional transportation center with the Long Island Railroad, several subway lines and numerous bus routes,” said Sam Samuels, a spokesman for the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation,
“While we all look forward to the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan, many businesses are considering spreading their offices around the city,” Samuels said. “One feasible option could be to have some offices in Lower Manhattan and others just a short railroad ride away in Jamaica Center.”
F. Carlisle Towery, president of the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, speaking to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation a few weeks ago, called for “direct public access from the east” to Lower Manhattan.
“Access to Lower Manhattan from Queens and Long Island has long been inadequate,” Towery said. “There appear to be special opportunities and cost-effective ways, using existing infrastructure, to bring transit services from Jamaica — the hub of the Long Island Rail Road — directly into Lower Manhattan and to link Jamaica to downtown, the nation’s third largest business district.”
U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-St. Albans) said he applauds the idea.
“It would be a great help to our Queens commuters and particularly a boon to Jamaica, which is already getting to be a transportation hub,” he said in an interview.
“It can also be an integral part of the proposed new transportation network in Lower Manhattan. But success is certainly based on this new link being a one-seat ride.”
City Councilman John Liu, D-Flushing, chairman of the Council’s Transportation Committee, said it was essential to have a one-seat ride.
“This proposed new route would be a major factor in bringing together the presently disparate, and sometimes confusing, network of transportation in the proposed Lower Manhattan transportation center,” Liu said.
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 136.
