Gov. Cuomo Halts L Train Shutdown
If you look up the words clueless & idiot in the dictionary, you would see a picture of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Okay while this is not true, I & many others feel it should be especially after his decision to halt the impending 
train shutdown a.k.a. L-pocalypse. The surprising announcement came at a press conference he held yesterday that included “experts” (more on them in a bit) which rocked the local transit world.
After inspecting the tunnels last month in a clear publicity stunt & consulting, he came up with the plan that cancels the 15 month full shutdown in favor of a plan that would complete the work in 15-20 months while maintaining regular weekday service but have closures at nights & over weekends along with single tracking at other times during nights & weekends.
Now let me get into how ridiculous this whole situation comes off looking. For starters, this plan came out of left field. For over 2 years, the MTA warned riders about how this shutdown would occur & why it had to due to the necessity of the work. To best handle the work, it made sense to shut the system down and get everything done versus doing it parts at a time. Now after many uprooted their lives, now the Governor comes in saying a complete shutdown is completely unnecessary.
Secondly he is basing this plan on the analysis of so called “experts” who in actuality are nothing but ACADEMIC engineers with ZERO experience managing construction projects or complex projects involving the creation of physical objects. However Mr. Know It All Cuomo feels it is better to listen to scholars versus private engineer firms who actually do such work for a living & are true experts in their field.
The best part of this plan is that it involves using technological strategies that have never been tested in terms of subway tunnels even though it has worked in completely unrelated fields. Now why in the world would you take such a chance like this?
Could the answer be political? One can legitimately argue that this plan favors the Manhattan side of the line versus Brooklyn riders. When you look at the public reaction to the MTA’s original plans, while many were frustrated, they did favor the original shutdown with a shorter overall timeline since it was aimed at totally fixing the problems.
Instead of doing that, Cuomo is choosing to go with a risky plan that equates to putting a big band-aid on the problem & kicking the can down the road when he will long be gone from office so his choices can’t hurt him. Would he really put his own agenda ahead of what the situation warrants? Of course he would as that is the true Gov. Cuomo way!
xoxo Transit Blogger
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