MTA chairman: 7-train won’t go to New Jersey. Ever.
For those of you who were hoping the 7-train would one day extend to New Jersey: Stop.
Earlier today, MTA Chairman Joe Lhota squashed Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s vision of an interstate subway system.
“I can’t see this happening in our lifetime,” said Lhota this morning, addressing an influential group of property owners and developers at the New York Building Congress.
Just in case you weren’t clear on that, Lhota didn’t stop there.
“Of course New Jersey would like to have it,” he continued. “They think they’re going to get across the river for $2.50. Not a chance. It’s not going to happen, not in our lifetime, not in anybody’s lifetime.”
Blame — what else — money, he said, as the cash-strapped MTA, which will implement another fare hike next and one more after that, simply cannot afford a project of such size and scale. The MTA has said in the past they can’t afford it.
Other than people who live in Secaucus, Bloomberg is probably the biggest fan of the idea to extend the 7-train under the Hudson River and the city even dropped $250,000 on a feasibility study.
And it appears Bloomie still won’t let go of his dream.
“Hopefully, it happens in somebody’s lifetime,” the mayor said today, according to the New York Daily News. “It would be great if it happened. I think having more tunnels over to New Jersey will help both New Jersey and New York City, if people can go back and forth.”
He even tried to get Lhota back on board, if the money could be coughed up.
“If somebody could provide the funding, I can tell you, Joe Lhota could build it,” he said.
