Posted: Thursday, November 20, 2014 10:30 am
His way is not the QueensWay.
Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D-Rockaway Park) on Monday called on Gov. Cuomo to allocate part of the state’s $5 billion surplus for the reactivation of the Rockaway Beach rail line.
“This is a one-shot infusion of money that should be used for infrastructure that could provide Queens and the entire city with the transit options it so desperately needs,” Goldfeder said in a written statement. “What better use of state dollars than for the restoration of an abandoned rail line that could create jobs, remove congestion from our roadways and improve transit options for up to 500 thousand riders per day.”
In a Nov. 17 letter to Cuomo obtained by the Chronicle, Goldfeder tells the governor that “the rail line will increase transit options, stimulate the economy, improve our environment and create jobs for our local residents.”
“The MTA signaled its willingness to restore the rail line in their twenty year plan and Comptroller DiNapoli agreed restoring service on the line would be the most cost effective way to speed commutes between South Queens and Manhattan, improve travel within the borough, promote economic development and prepare our neighborhood for future growth,” Goldfeder’s letter to Cuomo states.
The state has a surplus of about $5 billion, which comes from settlements and fines of financial firms who were prosecuted by the state in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
Goldfeder believes the surplus should be used on “major infrastructure improvements.”
“A small portion of the $5 billion still waiting to be allocated could improve transit for millions of residents and provide additional access to JFK airport,” the assemblyman said in his written statement. “In the best interest of our Queens families and to the benefit of every resident across New York City, I strongly urge Governor Cuomo to use our state’s surplus dollars to fund the restoration of the Rockaway Beach Rail Line.”
The cost of reactivating the rail line would be somewhere between $600 and $900 million, according to Goldfeder’s letter to Cuomo.
The letter to the governor comes a week after a survey Goldfeder commissioned through the Queens College Department of Urban Studies found that 500,000 riders could benefit from the reactivation of the long-abandoned line per day.
The survey also showed that roughly 40 percent of people along the rail’s right of way would rather see a train on the tracks than have it turned into the QueensWay, a 3.5 mile stretch of parkland.
Goldfeder cited the survey in his letter to Cuomo, saying it showed that “roughly 40% [of people] favored reactivating the rail line.”
A spokesperson for Friends of QueensWay, an organization advocating for the parkland proposal, said in a written statement, “When the facts are presented, the overwhelming impacts and drawbacks associated with rail reactivation are obvious.”
“The Friends of the QueensWay and its thousands of supporters continue to believe that the QueensWay is the best and only way to maximize the quality of life and economic development benefits that will be realized when this property is adaptively reused for the community,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson also disputed claims that the MTA has given its support to the rail line project, and added that DiNapoli has also supported the QueensWay proposal.
Goldfeder’s proposal to have the state’s surplus money allocated to the rail line was supported by Philip McManus, president of the Queens Public Transit Committee.
“The Queens Public Transit Committee highly urges Governor Cuomo to provide funding to address our dangerous overcrowding problem in our transit system and our slow unproductive congested roadways,” McManus said in a written statement.
“It’s time our state restore the Queens Rockaway Beach Rail line and create a one seat ride to Midtown Manhattan and Queens, including a 40 minute or less ride to the Atlantic Ocean, Jamaica Bay, JFK Airport, Resorts World Casino, Forest Park and Queens Mall.”
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