News

NEW YORK, NY October 22, 2007 —MTA officials say they won't be able to start construction on a new subway station at 41st Street and 10th avenue unless they come up with an extra $450 million dollars in the next nine months.

REPORTER: The number 7 train extension from Times Square to the Javits Center at 34th Street is being funded by the city and will be completed in five years. But the tunneling cost was higher than projected, forcing the MTA to scale back plans to build a shell for a second station.

Planning Director Bill Wheeler says he can't predict whether the city or developers will want to front the bill to encourage construction on the far West Side of Manhattan.

WHEELER: This is a 25 or a 30 year build out for this community, that is to say it's going to take a long time to build out and what we need to do is make sure that when it's completely built out that it has everything they need for those stations.

REPORTER: Some transit advocates say it's bad public policy for the city to spend 2 point $1 billion on one new subway station instead of two.