Sean Patrick Maloney: “this bill funds many good projects and will be a welcome relief to many communities. Unfortunately, the current version…”

“this bill funds many good projects and will be a welcome relief to many communities. Unfortunately, the current version is woefully deficient because it provides no funding whatsoever for a project that is one of the best in the Nation--the Second Avenue Subway. The Second Avenue Subway is recommended by the Federal Transit Administration and was included in President Bush's FY2005 budget. On day one, the Second Avenue Subway will move more people than any other project currently planned anywhere in the country. It will (i) relieve overcrowding on the most overcrowded subway in the nation, (ii) add capacity to a subway system that has not added capacity in 60 years and (iii) reach areas of New York City that currently are not served by any subway system. A report released by the Regional Plan Association December 2003 shows that Second Avenue Subway can create 156,000 jobs, boost business creation and retention, improve air quality, save travel time and create alternative routes to the city's business centers-- something 9/11 proved is essential to New York's security. There is already a strong market for mass transit in New York. Because 70-75 percent of all the people commuting to jobs along the route of the subway use mass transit to get to work, the highest proportion of mass transit use anywhere in the United States. There are 1.2 million jobs and nearly 650,000 residents along the proposed route of the Second Avenue Subway.”