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When Andy Byford, New York City metro leader, met with Amazon executives over the summer, Byford boasted that Long Island City, Queens, was a wonderland transit ready to serve their army of workers.
The reality is much less rosy.
Long Island City has half a dozen subway lines, the Long Island Rail Road, buses and ferries. Byford, however, painted a brilliant picture of the enormous challenges facing the city's transportation system, which routinely struggles to bring in millions of New Yorkers.
The metro is still not reliable, more than a year after being declared in a state of emergency. Last week, a relatively modest snowstorm paralyzed traffic in the area. On the same day, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the metro and buses, announced that it was facing a budget crisis and that it should perhaps significantly increase its rates or reduce its services.
Nevertheless, Byford was optimistic about the system's ability to handle a potential influx of 25,000 workers in Long Island City, with the Amazon site chosen for one of two new sites, as well as a suburb in Virginia.
"That's obviously part of the reason – an important reason I would suggest – for which Amazon was lured to Long Island City," Byford told the press last Thursday at the end of the conference. 39, a press conference. meeting of the board of directors. "He already has a rich transport-transit offer."
But Jimmy Van Bramer, the city councilor representing the area, said one of the main subway lines serving the area, No. 7, was already crowded and miserable and that Amazon's arrival would only aggravate the problem.
"If you can not get on these trains or if these trains are unreliable, then it is not rich in transport," he said. "The daily experience of runners is one where you literally have to find your way in these trains and that's the case if they come."
Mr. Van Bramer, who opposes the nearly $ 2 billion state-sponsored incentives to Amazon, said he had taken the No. 7 train to the hotel. Monday morning and urged Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio – two Amazon business boosters – to do the same.
"It was packed when I arrived in Sunnyside," said Mr. Van Bramer. "He stopped and was put on several occasions at City Hall this morning. It's every day. "
In Seattle, Amazon offers suburban shuttles to its employees. The company agreed this year to contribute $ 1.5 million to improve public transit. The shuttles would not work as well in New York, said Van Bramer, as the city of Long Island is already crowded with Queensboro Bridge and Queens-Midtown tunnel traffic.
The Amazon headquarters in New York will be located along the East River in an area of Queens known as Anable Basin – which will likely be renamed Amazon Basin. There are two stations near Line 7: Court Square and Vernon Boulevard-Jackson Avenue, both of which have seen a significant increase in ridership in recent years. There is also a stop on the city-run ferry system, although ferries carry far fewer commuters than trains.
Some Amazon employees could live in Manhattan and take the subway to get to Queens, in the opposite direction to most commuters going to Manhattan to work, said Byford. Others could walk or ride a bike.
"I do not think it's a presumption that everyone will pile up on line 7," Byford said.
A contingent of Amazonian workers could also live in Brooklyn and take the G train to Long Island City. Train G – the only major metro line that does not reach Manhattan – has long been mocked for his truncated trains that are shorter than the platforms of the station. But its traffic increases and, when another line of metro, the L train, will be closed for repair, the trains of the line G will double their length, passing from four to eight cars.
Mr. Byford stated that he would consider letting the G trains stay in their longest configuration after the L train was closed to accommodate the Amazon workers, noting that it should take into account the number of users and the number of cars available.
But Van Bramer said the transit agency needed to think much more ambitiously to prepare for Amazon's impact.
"It's like putting your finger in the hole of a dam that's about to collapse," he said. "It just will not be enough."
During his meeting with Amazon, Mr. Byford said that he had announced his broader vision of the metro: a radical modernization plan, known as Fast Forward, that could cost $ 40 billion over ten years . But his proposal was not funded. And now the M.T.A. says he needs additional funds to avoid huge price hikes or severe service cuts.
Transit advocates have asked Cuomo, a democrat controlling the subway, to approve a transit funding plan for Albany next year, including a proposal known as Congestion Pricing. which would impose a toll on drivers entering Manhattan's busiest neighborhoods.
"If Albany does not approve congestion pricing this year and does not fund Fast Forward, Andy Byford promises that Amazon is utterly more precarious," said Nick Sifuentes, executive director of the Tri- State Transportation Campaign, an advocacy group.
Line # 7 is being upgraded with a new signaling system that should allow the agency to operate two additional trains every hour. But two additional trains could only carry an additional 2,500 passengers per hour, which is a small part of Amazon's potential workforce, Sifuentes said.
Amazon's decision also drew attention again to Mr. de Blasio's proposal to build a streetcar along the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront, formerly known as the Brooklyn-Queens Connector, or BQX . But the plan is stuck on questions about how to pay.
In announcing the deal with Amazon, Mr. de Blasio said he was reinforcing the need for a streetcar in the area where, he said, "New York's economic gravity is shifting towards the waterfront of Brooklyn and Queens ".
"The BQX is going to be a crucial part of the equation," said de Blasio.
Some transit advocates were disappointed that the state did not ask Amazon to pay for transit upgrades as part of the deal. There is a model for such an agreement: in 2015, a developer obtained permission to build a skyscraper near the Grand Central Terminal in exchange for $ 220 million of transit modernization near the site.
At Court Square, a busy Long Island City station on the E, G, M and N lines, the number of weekday riders has increased from 18,600 in 2012 to about 23,600 on weekdays. Vernon Boulevard-Jackson Avenue Station The number of weekday passengers increased from 11,500 in 2012 to 15,700 last year.
The agreement included a provision allowing Amazon to contribute to an infrastructure fund controlled by the City's Economic Development Corporation to fund neighborhood improvement works such as sidewalks, utility removals, transportation and public spaces. But some have called the fund too small and too narrow.
"It's not like going to buses or improving the subway," Sifuentes said. "It would not do much."
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