'What The L?': Pols Demand Answers About Cuomo's New L Train Plan

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — How does it feel to spend three years painstakingly planning a 15-month shutdown of the L train only to have it scrapped 100 days before it begins?

Apparently, a lot like getting left at the altar, according to state Sen. Brad Hoylman.

"I kind of feel like we were planning a wedding for the last three years...and we get to the altar and not only does the groom run off, but you look at the guy next to you and you've never seen him before," Hoylman said at a press conference organized by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams in Williamsburg over the weekend.

Hoylman's quirky analogy was one of many ways a group of elected officials described their "whiplash" following Governor Andrew Cuomo's surprise announcement last week that a new plan to fix the Canarsie tunnel might avoid the shutdown of the L train expected to start in April.

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Cuomo and a team of experts announced last Thursday that a new innovative method to fixing damage caused by superstorm Sandy — which still needs approval from the MTA board — could avoid the 15-month shutdown, which officials had dedicated months and millions of dollars to planning. The new plan would close only one of the tunnel's two lanes at a time on nights and weekends.

Adams said politicians learned about the new plan the same time as the public, and that a briefing meeting after the announcement still left "more questions than answers."

"We woke up and all of us said together, 'What the L?'" Adams said. "I walked into a meeting last week with an exclamation point saying a plan was there and I walked out with a question mark saying, 'What are we doing?'"

The group of politicians said they were left wondering about the safety of the new plan, its environmental impact, what it would cost and how renegotiating with contractors at the last minute might harm future deals.

In a letter to the MTA, city and state, the politicians said they will demand more transparency and community input about the new approach going forward. They added that the letter will request that any savings from the new plan get re-invested in the subway and that the originally planned extra buses, trains, bike lanes and ferry trips to mitigate the shutdown aren't completely abandoned.

Some officials said the way the way the announcement was made raises serious questions about its timing and the apparent secrecy surrounding the new approach. U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney said when she was calling MTA officials on Thursday they seemed "just as surprised as I was."

"These experts that have come up with this new plan — where have they been the last three years?" added Andrew Albert, a member of the New York City Transit Riders Council. "Why now, why all of the sudden?"

Cuomo had brought his team of experts from Columbia and Cornell to visit the tunnel just a few weeks before the announcement last week. He and MTA Acting Chair Fernando Ferrer said the city would go ahead with the new plan Thursday, before backtracking Friday to say they first needed a vote from the MTA board.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer added that she will request the federal government to demand an "outside validator" confirm the new expert's findings.

Photo provided by the Brooklyn Borough President's Office Youtube page.