As noted last week, the New York State Thruway Authority will not be receiving a TIFIA loan that the Authority called “critical to financing the Project at a cost that is affordable to toll payers using the Tappan Zee Bridge” in its letter of interest. Now, as the state tries to downplay the significance of the loan as a way to finance the project, another voice has joined the chorus of New Yorkers calling for mass transit to be included in the Tappan Zee Hudson River Crossing Project from day one. On Friday, the New York GOP, through its chairman Ed Cox, issued a statement backing County Executives Astorino and Vanderhoef in imploring “the Governor to include mass transit into any new Tappan Zee Bridge as a way to ensure that the bridge is not obsolete on day one and protects the environment going forward.”
The statement is just another indication of the broad based support for transit on the Tappan Zee Bridge, and is the first indication that transit will be a campaign issue in the upcoming 2012 state and federal elections.
TRANSIT WILL BE USEFUL IF THERE IS PARKING AND CONNECTIVITY AT BOTH ENDS. FREIGHT AND TRUCK ON TRAIN ARE ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY TO UNSNARL THE REGIONS TRAFFIC, CLEAR THE AIR, AND SAVE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF GALLONS OF FUEL. AFFORDABILITY AND QUICK BUILD WOULD HELP. A TESTED DESIGN IS OPEN IN CHINA NOW, COST LESS THAN ONE BILLION AND WAS BUILT IN TWENTY TWO MONTHS. NO 0NE HAS EVER BUILT A BRIDGE AS DREAMED WTH SUCH DEPTH TO BED ROCK. TUNNEL YES, BRIDGE NO.
[…] Executive Rob Astorino, a vocal champion in support of bus transit in the I-287 corridor and on the new Tappan Zee Bridge project, carried this support for buses into his recently released 2013 Proposed Operating […]