What a surprise. Given the lackidasical pace of reconstruction at the WTC, the news that the nearby Fulton Transit Hub is a year behind schedule and will be scaled back in scope is not surprising.
What is surprising is that no one appears willing to push these reconstruction and development projects through on time and on budget. Everyone seems accepting of delays and cost overruns, though to their credit, the MTA is scaling back the project to keep it on budget. However, the scaled back project will probably be outdated and incapable of meeting the needs of consumers and that's just as bad as that will require future expenditures, delays, consumer inconvenience due to detours and closures.
For an example of how a transportation project can become bloated and cost overruns can quadruple the price, just check out the white elephant that is Secaucus Junction. That project links up 10 of 11 NJ Transit lines, but it was only supposed to cost $100 million. Instead, the price soared to nearly $450 million, took longer to complete, and now saddles NJ Transit with long term debt that has to be financed with yet more debt.
I only hope that the Fulton St. project doesn't leave a similar mess for the MTA.
UPDATE 4:26PM EDT:
Fixed a factual error. NJ Transit links up 10 of 11 lines at Secaucus, not 11 of 12. Sorry for the mixup, but tried to write this off the top of my head without fact checking first.
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