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January 4, 2002

Subway Line in Attack May Reopen Much Earlier

By RANDY KENNEDY

Transit officials said yesterday that the subway line partially destroyed near the World Trade Center would be rebuilt and open again as early as November, more than a year earlier than originally planned. But the improved timetable comes with reduced ambitions: The city and state have conceded that it would be too costly to reroute the line to make it more convenient for Battery Park City residents. Instead it will be rebuilt mostly as it was before Sept. 11.

The plan would reconstruct more than a thousand feet of subway tunnels near ground zero that were either completely collapsed or pierced by falling beams. But instead of regaining all three stations that were closed after the attack — Cortlandt, Rector and South Ferry — the plan is to open only Rector and South Ferry along what was once the 1 and 9 line.

The Cortlandt Street Station, which is directly beneath the trade center plaza and was heavily damaged, will be demolished, and the shape of any new station in that area will be part of much larger plans for redevelopment and a memorial at the trade center site, officials said.

In the weeks after the attack, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had talked of the possibility of rebuilding the 1 and 9 line along a different route, perhaps farther west, to better serve Battery Park City. It had also wanted to incorporate in any rebuilding a new South Ferry Station. That station, the southernmost on the line, has long been an anachronism, big enough to accommodate only the first five cars of modern subway trains and so tightly curved that a gap of about two feet remains between the platform and some train doors.

But yesterday, officials said any modernization of the station would be part of a second phase of rebuilding, one that would probably include the Cortlandt Station and that would be subject to the uncertainties of future federal aid and state and city budgets.

The rebuilding to begin now — the cost of which officials would not speculate on yesterday — is expected to be paid for with insurance money and with later help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That money will pay for restoring the line to the way it was before Sept. 11, but not for additional improvements, except adding elevators for disabled riders.  Still, even with the subtractions from New York City Transit's original wish list, the plan to restore service so quickly — little more than a year after the worst damage ever to befall the subway — was lauded yesterday by riders and officials. "This important subway line carries more than 600,000 people a day to home or work, and restoration of service is critical to getting downtown Manhattan back on its feet," said Gov. George E. Pataki, in a statement. Mr. Pataki controls the M.T.A. board, which is expected to approve the plan at its next meeting.

Details are still being worked out, but it is likely that the reopening of the tunnels would make it possible to put several subway lines back on their old routes, with the 2 and 3 going to Brooklyn and the 1 and 9 terminating at South Ferry. After Sept. 11, subway planners had to scramble those lines, terminating the 3 in Manhattan and sending the 1 into Brooklyn in order to turn trains around efficiently. But the changes resulted in very unreliable service along much of the lines' routes.

"These lines, taken together, have a ridership probably equal to the population of Boston," said Gene Russianoff, staff lawyer for the Straphangers Campaign, a transit advocacy group. "And we've gotten a tidal wave of complaints from riders about service on the lines over the last few months."  "This sounds to me like the M.T.A. is making an intelligent choice," Mr. Russianoff added, "considering the uncertainties of federal funding."

About 575 feet of the line is totally collapsed, in two separate locations, but subway engineers have said that hundreds more feet are structurally unsound, with once-straight I-beams bent into curves and dozens of holes punched through the tunnel walls by falling debris. Before reconstruction can begin, workers will have to punch through thick concrete and steel bulkheads that were constructed in the days after the attack to prevent any flooding from spreading throughout the system.

Transit officials said yesterday that they planned to send out documents outlining the overall scope of work to contracting companies within the week. Bidding for the job — which will most likely be modified, with only a small group of prequalified companies involved, to speed the process — will begin this month. The company to perform the work is expected to be chosen by February.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/04/nyregion/04SUBW.html