Last week when Mayor Bill de Blasio was inaugurated I published an open letter to him on several items that the Bronx was in need of.
One of the major items I mentioned that instead of hundreds of millions of dollars going to corporate subsidies that hurt communities rather than benefit them was to use said monies for fast tracking four new Metro North stations in the East Bronx.
While the monies may not necessarily fast track the process what it would do is at least guarantee that the budget would be met for such a major project.
Well yesterday Governor Cuomo, in his state of the State address gave a major push for this expansion of has been studied for years.
The four proposed stations would be located in Co-op City, Morris Park, Parkchester, and Hunts Point along the New Haven Line and link directly with Penn Station offering Eastern Bronx residents direct access to the west side in 25 minutes: a trip that can now take well over an hour.
If these stations are built in 5 years, they will be a tremendous boon to the borough but easing the commutes for thousands of Bronxites and opening up access to employment centers in Westchester and Connecticut which were impossible to get to without a car.
Let’s make sure that we keep the pressure on and demand that this doesn’t just become a pipe dream or a plan that is shelved but that it becomes a reality. The Bronx already has these railroad tracks intersecting the borough so might as well put our infrastructure to good use.
