A crowded L Train on the New York City subway system. | AP Photo De Blasio sticks to posture of L-train incredulity

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday he's still dubious that the MTA actually needs to shut down the L train tunnel for a year and a half to repair the damage wrought by seven million gallons of Hurricane Sandy-induced flooding.

"It’s a long time," said the mayor, during his weekly appearance on the WNYC's "Brian Lehrer Show." "And we’re certainly going to push hard to see, does it it really have to be so long? Is there any other way to go about this?"


The MTA has been making the public case for an 18-month shut down of the nearly century-old tunnel since May. Its officials have visited community boards in areas that will be affected by the closure, and hosted four large-scale community meetings, at least some of which were attended by city transportation department officials. De Blasio's transportation commissioner, Polly Trottenberg, sits on the MTA board.

The argument for the 18-month closure is that Hurricane Sandy's brackish water severely weakened the tunnel's structural components, and deteriorating duct banks can cause derailments, not to mention severe unreliability. A closure of only of the tunnel's two tracks at a time would lead to a much longer construction time frame, and only nominal service (the MTA says it would be able to serve only one in five existing passengers).

Some worry the communication disconnect between de Blasio and the MTA, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo effectively controls, is evidence that the apparently never-ending de Blasio-Cuomo feud might interfere with L train mitigation efforts.

Jon Orcutt, the advocacy director at TransitCenter is, for one, convinced of the need for the prolonged shutdown.

"Yeah, I mean, the work has to happen," Orcutt said. "It’s not optional."

De Blasio seems somewhat less certain, even as he acknowledged that he's "sure" the decision "has a practical, underlying rationale."

"Most important point here is that we have to push the MTA to confirm, do they really need to do it that way, are there better alternatives, and what are they going to do to maximize the alternatives that they can provide...for those riders," he said.

As before, de Blasio also stressed his conviction that because the MTA is a state-run entity, it bears the bulk of the burden for helping ease the pain of the prolonged closure.

The MTA has said it will boost bus service and subway service along the G, J and M lines. It has also said it will reward construction bidders who can finish ahead of schedule.

But transportation experts consistently note that many of the 225,000 people who ride the L train under the East River every day will end up on New York City's streets, and those streets are controlled by the city. Any effective solution to dealing with the L train shut-down will require coordination between the city and state.

One of the mitigation proposals advanced by advocates is a closure of 14th Street to personal cars.

De Blasio's not yet convinced of the need for that either.

"It’s not one that, on first blush, sounds to me easy, given how important 14th Street is. But we’ll look at everything and anything we can do," he said.

He also noted that his citywide ferry service will have launched by the time the closure goes into effect in 2019, though he has also said, in the past, "we're going to need a lot more than that, obviously."

Beth DeFalco, a spokesperson for the MTA, said "the MTA is in constant contact with the City about ways to minimize impacts of the closure. The City was consulted throughout the process, understood the 18-month full closure decision before it was announced and raised no red flags."

"What we know is that the tunnel outage is going to be very disruptive and regardless of its duration, city and MTA officials need to work together to develop a comprehensive plan to help New Yorkers cope," said Regional Plan Association spokeswoman Wendy Pollack. "Hopefully they will also take advantage of the shutdown to make lasting improvements to the L train tunnel and stations. It’s a rare opportunity to do major and much needed work on our aging stations and infrastructure.”

This story has been updated with comment from the MTA.