Mr. Torres-Springer, who in a conversation with WCA President and CEO Michael Romita at the event held at the Westchester Country Club in Rye on May 13, discussed transit-oriented housing development initiatives and climate change risks on several of Metro North’s rail lines and also cited some progress on the delayed $2.5-billion Penn Access Project. Back in October, the MTA blamed Amtrak for a three-year delay until 2030 in having full service to Penn Station from four new stations in the East Bronx. At the WCA event, Mr. Torres-Springer, while not offering a definitive new timeline, said that progress has been made and the MTA would soon announce a shorter window to Penn Access project completion.

Penn Access will involve building four new ADA-accessible Metro-North stations in Hunts Point, Parkchester/ Van Nest, Morris Park, and Co-op City and creating a new service from Metro-North’s New Haven Line to Penn Station, via Amtrak’s existing Hell Gate Line. The project includes work necessary to bring Amtrak’s Hell Gate Line into a state of good repair, which includes four bridge rehabilitations, reconfigured interlockings, upgrades to New Rochelle Yard, and the modernization of signal, power, and communication equipment. The project is seen as an economic driver to communities in the Bronx and Southern Westchester.

Due to recent work performed by the MTA on Amtrak tracks, he noted: “I think we are in a good place,” later adding, “Unfortunately it (Penn Access) is not opening in 2027 because we weren’t able to get the outages and support from Amtrak that we were expecting, but we are in better shape than the three-year (delay). We will have news really soon.”

Some of the major Metro North capital projects Mr. Torres- Springer highlighted included $1.7 billion in improvements to Grand Central Terminal. He noted that the system suffered $5 billion damage from Hurricane Sandy and is just about completed, spending $7 billion in federal funds focused on resiliency from coastal storms. He noted that also planned as part of Metro North’s capital plan are major improvements to eight stations along Metro North’s Harlem line.

He noted that the MTA, after conducting a Needs Assessment on all of its assets, is focused on State of Good Repair work. Some of the needs in the Metro North system, which boasts 250,000 daily riders, are:

• 88% of the substations providing traction power to the Metro North system have exceeded their useful life.
• 89% of the elevators at Metro North stations have exceeded their useful life.
• 150 miles of Hudson and Harlem line signal systems need to be replaced.
• There is significant climate risk, particularly on the Metro North Hudson line.

The Hudson line is particularly vulnerable due to its steep slopes (40% on the east side) and its location near the Hudson River (50%) to a host of storm-related issues, heat risk and rising water levels. He noted, “The Hudson Line, something like 40% to 45% of it will be under water at high tide in a few decades.” He said the MTA is working now to address those climate risk issues.

Mr. Torres-Springer said that MTA is looking to facilitate housing development adjacent to its train stations. While noting that the MTA does not own a significant amount of land adjacent to its stations, it is working on a major project in Beacon and is studying possible development projects at the Mount Vernon East and Port Chester Metro North stations.

The WCA event also included a panel discussion featuring developers who discussed their respective projects in the region and offered their views on how the approval process could be improved to foster new development, including affordable housing construction.

The Construction Industry Council of Westchester & Hudson Valley, Inc. was one of the sponsors of the WCA’s Annual Real Estate Summit.