U.S. Rep. Bob Brady expressed the exasperation many were
likely thinking Monday as a group of local, state and federal government
officials touted the latest study on extending the Broad Street Line to the
Navy Yard – he's over all the research and ready to see work begin.
"I don't know what we're doing here today,"
Brady (D., Pa.) told the Philadelphia Business Journal. He openly remarked how
anyone in the Navy Yard during the morning and afternoon rush hours can see an
obvious need for more transit options and pointed to a 2008 report that already
demonstrated the benefits it would bring to the South Philadelphia business
park, which is located in his congressional district.
Mayor-elect Jim Kenney (third from left) sits next to
U.S. Rep. Bob Brady (fourth from left) during a press conference on the
extension of the Broad Street Line at the Navy Yard's Central Green.
The congressman said the holdup is on SEPTA's end, but
couldn't explain exactly what the issue was. Past reports have indicated the
cost – an estimated $370 million – is partly to blame. Though SEPTA Deputy
General Manager Rich Burnfield told the Philadelphia Business Journal Monday
that the process just takes time.
"We want to make sure we're serving not just the
needs that exist, but the needs that will be there in 10 or 15 years," he
said. He added the Authority wants the best information possible so the project
has a better chance of obtaining funding from the Federal Transit
Administration's New Starts program, which is extremely competitive.
Brady, however, said the difference maker now, after
years of discussion, is the city's next leader, Mayor-elect Jim Kenney.
"The light at the end of the tunnel is Jim
Kenney," he said. "That's my study right there to get this thing
done."
Brady sat alongside Kenney on a bench at the campus'
Central Green as other political leaders reiterated their support for the Broad
Street line extension and said how the $900,000 study would back up the results
of the 2008 report, the most recent study on the feasibility of the project.
"We see a critical need here in Philadelphia for
expanding the Broad Street line. We know the Navy Yard is ripe for economic
development," said State Sen. John Rafferty (R, Montgomery). "We know
it is, but we have to have it in print to show the powers that be."
Rep. Pat Meehan (R., Pa.) emphasized how the extension
would spur additional growth in the already bustling Navy Yard, which has more
than 11,000 workers and 145 companies, plus more on the way.
"It is the capacity to be able to attract companies
from around the world to do business in our back yard," he said,
describing how it's essential to capitalize on the surge in development in
Center City. "We lose the connection to the great opportunity if we can't
connect the two."
The Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. reported
that the Navy Yard's pilot bus services, which cart workers to and from the
Regional Rail's Jefferson Station and Broad Street's AT&T Station, has
grown by 400 percent in the past two years.
Like the lawmakers in suits and ties who spoke before him,
IBEW Local 98's business manager and a longtime proponent of extending the
subway, John Dougherty said he didn't want the Monday morning press conference
to simply be political grandstanding.
"This just can't be a photo op. This can't be a
ribbon cutting. Because the rest of the Navy Yard still has
possibilities," Dougherty said, later calling the press conference a
"giant leap forward."
"You've got two U.S. senators, two of your more
powerful U.S. congress people," he said, adding that "this is moving
quickly" despite acknowledging he wrote his first op/ed about it more than
10 years ago.
It is unclear when the results of the latest study,
funded by a PennDOT grant, will come out, but the sooner the better for Brady.
"I'm tired of doing studies after studies," he
said. "I'll be back again only when we can ride the train from City Hall
here and back again."
Source: Philadelphia
Business Journal
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