Gov gets last word on L fi x
Cuomo tours L train tunnel, says he will share any changes to planned repairs soon
CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS UNIQUE MULTIMEDIA SHOW
CARMINA BURANA BY CARL ORFF
Bolshoi Symphonic Orchestra of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Yurlov Capella Choir, Soloists
of Bolshoi Theater, Conductor Jan Latham-Koenig (UK), Director Igor Ushakov (Bolshoi Theatre Russia)
Bolshoi Theater soloists Anna Aglatova, Stanislav Mostovoy, and Vasiliy Laduk sing with Yurlov Capella Choir and
Bolshoi Symphonic Orchestra of Moscow Conservatory. Inspired by Medieval poetry, Carl Orff wrote his cantata Carmina
Burana. To emphasize the power of this work and its philosophical and emotional meaning, the music will be accompanied
by visual effects, including laser projections of art masterpieces housed in Russian museums from the Middle Ages.
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COURIER L 4 IFE, DEC. 21–27, 2018 M B G
December 29TH 8PM
BY JULIANNE CUBA
Call it Gov. Cuomo’s gift to
straphangers!
Christmas may come early
for local L-train riders, who
are now waiting with baited
breath for Gov. Cuomo to reveal
fi ndings from the latenight
— and arguably lastminute
— tour he took of the
subway’s superstorm Sandy–
ravaged Brooklyn–Manhattan
tunnel on Dec. 14.
The pol — who promised
to share recommendations
resulting from the cross-river
underwater trek he took with
engineering experts in the
next three weeks — toured
the Canarsie Tube to see if
there are better and faster
ways to repair it than the
long-in-the-works, 15-month
fi x that state transit leaders
are set to begin in April.
“I need personally to feel
confi dent in that decision,
and frankly I don’t want to
hear it secondhand, I want
to hear it for myself,” Cuomo
said on a platform of a Manhattan
L-train station during
his recent tour.
Engineering experts from
Cornell and Columbia universities
joined the state’s
Commander-in-Chief to inspect
the tunnel at no cost to
taxpayers, acting as checks
and balances to Cuomo’s own
transportation offi cials, who
in October announced that
they will close the Canarsie
Tube on April 27, 2019 , beginning
the L train’s stint as a
local subway line running
between Canarsie and Williamsburg
until June 2020.
The looming “L-pocalypse”
will wreak havoc on
the commutes of some 250,000
straphangers who ride the L
train to Manhattan daily and
will be forced to adopt one
or more forms of alternative
transportation being rolled
out during the fi x — making
it imperative to ensure the
$477-million project is done
swiftly and correctly, Cuomo
said.
“The Metropolitan Transportation
Authority believes
their methodology is the
best way to do it and the fastest
way to do it. New Yorkers
tend to be a skeptical bunch,”
he said. “This is going to
be highly disruptive. And I
wanted to make sure we get
the best minds, again, on
the globe, to review the project,
because I want them to
be able to validate, ‘we know
this is disruptive, but there’s
no alternative.’”
And although the experts
could suggest scrapping the
state’s current repair plan
altogether, it is more likely
they’ll suggest minor tweaks
or simply sign-off on what offi
cials already proposed, according
to Cuomo, who told
radio station 1010Wins that
commuters shouldn’t get
their hopes up for any less
than 15 months of L come
April 2019.
“I’m not holding out hope,”
he said following the tunnel
tour. “New Yorkers are willing
to bear the expense and
the burden of change, and
they get that sometimes big
projects are required, but
they want to make sure that
it’s really done right and it really
has to be done.”
MOLE PERSON: Gov. Cuomo and engineering experts took a late-night
walk through the L train’s Canarsie Tube on Dec. 14 to see if there is any
way to speed up the tunnel’s looming 15-month repairs. Governor’s Offi ce