Atlantic Yards transit plan downsized

Transit officials are downsizing plans for the rail yard being rebuilt
beneath Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project from nine tracks to
seven. The M.T.A.’s interim executive director, Helena Williams, said
that it reached a tentative agreement to allow Ratner to cut back costs
on a $445 million transit improvement plan to Long Island Rail Road’s
Vanderbilt Rail Yard that Ratner promised to deliver in exchange for
approvals for the $4 billion project. Ratner was supposed to pay the
agency $100 million, and provide $345 million in transit upgrades, but
was allowed to renegotiate because of the credit crunch. Sources said
that Ratner might pay the M.T.A. only $50 million, half the amount
originally promised. At a public hearing on Friday, laborers showed up in support of the jobs they said Ratner’s project would create. [NYDN] and [Post]