When the World Trade Towers collapsed on 9/11, the weight of the Twin Towers crushed the subway hub in the massive buildings sub-basement. The federal government and the governments of New Jersey and New York agreed to create of new station. Its construction was long-delayed and the cost blossomed from $1.9 billion to $3.9 billion in the course of the fifteen years since 2011.
The Oculus will serve 250,000 daily passengers of the PATH system.
The original design by Santiago Calatrava was to resemble ‘a bird being released from a child’s hand’ with a mechanically movable roof, however Homeland Security demanded alterations to provide greater security and the New York Times reported in 2005, “In the name of security, Santiago Calatrava’s bird has grown a beak. Its ribs have doubled in number and its wings have lost their interstices of glass…. The main transit hall, between Church and Greenwich Streets, will almost certainly lose some of its delicate quality, while gaining structural expressiveness. It may now evoke a slender stegosaurus more than it does a bird.”
People regarded the Oculus with wonder, but the cost of $3.9 billion is a little less than three times the annual operating budget of $14 billion and more than twice as much as Amtrak’s yearly cost.
Of course the LIRR only travels to Long Island and Long Islanders are conservative by nature.
They deserve nothing better than what they get.
Shitty trains.
Versus the TGV of France.
