Ground Zero Artifacts to be Preserved in Transit Hub - Aug 27, 2004
A 66-foot-long, travertine-paved remnant of the original World Trade Center concourse - still used every day by hundreds of commuters walking between the Eighth Avenue subway platforms and the PATH station - will be permanently preserved as part of the new trade center transportation hub, the Port Authority said yesterday. (New York Times)

Port Authority Looks for JFK Ferry Link - Aug 27, 2004
The Port Authority invited ferry operators Thursday to submit proposals for boat connections between Lower Manhattan and Kennedy International Airport. (Newsday)

Verizon Receives $77 Million in 9/11 Funds - Aug 8, 2004
Verizon Communications Inc. received another $77 million in federal funds earmarked for restoring utilities and rebuilding infrastructure damaged in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a regulatory filing Friday. (Newsday)

Metropolitan Transportation Authority Earmarks $495 Million for Security - Aug 3, 2004
The MTA has earmarked $495 million toward "enhancing security readiness" in an effort to protect the region's vast rail network, officials said yesterday. (New York Post)

Feds Plan to Extend Environmental Testing - Aug 1, 2004
Community members and scientific experts applauded an Environmental Protection Agency proposal to expand testing for 9/11 contaminants to residences and workplaces north of Canal St. (Downtown Express)

White House to Direct $2 Billion to Rail Link - Jul 30, 2004
The White House has agreed to let New York use $2 billion in Sept. 11 aid to help build a $6 billion rail link connecting the World Trade Center site to the Long Island Rail Road and Kennedy International Airport. (New York Times)

Vets Protest Iraq War at Ground Zero - Jul 25, 2004
Flashing peace symbols and yelling “Congress has spoken, the people have spoken: No more Vietnams,” eight members of Veterans for Peace came to the World Trade Center Site for about 20 minutes Tuesday to protest the war in Iraq. None of them made any mention of Sept. 11 during the protest. (Downtown Express)

Business Leaders Lobby White House for Rail Link - Jul 22, 2004
A group of local business leaders took their case for the proposed Lower Manhattan to JFK Airport rail link to the White House Wednesday. (NY1)

Post 9/11 PATH Ridership Exceeds Expectations - Jul 12, 2004
The number of commuters who use the temporary World Trade Center station and the Exchange Place station in Jersey City has exceeded expectations since they reopened last year, officials said. (New York Post)

For One Junior High Student, Groundbreaking Ceremony Meant a Big Performance - Jul 5, 2004
Julian Davis tried to focus on the words on the page as he took the stage at Ground Zero yesterday, and declared in a strong, clear voice "that all men are created equal." The 12-year-old, whose dad, Port Authority cop Clinton Davis, was killed on 9/11, read from the Declaration of Independence before a crowd of hundreds at the laying of the cornerstone of the Freedom Tower. (New York Daily News)

City Looks to Blast-Proof Subways - Jul 4, 2004
The MTA is looking into a plan to secure subway tunnels with a military-style, lightweight material that would contain the force of a bomb blast, The Post has learned. (New York Post)

Pedestal of Statue of Liberty to Open August 3rd - Jul 1, 2004
Visitors will be able to again enter the Statue of Liberty on Aug. 3, after being closed for nearly three years of safety and security improvements, the National Parks Service said yesterday. (New York Times)

Pataki Asks Bush to Use Unspent Tax Breaks on Rail Link - Jun 30, 2004
Gov. George E. Pataki has asked President Bush to allow New York to use billions of dollars in unspent Sept. 11 aid to build a rail link connecting the former World Trade Center site to the Long Island Rail Road and Kennedy International Airport, according to the governor's aides. (New York Times)

Commuters Happy With Silver's Decision on South Ferry - Jun 26, 2004
South Ferry subway commuters were happy to hear that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver had dropped his opposition to the station’s planned renovation Friday in exchange for $15 million worth of improvements to Battery Park. (Downtown Express)

Port Authority Presents "Much More Than Just a PATH Station" to Public - Jun 24, 2004
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey presented plans to the public in Jersey City Tuesday night for the permanent World Trade Center PATH station. (New Jersey Journal )

New Security Push on Subways Asks Straphangers to Contribute - Jun 24, 2004
The MTA is ratcheting up its efforts to secure subways and commuter trains from terror attacks by expanding an awareness campaign encouraging riders to notify cops if they see a suspicious package or unattended bag, officials said yesterday. (New York Post )

Planned Transportation Improvements Spur Real Estate Upswing Downtown - Jun 20, 2004
After a long lull, the commercial real estate market is gaining momentum Downtown, industry experts say. Lower Manhattan’s comparatively low rents, planned transportation improvements and government incentives are among the factors driving the recent upswing. Shrinking office stock in Midtown has also spurred firms to expand or relocate to the area. (Downtown Express)

House Speaker Predicts More Federal Funds for 9/11 Transportation Projects - Jun 12, 2004
The speaker of the House said Monday that he thought Congress would approve additional 9/11-related money to fund Lower Manhattan transportation projects. Asked by Downtown Express if he thought there would be more aid beyond the federal $21.4 billion package for New York, Rep. J. Dennis Hastert, speaker of the House of Representatives, said: “I think there will be some more. Some of that is for transportation.” (Downtown Express)

Lower Manhattan Development Corporation President Hopes for New Sources of Funding for Rail Link - Jun 12, 2004
The president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation gave few clues last week about how the agency might distribute its remaining $1 billion, telling Downtowners only that officials hoped little, if any, would go toward the proposed rail link to J.F.K. airport. (Downtown Express)

Sharpton Pushes For Diversity in Ground Zero Construction - Jun 11, 2004
The Rev. Al Sharpton plans to lead a march from Ground Zero to City Hall on June 21 to convince World Trade Center development officials to steer more construction jobs to blacks and Latinos. (Newsday)

On Centential of General Slocum Disaster, 9/11 Gives New Perspective - Jun 8, 2004
The fiery sinking of the paddle-wheel steamboat General Slocum was the city's deadliest disaster before the destruction of the World Trade Center. More than a thousand innocents - mostly German immigrant women and their children, on a picnic excursion - perished in the East River calamity on June 15, 1904. "For many years, this was the tragedy that we forgot,'' said Kathleen Hulser, public historian of the New-York Historical Society. "But faded memories can be renewed, and this one was, after the greater disaster of Sept. 11.'' (New York Times)

Fulton Street Subway Station Receives Praise - Jun 4, 2004
The $750 million design for a new subway center at Fulton St. and Broadway received glowing praise from resident leaders and transportation advocates at the opening unveiling May 26, but mixed reviews an hour later from some of the small businesses the new center will displace. (Downtown Express)

West Street Tunnel Plan a Waste, Says New Study - Jun 2, 2004
The $860 million plan to build a tunnel under a four-block stretch of West Street has been deemed one of the most wasteful highway projects in the country, a new report says. (New York Post)

World of Golf to Become Transit Center's Casualty - Jun 1, 2004
The latest project unveiled for Lower Manhattan, the Fulton Street Transit Center, will connect four subway stations under a crystalline glass dome. It will also almost surely doom the World of Golf in its building at 189 Broadway. (New York Times)

Businesses Face Eviction To Make Way for Station - May 28, 2004
For the businesses in buildings that will have to be knocked down to make way for the Fulton Street Transit Station there is more resentment than excitement. (NY1)

Glass And Steel Dome For New Fulton Street Station - May 27, 2004
The new $750 million Fulton Transit Center will feature a 110-foot-high glass-and-steel dome that will allow sunlight to filter into what is now a dingy, maze-like subway complex, according to plans unveiled yesterday. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority hub, at Broadway and Fulton St., also would preserve the 115-year-old Corbin Building and use its arches as another entrance point. (New York Daily News)

Fulton Street Subway Station Calls For Huge Glass Dome Downtown - May 26, 2004
Add another transparent polymorph to downtown's future landscape. If blueprints can be believed, office towers, apartment houses, commuter rail terminals - and now, even a subway station - will shimmer luminously as they taper and soar. Astride a tangled labyrinth linking four stations on the A, C, J, M, Z, 2, 3, 4 and 5 lines, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority proposes a tapering, conical, 110-foot-tall steel-and-glass dome that would emerge from within a 50-foot-high glass-box pavilion at Broadway and Fulton Street. This translucent and transparent structure would, in effect, harvest daylight and send it as far as possible underground, opening new vistas and brightening what is now a dank warren of platforms and passageways. (New York Times)

Council: MTA Dragging on Terror Plans - May 14, 2004
The MTA's counter-terrorism plans are unfolding too slowly, according to City Council members who say the pace jeopardizes safety. Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials testified in a council hearing Thursday that the agency plans to spend at least $200 million of $591 million in available security funds. But they could not say when they would spend the rest of the money, triggering criticism from council members. (Newsday)

East River Tunnel May Crowd Out Other Transportation Projects - May 10, 2004
A proposed East River tunnel that would connect the AirTrain to lower Manhattan has raised concerns from transit advocates that funding will run out for two MTA projects already in the works. "The MTA has no extra money to give out," said Gene Russianoff, staff lawyer for the Straphangers Campaign. "With such limited resources, something's got to give." (New York Post)

In Rebuilding Update, Governor Backs New Tunnel Under East River - May 6, 2004
Governor George E. Pataki threw his political weight yesterday behind a plan to dig a new tunnel under the East River as part of a $6 billion rail link from downtown to Kennedy Airport and points east along the Long Island Rail Road. Mr. Pataki said the rail link would offer travelers a "one-seat ride to their terminal at J.F.K. in just 36 minutes" from Lower Manhattan. As an economic and political matter, the link would be even more important as the downtown gateway for up to 100,000 Long Island commuters, greatly expanding the capacity of businesses in the financial district to attract suburban workers who now live at least two train rides away. (New York Times)

Freedom Tower Will Break Ground on July 4 - May 6, 2004
Groundbreaking for the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower - the signature new building at Ground Zero - will take place on the Fourth of July, Gov. Pataki said yesterday. (New York Daily News)

Governor Considers Two Options for Downtown/Long Island Rail Link - May 4, 2004
Searching for a rail link from Lower Manhattan to Kennedy Airport and Long Island, the Pataki administration is poised to choose between building a new tunnel or using the existing Montague Street tunnel on the M, N and R subway lines. The cost of a Long Island-Lower Manhattan link using the Montague Street tunnel has been put by officials and business executives at $5 billion to $5.5 billion. A new tunnel might add $1 billion to the cost. (New York Times)

Next Anti-Terror Drill Planned For Subways - May 2, 2004
The city's next high-profile disaster drill will simulate a subway incident in lower Manhattan, sources said. The mock mishap is planned in and around the Bowling Green station for early on May 16, a Sunday, when mass transit use is relatively sparse. (Newsday )

Assembly Speaker Weighs In On Downtown Transportation Projects - May 1, 2004
The scene has been fairly typical over the last year. The governor or mayor or both call a press conference to make a big announcement about development in Lower Manhattan or the Far West Side. It usually hinges on a transportation investment, but the person who often is not there for the ceremony is Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. It is a curious omission particularly since Silver, Albany’s most powerful Democrat, represents Downtown and as Assembly speaker, he has effective veto power over all Metropolitan Transportation Authority capital projects. (Downtown Express)

New Subway Tunnel May Require that Sphere Statue Be Moved - Apr 29, 2004
It appears that a subway tunnel leading to the planned new South Ferry terminal would come close to Fritz Koenig's "Sphere for Plaza Fountain" -- which has been in Battery Park since soon after 9/11 -- suggesting strongly that the sculpture may have to be relocated. (New York Times)

Train Crash Tests First Responders - Apr 20, 2004
Since the 9/11 terror attacks, cops and firefighters have been drilling regularly to coordinate their response to major emergencies. Penn Station has been of major concern, especially with the Republican National Convention coming this summer. A train crash yesterday tested their reactions. (New York Daily News)

For Disabled, Safer Way To Cross West Street Near Ground Zero Planned - Apr 18, 2004
By late June or early July, nearly three years after the Twin Towers were destroyed, officials hope to restore the first safe and reliable way near the World Trade Center site for wheelchair-bound people to enter Battery Park City. State Transportation Dept. officials told Community Board 1’s Battery Park City committee Tuesday that elevators on the east and west sides of the Vesey St. pedestrian bridge will be running by the early summer and should not have the same mechanical problems that have plagued the neighborhood’s other pedestrian bridge elevators in the winter. The escalator on the west side of the bridge is expected to open Friday, April 16, and the escalators on the east by mid-to-late June. (Downtown Express)

Schumer Opposes Burying West Street - Apr 17, 2004
The loudest shot to date against the idea of building a short tunnel through Lower Manhattan was fired yesterday by Senator Charles E. Schumer, who said that he opposed the plan if it would divert money from other transportation projects. Mr. Schumer took issue with a plan to turn several blocks of West Street-Route 9A into a covered roadway between the World Trade Center site and Battery Park City. That plan is backed by Gov. George E. Pataki, but nearby residents have opposed it because of the potential disruptions. It is undergoing environmental review, with two others. (New York Times)

Impact of Ground Zero Still Powerful - Apr 9, 2004
The topic of Sept.11 was a powerful draw on Tuesday. Local older residents flocked to the Inn at HillenVale to hear Carl Askew, Columbus American Red Cross director of labor relations, speak about his experiences during three months at Ground Zero. Askew used his labor and union background to act as the liaison between the ARC and the AFL-CIO union during the three months immediately following the terrorist attacks in New York. During that time, the current Apple Valley resident became deeply immersed in the disaster relief efforts. (Mount Vernon News)

Transit Workers Will Be Included In Anti-Terror Training - Apr 8, 2004
Transit workers will take part in anti-terror exercises, police said yesterday - a day after the Daily News detailed union gripes about being shut out of the training sessions. (New York Daily News)

Architect Who Designed Glass Wall for Times Warner Center Will Work on Fultron Street Transit Center - Apr 5, 2004
James Carpenter, 54, whose work includes the astonishingly transparent cable-net glass wall at the new Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle, was awarded a $340,000 contract by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority last week to join the architectural and engineering team working on the Fulton Street Transit Center, which is to be completed in 2007. (New York Times )

Downtown's Economy Looking Strong - Mar 31, 2004
The reluctance of many New Yorkers to reside and work downtown because of what happened there — terrorist attacks and the ensuing loss of 3,000 lives — has just about vanished, according to real estate and city sources. Indicative of this: •Surging housing prices,up an estimated 10% to 12% year over year, and a steady flow of new residential construction,with a lot of it on a luxurious scale. •Major jobs recovery, with 78% of the nearly 9,900 jobs lost since the Septmber 11 attacks in 2001 having been regained as of March 2003, according to the Partnership for New York City. It further notes that 72 of downtown’s largest companies have made commitments for an average 10 years that will result in the retention of 60,000 jobs, while federal incentives for smaller firms have enabled 1,352 businesses to create and retain an additional 23,293 jobs. •A slew of new stores, resulting in an estimated 6% to 8% increase in retail space since 2002. One sign of the recovery of Lower Manhattan is the rebound in $1 millionplus condominium sales at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Battery Park, just a heartbeat away from where the twin towers once stood. A Ritz Carlton spokeswoman describes interest as strong, with only eight apartments left of the 115 offered for sale on the 15th to 40th floors perched above the hotel portion. (New York Sun)

Metropolitan Transportation Authority Doubles Police Budget - Mar 29, 2004
The MTA has nearly doubled its police budget over the last three years in an effort to beef up security at its sprawling transportation network, guarding against a terror attack, officials said. (New York Post)

Artist Who Worked With Ground Zero Dust Honored - Mar 29, 2004
A New York-based artist became the first winner of a new British art prize on Sunday for a work made from dust collected from the streets of Manhattan after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. (Associated Press)

9/11 Scammer Sentenced to Rikers - Mar 26, 2004
Everybody's working for the weekend - except millionaire 9/11 charity scammer Beatrice Kaufman. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Roger Hayes yesterday sentenced Kaufman to spend the next 52 weekends in Rikers Island for bilking relief organizations out of $78,000 and trying to scam them out of hundreds of thousands dollars more. (New York Post )

Suveillence Cameras Planned For Buses, Subways - Mar 25, 2004
Transportation officials are considering putting surveillance cameras in buses and subways, the Daily News has learned. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which has been boosting security since the terror attacks, has been in discussions with a French-based company that is outfitting Paris-area buses with surveillance equipment, sources said. (New York Daily News)

Metropolitan Transportation Authority Lags On Security Measures - Mar 25, 2004
Improvements to two of the MTA's biggest security concerns — lighting and emergency radio communication in subway tunnels — are behind schedule due to unexpected problems, officials said Wednesday. Both issues have surfaced recently as NYC Transit focuses on its counter-terrorism preparedness and evacuation procedures. (Newsday)

Council Says Metropolitan Transportation Authority Is Wasting Terror Funds - Mar 19, 2004
With the train bombings in Madrid fresh in their minds, City Council members grilled city transportation officials yesterday over why they have not put nearly $600 million in federal anti-terror funds to use. Metropolitan Transportation Authority bosses appeared at a City Council budget hearing yesterday, but offered little information about what the agency plans to do with $591 million it received from the feds last summer. (New York Daily News)

Anti-Terror Money For Metrpolitan Transportation Authority Goes Unspent - Mar 18, 2004
The MTA has not spent any of the nearly $600 million in counter-terrorism funds that it received nine months ago, officials acknowledged Wednesday, explaining that building security projects takes time. (Newsday)

Agencies Clashed Over Terror Drill - Mar 18, 2004
When the city's Office of Emergency Management was scouting a location to test response to an attack with a weapon of mass destruction, it first settled on Penn Station. But the various sides, who in a real emergency would be expected to work together to save lives, couldn't agree on how to carry out the drill without disrupting riders and commerce. (Newsday)

Money From One 9/11 Charity Going To Its Lawyer -- Not Needy - Mar 15, 2004
A lawyer for the charity created by the three firefighters in the iconic flag-raising photograph at Ground Zero has reaped more than $500,000 in legal fees while the charity has given just $73,000 to the needy, the Daily News has learned. (New York Daily News)

Passengers Tried To Stop Plane From Crashing Into Towers - Mar 9, 2004
The widow of a Gulf War veteran aboard doomed United Airline Flight 175 revealed for the first time yesterday that passengers tried to stop hijackers from crashing the plane into one of the Trade Center towers. (New York Daily News)

Ground Zero Station Is PATH's Busiest - Feb 13, 2004
Exceeding early expectations, the World Trade Center PATH train station is now the busiest in the system, averaging more than 30,000 weekday riders since last month. (New Jersey Journal)

New Staten Island Ferry To Be Named 'The September 11' - Feb 13, 2004
One of the three new Staten Island ferries will be named The Sept. 11, Mayor Bloomberg announced last night. (New York Daily News)

State Comptroller To Audit PATH Construction Costs - Feb 8, 2004
State Comptroller Alan Hevesi will audit the Port Authority's $566 million World Trade Center PATH station construction job to see whether cost overruns were justified and whether the project had proper oversight, his office says. (New York Post)

Debating The Options For Downtown Rail Links To Long Island - Feb 8, 2004
Downtown can count the last time it saw a new train service in terms of decades, nearly $3 billion has already been allocated in post-9/11 transportation projects and there is no definite plan to bring any new rail service to Lower Manhattan – at least not yet. State and city officials released four ways to build a link to the Long Island Rail Road and J.F.K. Airport on Wednesday and say they will come up with a plan and a way to pay for it by this April. (Downtown Express)

Calatrava Receives Star Treatment At Community Board One - Feb 8, 2004
Community Board 1 has seen a number of celebrities over the years, but probably none of them received the amount of star-treatment afforded to renowned architect Santiago Calatrava, who politely signed a few autographs Wednesday after presenting his plan for the World Trade Center train station. (Downtown Express)

Four Options Presented For Airport Rail Link - Feb 5, 2004
In a presentation that was high in lofty ambitions but short on important details, officials unveiled four options yesterday for a rail link to connect Lower Manhattan to Kennedy Airport and Long Island. (New York Times)

Families Of 9/11 Victims Unsatisfied With Extension Of Commission's Deadline - Feb 5, 2004
Bowing to pressure from a Sept. 11 survivors group, President Bush agreed yesterday to extend the deadline for the federal 9/11 commission report - but not as long as many wanted. Bush agreed to give the panel 60 extra days, until July 26, but relatives of victims killed in the terror attacks, and some members of Congress, wanted the extension to stretch beyond the elections. (New York Daily News)

2,749 May Be Final Death Toll Of 9/11 - Jan 23, 2004
2,749. Unless something unexpected happens, this figure could well be the final count that history books will record as the number of victims who died in the World Trade Center attack, city officials said yesterday. (New York Times)

PATH Station To Be Unveiled Today - Jan 22, 2004
A design for a permanent PATH station is to be unveiled this morning by Gov. George E. Pataki, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which will build the $2 billion project. Though the PATH terminal is the third key element of the trade center redevelopment project - in many ways, quite literally its heart - the design will almost burst on the civic consciousness, since work has proceeded quietly, with none of the discordant prelude that accompanied Freedom Tower and the memorial, "Reflecting Absence." (New York Times)

9/11 Disability Pensions Raise Questions - Jan 20, 2004
Four top fire union officials who left or were voted out of office after Sept. 11, 2001, and who had spent most of the previous eight years doing administrative work have retired on tax-free disability pensions, city records show. (Newsday)

Summing Up Rebuilding - Jan 10, 2004
A summary of rebuilding, an attempt to lay out the cast of characters and locate each portion of the mammoth project on the continuum between pipe dream and the actual laying of pipes. (Newsday)

Ideas For JFK Rail Link To Be Presented This Month - Jan 8, 2004
Four options for a direct rail link from lower Manhattan to Kennedy Airport will be unveiled this month and one will be selected in April for development, Gov. Pataki announced yesterday. (New York Daily News)

PATH Station Design Interferes With 'Wedge of Light' - Jan 2, 2004
The design for a new permanent PATH station at Ground Zero makes significant changes to Daniel Libeskind's World Trade Center master plan by moving the terminal building northward to overlap with the "Wedge of Light," sources told The Post. (New York Post)

Kids of 9/11 Victims To Get Cash From State - Dec 18, 2003
The state's World Trade Center fund is handing out the rest of its cash to children who lost a parent in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, officials said yesterday. The fund has roughly $4 million left and will spread the proceeds to about 2,800 children who lost parents in the terror attacks of 9/11, Gov. Pataki said. The fund also will dole out up to $3,000 a person to those certified by the American Red Cross as being injured in the attacks. (New York Daily News)

Schumer Wants to Use Federal Rebuilding Funds for Kennedy Rail Link - Dec 17, 2003
Weighing in on a fractious debate over transportation priorities in Lower Manhattan, Senator Charles E. Schumer offered a plan yesterday to pay for the construction of a much-discussed rail link from downtown to Kennedy Airport without any state or local money. (New York Times)

Debate Over Traffic Flow at Trade Center Site - Dec 15, 2003
While the public is transfixed by the struggle over the Freedom Tower and the memorial at the World Trade Center site, an equally vital debate has been occurring over the layout of streets around the site. Decisions made now about the street plan will determine how hundreds of truck deliveries are made, and how buses, autos, taxis, limousines, emergency vehicles (including a fire engine and fire truck quartered on Liberty Street) will share small slices of asphalt and concrete. The ripples from these crosscurrents will be felt down to the Battery, over to the Brooklyn Bridge, up the Avenue of the Americas and down Seventh Avenue. (New York Times)

Jordanian King to Advise Police Department on Terrorism - Dec 6, 2003
For the first time in NYPD history, a foreign head of state will visit Police Headquarters and address the department's brain trust about terrorism and international affairs, The Post has learned. Under tight security, King Abdullah II of Jordan will speak to an assembly of supervising cops above the rank of captain on Monday at the third session of a lecture series begun by Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. (New York Post)

Feds Deliver $2.85 Billion in Tranportation Aid to Lower Manhattan - Dec 4, 2003
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta jetted to the Big Apple yesterday to announce the delivery of $2.85 billion in transit funding for lower Manhattan. The cash - part of a $4.5 billion federal transportation aid package stemming from 9/11 - will help fund three downtown projects. More than half the dough will help transform the new temporary World Trade Center PATH terminal into a permanent facility. The remaining $1.1 billion will go toward creating a Fulton Street transit center that will link 12 subway lines and the PATH train, and expanding the South Ferry subway terminal. (New York Post)

Host Marriott Gets $370 For Loss at Ground Zero - Dec 4, 2003
Host Marriott Corp., the owner of the New York World Trade Center Marriott and New York Marriott Financial Center, announced yesterday that it has received about $370 million worth of insurance payments, resolving virtually most of its outstanding issues relating to the Sept. 11 attacks. The announcement comes about two months after Bethesda, Md.-based Host Marriott entered into an agreement with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to surrender the site and terminate a 99-year lease that was to expire in 2094. (Newsday)

The Last Train Out on 9/11 - Nov 25, 2003
Noel Roman is haunted by the solitary figure of an older, well-dressed man who plodded up stairs toward the World Trade Center in the final moments of a world that ended on Sept. 11, 2001. "I'm not sure if he was limping or moving with a cane," says Roman, 44, who was at the controls of the last PATH train to leave the trade center before the towers collapsed. "I think he died, you know. What upsets me is that if we knew what was going on, that man never would have gone up those stairs." (Newsday)

PATH Station at Ground Zero Reopens - Nov 24, 2003
The World Trade Center PATH Station opened at 2 p.m. yesterday, after a $323 million, 16-month reconstruction, to applause and tears along the platforms and aboard the trains. On the sides of the cars, ruby-red "WTC" destination signs glowed once again. (New York Times)

Street in Queens Renamed for Firefighter - Nov 24, 2003
Hundreds of people gathered at a street corner in Queens yesterday to rename a street after firefighter Carl F. Asaro, who was killed at the World Trade Center. The intersection of 147th Street and Willets Point Boulevard in Whitestone, where Asaro was born and raised, now bears his name. (New York Post)

Post 9/11 Driving Restrictions Lifted - Nov 17, 2003
Restrictions on single-occupancy vehicles, which have been in place since 9/11, are being lifted as of today at five lower Manhattan crossings. (New York Post)

Pataki Visits PATH Station at a Recovering Ground Zero - Oct 31, 2003
Spartan and utilitarian, sprawling and surprisingly luminous, the nearly completed PATH terminal at the World Trade Center is a three-dimensional reminder that before the trade center was anything else - civic emblem, compass point, mass cemetery, mountain of wreckage - it was a hub of movement. On a brief tour, Gov. George E. Pataki introduced the temporary terminal to a group of officials, executives and reporters. Commuters will follow next month. (New York Times)

Anger Over Eviction of Lower Manhattan Middle Eastern Restaurant - Oct 27, 2003
A wealthy church is evicting a popular Middle East restaurant from a lower Manhattan building it owns in what angry diners claim is a plot to get more money from the MTA -- which is planning to buy the property to demolish it. The building housing the Alfanoose restaurant, at 150 Fulton St., will be torn down by the end of 2004 to make way for a new transportation hub, a centerpiece of lower Manhattan's post-9/11 renewal. (New York Post)

PATH train WTC stop to reopen Nov. 23 - Oct 19, 2003
The PATH station at the World Trade Center site will reopen in late November, the Daily News has learned. Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman would not confirm or deny the Nov. 23 opening date. But he noted the resumption of service to the WTC site will benefit tens of thousands from New Jersey who work in lower Manhattan. (New York Daily News)

Port Presents Plans for PATH Hub at W.T.C. - Oct 15, 2003
The Port Authority began the environmental review process to build a transportation hub at the World Trade Center site last week and officials said nothing less than downtown’s future prosperity was hanging in the balance. (Downtown Express)

M.T.A. to Include 19th Century Building in Downtown Transit Hub - Oct 3, 2003
In planning the enormous Fulton Street Transit Center on Broadway, between Fulton and John Streets, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has agreed to preserve the 115-year-old Corbin Building at 11 John Street and, if it proves possible, incorporate it into the station. (New York Times)

Pataki Supports West Street Tunnel - Aug 21, 2003
Gov. Pataki yesterday came out in favor of running West Street through a tunnel next to the World Trade Center - a plan that has drawn opposition from many downtown residents. "The master plan calls for the suppression of West Street near Ground Zero. I think that's appropriate. I think it's important," Pataki said at a groundbreaking for a new foot bridge over the street. (New York Post)

Spanish Architect To Design WTC Transit Station - Aug 1, 2003
Celebrated Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava - praised worldwide for his sweeping sculptural creations - was tapped yesterday to design the $2 billion transit station at Ground Zero. Calatrava has joined forces with two city design and engineering firms to create the station, which downtown officials have said will be akin to Grand Central Terminal. (New York Daily News)

Preservation Group Offers Its Own Plan for the Fulton Street Transit Center - Jul 24, 2003
The Lower Manhattan Emergency Preservation Fund is acting pre-emptively to ensure that the 114-year-old Corbin Building is not eliminated by plans for the Fulton Street Transit Center, which may take over its site. Instead, the fund is offering a plan of its own, by the inventive firm SHoP/Sharples Holden Pasquarelli, that would preserve the Corbin Building's main facades on Broadway and John Streets, with tiers of bold arches, and link the old structure to the new center through a membranous, almost transparent, party wall. (New York Times)

Bus Parking Garage Proposed Near Trade Center - Jul 23, 2003
Hoping to settle a dispute with the families of Sept. 11 victims, officials involved in the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan said yesterday that they had found an alternative site to park the buses that will bring tourists to the World Trade Center memorial. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said they had begun discussions with the Battery Park City Authority about building an underground parking garage on an undeveloped parcel of land along West Street between Vesey and Murray Streets. Officials had originally suggested building the garage underneath the memorial, but many of the victims' families objected. (New York Times)

At Ground Zero, Greenwich Street Will Be Restored, but Looking Thinner - Jul 13, 2003
After the destruction of the World Trade Center, the opportunity arose — and was embraced by many community leaders and city planners — to reopen Greenwich Street for the missing five-block length. The result was described as a planning victory. But it turns out that the new Greenwich Street will actually be 60 feet wide between Vesey and Barclay Streets. And 7 World Trade Center will be 171 feet wide, 11 feet wider than the buildings that occupied the block until the 60's. (New York Times)

Downtown Divided Over West St. - Jul 1, 2003
The State Dept. of Transportation last week released new details about the proposal to build an $860 million tunnel under West St. while downtowners remained divided over whether it is the best option for the six-lane roadway. A recent poll of lower Manhattan residents showed that people living in Battery Park City were the most likely to say they were against building the tunnel, 42 percent, but a third of the residents either said building the vehicular tunnel between Vesey and Liberty Sts. is very important or should be a top priority. (Downtown Express)

Coalition Urges Memorial Panel to Ignore the Rules - Jul 9, 2003
Some relatives of World Trade Center victims want the panel choosing plans for a permanent Ground Zero memorial to think a little outside the boxes. The Coalition of 9/11 Families mailed letters to all 13 jurors on the committee, asking them to allow for a tribute that exceeds the guidelines set out for judging ideas submitted for the tribute. (New York Daily News)

WTC Family Members Debate Where To Put Bus Depot - Jul 3, 2003
A memorial at the World Trade Center site is expected to attract millions of visitors from all over the world each year, and the question of where to house tourist buses they'll use to get there has some family members offering alternatives. (NY1)

Going's easier as PATH station reopens - Jun 30, 2003
The PATH train is one stop closer to lower Manhattan - but still five months away from rolling into Ground Zero. New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey reopened the Exchange Place station in Jersey City yesterday. (New York Daily News)

Bloomberg Bids for Control of WTC Site - Jun 28, 2003
Mayor Bloomberg took on Gov. Pataki and the Port Authority yesterday, declaring that the city "should be in control" of the World Trade Center site. The mayor's comments came a day after it was reported that Pataki is abandoning a proposal to give the city control of Ground Zero. (New York Post)

Department of Transportation Releases Plans for West Street - Jun 25, 2003
The State Department of Transportation released preliminary plans yesterday for two alternative overhauls of West Street from the World Trade Center site south to Battery Park, one of which would place part of the street in a tunnel that would cost $860 million and take nearly five years to build. (New York Times)

Pollsters Dispute Downtown Express' West St. Survey Analysis - Jun 23, 2003
The pollster who conducted a recent survey of Lower Manhattan residents says Downtown Express gave a misleading impression when it analyzed respondents' feelings about the merits of building a short vehicular tunnel on West St. adjacent to the World Trade Center site. Julie Weprin, a partner at Blum & Weprin Associates, said the Express' May 27 article about the poll her firm conducted was mistaken when it counted people who said building the tunnel is "somewhat important" among those who have a favorable view of the tunnel. Weprin said the somewhat answer "is not a middle ground. It?s more of a negative." (Downtown Express)

Libeskind's WTC Plan May Take More Hits - Jun 17, 2003
Architect Daniel Libeskind's plan to redevelop the World Trade Center site could take its heaviest hits yet, with the launch of a $2 million environmental review likely to collect criticism from all sides. (Newsday)

Garage at WTC Isn't Ruled Out - Jun 18, 2003
Even though Gov. Pataki told Sept. 11 victims' families that he opposes putting a bus garage at Ground Zero, the idea remains on the table. Environmental and rebuilding documents released yesterday by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. repeatedly refer to using the site's underbelly as a potential bus depot. (New York Daily News)

Pataki Rejects Bus Garage Below Trade Center Memorial - Jun 14, 2003
Gov. George E. Pataki said this week that he personally opposed the underground bus-parking area that planners have proposed building beneath the memorial to victims of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center. The statement, which the governor made on Thursday night in a private meeting with representatives of victims' relatives, has given new hope to those who oppose the idea of bus parking in the former basement area of the trade center. Many family members consider those and other areas near the site of the former twin towers to be sacred ground. (New York Times)

9/11 Volunteers Denied Millions for Wages, Medical Bills - Jun 9, 2003
Hundreds of volunteers who gave all they could to New York after the Sept. 11 attacks are being shut out of state programs designed to cover medical bills and lost wages of those hurt at Ground Zero. Although Congress gave New York $150 million in emergency aid to pay for workers' compensation, the state has used only $44 million of the money. (New York Daily News)

M.T.A. Projects Threatened by Federal Money Changes - May 29, 2003
New York could lose $300 million a year in federal transportation money, an amount that could threaten subway maintenance and expansion projects like the proposed Second Avenue Station, according to a report by researchers at New York University. The report, to be published today, analyzes a proposal made in Congress last week by the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, Republican of Texas. The proposal seeks to alter the way federal transportation money garnered from gasoline taxes and other sources is divided among the states. (New York Times)

Downtown Favors West St. Tunnel, Poll Says - May 28, 2003
Most people living in Battery Park City think building a short tunnel under West St. is at least somewhat important if not a top priority, according to a new poll of Lower Manhattan residents. (Downtown Express)

The Rebuilt PATH Station Is Taking Shape - May 15, 2003
At the sight of those escalators, travelers may weep. Almost everything else about the rebuilt PATH station at the World Trade Center will be different. But that sweeping array of eight parallel escalators linking the mezzanine to the concourse 35 feet above — really the defining architectural feature of the old station — will be piercingly familiar. Though the new PATH station is six or seven months from reopening, it has already taken discernible form. One can begin to experience the space as it will be, especially since the finishing touches are not going to change it much. (New York Times)

M.T.A. Presents Plans for New Fulton Subway - May 7, 2003
The soot-covered Corbin building on the corner of Broadway and John St. is a classic of Renaissance Revival Architecture. Built in 1889, it has a brownstone and terra cotta facade that is intricately etched with ornamental swirls. But in the ground beneath this hulking and fading beauty is one of the most illogically constructed subway connections in New York City: the Fulton St. station. (Downtown Express)

Pataki Sketches a Timetable for Rebuilding of Ground Zero - Apr 25, 2003
Gov. George E. Pataki, promising "a renewed sense of urgency" in the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan, laid out a plan yesterday to complete substantial portions of the work at the World Trade Center site by the fifth anniversary of the attack of Sept. 11, 2001. By that time, Mr. Pataki said, the permanent PATH commuter station at the site and the new Fulton Transit Center two blocks to the east will open, the substructure for the memorial to the victims of the attack will be completed, allowing construction of the memorial to proceed, and the erection of steel for the 1,776-foot tower, a signature piece of Daniel Libeskind's design for the site, will be finished. (New York Times)

Pataki Pledges Direct Kennedy-Manhattan-L.I. Rail - Apr 25, 2003
Promising direct rail service from lower Manhattan to Kennedy Airport and Long Island, Gov. George Pataki Thursday laid out an ambitious schedule for the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site, the surrounding neighborhood and its aging transportation system. While transportation officials take the next year to select a plan to create a lower Manhattan rail connection to Kennedy Airport and Long Island -- and the next decade to build it -- fast ferry service would begin to LaGuardia Airport in 2004 and Kennedy in 2005, under the governor's plan. (Newsday)

Transit Hub, Rail Links Cited as Top Needs for Downtown - Apr 22, 2003
A transit hub near Ground Zero and a rail link to Kennedy Airport and Long Island are the highest rebuilding priorities for lower Manhattan's largest employers, according to two surveys released yesterday. (New York Daily News)

Ferry Operator Is the Target of U.S. Inquiry - Apr 18, 2003
Federal authorities are investigating allegations that the region's leading private ferry company defrauded the federal government of hundreds of thousands of dollars in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attack, according to investigators involved in the case. The investigators say they are looking into whether the ferry company, New York Waterway, which has come to dominate the burgeoning New York ferry market with a fleet of 53 boats, submitted inflated bills to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for ferry services it provided to replace the commuter rail link between New Jersey and Lower Manhattan that was destroyed by the terror attack. (New York Times)

Plans For 2nd Ave Subway Moving Ahead - Apr 6, 2003
Plans for a Second Ave. subway line are rolling ahead - with two stations in lower Manhattan solidly on the drawing board. The proposed line would run from 125th St. to the southern tip of Manhattan, with the final two stops - which had been under evaluation - at the South Street Seaport at Fulton and Water Sts. and at Hanover Square and Water St., according to a Metropolitan Transportation Authority document reviewed by the Daily News. (New York Daily News)

Feds Give $92M For PATH Station at WTC Site - Mar 18, 2003
The Port Authority will receive an additional $92.4 million for construction of the temporary PATH station at the World Trade Center site, federal officials said yesterday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's grant will cover about half of the station's construction costs, with the rest coming from expected insurance proceeds, FEMA officials said. (Newsday)

Study Calls for Adding Ferries to Link Suburbs to Downtown - Mar 13, 2003
Since shortly after the attack on the World Trade Center, an old idea -- extending the Long Island Rail Road to Lower Manhattan -- has received new attention and support from downtown business leaders. As part of his $10.6 billion rebuilding plan, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg advocated building a new tunnel beneath the East River to link downtown with the railroad. But a study to be released today contends that adding a commuter rail line from Long Island to downtown would do little to improve access to the area, and that a much bigger network of ferries would do the job better and for less money. (New York Times)

Tensions Flare Over Proposed WTC Bus Garage - Mar 6, 2003
Tensions flared between relatives of Sept. 11 victims and people who live downtown last night over a proposal to put a bus garage beneath the memorial at Ground Zero. The heated exchange took place at a Community Board 1 hearing on the garage, which neighbors of the site largely support but many victims' families oppose. (New York Daily News)

Victims' Families Oppose Bus Depot On WTC Site - Mar 1, 2003
Some victims' family members are calling a plan to build an undergound parking garage on the World Trade Center site disrespectful. The Coalition of 9/11 Families says the thought of buses parking on what they consider sacred ground is upsetting. They also say the plan is a security risk. (NY1)

Buildings on Broadway To Make Way For New Transit Center - Mar 1, 2003
A tailoring shop a block from the World Trade Center survived 9/11, but it may not survive the rebuilding effort. New York State and New York City are planning a new Fulton Street Transit Center, a $750 million project on the east side of Broadway between Fulton and John Streets that will simplify connections between nine subway lines at the Fulton Street and Broadway-Nassau stations. But some buildings will be razed to make way for the transit center. (New York Times)

Battle Lines Harden Over W.T.C. Bus Garage - Feb 26, 2003
Relatives of the Sept. 11 victims clashed last week with Downtown residents and businesses over whether a proposed garage for tour buses built over the "footprints" of the Twin Towers would dishonor the victims. Conflicting priorities between residents and family members over the World Trade Center site have been apparent for some time, but rarely has the dispute come to the surface as clearly as it did last week and in a forum where both sides, roughly speaking, were equally represented. (Downtown Express)

Broadway Atrium in Plan for 750M Transit Hub - Feb 21, 2003
A sweeping glass atrium opening onto Broadway would greet more than 275,000 commuters a day in lower Manhattan, according to drawings for a new transit hub. The schemes for the $750 million Fulton Transit Center, obtained by the Daily News, show a bright and airy hub that would be a drastic upgrade from the current bleak, mazelike subway complex. The hub, scheduled to be completed by 2007, is expected to be among the transit projects to receive federal funding stemming from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. (New York Daily News)

Federal Officials Press Pataki For Details On Transportation Rebuilding - Jan 16, 2003
Federal officials have sent Gov. Pataki a letter pressing the state to explain in detail how it will spend the $4.55 billion set aside to remake lower Manhattan's transportation system. The letter was meant to jump-start a process that appears to have stalled as City Hall, Albany, the Port Authority and the MTA remain at odds over setting priorities for transportation projects, sources in Washington said. (New York Post)

New Jersey Receving Bulk of Ferry Funds - Jan 15, 2003
New York and New Jersey will get $54.8 million to fund five Hudson River ferry projects as part of the federal government's post-9/11 aid to the city, the Department of Transportation said yesterday. The money includes $11.4 million to help build a new ferry terminal at West 38th Street. The remainder will be spent in New Jersey. (New York Post)

Funds Shortage for Trade Center Transit Plans - Jan 12, 2003
The officials trying to devise a sweeping transit plan for devastated lower Manhattan are grappling with a stark reality: There's not enough money for everything. New York has been promised $4.55 billion in federal transit aid. From that pot, the Port Authority is hoping for about $1.6 billion for infrastructure costs below ground, including a bus depot, parking garages and access ramps at Ground Zero. The remaining $3 billion is being targeted for a new PATH terminal and underground concourse, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority center at Fulton St., a partial covering of West St. along the Trade Center site and a renovated South Ferry subway station. That leaves nothing for the most ambitious project being debated, which Gov. Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg have called critical to downtown's future: a multibillion-dollar direct rail link from lower Manhattan to Kennedy Airport. (New York Daily News)

Debate Begins on Shorter West St. Tunnel - Jan 8, 2003
The idea of building a long Downtown tunnel at West St. seems pretty much dead and buried, but a shorter, sub-pedestrian roadway adjacent to the World Trade Center site is still being actively considered by the powers that be and is being opposed by the leaders of the group that formed to sink the long tunnel. The Coalition to Save West St., a group of Battery Park City residents who organized themselves last year, released a report over the weekend criticizing the short tunnel between Vesey and Liberty Sts., the equivalent of a four-block area. (Downtown Express)

Subway Link for AirTrain Could Be Costlier than Predicted - Dec 30, 2002
Newly discovered engineering problems could add significantly to the cost of a proposed $1.9 billion subway connection between lower Manhattan and the AirTrain commuter rail station at Jamaica, Queens. The so-called Super Shuttle proposal has been pushed by downtown landowner Brookfield Properties as a quick and relatively affordable way of creating access to lower Manhattan. (New York Post)

Transit Officials Study A Quick Trip to Lower Manhattan for Commuters - Dec 14, 2002
Transit officials are mulling a plan to whisk Long Island Rail Road riders and airport travelers to lower Manhattan by using a track on the J subway line, sources said yesterday. The move, being studied by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, would allow LIRR commuters and Kennedy Airport passengers to take a new super-express to lower Manhattan from the Jamaica station in Queens. The express would use a third line of track on the J and Z line, sources said. (New York Daily News)

State D.O.T. Skeptical of Long West St. tunnel - Nov 27, 2002
State Transportation officials, without burying the idea explicitly, nevertheless expressed skepticism last week that a long tunnel on West Street would make economic sense. Tim Gilcrest, the state Department of Transportation's director of planning, did not say he had ruled out a tunnel under the roadway, but he cited two numbers which presumably would make it hard to convince D.O.T. to build the tunnel. One is the cost, which his agency estimates to be $3 billion, not the $2 billion some tunnel proponents cite. The second is the fact that the state estimates only 30 to 40 percent of the Downtown 9A traffic would choose the tunnel over the at-grade roadway that would be built above. (Downtown Express)

Critics Pan Commuter Subway - Nov 19, 2002
A superfast subway train for Long Island commuters going downtown won't save enough time to be worth the multibillion-dollar price tag, critics say. The Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown, a coalition of more than 75 business, community and environmental groups, voted last week to oppose the plan floated by Brookfield Financial Properties, which could take five years to build. About two-thirds of potential commuters using the so-called "supershuttle" would only save three minutes or less, according to their analysis. (Newsday)

Port Authority Continues Plans for Underground Walkway on WTC Site - Nov 1, 2002
Port Authority planners are still considering running an underground walkway below the footprint of one of the Twin Towers - even though families of World Trade Center victims and some development officials oppose it. (New York Post)

List of 9/11 Transit Projects Sent to Washington - Oct 29, 2002
The first batch of lower Manhattan transit projects to be paid for with post-9/11 federal aid has been quietly sent to Washington for approval, sources said yesterday. The transit wish list was compiled after months of sometimes contentious meetings among the Port Authority, Lower Manhattan Development Corp., state and city transportation officials and elected leaders, including Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). (New York Daily News)

Transit Hub Plans May Raze Broadway Buildings - Oct 17, 2002
A plan to build a new Fulton Transit Center to better connect downtown subway lines may include razing some buildings on Broadway. Merchants on a commercial stretch of Broadway near ground zero expressed their dismay last week at a transit proposal to raze their block to make room for a renovated subway complex at the Broadway/Nassau St./Fulton St. station. (Downtown Express)

Debate Rages Over Transit Downtown - Oct 12, 2002
A pitched battle over the $4.55 billion set aside for transit in Lower Manhattan is already being waged behind the scenes, fueled by a debate that many say could determine the future of downtown: Should the money be spent only to improve the transit lines already there? Or should it also be used to bring in new train service, for the first time making downtown as accessible to suburban commuters as Midtown has always been? (New York Times)

New WTC Airtrain Plan - Oct 11, 2002
Travelers could hop on a train at the World Trade Center and speed to Kennedy Airport, under an ambitious and costly proposal being considered by downtown planners, rebuilding officials said yesterday. The idea, under study by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. and the city Planning Department, is part of a broader concept to market lower Manhattan as an "international center" that would draw companies wanting quick access to Kennedy and Newark airports. (New York Post)

Downtown Transit Funds Spark Battle - Oct 9, 2002
A battle over federal funds for downtown transportation projects has broken out among City Hall, the Port Authority and the MTA - stalling key decisions on transit issues considered central to reviving lower Manhattan. (New York Post)

Underground Concourse Idea For Transit Hub Criticized - Oct 7, 2002
Ambitious plans for an underground concourse linking new downtown transit centers and the Hudson River have met with quiet but growing criticism that could doom what was once billed as a centerpiece of the rebuilding effort. "The glory of New York is the streets,"said Hugh Hardy, an architect who examined the concourse idea for the civic group New York New Visions. "These gruesome tunnels ought to be reimagined as public space, not just transportation connections." (New York Post)

West Street Tunnel Not As Expensive As People Think, Says One Landowner - Oct 4, 2002
A West Street tunnel could be built in lower Manhattan for far less than the $2.8 billion estimated by development officials -- making it feasible to create a grand promenade from the Battery to Ground Zero, a major downtown landowner says. Engineering consultants working for Brookfield Properties, which owns the World Financial Center across West Street from Ground Zero, said one method of building the tunnel would be faster and cost less than other plans, and West Street could be buried from the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel to Murray Street in 31/2 years at a cost of $1.2 billion, a Brookfield official said Wednesday in a presentation to Community Board 1. (New York Post)

Senator Schumers Backs Away From Criticism Of Use of Transit Funds - Oct 3, 2002
Sen. Charles Schumer is backing off his wish that a pot of federal money for lower Manhattan go only to a "Grand Central Station" downtown instead of a string of other pricey projects, officials said yesterdaySchumer's apparent change-of-heart came after he met with officials overseeing rebuilding downtown, aides said. "It seems there's enough money for both," Schumer spokesman Phil Singer said. (New York Post)

Transportation Officials Discuss Plans for Downtown Transit - Sep 28, 2002
A Metropolitan Transportation Authority official said Friday that the agency is considering plans for improvements to several downtown subway stations, including a "Rector connector" that would link two train lines. The projects are under discussion as planners weigh options for large-scale changes to the intricate transportation network in lower Manhattan, which was heavily damaged in the attack on the World Trade Center. (Associated Press)

Downtown, a Debate Over Burying West Street - Sep 28, 2002
Local opposition has begun to build against the idea of covering West Street with a tree-lined promenade. Though few so far, a growing number of Battery Park City residents have begun to lobby against a West Street tunnel, saying they fear that a decade-long construction project will further isolate their neighborhood, rather than reconnect it to the rest of Lower Manhattan. (New York Times)

Construction Could Begin Soon On Battery Park City Ferry Terminal - Sep 24, 2002
Construction on a new, state-of-the-art ferry terminal at Battery Park City is expected to begin by the end of the year, the Port Authority announced yesterday. The terminal, scheduled to open in June 2004, will replace a temporary dock and two slips that currently handle 13,500 people traveling between lower Manhattan and Hoboken and Jersey City each day. (New York Post)

Experts Pan Port Authority's Transit Hub Plans - Sep 20, 2002
Architects and urban planners yesterday panned the Port Authority's design ideas for a Ground Zero transit hub, saying they are uninspiring. (New York Post)

PATH Station At Trade Center Making Progress - Sep 20, 2002
The temporary PATH station at the World Trade Center site will be completely enclosed by November of this year, with a scheduled completion date of December 2003, Port Authority chief engineer Frank Lombardi told the agency's commissioners at yesterday's board meeting. (Newsday)

Transit Links Called Vital to a Revival of Downtown - Sep 19, 2002
The rebuilding of Lower Manhattan requires making direct transit links to Kennedy and Newark airports, burying West Street and erecting a major transportation center, a group of business and real estate officials say in a paper that is to be released today. (New York Times)

Plans for Transit Hub - Sep 18, 2002
Preliminary computer images of a plan for a dramatic transit hub at Ground Zero show a wavy atrium roof and views looking out onto a future trade-center memorial and the Winter Garden. (New York Post)

Plans to Raze Fulton St. Block for Transit Hub - Sep 16, 2002
Transit officials want to demolish a block of buildings on lower Broadway and replace them with a glass-enclosed, atrium-style terminal, as part of the project to reconfigure the Fulton Street subway station. Planners for the Metropolitan Transit Authority want to use the power of eminent domain to condemn and demolish all five buildings on the east side of Broadway between Fulton and John streets, officials said. (New York Post)

1 and 9 Back in Service - Sep 16, 2002
Lower Manhattan notches a major milestone on the long journey back to normalcy today when workday commuters return to the fully restored 1 and 9 subway lines as well as a newly reopened Cortlandt Street station on the N and R. (Newsday)

Subway Service to Resume on Routes Closed After 9/11 - Sep 5, 2002
Subway service on lines serving Brooklyn, the West Side of Manhattan and the Bronx will return to normal for the first time in a year on Sept. 15, when three of the four subway stations closed since the World Trade Center attack are to reopen, city and state officials said yesterday. (New York Times)

WTC Transit Plans Altered After Victims' Families' Pleas - Sep 1, 2002
Plans for an underground transportation concourse at the World Trade Center site have been altered in response to pleas from family members of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks that the concourse not run beneath the footprint of one of the destroyed towers, officials in the rebuilding effort say. (New York Times)

Rebuilt 1/9 Subway Line Almost Ready - Aug 27, 2002
The rebuilt portion of the 1 and 9 subway line will open for business on Sept. 15 - but tests with empty subway trains will begin on the tracks this weekend. (New York Post)

Families Concerned About Transit Plans - Aug 12, 2002
Nearly a year after Sept. 11, victims' relatives and observers are concerned that plans for creating the Ground Zero memorial are in limbo - with transit projects beneath the site driving the process. The transit issue is one of many concerns related to the permanent memorial that 9/11 relatives detailed during meetings with Gov. Pataki and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani last week. (New York Post)

$4.5B to Be Used for a Ground Zero Rail Hub - Aug 12, 2002
Billions of dollars in federal money will be used to build a new transit hub near Ground Zero, linking the PATH with subway lines in lower Manhattan, Mayor Bloomberg is set to announce today. The federal government has agreed to give the city $4.5 billion for the rail center. (New York Daily News)

WTC Subway Tunnel To Open Ahead of Schedule - Jul 25, 2002
The subway tunnel destroyed by the World Trade Center attacks is being rebuilt ahead of schedule and will reopen by mid-September. When the tunnel directly through Ground Zero is reopened, the 1, 2, 3, and 9 trains will return to their old routes. (New York Post)

Downtown "Grand Central Station" Is Already Derailed - Jul 25, 2002
Ground Zero planners have been calling for a "Grand Central Station South," even saying it’s an essential element of any program to rebuild lower Manhattan. But when the transportation-planning firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, charged by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation with developing plans for a new downtown transportation network, makes its proposals public later this summer, they are likely to shed light on a competing network of interests, agencies, advocates and organizations as tangled as the connection from the IRT to the IND in the Fulton Street subway station. (New York Observer)

LIRR Seen for Downtown Hub - Jul 18, 2002
A new Long Island Rail Road station underneath Liberty St. could be part of the massive transportation hub envisioned for lower Manhattan, officials said yesterday. The LIRR expansion and a plan for a new ferry terminal are expected to be included in a broad set of transportation proposals set for release next month by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp (New York Daily News)

PATH Project Halted - Jul 14, 2002
The Port Authority's controversial plan to build two new exits at PATH train stations in the West Village may be over. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has stopped the project for at least three months, saying it's unclear whether the $29.6 million construction job is a wise use of Sept. 11 relief funds. (New York Post)

Port Authority Eyes Record $1B Construction Tab - Jun 28, 2002
As the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey plans to take back control of the World Trade Center site early next month, agency officials say they expect to award or spend a record $1 billion in construction projects around the region this year. Work at Ground Zero had a large role in increasing the authority's planned construction spending by $100 million more than originally projected for this year, Lombardi told the Port Authority board yesterday. (Newsday)

Downtown Transportation Hub Winning Support - Jun 13, 2002
Construction of a lower Manhattan transit hub and an expanded South Ferry subway station have risen to the top of a list of downtown transportation projects vying for $1.8 billion in federal aid. (New York Daily News)

Traffic Likely in WTC Rebuild - Jun 12, 2002
The head of the rebuilding effort yesterday sketched out the most "likely" layout for the World Trade Center site. Lower Manhattan Development Corp. chairman John Whitehead said the land will probably be cut into quadrants by two heavily trafficked vehicular streets with office towers rising above them. (New York Post)

Idea For Transit Hub Downtown Could Mean Tearing Down A Block Of Buildings - Jun 10, 2002
Officials planning a new downtown transit hub are considering a radical proposal to raze a square block off lower Broadway for an ambitious aboveground terminal topped by office towers. The Port Authority, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority have discussed various versions of the plan - and it is now being explored by Parsons Brinckerhoff, the engineering firm hired to rethink the downtown transit map, said sources familiar with the proposal. The buildings on the block bordered by Fulton and John streets and Broadway and Nassau Street would be condemned and razed and the confusing maze of subway connections at the station would be "rationalized," the sources said. A new terminal - akin to a downtown Grand Central - would be built over the site. (New York Post)

Infrastructure Repair Before Memorial, Says Bloomberg - May 30, 2002
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday that Lower Manhattan's most immediate need was infrastructure repair, and that a memorial and rebuilt office space would come later, after some wounds had healed. (New York Times)

A Subway Interrupted Awaits Its Imminent Resurgence - May 21, 2002
For more than two months, a few hundred workers have been rebuilding the 1 and 9 subway lines damaged on Sept. 11. When the workers are done at the end of September and trains with passengers are rumbling through the tunnels once again by November, it will be very hard to tell where old meets new, exactly where it was that 1,300 feet of subway tunnel were crushed and pierced by falling skyscrapers and then rebuilt in little more than seven months. (New York Times)

Rebuilding Infrastructure and Wiring Downtown Is A Huge Undertaking - May 12, 2002
In this feature from the New York Times Magazine, author Robert Sullivan explores the mammoth effort of rewiring Lower Manhattan after September 11 by taking a look at one particular street. The article discusses the intricacies of wiring underground among decades-old structures and the efforts of Verizon and other communications companies to make sure one of the world's busiest telecommunications areas stays connected. (New York Times)

Subway Stations Near World Trade Center Site To Reopen By November - Apr 30, 2002
A subway station on the eastern edge of Ground Zero is expected to reopen by November, a top transit official said. The N and R Cortlandt St. station was closed because entrances in the World Trade Center complex were destroyed Sept. 11. The Transit Authority also hopes to reopen the Rector St. and South Ferry stations on the 1 and 9 line by Nov. 1. A new tunnel is under construction. (New York Daily News)

One-Stop Commuting For Lower Manhattan Is Key, Says Member of Rebuilding Agency - Apr 26, 2002
A one-stop commuter ride to lower Manhattan will guarantee the neighborhood's future, according to one board member of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, while downtown's success would serve as the "ultimate retort" to the terroists who destroyed the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. (Newsday)

Footbridge Over West Street Reopened - Apr 21, 2002
A bridge over West St. that once allowed pedestrians to walk from the World Financial Center to a spot just across from the World Trade Center was reopened yesterday after being repaired and extended. Formerly called the South Bridge, the covered walkway from Battery Park City was closed after it was damaged by cascading debris from the twin towers on Sept. 11. It has been renamed the Liberty St. Bridge. (New York Daily News)

$7.4 Billion Cost For Rebuilding Transportation Downtown - Apr 20, 2002
Rebuilding lower Manhattan's shattered transportation network will cost about $7.4 billion, the city-state agency leading the effort has revealed. Lou Tomson, executive director of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., unveiled the rough price tag Thursday for the first time during meetings with several key lawmakers in Washington, sources said yesterday. The delegation estimated it would cost $2 billion to sink West St. from Chambers St. to the Battery Tunnel; $2 billion for a new PATH terminal with airport-style moving sidewalks to nearby subways; $1.3 billion for security improvements in subways; $750 million for a new transit hub at Fulton St., and $400 million to expand the antiquated South Ferry subway station. (New York Daily News)

Mapping Ground Zero's Future - Apr 10, 2002
The Daily News presents a visual representation of the ideas presented yesterday in the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's blueprint and principles for rebuilding. (New York Daily News)

South Ferry Station To Be Rebuilt - Apr 9, 2002
The cramped, century-old South Ferry subway station is on track for a major renovation to be paid for mostly with federal dollars, sources said yesterday. The proposed $400 million makeover of the station could include new connections to the Whitehall St. stop of the N and R lines, as well as nearby ferry terminals, sources said. Officials said they expect to receive as much as $300 million in federal money for the project, money which will come from the $1.8 billion in federal aid the state got last month to rebuild transit lines damaged by the terrorist attacks. (New York Daily News)

Transportation Hub Could Be One of First Approved Projects For Downtown - Apr 8, 2002
A gleaming new transit hub connecting PATH and subway trains and ferry terminals is likely to be the first multibillion-dollar project approved for a rebuilt downtown. The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. says a transit hub will be the subject of the agency's first set of concrete proposals, to be issued in May. (New York Post)

Questions Linger About Paying For Rebuilding - Apr 8, 2002
A vast array of costly projects has been proposed for an extensive makeover of lower Manhattan - but very little has been said about who'll pay for a massive rebuilding that reaches far beyond the World Trade Center site. With insurance payouts and federal aid added together, there is an initial rebuilding pot of $11 to $18 billion. However, other than $1.8 billion in funds designated for a possible transit hub in the federal aid package, virtually no money is directly earmarked for long-term rebuilding. $9 billion allocated to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has disbursed $965 million so far, can only be used to restore things as they were, not for new building. There are hopes that some of this money will be diverted, however, for longer-term rebuilding. (New York Post)

West Street and Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel Reopened - Mar 30, 2002
The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and West Street fully reopened for the first time since Sept. 11. Mayor Bloomberg said the city's ban on single-occupancy cars between 6 and 10 a.m. will be in effect for the tunnel - as well as a new, high-occupancy vehicle lane for Manhattan-bound drivers, stretching from the Verrazano Bridge to the Gowanus Expressway into the tunnel. (New York Post)

First Day of Expanded Ferry Service Encourages Increase in Ridership - Mar 26, 2002
More-frequent ferry trips from New Jersey, meant to attract thousands of new commuters, drew about 500 more riders yesterday morning in the first day of the expanded service. (New York Post)

More Ferry Service Announced For Downtown - Mar 15, 2002
Ferry service between Manhattan and New Jersey will be expanded later this month, state and local officials announced yesterday, citing increased demand stemming from the loss of PATH service downtown since Sept. 11. Extra ferries will run until PATH service is restored to Lower Manhattan, scheduled for late next year, and could serve about 63,000 passengers a day. (New York Times)

Utilities Set For A Big Dig Downtown To Repair Infrastructure - Mar 14, 2002
In what may very well be the largest utility reconstruction project in history, workers from Con Edison, Verizon and several additional utilities are digging up 26 miles of roadway to repair the infrastructure beneath street level downtown. They are removing rocks and other debris, some from the trade center and some from more than 100 years of accumulation, checking out the systems, making repairs and then installing new conduits and piping. (New York Times)

Ferry Service To Expand, Says State Top Economic Official - Mar 13, 2002
City and state officials will announce a plan this week to stimulate redevelopment in downtown Manhattan by increasing ferry service, said Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, on Tuesday. Eventually, Gargano said, the rebirth of Lower Manhattan could be boosted by a tenfold increase in ferry service. (Newsday)

Mayor and Governor Back Idea of Burying West Street Near Ground Zero - Feb 28, 2002
Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg strongly endorsed a proposal to bury West St. along the World Trade Center site yesterday, helping to bridge the divide between Battery Park City and the rest of lower Manhattan. Supporters said a tunnel would help make downtown a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week neighborhood — an area even more vibrant than it was before the Sept. 11 attacks. With vehicles traveling underneath, the area would be transformed into a pedestrian promenade or park. (New York Daily News)

Con Edison Racing To Build New Substation - Feb 13, 2002
Consolidated Edison executives say that they are in a race against time to build a new electrical substation in New York City before the summer, when air-conditioning use is expected to increase to levels that could overload the electrical grid in Lower Manhattan. Officials say that they have to complete the project by the summer, which means finishing it in about half the time it normally takes. If a new substation is not built by June, the handful of substations that have been distributing electricity to customers who lost power on Sept. 11 could overload, resulting in blackouts. (New York Times)

New Wall To Keep Out Hudson Must Be Built, Says Head Engineer - Feb 6, 2002
According to George Tamaro, the engineer who directed the original construction of the World Trade Center, the "bathtub” which keeps out the Hudson River suffered so much damage on Sept. 11 that a new wall will have to be added before permanent rebuilding can occur. Tamaro, a partner at Mueser-Rutledge Consulting Engineers, believes that a second interior wall -- or "liner wall” -- must be constructed to augment the original "bathtub.” The project would cost $15 million to $20 million, he estimated. Such a project will add an unspecified amount of time to the overall reconstruction of the site. (Newsday)

PATH Rebuild Plan On The Fast Track - Jan 30, 2002
Port Authority officials will meet tomorrow to award a $300 million contract for the reconstruction of the ruined World Trade Center PATH station. Work will begin within a week on the tunnels, while engineers and architects finalize plans for the station - which is envisioned as a temporary facility that will be used until officials agree upon overall plans for the makeover of the downtown transit map. Gargano said PA officials hope to have trains running again in 18-24 months. (New York Post)

World Trade Center Stop On E Line Reopens - Jan 28, 2002
The E subway line resumed service to the World Trade Center stop Monday morning. The station is on the edge of the World Trade Center complex but was not damaged in the September 11 attack. It has remained closed - with E trains terminating at Canal Street - to avoid interference with the recovery and cleanup efforts at the site. Two exits at the station are still closed: the stairwell at Vesey Street and the old entrance to the World Trade Center mall. For now, the name of the station remains "Chambers/World Trade Center," but the MTA expects there will be a push to change it. (NY1)

E Train to Stop at WTC Soon - Jan 24, 2002
The E train stop at the World Trade Center will be reopened as soon as Monday. It is possible that the stop will ultimately be renamed in the future. To keep straphangers away from Ground Zero, access to the station will be via underground passageways between the E station and nearby Chambers St. and Park Place subway stops. (New York Daily News)

$1M-a-Day Fix for WTC Subway - Jan 16, 2002
The fastest-paced project in the history of the subway system will begin on March 1, as the MTA, with the blessing of Governor Pataki, approved a plan to begin reconstruction of the 1/9 subway line below Chambers Street (graphic available). With a one million dollar a day price tag, the Transit Authority will be able to complete a job that would normally take three to four years and finish it by November. Plans currently do not call for the hard-hit Cortlandt Street station, which will have its platforms and entrances sealed off. (graphic available) (New York Daily News)

Big Transit Ideas Downtown - Jan 8, 2002
The Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation is looking into plans to create a downtown transit hub around the World Trade Center site. Proposals include an underground mega-hub with retail space and connections to the PATH and 14 subway lines. While short-term needs of resuming PATH and subway service will be addressed quickly, long-term plans could include the construction of a major transportation center and renovation of the nearby Broadway-Nassau/Fulton St. stations. (New York Daily News)

Subway Line in Attack May Reopen Much Earlier - Jan 4, 2002
Transit officials said yesterday that two of the three stations for the 1 and 9 subway lines that were damaged in the World Trade Center attacks may reopen as early as November, more than a year earlier than originally planned. However, rather than rerouting the line to increase convenience for Battery Park City residents, the subway will be rebuilt mostly to its state before September 11. (New York Times)

Port Authority Approves New PATH Station for Lower Manhattan - Dec 14, 2001
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey yesterday authorized spending $544 million to build a temporary PATH station in Lower Manhattan beneath the rubble of the World Trade Center. The temporary terminal could be completed within two years, said officials of the agency. It would help directly reconnect downtown to the rest of the PATH system for the more than 65,000 commuters who used the Lower Manhattan station before the Sept. 11 attack, which destroyed the trade center and the underground network of train tunnels and shopping concourses there. In addition, the agency's board of commissioners allotted $10 million yesterday to plan an ambitious, permanent PATH terminal in the area - one that would establish better and more connections to city subways, buses and ferry terminals. (New York Times)