NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Service on the L-train will be reduced starting Friday night.
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Repairs will force trains to run single track every 20 minutes, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo tells 1010 WINS the bulk of the work has already been done, so service cutbacks may be over sooner than planned.
"We're ahead of schedule on the L-train," Gov. Andrew Cuomo told 1010 WINS, "We had Columbia University and Cornell send in a team to come up with an independent review and they actually found a better way to do it."
Cuomo said it will be a temporary inconvenience instead of a nightmare.
"It's about half the time and the tunnel never fully closes, so it's only reduced service. So while it's still an inconvenience, it's a lot better than it would have been with a total closure."
Best case scenario? Overnight and weekend closures for just over a year worth of work.
CONGESTION PRICING
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said he struck a deal that will prevent New Jersey commuters from paying twice to drive into the city.
"The MTA, part of what the MTA has to do is, over the next two years they're going to be installing electronic tolling in the Manhattan central business district. They have to do a study to determine what are the tolls, what are the variables in the tolls? Part of it is to get people to drive during non-congestion hours, and then how do you collect the tolls that are already collected at the East River bridges, tunnels, and coming from New Jersey," he said.
Cuomo said the plan is to avoid inadvertently steering traffic one way or the other. He adds that there will be some double tolling, but it won't be clear how that will be done until the traffic study is complete.
BIDEN IN 2020
Gov. Cuomo recently wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post asking if the political left had become an enemy of the political left -- so is Joe Biden too moderate to represent the Democratic party in 2020?
"I think you'll have a robust discussion on the Democratic side, but Joe Biden I've worked with for many decades and he's been very good to New York. He is a progressive in the truest sense and he's a progressive who can actually get things done. I think this race is going to be about the values we hold as New Yorkers, as Americans. I think it's almost mor fundamental than debating the specifics about a policy proposal," Cuomo said.
He told 1010 WINS the 2020 race would be about who we are as Americans.
"What happened to American values, and this country is more divided, more angry, less unified than I've ever seen it and it's frightening," he said.
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