NY subway station upgrades may cost $2 Billion more than expected

Reuters reports:

New York's mass transit agency said on Friday it was probing whether revamping subway stations and other upgrades will cost $500 million to $2 billion more than planned, though this work does not even include its mega-projects, such as the new Second Avenue subway.

"Maybe some of this stuff has been a little gold-plated," Elliot Sander, executive director, of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said at an Assembly hearing.

Adding he will not have a hard estimate of the extra expenses until the transit arm of the busiest U.S. bus, subway, commuter, bridge and tunnel agency finishes its review, he said: "I think the probability is that it will be several hundred million (dollars)."

In addition to upgrading subway stations, the huge extra sum might be needed to modernize repair shops and rail yards, and update signals and communication systems, he said.

Pressed by Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, who led the oversight hearing, to say whether subway fares and bridge tolls will go up in 2008, Sander said this was premature.

But he also told the Westchester Democratic Assemblyman that it would be "very hard" to avoid such increases in 2008 unless the current real estate boom continues.

You've got to love the accountability in the public sector.