I missed this Gothamist article last week. Despite repeated promises by the head of the MTA (“I have stated a number of times already in this meeting that a third party team will be engaged to report to the board and me, all of us, on what the best path forward is”, Fredy Ferrer – January 2019), the MTA is NOT hiring a third-party consultant to review Governor Cuomo’s L train tunnel plan. In a Trumpian twist, Ferrer now says that was all fake news, and the third-party consultant was only meant to monitor safety and environmental issues DURING construction (“the consultant was never [meant] to come back to the board with a comparison”, Ferrer – March, 2019).

Maybe the consultants first job can be to tell us why all the MTA employees at the Bedford Avenue station are wearing dust masks all the time, but the air is safe to breathe for commuters.