Fix the transit system we have before blowing $7.7B on a 2nd Ave. subway extension

MTA officials are begging Team Trump and New York lawmakers for billions to keep the trains running and fund $68 billion in capital projects.Yet the agency is nonetheless moving ahead with plans to shell out another jaw-dropping $7.7 billion to extend the 2nd Avenue subway.What kind of management is that?If you’re too broke to fix the hole in your roof, do you start work on a new wing on your home? Insanely, this 29-block, 1.8-mile extension, from 96th to 125th Street in Manhattan, is to cost $4.3 billion per mile, more than any other subway build-out in history.(It would push the 2nd Ave’s first phase, at $2.5 billion a mile, to No.2.)And of course cost overruns would push the bill even higher.No matter: On Wednesday, the MTA board greenlighted nearly a quarter-billion dollars in funding just for consultants for the project — two firms to oversee construction, the other for design tweaks.Utter insanity: At a City Council hearing last week, agency officials warned that, absent more funding, straphangers may soon face repeated subway breakdowns, delays and derailments — as happened during the “Summer of Hell” in 2017.“Many components are falling apart and need to be replaced or preserved,” warned MTA Co-Chief Financial Officer Jai Patel.

“If we don’t do this critical work, it’s not an exaggeration that we will be looking at another ‘Summer of Hell.'”That makes it criminal to spend a single dime on a new project that will siphon cash from repair and maintenance on the current system.Hel-lo: Then-Gov.Andrew Cuomo’s 2016 rush to get Phase 1 done (so he could ride the first 2nd Avenue train by New Year’s Day) led directly to the original “Summer of Hell” months later.New Yorkers spend a fortune on mass transit, some $20 billion just to run the system — yet the MTA’s always pleading for new cash: more payroll tax surcharges, congestion-pricing tolls, fare hikes (it’s going up to $3 in August).US Transportation Secretary Sean Duff...