East Side Access: The cost and delays

The project connecting the LIRR to Grand Central Terminal is still on track to be completed by the end of 2022, but the cost has gone up by nearly $1 billion.

The cost of the MTA’s East Side Access megaproject has risen again — this time by another $995 million, to about $11.2 billion. That’s more than 2 1/2 times the original estimate when the project was first proposed in the 1990s.

See how both the cost and the timeline had shifted over time, and read more here about why the MTA says those increases have occurred.

In 1999

it was supposed to cost

$4.3 billion

and be completed by 2009.

In 2003

it was supposed to cost

$5.3 billion

and be completed by 2011.

In 2004

it was supposed to cost

$6.3 billion

and be completed by 2012.

In 2009

it was supposed to cost

$7.3 billion

and be completed by 2016.

In 2012

it was supposed to cost

$8.3 billion

and be completed by 2019.

In 2014

it was supposed to cost

$9.7 billion

and be completed by 2021.

In 2015

it was supposed to cost

$10.2 billion

and be completed by 2022.

Today

it is supposed to cost

$11.2 billion

and be completed by 2022.