Hello and thank you for the opportunity to testify this evening. My name is Brian Fritsch and I am the Manager of Advocacy Campaigns for Regional Plan Association.

For well over two decades, RPA has voiced strong support for the Penn Station Access Project. Penn Station Access closely reflects RPA’s core values of greater equity, prosperity, health, and sustainability for the New York City region. By repurposing existing rail infrastructure to provide new capacity, connectivity and resiliency — the Penn Access project will most importantly provide critical transit accessibility to historically under-served communities in The Bronx. The project will significantly reduce travel times for Bronx residents, provide new employment opportunities, economic development in the Bronx, Westchester, and Connecticut, and improve health and the environment by markedly reducing pollution and vehicle miles traveled. We urge the MTA to set fares that will allow its new ridership base in the East Bronx to take full advantage of this vital new transportation option.

RPA also believes the project benefits will extend across the New York City region, including to all commuters and travelers at New York City Penn Station, who will be able to take advantage of a much better integrated regional rail network. Penn Station Access also carries a very reasonable cost by taking advantage of the existing right of way. We encourage the MTA to continue to look for other opportunities to do this, such as RPA’s proposed Triboro line.

We look forward to continuing to work with the MTA and other stakeholders to help make this proposal reality in the near future and offer our continued assistance in this effort.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.