Midtown is the most recent entrance within the Trump administration’s obvious struggle on New York Metropolis’s transit system, with federal regulators demanding town halt work on the just lately revived thirty fourth St. busway.
In a Thursday letter to New York Metropolis and State transportation departments, Federal Freeway Administration head Sean McMaster directed the companies to cease work on the venture, which might prohibit lengthy stretches of the east-west thoroughfare to make use of by buses and vehicles going to native companies by yr’s finish.
There is no such thing as a federal cash concerned within the plan to revamp Manhattan’s thirty fourth St. and prioritize bus site visitors.
However, FHWA Division Administrator Richard Marquis argued in a September letter to state and native officers, the municipal avenue is a “principal arterial [road]” for the needs of the Nationwide Freeway System, and thus “must continue to serve the interstate and interregional travel and commerce needs for which the route is designed.”
“[W]hile the busway proposal indicates trucks are allowed access on the busway, it is not clear if the busway can safely accommodate all commercial motor vehicle deliveries meeting the specified dimensions [in the relevant regulations],” McMaster continued.
Any continuation of labor by town’s Division of Transportation, McMaster wrote, “is unacceptable and puts at risk decisions regarding pending and future Federal-aid projects.”
If work continues, “I will implement appropriate remedial actions,” McMaster continued, together with “withholding project authorizations and approvals, restricting the obligation of funding, limiting transfers, or other actions deemed necessary.”
“The vast majority of commuters in Midtown are traveling by transit and they deserve world-class, fast, and reliable buses,” Metropolis DOT spokesman Vincent Barone stated in a press release. “The redesign for 34th Street mirrors other street designs from across the city and allows for truck, private, and emergency vehicle access on every block.”
“We are confident that the design complies with all applicable federal laws and regulations, and we will work with the federal government to advance this critical project,” he added.
FHWA’s top-down stop-work order comes amid a slew of transportation funding and authorization battles between Gotham and the Trump regime.
Most notably, the USDOT — the guardian company of the FHWA — introduced two weeks in the past that it was pausing all reimbursements on two main New York Metropolis initiatives, the Second Avenue Subway extension and the Hudson River rail tunnel.
Although each had been described by USDOT officers as a procedural transfer in an effort to make “important” initiatives extra environment friendly, President Trump this week claimed his administration had “terminated” funding to the Hudson River Tunnel as a result of it was a precedence of New York’s senior Democratic senator, Chuck Schumer.
Initially Revealed: October 17, 2025 at 1:13 PM EDT
