You can’t blame New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie if he feels some satisfaction over news out of the MTA.
A new report by Inspector General Barry Kluger found that the transit agency’s major development projects — the Second Avenue subway, the LIRR link and the Fulton Transit Center — are five years late and $2 billion over budget.
But they’re all too far along for MTA Chairman Jay Walder to kill them.
Which is precisely what Christie did to the Hudson River commuter tunnel, be fore it slipped into the overrun abyss.
When Christie called a halt last summer, projections for the tunnel’s costs — originally put at $8.7 billion — had already climbed to $11 billion and were edging north of $14 billion.
He caught bloody hell for it.
Meanwhile, back at the MTA:
* The Fulton projects is two years late.
* The first leg of the long-delayed Second Avenue subway is five years behind schedule.
* And so is the LIRR extension to Grand Central.
And will those dates hold?
Stay tuned.
The reason for all these delays, according to Kluger: lack of oversight and bureaucratic infighting.
Precisely what was wrong with the Hudson tunnel project.
Which is why Christie was right to bail on it.