Ambitious MTA plans for a Long Island Railroad link to Grand Central, the westward expansion of the 7 train and a sparkling, glass-domed subway station known as an “oculus” are in jeopardy, according to William Neuman in today’s NY Times.

Cost overruns climbing into the billions are given as the reason. “We’re just in the middle of a construction inflation crisis,” MTA chairman Dale Hemmerdinger told the Times. (And we thought the construction industry was sitting on its ass until the subprime crisis sorts itself out…shows what we know!)

The combined budget for the projects is $12.5 billion.

The aforementioned oculus is to be located at Fulton Street, down by Ground Zero. Neuman describes it as “a project to modernize and unravel a spaghetti bowl of interlinked subway stations” that’s to be “topped by an eye-grabbing glass and steel domelike structure….which would direct natural light into the underground.”

Presumably, the new scaled-down plans will eschew the underground natural light, so straphangers will continue to look like the gray-hued ghouls they do today.

For much, much, much, much, much more detail on the topic, including Perez Hilton-esque teleprompter scrawlings, check out SecondAvenueSagas.