Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the schedule for the on-time opening of the new Second Avenue Subway. Keeping his promise to modernize the MTA and open the subway line on time, the inaugural ride will take place on December 31st and revenue service will begin at noon on January 1 and start at 6 a.m. each day for the rest of the first week."New Yorkers have waited nearly a century to see the promise of the Second Avenue Subway realized, and after unrelenting dedication from thousands of hardworking men and women, the wait is over and the subway will open on December 31," Governor Cuomo said. "The on-time completion of this major, transformative project reaffirms confidence in government competence, increasing capacity on the nation’s busiest subway system, and delivering a new, vital transportation artery to millions of New Yorkers."Phase 1 of Second Avenue Subway marks the most significant changes to New York City subway service in recent decades, and will be built in four phases. Phase I will provide service from 96th Street to 63rd Street and will serve more than 200,000 people per day, reducing overcrowding on the Lexington Avenue Line and restoring a transit link to a neighborhood that lost the Second Avenue Elevated in 1940.Revenue service will begin at noon on January 1, when the first uptown train to Second Avenue departs from the 57-7 Av station. Trains will run every six minutes during peak hours and will run from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. for the rest of the first week. Overnight service will begin on Monday, January 9. MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas F. Prendergast said, “The Second Avenue Subway is the most significant addition to our system in 50 years and will serve more riders on opening day than Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Boston transit systems combined and will significantly reduce crowding on the Lexington Avenue line. Opening the line on time could not happened without the support of Governor Cuomo and the round-the-clock hard work and dedication of the thousands of men and women on this project who made this opening possible.”
The Cubs did win the World Series so anything is possible.
Yeah, Sunday it felt like someplace froze over.
The present map on the MTA website does not yet show the 2nd Ave line. How does the new line get from 63rd St to the Q line, which runs under 59th St.?
“The new line will run under 2nd Avenue from 96th southward, serving new stations at 96th Street, 86th Street and 72nd Street. South of 72nd Street, the line will curve west, connecting to the existing 63rd Street line and serving Lexington Av/63 St Station, where a cross-platform transfer to the F will be possible. West of the Lexington Av/63 St Station, the new service will connect to the Broadway line express tracks at the 57 St/7 Av Station and continue south.”
The Q stopped running to Queens via the 59th-60th Street old BMT when the station, not shown on the map, an error, it is there unless closed for repair, on Roosevelt Island was opened. Another station not shown on the map by error is one for the F just before the split for the Queens Plaza bypass tracks that connect to the express tracks east of Queens Plaza Station. First Roosevelt Island and then Queensville or whatever the name was served as northern terminals for the Q. Then, when the track connections to the Queens Blvd line were completed, and the F relocated from 53rd Street to 63rd, the Q was cut back to 57th and 7th, or restored to 59th-60th Street to run to Astoria with the N. The W has taken over the supplementay Astoria role, and the Q currently runs only to 7th Avenue and 57th Street.
I read that the El's were abandoned in anticipation of the long proposed 2nd Ave Subway. Why were they removed before the new construction?
Real-estat.e interests. Elevateds were noisy. LaGuardia considered both elevateds and streetcars as obsolete. As did Robert Moses and Sidney Bingham.
"The on-time completion of this major, transformative project reaffirms confidence in government competence
What is Cuomo smokin'. This thing is decades late. Typical government incompetence.
runnerdude48"The on-time completion of this major, transformative project reaffirms confidence in government competence
Both "on time" and "competence" here refer to the New York Democrat 'experience'. That's a different yardstick from reality.
(Oh, yes, fine print - /sarc, )
runnerdude48 This thing is decades late.
This thing is decades late.
Excerpt from NY Times, April 9, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/nyregion/09subway.html
The neckties are wide and the sideburns long, the pickaxes gleam in the sunlight. The governor thanks the president for providing money. The mayor jokes that “whatever is said about this project in the years to come, certainly no one can say that the city acted rashly or without due deliberation.”
The governor swings his pickax, but the pavement is too hard. A jackhammer is brought in to loosen things up. Now the governor and the mayor lay to with gusto.
The Second Avenue subway is born.
Or so it seemed at the time.
Has 'Water Tunnel #3' been completed yet?
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
RME- as an ex-New Yorker, you made my day with that exact statement! thanks so much!
I rode the Second Ave subway with RideWithMeHenry last week. The stations are spacious and still clean, but the ride is only three stations long.
The photograph showing the "pavement breaking" cerimony was taken in the early 70"s, when work started on the Second Ave subway. This was stopped when New York City had severe financial crises. However, three segments of subway roadbed were actually constructed: a short section in lower Manhatten, a section from 99th St. to105th St. and a section from 110th St. to 120th St. When the construction of the present line reached 96th St. from the south, it continued to 99th St, where the line immediately gained another six blocks to 105th St. Rather than use the on-site contractors to remove the plug between 105th &110th St. and gain 15 more blocks, someone(s) decided that this would be done in Phase 2. Since Phase 1 only took about 100 years from conception to completion, Phase 2 probably isn't immenent.
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