New York City’s subway system is old and antiquated. Yes, we’re still lucky to get extended subway service even when a track’s imploded or lost for repairs, but a recent study found its safety could be jeopardized by an aging car fleet, growing tech issues and cramped stations. Just like the city’s beloved buses, the train is literally growing old before our eyes.
And yet we have yet to build a subway extension in decades. Instead, a small section of the subway system is being slowly extended along a 16-mile stretch of elevated freight railroad, near the Meatpacking District. Known as the Second Avenue Subway, construction has begun on the new, 7.6-mile extension and could be done as early as next year.
The Second Avenue Subway, which will connect Harlem with midtown via the Lexington Avenue/63rd Street line, is slated to open sometime in December 2023. After years of residents expressing an overwhelming desire for a subway extension that serves north of the Hudson River, is it time for a solution to our subway woes? Should we invest in a new subway line instead of relying on an old freight line?
The city estimates that the Second Avenue Subway, which will cost roughly $4.3 billion, will add 663,000 rides a day to the subway system. A recent study by KPMG found that a $3-billion-dollar extension of the A line from Hunts Point to 125th Street and Bronx could also add 15,000 daily trips to the subway system — or about 2 percent of its current ridership. Another plan, for a modern rapid-transit line on the West Side of Manhattan, could boost the city’s total subway ridership by about 5 percent. (New York City’s complete subway fleet is expected to age out of service over the next couple of decades.)
You can watch video of the city’s plan for the new Second Avenue Subway above.
Read more at The Local New York.
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