No. 7 Subway Line Extension Due To Open After Years Of Delays
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The wait was almost over at last Friday for subway riders on the West Side.
As CBS2's Sonia Rincon reported, the No. 7 subway service will make its first stop at the new Hudson Yards Extension next month after billions of dollars and years of delays.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority says the 34th Street-Hudson Yards station will debut on Sept. 13. The line will eventually extend from its current terminus at Times Square to Eleventh Avenue on Manhattan's far West Side.
As of Friday afternoon, the soon-to-open station at 34th Street did not look like much with a fence in front of it. But eight years of construction have, in fact, reached completion.
A visit to the new station was one of the last stops for Mayor Michael Bloomberg in December 2013. It will serve the area his administration pushed to redevelop.
"It's a brand new station with modern amenities and beautiful artwork," said MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz.
Ortiz said the extension cost nearly $2.4 billion -- almost entirely funded by the city. And building a subway station in the 21st century means not just digging deep financially, but physically -- under all the existing infrastructure.
"It's about 100 feet down, so it'll take a couple of minutes to get down either by elevator or escalator," Ortiz said.
Riders Grand Central Station could not wait for a train to take them west beyond Tines Square. It will be a smooth transition from the Metro-North Railroad.
The extension will be perfect for Edwina Osbourne of the Bronx.
"Right now, to get over to the West Side, you take the shuttle -- and you're limited," she said. "So having it extend all the way to Eleventh Avenue, I think, it's great."
And there is a lot happening on Eleventh Avenue other than the construction of new towers. There is also the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, The High Line, the Megabus pickup point, and a brand new park that will have another future entrance to the station.
The area is undergoing a major redevelopment with the construction of the 28-acre Hudson Yards retail and residential project.
Christine Berthet chairs Manhattan Community Board 4, and said the neighborhood is thrilled finally be getting subway service.
"Right behind me, you have a few buildings which were finished right before the crash, and all these people are definitely going to use it right away," Berthet said. And I'm sure a lot of people on 10th Avenue are going to migrate this way."
The excitement also stretches to Queens, where Justin Kulo of Long Island City could not wait to take the No. 7 train to the new end of the line.
"To get to, for example, the Meatpacking District, you want to be able to go all the way west," Kulo said.
Still, there are some concerns from riders about how crowded the No. 7 train already is.
"It's packed -- all the time," said Alice Gonzalez, who said there should be more service added to the line.
One thing riders and residents on the Far West Side would have liked to see is an additional stop between 34th Street and Times Square -- on 41st Street and Tenth Avenue -- before the train makes the turn south.
That it could still happen with enough money, as could more stations downtown. However, the MTA said are no plans at this time for additional 7 Train stops.
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