MTA Gears Up for December Opening of Second Avenue Subway...Maybe

"After decades of failed efforts, the first segment of the Second Avenue subway line is scheduled to open in December, with three new stations on the Upper East Side of Manhattan," reports Emma G. Fitzsimmons, transit reporter for The New York Times, on Oct. 24.

The Second Avenue line has been on the drawing board since the 1920s and will be the most ambitious expansion of the subway system in a half-century.

[T]he first segment is much shorter than once envisioned. It was supposed to run the length of Manhattan, taking some of the burden off the crowded Lexington Avenue line. For now, it is a nearly two-mile extension of the Q line.

As such, Q trains will travel to the station at 63rd Street and Lexington Avenue before reaching new stations at 72nd, 86th and 96th Streets. Eventually, the line will extend north to 125th Street in East Harlem.

Well, maybe not all three stations on Second Ave. will be ready according to independent engineer for the project, Kent Haggas, reports Fitzsimmons two days later.  It may be just one.

With just two months left, he warned, two of the three stations scheduled to open, at 86th and 72nd Streets, were not ready and that a rigorous testing schedule was not being met.

“Basically, the progress to date needs to be almost tripled on a weekly basis to give us confidence we’ll finish everything by the end of December,” Mr. Haggas said of the testing. “The program definitely needs to ramp up.”

 The third station, at 96th Street, appeared to be on schedule.

The fourth station shown on the above map, E. 63rd. St. at Lexington Ave., is a current F train stop. The Q train would be routed via preexisting tunnel to 63rd St. instead of stopping at 59th St. at Lexington.

In order to replace the Q train's current service to Astoria, Queens, the MTA will restore W train service on Nov. 7, reports Irene Plagianos for DNAinfo.com. "The train line [was] axed in 2010 MTA budget cuts..."

The last new subway station to open in New York was in the Hudson Yards development at 34th Street and 11th Avenue in September 2015 that included a one-mile extension of the No. 7 subway line from Times Square.

Related in Planetizen:

• Second Avenue Subway to Bring Boon to Upper East Side Neighborhood, April 13, 2016
• New York's First New Subway Station In 25 Years Opens Sunday, September 12, 2015
• A Fascinating View of New York, From 80 Feet Below, August 3, 2012