# GOVERNOR CUOMO ANNOUNCES ON-TIME OPENING OF SECOND AVENUE SUBWAYInaugural Ride on New Year’s Eve; Revenue Service Begins at Noon on January 1
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 confi
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.
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.
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.
