UPDATE: 7 Train Extension Opening Delayed Yet Again
The long-awaited $2.4 billion extension that is set to connect Manhattan’s far west side and Hudson Yards development with the No. 7 line has been delayed again, transit officials said.
The opening of a station at 34th Street and 11th Avenue is now expected to open between April and June, according to the MTA. The station had been slated to open on Feb. 24.
The MTA blames the delay on an inability to get funicular escalators, which would ferry straphangers between the surface and the platform 11 stories below ground.
Construction crews began working on the extension, which only includes one additional stop on the Queens-to-Manhattan, line, in 2007. Then-Mayor Bloomberg took a ceremonial first ride to the new station from Times Square in December of 2013, calling the extension “something we should all be proud of.”
Originally, Bloomberg had hoped that the subway would lead to a sports stadium that would host the 2012 summer Olympics. That arena was never built and the games were awarded to London, but the mayor's fallback vision for the site, dubbed Hudson Yards, is taking shape now.
About 14 million square feet of office buildings, apartment towers and hotels are planned or under construction in an area once dominated by a rail yard, blocks of industrial buildings and an isolated convention center. Close to 9,000 apartments are expected to be built in the next five years. Officials said 40,000 to 50,000 people may ultimately work in the new buildings.
Local
The station will also sit near the northern terminus of the High Line, a former elevated rail line that is now a public park, and which has become a popular tourist destination.
