NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- Governor Kathy Hochul plans to modernize a major commuter-rail station in Queens serving JFK Airport while also advancing a $7.6 billion subway extension along Harlem’s 125th Street.
Hochul is expected to highlight the public transit projects Tuesday during her annual State of the State speech, according to a press release detailing the projects.
The Jamaica station — the fourth-busiest in North America serving more than 1,000 trains and about 200,000 passengers every weekday — connects the Long Island Rail Road, three New York City subway lines and the AirTrain to JFK Airport. Hochul will direct $50 million for a design proposal to improve traffic flow, decrease crowding and better connect commuters and travelers between the different rail lines, according to the statement.
The governor is also seeking to move forward with a plan to extend the Second Avenue subway westward across 125th Street, an active commercial thoroughfare in Harlem. Construction is ongoing to lengthen the Second Avenue subway on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, called the Q-train, from 96th Street to 125th Street and build three new stations. Hochul wants the Q-train to continue along 125th Street and will begin preliminary engineering and design work to continue tunneling across that major roadway, heading west to Broadway.
The project will allow the Q-train to connect to several different subway lines stopping at 125th Street. It would serve 240,000 daily riders and cut travel times by as much as 30 minutes per week, on average, according to the governor.
“Jamaica Station is a critical gateway for commuters on Long Island and travelers from around the world, but it has lacked investment for decades — not anymore,” Hochul said in a statement. “Our plan will create a state-of-the-art transit hub in southeast Queens that riders will use for generations to come and our efforts to extend the Second Avenue subway will save hundreds of millions of dollars in future costs and reduce time — big wins for the 240,000 daily riders projected to benefit.”
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