NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- Governor Kathy Hochul wants to push forward a $7.6 billion project to extend the Second Avenue subway westward along 125th Street in Harlem, potentially serving 240,000 daily riders.
The MTA, which operates New York City's mass-transit network, is expanding the Second Avenue subway, called the Q line, from 96th Street on the city's Upper East Side to 125th Street in East Harlem as part of the project's second phase. Hochul wants to begin initial tunneling work for the third phase, which would extend the Q train along 125th Street to Broadway.
"By continuing the tunnel boring machine's westward path beyond the Phase Two work, the MTA may be able to incur substantial time and cost savings, estimated at over $400 million, relative to performing that work at a later date," according to the proposal, which is part of Hochul's 181-page State of the State report released on Tuesday.
The expansion would add three Q stops along 125th Street in Harlem.MTA
Running the Q line along 125th Street, a major commercial thoroughfare and home to the famous Apollo Theater, would offer riders new stops at Lenox Avenue, St. Nicholas Avenue and Broadway. It would connect the Q to seven other subway lines and many bus routes, according to the report. The MTA in October included the project in its 20-year needs assessment, a wish list of infrastructure upgrades to modernize and expand the transit system.
The Democratic governor is also seeking to curb fare evasion on subways and buses and reduce the number of drivers who obscure license plates to avoid tolls. Skipping such payments cost the MTA $690 million in lost revenue in 2022. Hochul wants to boost monetary fines for license plate defacement, ban the sale of "vanish plates" that can avoid toll readers, and allow police to take plate covers, according to the report.
