New York City Transit has started training its employees to operate trains over the soon-to-open 7 Line extension.
But, some officials in New York are blasting the transit agency for repeated delays in the completion of the one-mile extension.
When completed, the 7 Line will extend from its current terminus at Times Square to a new 34 St-Hudson Yards station at 34th Street and 11th Avenue in the far West Side . The extension is nearly eight years in the making.
“The plan was June 2014. That was delayed, to early fall of 2014 — that was delayed,” the New York Post quoted Councilman Corey Johnson as saying yesterday. “It’s now June 1.”
Then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other officials in December 2013 took the first ride on the 7 line extension, six years after workers started construction. But, trouble with elevators at the new station and the safety system on the new section of track has resulted in delays, the New York Post reported.
“We are in the final 50-yard sprint of this project,” MTA Capital Construction Co. President Michael Horodniceanu said in a news release. “We expect to announce an opening date in the next several weeks.”
The last city-funded subway extension dates to December 1950, according to the MTA. Then, the Queens Boulevard line was extended to Jamaica-179th Street.
“Providing this training for our subway personnel is one of the last steps toward opening the 7 Line Extension for revenue service,” MTA New York City Transit President Carmen Bianco said in a news release. “The 7 Line Extension will open up the far West Side to mass transit for the first time, and the new station and additional tail tracks for train storage will also improve service for customers using the line in Queens and Manhattan.”
