Second Ave. Sagas

Photo of the Day: Inside the 7 line extension

Written by

Benjamin Kabak

in

Progress of station cavern construction for No. 7 Extension as of April 2011. Photo by Clayton Price for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

As progress underneath the Far West Side proceeds apace, the MTA sent its photographer Clayton Price underground to snap some photos of the 7 line extension. The photos focus on the excavation of a three-block-long station cavern at 34th St. and 11th Ave. that is 85 percent finished and on target for a September 2012 completion date.

As the extension stretches toward its December 2013 revenue service date, the MTA’s contractors have completed the concrete pours that create the main cavern arches. A systems contract, which will cover rail track, all mechanical, electrical and related systems throughout the tunnels, station, ventilation buildings and the main subway entrance at 34th Street, will be awarded this July. This is the final contract for 7 line extension as the secondary station entrance is, in the words of the MTA, “not necessary” for the 7 to start serving the Hudson Yards area.

Unfortunately, the station at 41st and 10th Ave. seems to be a lost cause right now. It’s no longer part of the dialogue and attempts to secure funding for a feasibility study failed. While this one-stop, $2.1-billion extension will bring subway service to an area of the city badly in need of it, failing to include that other station near Hell’s Kitchen will go down in city history as yet another missed transit opportunity.

For more photos from the station cavern, check out the MTA’s flickr photoset.

Comments

29 responses to “Photo of the Day: Inside the 7 line extension”

  1. Clarke

    The MTA should offer bi-monthly Transit Museum tours here and at 2nd Avenue for $20 a pop. Get a little extra funding going on, as well as offering a public a peak at the future of their transit system.

    (Additionally. adding the 2nd Ave and 7ext. lines in dashed, or faded lines on the Map would also pique the public’s interest, allowing the MTA to overtly announce “Yes, we are doing SOMEthing”)

    Reply
    1. BBnet3000

      They should definitely add these segments that are under construction to the map as such. Hell, BART added dashed segments to its map when they were in the earliest stages of conception.

      This could just be a railfan talking but i think it helps keep people aware, as you said, that the system is expanding. In BARTs case you can also see that its expanding in all the wrong places…

      Reply
      1. SEAN

        This could just be a railfan talking but i think it helps keep people aware, as you said, that the system is expanding. In BARTs case you can also see that its expanding in all the wrong places…

        Forgive me, canyou give a little more detail reguarding your last statement on BART being expanded in the wrong places.

        Thanks.

        Reply
        1. Alon Levy

          BART to San Jose and Livermore are extremely low-performing extensions. They go out to auto-dominated suburbs, and most of the TOD is built at automobile scale. San Jose may be the largest municipality in the Bay Area, but it’s basically one giant suburb, and its downtown is a sea of parking lots.

          Moreover, the costs are very high, especially for lines that don’t cross under any important infrastructure. The cost per km of the BART to San Jose tunnel is about the same as that of vastly more complex infill projects in Tokyo and London, themselves high-cost cities.

          Reply
    2. al

      The TIF for the West side will eventually yield some funds for the 10th Ave station. It will come more quickly if Bloomberg Admin and the Real Estate Industry can come to an agreement on an additional TIF zone for that area. Further down the line, a 23rd St station might be possible if a TIF zone can be established within 1/2 mile of that station.

      Reply
      1. Alon Levy

        You’re making the wrong assumption that Bloomberg gives a crap about a 10th Avenue station.

        Reply
        1. al

          It will come more quickly if Bloomberg Admin and the Real Estate Industry can come to an agreement on an additional TIF zone for that area.

          The key word here is IF.

          Reply
      2. Bruce

        “Further down the line” already exists. The tunnels go all they way down to 25th Street. Why doesn’t the MTA consider building a station there (aside from not having enough money of course)?

        Reply
        1. Benjamin Kabak

          That’s a pretty significant aside.

          Reply
          1. al

            $200-350 million aside

            Reply
        2. Bolwerk

          For now, anyway, they plan to use it for storage.

          Reply
    3. Mark L

      I like the idea, but it would probably just confuse tourists who have a hard enough time reading the map with only existing lines.

      Reply
  2. AlexB

    It is a good idea to indicate phase one of the second ave subway and the 7 extension as dashed lines.

    It’s kind of amazing that we’re getting a new station in a couple years. Not counting the air trains, when’s the last time we got a real new station? (South Ferry doesn’t count)

    Reply
    1. Alon Levy

      1989.

      But in 2001 the subway got a new connection between the 63rd Street tunnel and the QB line.

      Reply
      1. Jerrold

        Do you mean the three new stations of the then “subway to nowhere” (63rd St. line)?

        If NOT, what station was it?

        Reply
        1. Jerrold

          I clicked too soon on the button.
          The complete sentence was supposed to be:

          If NOT, what station was it that opened in 1989?

          Reply
        2. Alon Levy

          Yes, I meant the subway to nowhere. Shortly before then, in 1988, there was also the Archer Avenue Line.

          Reply
  3. Frank B.

    Want to talk about bloody missed transit opportunity?

    How about how they extended this 7 train in the WRONG DIRECTION!

    East Queens is so starved for transit; Flushing-Main Street is the most used Non-Complex station in the entire system, and it’s an IRT train that’s packed to the gills 24-7.

    Adding a damn station or two towards Whitestone or Bayside would have been nice. Instead of helping people who take a mile-long bus trip, they helped those “poor souls” who had to walk three avenues west to get to Javitts Center. Boo-hoo.

    Reply
    1. Moya

      I agree on your point concerning that particular area of Queens. Extending the 7 regardless of where from Flushing-Main could have/will be a great project with many over arching boons.

      One thing to remember with the station we’re building now is its original intent. This was not just a station to nowhere for lazy walkers but was once considered a selling point to a new stadium with once Olympic hosting dreams. Even with that ship having long sailed and the current project cut back bare minimum, this station still represents groundwork for future development in the FWS. Also hopeful due to this project is the possible extension/station construction near Chelsea. For the NYC Subway: Any progress is a good progress these days.

      Reply
    2. Scott E

      I agree it would be nice, but that would just take a crowded section of the train and make it even more crowded. Most passengers taking the “extension” to Javits are unlikely to add to the crowding between Flushing and Queensboro Plaza.

      Besides, the LIRR once went to Whitestone and still goes to Bayside. It would have been nice if the Whitestone Branch weren’t deactivated or if it were transferred to the IND as once discussed (and I assume subsequent development means it can’t be re-activated anymore).

      Reply
      1. petey

        “(and I assume subsequent development means it can’t be re-activated anymore).”

        the roadbed is quite built over by now, it would be impossible.

        Reply
      2. Alon Levy

        The capacity limit on the 7 comes from the terminal at Main Street, so moving the terminal east could increase capacity.

        Besides, if the 7 goes to College Point and leaves Bayside for the LIRR, it would generate reverse-peak trips to the shopping center and, since people going to Manhattan already take buses to the subway, not too many more peak-direction trips.

        Reply
    3. Bolwerk

      Oh, hell, for the most part, I kind of suspect the SAS represents a similar missed opportunity. It’ll be nice not having to go all the way to Lex to get from Second Avenue and 86th, but plenty of theoretical outer borough feeders into Midtown would probably have been significantly cheaper and much more helpful for more people. Those people just happen to be poorer and browner than the typical Second Avenue resident.

      The current SAS design isn’t even going to have the upside of being a solid trunk line, if ever it does get extended out of Manhattan.

      Reply
      1. al

        Yes, like a link between LIRR Atlantic line and the R train in Downtown Bklyn to Southeast Queens or G to Sunnyside Yards to Port Washington Branch (restoring Broadway Station) to Main St (double deck the station). How much would they cost?

        Reply
      2. Alon Levy

        There are legitimate reasons for SAS – the Lex is at capacity, the UES is the densest neighborhood in the city, and Phase 1 will provide an underrated connection from the East Side to the West Side. The projected ridership is very high – 40,000/km for the full line (67,000 for Phase 1), vs. 15,000 for NYCT today – to the point that Phase 1’s cost per rider isn’t too high, and would be rock-bottom if the cost per km were normal.

        I’d exclude all commuter rail projects from this discussion, since their costs and benefits depend entirely on the MTA’s getting waivers from the FRA. For subway extensions, I think the most important projects next to SAS are Triboro and Utica-south-of-Eastern-Parkway.

        Reply
        1. Bolwerk

          Yeah, it would make a lot of sense with costs that were still in the 21st century. I don’t know how much SAS will help the Lex’s capacity as long as a huge core of Lex riders want to get right to 42nd and Lex or thereabouts. More to the point, it will mostly help wealthy Manhattanites avoid the still-crowded Lex, until SAS actually does go into Brooklyn or The Bronx.

          Reply
  4. Mark L

    Looking forward to taking the 7 train to NYC Comic-Con in 2014!

    Expect to see a lot of stormtroopers and X-Men in this new station one weekend each year.

    Reply
  5. BBnet3000

    Some of the outer borough subway issues mentioned here could and should be mitigated by LIRR providing proper urban service. Ultimately their riders would get used to it since it would probably lower their cost.

    Reply
  6. Maybe coming soonish: Development at Hudson Yards :: Second Ave. Sagas

    […] the project is, as we learned recently, moving forward. Just last week, the MTA unveiled photos from inside the station cavern, and the authority has […]

    Reply

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