What to Know
- The new Second Avenue subway line looks to address problems of congestion in the nation's largest subway system
- It got its first true test on Tuesday as businesses reopened after the New Year holiday
- The route is expected to carry about 200,000 riders daily along the city's notoriously packed Lexington Avenue lines
A couple days after it officially opened to the public, the Second Avenue subway got its first true test Tuesday: servicing thousands of commuters as they raced to work during the morning rush.
Thousands of people have already piled into the three new stations to take their first ride on the long-awaited line, but with the New Year holiday now over for most businesses, it was expected to be a lot busier Tuesday.
The nearly 2-mile segment adds stations along Second Avenue at 96th, 86th and 72nd streets and a new connection to an existing subway line at 63rd Street.
The new stations open at 6 a.m. and close at 10 p.m. There is currently limited service along the line. Full service begins on Monday, Jan. 9.
Early indications were of a smooth ride, commuters said. One woman described the transfer from the Q to the F at 63rd Street as being "as good as it gets." Other riders said the trip on the Q was perfect, but the F was too overcrowded once they reached 63rd Street.
Authorities have said the stations will help with crowding on the city's notoriously packed Lexington Avenue lines, which are almost always full during the morning and afternoon rush hour.
"The Lexington line is always super crowded," said Corey Moses, a commuter. "I actually work off of the 6, so just being able to have an extra line to get home and get to work faster is really great."
The line is expected to carry about 200,000 riders a day. The entire system transports about 5.6 million riders on an average weekday.
The first train left the station at East 96th Street at noon Monday after a speech by Gov. Cuomo, who pushed to meet a New Year's Day deadline for the long-delayed project.
Local
"I hope when you go down there you really feel how much hard work and time and patience it's taken to get to this point," Cuomo said. "It's incredible. This is not your grandfather's station."
The city's transportation board first envisioned a Second Avenue subway in 1929, but the stock market crash and the Great Depression derailed the plan.
Ground was broken in 1972, but a fiscal crisis in the city slammed the brakes on the project again. The project finally got into high gear when major tunneling work began in 2007.
The $4.4 billion section opening was initially supposed to be completed in 2013. Delays stemmed partly from concerns about construction noise.
Next, the line is slated to expand north into East Harlem. No date has been set for starting that phase of construction.
