Second Avenue Subway & 7 Train Extension Milestones
New NYC subway stations hit milestones: should it affect your Manhattan rental apartment decision now?
Two of NYC’s biggest subway projects (the Second Avenue Subway, and the 7 train extension) hit major milestones last week, and both will absolutely change the way you’ll look at certain Manhattan rental apartment options in the future. The only question: should these additions to the city’s infrastructure be part of your thinking in your search for a NY apartment today?
Well… probably not, unless you know for a fact you’ll be living in your next apartment for at least, say, five years. But it is big news for residents of Upper East Side rental apartments as well as northwestern Chelsea and southwestern Hell’s Kitchen & Clinton rental apartments.
The first bit of news is actually two bits of news, both concerning the fabled Second Avenue Subway, or the T train. The Second Avenue Subway has been in the planning stages since, *cough*, 1929, and when it’s finished it will be New York City’s first new subway line in 70 years, but last week the MTA announced that the tunneling part of the project was, for now, done. That’s right, those monster tunneling machines have completed their journey from 96th Street all the way down to the 63rd Street, southward of which the T will share tracks with the Q train.
Actually, technically, the Second Avenue Subway is really just going to be the Q extended uptown for now, but the MTA’s plan is eventually to extend the T all the way downtown. Anyway, now that the tunnel’s finished, all the MTA has to do is lay the tracks and build the stations, the first of which, at 86th Street, is getting started right away, as a $301 million excavation contract was awarded to Skanska USA and Traylor Bros Inc.
If you live in an Upper East Side apartment near 86th Street and Second Avenue, expect the noise and dust to continue. But five years from, in 2016, if all goes according to plan, you’ll be living just steps away from a brand spanking-new subway station that’ll get you to midtown in minutes.
In other public transportation news affecting Manhattan apartment seekers: the MTA also announced last week that work will begin immediately on the 7 train extension, from Times Square (the line’s current western terminus) to 34th Street and 11th Avenue.
When complete–the tunnel is already done, so the schedule’s December 2013 timeframe seems doable–the 7 train extension will be a huge boon for residents of northwestern Chelsea, and southwestern Hell’s Kitchen & Clinton, who currently have a looooong walk (especially in the rain… or the heat… or the freezingness…) to the A train on 8th Avenue.
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