Hochul Promises Crosstown Harlem Train With 2nd Ave Expansion

HARLEM, NY — After the Second Avenue Subway head north, conductors should set course for the Hudson.

The MTA will look into extending the Q line west along 125th Street — with three new stops at Lenox Avenue, St. Nicholas Avenue and Broadway — to make it serve as a crosstown rail connection, officials said.

This first Uptown crosstown line was announced on Tuesday as part of Gov. Kathy Hochul's State of the State address, though MTA officials first pondered the westward turn months back.

"An extended Second Avenue Subway – West line would pass through East Harlem, Central Harlem, and Manhattanville along the busy commercial corridor of 125th Street and would create a true east-west subway connection in Upper Manhattan," the State of the State book — a massive companion book to Hochul's speech — reads.

The first step, the book reads, is a feasibility study, which Hochul said the MTA would conduct concurrently with the currently in-progress Phase Two operations, which would extend the existing Second Avenue Q line beyong East 96th Street and up to 125th Street.

According to the Governor's office, the idea is that if they can get all their ducks in a row ahead of time — meaning various studies, evironemntal and engineering reviews and other work — all the tunneling equipment and workers for Phase Two could just keep on trucking towards Broadway instead of stopping and picking up the work at a later date, which could save at least $400,000.

Shovels have yet to hit the dirt for Phase Two, but in November, federal officials announced that they would be kicking in $3.4 billion for the project, with $4.3 billion from the MTA for a staggering total of $7.7 billion.

The Governor's office says that the crosstown 125th Street line could serve up to 240,000 daily riders, and would help create connections between the 1, 2, 3, A, B, C, and D subway lines.