New Harlem Subway Line Could Run Along 125th Street, MTA Suggests

HARLEM, NY — The MTA will consider a transformative project that would extend the upcoming Second Avenue Subway even further by routing it west below 125th Street and then further uptown, the agency announced this week.

Planning is well underway for the next stage of the Second Avenue Subway's expansion, which will extend the Q line up to 125th Street in East Harlem and build three new stations along the way, before ending the tunnel below Lenox Avenue.

The decades-old project recently cleared a series of funding hurdles that could allow construction to start within a few years.

Now, the MTA is setting its sights even further. Documents released this week say that the agency will study extending the future subway line even further along West 125th Street, creating a crosstown line that would add between two and four more subway stations.

From there, the MTA laid out a few more possibilities: the new line could either terminate at Broadway and 125th Street, turn north below Broadway and connect with the 1 train at 137th Street, run uptown below Riverside Drive up to 137th Street, or head north under St. Nicholas Avenue and link up with the A-C-B lines at 135th Street.

Harlemites shouldn't hold their breath about the project beginning anytime soon. Instead, the MTA mentioned the 125th Street extension as one of two dozen projects that officials will evaluate as they consider how to upgrade the city's transit system over the next 20 years.

The two dozen proposals will be studied until October 2023, at which point the MTA can pick a few to receive funding starting in 2025. The chosen projects would then be built anytime between 2025 and 2044.

"This process documents which investments are needed to serve the region for the next generation," MTA officials wrote.

While the MTA has never before said that it would consider the 125th Street subway line, the idea is not brand-new.

The nonprofit Regional Plan Association floated a similar idea in 2008, dubbing it the "Second Avenue Subway 125th Street Crosstown Express."

New transfers to the 1, A, B, C and D trains would help connect neighborhoods that are now difficult to get between — such as Washington Heights and the Upper East Side, the Regional Plan Association wrote.

Also in 2008, the urban researcher Yonah Freemark made a similar proposal, saying a crosstown subway on 125th Street should take precedent over the current Phase 3 of the Second Avenue Subway — which calls for the Q line to be extended south to the Lower East Side.

Asked about the 125th Street proposal MTA spokesperson Aaron Donovan told Patch that "The cost and benefits of this project are being evaluated on a level playing field with the other projects listed and the results will help inform our planning efforts."

"While more than 80% of the MTA’s Capital Program is dedicated to projects that maintain existing infrastructure in a state of good repair, expansion projects can help meet new mobility needs and address transportation inequities," Donovan said.

Patch reporter Anna Quinn contributed.

Related coverage:

• 125th Street Building Seized By MTA For Second Avenue Subway
  
• Second Avenue Subway's Harlem Extension Clears Federal Hurdle
• Second Avenue Subway Extension Pushes Forward: See Underground
• 2nd Avenue Subway Extension Pushing On Into Harlem, MTA Says