Hudson Yards May Be Unprepared For Development Boom: Report

HUDSON YARDS, NY — No neighborhood in Manhattan resembles the city's building boom quite like Hudson Yards. What was once a desolate industrial space is now teeming with private development that has completely altered the city's western skyline over the past few years.

But with much of the redevelopment close to being completed one question remains: Is Hudson Yards ready for what it's about to become? A Curbed New York analysis reveals that the neighborhood may have trouble adapting to the tens of thousands of people who are about to be injected into the area, whether they're tourists, new residents or workers.

As usual when it comes to New York City, the subway system will determine whether Hudson Yards flops in its early stages, according to Curbed. The neighborhood is serviced by one crosstown subway line — the 7 train — which was only recently extended to the neighborhood in 2015.

"The 7 train is hardly equipped to handle its current ridership load, much less the increase in ridership the completion of Hudson Yards will inevitably bring," Hayley Richardson of TransitCenter told Curbed.

As many as 65,000 people are expected to visit Hudson Yards per day in the near future, Curbed reported. The 34th Street-Hudson Yards 7 train station saw an average of 10,000 swipes on a weekday in 2017, according to the report.

Those numbers don't add up.

While the Hudson Yards subway station can likely take on an additional capacity, the effects may result in stations along the line — even as far as Jackson Heights, Queens — being pushed to the limits, experts told Curbed.

One potential reason for hope is the Metropolitan Transit Authority's plan to roll out communications-based train control on the 7 line, Curbed reported. The 7 line will be the second to benefit from the new technology — first rolled out on the L line due to the North Brooklyn development boom — which allows trains to run more often, Curbed reported.

With the upgraded technology active on the 7 line, the Hudson Yards area could see adequate subway service for "several years at least," Christopher Jones of the Regional Plan Association told Curbed.

Read the full Curbed New York story here.

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