Feds Announce $3.4 Billion For Second Ave Subway Extension

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The long-delayed project to extend the Second Avenue Subway line to 125th Street just got a big boost from the federal government, a signal that the second phase may finally get underway.

The $3.4 billion grant from the federal government is the exact amount that New York lawmakers has said they needed in order to get going on the Second Avenue line's uptown expansion.

The second phase of the line is projected to cost $7.7 billion total and will connect the Q train through East Harlem, with stations at 106th, 116th and 125th streets.

“Every dollar we need to build this is now here,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said at Saturday's press conference in Harlem, where he was joined by an array of elected officials and union representatives.

"If you build it, they will ride," Schumer said.

Also present were Gov. Kathy Hochul and Transportation Secretary — who begged Rep. Adriano Espaillat to stop calling them about the project — Rep. Jerry Nadler and former Harlem Congressman Charlie Rangel.

“I know it was a long, long, long time coming, but here we are,” Buttigieg said. “There has been such passion about this in a community that has been promised a subway line since the old elevated line was pulled down 80 years ago.”

Espaillat said that East Harlem is full of resident who rely on public transportation and many are essential workers, and that "they deserve this project."

"This is going to be uptown's Grand Central," Espaillat said, pointing to the future site of the 125th Street station on Lexington Avenue. "It will connect East Harlem to the rest of the world."

The Second Avenue line has long been criticized for its high price tag, especially when compared to similar projects overseas, at over $4.2 billion per mile.

Buttigieg acknowledged on Saturday that spiraling prices for public works projects is a major problem facing the nation, but also that "on a per-passenger basis, it can actually be less expensive than a lot of other projects,” he said, according to Gothamist.

Just a week ago, Schumer and Espaillat announced a new full funding agreement from the Federal Transit Administration, of which the grant is a part of, meant to help move transit construction projects forward across the nation.

East Harlem has been a transit desert for decades ever since the demolition of the elevated train lines on both Second and Third Avenues over 60 years ago.

Schumer said that 300,000 people in the East Harlem transit desert will benefit from the project.

"The Second Avenue subway will have more daily riders that the entire Philadelphia and San Francisco bay transit systems combined," he said.

Rangel, 93, said it was "so crushing" for East Harlem to learn that the first phase of the Second Avenue subway would end at 96th Street.

"But fortunately, East Harlem will have an opportunity now to participate in the work and dreams of New Yorkers and all Americans," Rangel said.