R32 Fan

That's still three long blocks away. That's farther than second ave people had to walk to get to Lex, and about equal to 1st ave walkers.

Already in use? As a tail track for the SAS? And how could that be a place for a Lex train?

Are you sure the tunnels are anywhere near "done" up to 120th Street, or just very small segments? And how many segments? If so much was done, the cost would certainly be lower, and the feasibility would be rated as better. Nobody even seems to mention the existing tunnel segments as a significant step towards phase two.

Anyway back on topic, I didn't make the SAS opening, I really thought I would, I mean I knew I would, but as it drew nearer and had the soft opening and everything, I decided not to go out of my way for it. While the HY opening was all about fanfare, this extension is much more about purpose, more utilitarian, it is needed now. HY might be a busy station in a decade, Lex Ave needed relief now. I really hope there's a push to keep it going, first to Harlem, but then to the south. It's a giant subway desert all the way down, at least for N/S service. And it's a very dense area. While it might change some of that yet quaint feel to the "little _" ethnic areas, it would be a busy line in it's own right. And hopefully with great signals/CBTC that could allow for very short headways. Under 2 minutes is possible with CBTC. I mean a minute is possible, but with large trains 90 seconds is sufficient for most cases.

Well, it depends on the time, too. The worst delays are when it's not from crowding, actually. One time it took 3 hours to get from Manhattan to the Rockaways on the A, it was late night on a weekend, so local service of course, but then there were multiple delays including a skipped station transfer to a bus to get around 80th Street, the first el/Queens station. All of this somehow took a long time, then for some reason the Shuttle took forever and somehow three hours had passed by the time I was exiting Beach 98 Street. There was a scared couple using the A to get to JFK, instead of taking the E. It took them at least two hours by the time they got there from wherever they came from. I told them it's not always like this, and that late night weekend is prime for long delays from work etc.

Yes, seeing Cuomo so tall and proud of the new line was awkward, including in a news interview when he said how old all our infrastructure is, how we're standing on the shoulders of yesterday's labor, etc. with rhetoric about "the last time we built an airport", when it seems the state is usually being pointed at for funding and capital plan issues. Albany has it tough, being in between a huge glorious world city, and a stagnant but not completely insignificant rest of the state, with small and medium cities that are mostly mediocre at best, and have a laundry list of their own different problems than NYC. It is a bit sad how exorbitantly expensive these new stations are, the $4 bn oculus station, which is great but still, HY, SAS, apparently costing more per unit length or station than even Paris and London projects? It's one thing to compare to China, who is building subways 100 miles at a time, and lapping others on HSR, but when it costs even more than the other two giant, just as westernized cities of Paris and London, there may be a point. And when you have groups that are staunchly opposed to technology such as CBTC or automation of any kind regardless of proven effectiveness, it takes a little bit of credibility away.

For the 7, it was definitely a novelty of fanboys and foamers, because ridership was very disappointing within a month. It seems like it was only a week later when reports of sad numbers starting coming in, blame has been placed on everything from HY being still UC to the highline extension being closed. I would like to see some summer 2016 weekday average numbers.

The higher speed between the far apart new stations impresses people because the fact is that the NYC Subway is one of the slowest overall heavy rail systems there is. They say the top speed is 55, and that is the top speed specified for most of the rolling stock at least. If feels fast sometimes because of the proximity of the walls in the narrow tunnels. Some heavy rail can or does hit 70, and legend has it BART could go 80. Some straightaway commuter style metros average more than double the subway, and actually hold there top speeds more than briefly and rarely. As far as relieving crowding on the Lex line, it's not just a matter of taking away Bronx downtown commuting, it's about taking away from the mass that's added to Bronx commuters as it passes the UES. The relief for commuters to the UES from all points south is more intuitive, but it helps everyone. Come on guys! 86, 96, 77, and 68 Hunters College are all top 50 ridership stations! Including 86, which ranked 10 in 2015! So while this may be the shortest of any of the MTA Second Avenue Line, it's the most independently crucial. Though there is a huge chunk of the LES and just the east side in general below midtown in need of N/S service, though the same could be said about the entire west side from Greenwich down to Battery Park City. I was surprised to see how low and for how long Hudson Yards ridership was, though I am looking for more recent figures, the official annual 2016 won't come out for a few months. I don't think this short SAS segment will suffer for ridership anything like 34/HY. The opening didn't seem as crazy as HY was, probably because it was so subdued by multiple factors from the soft opening to first (and unwrapped) train misinformation, to the fact that it wasn't the first station(s) in a quarter century.