{"id":522160,"date":"2026-01-17T06:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T06:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/522160\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T06:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T06:38:14","slug":"hochuls-flashy-second-ave-subway-plan-uses-the-mta-as-shiny-object","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/522160\/","title":{"rendered":"Hochul’s flashy Second Ave. Subway plan uses the MTA as shiny object"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York\u2019s subways would be in far better shape if governors didn\u2019t milk them for happy headlines; Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s new Second Avenue scheme is only the latest example.<\/p>\n

Hochul announced Tuesday that she\u2019s told the agency to shelve its century-old plan to stretch the Q line further into Lower Manhattan, and instead move forward on extending it west along 125th Street to Broadway.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s big, it\u2019s flashy, and it promises much-needed service to a transit-dry area of Upper Manhattan \u2014 great fodder for the gov\u2019s re-election bid.<\/p>\n

No matter that it\u2019ll cost the budget-challenged MTA a cool $8.1 billion (and probably a lot more; New York public megaprojects always go far overbudget), and can\u2019t even start for another six years at least, since that\u2019s the soonest the agency will finish extending the Q from 96th Street to 125th<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hochul, that is, will be long gone from office long before reality can bite in. <\/p>\n

Left holding the bag will be some future gov, or MTA leader \u2014 or, actually, future straphangers.<\/p>\n

One epic example of how badly political meddling can impact commuters: Gov. Andrew Cuomo\u2019s manic push for the first Second Avenue extension to finish by Jan. 1, 2017, so he could take a New Year\u2019s Day victory ride on the new line<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That diversion of key resources was a direct cause of the Summer of Hell that followed<\/a>, with massive failures on multiple lines thanks to deferred-but-vital maintenance.<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, some work still needs finishing on that first leg: Late last month, the MTA put out a Request For Proposals for contractors to complete key infrastructure work on the now-not-so-new stations, along with safety measures like emergency exit lights.<\/p>\n

Promising bold public projects is a fine way for politician to look good \u2014 any and all problems that follow, even multibillion-dollar ones, can be blamed on the bureaucrats, if the pol is even still around when the piper comes to call.<\/p>\n

Plus, even the most egregious cost overruns seem to disappear into the MTA\u2019s mammoth budget.<\/p>\n

Yet New Yorkers most of all just want a safe transit system that works reliably to get them from Point A to Point B on time and without being stabbed, shoved or otherwise molested.<\/p>\n

Oh, for a governor who\u2019ll thunderously vow to deliver that. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s subways would be in far better shape if governors didn\u2019t milk them for happy headlines; Gov.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":522161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,4691,5371,9904,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,31145,1269,93928,28714,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-522160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-editorial","10":"tag-kathy-hochul","11":"tag-mta","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-nyc-transit","19":"tag-opinion","20":"tag-second-avenue-subway","21":"tag-subway","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115909066986070660","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}