Second Avenue SubwayNewsletter

Issue XLVI – January/February 2017

96th Street Station Area

SAS Phase 1 Opening CoverageHappy New Year! Second Avenue Subway Opens for Service on New Year’s Day

By Suzan Clarke, MTAHQ

At last.

The Second Avenue Subway, which has been described as “the most famous thing that’s never been built in New York City,” opened for revenue service at Sunday, January 1st to throngs of eager New Yorkers.

A few hours earlier -- on New Year’s Eve -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo, MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast and hundreds of guests took a celebratory inaugural ride on the line.

Riders cheered when the first trains rolled out of the station, and they oohed and aahed with delight when they stopped to tour the stations at 86th and 96th streets before heading back to 72nd street to ring in 2017.

Continued on reverse side

96th Street Station

A Note from the SAS Community Outreach Team

After many years of hard work, unexpected challenges, and disruption, the Second Avenue Subway opened to the public on Sunday, January 1st 2017 - the first new subway line opened in decades - with Q train service starting in both directions at noon.

It couldn’t have been done without the support of the Upper East Side community.

Early in the project, MTACC made a commitment to expand outreach and involve the community. During Phase 1, we welcomed nearly 25,000 visitors to our Community Information Center, gave over 80 tours of the caverns, and educated thousands of New York City school children. We brought the excitement of the project up to the surface with street fairs, and met with many of you at Construction Advisory Committee meetings, workshops, and community board meetings.

Thank you for taking such an interest in, interacting with, and being ardent supporters of this monumental undertaking. Although the subway is running, there is still work to be done. We will maintain a presence at our Community Information Center into the spring as we complete the final street level work. Outreach staff will continue to make themselves available to answer your questions. MTACC has committed to robust community outreach in all phases of the project, and will open a new community center in East Harlem for Phase 2 later this year. We invite you to visit us there when it opens.

We hope that all of you have had the opportunity to visit the new stations, enjoy the incredible art and architecture, and ride the Q to many of the destinations you now have direct access to.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast and hundreds of guests take a celebratory inaugural ride on New Year’s Eve. (Photo courtesy of the Governor’s Office.)

96th Street Station Area – January/February 2017Second Avenue Subway Newsletter

Follow the SAS project on the MTA website at http://mta.info/sas

CIC HOURS of OPERATION

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Tuesday, Thursday: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Saturday: 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. (second Saturday of the month)

Construction Update

Although the the subway is operational, there is still work to be done. The

following “punch list” items will be completed over the next few months:

• Flood mitigation grates at 104th St.• Restoration of stoops, awnings, and bollards• Tree guards• Final street restoration punch list items

The governor said the on-time completion of the line – the first major expansion of the subway system in nearly 50 years – was a testament to the quintessential New York spirit. “We needed to get this done on deadline because we’re New York and when we set the deadline, we’re going to get it done,” he told the crowd. “We needed to show people that government works and we can still do big things and great things and we can still get them done.”

Prendergast thanked everyone who had helped bring the project to completion.

In the days leading up to the inaugural ride crews worked feverishly to have the stations gleaming in time for their big debut. The new stations have been praised for their unique original art installations by world-class artists Chuck Close, Vik Muniz, Jean Shin and Sarah Sze.

Upper East Sider Jordan Wouk has ridden the subway for 70 years. He’s thrilled to finally see the Second Avenue Subway made reality.

“I remember the Third Avenue El. It took a while, but what we have now is so much better,” Wouk told MTA. “Now I can imagine how excited New Yorkers must have been when the first subway opened in 1904. The Second Avenue Subway is a remarkable accomplishment.”

Second Avenue Subway Opens continued from front page

Second Avenue businesses and residents were featured as part of an ad campaign thanking the community and highlighting the benefits that the Second Avenue Subway will bring to the Upper East Side and all New Yorkers who are connected by the Q line. Thirty different ads will run in trains along the Q line, through the end of February.

Second Avenue Faces Featured in Ad Campaign

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Station Photos

86th Street 72nd Street

63rd Street/Lexington Av