Proposed New Jersey Extension
On November 16, 2010, The New York Times reported that Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration had been working on a plan to extend the 7 service across the Hudson River to Hoboken and continue to Secaucus Junction in New Jersey, where it would connect with most New Jersey Transit commuter lines. It would offer New Jersey commuters a direct route to Grand Central Terminal on the East Side of Manhattan and connections to most other New York City subway routes.
If opened, the extension would take the New York City Subway outside the state's borders for the first time. The plan would replace the Access to the Region's Core (ARC) tunnel, which was canceled by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in October 2010.
On February 2, 2011 the city's Economic Development Corporation voted to budget up to $250,000 for a feasibility study of a tunnel for the subway line extension awarded to Parsons Brinckerhoff, a major engineering firm that had been working on the ARC tunnel.
The New York Post has reported that the Flushing line extension will have a formal proposal made by Mayor Bloomberg around the end of 2012. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and the Port Authority are on record as supporting the plan, along with splitting the estimated US$10 billion cost if it is officially approved.
A subway extension would cost less than the ARC tunnel, as it would start at the planned station at Eleventh Avenue and go west, avoiding the expensive tunnel boring work east to Herald Square and the complex station deep underground there. But travel times into Manhattan might be longer than under the original ARC proposal, because riders would need to transfer to the subway from New Jersey Transit trains at Secaucus. And because NJT trains would continue to or from Penn Station, the key goal of reduced tunnel congestion would not be achieved. On the other hand, as Governor Christie said "It would actually connect us to the east side of Manhattan, like we always wanted to..." Bloomberg had yet to meet with New York Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo, and the project, which could require five additional years to develop, would not be automatically entitled to the federal funding allotted to the ARC tunnel.
Amtrak's February 2011 announcement of the Gateway Project includes a proposal to extend the 7 service three blocks east of Eleventh Avenue to New York Penn Station, instead of five miles west to Secaucus. Gateway, under auspices of Amtrak, would include a high-speed rail right-of way from Newark Penn Station to New York Penn and provide more capacity on New Jersey Transit rail operations. US Congress allocated $15 million for studies for the project in November 2011. It is likely the two projects, Gateway and the subway extension, will be in competition for funding.
In April 2012, citing budget considerations, the director of the MTA said that it was doubtful the extension would be built in the foreseeable future, suggesting that the Gateway Project was a much more likely solution to congestion at Hudson River crossings.
Read more about this topic: 7 Subway Extension
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