The Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City says that the official opening of the new Second Avenue subway will be on January 1, 2017. Actually, what is opening is the first segment of the line which adds only three stations on the avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Eventually, the line is supposed to run the entire length of the island.
This should be and actually is good news. There are, however, things that one needs to keep in mind when it comes to this subway. First of all, construction on this segment began in 2007. That means it took almost ten years to complete what was supposed to be a four year project. Second, planning for the line began in 1929. That's not a typo; planning began almost 80 years ago. It was interrupted by the Depression, resumed in the 1960s with actual construction commencing in the 1970s, stopped in the 1976 when New York's financial crisis hit, and resumed again about 20 years ago. Then there's the comparison to subway lines elsewhere. In Beijing, the Chinese built a line with 18 stations that traverses the entire city in three years and at a cost roughly one-third as much as this new stub line in New York that took ten years.
Now that the line is opening, it would be a good thing for the MTA to step back and examine the entire process to determine how future construction can be made speedier and much less expensive. Maybe they could call the report "Making subway construction great again."
This should be and actually is good news. There are, however, things that one needs to keep in mind when it comes to this subway. First of all, construction on this segment began in 2007. That means it took almost ten years to complete what was supposed to be a four year project. Second, planning for the line began in 1929. That's not a typo; planning began almost 80 years ago. It was interrupted by the Depression, resumed in the 1960s with actual construction commencing in the 1970s, stopped in the 1976 when New York's financial crisis hit, and resumed again about 20 years ago. Then there's the comparison to subway lines elsewhere. In Beijing, the Chinese built a line with 18 stations that traverses the entire city in three years and at a cost roughly one-third as much as this new stub line in New York that took ten years.
Now that the line is opening, it would be a good thing for the MTA to step back and examine the entire process to determine how future construction can be made speedier and much less expensive. Maybe they could call the report "Making subway construction great again."
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