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New Yorkers have been waiting for a new subway line to open for almost a century. It became a reality on the last day of 2016. The first proposal for the second subway line was conceived in the 1920s.  Fund shortage and other logistical problems have delayed the project since then.

The long wait is now over, as Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo inaugurated the new line on December 31, 2016. The new subway line is under Manhattan’s Upper East Side, which is only a 2-mile segment. It runs along Second Avenue and adds three new stations at 72^nd, 86^th and 96^th Streets, with a new connection to 63^rd Street’s existing line.

Opening

The governor pushed to meet the New Year’s Day deadline for this long-delayed project. During the launching ceremony he commended the patience that generations of New Yorkers exercised in waiting for the new subway line to be finished.

A festive mood sent off the first train that left the East 96^th Street station at noon on December 31. The governor added that he hoped New Yorkers and other subway users would feel and remember all the time, the patience and the hard work that were spent to make the project a reality. An inaugural first ride for invited dignitaries was held 90 minutes before New Year’s Eve.

Early riders expressed their joy at the new subway line, saying that it makes it easier to see friends and their travel time becomes faster. This second line is expected to ease congestion at the biggest subway system in the country. It also ends the isolation of the East Side of New York. An estimated 200,000 riders are expected to use the line every day. It is now expected that the entire New York subway system will be able to carry 5.6 million users during an ordinary weekend. Normal operations started at noon on Sunday, January 1.

Delays

The transportation board of New York first planned the subway on Second Avenue in 1929, however their plan was derailed due to the Great Depression and the crash of the stock market. Ground breaking was finally done in 1972 but a fiscal crisis stopped the project anew. It was only in 2007 when major work on the tunnel started. Target date for the opening was 2013. Even construction noise was instrumental to the delay of the $4.4 billion projects. But now that’s its finally open, residents and local owners of businesses in the area are gleefully celebrating since the construction barricades, detoured traffic and the noise are finally gone. They can start doing good business again.

Future plans

The next phase of the expansion will see the subway go north toward East Harlem. This will extend the subway line for a total of 8.5 miles from the Harlem District to lower Manhattan’s Wall Street, if everything pushes through. Gov. Andrew Cuomo also has plans to renovate LaGuardia Airport, and replace the Tappan Zee Bridge that spans the Hudson River.