AMNY reports that Governor Andrew Cuomo will be spending his New Year’s Eve underground. He’ll be taking a celebratory ride uptown Saturday night on the new Second Avenue subway extension, ahead of the line’s public opening on New Year’s Day.
“I am proud to ring in the New Year on the Second Avenue subway and welcome a new era in New York where there is no challenge too great, no project too grand and all is possible,” Cuomo announced in a statement on Monday.
Cuomo will be joined by MTA Chairman Tom Prendergast and other invited guests. The event will be hosted by a collection of organizations, from construction workers’ unions to art institutions and urban planning nonprofits, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park Conservancy and the Regional Plan Association.
Mayor Bill de Blasio will also be in attendance, according to mayoral spokesman Eric Phillips.
Commuters were given their first glimpse of the Second Avenue line on Thursday and Friday of last week, when the MTA held “open houses” at the 96th Street station. The riding public will actually be able to catch a train at the three new stations after around noon on Jan. 1, 2017, when the first Q train is routed up Second Avenue.
The line is nearly a century in the making. In recent weeks, construction has continued around the clock in order to open the line by the ball drop.
The MTA expects the extension to serve 200,000 daily riders.
Photo credit: While the Second Avenue subway will open to the public on New Year’s Day, Governor Andrew Cuomo and other elected officials will take an inaugural ride on New Year’s Eve. Above, Cuomo leads a media tour of the 86th Street station on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2016. (Credit: Charles Eckert)
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