Second Avenue Subway Setback

It should come as no surprise that the MTA has once again announced that the completion of the first phase to the new Second Avenue Subway is being pushed back to 2016 or 2017 (depending on how optimistic you want to be).

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has finished an in-depth analysis of the work schedule, budget and potential hurdles for the long-awaited addition to the system, sources told the News.

The conclusion: the official completion date for phase one of the project should be pushed from June 2015 to December 2016, with possible future delays placing the opening in the summer of 2017, the sources said.

And, the Long Island Rail Road's extension to Grand Central Terminal - most recently set to be finished in February 2015 - is now expected to be ready for use in September 2016, according to sources familiar with the analysis.

These are two of the three major MTA capital improvement projects underway (the third is the Fulton Street Transit hub). All are in a state of delay, and all are over budget.

Mind you that the Second Avenue subway line was supposed to reach from Harlem all the way to Lower Manhattan, but this first phase only goes as far as 96th Street and connects with the Q line at 63rd Street. The full run of the line isn't going to be built for more than a decade, if at all.