The 34 Street-Hudson Yards stop officially began transporting passengers at 1pm today, making it the first new subway station in New York City since 1989. It's great that the west side of the city near 11th Avenue and 34th Street that's always usually been desolate of public transportation is now so easily accessible. Instead of having to take a cab or walk long avenue blocks, getting to the Far West Side or the Jacob Javits Center is just a quick subway ride away.
Growing up in Flushing, the 7 Train has always been northeastern Queens' public transportation lifeline into Manhattan and the entire city. Up until today, the first stop of the 7 Train had been Times Square and the last stop was Flushing Main Street. The line isn't long compared to so many other subways, but the back-and-forth shuttling between the two end points were always convenient in getting me to where I needed to go. Plus there are a multitude of stops between Times Square and Flushing Main Street to transfer and get to anywhere within the 5 boroughs. However, now the last stop of the 7 Train is no longer Times Square, but one additional stop west to the 34 Street-Hudson Yards station. I think the line extension is truly a great thing for the city, but waiting today at the Times Square platform to check it out for the first time had me feeling nostalgic.
I basically used to take the 7 Train everyday starting from college to the time when I moved out of my house in Flushing. Since I could get on at Flushing Main Street and take it straight to the last stop of Times Square in order to transfer to another line (and vice-versa when going home), my commute gave me ample time to get stuff done. Napping the entire train ride was always great because I never had to worry about missing my stop. I could just grab a seat while the train sat at Flushing Main Street to depart, and then open my eyes to find myself at the Times Square station. The commute also allowed me to get tons of reading done, whether it was for school or any personal stuff. Sometimes I actually miss having a long continuous subway ride to work for this reason. Of course with the 7 Train being mostly on an elevated track through Queens, staring out the window was always a favorite thing to do as well.
The actual new 34 Street-Hudson Yards station I visited today is quite beautiful and modern. It even had this new-car smell which I'm sure will soon dissipate and be replaced with urine as the station undergoes its very first of infinite Monday morning commutes tomorrow. Another thing I really loved was the escalator ride from the subway platform up to the level of turnstiles, which was extremely long but so cool because the angle at which it went up seemed steeper than usual and gave me a little vertigo.
Below are some pictures of the station I took today. After I rode the 7 Train from Times Square to 34 Street-Hudson Yards, I walked around the area to check out the exterior of the station and the Hudson Yards surrounding it. There's even some new parks that have been built in the area with water fountains and sitting areas that have large Jenga-like blocks for people to play with.
One funny thing to note though is that as I finished walking around Hudson Yards and entered the new station to head back, one of the escalators had already malfunctioned and was quickly being repaired. Even with the $2.4 billion price tag and today being its opening day, this is still the subway in New York City and shit always happens.
thanks for the tour. I'll to visit this week..while it's in semi-pristine condition.
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