Governor Kathy Hochul announced the opening of a new staircase and passageway designed to ease congestion along the Flushing Line platform. This development, as reported by the governor's office, is part of the Grand Central-42 Street Circulations Improvement Project aiming to enhance the flow of the 480,000 daily riders on the 7 train line.
In addition to building a new staircase, the project to more swiftly facilitate customer movement widened the existing staircases by 25 percent, connecting the Lexington Passageway to the existing passageway. "New York is home to an incredibly advanced and innovative transit system — and we're always looking to push the bounds even further," Governor Hochul told the press. Moreover, crews were to diligently maintain the current infrastructure, focusing on concrete, steel, and paint defects, while also upgrading fire alarms and other essential utilities, as noted by the Governor's Press Office.
The work initiated created over 250 jobs and utilized weekend outages along the 7 line to strategically minimize the impact on regular riders. MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber expressed pride in surpassing physical and bureaucratic barriers, saying, “A thousand tons of dirt and 140 feet of Manhattan Schist couldn’t get in the way of another on-time and under-budget MTA capital project. We are blasting through bedrock and red tape to deliver more for New Yorkers, no matter what’s happening in Washington.” The initiative represents an on-going commitment to the city's transportation infrastructure, highlighted by the East Midtown Rezoning that permitted property rent revenues to be funneled into these critical transit improvements, as mentioned on the governor's office website.
As part of the station's facelift, already funded at $74.2 million, the MTA didn't just stop at structural enhancements. The platform's artwork received a freshening up, with the "V-Beam" sculpture by Christopher Sproat being cleaned and re-lit, adapting to accommodate new stair configurations. "Rather than make an artistic or decorative statement and add it to the station so that the viewer knows 'this is art,' I chose to make the entire space exuberant and unique," Sproat explained, according to the project's details reported by the Governor's Press Office.
Expect further updates to the Grand Central-42 Street hub later in the year, including new escalators, a revamped fare control area, enhanced signage, and full ADA compliance at the 42 St-Bryant Park BDFM station. Fred Cerullo, President and CEO of the Grand Central Partnership, encapsulated the enthusiasm: “The much-anticipated completion of this new Flushing Line passageway and staircase is welcome news for the half million subway riders who travel daily on the 7 — many of whom begin or end their daily commute at Grand Central-42 St. We appreciate all of the recent and continuing public and private initiatives to dramatically improve the customer experience of commuters, residents, and visitors in the Midtown East community,” a statement obtained by Governor's Press Office.
